mrramsey's 72gal Bowfront with Sump Project

[mrramsey]

Hi Guys -
I am trying to best figure out how many and what diameter to make the holes in the drip plate. Right now I have appx 40 holes laid out at a 1/8" diameter. That gives me an area of .4908 inches collectively. the area of my 3/4" ID pipe is .44179". Logic tells me that if the numbers are the same the flow rate should also be the same however the smaller diameter holes will also mean there is more friction to slow the flow. Right now there is slightly more area in the drip plate than in the pipe plus there will be some seepage at the edges of the plate.

I am thinking that this will be adequate however I don't want to drill too many right away as I can always come back and add more or make them larger. I want the water to pool about 1/2" or so on top of the plate so as to evenly distribute it over the bio-balls. What do you think?

[Sandz]

THere is a really good drip plate tutorial on Youtube. Uarujoey is the youtuber. I would refrence him.

[mrramsey]

THere is a really good drip plate tutorial on Youtube. Uarujoey is the youtuber. I would refrence him.

I have seen that one only he does not explain other than "drill small holes first and make them bigger if needed". I tried a test and my problem was that there is no vent and the fit is pretty tight so the water was having trouble flowing. I am going to try adding a vent tube and see if it makes a difference. Everything else is fine.

Best I can figure I am getting about 4 gallons per minute through the drip plate. I think I will go to larger holes.

[mrramsey]

Ok I have tested the flow of my sump and my preliminary tests are indicating appx a 500gph flow through the drip plate which in theory is really close to where I should be. Time to move on to the overflow plumbing.

[KevinVA]

How did you test the flow?

[mrramsey]

How did you test the flow?

It was a crude test at best but essentially I measured 2 gallons of water into a bucket and poured it into the inlet chamber of the sump ti simulate the flow from the overflow. I timed the ammount of time it took for the water to flow through the drip plate. It took about 15 seconds to complete.

This roughly calcs out to be 8in gallons per minute and 480 gph. Now as a margin of error i was actually using closer to 2.5 gallons.

[mrramsey]

Sorry for the typo's in the previous post. I sent from my phone.

So today I set the 72g on top of the stand to start working on the plumbing. Yay!! Taking my time with it. I have the return line done to the bulkhead. The emergency overflow will be next and I am debating weather I should route it all the way to the intake chamber or just allow it to drop straight down into the equipment chamber since its only purpose is in case the other two fail.

[mrramsey]

OK- Got going on the plumbing today. Pretty uneventful. Need a couple more 1/2" fittings to finish the bypass line and add some bracing to the drains for stability.

Sump in place and aligned with the tank.


Birdseye view from tank into sump.


Return line installed - note: I added 2 unions here. one below the valve and one at the pump.


Emergency overflow drains straight into the sump and bypases filtration.

[mrramsey]

The 2 main siphons have valves to adjust the flow. I added a union above and below the valve.

Here you can see I allowed room to fully disassemble the drains.


Here is the emergency line on the left and the pump on the right. The Tee is for the bypass line.


Drains are finished - The main siphon is in the center and the secondary is on the right.


Here is a view of the sump intake...

[Hardy85]

I'm loving this set up, thinking that my future show tank is gonna be like this (either a 120 bow or 72 bow)

I will def be recruiting you help for sump build etc