Atomikk's 65 Reef

[Phyxius]

Have a 65 gal here too. I did use a 20L for a sump that houses a CS6-1 ER, center refugium and a mag 9.5 for a return with a T feeding a chiller also that returns to the tank. The flow with a 9.5 is fine for me this way and may go with a 12 due to all the T`s. The way you have yours set up a 9.5 with a by pass will work great. I had a Mag 7 on it and with the head loss from it the return flow wasn`t as strong to the tank.

A 20L and Acrylic here in the US ran me about 60.00 total so it was pretty cheap I can post pics later if you want.
I also custom built a canopy to house 2- 250watt MH with actinic T5`s for supplement for pretty cheap also.

Also your stand with a 36" span should be fine with that stand. If it was a 90 I WOULD brace the center.

 

[Atomikk]

Thanks Mike.

I dont have the time (or room in my house/apt) to build a sump from scratch. If someone has a good tutorial on how to convert an old aquarium into a sump, by all means post the link here.

I was thinking of the easy way and spend the extra dough to get a decent sump..

what about something like this?
http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=17555&cat=395&page=1

 

[Phyxius]

That would work but if you put a fuge in their also in the future you would need a taller baffle in it. Using the HOB fuge you have now would be fine for it then.
Making your own takes up no more space than the kitchen table for a day. It makes it alot easier if you can have the baffles pre cut for you in glass or acrylic and then just glue them in place.

I made a 20H first but needed more room for my skimmer. I made it to fit a smaller skimmer and then bought a larger skimmer . The 20L was the second one I did and its pretty easy and will save you lots in the process. You could put the extra money into lights or etc.. Just make sure you plan ahead for the future and it will save you $$$ in the process. Here is a site that may help with questions on sump and how to build it for what you need. Just look under sump sections:
http://www.melevsreef.com/

Heres my 20H and never used it:
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/78452100_0939__Small_.JPG

Heres my 20L I did a few months ago: Using the mag7
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/7845220L_fuge_Small_.JPG

And here it is now: using the Mag 9.5. You can see the 90 degree angle thats robbing lots of flow back to the tank so I`m going with a Mag 12 to return and run chiller
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/78452100_1327__Small_.JPG

 

[Atomikk]

Hmm, the more I am thinking about it, the more I am leaning towards converting a fish tank into a sump. Probably do a 30"x20"x14" or something as close as that.

 

[SaltyMember]

Good thread! I just finished upgrading from my 29g to a 65g AGA RR this weekend. I also used a 20g long tank as my sump with acrylic baffels. It seems to be working well so far.
I also used a mag 7 for my return pump. I plumbed it with 3/4inch tubing with a ball vavle on it and I am getting good flow since there are no turns in the plumbing. With head pressure I figure I am getting 500gph flow into the tank. I think this is plenty since the water entering my sump is pretty strong, turbulent and pretty noisy. I am still tweaking the drain plumbing to make it more quiet. I will try to post pics of my setup later tonight.

 

[Atomikk]

Hey Salty, post pics in here. I will probably have a similar setup as yours.

 

[SaltyMember]

I will try to post some later tonight Atomikk.

 

[mrreuben]

Good thread! I just finished upgrading from my 29g to a 65g AGA RR this weekend. I also used a 20g long tank as my sump with acrylic baffels. It seems to be working well so far.
I also used a mag 7 for my return pump. I plumbed it with 3/4inch tubing with a ball vavle on it and I am getting good flow since there are no turns in the plumbing. With head pressure I figure I am getting 500gph flow into the tank. I think this is plenty since the water entering my sump is pretty strong, turbulent and pretty noisy. I am still tweaking the drain plumbing to make it more quiet. I will try to post pics of my setup later tonight.

You should be able to get good flow with PVC as well. As long as you would use more 45's instead of 90's. I have 4 years of plumbing experience and ive never seen the pipes not be able to handle the flow unless they were clogged.

 

[SaltyMember]

Here are the photos of my 65g I promised.

20 gal sump

Front pic of tank

Rear view of tank

Tank room

The sump is divided into separate drain/skimmer, refuge and return areas. I have chaeto macroalgae in the fuge. Right now I have only a Jali 13watt PC light over the fuge but I will most likely upgrade this eventually.

I used 3/4inch black tubing for my Mag7, primarily because I already had the barbed fitting for the pump and a barbed ball valve from my previous setup. I used 1" PVC for the drain plumbing. As you can see, my plumbing is very basic. I have my drain pipe exiting about 3 inches below the water line into a Micron bag. The bag has significantly reduced the splashing and noise from the drain.

I still have to put my black background on the tank and have to fix the drywall around the front of the tank.

Right now I have 45lbs of mature live rock from my 29g sitting on top of about 45 lbs of baserock from HiRocks.com. I still have to play around with the aquascaping since I am not happy with it yet. Let me know if you have any questions Atomikk. Hope this was helpful.

 

[Atomikk]

Hey Salty, that pinkish stuff around the ends of pvc's.. what bonding agent is that?

 

[SaltyMember]

Purple PVC primer. It goes on the pipe before the glue. This was the first time I worked with PVC so my glue job is pretty messy.

 

[Atomikk]

Oh ok, and the glue you use for the pvcs is.....?

 

[SaltyMember]

PVC glue. You use primer first then the glue. Directions are right on the cans. It was pretty easy to do.

 

[Atomikk]

Thanks Salty. I also concluded that I will be making a 25gal sump from a small tank. Its really inexpensive when you think about it. It sure beats spending good $400+ on a decent Berlin sump.

 

[SaltyMember]

It sure beats spending good $400+ on a decent Berlin sump.

You got that right.

 

[mrreuben]

I finaly bought my new tank today. I got a 70 gal oceanic rr. The same as the 65, just an inch taller. Im pretty excited, but i still need the lights.

 

[Atomikk]

Ok Guys.... I am going in... tonight I am building my sump. Bought a 29 gal 30"x12"x18" tank, and got some acrylic sheets wich I am going to cut. I will post pics of my messy job..err.. project..

 

[Atomikk]

Ok here we go...

My 29 gal and the tools....

My ghetto work bench.. note the dishwasher and the cutting board as my tools

Messy, but its done... The first chamber is the inflow where i will place a sponge and carbon for initial filtration. Then I will have plenty room for a skimmer (a large one), then I will place some LR before the bubble trap baffels. The last chamber is the outflow with my mag 7 pump.

I will test the sump for leaks tomorrow. I will post pics on my progress.

 

[mpcart]

You might want to add more distance between those baffles. The closer they are together, the faster the water goes and the more bubbles are carried through. Making the traps 2" apart will slow the water down and allow the bubbles to float up.

Otherwise it looks good.

-Mike

 

[Atomikk]

Thats true, but I saw this design for the baffels on Malev's site..
http://www.melevsreef.com/29g/sump/design.html


So I went for it.