A Golden Reef Tank

[halmus]

In answer to your question about space and layout of the filter sock area, check out post #22 and the pictures of me building that sump. Before I covered it in white acrylic, you can see how it's layed out. Those are 7" filter socks to put things in perspective. The sump is 36" tall at the highest point, 24" wide, and 72" long. There is probably 8" of height above the socks.

As far as how the lines are routed coming back into the sump, having them halfway out of the water makes sense. However, I have some space requirements that mean the lines are going to have to go where they go. I don't want to raise them too much because I'm building an elevated platform over all the plumbing lines that run across the floor. It will hopefully make sense as things come together.

Thanks for the advice. I'll have to check out your build thread.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Man that is definitely how to do a build thread! Instead of tanking many months to years showing off things as they go in real time (because we all know real life sometimes puts a hold on our build schedules!) and having people screaming for updates every 5 minutes, getting threads so large they split before water hits the tank.

No sir, do not apologize for this, I appreciate these "quick" builds just as much if not more.

 

[chris o]

Fantastic build. Your acrylic work is fantastic. I am curious about how you skinned them in the ¼ in white acrylic. Did you glue the sheets to the sump and weld the corners or build it and set the sump inside?

Chris

 

[halmus]

SFSUPHYSICS - Glad to have you following. This whole build would have killed everyone if I had posted from day one. Woodwork took forever after the contractors completed taking forever after my wife and I got done taking forever to decide on the room layouts.......

Fantastic build. Your acrylic work is fantastic. I am curious about how you skinned them in the ¼ in white acrylic. Did you glue the sheets to the sump and weld the corners or build it and set the sump inside?

Chris

Thanks Chris. I built the clear acrylic sumps first as you normally would. In some cases, I was refurbishing and altering existing old tanks. In some cases building from scratch.

Then, I applied one piece of 1/4" white at a time with a LOT of clamps and blocking. I started at one end and clamped it loose, poured in the Weld-On 3, clamped a little bit higher, poured, clamped....repeat.

Once everything cured, I made acrylic snow with my router trimming that piece flush along all sides. Then, moved on to the next face. I repeated that process for every face I wanted to cover. Then, rounded over the corners so there would be fewer sharp edges exposed in the room. It was time consuming.

The sumps all ended up 3/4" thick with 1/2" clear and 1/4" white bonded together. It's overkill but there are so many potential failure points with the build that I wanted to be relatively certain no sump could ever possibly bust a seam. That's one less thing to worry about.

In hind site, I probably should have done things differently. I thought I would save money by refurbishing and reusing old tanks. Between time and materials, I probably should have built everything from scratch with 1/2" white acrylic. But, they're done and I'm happy.

 

[chris o]

Thanks for the info. I ask because I am in the middle of my 430 build and doing the custom sumps myself but yours look cleaner with the white overlay. Again love the build and look forward to more updates.

Chris

 

[ADVRESOURCE]

I looked at #23. Is there a gap to the right side of the filter sock assembly that allows water to flow downward in case the filter socks are clogged?

I recently had a sump acrylic seam failure. I have a 72" x 19" x 18" sump. Lots of baffles. 1/2" acrylic. Seemed to be glued well with a lot of support from the baffles. The sump was custom. I didn't have the nice top support you've installed on the lower section of the sump.

To repair, we added two additional acrylic pieces the height of the sump in the corners. I also added acrylic corner supports and long pieces from side to side of the sump on exterior of small panels.

My reef is spectacular with exceptional water quality. The sump issue was a very bad day. Not much loss except for some equipment that ran dry for a little while.

You may want to consider extra support before installation.

I also have purchased and installed the APEX Leak detection modules.

 

[OzATL]

Thank you for the compliments.

That's a good point to consider. I did leave a significant gap as a failsafe.

Looking down on that part of the sump, the far left section is where the water flows into from the tank's overflow. The water flows into the socks and the far right is a 2-3" gap. The filter sock tray is removable so I can service that section down inside.

The bulkheads are just staged because return lines from the reactors, skimmer, fuge, and frag tanks will be directed back into this first stage below the water line. I want all of the bubbles to have the opportunity to disperse a little before flowing through the bubble trap and return to the tank.

Fantastic build so far. Love the clean look and big fan of sched 80 (bias).

Will you have detritus or other larger particle build up in the first entry section of the sump or you think the amount of flow you'll have will keep things moving to the socks?

 

[tkeracer619]

Awesome build!

 

[halmus]

I looked at #23. Is there a gap to the right side of the filter sock assembly that allows water to flow downward in case the filter socks are clogged?

I recently had a sump acrylic seam failure. I have a 72" x 19" x 18" sump. Lots of baffles. 1/2" acrylic. Seemed to be glued well with a lot of support from the baffles. The sump was custom. I didn't have the nice top support you've installed on the lower section of the sump.

To repair, we added two additional acrylic pieces the height of the sump in the corners. I also added acrylic corner supports and long pieces from side to side of the sump on exterior of small panels.

My reef is spectacular with exceptional water quality. The sump issue was a very bad day. Not much loss except for some equipment that ran dry for a little while.

You may want to consider extra support before installation.

I also have purchased and installed the APEX Leak detection modules.

Thanks for the feedback. Water sensors are a part of the long term plan for sure. I'm a computer engineer, so you can expect some over-the-top automation.


I actually have already reinforced many of the seams inside and out on the main sump. I added an extra 1/2" layer to the entire bottom of all sumps in addition to the 1/2" acrylic of the main body. With 1/2" corner reinforcement on the inside, that brings it up to 1 1/2" thick acrylic in some spots. The white acrylic deliberately overlaps joints on the outside and I paid special attention to clamping the perimeter when I applied those and tried to get 100% coverage and bonding between the white and clear.

If I bust a joint on any of the sumps, I'm not sure what more I could have done.

 

[halmus]

Fantastic build so far. Love the clean look and big fan of sched 80 (bias).

Will you have detritus or other larger particle build up in the first entry section of the sump or you think the amount of flow you'll have will keep things moving to the socks?

Thanks for following OzATL. Your sch80 work is what convinced me to go the extra mile. Your filtration room is a work of art.

Edit: Yes, I'm sure I'll get some detritus build up there. But, there is no way around tank maintenance. It is just an engineering tradeoff I'm willing to make to get the filter socks where I want them and I couldn't think of a better way. That space is really easy to access periodic cleaning won't be an issue.

 

[halmus]

Awesome build!

Thank you. I'll be throwing a party once this tank is up and wet. I see a few Colorado folks on RC. You'll have to come over and check it out.

 

[tkeracer619]

Would love too come check it out. Thanks!

 

[VanJuKy]

This is going to be a good one. Looking forward to watching this grow! :thumbsup:

 

[chris o]

One thing I am adding to the sumps I am building is a 1/2 inch bulkhead with valve coming out of each compartment of the sump. They will be connected to a floor drain under my tank. That way I can drain and rinse out each compartment out when there is a build up. I was sick of rinsing and pumping when there is build up. Again your acrylic work looks great.

Chris

 

[halmus]

This is going to be a good one. Looking forward to watching this grow! :thumbsup:

Glad to have you following.

One thing I am adding to the sumps I am building is a 1/2 inch bulkhead with valve coming out of each compartment of the sump. They will be connected to a floor drain under my tank. That way I can drain and rinse out each compartment out when there is a build up. I was sick of rinsing and pumping when there is build up. Again your acrylic work looks great.

Chris

That was something I considered as well. I held off drilling more holes because the sump runs right along the floor drain in the room. It's easier to make the holes later than try to make holes go away when you realize you put them in the wrong spot. I will add them later if needed.

 

[halmus]

Here are a few pictures I took of my last tank before tearing it down in 2013 in preparation for the move to Colorado. It was a pretty standard 120 with a custom filtration system built into the closet behind. That was my first DIY project related to reefing. It's where I first used my woodworking skills on acrylic. The acrylic work was ugly but I learned a lot.

 

[ADVRESOURCE]

Very nice on the sump acrylic and on the SPS skills.

 

[OzATL]

Thanks for following OzATL. Your sch80 work is what convinced me to go the extra mile. Your filtration room is a work of art.

Edit: Yes, I'm sure I'll get some detritus build up there. But, there is no way around tank maintenance. It is just an engineering tradeoff I'm willing to make to get the filter socks where I want them and I couldn't think of a better way. That space is really easy to access periodic cleaning won't be an issue.

That's great to hear and motivation for me to complete my reboot. (sorry for the sched 80 wallet damage)

I bypassed the first section in my commercial sump for all tank drain lines but kept UV/skimmer/chiller hitting the first section. Kept sump volume but all detritus type drain water hits sock section first.

I have manifold feeds ready to plumb to the sump sections to monthly blow them out with valve turns. It's on the long list.

Again, great build and even better prior tank shots!



- via iPhone Tapatalk

 

[halmus]

Very nice on the sump acrylic and on the SPS skills.

Thanks.

I did a quick water test on the frag system on Monday. I wanted to check my plumbing before I got any further to make sure I don't have to rip out a months worth of work because my technique is off. (First time working with sch80). Plus, it was therapeutic to see water running.

I have a Vectra M1 hooked up to run that entire rack. First impressions of the Vectra is that I'm in love! It's spooky how quiet it is. It's plumbed in external. Once I get the plumbing drain valves tweaked correctly that system should be dead silent. I was only running the pump at 40% and I was getting more than enough flow through each tank. That pump will run both frag tanks, two MRC reactors, and the skimmer.

It's a single point of failure, but I'll have heaters and circ pumps in each frag tank so they will be fine for hours if not days if the main pump fails. I'll have plenty of time to swap out the pump if something happens. I'll have a spare pump on hand since I'm using that same model of pump in a few places with this build.

The other thing I learned is that I need to rethink the standpipes I made for the frag tanks. I am now planning on fabricating overflow boxes for each frag tank. I'll make those and glue them in place sometime soon. It's not a huge setback, it will just take up some real estate in the tanks I hadn't planned on.

Otherwise, the plumbing is working just fine.

 

[halmus]

That's great to hear and motivation for me to complete my reboot. (sorry for the sched 80 wallet damage)

I bypassed the first section in my commercial sump for all tank drain lines but kept UV/skimmer/chiller hitting the first section. Kept sump volume but all detritus type drain water hits sock section first.

I have manifold feeds ready to plumb to the sump sections to monthly blow them out with valve turns. It's on the long list.

Again, great build and even better prior tank shots!



- via iPhone Tapatalk

I'll have to give some thought to your idea of blowing out the sump sections monthly.

What exactly do you have in mind? Just turn a valve which increases the water flow so much the detritus is stirred up into the water column and moves on to be filtered out?

I have given some thought to trying to build an aquarium vacuum. Basically, plumb a long soft line into the feed side of a pump and have the output run through a canister filter and return the water via another soft line back where it came from. I know pumps generally don't like to "suck" as much as they like to "blow" but it seems like a do-able project. Maybe something like that already exists? I haven't done any significant research on it.