let the rebuild begin

[jacksonpt]

The rebulid on my 30long reef has officially begun. I'm cooking up some more water, so there is a lul in the action for a bit... thought I'd take a few minutes and start logging this whole ordeal.

Old System:

• 30 long - 36x12x18
• Hamilton 4x39 T5 retro
• 10g sump w/ mag 9.5 return
• Eshopps PF-1000 HOB overflow box
• Eshopps PSK-75 skimmer
• BRS GFO/carbon dual reactor
• BRS 2-part dosing pumps

The Good:
The setup worked pretty well. Water chemistry was good/stable, fish and corals were happy, required relatively little maintenance

The Bad:
Was the epitome of a hodge-podge system. It started off pretty basic/low budget, but over the last year or so I managed to stick/hang things in every corner of the tank and stand. It was ugly, hard to work on, dangerous (plumbing/water leaks/outlets...), etc. The return pump was louder than I would have liked, and the high flow sump seemed to limit the effectiveness of the skimmer and reactors.


The New System:
Old System:

• 30 long - 36x12x18
• Hamilton 4x39 T5 retro
• Glass Holes 700gph overflow kit
• 10g fuge w/ Eheim 1262 return
• Closed loop w/ Velocity T4 return
• Eshopps PSK-75 skimmer
• BRS 2-part dosing pumps

The goal of the rebuild is basically to fix everything that was wrong while keeping everything that was good about the old system. Will it work? Time will tell.

OK, enough talk (click the thumbnails for bigger versions)...

Just some of the crap I removed before the rebuild could officially begin (had to take the tank to an LFS to be drilled)


Temporary holding tank


Glass Holes overflow and Closed Loop


Same, but from the other side


Dry fitting the plumbing


Filling, and my 26lb piece of LR


More to come once I have more water ready. Stay tuned.

 

[pimpinitup6969]

Jackson, do you still have that reactor?

 

[sedorusc]

interested to see your progress. revamping my 36" long 30 right now (aren't taxes great) went with the 300 gph overflow for mine.

 

[daveverdo]

I'll be doing the same with my 90g pretty soon. I had no direction when I started now I have a little better idea of what works for me and what I want to keep/toss.

Good luck.

Do you think the T4 is a bit much for a 30g? Isn't it rated at over 1200gph at zero head (whicis what you'll have in a closed loop)? That and the Eheim will give you over 2100gph in a 30g.

Dave

 

[pimpinitup6969]

Thats about 70x turnover. I know alot of ppl that run about that on sps dominated tanks

 

[jacksonpt]

Jackson, do you still have that reactor?

Yep - still got it.

I'll be doing the same with my 90g pretty soon. I had no direction when I started now I have a little better idea of what works for me and what I want to keep/toss.

Yea... sounds like a very similar situation to where I am. Or at least where I was 12 hours ago. Good luck to you. It's a lot of work, or at least a lot of mess... hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

Do you think the T4 is a bit much for a 30g? Isn't it rated at over 1200gph at zero head (whicis what you'll have in a closed loop)? That and the Eheim will give you over 2100gph in a 30g.

I think the T4 alone will be about perfect. I'm running the return through 3 hydor rotating deflectors which give a very wide, gentle flow. They've proven to be an EXCELLENT way to avoid dead spots. Because it's a wide, gentle rotating flow, I can get away with a bit more pump. I can always dial back the flow from the T4 if necessary. As for the eheim, that will most definiately be dialed back to about half it's max. I'm really using the T4 for flow, the eheim is just a gentle return from my fuge. It's more pump that I need, but I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Plus, I could always run it through one of those SCWD and split the return.

 

[jacksonpt]

OK, so far so good.

I glued everything last night and let it set/cure over night. I filled the tank this morning and turned everything on for a test run. I LOVE THE T4. Is it so smooth and quiet, just what I was hoping for. The Eheim ran well too. I haven't gotten a ball valve for this yet so the flow was too much for the glass holes box, but I let it run for about 30 minutes or so and was pretty happy.

I have 2 small leaks I need to seal up tonight, and I've got to figure out a way to get a ball valve in 5/8" vinyl tubing so I can dial back the eheim. Hopefully I'll be able to move livestock over tomorrow night.

 

[Piazzon12]

can't you get a ball valve that will thread directly on the pump output?

 

[jacksonpt]

I could - the problem is getting the 5/8" vinyl connected to 3/4" pvc. I couldn't find the right connectors/adapters at Lowes. I just got back from home depot and they had what I needed.

 

[jacksonpt]

A couple more updates...

I did my final glueing/fitting last night, picked up a couple of barbed fittings for some of the vinyl hose I'm using from the Eheim this afternoon so all I had to do tonight was thread on the last few fittings and plug in the pumps.

The glass holes box is a bit louder than I would have liked, but I'm hoping that I can get it dialed in a bit better over the next couple of days. The T4 is perfect. I wanted the ends of my tank to be lower flow areas, so I grouped the hydors more towards the center of the tank. I may be a bit too much flow in the middle, but we'll see. I didn't glue any of those fittings so I can make adjustments if needed.

I still need to
- clean up all the cords
- figure out how I'm going to mount the power center
- mount/connect the dosing pumps

All in all, I think I'm about 75% of the way there. Still hoping to start moving livestock over tomorrow, but we'll see.

 

[nwrogers]

Looks great so far! How do you like the BRS 2-part dosing pumps?

 

[jacksonpt]

Water is clearing up. I've got to raise the return plumbing a bit so only the tips of the hydors are in the water.


Nate -
I've only had the pumps for about a month, but the seem nice. I've had a hard time getting them to pull fluid consistently - seems like one or the other is always pulling air bubbles even through there is plenty of fluid in the bottles. I'm guessing it's my issue (how I have the hoses/bottles set up) as opposed to an issue with the pumps them selves.

 

[jacksonpt]

Got most of my corals/critters moved over last night and they are starting to look better today. A couple of them didn't do well in the smaller holding tank - hopefully they'll rebound.

 

[daveverdo]

Looks good.

Dave

 

[reefscape15]

Looks like it's coming along nicely. I really am a huge fan of the Black sand. I added 40lbs of it to my 54g corner, but I already had 30lbs of Fiji Pink and it all ended up getting mixed in together. I wish I would've gone with just black! How is the flow from the deflectors? I tried one on a Mini Jet 606 (160gph) in my old 20gal, but it kept getting stuck and really didn't seem like it was doing much.

 

[jacksonpt]

Yea, I'm really digging the black sand. I wish I would have taken the time to repaint the back of the tank black. It colors really stand out against the black.

I love the deflectors. I had one on my aquapod and it didn't seem to do much, but they've been great in this tank. I think they are much more reliable (don't stop rotating) when they have more flow going through them. I want to reposition mine a bit, but I love them.

 

[jacksonpt]

The guts of the operation...

I haven't found a good way to mount the power center, so it's just kind of hanging there for the time being. The placement seems pretty good, but I need to find a better way to support it.

Dosing pumps are mounted... right now they are pulling salt water through them to clean out any old 2-part. I'm going to let them run that way over night, then feed the lines into the 2-part bottles.

Gone is my old skimmer. I'd been having problems with it almost since day 1. When it was running it was great, but with frequent impeller/pump problems, it's gotten to be too big of a headache to deal with. I may look at replacing it at some point, but we'll see how the tank params shape up with out it.

The blue jug is going to be my ATO FW reservoir. I'm hoping to find a small pump that will fit through the existing opening (a hair over 2"), but I may have to do some cutting in order to get a pump in there.

As usual, click the thumbnails for bigger pics.



OK, now it's time to clean up some of the mess, then bed time.

 

[jacksonpt]

And... Finished!



All in all I'm pretty happy. I still have a little tweaking to do (temp is a bit high, coral placement, rock work, that sort of thing), but everything seems good.

Some quick spec's on the new setup:

• 30 long - 36l x 12w x 18h
• hamilton 4x39 T5 retro
• closed loop with velocity T4
• 10g fuge with eheim 1262 return
• no skimmer - eshopps skimmer died, haven't replaced yet (may not replace)
• ato - kit from aquahub using aqualifter pump
• BRS 2-part dosing pumps
• american dj 8 switch panel
• small aquaclear HOB filter for running carbon, phosban, whatever (as needed)

 

[drbronx]

Great thread and a beautiful job. What kind of bioload do you anticipate since you are going skimmerless? I know you did that with your nano and did fine. I'll be curious to see how this turns out. So what is in your sump beside the return pump and heater? Also where did you obtain that switch panel? Do you recommend it? I want to order one for my next system. Best of luck with the new system.

 

[jacksonpt]

Bioload will be light to moderate. I want to add a midas blenny, then maybe 1 other small fish (6line, or the like). I didn't plan on running skimmerless necessarily, but my Eshopps died and I don't have a replacement figured out as yet.

Right now I don't have anything else in my sump. I'm trying to get my hands on some macro algae and a little more LR to turn it into a fuge. Once the fuge is established, I may look at going with no mechanical filtration and see how things go. I like the idea of that, but not sure it's possible with a moderate bioload (and my days of ultralight bioloads are over).

The switch panel is INCREDIBLY convenient. I was iffy about getting one at first, but holy man do I like having it. No more plugging/unplugging during feeding, water changes, etc - just flip the switch. I got mine through amazon for something like $30. It's got a 15amp fuse in it, so it's really all you need. Build quality seems good, doesn't take up a ton of room, price was good... Only down side is the outlets on the back are fairly tight together, so things like timers and such block the adjacent outlets... that's why my lights are plugged into timers on a separate power strip.