Standpipe or something else?

"Kudzu" wrote in message
...
Building a new home and I will have a 6 foot long tank in it. Probably
a
125G but possibly a 150G. The tank will sit with one short end on
the wall leaving both long sides and one short side open. I have
imagined
this for a long time but it's time to stop daydreaming and start doing
some
serious planning.

Kudzu, yipeee! I love planning serious tank installations (serious to me
= bigger than 55g and built into a wall ). Can I help?

Due to the fact that three sides are exposed I am trying to decide on
how to
plumb the tank. Oceanic offers a ready made solution in it's Reef Ready
line. They have a single overflow box installed in one corner. While
the
overflow box would be exposed it wouldn't be that noticeable because of
where it is is. Problem is that the Oceanic tank is a roughly a grand!
($1000). While one from All Glass is roughly $500. Problem is All Glass
has
no overflow but All Glass will drill it for me. They have a tank with 2
overflow boxes but they are in both corners and that is just not an
option.

Expensive stuff. Glass thickness is your driving cost. As the tank size
(mostly height) gets bigger, the glass gets thicker, and there is less
glass manufacturers to choose from, so the price goes astronomical. The
best price point that I've found for a new glass aquarium is the 130g
from Hagen ($495 cdn iirc). Once you go over standard thicknesses, the
$/g ratio spikes. Another nice price point, also from Hagen is their
108g either in a 5' or a 6' length (the 6' is 21" high as apposed to 24"
on the 5'). These go for about $415 cdn. Check the other manufacturers
too, but you will see that they either start too high, or there is a
significant price jump at a certain size.

So I was thinking of ordering a drilled All Glass and installing a
standpipe
for the overflow. I can disguise it with plants and/or cover it with
rocks.My concern is noise. From what I read they standpipes can be very
noisy.

Regarding noisy standpipes, agreed. I did read a report on how a smaller
diameter pipe can be installed in the center of a standpipe to cancel the
sound. The information source was credible but I have no hands-on
experience with this. Drilled tanks are easier IMO to keep quiet, but
you lose some water height. Keep in mind that any sound will echo around
your canopy. You have the option of building a canopy which is
relatively soundproof, but trapped humidity and heat can become very
problematic, so it's wise to look into a quiet filtration system.

Option two is overflow box(es). Problem is is has to fit on one narrow
end
(24"). I am building my hood and stand, so I was thinking I could make
the
stand 6" longer than the tank and just build something that would butt
against the wall and hide the overflows in there. But I really don't
like
the way it would look.

I am looking for other options. I have considered having the tank
drilled
and building my own corner overflow out of glass and siliconeing them
in
place. I am concerned about cutting notches in glass and I don't know
if I
could silicone acrylic to glass? Maybe there is way to silence
standpipes?
Or another option that I have not thought of? Would love to hear some
ideas.

AFAIK, silicone does NOT bond to acrylic.

OK, my turn, ideas time ) Here is a design (off the top of my head)
which might be adaptable to your installation. For reference, I'll call
the tank end farthest from your wall the 'far-end' and the tank end at
you wall the 'wall-end'. I'll assume you will have cabinet doors
underneath the tank. As you are designing this into the house, you will
of course have a dedicated GFI circuit, a water supply line, and a DWV
drain brought to the cabinet (in your case, I'd split the cabinet into 2
sections, electronics under the far-end, and water supply/drain into the
wall-end, with some type of wall between them to contain any splashing).
I'd also start looking for a plastic pan to fit on the wall-end (contain
any spills), and if you want to be really fancy, elevate the pan &
filters on a low shelf with a drain underneath to channel overflows.
While this might sound excessive, consider the cost & hassle of repairing
water damage to the flooring around the tank set-up, ymmv.

Filtration would be by canister filter. Inside the tank, (before
anything is put in), place a UGF plate in the far-end, and connect a
horizontal run of pipe from the UGF plate to the wall-end. This plate
becomes a very wide filter strainer, not a UGF filter. It's location
makes it a continuously running gravel vacuum. It will be covered by
river stones (3/8" to 1" diameter). This type of an input will not clog
and is virtually maintenance-free (and you don't need to gravel vac
either). It is also unlikely that there will be much in the way of
aquascaping at the far-end, so a cleared area of river stones will fit
almost any bio-tope being planned. Stack a few low stones and/or low
driftwood in this area.

At the wall-end, install a 90 degree elbow and run a pipe up the middle
of the wall-end glass to a U fitting to run canister hose down inside the
wall to your filter compartment below. You can run this right through
the wall, but I recommend running them inside some DWV pipes (3" black
ABS). This makes it easy to route hoses, wires etc up and down through
the wood framing around your wall-end.

At the filter underneath, install a T connection and a flying lead hose
(a bib ?), with shutoff valves. Weekly water changes will consist of
open/closing a few valves, and draining your water out through your
canister (backwashing your canister, and reversing the water flow through
your spray bar) into your drain (no python, no hoses, no mess). When you
have drained enough water, reverse the open/close valves and your supply
line water now feeds into your tank (backwashing through the UGF plate).
This weekly backwashing of your filter and reversing flow direction
through your hoses will significantly increase the servicing interval
needed. With the right balance, your canister servicing interval may
only become an annual event.

Note that your water supply line temperature influences this set-up. If
only using very cold water, your flow has to be very low, or you should
flow through the spray bar. You want to avoid ice-cold water appearing
on your tank's exposed warm glass bottom via the UGF plate. There are
mixing valves available at the plumbing supply. Install a mixing valve
where your hot/cold water pipes are, and your single water supply will
always be pre-set to your tank temperature.

The T connection and shut-off valves are all readily available at your
hardware store, either in the usual home plumbing stuff (high PSI) or in
the automatic water gardening stuff (low PSI). For the filtration
system, both work. For the supply line connection, you need a proper
shut-off valve. For the price difference, )it's all pretty cheap), I use
hose stuff for everything except the little elbows and adapters for the
hoses going to the tank.

Oh yeah, your filter return is at the wall-end, so you have nice
leisurely top-rear to front-bottom circulation, adaptable to almost any
bio-tope (you don't need high flow rates for their detritus pick-up power
as your sucking debris right off the bottom. Your slope from the far-end
to wall-end would rise (nothing dramatic, just enough for detritus to
roll downwards).

Let me know when you get around to thinking about the electrics, ie:
delay-start timers (to auto stop/start the filter while feeding) and
multiple lighting stages (nightlight, daylights and transitional
lighting). I'd even consider a circuit of cheap incandescent lights in
the canopy. Put a light switch grouping on the wall. This allows you to
over-ride your daylight/transitional fluorescent light program and
control the incandescents on a garden-variety light dimmer. Another
school of thought has multiple wiring circuits run to the tank, so all
your controls are done elsewhere (electrical room). Typically you would
run cct1: utility (not switched, cabinet lighting, air pumps, variable
incandescents etc), cct2:heater(s) & filters(s) (both switchable, usually
concurrently for only short periods of time), cct3: main lights, cct4 +:
extra light programs. If you are in an area of frequent power outages,
seperate filter & heaters, so filters can be easily maintained on UPS
(large tanks have less need of UPS heating).

All of this stuff is relatively cheap to plan in and install (especially
if you are doing the work yourself), but much more expensive and
laborious to add in later as an after-thought. Have fun!

ps: Do give a passing thought to heat & humidity evacuation. Depending
on your climate, and your home's air-tightness, this can become a
nuisance. In northern climates, you don't want your hot humidity getting
into your ceiling insulation where it will freeze and thaw back in. In
southern climates you might want to add some type of active or passive
ventilation method. A solid glass cover can address humidity issues and
a tall air chamber with some passive ventilation can address heat
retention. Planning is everything.

NetMax

--
Kudzu *\\
The man that always tells the truth never has to remember what he said