New 240 Build.. any and all help is appreciated!

D

dprill

Premium Member
Hello folks, My name is Darin, and I have been a lurker on these boards for a very long time. I have always wanted to build a large reef system, but never really had the room or opportunity to do it. Well we recently had a room in the house open up (it was the room for our babysitter, but the kids are much older now), and the family agreed they would love to see a nice tank in the room.

I have had smaller reef systems in the past, but my last tank was over 10 years ago, so I am rusty to say the least :-)

I purchased a Glasscages tank from a fellow reefer, dimensions are 72"x24"x31", and should be delivered by tomorrow. I have cleaned out the room it is going in, taken up the carpets to expose the wood floor that was underneath, and reinforced the joists under the spot where the tank will sit.

I have the ability to put the sump and equipment in the basement. I will need to do a lot of work down there to do this, but I think in the long run it will be much better then trying to stick things under the stand. Also gives me room to do top offs, water changes, and have a plumbed in frag tank, and a separate QT tank.

I have done a quick drawing of the proposed system, and I was hoping I could get folks to comment on the connections I have drawn out. I am not great with Visio, but hopefully I get the majority of my points across...

I am still working out an equipment list, and as for stocking, I was hoping for this to start as a softie/LPS tank, with some hope for SPS corals as the system matures. Nothing special fish or invert wise...

Thanks in advance for any and all help/suggestions/improvements/criticisms/etc!!

Darin :fish1:

aquarium.jpg
 
looks like a well thought out plan. the only possible problem i see is that you are feeding your frag tank with part of the flow from your return pump and then returning water to the system using another pump. it will be very difficult to get the inward flow to match the return flow for the frag tank this way, and even if you do get it set, a little bit of grime can change the flow of one pump or the other and throw the balance off. you may want to rethink this so that you have an overflow in the frag tank and it is higher than the fuge/sump so the water can just drain back to the sump and you can eliminate the frag return pump.
 
exactly what I was going to say. You never want to use a 2 pumps. you will end up flooding something or running something dry.
 
better, but if you are going to all of this trouble, why not drill the frag tank and use an internal overflow? also, you could "t" off of one of your drain lines from the main tank to supply water to the frag tank instead of using flow from the return pump.
 
looks good, be sure to use valve/union combos on both sides (intake and output) of every pump so you can easily remove them to clean them when needed.
 
completely agree with drilling the frag tank instead of the hang on the back. only problem with feeding it from your display tank is that it will act as the first chamber of your sump and collect all sorts of waste and debris. I would still feed it with your return pump.
 
hobogato said:
looks good, be sure to use valve/union combos on both sides (intake and output) of every pump so you can easily remove them to clean them when needed.
Click to expand...

Thanks yeah I tried to show them on every pump, but diagram would have gotten out of hand. All pumps will have unions/valves on either side, and will have unions in other strategic parts of the system.
 
apuhl20 said:
completely agree with drilling the frag tank instead of the hang on the back. only problem with feeding it from your display tank is that it will act as the first chamber of your sump and collect all sorts of waste and debris. I would still feed it with your return pump.
Click to expand...

I went back and forth on that.. I think in the end I agree, I will plumb it from the return lines.

Thanks!

Darin
 
Well tank was moved in this morning.. now the fun begins!

Lots of cleaning to do, and a couple of small scratches I would like to get out, only one or two on the front glass..

new_aquarium._small.jpg
 
Looking good and well thought out. Please get equipment shots up once you have them so I can reference them as I'm doing a build too:)
 
Which one is the sump? IE the lowest point in the system where the water collects when the pump is off? Right now it looks like it is the section right before the return pump and it might be a little small...

With the refugium as drawn the walls are quite tall with a little space on the pump side. I would:
* Include a top off in the return pump section
* Lower the baffle in the refugium (or move it over)
* Test that the sump has a reasonable capacity for the top off so should it fail, you notice before the pump runs dry. Test that it will hold all the backsiphon water when the pumps are off.
 
Which one is the sump? IE the lowest point in the system where the water collects when the pump is off? Right now it looks like it is the section right before the return pump and it might be a little small...

With the refugium as drawn the walls are quite tall with a little space on the pump side. I would:
* Include a top off in the return pump section
* Lower the baffle in the refugium (or move it over)
* Test that the sump has a reasonable capacity for the top off so should it fail, you notice before the pump runs dry. Test that it will hold all the backsiphon water when the pumps are off.
 
blueramSeattle said:
Which one is the sump? IE the lowest point in the system where the water collects when the pump is off? Right now it looks like it is the section right before the return pump and it might be a little small...

With the refugium as drawn the walls are quite tall with a little space on the pump side. I would:
* Include a top off in the return pump section
* Lower the baffle in the refugium (or move it over)
* Test that the sump has a reasonable capacity for the top off so should it fail, you notice before the pump runs dry. Test that it will hold all the backsiphon water when the pumps are off.
Click to expand...

The tank labeled refugium is really a sump. The baffles are actually bubble traps, so the entire tank is where the water volume for the sump would be. It is a 65 gallon acrylic tank set up as a sump. Do you think that is sufficient?

- top off goes into the refugium section, do you think I should plumb it not the return chamber?

- if it is a bubble trap, is it ok do you think?

- I will definitely be testing the back siphon on the tank once I have it all plumbed in

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Darin
 
dprill said:
I wasn't planning on one, I was hoping to use LED lighting and keep the heat down.. Bad plan?
Click to expand...

Well, i am planning on similar system with LEDs but still would have chiller installed on one of my return lines just in case temp goes up during yhe summer. I keep 99% sps and temp swings are really as bad as alk .
 
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