PVC Drainage System Question for small fishroom

[aben]

Hi All,

I've been reading through as many of the fishroom posts that I can to get information re drainage systems as I am trying to find a way to set up a central drainage system for my small garage setup of 6 tanks. I have a set of 3 racks, 2 of the racks have a 55 G tank on the top and bottom and the other rack has two 40's. I would like to have a drainage system that would not require me to drill my tanks.

I would like to know what would be the most efficient way to setup up a drainage system given the load that I have described. I am not concerned with designing a fresh water delivery system at this point in time. I think the system that I have seen pictured in the forum that would work best for me would be the one in Butch's fishroom (nondrilled tanks with pvc pipes going in to the tanks from the top), but I have been told by at least one vendor of pumping products that I might run into problems since not all of the tanks are of the same size and the smaller ones would drain before the larger ones allowing air to go into the system and shutting down the flow of water to the pump.

My questions at this time are:

Will I encounter the problem that I just described with air going into the system? If so, what would be a good solution?

Also, what pump would you suggest for the load that I am describing?

And, lastly, what size piping would you recommend?

Thanks for any help that folks can provide to some or all of these questions.

aben

[mrsportys]

Start with 2" pvc, I was going to downsize that to 1/2" into each tank to start the drain but decided the tops would have to be up 100% of the time.
I built a 2" pvc system for each 1 to 2 tanks, it runs to the end of the tanks, down to the floor, connects to T's in the direction of my Sump. All I do is use a hose to start each one. I do a complete water change on 35 tanks in little over an hour.
Jim

[aben]

Cosmo,

Thanks for taking the time to reply. However, I was hoping for a solution which would not require me to begin the pumping action of each tank separately. I've seen lots of setups where each tank has a vertical pipe servicing one or more tanks and that pipe fits into a larger horizontal pipe which feeds into a main drain or water recepticle. And, the hobbyist typically uses a gravel hose to begin the flow of water into the vertical pipe. I'm still hoping if there is a way to get this done by just using a single pump with pipes going into the tank and set at the desired drain level.

aben

[CAGE-RATTLER]

Sounds like just a valve on each line to each tank will do what your looking for.

Just shut the valve off on each tank line before it reaches the end so it wont suck air.

Or i guess it might be possible to adjust each valve on each tank line so they all finish draining at the same time by restricting the flow where needed.

Im also wanting to do some plumbing soon for my setup so im anxious to hear what others think as well.

[Jason]

you can build a decent system without drilling by using pvc and valves, I'm not on my pc so unfortunenatly no pics, but try doing a search for "self leveling overflow" or "continuos syphon overflow" sorry I'm not much help..gotta get my computer set-up.

[ronrca]

Hi Aben,
There are a few very nice designs for continous overflow without drilling. I have not used them myself yet however I have seen them on quite a few tanks already without any problems. Im sure you have seen the links already but just in case:
http://forum.simplydiscus.com//showt...t=46746&page=3
pic in post #32 would work great. To set the level that you want to drain, rotate the farthest left pipe. This setup will maintain the siphon even if the water level drops below the rotated pipe preventing you from draining the tank completely by accident.

Regarding size of pipes, it is better to use larger pipes than smaller. Believe me, Ive been there. I use a 2" centralized pipe with 1" pipes from the tanks draining into the 2".

HTH

[aben]

Thanks Ron. I actually did see the beginning of that thread, but never read it through after the heated discussion about various definitions of words .

I'm glad that you sent me the link to that page since I missed the diagram and the explanation. Very nice. I may have to try that one and see how it works. The only concern that I have right now is the flow rate for tanks that rest on the bottom of my racks. They tend to be only 4 inches off the ground, and I'd like to increase the flow rates. I'm thinking about attaching a pond pump to the end of the main drain line and feeding it using this sort of a system, or a slight variation on it. The pond pump, in this case maybe a 700 GPH, would work well in speeding up the flow rates. I have about 300 gallons of water in 6 tanks that I intend to set up for drainage. If I try to do a 50 percent w/c on all 6 tanks, they should be all done in about 15 minutes.

TTYL

aben

[ronrca]

I agree with your concern with the flow rates on the bottom rack. A very interesting application for using a pump in that setup. Ive never thought about using a pump to 'suck' out the water. Im really interested in the outcome of that so plz keep us posted. Using the method I posted would work really well then as it would not matter once you set the drain level with the rotated pipe. The top rack would drain quicker regardless useless you use valves to control it however I would just let it drain as once the top is complete, the bottom would continue to drain. The only thing Im wondering about is maintaining the siphon using a pump in this application.

[aben]

That's been an ongoing concern for me as well. John over at Jehmco raised it as an issue when I spoke with him about my interest in setting up a drainage system. I PM'ed Butch about his fishroom setup since it seems the most similar to what I had in mind and he mentioned that as long as he does not drain all the way to the bottom of the pipes in his tanks that he can maintain suction and he has a Little Giant Pump. The one difference in the system that I'll probably set up will be that I'll add a plug at the top of one of the elbows (use a T in place of the elbow) and prime the system using a garden hose; I don't have a filtrations system setup yet for water delivery. I'll go with Butch's extra long intake valves so that I won't have to worry so much about draining all the water and I'll just have to time things so that I can figure out when I need to shutoff the valves to the smaller tanks.

I'll try to post pics and reports when I get time to work on this. I still have to finalize a few things and order the proper sized pump.

[Greg Richardson]

Aben. Did you decide on what route you took with draining?
If so any pictures to share?

[aben]

Greg,

I've had to rethink my approach to this problem because of the layout in my fishroom/garage and number of tanks. I've doubled my total number of gallons and now have three rows of racks of tanks. Not a bad "problem" to have, but it does make my initial plan a bit obsolete.

I'm in the middle of insulating the room as well, so a long term drainage change may be a bit delayed. For now, I'm siphoning the tanks individually into a 2" drain line like the one described by Jim earlier in this thread.

aben

[Greg Richardson]

Thanks Aben.