Custom Nano Sump + Fuge

[Drez]

Concise Version (Expanded version with details can be seen in the next post)

 

Below you will find a picture of my current sump, notice it has no baffles etc yet.

 

 

This picture indicates where it will be going, so that you better understand its odd size. Note this is a very old picture of the tank. The tank in the space is a 5.5 gallon for reference. You’ll notice that it’s a tad long (hangs out the back).

 

 

This is how I plan on operating it. Skimmer at the back of the stand, return at the front door.

 

 

Notice Chamber 1 is the water in. It goes into a PVC pipe with a radius of 1.25”. There will be holes at the bottom to allow the water to fill the chamber (with as few bubbles as possible). The chamber fills high to allow the Aqua C Remora to skim here. Water flows over the first baffle into chamber 2, the refugium. Water then flows into chamber 3, the return. Notice I will include some egg crate to the top of baffle 2 to stop things from entering the return chamber. Chamber 3 has a MJ 1200 return the water to my tank. Water will be getting to the sump via a CPR CS50 overflow.

 

Comments, concerns criticism please.

 

Notice, I will shortly include a lot of details below. This sump is largely inspired by Yardboy. I’d love to keep it simple so keep that in mind. There isn’t a lot of space to begin with here and if Yardboy’s works in all its simplicity, I hope that mine can as well.

[Drez]

Expanded version

 

My Goal: To create a sump/fuge for my 25gallon display that could effectively and silently, in

approximate order of importance:

A ) Fit into the odd size constraints of my stand

B ) Provide nutrient export

C ) Provide increased pod population

D ) Add water volume

E ) Hide equipment

 

Where I’m at: After much though and planning, the basic sump/fuge is created. It is made perfectly to my unorthodox dimensions and fits quite nicely under my tank in the stand. It’s made entirely of glass thus far and after a few weeks of holding water, shows no signs of stress or leakage.

 

Dimensions:

Length = 13”, Width = 9” , Height = 18”

Total Volume: 8.5 gallons , Running Volume: 7.1 gallons, Reserve Volume: 1.4 gallons ( more than one inch of excess display tank water)

 

Materials: A friend of mine works at a window factory and using scrap glass cut me the panes according to size (thanks again bud!). I opted to use GE II silicone for the seals as a number of reefers had no detrimental effects as a result.

 

Additional notes:

• I’d like to hide my skimmer (Aqua C Remora w/ MJ1200) on the back of this as per diagram 1. Additionally my heater will go in somewhere. This is why the 1st compartment has a high water level, this is essential for using my HOB skimmer on my sump.

• I have no intentions of drilling my tank at this time; in the future I would love to, but not for now. This means I need an overflow. I’m looking at using a CPR CS50. I’m drawn to this unit as it’s reportedly one of the quietest and because it has a very small profile/footprint in the tank, which being small I’d like to keep as free as possible.

• My intention at this point is to use a MJ1200 as my return pump. Unorthodox as that is, it appears strong enough to do so (unless I calculated it wrong at my last check). This is because I have one and because I can hook up the air bleed tube on the CS50 to the air thing on the MJ if I’m not mistaken, meaning I can eliminate the clutter of an additional pump by doing so.

• I plan to include a siphon break on the return pump

• The tank will sit under my display on foam insulation

• In the first chamber I will add rubble live rock that I hope will develop a cryptic zone

• In the sec chamber (refugium) I will add live sand, a rock or two, Culerpa and cheato as well as a few nassarius snails and possibly some Xenia. It will be lit by 2 compact fluorescent full daylight bulbs 13w ea (Philips Daylight, 6.4k).

• Chamber three (return) may have a few small rocks

 

Where I still need to go:

This sump is very much inspired by the simplicity of Yardboy’s “Ghetto Beauty” sump. Many reefers have suggested more complicated set ups that are probably ideal in bigger tanks, but due to the limited physical real-estate, I’d like to keep this as simple as possible. That being said, a simple glass box won’t do either.

[Sushi]

Nice write-up and diagrams! Time well spent

[yardboy]

Drez, that's a nice writeup and drawings. As you know I love DIY and so would never tell anyone they shouldn't do something, other than to be prepared for the occasional failure or "didn't work out quite like I thought" kind of situation!

Only thought I had on the system is your PVC tube for reducing microbubbles. At 1.25" it may be too small for the sporty flow rate you'll get out of that MJ1200. It might not be as effective as you'd like about controlling microbubbles. If you could move that first baffle back a bit, so you could get a bigger pipe diameter in there it'd probably be better. It'd be more flexible too, so you could use it for chemical filtration (activated carbon, phosphate removing media, etc.)

Here's how the one's I use look, with a piece of eggcrate glued inside so media can be sat there if needed. It is not attached in any way to the sump, just rests on the bottom.

[Drez]

Despite being silent I've been toiling over my options quite a bit over the past while. First of all, thanks for the complements and special thanks Yardboy for showing me your PVC baffle tube from your tank. The fact that it is not siliconed down is quite nice; I also quite enjoy its secondary function as a media container (in my case for phosban). Its implementation in my sump proved more difficult that I would have hopped due to my need for the first chamber to have high water volume. Nevertheless, from the drawing boards emerged two competing concepts.

 

Because I need the first baffle to maintain a high water level for the H.O.T. skimmer, I found moving the first baffle back to take away too much of my needed water volume and that it was using a lot of real-estate given its awkward shape. In many places I found it to be hitting the skimmer pump. [note: I estimated Yardboy's at around 2” radius / 4” diameter.] Due to these problems I found I needed to move my first baffle back at least 1” and doing so I felt I would be better off simply adding a traditional baffle which would take the same amount of space. Thus the fist concept does just that. I removed the PVC tube and simply added another baffle down the road. I chose to add it after the refugium as it will help keep the cheato in the refugium. This means the refugium might have some bubbles but I think that it won’t be terribly bad as at least one baffle will reduce them. Below is this concept:

 

 

Additionally is a diagram showing the various volumes:

 

 

A: Emergency reserve volume, should only fill in the event of power outage and / or pump failure (1.8 gallons).

B: Evaporation Volume, this area will rise and fall according to evaporation (1.3 gallons).

C: Space taken by live sand, thus remaining gap for water to pass is approximately 1” x 9”

D: Space to be filled with live rock and rubble adding a dark zone. This will also help break some of the bubbles in the water arriving from the tank.

 

 

The second plan was to combine the first chamber with the refugium allowing enough space for the PVC tube. While I feel this is viable, I’m favoring the first plan at present. I am leaning towards the first since the second seems to have a lot of dead space around the circular PVC and would require egg crate or something to keep macro out of the skimmer intake. The resulting space is also awkward to light, although the higher refugium water level compensates that to some degree.

 

 

One additional change;

I’ve since switched my desired overflow to the Hurricane Quietflo 600. The reason for this is that my research is suggesting the J tube might be a little safer regarding floods (good for the 8 apartments below me) and equally important is that it removes the need for additional equipment (namely an aqua lifter).

The big disadvantage is that the CPR CS50 was so very nice and slim (less than 2” of width in the tank). The Quietflo is decent in that it’s comparable in its rear compartment, and in tank height. It’s much wider though at 4” albeit less long when compared to the CPR unit.

This will also allow for use in the future should I upgrade (and not be able to drill).

[Drez]

So it seems as though I made a mistake using the GE II silicone. I tore it all out and replaced it with GE I silicone. The off gas (Ascetic acid) was pretty bad, but IIRC ascetic acid is in vinegar and that’s a safe sign IMO. I hope I got enough of the old silicone out as I was using exacto knives to do it. I had some of it in my tank for a while in a MJ mod and there didn't appear to be any harmful effects but it's often hard to tell. You don't always notice gradual coral decline. No deaths at any rate. I hope the removal combined with an aggressive recoat of GE I should cover any of the harmful stuff. The GE 1 isn’t GE 012 but I feel that that product code has changed. It’s still the GE I with blue label (doors and windows). At any rate the GE 1 doesn’t say it’s not for aquariums like the others do and a number of other people seem to have used it without problems, so we’ll see. Probably would have been better off to get some specialty stuff even if it was 2 or 3 times the price. An extra $10 would well be worth anything dyeing. I’ll let you know it this was a mistake from which you can learn.

 

At the same time I re-siliconed the walls; I also installed my acrylic baffles. This was a tough job given the height of the tank. It was hard to get my hands and the caulking gun into the narrow confines (i.e. 3x9x18). I guess my forearms are just too beefy . Just keep it in mind if your plans are to make a sump with tight spaces. I'll have some extra silicone to scrap off the walls. A bit messy but at least it’s done and appears to be solid. Additional note, I found that taping the glass wall together first with packing tape allowed me to silicone it together easily. Basically I built the sump with tape, then siliconed it. I plan on leaving the tape on, it’s clear and so you hardly even see it, I figure it will add strength to the tank, and reduce any potential for a leak. Even if it doesn’t, it’s doing no harm. I will also be added another wrap around the top as an impromptu brace. I'm going to let it cure for around 5 days.

After that I'll water test it for a week again at the same time cleaning it out with light vinegar solution. By then my overflow (Quietflo 600 - $60) and a return pump (Quiet one 1200 - 300gph - $35 used) should both be in. I will also fill it with salt water and live rock and sand and test it with my little blue damsel to see if it’s safe.

 

Regarding price, baffles were cut out of one sheet of acrylic with lots to spare (32” x 36”= $25). I had Rona (similar to Lowes or Home Depot if you aren’t familiar with the chain) do the cuts as it was free and I didn’t have to worry about mistakes. A second tube of silicone was $4.50.

 

I'll post some pictures after it cures and I can clean up some of the silicone on the glass.

[Drez]

Scraped off some of the excess silicone on the glass and rubbed the excess off the acrylic. The silicone is still off gassing a fair bit. Touched up a few seals that I though had any chance of leaking. Also rubbed a little bit of silicone across the top edge to both protect it some and keep the sharp edge from cutting as easily.

 

 

[stoney waters]

I can almost smell the fresh silicone.

[yardboy]

Looks good. I hope it works as you want it to.

Nice plant!

[Drez]

Update:

 

Looks like its finished curing. It's holding water now for 24 hours without leaks. The baffles though are not watertight between each other. Not all that surprised as it was hard to get my hands in the small space. We'll see if this matters during operation. I will likely test by hooking up the return to the first chamber to see if the baffles will each maintain their independent water levels. It will depend likely on how slow the leaks are between chambers, it's slow enough that you can't see it happening at any rate.

[Drez]

Update:

 

Tank is holding water fine. Added ~3 inches of lightly used but washed sand to refugium chamber. Added some formerly live rock. Filled with mixed salt water and seeded the sand with some from my display. Using the return pump to pump water from the 3rd chamber into the first until it's hooked up to the display.

 

Next is to add a piece of live rock fromt he display to help seed the sump and add a damsel to ensure its safe. Planning on leaving it like this for 1-2 weeks. Hoping that should be enough.