600 gallon acrylic tear down and rebuild or roll the dice?

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bluehand

Piranha
MFK Member
Jun 6, 2010
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Yorktown Indiana
jjohnwm said:
Wow...sumpoholics and their partitions always amaze me, especially when they sell their Escher-esque creations and the new owner has to puzzle out what the hell the first guy was thinking. :) I especially love dumb touches like those two useless compartments wednesday13 wednesday13 mentioned; partitions for partitons' sake. 🤪 I know I'd be jig-sawing all those things out in short order. And for sure it needs more connections between the two parts.

This has got to be one of my favourite threads ever on MFK. Terrific build, and amazing rate of progress. It's really making me yearn to try working with an acrylic tank. If only I were 20 years younger...and maybe single...:)

I've just got two questions.

First: Your worry about the inlets draining the tank...is that related to siphoning the water back in case the power goes out? If that's it, all you need to do is run the inlets right up to the top, and then back down to whatever level you wish them to be. Drill a little pinhole in each one at the elbow at the top, right at the water level. If the power dies, that hole will break the siphon as soon as the water level begins to drop.

Second (and much more important): Are you planning to build some kind of wall or partition (there's that word again...:( ) or other construction to protect those vertical standpipes from interference by the fish? One of the worst floods I ever experienced occurred in one of my very early tanks, a plywood job that had holes drilled in the bottom like yours for all the inlets and outlets. I used ABS pipe for the drains, and PVC for the returns. Worked great...for years...until some idiot big-assed fish decided that it needed to jam itself into the gap between a corner drain pipe and the wall of the tank. Once it got into that several-inch gap, right at the top, it was able to exert enough pressure on the pipe to crack the threaded connection at the bottom, and that wasn't fun. That was the last time I used bottom-drilled bulkheads, ever. Lesson learned.

Looking forward to further progress! :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
I have been debating on what to do about the stand pipe. I may go with foam 3D rock walls for the back overflows. As for the center ones, I think I have an idea with some driftwood I have. If it works out like im thinking, it will not only protect the pipe but serve as sort of a center post to keep the bracing from sagging.
 
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bluehand

Piranha
MFK Member
Jun 6, 2010
168
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Yorktown Indiana
I think making half of the 1" pipes drains will make the plumbing simpler. I can just route the vinyl tubing directly to the sump and only have to split the lines of each pump once instead of turning two lines into 8 lines
 
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wednesday13

wednesday13

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Mar 2, 2008
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bluehand said:
I think making half of the 1" pipes drains will make the plumbing simpler. I can just route the vinyl tubing directly to the sump and only have to split the lines of each pump once instead of turning two lines into 8 lines
Click to expand...
Sometimes it just works out like that in ur favor lol… i think u should b about perfect across the board now with the 4 1”ers added.
 
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danotaylor

danotaylor

Dovii
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Jun 26, 2024
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It's a labor of love hey mate! When I tore down my 560gal to convert to a ray tank it was a 13hour day doing so. Exhausting, but worth it in the end! Looking forward to your continued progress!
 
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