Dan H Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Ok, that sounds like it's where it should be. In the picture it looks like it's only a few inches from the bottom. So when's water going in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 Well I found a good deal on an old fish tank that I wanted to turn into a sump today. It was a 90 gallon with a really cool footprint: 72l x 18w x 16h. The issue is that there was no way for me to get the tank into the stand because it was 6 feet long and none of the pieces come apart. From the pictures above you can see that there is no way for it to fit in there without cutting apart the stand. So, I had a lot of different ideas on how to get it in there, but ultimately I decided on taking the old tank apart, cleaning it, and rebuilding it inside the stand. I don't have any pictures of my taking the tank apart, but that was a real pain in the butt. One thing I will say is that I found that fishing line was by far the easiest way to cut through the silicone. Once I had it apart I cleaned it with a razor blade and put all the pieces inside the stand. It was my first silicon job so I made the corners extra thick Just make sure I got a seal. All in all the project turned out really nice. I have a nice big sump and didn't compromise the structure of the hardwood stand. Tomorrow, leak test for my new sump Also, I need to figure out a plan for the sump internals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Man, that is a lot of work. And that's the perfect size sump. Very similar dimensions to mine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 I have put a lot of work into this build so far. A lot more than I thought it would be to be honest, but I am learning a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Fingers crossed for leak test .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 You can uncross those fingers, Jim. Success! Now I need to figure out the compartments in the sump Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 Woohoo! Nice work! Are you going to put in a refugium in the sump? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LarryD Posted July 5, 2015 Share Posted July 5, 2015 I don't know if I would have had the patience to disassemble and then reassemble a tank in the cabinet, I think I would have been more incline to pipe two smaller tanks together to get the volume up, though I am still new to this and don't think I have ever heard of anyone doing that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted July 5, 2015 Author Share Posted July 5, 2015 Yeah, I am also pretty new to this. My thought was that I got the tank on the cheap because it was old, so I knew I was going to need to reseal it anyway. It was a little extra work to rebuild it inside of the stand, but not that bad. I am really excited that it's not leaking thoughDan, right now I know I want a space for all 3 dc12000s, my skimmer, an area for optional socks (put them in when I want to clean up the water a bit, but probably run most time without), a bubble trap, and a big refuge/frag area. Not sure on carx in or out of sump, but I don't have a lot of room outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted July 11, 2015 Author Share Posted July 11, 2015 So, the next two steps of the tank are to put in the baffles for the sump and to plumb this thing I tried to cut the glass myself and it was too thin and I sucked at it. I am pretty handy and love DIY projects, but I just couldn't get the lines right. So, I broke down and went to Binswanger Glass on South Congress and they had the glass ready same day and it was absolutely perfect. At the end of the day I still will have this 6' custom sump installed for around $225 total. Not even as close to as sexy as some of the nicer custom acrylic jobs out there that make me drool, but I think this will work nicely. I want to finish it today. So, pictures to follow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jimbo662 Posted July 11, 2015 Share Posted July 11, 2015 Not a bad price for a "custom" sump that size! Yeah, I get all my glass from Benswanger also. Also nice people to work with and always quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted July 12, 2015 Author Share Posted July 12, 2015 The sump is done and the Herbie is plumbed. I did find a drip leak in one of the bulkheads in my overflow, but that should be an easy fix. The sump has 5 sections from right to left. The first is the return section, it is small and flows into the skimmer chamber. The skimmer chamber is small, which is one nice part of the skimz oval series. Then a bubble trap leads into the refugium/coral grow out area. That is 40 inches long and a little over 40 gallons. Then there is a gap for mechanical filtration, probably a couple socks. Then the return area, which I made relatively roomy because I think that I will put my Calcium Reactor there as well as two pumps. It is not pretty, but I ran a hose in the overflow and got a siphon out of the herbie, and the sump worked just as expected. So, even though it is ugly and my silicone skills need work, I say it is a win. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 The left hand dividers between the refug and return are really high. This will set the return section to be really high, and when the pump stops, and drains out the main tank you might overflow. Did you check for this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 But... I should add, that is a lot of work! Great job! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted July 13, 2015 Author Share Posted July 13, 2015 Yeah I think so, but I am a bit worried The overflow will drain 2 gallons when the pump is off. The main tank will drain a half inch of top water from the top of the weir of the overflow I'm guessing? That would be 5 Gallons. The herbie will have about gallon in it at full siphon. The return chamber is a little over 12 Gallons. So, that gives me running height of 4.5 to 5 gallons in the return chamber, which is a little under 6 inches of water. The pump will start sucking air a little under 3 inches, so I have 3 inches to play with. That means if roughly more than 2.5 gallons evaporates before I top off I will be sucking air.... if I lower that last baffle then I can gain maybe 2-3 gallons. I also have 2 inches at the very top of the sump before it actually overflows. That would be a little over 10 gallons extra, which is plenty, but of course then there are fish everywhere.... So, I will lower it if I need it. On the bright side... I fixed the overflow leak. Yay! Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted July 14, 2015 Author Share Posted July 14, 2015 So, everything is finished now. The sump and overflow has been leak tested for a couple days and it is good to go. I have the overflow done as well, the only thing that stinks is that I skimped and bought the economy gate valve and it leaks when completely closed, not that I would do that often, but I will need to add a ball valve inline as well. Next steps are plumbing the return, plumbing the closed loops, then it is ready for water... That said, I have no sand, only about 100lbs of live rock, no salt. So, I have some purchasing to do. Also, I haven't done anything with the live rock that I have. Should I put it in a trash can with some ro/di then throw in a heater turned all the way up and let it cook? Lastly, would you just add ro/di and fill the tank and then add salt until you get it to 35ppm? I see a lot of people making it in a trash can and then adding it, but that seems like a pain comparatively, but maybe I a missing something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Makena95GT Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Honestly I mixed my SW in the tank. But I also had dry rock, and added my live rock (which was only one rock) a day or so after churning up the SW and checking salinity. Theres a ton of different ways to do it and some people preach one way over the other. But I say if you got to your end goal and didnt murder anyone (yourself included), you are golden! Sent from my LGLS660 using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 If there is nothing alive in the tank, just mix the SW in the tank for now. Just remember that once you start adding the rock/sand, it will displace a lot of the water so be ready to drain water. The 100 lbs of live rock, is it LIVE rock, or dry rock? If it's LIVE rock, don't kill it. Keep it happy in good SW and once the tank is ready, put it in. In my opinion, people that buy live rock just to kill it by baking it or using acid or whatever are completely missing the point of buying LIVE rock. Now it's just a dead rock that you paid a lot for. Why do you want to run it in FW with high heat? It will only accomplish ruining the live rock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted July 14, 2015 Author Share Posted July 14, 2015 Thanks, guys. Well it is more like dead rock now... it was live rock at one point and I got it on the cheap from deals that I saw on ARC. But it has been sitting in a dry bucket now for a long time. I have to imagine most of the stuff is dead on it now... And I don't want to put that stuff in the tanks right? I'm just trying to figure out how to get it ready for the tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted July 14, 2015 Share Posted July 14, 2015 Ah ok. Then yeah, you probably want to rinse it somehow to remove as much dead stuff as possible. I don't think you need to worry about baking it and stuff like that. I would use a strong powerhead to blow out all the detritus and dead stuff. But other than rinsing, I don't think you need to do anything. The new system is going to cycle anyways, so this would just be more dead stuff for it to process out. Might make the cycling take slightly longer, but I wouldn't worry about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted July 14, 2015 Author Share Posted July 14, 2015 Sounds good that is what I will do with the rock. I have almost figured out what to do with the refugium as well. I think I am going to run a DSB, a 6 inch section for macro algae, and the rest a coral grow out area. It is only 14 inches high but if I do a 5inch sand bed in the coral area I should still have 9 inches of water for coral in a 34'x17' area, which should require a lot less powerful light. Maybe one nice 36 inch led. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted August 2, 2015 Author Share Posted August 2, 2015 I finally got the plumbing finished for the return, but right as I was about to call it a day and plug in my pump I thought.... Wow, this plug is sitting 2 inches from a 90g sump and 1 foot underneath 240. Gallons of water, should it be a GFCI? Also, with how big the system is should it be on it's own circuit? An electrician friend suggested yes to both to be conservative. The dining room lights and one other plug are the only things on that circuit currently, so I can probably get by without its own circuit, but I had an electrician come to take a look. He said my house has something called California wiring, which means they used the neutrals to start new circuits and the right way to do it is to pull all that wiring a part and put them on their own circuits. With the price to redo the circuits it was not worth it, I have a huge renovation coming 2-3 years out and I will do it then. So, I put in a GFCI outlet, put on a surge protector, and started filling it with water. I will just have to watch my Apex to tell me the amps I am pulling and make sure to back out the amount for the 60w lights in the dining room. It's not a perfect solution, and it set me back a week, but after considering all the data points this is the risk I need to take. The electrician did say that it would be relatively easy to just run a brand new circuit to the tank, which I think I will do if I find the system is pulling too many amps. That was yesterday, and I now have my newly updated 6 stage RO/DI pumping 150gpd into the tank. It is going to take 2 days to get the water to fill. I decided I am just going to get it done as I can. I know people hate it, but I am going to put in water, then rock, then sand. The first thing I will setup is my sump. Being that the sump is 3 times the size of my biocube that I am upgrading from, I won't be able to even fill the main fuge/frag chamber. Is there a reason that I can't build out that frag area with seeded sand and live rock and let the tank up top sit with just water as I pull together the plan on the live rock and sand? I will have the skimmer, mech filters, etc on there. I am half full on the tank with no water in the sump yet. So I have about 24 more hours to full.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jolt Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 I don't see any problem with that approach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan H Posted August 2, 2015 Share Posted August 2, 2015 Just my $0.02, but when it comes to the electricity part, I think do it right and don't risk your house, or even your life! We had an electrician come run a dedicated circuit and gfci for just the tank. We had it put on a 20 amp breaker just to have a large margin of safety. I think it was only like $300-400 so well worth it for peace of mind. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShawnKoto Posted August 2, 2015 Author Share Posted August 2, 2015 Yeah, I agree. The GFCI is a must for the safety, and I am all upgraded to 20 amps, just deciding on the dedicated circuit now.... I will see the cost on Monday and probably will end up pulling the trigger. Would be really sorry to be at work and have the circuit trip and get overloaded and come home to $1000 of death when I could have made a good $300 decision... The tough part is separating out the must haves and the nice to haves on a build like this because cost can get out of hand quickly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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