220g Reef Tank

This is on the return side, but I guess 'return' is a matter of perspective. Generally "return lines" is the term referring to water returning from the pumps to the tank, and "drain lines" or "overflow lines" are from the tank to the sump. The drain lines which are done with TFE paste are not leaking at all, but those are low pressure 1" fittings.

Stopped in a quickly checked today. Right side pump leak seems to have pretty much stopped. A little water pooled up on top of the ball valve but mostly dried up salt, and only a few drops of water in the cup. Left side pump still off. Gonna have to put that off for a while.

Seems the problem areas are with all the 3/4" fittings. This an ongoing ***** I have with reef-ready tanks. This is a 200+ gal tank with holes in the overflow box for 1" drains and 3/4" returns. When you throttle back a pump with a 1" outlet to a 3/4" line, you increase pressure and head, which reduces flow significantly. But the increase in pressure means that your threaded fittings are all at risk for pressure related leaks.

 

Some more pics and a recap. Some repeated info as I'm posting this on 2 other sites also.


Pulled out the old sump on Saturday (can you say "salt creep"?)





Sunday, I worked for several hours installing the new sump and plumbing.





Intake strainers (crosscuts on underside)





Iwaki 30's on each side








Plumbing for drain and return





Sump insert





This was all great until I tried to start the pumps. The strainer pipes cause an airlocking issue, meaning that there was air trapped in the pipes and the pumps would not start. On top of that, I had plumbing leaks all over. I discovered this at the zero hour, where we were getting ready to put the fish in (which were in buckets). So we fired up power heads in the DT and acclimated the fish and called it a day.


Had to take a partial vacation day on Monday (the only day during the week that they are not open for lunch) and fix the plumbing. I drilled holes in the intake pipes in the sump to let air out, and they fired up now problem. The leaks were another issue.


On the pump return lines, where the plumbing goes from 1" to 3/4" and then into the 3/4" bulkheads (all high pressure points), there were leaks. I use TFE paste and I never will again. I know you are "supposed to" use TFE on PVC fittings to prevent crack out, but I never will again. After 2 hours of messing with fittings, I got one side running with minimal leaks, and the other side was still leaking too much and I had to shut that pump down and drain the return lines.


So right now the system is running on one pump, which is fine. Filter socks are doing their job, old skimmer is in place (will be replaced with a Reef Octopus NW-150). Sump insert isn't perfect, but works pretty well. I already have 2 or 3 requests for building one of these!









The next problem is the cycle. Tested 0.5ppm ammonia the other day so I've been dosing Prime to keep it all locked up and non-toxic. Prime is great and used in FW all the time...us saltys forget about that stuff sometimes!


Algae scrubber will go on ASAP as well. Need to make a stand for it in the sump and mod the light fixture for the dual half power blues setup, lower the side drain so it is compatible with ultra-high flow. Once the screen is cured, I'm going to be putting well over 400 GPH across the screen.


Tank on Monday Evening, all buttoned up

 

More pics this weekend after adding the Angels. For now...pics of the algae scrubber (Rev 1 L2 - the only one I could spare!)



Growth after about 3 weeks (remember it didn't grow at all in 3 months before the tear-down)



After cleaning