[AQTCJAK]

A little background info on the tank room & then the sump room. OK, the tank room is below (the tank is below the outside ground level). As you can see from the inside plumbing, I am plumbing it through the wall to the outside. Thus, I have to make the sump sub grade as well; in other words, the sump is lower than the ground. Most everyone know that in the ground is cooler than the outside air. With this in mind, I took advantage of this situation by putting the sump & the return pump in the ground so to speak. The sump is a 36x18x18 tank; The return pump is a Sequence Dart 3600GPH. 2” inlet to the pump & 1 ½” outlet. The skimmer is an Aqua C 180 with a Mag 5, and the UV is a current Pond 40watt with a pond Mag 2. In the first 3 sets of pictures, I split the returns into two 1 ½ returns & two ¾ returns. I utilized check valves & shut off valves to control water flow both for under power incase of a power outage cutting power entirely. Here is where the controversy came in to play on our old reef site: some people think check valves are bad & can cause issues. Over the last 20 years + that I have been in this hobby & setting up very large tanks, every tank I set up has had one - none of which have failed. To me they are a very valuable & essential piece of the system. No one really likes to find their power out & their tank partially on their floor. I am not saying that you must or should use them I am only saying that I do & they have not let me down. On larger tanks, I just can’t imagine going without one. Anyway, as you can tell by my blue drips when doing this portion of the setup, I was tired. Vicki even noticed and razzed me about them, getting a good laugh out of it.