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Plumbing question

I'm currently staring my plumbing for my new 265 gallon with dual corner over flow. My drains are on the left as a result my drain line from the right side has a 6ft horizontal pvc pipe. Will this be an issue?
 

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I also noticed that you have valves on your drains, but I dont see a safety drain? You may want your returns to be safety's and return from the pump to come over the top of the tank..
 
Brs did a video a couple years ago about the difference between a 90 and two 45. If I remember right there was basically no difference in flow.
 

Bken1313

NJRC Member
I plumbed a 120 dial corner overflow nearly the same exact way. Spend the money on the brs gate valves. The ball valves suck.
 
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DangerDave

NJRC Member
The 90s will slow down the time to get to syphon. Should be fine. I'd be more worried about the valve your using. Get a gate valve, it will be much easier to fine tune it.
 

Bken1313

NJRC Member
Not to hijack your thread, but what is everyone doing for an emergency overflow on the dual corner tanks? This setup is basically a snail or clump of algae getting stuck in one overflow away from spilling the tank all over the floor.

IMG_3321.jpg
 
You can use one of the 3/4 returns as an emergency. And use the other as a return. Or use both as emergency drains and then return over the top
 

diana a

Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
Yes, if the water becomes too low in the sump then the pump would shut off or if the water is too high in the DT it shuts off.
 
Yes you could use a float but it’s not as ideal It would protect from overflow but will turn off the return pump. That’s not good. If you were away you could go a long time without it. The previous suggestion is ideal. Over the top for return. Stand pipes become safety. By adding the over the top you have enough left to essentially have a bean animal. Which is super ideal. Safe and nearly silent.
 
A valve in a return line suggests that the line will or could be used as a syphon drain, or worse, accidentally closed. You cannot expect to run a tank with 2 syphon drains and no addition safety drains. This is especially true with ball valves.
First, you may overflow the tank before the syphons start. Note that most syphon drains start several inches below the overflow water level for this reason with a safety drain or sometime 2 located a half inch or so below the tank water level. It is impossible to exactly match 1 or 2 syphons with the return for any significant length of time! It is hard enough to balance a tank with one emergency drain and one syphon drain with a good gait valve for a short time.
Second, drains will clog over time. I usually have 10 small snails in my sock through the syphon drain each time I replace a sock. I often have to temporarily open the valve and reset it to clear the syphon line of debris. My gait valve is only open about 1/8 the area of my pipe ID, so it doesn't take a large snail to clog it.
Third, if you close the wrong valve by accident, you will quickly overflow the tank.
The best advice I can give you is: ALWAYS HAVE at least ONE OVERFLOW DRAIN LINE WITH NO VALVE, sized to drain water faster that the return can send it back up.(Note water drains slower without a syphon due to air.). If you only want two drains, only one can be a syphon. If you only want one drain, it can not be a syphon drain.
If you want a quiet drain system, you will want the bulk of the water to flow down through the syphon drain (s).
In your situation, you could have 2 syphon drains, one in each corner, with 2 emergency drains, one in each corner. One emergency drain would be set slightly higher to allow a slight amount or water to overflow, and the other slightly higher to act as a dry emergency drain, which only sees water if one or more of the drains become clogged. It is common practice to terminate the emergency drain slightly above the sump water level to signal a clogged drain issue. the other lines should terminate about an inch below. (or you get salt creep) The alternate is to have one syphon in one corner and an overflow drain in the other with little water draining, but that defeats the purpose of dual overflows. Usually one syphon drain will start before the other.
Most tanks are sold with the assumption that you will use a non-syphon durso drain in each overflow (and get salt creep due to bubbles). If you want a silent syphon overflow, you need to bring the returns over the back of the tank by changing the return lines into overflow or emergency drains.
 
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