yet another new tank setup advice thread!

[salajander]

Hey all!

I'm working to set up a new 55g tank. So far it's moving slowly ("nothing good every happens quickly in an aquarium" and all). I have so far acquired:

• 55 gallon reef-ready from Deep Blue Professional (shipped free from amazon hello carbon footprint)
• Used aquarium stand

I'm working on getting something designed for sump/fuge, but the space in the stand is limited. There aren't any center supports, but there is only 10.5" of depth. So a 20 gallon tank won't fit (12" wide), but 2x10g should (10"). I had initially thought that drilling one of the 10gs as a fuge and setting it up on some blocks would be good, but it sounds like while drilling the 10g isn't a problem, the thin glass means a bump on the bulkhead would crack things...

In another thread I asked about plastic containers the same size as a 10g aquarium and Dean Ladd pointed out these which look good.

I have a quick-and-ugly sketch of my thoughts on sump/fuge so far:

I'm going to do the Herbie-style drain in my overflow. I think I'll need about 2.5 gallons of space in the sump/fuge for power-loss draining.

So: any initial thoughts? The image above is a rough sketch at this point, not to scale and so forth.

I really don't know what do in the sump. Just some LR and macro? Have a DSB and macro? All three? Set up a benthic zone with LR and macro over that?

Since the fuge will be an an LDPE container, I don't know if I'll be able to glue/weld/etc. an overflow like I have in that drawing. That LDPE tank has four outlets in the corners of the end:

And I've only barely thought about which pump to get, or skimmer, or lighting. Holy crap.

I think at this point if my tank gets wet by Christmas I'll be thrilled.

 

[salajander]

Current state of the tank is:


Not a lot to see just yet...

 

[UTCReefer]

I Would switch the locations of your refugium and the return pump so that the water first hits your skimmer then the refugium and then is pumped back up to the main display that way the entire output from your return pump is aimed into your tank instead of some of it being redirected to feed into the refugium.
But there isnt anything wrong with how you have it layed out either, it should work fine too

 

[salajander]

In a few if the several thousand posts I read about separate sump and fuge designs it was suggested that it was better to send skimmed water to the fuge, so less detritus ends up there. Since I have to do a two tank setup, this was the best method I could think of for getting some low flow of skimmed water through the fuge.

 

[nmbeg]

i never thought i'd say this to a newbie, but here goes: stop thinking about it so much! just do it already!

what I mean to say, really, is that you are doing awesome so far. can't wait to see the final product.

one question--how are you going to get light into the LDPE tank?

 

[salajander]

i never thought i'd say this to a newbie, but here goes: stop thinking about it so much! just do it already!

I think my wife would agree :lmao:

one question--how are you going to get light into the LDPE tank?

So the LDPE tank I'll need to cut open one side. Over that opening, I'm going to rig up some clip-on lamp, nothing fancy. Probably on an opposite timer of the DT.

 

[mpeaden2]

Hey all!

I'm going to do the Herbie-style drain in my overflow. I think I'll need about 2.5 gallons of space in the sump/fuge for power-loss draining.

First of all, nice job on the Amazon Prime.
Second, If you go with 10 gal. sump or 2*10 gal. you may want to reconsider the herbie overflow. That's going to be a ton of flow through a 10 gal. unless you choke off the return enough. or go with a low gph return.

 

[salajander]

Second, If you go with 10 gal. sump or 2*10 gal. you may want to reconsider the herbie overflow. That's going to be a ton of flow through a 10 gal. unless you choke off the return enough. or go with a low gph return.

The sump itself is nothing but the skimmer and the return. I have an Eheim Compact+ 3000 on order ($87!) which can ramp from 150 l/h to 3000 l/h (that's ~40 gph to ~790 gph). I think that adjustment range, plus the gate valve sending some through the fuge, should end up being OK.

There's probably a lot of math and fluid dynamic calculations I could be doing here...

 

[mpeaden2]

I just reread your original post of the '55' gal. I checked amazon and saw a bunch of 90's on prime, I was thinking you were running the 10g on a 90 display with a herbie. Anyway, sounds like you're on the right track and good luck!

 

[salajander]

In the less-planning-more-doing vein, maybe I should have followed what AvitalIsHigh did and just buy everything - tank, rock, skimmer, lights, sand, fish, coral(!) - in one go

 

[salajander]

Way delayed update:

The stand I bought used turned out to have a rotten spot in the bottom, since it's particle board and it got wet (shocker!). Finally got a new stand in - it's all pine. Same basic inner dimensions, though.

I've been going back and forth on the sump/fuge setup. Since power-off drainage is going to be something like 3.5-5 gallons, I hoped to use a 15g tall tank. But that won't give much head space between top of tank and bottom of door frame to get into it for maintenance. So now I'm going to do a very basic 10g sump: just the drains in, baffles, and an area for the heaters (and maybe a bit of live rock) and return. No skimmer. Later, once the basics are up and running, I'll convert another 10g tank as a skimmer/fuge (with allowances for flow in both). Or, set up some sort of HOB skimmer somewhere...

But for initial set up, just a basic sump with drain and return, really, which will give enough head room for power loss drainage.

I'm going to finally get it wet this weekend. Need to acquire some sand and rock, and some plumbing bits, but I'm almost there. Been waaaaaay too long.

 

[salajander]

Progress!

Progress!

Yesterday I grabbed some 5 gallon buckets and got home and cranked up the RO/DI unit and started making clean water. (Only 1 gph, though, due to water pressure.)

Today I bought a giant tub of salt mix from one LFS, and then 20 lbs of aragonite from another.

Tonight I cut up some egg crate for the tank bottom and as a screen on top, did some PVC gluing for the Herbie overflow, and then ...

PUT SAND DOWN AND ADDED SALT WATER.

Took nearly 3 months from tank arrival to getting wet. Yeesh.

Tomorrow I'm buying some live rock from a local reefer, and I'm going to see if I can figure out what the hell I'm going to do about a sump!

Some pics:

 

[salajander]

Did some more plumbing today, and got a pile of live rock from a local guy.

The rock's still in the Giant Pile Rubble™ stage:

Look and my 'leet plumbing skills!

 

[salajander]

Tomorrow I'm going to set up some sort of simple sump in a 10g (just a drain area big enough for a small skimmer and the rest a return with head room for overflow). But I can't find 1/4" glass, just the 1/8" stuff Home Depot sells...

 

[salajander]

Water pretty much entirely cleared up overnight.

I need some more sand - the 20lbs I bought barely covers the eggcrate I have lining the bottom.

 

[salajander]

Got some aquascaping done. Not as high as I'd like, but I was limited with the rocks I had. Will get a few bigger pieces later to help with it.

Also have a functioning sump! Just a wide-open 10 gallon right now, with the Herbie overflow going in and the heaters and return going out. Added some extra rock.

Higher-res available here

 

[salajander]

Coming along nicely.

Been cycling for around 3 weeks. Didn't do anything for a few days, then added some janitorial ammonia to get things moving. Ammonia spiked, then dropped to 0 after 5 days. Dosed again, took 4 days to drop to 0. Dosed, then was away for a week, and we're back to 0, as expected.

Nitrites have been slowly climbing up to around .3-ish

Nitrates have been climbing as well, up to around 40-ish (man, those -ite and -ate tests are a pain to read).

I'm getting a diatom bloom; the previously clean sand is now patchy brown:

Assuming the latest ammonia dose drops quickly, I'm hoping to get a CUC ordered later this week.

Added a black vinyl backing, too, so the return and other cables aren't visible. Very nice.

Also, have a 10g QT I'm going to set up, and probably actually order the first fish!

 

[salajander]

Also still todo:
* Order lights (probably one strip from BML, though I have no idea which color temp to get...)
* Order a skimmer (JNS WS1)
* Set up a better sump; currently it's a wide-open 10g. I need to get another 10g and some glass and go to town.
* ... and later, drill a 10g and plumb it in as a refugium.

 

[salajander]

New look with black vinyl back:

 

[salajander]

Oh yeah, and I added two Koralia 425s to the DT for better circulation. Should have plenty of flow now combined with the return.