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Ideas/Pics of Plumbing a 120 Deep Blue
- Thread starter hjp109
- Start date
Look into spa flex. It's flexible PVC. Usually when using it you can eliminate a good amount of 90's or 45's because you can flex the pipe. It's also usually quieter than hard PVC. It insulates the sounds and deadens any vibrations from the pump. It glues the same as hard PVC and you can use the same unions, elbows and other things like ball valves as you would with hard PVC. I find it easier to work with especially when plumbing into a basement.
I doubt the depot or lowes would have it. Pool supply stores usually have it and you can get it online at flexpvc.com. It holds up just as well as hard PVC. I have worked on 10+ year old ponds where it was used and buried and it was still in good shape.
I have seen spa flex local to me in Philly at HD/Lowes, just super expensive. I prefer to hard plumb with PVC, just load it up with plenty of unions/double union ball valves. Makes things easier to take apart/swap out pieces.
What holes do you have to work with on the tank? What are you thinking of running for filtration?
What holes do you have to work with on the tank? What are you thinking of running for filtration?
By adding all the unions and valves you are adding more head loss. Another thought, you could go with vinyl tube in place of spa or hard PVC. I use it with no issues. At least that would get you started while you wait for the spa flax to arrive. No sense in plumbing under tank if what you really want is in basement.
If you have a pump strong enough, really doesn't affect it that much. I would rather have the options with double union ball valves, than not being able to change anything later down the line. Granted a bigger investment is needed in the pump, but well worth it since you can throttle back.
Vinyl could work, just depends on what he is trying to do/his needs.
Is this a brand new tank or a tank that is already set up? I ask because the bulkheads that come with the deep blue tanks are "barbed" for use with vinyl or poly pipe. If you want to hard plumb the system you will need to replace them with slip x slip bulkheads. Wouldn't be a bad idea to replace them anyway, the ones the tank come with are pretty cheap. I have seen more than one break.
It might be a drive for you, but my system is plumbed to the basement here in Point Pleasant and you are more than welcome to see it. Ethan from AO did the plumbing and used the flex pvc. It makes life 100 times easier with plumbing, and I believe he ordered it online.
Since you are going into the basement, use a bigger sump if you have the room. Once of the bonues of going into the basement is you have the room for equipment. I have a 120g as a sump, an 80g frag tank, a 60g recirc tank (how I do my water changes) and of course my big external skimmer.
What sort of equipment are you looking at?
Since you are going into the basement, use a bigger sump if you have the room. Once of the bonues of going into the basement is you have the room for equipment. I have a 120g as a sump, an 80g frag tank, a 60g recirc tank (how I do my water changes) and of course my big external skimmer.
What sort of equipment are you looking at?
There's a pool supply warehouse on Chimney Rock Rd in Somerville(Right next to UPS). Probably cheapest place to buy spa flex, but likely you'll need to buy 50ft at a time though, lol.
+1 Definitely change the bulkheads
I'll throw my two pennies in. I have never had much use for double union ball valves. The only place to install a union is on the in/out of the pump with ball valves to isolate it. You can use single union ball valves but i have found them to be cumbersome at times. Since they have released ultra flex I find the regular flex to be somewhat unnecessary. I would prefer straight rigid over regular flex. I wouldn't waste my time with vinyl, I have ripped so many feet of kinked vinyl out of basement setups. Couplers are cheap if you need to cut something down the road.
-Ethan
I'm going with an existing setup that is under the tank, but I want to switch it to basement. Currently there is a mag 9 pump on there and a huge SWC skimmer. The baffles have been setup in the SUMP, but the guy ran it empty.. no rocks or sand in the sump.
You could always upsize your unions/valves and eliminate any head loss or a need for a bigger pump.
I have orderd new Bulk Heads slip x slip. So that should work out. Definitely will check out the place on Chimney Rock Rd.. that is like 10 min. from my house.
Yeah, saw your location was Somerset, so I figured I'd mention it. They'll have lots of fittings too, but none any smaller than 1" probably. Place is called SCP and it's actually at the end Easy St. off of Chimney Rock Rd. It's not hard to find. It's a distribution warehouse though, so like I said, you gotta buy bulk.
Move was a bit challenging.. we reached staten island at around 9:45 am... Then ran into our first hurdle... as we were trying to pump the water directly into the stock tank, which was in the cargo van, from the DT. After 2 trips to Lowes.. we got the right connectors to hook up the pump to a hose to pump the water into the stock tank (BIG THANKS TO MIKE for that). Then after we got half way into the display we started bagging up the corals and let them float around in the stock tank... and then followed it up with live rocks being carried in buckets and being transported into the stock tank. Then pumped out some more water.. and caught the fish and snails and crabs and etc. and put those into two 5 gallon buckets. Then pumped out all the water and scooped out the sand into buckets.
Removed the bulkheads and emptied out the tank's overflow and moved the tank into the truck... followed by the stand with a 40G breeder sump.
Then put a power head inside the stock tank and a heater (used a 1000W power inverter to power this suckers) and shrink wrapped the entire top of the stock stank to minimize the splashing, but kept a few openings in the center for air exchange. Drove home... about 30 min. and quickly moved everything indoors, setup the stand/tank, moved sand back in, hooked up the LEDs to the home made stand which I had made the day before.. and then pumped the water directly from the stock tank in the van to the DT tank and as the water level came half way.. started moving the live rocks... turned on the power head inside the DT and let it all run. In the mean time.. reopened and closed all the bags to allow the corals to get some fresh air. Allowed the bags to float around in the DT until more water was pumped in. ATE LUNCH!!! Added about 30 gal of fresh salt water and we were in business.
Then waited an hour for the sand storm to settle down and started organzing the rock work... and once it got a bit more clearer... started placing the corals on the rock work and acclimated the fish and add them in. In this process... cleaned out the skimmer cup like 3 times... as it was skimming out alot of crap. Now it's like 10 pm on Saturday nite, and the bride was getting tired of WATCHING me work while she was trying to keep the two little monster (a 6 years old and a 3 years old) away from the work zone... lol
Then next morning... water had cleared up alot and the skimmer cup was over flowing with nasty crap. Touched up a few things and then someone came to pick up my 75 gallon at 10:30am on Sunday.. so now I had to quickly start breaking that down and move my fish and anemones from there to buckets full of water and after an hour of acclimating it to the new 125 parameters.. they were introduced to the new tank. The 75 gallong break down took like an 1 or 1 1/2 and the guy had already left my house with the entire setup in his pick up truck. He did come with 18 - 5 gallong water jugs.. so that made the water transporting easy.
I typed alot and I'm sure alot of you find some of my techniques to be UN-kosher; however, all my stuff survived and everything is looking beautiful. Will post pics soon.
Removed the bulkheads and emptied out the tank's overflow and moved the tank into the truck... followed by the stand with a 40G breeder sump.
Then put a power head inside the stock tank and a heater (used a 1000W power inverter to power this suckers) and shrink wrapped the entire top of the stock stank to minimize the splashing, but kept a few openings in the center for air exchange. Drove home... about 30 min. and quickly moved everything indoors, setup the stand/tank, moved sand back in, hooked up the LEDs to the home made stand which I had made the day before.. and then pumped the water directly from the stock tank in the van to the DT tank and as the water level came half way.. started moving the live rocks... turned on the power head inside the DT and let it all run. In the mean time.. reopened and closed all the bags to allow the corals to get some fresh air. Allowed the bags to float around in the DT until more water was pumped in. ATE LUNCH!!! Added about 30 gal of fresh salt water and we were in business.
Then waited an hour for the sand storm to settle down and started organzing the rock work... and once it got a bit more clearer... started placing the corals on the rock work and acclimated the fish and add them in. In this process... cleaned out the skimmer cup like 3 times... as it was skimming out alot of crap. Now it's like 10 pm on Saturday nite, and the bride was getting tired of WATCHING me work while she was trying to keep the two little monster (a 6 years old and a 3 years old) away from the work zone... lol
Then next morning... water had cleared up alot and the skimmer cup was over flowing with nasty crap. Touched up a few things and then someone came to pick up my 75 gallon at 10:30am on Sunday.. so now I had to quickly start breaking that down and move my fish and anemones from there to buckets full of water and after an hour of acclimating it to the new 125 parameters.. they were introduced to the new tank. The 75 gallong break down took like an 1 or 1 1/2 and the guy had already left my house with the entire setup in his pick up truck. He did come with 18 - 5 gallong water jugs.. so that made the water transporting easy.
I typed alot and I'm sure alot of you find some of my techniques to be UN-kosher; however, all my stuff survived and everything is looking beautiful. Will post pics soon.