Come with me on my Custom 77 Gallon setup

[Stile2]

Well, I spent most of the last two days pouring cement to level the floor in my back room. A really cool product called LevelQuik. Mixed it in a 5 gallon bucket with an electric drill and paddle and pour it onto the floor. It is so runny that it self levels. Still a ton of work.

But today I got to work on the tank for a bit. I siliconed on the overflow box and only one more coat of paint to go on the stand. I will post pics on Monday.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Keith

 

[Stile2]

As promised pics for the updates.

Here is the corner of the overflow. I used black silicone just because last time I used the clear and it looks white from inside the tank.

The three sides of the overflow. Notice the extra piece of dark glass attached to the tank side of the overflow. This is so I won't be able to see into the overflow from inside the tank.

The overflow complete and drying. Yes drills as weights.

And here is the steel stand painted and ready for skinning.

Any questions or suggestions are welcome.

The to do list.

Set up in garage to test.

Next is the skimmer. I will post plans for the skimmer. I already have the Ocean Runner 2700 Needle Wheel.

Then the sump. I will post plans for that too!

Canopy will come after set up and plumbing.
I told the wife that I would like to set up the tank with no skin on the stand until I build the skin. We are still negotiating

Thanks for visiting.
Keith (Over a thousand views Yeah!! )

 

[Airman]

It is looking good.

 

[gary faulkner]

Great thread, just tagging along

Gary

 

[rdmpe]

Great job so far! I just love that external overflow. That's the thing about this hobby, there is always something that you see later and go OOOHHH I wish I would have seen this before I did mine! Future upgrades...

 

[Stile2]

Airman and Gary,

Thanks for tagging along. Any comments are always welcome.

Randy,

Remember it is never to late. Check out my eariler thread.
Link



Now my question. I am planning my sump. I have 20.5" width under the tank. I am planning on putting down some pond liner in the bottom on the stand to help with spills.

I was planning a 20" wide sump but am worried about clean up between the sump and the stand. How much room do you guys have between sump and stand?

How is that for long winded?

Thanks
Keith

 

[rdmpe]

My sump tubs fit tightly into my stand. I don't have any way to get in there really. If I were to have a significant water spill in there, I would just wedge something under the sump to lift it up a bit, and point a fan in there for a day or two to dry it up.

The pond liner is a great idea! Dang there's another one :lol:

 

[got2lb]

Looks really good!

My sump fits really tight in my stand. I had to actually put it in from the top in order to get it in. But I also have a 94 display tank and a 55 gallon sump in my stand. I would def. put the pond liner down just to be on the safe side. I forgot to do that so befor I put water in mine I have to take everything back apart and do it again. Oh well I guess.

 

[Stile2]

Hasn't been an update in a while. I just finished my first two classes for my Masters so I have been kind of busy.

But I did manage to come up with a sump design.

I am planning on two pipes coming from the overflow, one that is a fairly short straight pipe with a gate valve on it. And the other with a Durso. I will dial the straight pipe back unitl the water starts to flow through the Durso. I have heard that this is the quietest set up.

The straight pipe will flow directly into the skimmer in the skimmer section, the durso pipe will flow into the fuge.

The flow through the sump is the fuge flows into the skimmer section and then into the return. The 3" space in the bubble trap will have either carbon or filter floss.

I hope that melev will join in and give his opinion, since he is the sump master.

I will be building it out of 1/4" acrylic with eurobracing.

On with the pics.
Sump from the top

Sump from the fuge side

Sump from the return side

All opinions welcome and appreciated.

Thanks
Keith

 

[elephen]

Wow, quite the craftsman! I'm tagging along.

 

[got2lb]

According to some of the sumps I've seen melev build your's isn't right. Not saying it won't work because mine isn't "right" either. You're supposed to have one drain line dump into your skimmer compartment and the other into your fuge. Then both compartments overflow into an open return area. Don't have them dump into each other.

The problem with having your fuge dump into your skimmer area is if you want the pods and stuff to get into your display they'll probably never make it because they will probably end up as skimmate.

Mine overflows into the skimmer compartment then to the fuge then the return area. That way hopefully enabling some pods to make it to the display tank. The way mine is setup I can actually put the return pump where the fuge area is but right now I only have about 5-600gph overflowing to the sump and I didn't want to T it off and possibly slow it down even more. That's just what I've read on here. Not saying your idea won't work because I'm sure it will just fine. This is just what the "experts" say!

 

[Stile2]

I think maybe you misunderstood. The only water that will be getting into the skimmer is coming straight from the drain out of the display. Skimmer will be a needle wheel recirculating type with gravity feed.

So the water from the fuge will simply combine with the water coming out of the skimmer and then into the return area.

Sorry I probably explained it badly before.

Keith

 

[melev]

My concern is how full the sump will be. There is no room or void left to hold excess water when the return pump is off. So it is important to keep that in mind.

When reading your description, it sounded like the refugium would flow into the skimmer section, then into the return section. If you have it going into the carbon bag area along with the skimmer's output, that may help. Still, you don't want anything screening out the pods that you hope to send up to the tank.

I'm about to go out of town and won't be back online until Sunday/Monday, so if you don't need to get this done over the weekend, I can add more input later.

 

[Stile2]

Thanks for the input guys,

I redesigned a little and will post pics tonight. Have got to get to work right now.

Keith

 

[rdmpe]

There are definitely a lot of opinions on different ways to set up a sump. I think Anthony Calfo usually recommends that all tank water go into the skimmer area first to skim as much waste out as possible before any water is passed to the fuge. I'm sure you could find many people that have either of those methods working well for them so it's probably not too critical. On the other hand, having enough room in your sump to handle what ever drains down during a power failure, that is critical to keeping your floors dry!

 

[Stile2]

Randy,

That actually makes sense to clean the water before it goes into the fuge. My return pump is a Quiet One 3000 and with head should be delivering 583 gph. The closed loop, also a Quiet One 3000, should deliver about 660-700 gph.

So with that in mind I do not want 583 gph going through the fuge. And I also not want to tee off the return and reduce the flow through the skimmer. Damn if I do, Damn if I don't.

I redesigned the sump a little so that the fuge goes through a second bubble trap straight to the return. This fixes Melev's concern about the pods being filtered out by the filter and or carbon. But does nto address the clean water into the fuge thing.

I will look into it some more tonight.

Keith

 

[Stile2]

Well here is the next version of the sump.

This version solves getting the pods into the return section, but making this is going to be very complicated.

New top view.

New view from the end.

What do you guys think?

Keith

 

[Stile2]

Ok I looked through Melev's sumps on his web site. And really my first design is just a modified version of his M model. Model M Link Thanks Melev I just need to let the fuge flow into the return section. I don't think the bubble trap is necessary either.

I just have to decide whether to bit the bullet and divert some of the return into the fuge or to use the leftover drain.

I would love some opinions.

Keith

 

[rdmpe]

I was in the same boat. I originally wanted to pipe the skimmer output the the fuge, flow would be just about right I think. But I couldn't do it cuz the water had to come up too high, creating too much backpressure on the system. It had to come up over the wall of the sump to get into the fuge. Some day I may try to rig a bulkhead to get the water over there that way, but for now I'm feeding from a tee of the sump return pump.

Everything is sort of on hold right now though. I'm having some heat issues that I'm concerned about, and some PH issues too for that matter

 

[Stile2]

Since no one has replied I guess I will go with the sump described in my last post.

Here is a picture describing the flow.

And I think I have decided to let the low flow from the drain go through the fuge.

I have started on the skimmer to know for sure how big it will be so that I can expand the return and fuge section if possible.

Will post some pics later.

Keith