cardiffgiant
Active member
I get a lot of inspiration from others on the board. I'd like to thank Eastamherstbias (Austin), Haffs09 (John), and chrisqueenz (Chris) for their part in this update.
Austin's basement set up is very clean and separates things nicely. I've wanted to rework my own sump ever since he started posting pictures of his. I recently picked up a par38 bulb from John and he gave me a tour of his amazing system. His layout gave me some ideas for better use of space in my basement area. I picked up a NW200 from Chris at the Rochester swap, which is a better match for the flow through my sump and is better rated to my volume of water.
Improvements:
-Lowered my sump to the ground by using a very small base
-Built a wide stand to house two tanks above my sump
-Took the baffles out of my refugium/frag tank so that I can make it a full 29 gal fuge
-Added a dedicated frag tank by drilling a 20 long and adding a 700gph glass-holes overflow
-Got rid of a lot of the hard PVC and went with spaflex (why haven't I been using this stuff all along????)
-Added a 2nd light over the fuge
-Added a 2nd par38 over the frag tank
-Put both on separate timers and lighting schedules (frag tank = 8 hours from 1600-2400, fuge = 12 hours from 2400-1200)
-Tipped over my new skimmer, breaking the M/M threaded coupling between the pump return and the skimmer inlet
-Issued profanity
-Called Coral Vue for a replacement part and added a pinwheel impeller to the order for less than $30
Austin's basement set up is very clean and separates things nicely. I've wanted to rework my own sump ever since he started posting pictures of his. I recently picked up a par38 bulb from John and he gave me a tour of his amazing system. His layout gave me some ideas for better use of space in my basement area. I picked up a NW200 from Chris at the Rochester swap, which is a better match for the flow through my sump and is better rated to my volume of water.
Improvements:
-Lowered my sump to the ground by using a very small base
-Built a wide stand to house two tanks above my sump
-Took the baffles out of my refugium/frag tank so that I can make it a full 29 gal fuge
-Added a dedicated frag tank by drilling a 20 long and adding a 700gph glass-holes overflow
-Got rid of a lot of the hard PVC and went with spaflex (why haven't I been using this stuff all along????)
-Added a 2nd light over the fuge
-Added a 2nd par38 over the frag tank
-Put both on separate timers and lighting schedules (frag tank = 8 hours from 1600-2400, fuge = 12 hours from 2400-1200)
-Tipped over my new skimmer, breaking the M/M threaded coupling between the pump return and the skimmer inlet
-Issued profanity
-Called Coral Vue for a replacement part and added a pinwheel impeller to the order for less than $30
