Linked tanks for sump

Drone

Drone

New member
Was thinking of taking Acer's fish room build a little further.

What do you all think of plumbing various size tanks together in a fish room to work as a sump/Propagation system?

My initial thoughts are

265 Gal DT -->
5 Gal for socks or baffled for slow flow to drop detritus out -->
20 to 30 Gal bare bottom Prop/frag tank for softies/zoas -->
20 to 30 Gal shallow bed Prop/frag tank for LPS -->
20 to 30 Gal Miracle mud Macro refugium -->
75 Gal divided for skimmer, baffles, sps prop/frags, dosing and return chamber -->
Return pump to DT

My thoughts were that the lighting spectrum, lighting intensity, and water movement needed for each would be more easily regulated with separate tanks. The 75 will be used as a holding area for water in case of pump failure or power outage.

OK.... Brainstorm away!!!!

Thanks,
Kevin
 
How are you going to put water thru the 5 gallon and make it "slow flow" - If water is coming from a 10 foot falling siphon from the 250 gallon tank - that will be a lot of water to put thru a 5 gallon tank and there is NO way it will be moving slow enough to drop of detritus.

I agree that separating out the different tanks for different lighting/bottoms,etc. to stimulate propagation should work well.
 
It will only siphon as fast as the return pump puts it back up. So at 15 gallons a min you're probably right I know right now most of it falls out in about a ten gallon area of my current sump. so as long as I can create a dead zone it should drop some.

So if I bump the first up to a 20 gallon I hope I'll be able to baffle dead zones into it.

The next tank in line will be a 20-30 gallon with bare bottom for softies. Hopefully any that sneaks through will drop out there and still be easy to vacuum out.

Thoughts?

Kevin
 
interesting - cant say I have ever heard or seen this idea- looking forward to seeing it in action.
 
I think that would work. seems to me like you could even T off the 20 gallon incoming tank to the grow out tanks. You could also put a few micro snails or something in to help with drop out if needed...
 
zoom in on those pics and start cutting up the acrylic!!!!

I'll even come over and help if I get to buy the 2nd one.
 
I wouldn't put sps frags in, what essentially is, the sump with the skimmer, return, etc. They would need a separate tank, with dedicated lights and powerheads.
 
Pittsburgh said:
I wouldn't put sps frags in, what essentially is, the sump with the skimmer, return, etc. They would need a separate tank, with dedicated lights and powerheads.
Click to expand...


The 75 would be divided into an 14" skimmer/baffle area, a 30" SPS frag area, and a 4" overflow to return pump area. So the frag area would have it's own lighting and the ability to house powerheads magnetically mounted on either the front or back, or suction or clip mounted on the side dividers (if magnetic mounts would not be safe for under water use).

I don't see a problem with doing it that way, but I may be missing something. What issues do you see?

Kevin
 
SPS lighting is intense and will likely spill over into other components of the sump. I wouldn't want to be scraping coralline off of the inside of my acrylic skimmer on a regular basis.
Sump requires regular maintenance, such as emptying/cleaning skimmer. I wouldn't want to worry about accidentally spilling the contents of the skimmer all over my SPS frags :)
I like to do water changes by emptying and refilling my sump. SPS wouldn't appreciate sudden water level/chemistry/temperature changes.
Finally, I like to have dosing done away from anything sensitive to let it dissipate first. Although, in your case it could be done on the return side of the sump.
 
I think the water chamges will be the only issue that I need to look at.

I will be using LED's for the SPS tank so that will limit heavy light spill. I can also shield the skimmer with a wrap or with a solid color baffle between the chambers. The skimmer cup will have a skimmate collection tube running to a container below the whole system so even for disassembly I shouldn't be dealing with much skimmate in the cup.

The water change may be a problem. I planned on drawing from the first tank (20 gallon) to siphon detritus out. But that would give me less than 5 percent of system volume per change. In the event of an emergency I could pull from other tanks too in order to get the volume up. I will be using the Triton method so it may be no issue at all as water changes are very infrequent if at all. I still however need to implement a way to do massive water changes just in case.

Thanks,
Kevin
 
I have calculated about $35-$40 a month for dosing total.

I'd spend 1/2 of that in water changes and ??? in 3 part.

Kevin
 
I need to get Gary to let me come up and use his cnc machine to drill the acrylic. If you need something made let me know the dimensions.
 
Interested in see the triton method, haven't really much about it

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
Maybe Jaime can talk Mike Paletta into coming to the picnic or meeting and enlightening us all. He was supposed to run his new tank on it. I would bet he had his other system water tested as a comparison. It would be neat to hear from someone that has successful experiences in and apart from Triton.

Basically:
Pay $50 for initial test...
Partial water change or media cycle or maybe flocculent to lower extreme levels.....
Dose individual elements to get to proper starting levels....
Pay $50 for additional test to verify levels....
Start 4 part dosing program that is monitored with standard Alk testing done by you....
Skim wet....
No water changes....

So with that said, I'm not wondering that if I have a system that is currently supporting SPS can I just switch from 2 part dosing to Triton 4 part and base the dosing on Alk and Ca readings? That would be assuming that the starting point of the other elements were good enough for coral growth initially and would from that point on be supplemented.

Kevin
 
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