Show me pics of 2 drains please...

[APISTOBORELLI]

I'm going to be helping a friend figure out the plumbing on his new tank. It's going to be pumbed to the basement. I've heard of using both holes in the overflow as drains (1 drain and 1 backup). Anyone have this on thier systems? Can someone explain for me the benefits and potential drawbacks to this method?

Got pics of it?

TIA
Mark

 

[JayM]

Mark:

When I set my 92 up, I used the AGA standard setup and did the 1 drain/1 return. If I were doing it again, I would instead have used both of them for a drain, because I would like to have a backup. Other than a third hole drilled in the floor, and the return being over the glass (unless your drilling another hole for the return, I don't see a downside....you have a much larger ability to have a return pump that cranks flow, since you now have about 1.5x as much drain capacity....

Like I said, that's how I'd do it if I were doing it OVER

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

That's what I'd like to covince him to do.

 

[dz6t]

and what exactly is the benefit of a basement sump?

 

[Spooky]

I believe one of the benefits of a basement sump is consistency of temperatrure as many basement keep a pretty regular temperature year round. Having the sump in the basement would also free up under the tank and allow you more room to work on the sump/skimmer/fuge when necessary. Also the benefit in this particular case (as I know who MArk is helping out) is the ability to do something much larger than what he could do in the rest of the house.

 

[delta]

Mark here is a thread on the setup your talking about
http://bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29461&highlight=overflow

and what exactly is the benefit of a basement sump?

For me it is quiet, adds more water volume and ease of maintenance.

My sink with in a few feet of the sump makes for easy skimmer cleaning.

Water changes are easy as the water can be made right next to the sump.

All testing equipment, Rodi fuge, calcium reactor etc are down there too, keeping the clutter out of the living space and in the basement.

The temp issue is two sided added cooling in summer as well as the winter. But my new tank and sump room with heating ability for the winter should take care of that. Heating the tank can be very expensive so thought should be taken to deal with this in the winter. Something I missed the first time around.

 

[JayM]

The heat thing is a fair point; the 100G plus between sump and fuge in my basement helps regulate temp in the summer, but I had a bit of trouble maintaining temp in the winter. Hoping for an enclosed fish room down there before the winter kicks in......on it's own heating zone

As far as temperature "stability", my basement is about 73 degrees right now, but got into the upper 50's this winter. Quite a swing, IMO.

It was the only way I could convince my wife that I would keep water out of the family room.....skimmer, topoff and water changes all happen away from the carpet.

 

[nitrofish]

an in the stand sump is really hard to work with. thats one reason a basment sump sounds like a great idea to me.

 

[stevenp]

and what exactly is the benefit of a basement sump?

Biggest benefits for me are not having to lug 5 gallon buckets of saltwater upstairs, being able to do all my maintenance/dosing downstairs, and not having the eye sore of a 1/3hp chiller and other various components in view.

It just makes sense to have all that crap in the basement...

 

[nitrofish]

only downfall is that more head means you need a bigger pump that uses more energy.

 

[stevenp]

only downfall is that more head means you need a bigger pump that uses more energy.

I was amazed at how much head loss I *didn't* experience with my Mak-4 return pump. I'm running 11' vertical and 14' horizontal via 1-1/2 PVC with long sweep 90's, and I bet I'm still getting almost 1,000gph on a 1,200gph pump, and the pump only draws 55w.

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

Dont forget, this thread is about dual drains in the same overflow. Someone out there must have this type of setup.....

 

[delta]

Mark here is a thread on the setup your talking about
http://bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=29461&highlight=overflow

Check the link. Cindy and a few other have the is setup, pics too

 

[dz6t]

It was the only way I could convince my wife that I would keep water out of the family room.....skimmer, topoff and water changes all happen away from the carpet.

That, is a very good justfication.

 

[JayM]

It's worked so far....and I find that I spend a lot more time watching my tank than TV these days.

 

[dz6t]

Check the link. Cindy and a few other have the is setup, pics too

Dual drain system is also used in Marineland hang-on-back over flow box. One of the reason to use dual drain is that there is a strainer on the main drain and it can be clogged after a period of time. The 2nd drain is wide open as a back up.

 

[joefitz]

I have a two drain set up. My 330g tank has 5 holes in the bottom of the overflow: (2) 2" holes that I use as drains, (1) 1.5" that I use for my return, (2) 1.5" that I use to feed my closed loop.

I'm using a hammerhead pump for my return which is a 2" pump but I decided to reduce it to 1.5" just prior to entering the tank so that I could use both 2" pipes as drains. I'm a big fan of safety nets and having a secondary drain virtually guarantees no floods in the display room -- that is a pretty big plus in my book. I'm not sure what could clog a 2" drain but I know this guy named Murphy and he seems to find ways to make the oddest things happen.

Both 2" drains drain to a "surgugium" in the basement...a 90g tank that will surge into my 300g grow-out tank and my 150g refugium. The surgugium will also have a couple pieces of rock and a bunch of macro so that there will be ton of pods, which hopefully will get dumped out during the surges.

I'll be posting a lot more pics of my setup in the next few days.

http://bostonreefers.org/forums/showthread.php?t=42550

 

[APISTOBORELLI]

Thanks Greg.
Thanks Joe.

Just what I was looking for.