900GPH to 1700GPH Upgrade

[Brucey]

Well, I completed my return pump upgrade last night / from an OR3500 with a 10mm flexible hose outlet to beasty OR 6500 (6,500Litres PH / 1,700GPH) with 4x25mm PVC Piping. To say the fish were a bit surprised when I turned it all on would be an understatement. The overflow has half filled but seems to be handling the additonal volume but there are currently excessive microbubles in the main tank and the water level in the main tank has risen approx 4mm which means the surface water is catching the centre stress bar (so the water skim is catching). But so far, for my first plumbing DIT attempt there have been no leeks (fingers crossed). Anyway, some pics for you.

[Brucey]

And under Actinics, the 45' Downpipes had not been fitted at this time

[Montanareefer]

Very nice job Brucey!

[Gina]

Good job Brucey! Keeping my fingers crossed for you "NO LEAKS"!

[wooddood]

looks great brucey,you did good mate.now lets see it in action.i like the look so let us know how it works.good job.

[Scooterman]

Hey Brucey, looks like you know what your doing!
Nice work, gotta love them OR's! Is it external or in sump?
Your drain is it 1 inch? I was thinking of doing the same with my 100 gallon tank but worried it would be too much.

[Brucey]

Hey Scooter .... yeah, love my OR's (never had a days trouble with them yet). It's an internal pump, but can be used as an external as well. My weir drain is 1.5" and it seems to be handling the flow fine ..... although I have got these problems with the water column height in the main tank rising ..... Not sure how I can fix that without chopping the weir height down ..... ???

[Scooterman]

That I was worried about that myself, going from the OR 3500 to the 6500, wonder if cutting it would help. Maybe someone would chime in on that question.

[johnlewis]

Are those unions are the end of each return ? If so why without any thing on the other side ? I understand the ball valves but ball valves with unions are generally much more money than just a ball valve ? Looks real nice I like the added detail of the clips for support.

[BoomerD]

Very clean looking install. I too was wondering about using the true union ball valves at each connection, instead of single union ball valves, due to the added cost, but it will make them easy to clean when needed.

[addict]

Not only true union ball valves, but schedule 80 true union ball valves...
I can only imagine how many pounds your plumbing cost...
Looks great!


I think the reason the water's rising in your tank is because of the friction of the overflow teeth. It sounds like you don't have enough linear overflow to accommodate the added return flow (or you're right on the edge).

Linear overflow is the capacity of the opening between each tooth, multiplied by the number of openings.

For example, it takes several smaller drains to make up for one large drain, and the overflow teeth mimic several small drains, each being used at partial capacity... as you pump more water into the tank, it effectively uses more of each drain's capacity, due to the extra volume of water draining... the catch is that in order for the water to use this extra capacity, it must rise until the amount draining through the overflow equals the amount of water entering the tank... does that make any sense at all?...

There's a lot of physics and calculus involved... so I only have a rudimentary understanding of how it works...

The only way to really 'fix' this problem is either:
(a) Widen the overflow openings
or
(b) cut down on the amount of flow entering the tank somewhat (which kinda defeats the purpose of the massive flow upgrade).

I don't think the standpipe (weir?) has anything to do with the water height, as long as the overflow is only half full the pipe should be draining plenty... if the pipe was the limit then the tank would overflow... thankfully it didn't...
HTH

[Brucey]

JL, Boomer. Thanks for the reply's guys. Yeah True Union Valves, I went for these basically for two reasons. 1 So that I could adjust the flow coming out of each outlet directly, ie, Stronger currents of water in different area's of the tank and 2 So that if the need arises I can modify the end peice on the outlet. For example, I have seen a lot of you guys with with Y shaped outlets which spread the flow even further

Reefaddict. Great reply, thanks dood. I have however cut away the teeth on my overflow just leaving bare glass. It's really amazing, the tank is perfectly flat but you can see the water "Sloping" from one end of the tank to the other .... (Oh boy, I wish I'd invested in dual overflows now). At the end where the overflow is, the water height is fine, at the other end it is 5mm higher .... amazing. Anyway, here's a pic of the overflow so you get the idea .... Any thoughts ???

[Brucey]

PS, I have cut two small peices off eggcrate to fit the overflow to stop any unwanted fish going over but this makes no difference. The Bioballs just cut the noise down, but again, if I remove these it makes no difference
Brucey

[tankgirl]

Hi Brucey,
While you're working on things, why not make a durso standpipe instead of the bioballs? The bio (bacto) balls will become a phosphate factory, but the durso, you can remove and clean?

Also, on the weir (overflow), there's a kind of soft flexible grid that you could wrap around the inside of the box, just a bit taller than the box is? That way you wouldn't get any big chunks of stuff down in the box (nori for tangs or stuff like that)? The nice thing about doing that is that if you get algae growing inside the box, it'll grow on the grid instead of the box itself and you can just lift out the flexible grid and spray it off to keep it clean. I'll try to get a pic of the flexible grid stuff I'm talking about.

[Brucey]

Hey Sherri. Sorry mate, have been away all weekend so missed your post. The Bioballs are purely in there for noise but will eventually start up as a nitrate factory ..... which personally I have no problems with (we can discuss in another thread if you like but I have no problem with that). Sort of interested in your comment that they will become a Phosphate factory though as I'm really hot on my Phos's at the moment and would like to hear why you think this. I've never heard of Bioballs and Phosphate factories before so if you have time.

I'm not sure what the Durso pipe or the flexible grid is your talking about. Any chance you can post those pics so I can take a look.

What I'd like to do is put a standpipe in and remove the weir altogether as I currently have this problem with the water height in my main tank being higher than the bottom of my stress bars (so the water skim is not draining properly)

Thanks mate
Brucey