It's been a while since I've posted. Progress has been slow with the holidays coming but I have moved along.
A. The live rock is doing well in it's temporary home. Fully cycled and diatoms are starting to grow. I added the cleanup crew last week and they are doing a great job getting the diatoms cleaned up. My cleanup crew consists of a nice mix of critters:
Snails
4 Trochus Snails
1 Mexican Turbo Snail
7 Cerith Snails
Crabs
5 Scarletts Hermits
1 Emerald Crab
1 Pom Pom Crab
Shrimp
2 Peppermint Shrimp
1 Skunk Cleaner Shrimp
Other
1 Brittle Star
B. Began construction of the stand. So far the side panels and front frame has been constructed of 3/4" oak. This will make the stand quite heavy but should help reduce sound from the sump.
C. Initially, I was happy with the sump design. However, after thinking about it more, I decided to change my layout. Here is an image of the original sump design.
My 2 concerns were that there was limited room available for tank overflow during power outage. It would hold and did OK during the wet test, but I would prefer not to cut it as close as it was. In order to correct this, I will lower the baffler heights by a couple inches. That will give me more than enough room for drainage during a power outage.
My other concern was the small size of the return section. I would be adding water twice a day to keep it at the proper levels. Unfortunately, because of the location of the tank, an auto top-off is not possible. I plan on removing the baffles between the refugium and return section. This will give me a large area of water that can be pumped up. The danger of this is that more water can potentially flood if the drains get blocked. However, each bulkhead can accomodate the entire system flow. So if one gets blocked, the other should be able to handle the flow. In order to cause any problems with the drains, both bulkheads would have to be blocked. It is possible, but I think the chances are remote. To keep my live sand, live rock and cheato away from the pump, I will use eggcrate to surround the pump with a couple inches of acrylic along the bottom. This will keep everything away from the pump. I will post pics once the sump is completed.
D. I was also not happy with the noise the drains were making. You can see from this pic how much air was coming down with the water.
I did some research on ways to quiet the sump. Using some of the theories of what I found, I am going to redesign my lower drain section where the water enters the sump. I think I can come up with a way of allowing the air to escape before it enters the water in the sump.
Wow... long post. Sorry about that. I will post pics as I move along.
I'm going to stick around.
