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Underground jet system project underway

10K views 46 replies 17 participants last post by  matt121966 
#1 ·
I just started my underground jet system a few minutes ago so I thought I would post my progress. This is the first one I have ever done so I am keeping my fingers crossed. I have asked fmueller quite a few questions and have spent way too much time on his website. Hopefully everything will work out.

The first thing I did was cut some pieces of 3/4" pvc about 1 1/4" to 1 1/2" long to use as the jets. After they were cut I boiled them for about five minutes.



Once they had been boiling for about five minutes I took them out one at a time. I placed one end in a union to keep it from mis-shaping then I smashed the other end with a pair of channel locks.



Once I finished them I started working in the tank. I used 1" pvc out of the overflow and down to the bottom of the tank. There I reduced the pipe down to 3/4" and started laying out the system.

So far I have done the right half of the tank.

 
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#3 ·
I have it pretty close then, I have 25 nozels and my return pump should do between 2,000 and 2,500 gph after accounting for the head height. I am using a reeflo dart as the return pump.

The tank is 300 gallons.

I am planning on dying the pipes going up the back but I am going to leave the ones on the bottom white. It will be less obvious than black with the natural looking sand. I may epoxy some sand on them though.

Here are some pictures after I did the other side.


 
#8 ·
gmaschke said:
I don't know but I count 22 divide that byt 2600 and even if that were the general rule this should be generally close enough to it. :lol:
I'm pretty sure there were 24 or 25 but I could be wrong. If I get really bored later I might try to count them. :)

First I have to fix some leaks though. :(
 
#9 ·
navycigarsmoker said:
What are you using to power the UGJ. I see that you have the pipe on the left side going up and I have seen that on a few tanks but I am not sure what everybody is using to push the water.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.
I am using a reeflo dart pump for the return pump.
 
#11 ·
LowCel said:
gmaschke said:
I don't know but I count 22 divide that byt 2600 and even if that were the general rule this should be generally close enough to it. :lol:
I'm pretty sure there were 24 or 25 but I could be wrong. If I get really bored later I might try to count them. :)

First I have to fix some leaks though. :(
Thought I counted 26. I was told (and read several threads) that the general rule was 100gph per nozzle.
 
#12 ·
I am surprised no one has said anything about the nozzles. They are too crimped off. You will get hardly any flow out of those. I would do it again and leave a bigger opening. You are not looking to squash them shut. Think of it as trying to convert the circle shaped PVC into an oval shape.

100GPH is the number that is thrown around on this forum with all of the thousands of other intangible rules of thumb.

I would have also recommended dyeing all of the pipe black. I think you will regret not dyeing all of it. I did the same thing by leaving the jets white because I had a light colored sand. But I ended up dyeing them black and it looked a lot better. When you leave them white they stick out like a sore thumb. It ends up looking like PVC pipe sticking out of your sand. Likewise for when any of the buried PVC gets uncovered.

Also, why did you use 3/4" pipe instead of 1/2"? That outer diameter of 3/4" PVC pipe is pretty substantial. You will need to use a pretty thick sand bed to cover it - which in my experience is not a desirable thing.
 
#14 ·
I love these step-by-step picture-based threads.

As someone who is "on the fence" about UGJ on my next tank, I too am curious to know how things are going...

kevin
 
#15 ·
The system seems to work very well. I ended up painting it all the same color as the sand, looks much better than it would have if I had done it black. I'll try to do one in an oval and see if it increased the flow very much. If so then I can replace them pretty easily since I didn't glue them. I'm looking forward to trying it out, more flow is always a good thing. :)

Here are a couple of pictures of them now.



Ignore the one piece of pvc that is laying on top of the sand.
 
#16 ·
LowCel said:
If so then I can replace them pretty easily since I didn't glue them.
Unless you fastened the pipes to the bottom of the tank its pretty hard to modify them when the sand is already in the tank without having the pipes lift off the bottom of the tank. And at that point it is hard to get them back down into the sand once you have water in the tank.

Its hard to tell from the last pic, but if you didn't put water in the tank I recommend making 100% sure you are happy with the UGJ before filling the tank.
 
#17 ·
It wasn't any problem removing them and inserting oval nozzles at all. Unfortunately it didn't work nearly as well though. It provided a little more flow to the two nozzles that I switched but it really hurt the flow of the other nozzles. I switched it back to the way it was originally.

I have had water in the tank for about 1 1/2 weeks now.
 
#19 ·
Looks great that is for sure. But like others said if you ever go to take them out to change the flow be careful not to lift up on the system.

I let my fiance change the water on my tank and she pulled up on the tube trying to do soething, I am still not sure what she was trying to do and I have not been able to get the PVC covered since.
 
#20 ·
Is there a reason that you did an open loop system instead of a closed, I think the closed loop does a little better. Here is a pic of how we did my buddies tank.




I also was under the impression you need a min. of 150gph with 200gph preferred per jet is required. We did 4 jets for each closed loop system with a 750 gph pump, it works amazing we put it into the bathtub to see how it worked and it swirled the whole tub no prob. We did 2 closed loop systems w/ the 4 jet set-up on each for a 125g. The tank will be set-up this week i will have him post pics of it in action.
 
#21 ·
I am trying to keep the inside of the tank as clean as possible so I don't want any hardware in there. I am hoping that all of my equipment will stay in the sump (except the pump which is external). So far I am pretty happy with the way it performs.
 
#22 ·
LowCel said:
I am trying to keep the inside of the tank as clean as possible so I don't want any hardware in there. I am hoping that all of my equipment will stay in the sump (except the pump which is external). So far I am pretty happy with the way it performs.
What about replacing the tank bottom with untempered glass and drilling it? That way there would be no visible hardware in the tank.
 
#23 ·
Mcdaphnia said:
LowCel said:
I am trying to keep the inside of the tank as clean as possible so I don't want any hardware in there. I am hoping that all of my equipment will stay in the sump (except the pump which is external). So far I am pretty happy with the way it performs.
What about replacing the tank bottom with untempered glass and drilling it? That way there would be no visible hardware in the tank.
On a brand new 300 gallon tank that hasn't even had a fish in it (besides a goldfish)? You go right ahead, I'm not though. For what it's worth the bottom is untempered since it is already drilled. ;)

I'm happy with the way that it performs. :dancing:

There is no way I am going to tear down the 300, tear down the 210, tear apart all of the plumbing, drain and move both tanks, and call over a bunch of friends to give up a day to help me. Especially since I am already happy with it the way it is.
 
#24 ·
LowCel said:
For what it's worth the bottom is untempered since it is already drilled. ;)
Having a hole in a piece of glass is not necessarily a good indicator that it is non tempered. I have ordered and installed 1/2" tempered glass for Kern County with pass through slots and and speaker holes as part of the design. The factory pre-drills and cuts the glass to specification before it goes through the annealing process to temper it. As a matter of fact they have to oversize the glass and holes a bit because it shrinks a little during the tempering process.
 
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