It's A Me..... Mario!

My Halloween costume circa 2006.

Or Luigi anyways:

One of my first jobs ever was installing septic systems - both new and old. Pretty shitty, all pun intended.

The best summary of what I learned from that job would be: "Shit rolls down hill."

This basic principle holds true for plumbing aquariums as well as septic tanks. However, one thing I did not learn too much about, while on the clock, concerns siphoning. If you already understand siphoning skip ahead 4 paragraphs. If not, let me share some knowledge.

A siphon is essentially a U-shaped tube that allows liquid to flow "uphill" without use of a pump. The force is generated by the falling of the liquid, as gravity pulls it from a higher reservoir to a lower one. A siphon is formed by creating a vacuum in the tube to start the liquid flowing.

A siphon will continue to flow until one of the following happens:

• the liquids in both containers reach an equal level,
• air enters the system and breaks the vacuum (by either an empty container or the liquid level going below the depth of the siphon tube,
• and/or the use of a mechanical blockage in the form of a check valve.

Siphoning is one of the basics that you need to understand in order to develop your plumbing design. Now we know - and remember "knowledge is power."

Note that I am a Photoshop beginner so forgive the following amateur schematic of the flow/plumbing design of my aquarium. Remember, nothing is to scale and this is as artsy as I get.

This may look complicated, but truthfully it's not too bad. The arrows represent the flow of water. There are two outflows from the tank - one into the Cryptic Refugium and one into the Sump. There are two returns/inflows - one from each area.

Let's go through each of the lines independently.

• The Sump Line
• Water leaves the Display Tank (DT) via a siphon in the overflow box.
• The water flows down the line - past a ball valve and a union.
• The ball valve uses a ball to change the diameter of the pipe to adjust flow rates
• A union is used to connect two pieces of pipe - in my case it is to allow ease of removal of specific parts.
• It flows over a spill tube into a filter sock and into the first chamber of the sump.
• The water flows into the second chamber containing the protein skimmer (more about protein skimmers in another post).
• From the skimmer, the water flows over a baffle to remove micro bubbles and into the third chamber, which contains the return pump.
• The pump returns the water through a line that contains an additional union and a ball valve as well as a check valve.
• The check valve restricts the flow of water to only one direction - this way if the pump turns off, an unwanted siphon does not occur.
• From here the line splits in two and returns the water from the sump into two different areas of the DT.

• The Cryptic Refugium Line
• Water leaves the DT via a siphon
• Passes through a line that contains a ball valve
• It is returned via a pump in the canister
• Passes through a line that contains a ball valve and a check valve

Now for some actual images:

First you have to Prime it.... Prime it... Prime it..

Then you have to glue it... 

The water is in my tank and the plumbing is holding up - we are almost there. Once the rock and sand cure - It is time for a fish or two. Wooohooo!

Before the fish though, look forward to a follow up on the cure, a discussion on a protein skimmer, and a cryptic/benthic refugium. For now I have to go save the Princess before my stereotypical, red clad, egotistical brother gets all the credit. If you see Yoshi tell him he owes me $10.

Ciao