New 220 Mixed reef

[basa_bbc]

Its been 9 years with a 90 Gallon Reef tank, time to move ahead and get a 220 puppy setup. Got good price on Tank / Stand / Canopy ..

Here are some of the details for the build so far:

Tank / stand / sump is being delivered by tomorrow - however when i looked at the existing sump, looks like it was damaged.

Decided to build my own sump - there are some good options from trigger / melven (locally), but wanted to keep budget low, since moving ahead i still need to make lot of investment on the tank ...

Sump design is simple - skimmer section , Refugium and Return section - Below is the plumbing that i am looking towards

Below is what it cost me to build a Sump with Refugium ($206) :


1. Went and got a used Glass 1/4" inch 80 gallon aquarium from Craiglist - $150

2. Went to Lewis and got 1/4" acrylic clear cast sheet cut according to my specification for the Baffle - 4 baffle in total - $52

3. Got Silicone to glue - $4

4. Did some DIY cutting on the Refugium wall to include some teeths so that water flows down gently than falling down in the sump from a height

5. Walla - my sump is ready - wait for 24 hrs / do a leak test and getting ready for the tank move tomorrow.

 

[basa_bbc]

Got the tank.. Did the plumbing.. Yet to get canopy and couple more radions. But below is what the progress is.





after running it for couple of hours, i am seeing the baffle holding the refugium is bulging in due to water pressure. Not sure if its due to pasting acrylic baffle on a glass aquarium .. hoping that it does not give out.

Will check tomorrow morning. Has anybody had issues on the baffle .. if so apart from drying out the sump, are there any other option to reseal the baffle back...

 

[basa_bbc]

some more pics of the build

 

[basa_bbc]

Mann what a night.. the skimmer was going crazy :headwally::headwally:and the water levels in the main display were fluctuating so badly - all of this due to the baflles which gave away due to the water pressure. But around 2 AM early morning the noise was pretty bad in the living room and built a temporary crate solution to hold the baffles back, reduced the drain into refugium by almost 75%.*

below is what i have done, Need to find a permanent solution for this soon. :

 

[basa_bbc]

the noise in the living room is still pretty bad, all due to the current skimmer that i am running, its a SWC 250 S Extreme Skimmer.

Anyone has ideas to reduce this .. Need this get this way down, else will be in trouble on the other end ..

 

[basa_bbc]

And day 3 of the install. Looks like the corals have started de-stressing (my own words, so pls pardon if i did not get the jargon's properly) - they started opening up and the fishes looks happy ..

I was quite surprised with the clown / warses and Tangs. Since the new tank has a mix of my old tanks clown / warse and tangs, all of them seem to have got along well and infact they have marked their specific spots on the tank and always move around together..

Finally did some landscaping to ensure there are enough tunnels, holes, arches for the fishes to move around.

 

[basa_bbc]

Finally trying to upload photos through Tapatalk, hoping it comes proper.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[basa_bbc]

Mann what a night.. the skimmer was going crazy :headwally::headwally:and the water levels in the main display were fluctuating so badly - all of this due to the baflles which gave away due to the water pressure. But around 2 AM early morning the noise was pretty bad in the living room and built a temporary crate solution to hold the baffles back, reduced the drain into refugium by almost 75%.*



below is what i have done, Need to find a permanent solution for this soon. :

Any one has any ideas on how to put a permanent solution here ( apart from the obvious one of pull it out, dry it and redo). Before I start putting other things in sump want to make sure this is taken care..




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[basa_bbc]

sorry guys.. with all the travel that i have been doing on the business side, updating the thread completely went off the mind. Good news is tank is progressing well. Will share the updates with lot of pics shortly...

pdating in the order it happened. These are the livestocks that i current have in the tank. Do pardon the bad pics, will share some good ones from next time... ��



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