Fully plumbed and sumped half gallon cube vase

[Beer]

I don't normally post things like this, but there have been a few people asking me about my setup, so I figured it would e easier to do a full writeup here with pictures than trying to explain it without taking over someone else's thread.

A bit of warning though, I can get wordy when I start explaining things in a text format. You probably don't want to read this on your phone.

I didn't exactly start this with documenting the process in mind, so there may be a lack of pictures in some aspects. I also apologize for any poor picture quality, my only camera is on my phone.

 

 

I started off with a 5.5" cube vase that I have had set up as a freshwater planted aquarium for a while. I had it set up with a Marina 7W Betta heater, some live rock, and sand. The plan was for it to mostly be zoanthids and maybe a mushroom and ricordia. It lasted about a day before I decided it needed modification. Thankfully I had two, so modifications began on the second one.

 

I decided to use some 1.5" black ABS pipe to make an corner overflow. I cut the pipe lengthwise so it would fit and not take up to much room. [i'll try to remember to add pictures of the spare one later incase you can't make it out to well with it installed.] I drilled the tank for a drainline with a backup emergency drain and for a single return line. The drains are 21mm and the return is 13mm for 1/4" lockline. Cheap glass hole saws on Amazo did the trick nicely.

 

Here is the vase drilled and still taped off after paintng the back

 

To block off the bottom of the overflow, I cut a piece of lexan with a hole saw. I traced out where I needed the cut to be, then I drilled lightly into a piece of scrap wood to use a the cutting guide.

 

 

 

It would have worked out pretty well if the sides of the vase were straight, but the gaps were too big for my liking, so I traced out the edge profile of the tank and trimmed a piece of cardboard until it fit at the level where it would finally sit, then repeated the cutting process. This time it fit much better. I was in build mode and didn't stop to take pictures of the final piece unfortunately.

 

To get the bulkhead fittings (threaded nylon reducers) to fit without taking up too much room, I took advantage of a lathe I have access to and trimmed them down.

 

 

Here is the vase during the first test run.

 

 

In this photo I am using a 60GPH 12V DC pump that is used for computer liquid cooling systems running at 6V. I had concerns about the shaft rusting, so I was working on finding anther pump.

The Grey fitings I was using here got swapped out. The lower one, which is the primary drain, worked out well when the end is submerged. It was silent and kept up well with the pump which I think was still putting out fnearly full volume despite running at half votage. The problem was that the emergency drain couldn't keep up. It was too high to pull a full siphon and the water level in the vase would rise with the primary drain plugged.

I later found a similar fitting, but with a larger barb.

 

 

This probably would have been suitable, but where I went so narrow with the overflow, I had to cut it out and re-silicone it back in place to replace the fittings. Instead of experimenting and replacing the overflow several times, I ended up going with some 1/2" PVC plumbing which I knew would be more than sufficient. I ended up having to sand down a piece of CPVC to fit inside of the PVC pipe that extends down into the sump to restrict flow on the primary drain. This keeps the noise down by preventing the drain from siphoning air. The backup is left to go full bore above the water line so it is noisy to alert me of an issue.

 

Here is the test run with a Hydor Pico 100GPH pump (with the obligatory beer in the background, what build thread is complete without one). With the pipe restrictions, this is able to run full bore without overfowing. It is fairly quiet; no louder than a HOB filter.

 

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The full set up with sump and ATO.

 

 

I ended up building the sump with stained window glass. I originally wanted to go with black glass, but I found out that black glass is iridescent on the other side. Or at least everything they had at the craft store was that way. The bottom is standard 1/4" float glass after I cracked the bottom while assembling. The total water volume increased from half a gallon to just over a gallon.

The intent of going with the colored glass was so that I could run a reverse light cycle for Chaeto and not be bothered by the light since I live in a studio apartment, where every room except the bathroom is also my bedroom. If doing it over again, I'd go with black acrylic or paint the outside with Krylon. I also wanted the baffels to keep light out of the inflow and outflow areas to prevent algae, so the acrylic probably would have been the better option for me.

 

 

The ATO is just two level sensor switches wired together in series and hardwired inline to the airpump's coil. The pump draw 25mW, so it shouldn't put too much strain on the float switches. The airline is pulled though a small hole, the fit is tight so no adhesive is required. The airline just barely goes through the other side of the lid. It is always above the water line. The valve on the airline servers two purposes, the first is to allow the back pressure in the container to bleed off so the water doesn't continue to pour in after the pump shuts off. The second is I can open it during water changes so the ATO does not run when I siphon the sump or tank. When refilling, I go until the pump shuts off. At that point I have filled to the proper level, and close the valve and then back it off 3/4 of a turn. The height difference of the level sensors is accomplished by placing the o-ring that comes with them between the bottom side of the bracket and sensor shaft.

 

Break down of cost

 

Tank and sump

Vase - $17 I think

Glass for sump - $12

Replacement bottom glass - $5

ABS pipe - $3

Silicone (RTV108 for another tank) - $10 shipped from Amazon

Lockline (extra parts from another order) - $6 from ModularHose, shipping is a killer on small orders.

PVC and fittings - $7

CPVC and Fittings - $5

Push slip fitting (to connect pumt to threaded CPVC fitting using 3/4" piece of vinyl hose) - $4

Threaded adapters for bulkhead fittings - $5

Hydor Pico 100GPH pump - $14 shipped from Amazon (recent price increase to $19)

 

About $88 before ATO and not including tools and the parts I didn't use. The extra parts will be geting repurposed for other projects.

 

Tools

13mm glass hole saw - 2pk $8 Amazon

21mm glass hole saw - 2pk $4 Amazon

Glass cutter and running pliers - $13 shipped EBay

 

total $25

 

ATO

2 level sensor switches - $4.50 each

Lexan - $4

Cheap, 4W air pump - $8

Mason Jar - free or $3 if you buy a single one new

Airline $4

Rigid airline $3

 

total $28. Beats topping off two or three times a day like I was with the original vase.

 

$140 before sand and rocks, which was about $7 for a 5lb bag of Aragonite sand and $6 for a pound of rocks.

 

Damn, when you total it all up like that, it really adds up. A lot of the tools and parts I had purchased for other projects, so the costs were deferred a bit. But I've got something completely different and it was fun to build.

 

 

Now to build the independantly controlled three channel LED light. As well as the light for the refugium.

 

 

Thanks for sticking through all this, or at least lookng at the pictures. If you have any questons or want more detailed pictures of anything, feel free to ask.

[Reefkid88]

SO MUCH WINNNNNING !!! It looks awesome man. Consider me following along for this. Epic on so many different levels !!!

 

Edit: Oh and remember if you need a pump(s) and a light,I've got you for cheap. Both of my new lights will be here Monday. Just PM me if interested man.

[Gilligan]

^

[Beer]

Thanks man. I'm really liking it so far.

 

I don't think I'm going to end up needing those pumps, at least not right now. I may end up coming up with some other projects though.

 

I thought that the Hydor pico 100GPH was going to be way over kill, but it actually isn't too bad. I have it running full blast right now, I may turn it down slightly, but everything seems happy, well except for the tiny pods I have (had?). I haven't seen them around since I swapped everything over. They should make their way to the sump. The flow doesn't really allow anything to settle out on the sand. You can watch debris float around the tank, everything eventually makes it's way over the overflow.

[Reefkid88]

No worries man.

 

I'm sure the pods will reappear in no time. You seeded this tank right ? If so it should have a fairly quick cycle. And you'll have a abundance of critters. I'm sure with 100 gph it's fine. I have ample flow going thru the tank with just the AC20 even on the lowest flow,which I think has been kinda cut back with the media basket and media in there.

 

What's your evaporation looking like ? I had a fairly small amount since setting it up yesterday. They only way I could tell was because the water coming out of the filter was making noise,I had the water line just over the lip of the outflow of the filter.

 

When I get home tomorrow I'm going to cut some acrylic I have a home to throw together a small sump ( which I'm sure you saw the pieces I got yesterday in the .9 thread. Although it probably won't be for the .9 but probably for the original tank I was making using acrylic.

[Beer]

Maybe around half a cup of evaporation. I haven't measured it yet. I've got a 1qt mason jar for the ATO resivor. It drooped to about 1/3 full between Friday and this morning.

 

There really wasn't much life on the rocks. Some tiny pods, a spaghetti worm, and that's about all I've seen even with sneaking home late at night with a red flashlight keeping the lights off. I had the sand and rock in the unfiltered vase for a little over a month, so there wasn't a cycle switching everything over.

 

I've asked a couple of times for critters to seed the sand bed and explained that my rock is lifeless at my local reef club meeting, but I don't think people get what I am asking for or why. Maybe more of a philosophy of why would you care or want that stuff when you are paying so much more for the pretty corals? Either that or it is a misunderstanding from the poor marketing stregety of bagged 'live sand'. People probably just think I'm new and don't really know what I'm talking about and I'm just trying to start the cycle.

 

When I get the modified DeepBlue 5 way Betta barracks tank up, I think I'm going to call Sally Joe up over at GARF and see if I can get a small order of the grunge to seed both tanks. All kinds of cool critters with a pretty big diversity. They have a cool system out there that I would love to check out some day.

 

I thought you were going to build a tank with that neon green and orange acrylic. I was thinking it might kind of look cool as a novelty under actinic or near UV lighting, but would be more annoying inthe long run. At least for me anyway. I think it would have ended up with poor viewing and odd colors from the diffused light. But I didn't want to bash your idea if that was what you were going for. A sump would be better use of that acrylic.

[Dramad1]

Pico pico.

[Riddler05]

Love this build!

[Weetabix7]

Super cool build.

 

Updates?

[vlangel]

I enjoyed reading your write up. Ultra Pico is what you built. Anyway nice job.

[Beer]

Thank you.

 

Unfortunately it is currently being reset. I had a pretty brutal semester and the tank got neglected. A bad algae outbreak smothered the corals. I'm trying to see if anything will pull through, but I think everything but the blue legged hermit made it.

 

I'll have to see if I can dig up some pictures from my old phone.