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Pod Your Reef

My 55G reef with custom acrylic sump/overflow


Fishguy

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I've been running a 20G nano for over 2 years now with a fair amount of success. But I've found I really don't have the time to keep up with the 20g like I should.

 

20G is just running a AC500 fuge and not much else.. MH lighting..

 

Went with a 55G initally because I figured it'd be easy to find one used.. that didn't happen.

stayed with the 55g when I had to go buy a new one so I could get started.

And made a third choice to stay with the 55G when I screwed up my inital attempt at replacing the thick black spar with acrylic and had to buy a new tank.

 

So yeah, 55G display tank.

painted blue back

in the process of removing the center spar and replacing it with acrylic. should be done tonight

Waiting on my diamond bits to show so I can drill the tank.. I tried the dremel approach and realized it wasn't going to cut it for 4 holes.

Made acrylic overflows, going to run durso drains and lockline in the tank.

1" drains

3/4" return, one way valve on return.

2x Seio 620 in the tank.

 

This tank has gone from simple ideas of a baffled 20L for a sump, but the only tank I could fit under the stand was a 10G and I didn't want to go that small.

 

So I figured out how to do acrylic and made a sump.

24x12x13ish. took about 30 man hours between a friend and I to construct. We came in knowing nothing about sump making beyond what we read on the web.

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ASM G1X and mag 7.

the skimmer was larger than I initally expected.. and the fuge got smaller as did the return section. Hopefully I haven't shot myself in the foot making the return that small.

I've got an aquahub deluxe autotop off setup I'll be mounting to the sump via acrylic when I figure out where the water levels are going to be.

In my head the seams were going to be perfect, but the reality of me learning how to bond acrylic doing this project won out. Got a few joints perfectly sealed.. but at this point of sump construction it was not water tight.

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Here is the sump all sealed up ready for water, attacked it with weld on 16.

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Water testing the sump.

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The overflows.

They're larger in this pic than the finished piece.. cut about 3" off the depth.

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bonding the overflow.

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T5 lighting in a AGA classic oak canopy, have the matching stand. Have blue LED nightlights I've got to incorperate in as well.

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Testing the lights

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Left to right.

Atinic, close to black light.

ATI blue plus, different blue spectrum, more white.

Geissman 10000K daylight

geismann 6500K daylight

ATI Blue plus.

 

 

As it stands..

I've got to drill the 4 holes in the tank.

and run and make sense of the plumbing.

 

but after that, I'll be close to putting water in it.

Will be quite nice, I think my reef keeping days will get a little easier.

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Looks like a great setup!

 

Thanks, it's been about 4 months too long to build thus far.

But the tank I have now is much improved than the setup I was intending when I started putting this together.

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Pics of the tank looking more like a tank.

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Auto top off relay box to the right of the powerstrip. Pump will be plugged into the white extension cord.

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Dual float switches for auto top off

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Wiring up blue LED moonlights.

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LEDs mounted

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In tank with LED on, slow shutter speed so they look a bit brighter.

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Got my hong kong $4 a piece hole saws today.

 

 

can make holes in glass. and finish the tank finally.

think I'll have water running in it by this weekend.

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A question for those in the know.. who likely aren't reading this thread. but here goes.

 

 

by what means can I make PVC plumbing quick disconnect? It's know to me that in july I am going to have to move this tank. I could just cut and then put a sleeve on the pvc to seal it back up..

 

but that'll become messy if I have to move it again.

 

I think the answer is really just to pull out the bulkheads and not disrupt the PVC at all. just replace the bulkhead gasket.

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Cut 3 of the 4 holes..

 

my small hole saw is just a hair too small, likely I sucked at measuring when I ordered them.. or the QA for hong kong bootleg bits is lax..

 

the difference is pretty much the threading on the bulkhead so I am just going to edge it out with the dremel tool. I started and had decent luck..

 

 

 

Stupidly I put painters tape on the painted back of the tank so I could mark off the holes.. and possibly prevent damaging the paint..

 

yeah.. it completely pulled the paint off when I tried to remove the tape.

So I'll be getting high on paint fumes again this evening after I have the drilling done.

 

But it's looking like this weekend will be it..

going to see how much I can get done tonight as far as plumbing.. and finish it this weekend.

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A question for those in the know.. who likely aren't reading this thread. but here goes.

by what means can I make PVC plumbing quick disconnect? It's know to me that in july I am going to have to move this tank. I could just cut and then put a sleeve on the pvc to seal it back up..

 

Unions. They're expensive, but worth their weight in gold if you ask me.

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Holes drilled, them cheap bits sure do like to dance a little.

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Overflows installed.

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Bulkheads fitted.

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Pics of my center spar delete.. so my holes were a little off align but I don't see that being an issue.

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At this rate, this weekend is the date of completetion.

 

Thanks for the input.. will look into unions, seems like the route to take.

 

and next time.. Drill first.. Paint second..

 

going to get lit on paint fumes later this evening.

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Spent all day doing the plumbing, water possibly tomorrow.

but I think I may just wait till monday and do it..

 

Durso drains on the outside, return line on the inside.

Installed unions on all the pipes so the tank can be sperated from the system easily or moving.

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Overflows in place and plumb'd

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View of the mess in the cabinent..

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All and all it has gone well, but slowly.

realized a moment too late that I reversed one part of the design too late, so the sump is reversed now to make things fit again. Doesn't make much difference.

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Action shot of the sump. This is just a freshwater test to make sure my plumbing works and isn't leaking.. Which it is, leaking. Will be cleaning it up this week and hopefully making it all salty and sandy so I can get it cycling.

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Tank with water in it, looks a lot like tank without water in it..

The overflow in the right is taking more water than the left, going to raise the bottom of the teeth a little and even that out.

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One thing I've decided now that I have the lights on with water, I need more light! Will be getting some new ballasts in time, over drive the 10K and the 6500 for starters.

 

 

With everything going, I see the need now to add two more valves to the drains so I can throttle them a little.

 

Also, any suggestions on dampening the pump vibrations?

I can hear a bit of a hum through the cabinent.

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Action shot of the sump. This is just a freshwater test to make sure my plumbing works and isn't leaking.. Which it is, leaking. Will be cleaning it up this week and hopefully making it all salty and sandy so I can get it cycling.

IMG_6512.jpg

 

Tank with water in it, looks a lot like tank without water in it..

The overflow in the right is taking more water than the left, going to raise the bottom of the teeth a little and even that out.

IMG_6514.jpg

One thing I've decided now that I have the lights on with water, I need more light! Will be getting some new ballasts in time, over drive the 10K and the 6500 for starters.

With everything going, I see the need now to add two more valves to the drains so I can throttle them a little.

 

Also, any suggestions on dampening the pump vibrations?

I can hear a bit of a hum through the cabinent.

 

Looking Good dude, keep the pics coming.

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Put foam around, and/or between the things that are rattling. Whethere it is a pipe tacking a wall? Put a peice of foam inbetween? Works for me with rattling things ;)

 

Flick :)

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Put foam around, and/or between the things that are rattling. Whethere it is a pipe tacking a wall? Put a peice of foam inbetween? Works for me with rattling things ;)

 

Flick :)

 

The hum seems to be transmitting more through the base of the sump into the oak stand.

 

may just make some DIY silicone sealant feet.

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  • 2 weeks later...

IMAGE_00002.jpg

 

Crappy phone pic of tank with rock.. think it's about 40-50lbs of rock.. will have 30 or so more coming from the other two tanks that are going to be consolidated into this one.

 

Still think I am going to need a little more..

 

The evap from this system is pretty impressive.. But the auto topoff is taking care of that. Salinity is still exactly where I put it using a refractometer. But it's eaten 3 gallons or so of water in evap.

 

temp is 82 right now, think I am going to lower it to 80-81 to slow the evap.

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And I made a breakthrough the other day tuning the setup.

 

The right overflow was getting more water than the left.. cut acrylic and leveled them out to be more even.

 

I was having trouble before with too much flow pulling air into the sump, microbubbles galore.. fizz even. was airing out the water and creating salt crust on the sump and near by components.

 

between the durso drain pipes, adjusting the valves on the drains and evening the flow out.. all it's pushing into the sump now is bubble free water.

 

has completely resolved the microbubbles.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tank has cycled.

I've got the protien skimmer broken in and no micro-bubbling as much.

I still have some ideas to further improve the microbubbles from the PS more.

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I moved the 15lbs from my Nano 12 in as well as the gold bar maroon clown from the 12. I have some pulsing xenia, RPPE zoas, and some brown zoas in there and doing well so far.

 

the brown zoas had always been under 50/50 lights.. there is a pink glow to them under atinic that I'm quite happy with.

 

Going to give the tank a little bit more time before I consolidate the 20G and the bulk of my coral/fish.

 

Going to do the first water change this evening.

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more recent pics..

I'm a whore, I know.. no one responds other than me, but this is a usefull place to collect info and progress shots to point other people to.

 

First inhabitant.. maroon clown on the right side.

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Sump with Liverock

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Nice tank! no one really comes into the big tank forums anymore thats why no one responds....

 

I really like the DIY sump came out nice....How much did it cost you to make?

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Looking good! And Pro is right, this sub-forum gets very little traffic unfortunately.

 

Understandable, we've seperated from nano a bit in here.

 

The sump.. hard to say how much it cost.

I got a 4'x8' sheet of damaged acrylic for 115 and I've got over half of it left.

 

So we'll call it $100 total for materials.. all the little 90deg squares glues and bits.

 

Seeing as we were dumb clueless going into this.. it took 2 of us 35hrs total to figure out design and cutting.. another 5hrs solo bonding the acrylic. In retrospect we were more or less guessing on how things needed to be based on what I've seen from other setups. May be getting some practice in doing misc acrylic fabrication for friends.

 

Definately could pull it off better/cleaner if I tried it again.. There are some ideas that I wish I had followed concerning the intake areas but shelved them because I wanted to get on with completion quicker.

Need to torch polish the edges tho.. clean cut 90 deg acrylic edges like to remove skin from my hands..

 

But all and all I am thrilled with the results.. could be cleaner and better done in a few areas but that's all asthetics at this point. I find myself staring at the sump as much as i stare at the display tank.

 

Have to get rid of my Occ clown unfortnately..

gave them 2 days to figure things out, and all they did was lose bits of fins..

The maroon gold bar clown chased the occ clown into one of my overflows even.

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