# Wet/dry



## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

Finally got my first wet/dry (DIY) up and running, it felt great








the process is painful, especially with my near by homedepot doesn't have everything I need and/or the plumping department employees weren't helpful at all. with the help of some makeshift part (one of the hose fitting was too small to fit into a coupler so I had to use a lot of teflon tape and some plastic to bulk up the diameter, so far it's nice and tight and no leaks...keeping my fingers crossed) and lots of sweat (mainly because I have just enough clearance under the metal stand to put my arm in the 70g sump (48x18x18) and freaking 1" ID vinyl tubing is hard as hell to bend) it finally worked.
I thank "assclown", "Ægir", and specially "JoeDizzleMPLS" (there are probably 60 pm's between me and Joe on this DIY project) for helping me out.
the most important thing I've learned is I NEED a TALLER stand, lol...alright, hopeful it's still running smoothly without any leak by the time I get up in the morning, my basement isn't full of water and my pump has been running dry all night.


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## bigshawn (Dec 29, 2005)

Congrats got a pic?


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## assclown (Dec 12, 2005)

good job buddy......make sure you turn off the power and see where your 
water line is in the wet dry, this is called timing your pump....do this so 
you know it wont overflow.......

GREAT JOB


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

Can't wait to see the finished product









Moved to Tank and Equipment...


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

Here's picture of the sump








size reference of how much space I have to work with under the tank, clean up is gonna be a pain, oh boy....








Overflow box








My makeshift fitting, you can see some of the plastic sheet I used, didn't cut it to the prefect size cuz I just wanted it to work, lol and it was late last night. but the most important thing is it hasn't leaked yet...hopefully it'll never leak
















Sump front an other angle








Whole setup, sold the FX5, some guy is suppose to come pick it up today.








only had 4hrs of sleep last night, well worth it though....man I'm so proud of myself, lol

I made a spray bar on the return, about half inch to an inch or so below waterlevel so it'll break siphon real quick if power is out.

I'll have check the water level after cut the power sometime this weekend but I don't think it'll be a problem.
the overflow box teeth are about 1" to 1.5" under water the most, shouldn't drain more than 20 gallon of water out of 180g in the event of power outage. the sump is about 25-30% filled right now so should be able to hold 40 more gallons of water without problem. but I should still check it out just to be safe.

thanks again, I couldn't not done it without your help









what's left to do is to cover the sump with acrylic to minimize heat loss and water evaporation.
it's been more than 12 hrs and water temperature still hasn't reached 80F yet....um....this sux


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

haha, talk about low overhead clearance... lookin great tho man


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

haha, yea now is the time I wish my arms are not so muscular.

I have probably 90 pot scrubbers in there, you think that'll be enough? if not then I'll have to find something use to add to the sump.


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## xeloR (Jan 2, 2009)

thanks for sharing the photos. never look back


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## Soul Assassin (Nov 21, 2006)




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## assclown (Dec 12, 2005)

looks great, you didnt find the strainers to go in the overflow box?
im not fond of the long pvc in there, you get standing water in there

so i found a pic for you down the road, they make the water flow quite
and you can take the air tube out too.....just a thought


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

assclown said:


> looks great, you didnt find the strainers to go in the overflow box?
> im not fond of the long pvc in there, you get standing water in there
> 
> so i found a pic for you down the road, they make the water flow quite
> ...


thanks for the picture
I did look for strainers, but the PVC pipes came with the overflow box is weired. it has the same OD as 1" PVC pipe but the ID is bigger (thinner wall) so not sure if the standard 1" strainers will fit (my fault for didn't bring the pipe to test fit with me). then didn't have time to go back again.
I'll use it as is for now, if I got to lfs again I'll take good measurement and see what can be used.


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## assclown (Dec 12, 2005)




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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

just made an acrylic cover for the sump and temperature can finally go above 75 °F, hopefully that'll help to reduce the evaporation as well.


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## xeloR (Jan 2, 2009)

a lid will definitely help with the evap. with the lid off of mine, i have to add a ton of water daily. lid on: easily through to my weekly water change. it looks like you have two heaters in there, how big are they? Basements are pretty cold


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

the evap wasn't too bad, a little over 1/4 inch a week or so in a 48"x18" sump, what bothers me is that the temperature couldn't get to where I want it even with two 300W and one 200W heaters. once the lid is added the temperature went up 1 °F in no time. also used some scrap pieces to cover as much as the overflow box as possible.

the only bad part is I make the cover a little too wide so it wouldn't sit like it should on the sump but I'm too lazy to trim it back down.


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## xeloR (Jan 2, 2009)

that's some wattage! is your basement extremely cold? no temp control issues before converting to wd huh?


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

basement isn't extremely cold, it's probably constantly in the 60-65 range during winter if not warmer.
never had problem with temperature before the w/d. having all those wattage just helps to heat up the water faster after water change. they would use the same wattage to heat up the same amount of water as compare to a single 300W heater but will have less stress on each individual heater and it's nice to have some redundancy as backup (had a 500W titanium heater failed on me on an other tank and the temperature dropped down to 70 °F before I found out.)


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