Drift Monkey's ADA 60-P (Rebooted!)

[JayPagi]

What is the purpose of the return line after the heater?

[Drift Monkey]

Generally you would want the drain water hitting the skimmer first to take the bulk of the junk out of the water, then use the fuge to clear it up. Your fuge will get quite dirty and need more maintenance in the current orientation.

 

Makes sense. Any ideas how to get around the water level issue?

 

Looks sweet. Following for sure!

 

Thanks!

 

What is the purpose of the return line after the heater?

 

Flow control is the main idea there. Its other use would be to serve as a way to do quick water changes by using the return pump to pump the sump water out quickly into a bucket.

[JayPagi]

Flow control is the main idea there. Its other use would be to serve as a way to do quick water changes by using the return pump to pump the sump water out quickly into a bucket.

 

That's a great idea.

[FishBrawler]

Reasoning?

Plus skimmer micro bubbles have more time to pop!

[Drift Monkey]

Plus skimmer micro bubbles have more time to pop!

 

I would think they would pop before then.

 

Here's another sump plan I made...

 

[JR!]

I would think they would pop before then.

 

Here's another sump plan I made...

 

very good idea imo. friend had his just like that and it worked awesome

[Drift Monkey]

Trying to get a feel for how much room to leave in a skimmer chamber in general though. How big do skimmers for this size sump even get?

[RollaJase]

Makes sense. Any ideas how to get around the water level issue?

The skimmer chamber will most likely be the same water level as the fuge so just raise the water level in the skimmer chamber which will in turn also raise the fuge, if the skimmer will sit in too much water place it on an egg crate stand.

[Chadf]

Trying to get a feel for how much room to leave in a skimmer chamber in general though. How big do skimmers for this size sump even get?

Pick out a skimmer and design around it.

 

There is no point in having the bubble trap right after the drain, it should be after the skimmer before the return pump.

[Drift Monkey]

The skimmer chamber will most likely be the same water level as the fuge so just raise the water level in the skimmer chamber which will in turn also raise the fuge, if the skimmer will sit in too much water place it on an egg crate stand.

 

Not most likely, it WILL be the same level if i switch the fuge and skimmer chambers around in design 1.That was the plan anyway, but it's not that practical as having ther other way round. Plus, I have limited vertical space. Plan 2 might be better for skimming purposes.

 

Pick out a skimmer and design around it.

 

There is no point in having the bubble trap right after the drain, it should be after the skimmer before the return pump.

 

Yeah...see the problem with that is that my original plan is to run skimmerless off the bat. The skimmer chamber is for future considerations so I don't have any clue about them.

 

As for the bubble trap....the drain outlet in the sump does cause bubbles so the trap isn't exactly useless. There seems to be some debate over this though...

[Chadf]

 

Not most likely, it WILL be the same level if i switch the fuge and skimmer chambers around in design 1.That was the plan anyway, but it's not that practical. Plus, I have limited vertical space. Plan 2 might be better for skimming purposes.

 

 

 

Yeah...see the problem with that is that my original plan is to run skimmerless off the bat. The skimmer chamber is for future considerations so I don't have any clue about them.

 

As for the bubble trap....the drain outlet in the sump does cause bubbles so the trap isn't exactly useless. There seems to be some debate over this though...

Actually, if you run a skimmer it is useless. Why trap bubbles from your drain only for your skimmer to make more, and then not trap them. The trap should be after the skimmer.

[Drift Monkey]

Actually, if you run a skimmer it is useless. Why trap bubbles from your drain only for your skimmer to make more, and then not trap them. The trap should be after the skimmer.

True enough, but this would be an easy design element to change. I'm more confused about picking a skimmer. That's a whole different ball game.

 

I may just run this particular sump as a huge fuge and just build another if I feel skimming is really necessary.

[Drift Monkey]

Got a couple small things in the mail today!

 

 

A thermometer for the sump, and those N52 neodymium epoxy coated magnets. These suckers are STRONG, maybe too strong. I can hardly pull 'em apart!

 

 

Test mounted the brackets with the magnets. They work like a charm, really strong hold!

 

 

As for a possible skimmer, I'm thinking this one (SCA-301). Thoughts? It'd about 4.25" L x 7" W x 17" H, so It shouldn't take up too much room. Trying to figure out the optimal water level for it right now...

[Drift Monkey]

So, I've taken the time to revise my sump plans. Here are the 2 designs:

 

We'll call this Sump A. This build would be significantly easier, cheaper, and yield a slightly bigger fuge area (3.81g).

We'll call this Sump B. This build would be more complex (and cost a little bit more in glass), but would yield a more controllable (slower) flow through the fuge area.

 

I've changed the poll to reflect these plans.

 

I'll be honest, I'm leaning towards Sump A...

 

[supermarvin76]

Vote as been cast for sump B. I think this will allow for enetered over all control, and I like how you moved the baffles in the skimmer section from your or infill sump B design.

[Drift Monkey]

Vote as been cast for sump B. I think this will allow for enetered over all control, and I like how you moved the baffles in the skimmer section from your or infill sump B design.

 

Yeah I figured the baffles might make more sense there...it'd do double duty filtering out bubbles.

 

Sump A allows for a little more room with the exclusion of a bubble trap because the fuge area itself will act as a bubble trap. I haven't calculated how much water would return down into the sump in case of a power outage, but either sump's return baffle could be lowered to accommodate this.

 

 

Does anyone know if the return baffle has to be lower than the previous baffle in place in order for an ATO to work properly?

[Drift Monkey]

So I took the time to baffle up the sump this weekend. Ended up using acrylic pieces since that was the thickest material they had. It was scap, so it was cheap...but they only had a little bit of the thick stuff left, so I ended up going with Sump A's baffling. A width of 9 5/8" fit perfectly.

 

I revised the dimensions from that diagram a bit, the return chamber is 4.5" x 10" x 8" high, the refugium is 10" x 10" 8", and the skimmer chamber is 5.5" x 10" x 9.5".

 

I'm planning on using the SCA-301, and it seems like most run it between 8"-10" deep, so I cut the skimmer baffle to 9.5" high, which should work just about right. The other baffle is 8" high which should allow enough room for water to drain back into the sump when the pump is turned off.

 

 

Here's the sump all taped up and siliconed.

 

 

Here she is all done. I still need to let the silicone cure, so it's sitting on my balcony for a couple days before I do a leak test.

[Drift Monkey]

Next up is drilling the tank.

 

Hopefully a local reefer can help me with this sometime this week...

[BadCrab]

How did I miss this!? Looking great so far, like others have said: I love that stand! Fits that 60-P perfectly. For your MP10 it looks like the dryside has the cord running from the bottom - it's my understanding that it should be mounted so the cord is going straight up from the dry side (that's why they include those zip tie mounts.) It can then be routed back down towards the floor (along with your razor cord)

[Drift Monkey]

How did I miss this!? Looking great so far, like others have said: I love that stand! Fits that 60-P perfectly. For your MP10 it looks like the dryside has the cord running from the bottom - it's my understanding that it should be mounted so the cord is going straight up from the dry side (that's why they include those zip tie mounts.) It can then be routed back down towards the floor (along with your razor cord)

 

Thanks!

 

Yeah, the tab thing is there to catch the dry side in case it slips away from the wet side somehow. Right now if this somehow happened....the dry side would just drop down to my carpet ...it wouldn't swing back into my tank or anything. I might be able to attach that tab to the side of the stand something...I'll see. I need to look for that mounting tab in the box either way.

[Drift Monkey]

Gah, I hate being stuck at work today...a local reefer could be helping me drill the tank right now!

[kveekx]

The SCA 301 is a knock off of the Bubble Magus NAC3.5. I have the BM Nac3 and if the SCA preformes anything like mine it should be a good skimmer for you!

[Drift Monkey]

The SCA 301 is a knock off of the Bubble Magus NAC3.5. I have the BM Nac3 and if the SCA preformes anything like mine it should be a good skimmer for you!

 

Yeah, I did a bit of research on it after Zack (nanoreefer11) recommended it to me. Should work great for this setup!

[ptboy6]

looks great!!

[nanoreefer11]

very good idea imo. friend had his just like that and it worked awesome

 

Agreed. I like mine to flow from left to right but that's just a personal thing. Looks great man, you'll do well with a sump design like that.

 

Got a couple small things in the mail today!

 

 

A thermometer for the sump, and those N52 neodymium epoxy coated magnets. These suckers are STRONG, maybe too strong. I can hardly pull 'em apart!

 

 

Test mounted the brackets with the magnets. They work like a charm, really strong hold!

 

 

As for a possible skimmer, I'm thinking this one (SCA-301). Thoughts? It'd about 4.25" L x 7" W x 17" H, so It shouldn't take up too much room. Trying to figure out the optimal water level for it right now...

 

Dang dude, I take a few days off to mourn my tank losses and you fix your ATO, draw up 3 sump designs and baffle them!?? You work fast bro.