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Durand tank build (1 Viewer)

For a varios 4, at 4.8 head height, pending your tube size and bends, you are looking at close to 600gph. With 60 gallon tank, 15 gallon sump you should be running that pump around 50% to get your 4x turnover rate. If that is a varios 6, it would be close to 1000gph at that height, so set it closer to 30%.

Taking a guess at equipment and height. Just trying to give some ideas.
 
Various 4
60 gallon tank
40 gallon sump with prob 30ish gallons of water
Head height is prob 50” with 4 90° elbows and a 3” flare at the end on lock line all on 3/4” tubing
 
I’m trying to picture, is this like a standard older style Herbie overflow with just the main drain and emergency?

I can add is that yes, for sure I’ve found DC pumps require minor adjustments to stay consistent and the Apex power record isn’t great at fine tracking with DC pumps, but more for watching big changes.
 
Correct, herbie. With Over the top return.IMG_1630.jpeg

After very fine tuning this am I’ve been able to get the water level to just a little lower then the display level. Now I will leave it for the day and see what happens.
 
spsick said:
I can add is that yes, for sure I’ve found DC pumps require minor adjustments to stay consistent and the Apex power record isn’t great at fine tracking with DC pumps, but more for watching big changes.
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Ok then this would make sense why the constant adjustment. My hope is I can find a happy medium. Where the water level can go up and down as it sees fit but stays in the tolerances of quiet overflow and now going over the emergency line. Or next step would be a replacement pump that needs less adjustments.
 
Back to the food tube. I shot some of my mysis,reef chili, selcon mixture into the feed tube and it appears all the cloud of stuff ended up in the main display and not in the return chamber. So far so good. Assume this has the success I think it will, thanks David for the suggestion. Really cleaned up the display.
 
This is fantastic news. I’m excited to get it setup on my end as well.
 
So im struggling with flow in my new tank. I keep 3 mp10’s pretty low to keep the bare bottom clean. But im getting a little slick oil on top, as well as not getting much surface tension. So i added the Jaebo 150 and the hammers on the othert side of the tank were getting whipped all over. So today added same style power head but the 70. This takes care of the slick and the hammers are not getting blown to crazy but the fish seem to only hang on one side of the tank. So before going out and getting another power head of lower flow im looking for some ideas. Maybe im over thinking and the 4th power head is not needed? I tried adjusting the mp10’s but all they do is take on air and create micro bubbles. So like to keep them low. I also curious that maybe this tank is to shallow to accomplish what im trying to do??
 
Chris Goetz said:
I have not tried these but they look interesting and might help your flow issues.
https://www.etsy.com/listing/138858...SfmlzAXOBhch4fh8vJXZext4hDKzK8UxoC5esQAvD_BwE
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Thanks Chris, I’ll give those a look.


I left the gyre running this morning for a few hours and it just looked like ghost town. The second i turned it off all the fish came out of hiding and went back to swimming all over. Even at the lowest speed and slow pulse mode everyone acted the same. So i juts took It out. I raised on mp10 up pretty high and will monitor and see if I can get it high enough for turbulence and low enough to not suck in water and if Im still struggling look at some 3d printed gadgets. Little bummed, was really hoping this was going to work ☹️. But more importantly happy to see all the fish out swimming around again.
 
Im trying to figure out an issue im seeing with my tank, maybe not a n issue but a confusing situation. My ato will go on these spats where it turns on and runs multiable times over a what I would call a long period of time. What im noticing is the water level in the overflow chamber will rise for what i would say is no reason. It will just start to rise thus causing the return chamber leverl to lower thus casing the ato to kick on. No eventualy the water line in the overflow will go into the emergency drain and then the water level can raise in the return and the ato will stay off. But now the level is really high in the overflow and im sure (not tested yet) sanity drops. I don't have any programming in the apex for anything different on the return line. And there is no. Rhyme or reason to timing. Ive had it happen in the middle of the day, early morning, and some times in the evening. Im going to go on a limb and blame the return pump since i seem to always be having these weird issues with water levels in overflow box since I purchased this pump. Does this make any sense? Or am i missing something? I though once return and overflow is dialed in it pretty much stays where it lays will little changes? Do DC pumps change flow periodically and this is normal? Another though I have the Tunze ATO tuned for a nano. Maybe its not running long enough?? Not sure what that would change if I turned it up??
 
reef junkie said:
image.jpg
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Guessing at the possibility here, but when was the last time you cleaned your return pump? There is a lot of crude built up on your pump, plus a lot of food is running through it. If you are dosing in your sump, there is a potential for all those elements to start building up as well. I would expect this to need regular maintenance like a power head. That might explain it if it was a pump issue.

As far as the ATO running, where does your RO water enter your system? I have mine entered at opposite end of my return and my sensor is near the return like yours. This allows for the entire sump to maintain a certain level and the ATO runs a little bit longer but less frequent. If your sump is at one constant level, it shouldn't matter. Unless you are trying to fill right next to the sensor.
 
MistakesWereMade said:
Guessing at the possibility here, but when was the last time you cleaned your return pump? There is a lot of crude built up on your pump, plus a lot of food is running through it. If you are dosing in your sump, there is a potential for all those elements to start building up as well. I would expect this to need regular maintenance like a power head. That might explain it if it was a pump issue.

As far as the ATO running, where does your RO water enter your system? I have mine entered at opposite end of my return and my sensor is near the return like yours. This allows for the entire sump to maintain a certain level and the ATO runs a little bit longer but less frequent. If your sump is at one constant level, it shouldn't matter. Unless you are trying to fill right next to the sensor.
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I cleaned the return when I moved it over to this system, so month ago. I dose in the chamber next to the return so should not be having much for build up there I think or at least not that fast. I’ll check propeller today and see how it looks.

Sensor is in the return chamber next to pump, and the water line is in the return next to sensor as well. I can try moving the water line to the other side of the sump to see if that does anything.

image.jpg

This is all just so very confusing. I thought for sure moving to an internal was going to make all this go away with having a larger box. The return pump just has to be changing flow. Causing the water to rise in the overflow box.
 
For my very low tech, pathetic system, my return pump sits in the last chamber of the the sump, after the skimmer and some filter medium. I also turn my flow off when I feed so there should not be a lot of food going down there. I'm too lazy and I clean it maybe once a year.

My ATO sensor is also put there, in the chamber with the return pump, and the ATO water is pumped to there. I don't detect the water level on the main tank. I put the sensor to detect the water level of that chamber instead. With a small volume of water there, I guess it benefits more compared to the larger water volume in the main tank. Besides, I don't want to put a lot of stuff in my main tank. I usually want to hide all of the gadgets and stuff in the 'closet'. I don't care much for those. I'm not into 'equipments' 😁.
 
I also do what you are doing Ken, Nothing in the display, all in the sump. Water level is maintained in the return pump chamber. The rest of the sum levels are maintained by the baffles. The only spot the water level should ever really change is in the return pump chamber. This is whay I have the sensor and water line in this chamber. Trying to keep minimal changes at this location. I do dose my Kalk in the next chamber over just to allow more time for the water to mix before it hits the tank but it doses right on the baffle to create some turbulence for mixing.
 
For sure move the top off line in a different part of the sump and see where that gets you. Should settle it down a bit.
 
I moved it over into the middle chamber as far over as able. I can see how this would settle the tunze so it’s not maybe running so much at once. Still not understanding the overflow box raising and lowering. But see how this set up goes for a few days. 🤞🏽
THX!!!
 
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