Added bulkheads to my tank

[Wisehart]

Well I finally broke down the aquarium and added bulkheads to my tank. I believe it came out very well. The wife also painted a background. I did have a few casualties during the process, which really got me down but thanks to Pegasus I now understand why. I also have built the sump and refugium but after realizing i built the walls too tall i will be revamping it this weekend.

 

[pegasus]

Wow... that turned out really good! Sorry about your fish, but at least you didn't trash the tank. I think that's supposed to be a "silver lining" kind of thing...

 

[Wisehart]

Thanks. It turned out pretty good. The wife sponge painting looks great too. All in all I'm very pleased with it. I also changed to black live sand and will add the white sand to the refugium.

 

[pegasus]

Uhm... actually, I was talking about the painting. LOL!!! Hey, did you know there's a ball cactus growing on the back wall of your tank? Wasn't sure if you had noticed it...

 

[Wisehart]

Well I have to keep some of Texas in it. Cactus everywhere here. The wife picked that up about a month ago.

 

[pegasus]

Well I have to keep some of Texas in it. Cactus everywhere here. The wife picked that up about a month ago.

I'm aware... I was born and raised in Corpus Christi. What's next... mesquite trees??? LOL!!!

 

[Wisehart]

Mesquite trees = BBQ. Although I do prefer pecan.

 

[Wisehart]

Is there anyway to add a float shut off to 1" bulkhead lines? I can't seem to find 1" any where. If electricity shuts off I believe my sump would over flow from what is on the display

 

[lmforbis]

There are check valves. Look at BRS.

 

[Wisehart]

I thought check valves only let water flow one way.

 

[lmforbis]

Good point I'm thinking of the return side.

 

[Wisehart]

Yes. I need something to stop the gravity feed from the bulkheads if for some reason the return pump stops returning. I have ball valves but that only works if I'm there in person. If I'm asleep or at work I'm screwed.

 

[lmforbis]

I tested my tank with a man made power outage to see how much the sump can hold. Ideally you want enough empty volume in the sump that it will hold the water that will drain down.

 

[Wisehart]

Yeah. I built the walls too tall in it. I guess I'll do a tear down. I was hoping to find two 1inch float valves but seems those are as rare as a unicorn.

 

[lmforbis]

You are probably better off fixing the sump. Float valves get stuck open and you won't know it until it is too late.

 

[Wisehart]

Well dang it. I tried the lazy way lol. Guess I'll tear it down and fix it right.

 

[pegasus]

You can limit the amount of drainage from the tank by installing elbows into the bulkheads. This will put the inlets closer to the surface, and you can adjust the heigth by tilting the elbows if they'rere too close to the surface.

 

[Wisehart]

I was thinking along that line but when I did this I ended up with a loud suction noise. It was pulling to much air

 

[bang guy]

Is there anyway to add a float shut off to 1" bulkhead lines? I can't seem to find 1" any where. If electricity shuts off I believe my sump would over flow from what is on the display

You can drill anti-siphon holes in the return line depending on your configuration, that can help a lot. It is something you need to test a few times by manually shutting down the return pump. You don't want a true power outage to be the first test.

 

[Wisehart]

Only about a gallon comes back when the pump is shut off. As of now the ball valves are shut because I know it will overflow when the pump is off. The bulkheads are my concern because they gravity feed.