Newbie Build : 55gal mixed reef

[MurphysLaw]

Hello,

My name is Wade, I am new to the hobby. I have been reading, researching, and slowly immersing myself into this awesome lifestyle. I introduced myself on this forum and it was suggested to me that I should post a build thread. I thought this sounded like an awesome idea so here it goes...

I look forward to copious amounts of insight and advice.

 

[MurphysLaw]

For several months I started building an interest in the reef aquarium hobby by browsing the internet and watching youtube videos. I bought John H. Tullocks, "Natural Reef Aquariums" as well. Other than a surface interest this was as far into the hobby as I got for a while, until I acquired a used 55gallon tank for free! The tank was given to me for helping someone move some furniture. At this moment I officially had my foot in the door. So I got it home and filled it for a water test. It passed!! I was grinning from ear to ear and I all I had at this point was a big glass bucket of tap water.

 

[MurphysLaw]

So the tank sat for quite some time while I started developing my plans for my system. My intentions were and still are to diy where I can to save money without sacrificing quality of the system. And a stand was born... I built a fairly simple stand from a design using 2x4s that I got from UaruJoey on Youtube. This was my first ever experience in any carpentry so I bought extra wood and there was some what of a learning curve but the resources available online are endless and I am happy with the results. Although, the stand has not been skinned or trimmed yet.

 

[MurphysLaw]

I then acquired a 48" t5HO fixture with moonlight LEDs from Craig'sList as well as a 29gal tank from a friend at work that I planned to use as a sump. And as if I had planned it the sump tank fit perfectly into my stand! I painted the back of the tank with black acrylic paint.

 

[Newsalth2o]

Welcome looks like you're well on your way. Keep posting pics and asking questions we all love the hobby and are excited to help new commers to the hobby!

 

[MurphysLaw]

Plumbing and Flow:

I quickly discovered that a drilled tank is the ideal option for an overflow. I also quickly discovered all the panels on my tank are tempered glass... Therefore I would be unable to drill. After researching various types of overflows I decided to build a siphoning overflow from mainly PVC pipes and elbows. Once again a first for me; working with pvc and plumbing, and once again I have been pretty pleased with the results. I built dual 1" overflows with ball valves just above the sump and nylon tubing down into the sump. I cemented everything together and painted it with gloss black krylon fusion spray paint for a nice clean look. Everything tested out perfectly even with simulated power failures on the return the overflows were able to maintain the syphon. I don't know exactly the flow rate or turnover of the setup but my eheim return pump (acquired from Craig'sList) has adjustable output so I can adjust the systems flow up and down and the overflows seem very capable of keeping up.

While building the overflows I had some glass panels cut locally and I siliconed them into the sump for baffles/bubble traps. I also painted the back and bottom of my sump with white acrylic paint.

 

[MurphysLaw]

Welcome looks like you're well on your way. Keep posting pics and asking questions we all love the hobby and are excited to help new commers to the hobby!

Thanks a lot Newsalth20. I am very glad I found this local forum and I am excited to share my first steps, trials, and tribulations with anyone who is interested.

 

[Dangerwill]

Way to jump right in, good looking build! Have you decided on what your going to put in it?

 

[MurphysLaw]

During the build I found a EuroReef skimmer on CL super cheap hopefully it is reliable especially because I siliconed by my blubble traps in my sump to fit the skimmer exactly. The skimmer has a seadra3500 pump and runs, however there are two needles broken off the needle wheel impeller. It does not produce small enough bubbles or foam when just in tap water but when I cleaned it in a vinegar and water mixture it produced what seemed like the necessary bubbles. I hope this is due to the specific gravity or something and it will work properly once saltwater is running through it. I also built a riser from egg crate and pvc to put the skimmer at the recommended water depth.

 

[MurphysLaw]

Way to jump right in, good looking build! Have you decided on what your going to put in it?

Thanks, I would like to start out for the first couple of weeks after the tank has cycled with a pair of Occelaris clowns and then very gradually get some lps corals see how that goes and if that is successful and everything is stable and established I would love to be able to have mostly sps. 2 purple fire fish, 2 bangaii cardinal fish, an Algae Blenny, a midas blenny(although I have read they don't behave with fire fish), and way down the road if I am able to establish and maintain copepods then I would like to get a Red Mandarin. An anemone would be so awesome as well. Maxing out the fish at 7 if my system can handle the bioload.

 

[MurphysLaw]

I have recently ordered a bunch of stuff to get my system going. I check the tracking numbers like every couple hours to see where my stuff is. Im super excited. I ordered;

BulkReefSupply:
InstaOcean Reef Crystals
Filter Socks
MagneticGlassCleaner
Salifert Test Kits for Ammonia, Nitrates, Nitrites
Finnex 100w titanium heater

Amazon:
Vortex Refractometer
LifeGuard Aquatics LED digital thermometer

And for my B-day my AWESOME girlfriend got me:
55lbs of CaribSea Seafloor Special Grade Reef Sand

I am getting so close I can taste it. I have been e-mailing someone at aqua-tecture about getting some CeramEco rock for my setup. That stuff looks awesome. I stole the idea from a somewhat recent thread of a rimless build from someone here local(can't remember the name) but THANKS!! can't wait to place my order.

 

[fishaholic911]

During the build I found a EuroReef skimmer on CL super cheap hopefully it is reliable especially because I siliconed by my blubble traps in my sump to fit the skimmer exactly. The skimmer has a seadra3500 pump and runs, however there are two needles broken off the needle wheel impeller. It does not produce small enough bubbles or foam when just in tap water but when I cleaned it in a vinegar and water mixture it produced what seemed like the necessary bubbles. I hope this is due to the specific gravity or something and it will work properly once saltwater is running through it. I also built a riser from egg crate and pvc to put the skimmer at the recommended water depth.

EuroReef skimmers are good :dance:

FYI - No skimmer will produce bubbles in fresh water

Set-up looks nice and you are doing the right thing by asking lots of ?'s and reading up on the hobby.

One thing I did notice is that the baffles look a little high ( might overflow the sump if the system shuts down. Be sure to test for this

 

[MurphysLaw]

EuroReef skimmers are good :dance:

FYI - No skimmer will produce bubbles in fresh water

Set-up looks nice and you are doing the right thing by asking lots of ?'s and reading up on the hobby.

One thing I did notice is that the baffles look a little high ( might overflow the sump if the system shuts down. Be sure to test for this

I am very glad to hear no skimmer will produce bubbles in fresh water!! That is a relief, Thanks for the insight.

About the baffles, Are you referring to the return pump going off and the water in all the plumbing draining into the sump and raising the level? Because that was not a problem when I was testing it and I have a flapper style check valve on my return line as well....

Thanks again for the Reply I am very glad I started this thread.

 

[fishaholic911]

That is good news that the sump will not overflow

My next ? would be about water evaporation. It looks like you will need a ATO or the sump will run dry in less than 24 hrs with the way the baffles are set.

 

[MurphysLaw]

That is good news that the sump will not overflow

My next ? would be about water evaporation. It looks like you will need a ATO or the sump will run dry in less than 24 hrs with the way the baffles are set.

I definitely intended on getting an ATO at some point. However, I didn't realize that it would evaporate so fast. What is it about the way the baffles are set that would cause this? Is it because the 3rd chamber is so small?

Keep the ?s coming.

 

[aquaph8]

Hey Wade, looking good man. Im the one that sold you the light and ironically fishaholic is the one that sold it to me.

 

[MurphysLaw]

Hey Wade, looking good man. Im the one that sold you the light and ironically fishaholic is the one that sold it to me.

Wow, way cool. Well hopefully you will see that it is going to good use. I actually got my eheim return pump from CL and recently saw the same ad here on this forum by the guy I bought it from jjk_reef00(Ed). I am loving this community it is kinda surprising actually and my system isn't even wet yet. Hopefully that will change very soon. BTW I still have your cell # and I think you said you sell frags?

 

[fishaholic911]

Wow, way cool. Well hopefully you will see that it is going to good use. I actually got my eheim return pump from CL and recently saw the same ad here on this forum by the guy I bought it from jjk_reef00(Ed). I am loving this community it is kinda surprising actually and my system isn't even wet yet. Hopefully that will change very soon. BTW I still have your cell # and I think you said you sell frags?

Too funny Ed got that Eheim from me :fish1:


You will love that light...the bulbs are only a month old and it looked great on my old 55.

 

[fishaholic911]

I definitely intended on getting an ATO at some point. However, I didn't realize that it would evaporate so fast. What is it about the way the baffles are set that would cause this? Is it because the 3rd chamber is so small?

Keep the ?s coming.

It is the fact that the water level can only change about an inch (judging be the picture) This is because the height of the elevated baffles are like I said above only about 1" above the baffles that go all the way to the bottom of the sump.

So you have to keep the water level just below the tallest baffle and just above the shortest baffle.


The way I would build it would be to have only one baflle in the skimmer chamber. This allows the water to stay at a constant level and skimmer to run without any adjustments. Two seperate the fuge and return chamber I would have 3 baffles with the middle one around 3-4" above the other two.


Lets say the sump is 16" tall


skimmer chamber baffle 10"
baffles between fuge and return
baffle 1 6" tall mounted to the bottom of sump
Baffle 2 12" elevated 1"
Baffle 3 6" tall mounted to the bottom of sump

This allows you to have 4" of evaperation, not that is should always be taken advantage of do to salinity but it buys you time before you run that nice ehiem dry. Also it might allow you to do water changes without turning off the main pump.

I can keep going on and on, just let me know if you have any more ?'s

 

[fishaholic911]

Below is an example of the sump from my 180, it is a 40 breeder.