Golan's 90G Reef

[Gooli]

microbubbles mostly come from the skimmer - they can get quite annoying.

the hamilton lights are connected through a reflector. They will be attached to the canopy with woood screws. They will be handing down about 3" from the top..3 1/2" tops.

Question to you guys...is there a wat to wire the ballast to the canopy with some kind of detachable plug so if the canopy needs to be removed you can just unplug the wire close to the bulbs and take off the canopy freely?

gooliver

 

[Gooli]

Here's a photo of my sump\refuge setup ( i know it aint pretty - but who cares right?)

Urchin Pro Skimmer
100 micron filter sock
Mag 9.5 return
1 1/4 ball valve attached to drain to stop water from flowing down if needed - i like having that option.

 

[luckycat]

microbubbles mostly come from the skimmer - they can get quite annoying.

the hamilton lights are connected through a reflector. They will be attached to the canopy with woood screws. They will be handing down about 3" from the top..3 1/2" tops.

Question to you guys...is there a wat to wire the ballast to the canopy with some kind of detachable plug so if the canopy needs to be removed you can just unplug the wire close to the bulbs and take off the canopy freely?

gooliver

Ah that's what I was figuring. I'll find a way to eliminate those. Yeah my canopy is too tight for those unless I want to boil the water. I'm pretty sure I'll be going for a good set of t5s.

As far as wiring, I'm thinking you can probably use regular plugs and electrical outlets that you can connect to your ballast supplies, maybe attached to the rear of the canopy or stand? Just unplug and away goes the canopy.

 

[luckycat]

Here's a photo of my sump\refuge setup ( i know it aint pretty - but who cares right?)

Urchin Pro Skimmer
100 micron filter sock
Mag 9.5 return
1 1/4 ball valve attached to drain to stop water from flowing down if needed - i like having that option.

Looks great! Right it isn't a beauty contest! What white thing you have there with the skimmer is a "sock" filter? How often do you need to change that?

Right now I'm t'ing off my overflow to a fuge/skimmer sections...but after looking at what you did I agree I would like a separate ball valve to completely shut off water flow if I need to do that.

Q: Do you have enough height above the baffle walls to support all of the overflow from the tank in case of power failure? I thought you needed around 10g for just the overflow..maybe I got an incorrect estimation of that...but if it is 10g it doesn't look like you have the height needed to support that in the sump?

 

[Gooli]

i hear that the filter sock needs to be cleaned about every week or so.

As far as flooding the sump....i followed a sump design from another user on this forum (warboc) - and since the water level will be at the height of the lower baffle height - i feel i have enough room - i dont think 10g is right - it depends on the tank and on the overflow.

I will test i today and let you know.
gooliver

 

[luckycat]

As far as flooding the sump....i followed a sump design from another user on this forum (warboc) - and since the water level will be at the height of the lower baffle height - i feel i have enough room - i dont think 10g is right - it depends on the tank and on the overflow.

I will test i today and let you know.
gooliver

Great. Let me know. I used the overflow calculator on rc, and assuming 2" off the top of the tank it was like 10.9G. I guess that is worse-case scenario. I'd like to raise my baffle heights if at all possible, so it would be good if I didn't need 10g "reserve" space.

I'll check out the sock deal...I was going to put in lr into that section, not sure now.

 

[Gooli]

where can i see this calculator ?

 

[Gooli]

Ok....I'm so excited !!!!!
The scary part is done...no leaks - everything running great - i had to drill a 1/8" hole in the seaswirl to prevent a siphon and turned everything off and the sump took in all the water - flood proof!!!!!

I'm loving it guys and girls

 

[luckycat]

Ok....I'm so excited !!!!!
The scary part is done...no leaks - everything running great - i had to drill a 1/8" hole in the seaswirl to prevent a siphon and turned everything off and the sump took in all the water - flood proof!!!!!

I'm loving it guys and girls

Looks great! The calc I used Sump volume calculator

Folks have been recommending a larger sump size, but I may stick with what I have initially at least... won't have time to do any more construction till next week.

 

[Gooli]

i did the flood test - it's fine - only 1" above overflow slots.

One thing i notcied is hat the water drops about 3" down to the overflow creating some flushing noise...i wonder if taking out those two side slots for more flow would fix it?

 

[Gooli]

Boys and girls, I have solved the problem.
Believe it or not it was too much flow coming from the return pump. It is working silently

Let me explain:

1. I was using a 1" durso in the megaflow overflow box. The water was going down into the sump and pumped back up at 5 with mag 9.5 feet head equaling to 750 gph.

2. What was happening was the overflow box was not letting enough water into the durso and it would gurgle and then stabilize but water would build up in the piping on the way down and made the flushing sound.

3. I purchased some PVC and ball valve to create the "T" to throttle back the return pump. Well...I added a foot of PVC to do this and increasing the head by a foot alone slowed down the return to about 720. That did it - i didnt even have to use the ball valve to redirect flow.

Funny how this all worked out - all it was, was 30gph to much and a foot of piping too short for the return.

I hope this helps someone else.
I couldnt be happier

gooliver

 

[luckycat]

gooliver - how big of a PVC pipe are you using for your return again? 3/4" or 1"? I was wondering if I could use 3/4" all the way up the return but someone said you might need 1" and then an adapter to take it down to 3/4" for the return?

 

[Gooli]

i use only 3/4" pvc for teturn and 3/4" flexible hose

 

[luckycat]

******* move

******* move

OK well I was attempting to put up the walls in my 29g sump, was rushed and tried to push one of the walls, which was cut a tad too big, into place..tight fit but it seemed to work. Just went downstairs to get something, voila the tank wall had shattered.

So, I need to get another sump! Lesson learned: cut the acrylic walls to the right width, and don't force in an aquarium.

 

[Gooli]

yes...good lesson there

 

[sjm817]

Since you are using 3/4" return plumbing on a Mag9.5 (which cuts down a lot of flow) and still needed to throttle it back more with a valve, you may want to use a smaller pump instead. Mag7 would probably be a good bet.

 

[luckycat]

Since you are using 3/4" return plumbing on a Mag9.5 (which cuts down a lot of flow) and still needed to throttle it back more with a valve, you may want to use a smaller pump instead. Mag7 would probably be a good bet.

I'll be using a Mag18 to pump water back up from my sump, just shy of 10' of head. Not looking for a ton of flow back up, because I'll also have a closed loop. I should be getting the pump on Friday, not sure if it uses 1" or 3/4"...but my return at teh tank is 3/4". Does it make sense to have larger plumbing from the pump up to the entry point of the return on the tank, then reduce down to 3/4 at that point? Or does that defeat the purpose of a larger return?

 

[sjm817]

Mag9.5/12/18 all use 3/4" outputs. For max flow, Mag says to double output size, which is 1.5". I can tell you it makes a very big difference on a 9.5, I would say a mag18 would be a huge difference. You should use 1.5" as far as you can, then split to multiple 3/4" at the top.

 

[Gooli]

my mag 9.5 with 3/4" flex hose to seaswirl is creating lots of flow all over the tank - i wouldn't want any more flow than im already getting.
the tank is empty but it appears to have no deadspots at all...once the corals are in i will see if that still applies.

gooliver

 

[luckycat]

Well I'm completely re-doing my sump after my 29g glass catastrophe. I'm going with 3 large rubbermaid tubs, the left will be my fuge, right for protein skimmer and middle for the return. Left and right will be elevated over the middle so water will flow from them into the center return.

I got my Mag18 pump in the mail, along with a Rio 10HF that I was hoping to fit into the overflow...does not look like it is going to work (too big), so I may use that for something else.

Did a lot of my plumbing today, but thinking about doing a 2 3/4" split at the top as recommended by sjm817 vs. reducing the 1.5" down to 3/4 (I'm using 1.5" for everything basically to make things easier).

I'll post pics soon.