Wow. It is taking much longer than originally thought to complete this project. I have the drain plumbing about 75% complete and have only purchased most of the parts for the return plumbing.
The local feed store only had one Rubbermaid 100 gal stock tank and it was damaged. I picked up a 50 gal and took it home but it was just too small so I returned it. They should receive an order of new 100 gal on Wednesday.
I will have two sets of drains - the top 5 tanks and the bottom 5 tanks will be on separate drain pipes - all w/1" bulkheads draining into a 2" PVC pipe which goes into a wet/dry bioball sump.
The wet/dry will be drilled for a 1" bulkhead and will be gravity fed into the 100 gallon Rubbermaid container. The 100 gal Rubbermaid will have a 4" sand bed and will be filled with chaetomorpha.
It will be drilled for a 1" bulkhead and an Iwaki 55RTL (japanese motor) external pump will push the water back up into the 10 tanks.
I will reduce the 1" pipe to a 1/2" just before going into each tank (6" or so) and will have a ball valve there to adjust the flow.
Although I have worked on this project for many hours, it seems the only thing I have managed to complete is setting the tanks on the stand. LOL
Ohhh... I did start cycling the bioballs last week! woot!
I placed an aqua-clear powerhead into the last chamber and added a vinyl hose to direct the water back into the drip tray. I added lots of ammonia and several 'colonized' sponges.
Here is a pic of the 10 tanks waiting patiently beside the garage
Here is a photo of the small overflows in each tank. I will need to put window screening around it for the small babies.
Here is my "office"
The stand with only one 20 gal tank on it...