Day 2, PVC glue is created from joy.

Time to plumb up the sumps and returns.  The tank has massive 1.5" drains.  In the old plastic tote arrangement, these were run full on.  I have to say, the sound the durso pipes made was kind of thrilling..  Kind of like a wind storm blowing through the trees and whistling slightly.

I couldn't find any sumps premade that had drain inputs that large, and honestly, I don't care so much.  When I originally designed this, it was prior to the existence of impeller style powerheads.  That meant I was relying upon the return pumps for alot of my water movement.  However, not too long before the day of doom, I had purchased two Tunze 6255's.  Wow did those move water.  The long and short of this is, I don't care so much about the speed of the drains and the returns.  It just needs to pass some water down there so the filters get a crack at it once in awhile.  Both of the Ruby sumps have dual 1" inlets.  So I went online and found some nice Y adapters, and went to work.

On one of them, I branched off a third output.  I'm not sure how well this will work in practice, but the Ruby Elite has a third input for the refugium.  I'm guessing that the raw downforce of 2" piping will force some water that way.

I also got the Neptune COR20 piped up to the existing returns on the left side (Elite), so that is just about ready for a test fire.  As I write this, the glue is drying on the right side, so firing up the sumps will wait until morning.

Now for the lessons learned portion of our show:

1. If you ever buy PVC unions for your tank, buy twice as many as you need.  Why do you buy unions?  It's because maybe in the future you want to disconnect that thing, and replace it with something else.  However, 5-10 years later, what are the chances that the company that made your union is still in business?  Now you have a union stuck on something, that you cannot re-use, and you end up having to saw the whole joint off anyhow.
   
2. A Japanese saw, is quite possibly the best tool there is for sawing off random PVC bits.  Seriously, made things so much easier than a hacksaw or whatever else.
3. PVC pipe nipples (threaded on both ends, the SCH80 stuff) are great to saw in half and convert slip unions into male thread ends.
4. Never ever use the type of ball valve shown above.  The kind you get from hardware stores.  The saltwater gets into the ball, and makes it impossible to turn.  I have a few of these with shattered handles.  The SCH80 gate valves are great though.  Love those.

Finally, I had left my pair of Tunze's in a bucket of vinegar overnight, and went to work cleaning them off.  All the ick came right off, and everything is happy.  Thank goodness these survived all the electrical stupid.  My two TLF reactors are now sitting in vinegar, so I should be able to get them plumbed back in the morning as well.

I ended the day with an experiment.  I got two rolls of braided vinyl tubing.  That stuff is miserable to work with.  It comes in these tightly wound coils, and just wants to stay that way no matter what.  I really didn't want to spend 2 hours fighting it to get it into the tank, so I clamped one end down in my vise, and clamped the other end to a tablesaw across the room.  I'll leave these overnight with the hope that in the morning, they are less awful.

Tomorrow the plan is to test out the drains and the sumps a bit.  Maybe leave them running, not sure.  Remains to be seen how well they work.  Might start plumbing up the ATO, at least mechanically, Probably won't actually use it yet, still waiting for the replacement Apex to arrive to do all the electrical work.

I've been at it since 4am.  Exhausted, I go to bed.