A Reefaholic's 1000+ Gallon Mixed Reef System Build

[Dustin1300]

Thanks Dustin, but its only when I get colors like the echinata in your avatar, will I be truly happy

When you getting the Radions? I'm sure you'll love them! Maybe when I upgrade in a couple years......

Once I get water in the system and it is ready for coral!

 

[Dustin1300]

tagging along for the ride!

Glad to have you.

Been a super busy week at work and is kickoff week so is rather busy and don't have any free time to allocate to the sump

 

[lhemphill]

Thanks for following along and happy new year to all! :celeb1:

I'll get the sump routed today but still throwing around ideas with the filter socks.

I've honestly never used filter socks in a setup and realize that they need to be changed frequently to prevent nitrate problems and fine with dealing with that. I originally was going to just bring out the bracing on the top and put holes in for filter sock but no longer like that idea! If anyone has any ideas let me know as I'm going to start a thread in DIY section getting some advice

Can you post a link to your thread about sumps? I am looking for different designs for sumps as well. I also was going to have cut holes for the socks, but I am not sure I want them anymore.. From what I understand the sump design has a large impact on the overall system.

 

[Dustin1300]

Sorry I did not respond to this earlier but Page 7 you'll see my sump design and building of it. I'd recommend Melevs reef for a great reference on building your own and use google sketchup for the design.

Sump thread did not go much of anywhere and I've been really busy with work lately. I'll likely figure out the design of the sump this weekend so I can finish routing it and then figuring out where I want to put float switches, filter sock holders, and so forth.

 

[david00061]

I'd say the Radions because of the spread, easy upgrade to clusters in future, and most of all the endless control you have of the fixtures. Like I said, I'll be running them as a trial on my frag tank so I'll have a better idea of my opinion once I test it out

you going to love them

 

[Dustin1300]

SLOW lately

SLOW lately

I know I've not updated thread in a couple weeks. Life has been in the way of making progress on the tank lately and I'm this week I should be able to start working on it again throughout the week!

Yesterday I did some looking around for a good sized tank for Mangrove Garden and MacroAlgae Fuges and can't find anything I'm really impressed with on dimensions. I think I might put these two things off and plan to add them in the near future and just build those out of acrylic but should be drastically cheaper than the sump.

Sump has been redesigned some as I originally planned on top bracing having holes for the filter sock but trying to always predict the unpredictable wondered what would happen if filter sock got clogged....It'd overflow to the floor! That being said I've redesigned as follows so I have room for two filter socks now and two more in the future.

[/IMG]

I tested sump for water yesterday and very, very little flex to the acrylic and nothing leaked! :bounce3: Once I put the filter sock holder in place I'll put the sump in its final resting place and get plumbing ordered next week/weekend so I can start with that project.

 

[Dustin1300]

Plumbing is all ordered and sump just needs to be drilled once I get bukheads in with the large order. Too bad I can't spend the $1500 from plumbing on something else but nobody said these projects were cheap, just wish I could have disguised that bill to the wife as something a little more interesting!

Some of it was on backorder so hopefully I get most this week and and can start chugging away on what will be a monstrous plumbing job for myself....

 

[SPotter]

Plumbing is all ordered and sump just needs to be drilled once I get bukheads in with the large order. Too bad I can't spend the $1500 from plumbing on something else but nobody said these projects were cheap, just wish I could have disguised that bill to the wife as something a little more interesting!

Some of it was on backorder so hopefully I get most this week and and can start chugging away on what will be a monstrous plumbing job for myself....

The boys over at premium aquatics should send us the receipts in a write-able adobe file so we can make adjustments as needed for our wives.

Steve

 

[Dustin1300]

Agreed

I really might have to do this when I make a larger order of Radions and Vortechs

 

[SPotter]

Keep your eyes open on the for sale forum....seeing radions popping up.

Steve

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

I've followed along yours too but just stalked I guess What method did you use on the sump? I'm going with the pin method and using .18 mm acupuncture needles to put the panels on with weld on #4. Wife is dropping by the plastic shop to pick them up in the morning! Now I've just got to wait on the needles/weld-on to get here!

That's what I used and I followed up with Weldon 16 as a secondary sealant. Sorry I am late responding.

 

[Dustin1300]

No problem, it's the busy time of year and glad things are settling back down so I can do what I enjoy most! Being a reefaholic I went with the same method and used Weldon # 4 and did a water test and found no leaks. After that I went ahead and added a bead of Weld-On # 16 around all the edges to ensure it is good for the future. Since it is a sump the aestethics did not matter as much as if I was building a tank.

In the near future I'll be building a fuge/mangrove garden as well as QT frag tank so I'll be getting a fair share of practice!

 

[WaVe RiDeR]

Today I picked up a Blueline 100 HD External Pump, 75 Gallon Reef Ready Tank, Oceans Motions 8 way (Needs repaired and picked up cheap, rolling the dice...), and Vertex Puratek Deluxe 100 GPD to replace my more inefficient RO/DI unit previously used. Also picked up a sump half built with four sides and a bottom, 41"X26"X20.25". I'm going to try to come up with a better idea of what I'm going to do this week now that I have more of the components coming together in the puzzle!

***SRO 3000 in pic I've had since after they shortly came out!

Sump:

glass looks kinda think on the sump? no bracing? and is that tank diy?

 

[Dustin1300]

Not sure if you're speaking english based on your grammar/punctuation but that sump is gone and in the trash. I've built an acrylic sump so take a look at the thread and not just the first picture. I'll post a pic of the sump and where it stands right now. It's ready to be drilled for bulkheads/filter socks once they come in

 

[Curl58]

The boys over at premium aquatics should send us the receipts in a write-able adobe file so we can make adjustments as needed for our wives.

Steve

I agree. This should be across the board for this hobby.

 

[Dustin1300]

I agree. This should be across the board for this hobby.

Only problem with that is a joint checking account and the wife keeping eye on finances I've got my quarterly bonus coming up so that will be time I'm exempt and allowed to make purchases as I please....So I think that list will include 2 X MP40s and 2 Radions to start it off

 

[Dustin1300]

Wife said I have four packages waiting for me at home Is it 5 o'clock yet?

 

[Dustin1300]

$$$Plumbing$$$

$$$Plumbing$$$

As promised earlier I'd get a picture of the sump and how it stands today. Once I have the bulkheads I'll be drilling for those and then can run the plumbing and then find height I want to put float switches, probes, and holes for filter socks. Below is pic of it in its final resting place and the SRO 3000 looks really small and lonely in there!

As you can see I built a two tier stand for the ReeFlos that will run side by side going from 1.5" outlets to 2" outlets that feeds the frag tank, manifold, and DT in the future. Should the DT need more flow I can always adjust and buy larger ReeFlos or add a third to the mix.

 

[Dustin1300]

$$$Plumbing$$$ Cont'd

$$$Plumbing$$$ Cont'd

Now comes the fun part? Plumbing! I got a little over half of the plumbing supplies needed today. PA had the bulkheads backordered so I had them hold off on shipping it until they come in so I'll have valves, bulkheads, and a few other goodies from them Friday. I've still got 10% of the plumbing on backorder with BRS but they are expecting the plumbing to be in late this week/early next week but I'll have enough plumbing work to do once I get supplies from PA Friday.

Enough RAMBLING, here's some pics of plumbing that came in. Pipes ranging from 3/4", 1", 1.5", and 2":

Here you can see my tiered stand is full of fittings from the order:

Left side closeup:

Right side closeup:

 

[david00061]

That's a lot plumbing