BossAquaria How to plumb A rack 101

[Dean]

Hi All

so after many many many many PM/Email/SMS/calls etc etc all asking similar questions about building and plumbing

rack systems for shrimp, so when a friend asked me a few weeks back i decided to draw up a blue print Guideline

to save me trying to explain everything over and over.

So With these simple drawings you can understand the most basic way of plumbing up a system.

The way i have drawn it is what works best for me and it is the way i have plumbed up all 64

tanks in my various systems now.

you can modify any of the fittings and pipe to suit the size of your system but the lay out is tried and proven

and works perfect.

so i will start with the Over Flow (water going from tanks to sump)

In the picture below you will see on the notes that i use 40mm pipe everywhere except the upstands (pipe going to bulkheads)

this is to allow for the larger volume of water that passes though this pipe as its draining from every tank.

The pipe that runs up the outside beside the tank with an end cap needs to have a hole drilled in the top (5mm)

This pipe's purpose is as a noise reduction, if you dont have this you will get more noise in the pipes from the water.

The next is the return. (water going from the sump into the tanks)

For the return plumbing the pipe size is all the same, as a rule i always use the same size return pipe as the upstands used on overflow pipes.

the only important thing to remember about this part of the plumbing is to make sure your corners use 2x 45 elbows to make the corner turn. If you use a 90 elbow it restricts the flow a little and makes the pump work harder than it needs to.

You will notice there are 2 ball valves, one on each row of outlets before the pipe going into the individual tanks.

This is to control the flow of water to each rack so it flows evenly as the first row of tanks will get more pressure from the pump than the top row, so you can reduce the pressure at the bottom to get the same pressure at the top :)

Its always good to put a UV inline also as a bit of back up against any bacterial problems or algae blooms :)

feel free to ask the questions on this thread so everyone can benefit from the sharing of info ;)

[Squiggle]

Awesome write up dude, this should definitely be a sticky so we don't loose it :victorious:

[Trav80]

Nice write up Dean. I used this Information when I built my little rack weeks ago and it was spot on. :)

[NoGi]

I've promoted into the library. Still too hard for me. LOL When I fill my rack with tanks I think I'm going to have to ask someone to do it for me LOL

[CNgo2006]

It's like you read my mind Dean! Just getting the tanks tomorrow and planning to start on a rack very soon! Thank you for the write up! Just what I needed!

[Neo-shrimp]

Thanks Dean...Just by looking @ the diagram simplifies the plumbing technique of a rack...Before seeing this I could not phathom where to start & what was needed made it look like an extremely overwhelming project for me to attempt...Cheers Colin

[Squiggle]

I've promoted into the library. Still too hard for me. LOL When I fill my rack with tanks I think I'm going to have to ask someone to do it for me LOL

Just give us a yo when you're ready, I'll come give you a hand dude, once you've done it you'll realise it's not that hard :encouragement:

[Foxpuppet]

Great write up, thanks Dean!

[ineke]

Great write up Dean even I can understand that

[BlueBolts]

Fantastic write up, and well drawn out.

[al4n]

Thanks Dean, Awesome write up. I'm sure this will be used as a reference many times over by the ppl on this forum.

[darktim]

Hi dean i was wondering if you think its possibly to let water overflow out of the tnak without drilling the tank, ive been seening some examples of pvc piping that lets water overflow out of the tank could something like this work with your pluming diagram. ill provide an example of of one at the end

Also wondering what size pvc would you have on the return, is it 40mm the same as the ones letting water flow to the sump if following your diagram or would it be different size.

Was also wondering where you would get them covers for the the overflow pipes to prevent shrimps and shrimpets swimming to the sump

[OzShrimp]

that diagram just takes all the questions away :) I have always been worried about having to do it in the future when i am able to but now i am not really concerned :)

[BlueBolts]

Hi dean i was wondering if you think its possibly to let water overflow out of the tnak without drilling the tank' date=' ive been seening some examples of pvc piping that lets water overflow out of the tank could something like this work with your pluming diagram. ill provide an example of of one at the end

Also wondering what size pvc would you have on the return, is it 40mm the same as the ones letting water flow to the sump if following your diagram or would it be different size.

Was also wondering where you would get them covers for the the overflow pipes to prevent shrimps and shrimpets swimming to the sump

That looks like an awesome contraption.....be great if you could do a write-up/journal of the pros & cons of it ? Great work

[shrimped]

Love the information you give us all on this site such a great help. Always check out your posts from now on

[michael]

I have a question about the hole sizes in the glass if I'm going to use a 25mm bulkhead is the hole drilled into the glass 25mm or is it a different size

[Dean]

for a 25mm bulk head you need to drill a 32-35mm hole.

as 25mm is the internal size of the bulk head.

[michael]

Ok thank you ill get them to drill them at 32mm

[shrimp_aaron]

Hello,

Where would I put a chiller into the system?

[Squiggle]

Between the return pump & the tanks, so the water is chilled before going into the tanks. :victorious:

[Bill88]

Great diagram!

I can't wait to try it out and set up some tanks! 

Live played around with something similar in a small scale in the past and the valves end up being the most expensive!

[Zebra]

Hello, nice design and drawings :) coincedentally I designed the exact same thing, everyone thought I was mad using such big drain pipe size but that's the key.

If you had your return lines just above the water level would you still need the ball valves?

cheers

[Gavin_EuphonyG]

Hi Dean,

I am about to start a new shrimp rack and would love to view the pictures you upload earlier. Can't view it now though, might have been expired. Can you do a huge favor to upload them again?

[jayc]

15 hours ago, Gavin_EuphonyG said:

Can you do a huge favor to upload them again?

Hi Gavin,

unfortunately @Dean has not been visiting SKFA for a long while now. So it is unlikely he will get this message.

But you never know, we hope he is well and will return one day and can extract the pictures from photobucket. We have many broken links to pictures hosted on photobucket, after they changed their business model to a paid system. Lesson learnt - host your pictures on SKFA.