# Hard Plumbing Schematic



## sonaps (Nov 15, 2005)

I am in the process of hard plumbing my aquarium. I have used the ideas of others that I have found online and come up with a few on my own. I would appreciate some feedback on this schematic before I finish everything.

I am using an XP2 as my main filter. I plan to use an additional pump to power my external CO2 reactor that I recently completed. The reason I want an additional pump (shown on the left of the XP2 in the schematic) is for added circulation in the tank. I currently have a Rio powerhead in the tank that I run the CO2 thorough. I like all the circulation that the Rio gives. I think that if I connected my external reactor to my XP2 and removed the powerhead I would lose a lot of the circulation. One concern I have is with plumbing 2 pumps from the same inlet/outlet lines. I am fairly sure I shouldn't plumb them inline with each other. I think the way I have shown will work. I plan to use a tee and a 90 to come off the main outlet line. I hope this wont cause the pumps to "fight" for water. I really don't want to add two separate inlet/outlet tubes to the inside of my tank.

Additional Points:
1. This is for a 75 gal. tank
2. ½" PVC will be used for all pipes (the straight lines) ½" ID tubing will be used for all connections (the curved lines)
3. I will use quick disconnects at the pump/CO2 valves and at the gravel vac. valve. 
4. The XP2 has its own shut off valves; I will not be adding additional ones, although it may look that way in the schematic.

I hope that this will make water changes a breeze. I am also very excited to get the large Rio out of the tank.

Let me know what you think.


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## acbaldwin (Nov 3, 2005)

Although it's not really reef related, try posting this on reefcentral or sdreefs.com. Reefers are pretty damn good with plumbing.


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## sonaps (Nov 15, 2005)

I should probably explain a little how the valves work. The four connected to the pump and the XP2 will remain open during regular operation and all others will be closed. During drain all valves will be closed except the one going from the tank to the pump and out of the pump to the drain. During refill all valves will be closed except the ones going from the reservoir to the pump, from the pump to the drain line, and from the drain line to the tank. That way the refill will go back to the tank through the tank’s outlet pipe. I also just realized that I forgot to add a valve down below where the pump connects to the drain line. That will be open during drain and closed during refill.


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## MoonFish (Feb 12, 2006)

sonaps, I'm getting ready to do something very similar. I want to do it with a passive filter and an inline pump though. For the same reason though, flow decreases too much. With pumps and filters alike, "300gph" becomes much much less when there is a filter and some hose and some elbows involved. I am going to try 3/4"id pipe though. I don't think you can easily get the flow you want through 1/2". How are you going to get it into the tank?


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## sonaps (Nov 15, 2005)

MoonFish said:


> I am going to try 3/4"id pipe though. I don't think you can easily get the flow you want through 1/2". How are you going to get it into the tank?


You are probably right. I thought that since they both use 1/2" tube I would be ok. But maybe I should rethink it since the whole idea is to not reduce the flow. It's too bad though because I have already bought all my 1/2" pipe and fittings.

I haven't figured out the connection yet, but to get it in and out of the tank I want to use acrylic. I am hoping that my local acrylic dealer will be able to thread a piece to go right into a female PVC fitting. I will make the U shape out of two 90's and a short piece of pipe. If I can't get it threaded I have experimented with gaskets around acrylic and pushed into a slip PVC fitting. It seems to work well, but it is not as easy to connect and disconnect for cleaning, as a threaded one would be. I guess the acrylic should be 3/4" ID also. That will look pretty big in the tank.


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