Water Where  You Want It
Looking to move large amounts of water to where you want it is one of the holy grails of reef keeping and to that end I have spent way more time out of my life fiddling with power heads than I care to admit. So when building this tank I wanted a way to move the single pumps 2000+  gallon per hour flow capacity into and around the tank without the typical fire hose output. This led me to this grand experiment.


The Pump
 The one and only pump in my system is a Dolphin 2100 that is capable of pumping 2700 GPH at zero head, it requires 1.5" plumbing to maintain that output. Being the belt and suspenders kind of engineer that I am I used (2) 1" bulkhead feeds from my sump to feed a 1.5"  T inlet setup. After water is passed thru the pump it again is Teed into (2) 1" pvc lines that go up the back of the tank and enter thru (2) drilled bulkhead fittings .



The Distribution System
I had planned on using PVC standoffs to raise my live rock off the Deep Sand Bed and having a 31" deep tank I wanted to provide good water flow on the bottom just over the sand bed to keep things in suspension but not kicking up sand. The (2) 1" PVC pipes in the corners bring the water from the pump to the manifold on the tank bottom and the (10) standoffs provide rock suspension and distribute the water evenly across the tank bottom just above the sand bed.


The Standoffs
Each of the (10) 1" standoffs has (5) 5/32" holes drilled in it at a 17 degree angle to allow the water to flow across the DSB without kicking up a sandstorm. Each standoff provides water flow to a 7" X 7" square area of the tank bottom. Kind of like a fire sprinkler head system but upside down. Each standoff  sticks up above the sand about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch providing a good base for my 120 pounds of live rock to rest upon raising it off the DSB and allowing flow and critters access to the full sand bottom

The Overflow Surface Skimmer
After the pump has filled the tank to capacity the water spills over the front wall of the 39" weir at the top rear of the tank. The water then enters one of the (3) 1" screened PVC return pipes leading back to the sump / refugium. This is also a great area for frag recovery with tons of water flow and leading directly to the skimmer area to filter out slime or chemical warfare residue. After skimming and passing thru the refugium and passive media  area in the sump the water starts its journey again