Rift-Reef Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 Here are a few renderings of my soon to be newest tank. It's going to be an AGA 20g long (already have it). With a 15 or 20 high for a sump (haven't decided yet). I'll be going with a CSS 65 skimmer that I already have. I want to drill for the drains and return/s for the sump and a closed loop (possibly with SCWD). I'm planning on keeping some SPS, LPS and Softies. I'm planning on fitting 2 2x24w T5HO retro's into the custom hood. The stand will be framed with 2x2"s or 2x4"s. Skinned in birch plywood and trimmed with birch dimensional lumber. I'll leave it natural and finish it with a satin or gloss polyurethane. I have about two weeks to get a shopping list hashed out so I can make a trip to buy the pumps, plumbing and other misc items I'll need. I'm looking for some feedback on how I should drill and plumb the sump. I'll have about 5-6" behind the tank to hide plumbing. I'm lookin to have as clean a tank as I possibly can. So fellow reefers, what would you do??????? Thanks, Rift-Reef Link to comment
aquakevem Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 should have made my stand like that good luck Link to comment
Ryan_H Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 i would build the stand 36" tall and put a 29 gallon as a refugium under the tank if you want clean and good turnover for your sps, drill 2 holes in the back of the tank: one hole for a 1" bulkhead on one end and one hole for a 3/4" bulkhead on the other end. use a 90 degree elbow as a surface skimmer with a bioball in the top to prevent anyone from going down it and an external durso overflow for silence and efficiency. on the 1" bulkhead and attach a spraybar with holes drilled every 3", alternating between pointing down the back of the tank and pointing at the front bottom corner of your tank (about a 45 degree angle) with a mag drive 7 return pump. this will give you 30x turnover spread evenly over the whole tank, focusing the strength of the current behind and over your rock. this will eliminate dead spots and detritus buildup behind your rock by carrying all debris to the front, up the glass and into the drain, as well as creating a current that will pick up your soft corals from beneath instead of batter them from the side, so the strength of the current will not be too rough on them. you will need no powerheads and can even spray paint the bulkheads and needed pvc to match the back ground of your tank. Link to comment
fishnfst Posted February 25, 2007 Share Posted February 25, 2007 i would build the stand 36" tall and put a 29 gallon as a refugium under the tank if you want clean and good turnover for your sps, drill 2 holes in the back of the tank: one hole for a 1" bulkhead on one end and one hole for a 3/4" bulkhead on the other end. use a 90 degree elbow as a surface skimmer with a bioball in the top to prevent anyone from going down it and an external durso overflow for silence and efficiency. on the 1" bulkhead and attach a spraybar with holes drilled every 3", alternating between pointing down the back of the tank and pointing at the front bottom corner of your tank (about a 45 degree angle) with a mag drive 7 return pump. this will give you 30x turnover spread evenly over the whole tank, focusing the strength of the current behind and over your rock. this will eliminate dead spots and detritus buildup behind your rock by carrying all debris to the front, up the glass and into the drain, as well as creating a current that will pick up your soft corals from beneath instead of batter them from the side, so the strength of the current will not be too rough on them. you will need no powerheads and can even spray paint the bulkheads and needed pvc to match the back ground of your tank. Great ideas.. I'd do exactly what he said... There are a few things though that might not workout for you.. If you were going to drill anyway and you didn't want to go with the larger sump I'd probably go with a smaller return pump.. YOu are going to need a huge singel bulkhead especially if you are going to block it with a bioball for your drain with a mag 7.. A single 1" bulkhead will barely keep up with a mag 3 gph return.. With the mag 7 there is no way, you'll be fighting trying to keep the tank from overflowing all the time.. If you were going to bottom drill it then build an overflow box with teeth for it it will handle slightly more flow closer to 600gph but not with the bioball in it... I'd go with a mag 3-5 for your return pump to extend the contact duration of water in your sump for the skimmer and contact with your macro algae in your fuge.. Using your return pump to try and get tons of flow is not always the best option.. Drill the tank for a closed loop 3/4" bhs for the returns off the closed loop and a single 1 or 1.5" bulkhead for the intake depending on how big of a mag you wanted to run externally. With 5-6" behind your tank that will leave you plenty of room to set the mag on the stand behind the tank and plumb a sqwd in for alternating current to the 2 3/4" bulkheads.. Check out Mel's site. He has tons of good sump and tank setup info.... http://www.melevsreef.com/allmysumps.html Link to comment
Rift-Reef Posted February 25, 2007 Author Share Posted February 25, 2007 That's exactly why I want to go with the closed loop. I think a Mag 7 would be way to much flow through the sump as well. I was thinking a Mag 3 for the sump. And I'll probably buy a little better pump for the closed loop. Something in the 600-800gph range. I guess I could go with an overflow, but wouldn't it be best to have two for safety's sake? I read about another method where you just place a ball valve on the drain to the sump to match the flow of you return pump. Then you'd have a standpipe on your second drain for safety, to prefent your display from overflowing. Link to comment
Rift-Reef Posted February 26, 2007 Author Share Posted February 26, 2007 I'm going to go with a 20gal high for my sump. I'll be placing the fuge and skimmer at opposite ends with the return chamber in the middle. I'll put a T on the drain from the tank with a valve to cend 25% to the fuge and 75% to the skimmer chamber. The fuge will drain into the return section through a 12" or so divider with teeth. And the skimmer section will flow to the fuge via a 10" high bubble trap with the center divider 1" from the bottom of the tank. Link to comment
Ryan_H Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 a 1" hole will pull 600 gph, especially if you run the drain line straight down into the sump with no obstruction, and after head pressure loss the mag7 will push between 450-600 gph, especially when spread out over a 2 foot spraybar. that's definitely not too much flow for a smaller sump if it's constructed properly either. i've got a mag 7 in a aga model 1 sump (about the equivalent to a 10 gallon tank) and it has no problems whatsoever feeding from a 1" hole. in fact, we want to put a bigger pump on it. my manager's personal tank, a standard aga 125 with corner overflows that supposedly only handle 600 gph each, has two small sumps with two mag 12's running it without a hickup and a mag 18 on a 75. if your drain flows straight down and is properly constructed, you can pull a ton of water through it. yes, an overflow box would be an improvement, however, although in my experience not entirely necessary. but i would definitely go with a powerful pump, even if you feel you need to increase your drain size, just to eliminate the need for powerheads and other clutter in the tank. Link to comment
Bobalouy Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 I like the look, Kind of what I was going for, only topless. There is a great post in Tigahboys thread about Drain size. A 1" drain can defiantly handle 600gph. But there are a few variables, and noise can be an issue. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...st&p=627657 Link to comment
Rift-Reef Posted February 26, 2007 Author Share Posted February 26, 2007 I like the look, Kind of what I was going for, only topless. There is a great post in Tigahboys thread about Drain size. A 1" drain can defiantly handle 600gph. But there are a few variables, and noise can be an issue. http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...st&p=627657 Thanks. I'm trying to keep a very modern look to fit with the rest of my home. I was actually reading that very thread last night and earlier today, trying to decide how to plumb this thing. Link to comment
Ryan_H Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 so put a 1" bulkhead 4" deep ... or just a 1.5" bulkhead a little higher. Link to comment
hammer294 Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 looks like you got everything planned about rihgt. I would stay away from the mag pumps if your looking for as quiet a setup as possible. I have a 20H w/ 10g sump and had to change out my mags b/c of the noise. I went with the Eheim 1250 throught the sump and the oceanrunner 3500 through the scwd. working great and very quiet now. You can check out the link to my setup if you would like. You actually have a very similar setup to what I have.n Good luck and I will be following when you get everything up and running. Link to comment
Rift-Reef Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 Hey Chris, Your post was my final inspiration for my setup. I saw it a few weeks back and decided that I wanted to give the whole sump/plumbing thing a try. Thanks for the heads-up on the pumps, I've actually been thinking about going with two Ehiems. I see that you have your return t'd off and then a line running back into the sump with a valve. Are you running the Eheim wide open or do you have some flow diverted back into the sump? How hard was it to dremel out the teeth on the back of your tank? Rift-Reef looks like you got everything planned about rihgt. I would stay away from the mag pumps if your looking for as quiet a setup as possible. I have a 20H w/ 10g sump and had to change out my mags b/c of the noise. I went with the Eheim 1250 throught the sump and the oceanrunner 3500 through the scwd. working great and very quiet now. You can check out the link to my setup if you would like. You actually have a very similar setup to what I have.n Good luck and I will be following when you get everything up and running. Link to comment
hammer294 Posted February 28, 2007 Share Posted February 28, 2007 Hey Chris, Your post was my final inspiration for my setup. I saw it a few weeks back and decided that I wanted to give the whole sump/plumbing thing a try. Thanks for the heads-up on the pumps, I've actually been thinking about going with two Ehiems. I see that you have your return t'd off and then a line running back into the sump with a valve. Are you running the Eheim wide open or do you have some flow diverted back into the sump? How hard was it to dremel out the teeth on the back of your tank? Rift-Reef Thats awesome to hear.... Glad my post could help and i certainly didnt get all those ideas myself as many i picked up from other setups i saw while researching. As for the plumbing pictures you see in the begining of my post, they have all changed. When I changed my pumps out, I also changed my plumbing. I drilled my sump and the return pump is run through that. I also no longer have the return line t'd off as my new pump, eheim 1250, gives me the perfect turnover rate i was looking for after head loss. i will get some pictures posted up on my thread later today of my new setup if you want to look at that. It was not hard to dremel out the teeth on the back of the tank. But that setup has changed for me as well. the reason being, is that i researched many people using krylon fusion spray painted on the back of the tank first and then glueing/siliconin the external overflow box to the back of the tank with now problems. Unfortunatly i ran into a problem. Water got under the silicone and slowly worked its way around. this pulled the paint/overflow box away form the back of the tank and made it very unsitely from the front of the tank. So i bought a new 20H and put acrylic on the inside of the tank with teeth drilled. This allowed for a true bond with the overflow box and the back of the tank when i siliconed it. But, like i said, i wil post pictures to show you what i did and i will dig up a thread to show you pictures of what that thread did and how i incorporated it. Hope that helps and sorry for the lengthy description. Link to comment
Ryan_H Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 looks like you got everything planned about rihgt. I would stay away from the mag pumps if your looking for as quiet a setup as possible. I have a 20H w/ 10g sump and had to change out my mags b/c of the noise. I went with the Eheim 1250 throught the sump and the oceanrunner 3500 through the scwd. working great and very quiet now. You can check out the link to my setup if you would like. You actually have a very similar setup to what I have.n Good luck and I will be following when you get everything up and running. i have mags on several tanks at work and i NEVER have noise problems unless there is something stuck in the impeller. they are, imho, just about the best pump on the market. they're durable, idiot proof, have a great warranty, easy and cheap to repair, have very low head pressure loss, can be mounted externally or internally, and many other reasons. they're just an awesome pump. plus the metal housing prevents poisoning the tank in case of overheating or pump blowout--the impeller just stops spinning instead of the motor melting through the housing and releasing toxins into the tank. Link to comment
Rift-Reef Posted March 3, 2007 Author Share Posted March 3, 2007 I got wood!!!!! I think I'm going to buy a couple more 2x4's tomorrow and extend the legs to 36" I'm going to try something different with the doors too. I'll have trim covering the top 2x4 and black plastic on the tank bottom. On the bottom of that trim board I'm going to install a track, so that my doors will slide open. I'll probably have a track on top of the bottom trim board as well. Link to comment
sdwarrior Posted March 3, 2007 Share Posted March 3, 2007 nice t.v I was thinking the same thing, I think I have the same tv is it a samsung because I have a 32" in my room Link to comment
Rift-Reef Posted March 3, 2007 Author Share Posted March 3, 2007 Yep, it's a Samsung LN-S3241D, I love it. Link to comment
Ryan_H Posted March 4, 2007 Share Posted March 4, 2007 i would put the legs of the stand flush with the top and bottom frame, so the frame is resting ON the legs. it will actually be stronger AND give you more room in the bottom, plus allow you to attatch the plywood flush to the frame for more strenght and stability. Link to comment
Rift-Reef Posted March 4, 2007 Author Share Posted March 4, 2007 I built it from the garf instructions. The top piece of plywood sits directly on the frame and legs. The frame and legs are level at the same height. As for the side plywood, It's merely decorative. Link to comment
Rift-Reef Posted March 5, 2007 Author Share Posted March 5, 2007 Here are a couple of new pics of the stand. Link to comment
Rift-Reef Posted March 6, 2007 Author Share Posted March 6, 2007 Here's my daily update. I got the top and bottom trim cut and installed. I'll be placing 2x4's into both front corners as additional support for the 1/4" plywood covering on the sides. Link to comment
Ryan_H Posted March 6, 2007 Share Posted March 6, 2007 garf sucks @$$ but the stand still looks good can't wait to see it stocked! Link to comment
Rift-Reef Posted March 11, 2007 Author Share Posted March 11, 2007 Got the bottom part of the stand pretty much finished this weekend. I ordered my pumps on friday. I got a mag 5 for the sump and Im going to try a GEN-XPC30 for the closed loop. It was on sale a Premium aqautics. If it's too loud I'll probably go with an Eheim. I'll be placing an order for my bulkheads and some locline stuff this evening. I also need to buy some black acrylic for my overflow. Here are the latest pics. Link to comment
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