Could use some advice on a new tank

[fish12345]

Hey everyone, I am starting a new tank since I will be moving out of college dorms and into an apartment. I got 2 29 gallon tanks of of craigslist that I am planning to use for display and sump. I found a crack in one of the tanks which was already drilled so I may not be using that tank. I might use the cracked tank as the sump and seal up the drilled holes or I might just toss that one and get a new one.

 

My questions for you guys are:

How tough is it to get the system to run quietly? It will be in my bedroom and I don't want it to keep me up while I am trying to sleep. I have had other tanks running in my room without a problem but none of them had sumps. My dads tank is the only comparison I have but his is 150-40 gallons and I figured that would run a little louder than a 29-29 system.

 

Can the cracked tank be sealed by having acrylic glued over the holes and sealed with silicon? It will be used as a sump and the holes/crack are near the top so the water will likely never get that high. (Picture hosted off site as it is too large to be uploaded) http://i.imgur.com/RcQDawz.jpg

 

Any recommendations on a return pump and protein skimmer? I prefer something that is quiet and effective and I realize I will likely end up paying more for that.

 

The tank will be a reef but I am a bigger fan of the fish than I am the corals so I tend to prefer to have more fish. For stocking I am considering:

2 ocellaris clowns

1 or 2 firefish

1 yellow clown goby

(maybe)A yellow watchman goby with a pistol shrimp

 

The tank will have between 30 and 50 lbs of live rock. I have a bunch to choose from and it won't be precisely weighed.

 

I have not decided on corals yet but the tank will be running LEDs so hopefully it will be sufficient for everything.

Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[righttirefire]

The cracked tank must be put in trash. The risk is too high... any Crack will expand. Water weighs about 8.3 lbs per gallon. AAnd puts out about .43 lbs per square inch of pressure. Water damage is expensive.

[Squared]

for a quite overflow i would go with a durso style or bean animal. haven't used them myself but have read good things.

 

there is always glassholes for overflows, and you can buy overflow boxes on bulkreefsupply.

 

i see nothing wrong with your fish list, but only if you get 1 firefish. 2 will fight, but if you find a bonded pair it may work out

[VW_TDI_02]

I would say toss the cracked tank and start with a new tank. You can probably fix it but I simply don't think it's worth the risk. The size of the tank comes down to what you can afford to light. A 29 gallon has the same footprint as a 20 long, what I have, but is a bit taller. These tanks are simply a pain to light because they are so wide. As a result, you're limited to some rather expensive fixture such as a Nanobox Duo, Maxspect Razor 120/160W, and a few others. Unfortunately most fixtures are made for about a 24" coverage max. Once you have the tank, you get to deal with plumbing.

 

From my understanding, the bean animal is three pipes with one full siphon, one trickle, and one emergency. For a small tank, this is way overkill since most likely the return pump won't even be able to outpace a wide open 3/4" piece of PVC. 3/4" bulkheads should be good for pretty much all nano tanks. I wouldn't bother with larger diameters until you get to over 40 gallons and even then it would only be a step up to 1". That leaves with durso and herbie. Frankly, these are incredibly similar and I still don't understand why one is better than the other. I run a herbie style which is simply one drain that runs at a full siphon and then one that's a trickle/emergency drain. I used the nano overflow box from BRS but be aware that it is a very small box. I fit two bulkheads in there no problem but you have to insert the bulkheads and any fittings BEFORE you silicone in the overflow box. The way mine is set up is with one bulkhead just with no fittings or anything (I do want to put some sort of snail guard in there though). So ideally, you have that bulkhead which is your full siphon drain which has a gate valve on it so you can fine tune it. The other bulkhead has a 90 degree fitting pointing upwards. You tune in the gate valve on the other drain so that you match the amount of water that the return is pumping into the tank. If done correctly, you should have a full siphon on that line which is silent. You might have a slight trickle going into the other bulkhead which is fine. The place where I got the most noise was actually when the drains empty into the sump. Make sure that the end of the drains are under the water because that's where you get the most noise. I ended up adding a few fittings and didn't even glue them and my whole system is dead silent. The last page of my thread should explain things a bit better and has pictures.

 

http://www.nano-reef.com/topic/355032-20g-long-first-reef-build-6112015-new-sump/page-4

 

 

[Edit]

I am not a big fan of glass holes. None of their smaller packages have two drains last I checked.

[piano15]

Get rid of the cracked tank. Although the water line won't be near it, the pressure of the water is within the whole tank.

20-29 gallon tanks aren't expensive to replace.

 

I have never run a sump.

 

Firefish are really pretty but beware they are jumpers. I had mine jump 4 times, it didn't survive the fourth jump and I had eggcrate on the top of my tank...somehow it jumped through those tiny squares.

 

Watchman gobies are awesome, they have quite the character on them:)

[VW_TDI_02]

Get rid of the cracked tank. Although the water line won't be near it, the pressure of the water is within the whole tank.

20-29 gallon tanks aren't expensive to replace.

 

I have never run a sump.

 

Firefish are really pretty but beware they are jumpers. I had mine jump 4 times, it didn't survive the fourth jump and I had eggcrate on the top of my tank...somehow it jumped through those tiny squares.

 

Watchman gobies are awesome, they have quite the character on them:)

The spaces in egg crate are 3/4" x 3/4" which really isn't very small at all. Typically you're going to need an actual mesh and I wouldn't go above 1/4". Anything bigger and I would worry about small fish jumping and getting stuck in the net.

[fish12345]

VW- Thanks for taking the time to write all that out. I think I'm going to go with the herbie style you are running. I won't be using the cracked tank either. I have a 20 gallon high that I can use as the sump. There isn't a ton of room in there but I can fit the skimmer and return without a problem. In terms of lighting, I think I'm going to use one of the Chinese LED boxes that people have been using. If the shadows on the sides bother me, I'll rig up some more lighting to go with it.

 

In terms of live stock, I'll go to just one firefish and *maybe* I'll add a neon goby towards the end.

 

I'm thinking I'll add them in this order:

Yellow Clown Goby

Watchman Goby

Firefish

2 clowns

 

Then if the tank is still doing well ill go with a neon or two.

 

Thanks for your input everyone, I really appreciate it.

[fish12345]

Should I go with slip x slip or thread x thread bulkheads? I will be doing a herbie style overflow.

[righttirefire]

I used slip x slip on mine and added a union to the outside for the drains. For the return I used slip x thread again I used a union on the dry side. And 3/4 male thread x 3/4 line lock on the wet side

[fish12345]

I have the tank drilled, painted, overflowed, and bulkheaded.

 

Now onto the sump. I have a 29 gallon sump that will have a skimmer and return. I am planning a refugium as well.

 

The way I have it planned, the refugium is 15 inches deep. I would primarily like the fuge to be for pod production and secondarily for nutrient export. Would 15 inches be too deep for this? It would have a 1-2 inch sand bed, some live rock, and cheato most likely. The sump will be set up from left to right as intake and skimmer, return, then refugium with the overflow T'd off so part of the water goes to the skimmer and part to the fuge. Any thoughts or input will be appreciated.

[VW_TDI_02]

I have the tank drilled, painted, overflowed, and bulkheaded.

 

Now onto the sump. I have a 29 gallon sump that will have a skimmer and return. I am planning a refugium as well.

 

The way I have it planned, the refugium is 15 inches deep. I would primarily like the fuge to be for pod production and secondarily for nutrient export. Would 15 inches be too deep for this? It would have a 1-2 inch sand bed, some live rock, and cheato most likely. The sump will be set up from left to right as intake and skimmer, return, then refugium with the overflow T'd off so part of the water goes to the skimmer and part to the fuge. Any thoughts or input will be appreciated.

Pictures!!!!

 

In regards to the sump, I wouldn't bother with the sandbed and liverock. You should have plenty of space for bacteria in your display. In the sump, the sandbed and liverock are just going to become places for detritus to build up. Currently I have a frag rack where a refugium normally goes and since it is bare bottom, I can see all the detritus that builds up down there and can easily be siphoned out. You get pretty much no real benefit from the shallow sandbed and the live rock and it's just more of a hassle than anything else. Another thing is that ideally you would want the chaeto to be a revolving ball so that it gets light from all sides and helps it grow faster. Having obstructions such as liverock would prevent this. Oh, one more thing, since you'll be lighting that area with something that helps plants grow (for the chaeto) you may get a built of algae on the sides of the glass. It's much easier to clean that off if you don't have rock or sand in there.

[fish12345]

Can I still produce pods if there is no sand and rock? I think I can manage nutrients with the skimmer and live rock in the tank as well as GFO/Carbon when it's needed so the fuge will be a food source first and nutrient export second.

[fish12345]

First I build the frame of the stand. I made it 42x18x35 (off the top of my head I think thats right). The extra 6 inches on the sides will let me put food, refractometer, test kits, etc down on the stand while I am working on the tank. The inside 2x4 supports will support the edges of the tank. They are held in by 3/8 inch lag screws. The rest is held together by 3.5 inch deck screws (they are corrosion resistant.)

 

I put the tank and sump on top and below to test the stands ability to hod it up. Not surprsingly, it was more than enough to hold the tank up. The center supports were probably unnecessary. The pump is a Mag 5 that is pumping 360 gph with 52 inches of headspace (I was really surprised, I was thinking more like 225)

 

Once I knew it would hold the tank up, I got started on shelling the stand. I used 1/8 maple for this. It is held in with finishing nails. The right side will will have a hinge that opens the side so I can put the sump in and get to plumbing/skimmer/electrical/etc from there.

 

Then I painted the drilled 29 gallon display. Taped it up and started spraying. I used rustoleam matte black paint. This was surprsingly difficult to do actually. After 7 coats there was still a little light shining through but you can only tell with a light source behind it.

 

With the stand framed and the tank painted, I started staining the stand and mounting the light. I used 1 inch aluminum (conduit?) for this. It is bolted to the stand and supports the cheap ebay LED I got. The stand is being stained with black stain/polyurathane in one. it is tough to put on but so far so good. I also siliconed the overflow in place (I don't have pictures of that) I will test that seal sometime soon.

 

Turned the garage lights off and the LEDs on. This is them at 100% which is bright as hell. There is a little shadow one the sides but I hope it will be less noticable with water and rock in there. If it bugs me, I will supplement it with some DIY LED stuff. I have 40ish lbs of rock curing in a 15 gallon tank right know. Roughly half of that his been sitting in my dads 150 gallon tank for the last 3 weeks.

 

This is the plan for the sump at the moment. Water will flow into the skimmer section and fuge. The skimmer section will go through a bubble trap then to the return and the fuge will flow over the baffle. There is space for 7.8 gallons of water from the siphon and water in pipes. I am not glued to this arrangement though. Also, that skimmer will be on the stand.

[VW_TDI_02]

Can I still produce pods if there is no sand and rock? I think I can manage nutrients with the skimmer and live rock in the tank as well as GFO/Carbon when it's needed so the fuge will be a food source first and nutrient export second.

Pods will grow just fine in the chaeto in the refugium. Also, live rock and the skimmer do two completely different things. The live rock is just a place for bacteria to grow and convert the ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate but in the end the nutrients never leave the tank while the skimmer does remove the nutrients from the tank.

 

Your stand looks great so far and my only concern is that it doesn't look like you're painting the inside of your stand. I would definitely recommend sealing the inside of your tank since it will be very humid in there and it will help protect the wood. I'm definitely excited to see how the tank turns out!

[fish12345]

Pods will grow just fine in the chaeto in the refugium. Also, live rock and the skimmer do two completely different things. The live rock is just a place for bacteria to grow and convert the ammonia into nitrite and then nitrate but in the end the nutrients never leave the tank while the skimmer does remove the nutrients from the tank.

 

Your stand looks great so far and my only concern is that it doesn't look like you're painting the inside of your stand. I would definitely recommend sealing the inside of your tank since it will be very humid in there and it will help protect the wood. I'm definitely excited to see how the tank turns out!

I am painting the inside. But it was really hot when I was working yesterday so after 2 hours of working (I started in the back) I called it quits for the day.

[VW_TDI_02]

I am painting the inside. But it was really hot when I was working yesterday so after 2 hours of working (I started in the back) I called it quits for the day.

Gotcha, and yea, I know the feeling. Not to mention, painting/staining a stand is pretty awful work. I hate trying to get underneath and inside the tank while not trying to touch anything that's already wet.