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Where I've been and where I want to go.

 

I'm not sure why I decided to write this, perhaps as a way to look back on my eager plans to build my dream system and review my thought process and look back at this experience as a way to some how grow from it.

 

I will leave a TLDR down at the bottom, if this gets too long.

 

After the years of learning from the great people here and my own personal research it seemed to pay off. I was graciously awarded a monthly tank profile, which was a surprise as my  65 gallon aquarium, was the largest to win the award. I never expected and I will be forever grateful for even being in consideration. This however elevated my standards of reefing. I expected a lot of myself, my knowledge, my diligence, and dedication to the hobby. It was challenging. Being 1000 miles away from something very close to me was hard. I found my reef as an outlet emotionally, physically, and cognitively. It was a way to dive head first into something that kept on giving. the sights of happy fish and coral was amazing, and the general maintenance that some people think as tedious was a way to just forget about the stress of school and running.

 

Then the crash happened and I felt hopeless. No one is to blame, my two largest coral colonies collided and the aftermath nuked everything. The pictures of the reef following the crash haunt me. Everything I put into the reef was gone. Poof. I look back at old pictures of my aquarium from 2016-2017 and I'm not filled with happiness anymore, I'm filled with disappointment. I gave up. I gave in. My frequency of posts dropped to nearly 0. I didn't come to this site as eagerly anymore in fear of people seeing me and my aquarium as a failure. I was full of contempt for the hobby, and do a degree I still am. What if I fail again?

 

I had surgery, finished school, found a good paying job and I'm at this cross roads. Do I throw myself back into this hobby that I know can help my emotional health when everything goes right? Do I throw myself back into a hobby that I know can hurt me if it fails? I'm here to tell you that I am coming back. This community is special, the people I've met because of this site will always be special to me thanks to their support during the good and horrible times (You know who you are).

 

TLDR: I'm back.

 

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8 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

Where I've been and where I want to go.

 

I'm not sure why I decided to write this, perhaps as a way to look back on my eager plans to build my dream system and review my thought process and look back at this experience as a way to some how grow from it.

 

I will leave a TLDR down at the bottom, if this gets too long.

 

After the years of learning from the great people here and my own personal research it seemed to pay off. I was graciously awarded a monthly tank profile, which was a surprise as my  65 gallon aquarium, was the largest to win the award. I never expected and I will be forever grateful for even being in consideration. This however elevated my standards of reefing. I expected a lot of myself, my knowledge, my diligence, and dedication to the hobby. It was challenging. Being 1000 miles away from something very close to me was hard. I found my reef as an outlet emotionally, physically, and cognitively. It was a way to dive head first into something that kept on giving. the sights of happy fish and coral was amazing, and the general maintenance that some people think as tedious was a way to just forget about the stress of school and running.

 

Then the crash happened and I felt hopeless. No one is to blame, my two largest coral colonies collided and the aftermath nuked everything. The pictures of the reef following the crash haunt me. Everything I put into the reef was gone. Poof. I look back at old pictures of my aquarium from 2016-2017 and I'm not filled with happiness anymore, I'm filled with disappointment. I gave up. I gave in. My frequency of posts dropped to nearly 0. I didn't come to this site as eagerly anymore in fear of people seeing me and my aquarium as a failure. I was full of contempt for the hobby, and do a degree I still am. What if I fail again?

 

I had surgery, finished school, found a good paying job and I'm at this cross roads. Do I throw myself back into this hobby that I know can help my emotional health when everything goes right? Do I throw myself back into a hobby that I know can hurt me if it fails? I'm here to tell you that I am coming back. This community is special, the people I've met because of this site will always be special to me thanks to their support during the good and horrible times (You know who you are).

 

TLDR: I'm back.

 

It only took you 3 years since starting this thread.  welcome back, I’ll keep my expectations low.  😄

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My dilemma:

 

I love the peninsula from red sea but it would limit my ability to plumb in a frag tank due to it's stand alone nature and where I would put the aquarium.

 

I've been leaning towards the IM EXT 75G or 100G and it would allow me to place the tank against the furnace/storage room, which would allow me 1) chose my own sump 2) plumb in a frag tank, and 3) hide my.... everything in the furnace room.

 

Thoughts?

 

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My dilemma continued:

 

I'm going the NUVO EXT 100G route I think with the sump behind the wall.

I plan on incorporating a 20-30G frag grow out tank, which means I would be dealing with 4-5 drain lines and 2 return lines.

Plumbing experts help meeeeee.

few sumps have >2 drain connections, how could I merge the 5 into 2?

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1 hour ago, TheKleinReef said:

My dilemma continued:

 

I'm going the NUVO EXT 100G route I think with the sump behind the wall.

I plan on incorporating a 20-30G frag grow out tank, which means I would be dealing with 4-5 drain lines and 2 return lines.

Plumbing experts help meeeeee.

few sumps have >2 drain connections, how could I merge the 5 into 2?

I’m far from a plumbing expert. But out of those 5, I’d imagine only two or three are “regular” and the rest being emergency?  Emergency drains won’t necessarily have to go thru filter socks. Newer sump designs are also doing away with pipe-in-sock approach, but rather flooding a drain chamber, that then overflow to the filter sock(s). So you could feasibly put multiple drains into that drain chamber. Hopefully that made sense. 

It comes down to your sump choices too in the end. 
 

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8 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

I’m far from a plumbing expert. But out of those 5, I’d imagine only two or three are “regular” and the rest being emergency?  Emergency drains won’t necessarily have to go thru filter socks. Newer sump designs are also doing away with pipe-in-sock approach, but rather flooding a drain chamber, that then overflow to the filter sock(s). So you could feasibly put multiple drains into that drain chamber. Hopefully that made sense. 

It comes down to your sump choices too in the end. 
 

It’s more of an aesthetic issue. I don’t want tubes in random places. 
my thought was having it set up for 3 drain lines that make it to the sump. 
display is a bean animal and the frag tank will likely be herbie: 

1. Display full siphon 

2. Frag full siphon 

3. Display secondary and emergency + frag tank emergency. 
 

could this work? 

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6 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

my thought was having it set up for 3 drain lines that make it to the sump.

What happened to the other two? 
 

oh, I think I get it now. You’re gonna try to manifold the secondary and emergency lines so they get to the sump as one pipe?

 


 

 

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55 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

What happened to the other two? 
 

oh, I think I get it now. You’re gonna try to manifold the secondary and emergency lines so they get to the sump as one pipe?

 


 

 

Yes. The two full siphons will have dedicated lines to the sump while all of the secondary pipes merge into one before entering the sump. 

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8 hours ago, TheKleinReef said:

Yes. The two full siphons will have dedicated lines to the sump while all of the secondary pipes merge into one before entering the sump. 

I’d think the only time there might be an issue is when all 3 lines (secondary and emergency) are needed at once, which is extremely unlikely. 
 

@StinkyBunny and @spectra, what do you guys think?  You’re only two I can think of that have multiple large tanks that aren’t standard packages.  

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Should work........but yes if all pipes are needed at once there may be issues.........I know on my 100 when the emergency drain was used it was just a trickle if that. I have my RS set up so the emergency drain drips a little otherwise the return makes noise........a known issue with them I guess........not a big fan of there plumbing..........

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1 hour ago, mitten_reef said:

I’d think the only time there might be an issue is when all 3 lines (secondary and emergency) are needed at once, which is extremely unlikely. 
 

@StinkyBunny and @spectra, what do you guys think?  You’re only two I can think of that have multiple large tanks that aren’t standard packages.  

I didn’t even think of that. Maybe I’ll just have to manage 5 drain lines 😶

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Dilemma 3. 
I don’t have any sort of drain in the basement.... ugh I didn’t even think about this. I don’t know where to run the rodi waste line and the water change waste line... I might have to pump it up to the main level to enter the drain system but that seems iffy. 

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1 hour ago, TheKleinReef said:

Dilemma 3. 
I don’t have any sort of drain in the basement.... ugh I didn’t even think about this. I don’t know where to run the rodi waste line and the water change waste line... I might have to pump it up to the main level to enter the drain system but that seems iffy. 

Well it all depends on how much you want to spend..................

 

Not sure where the RO unit is going but any way to have it above and drop into the tank ? Say main level of house ?

 

 

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I really don’t want to add in a lift pump system but honestly I might have to... 

 

I could easily have the rodi be upstairs and run the line to the basement that could work but for waste sw I may need to do a lift pump. Sigh 

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4 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

I really don’t want to add in a lift pump system but honestly I might have to... 

Ok so whats in the basement now ?  Also like I said anyway to put the RO on the main floor where a drain is and plumb to tank ?

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Guys. I’m having second thoughts. NUVO ext 100 vs reefer peninsula 100. 
 

halp me decide 

I really want a space to grow out and observe corals. Having a sump behind a wall could offer me that option. The peninsula would go in a space away from the utility room. 
 

 

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How far away ?

 

LFS has one set up and doesnt use the RS sump........plumbing all goes out the back and into a stock tank as its part of a 750 gallon system..........

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50 minutes ago, mitten_reef said:

if $$ wasn’t an object, then Reefer system got my vote. You should be able to convert a section of the sump into a frag grow-out.  

I thought about this but it seems small. Really small. On second thought I’m debating on having a total separate frag system cause if there’s any pests they’d be better managed in that versus in the entire display. 

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21 minutes ago, spectra said:

How far away ?

 

LFS has one set up and doesnt use the RS sump........plumbing all goes out the back and into a stock tank as its part of a 750 gallon system..........

The back wall would be against the outer wall so it’d be impossible to run the plumbing without ripping my recently renovated basement apart lol 

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6 minutes ago, TheKleinReef said:

The back wall would be against the outer wall so it’d be impossible to run the plumbing without ripping my recently renovated basement apart lol 

Wait.............recently renovated..........and you didnt think of a tank...........

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  • TheKleinReef changed the title to Roger's SPS 75G - NEW FTS PG 36

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