40gal Beananimal Reef

[ReefOcean]

Finally I have the thing operational. After a dozen trips to Home Depot and much research I can finally say...the tank is...working

I wanted to maximize the foot print, while keeping the tank relatively light (I live in a condo) so I went with a cube design 24x24x16.

I wanted a safe and quit overflow so I decided to go with the beananimal. 90 percent of the water is siphoned through a 1 inch air-tight overflow, with a ball valve for adjustments. The second overflow takes on the other 10 percent, it has air being injected into the pipe so the first can continuously siphon. The third overflow is the emergency overflow, and I thank god it is there because I have used it about 2 times since yesterday.


The tank is a mess, and pipes and tubing is everywhere in my sump, I am still waiting on a skimmer and lighting, so I have the canopy of my 30 gal sitting across the top of the tank with some LED lights and a hang-on skimmer sitting on the side of the tank.

I had a major micro bubble issue since yesterday, but after fiddling with the ball valves and adding a filter sock to the return, the bubbles are almost gone. The overflow is quiet. when I turn off the skimmer and close the stand, I can barely hear anything.

I already had one little flood. I tested to see how far the sump would fill up after the pump was shut off since the first overflow is a siphon. I then turn the pump on, filled the tank and then marked the spot with a marker on the sump tank.....but...i was testing it without the return fully in the tank. Today, when I shut the pump off, the water drained as expected and all was good until I heard gurgling from the return. All of a sudden, water started pouring into the sump (the return sits quit low in the tank) and 5 or so gallons spilled all over my carpet. :(

Lesson learned

Anyhow, here are some pics. I will post more info later and more picks as I get the mess, some book shelves and so other debris removed from the den.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/bmcmvox/09052011820.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/bmcmvox/09052011819.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/bmcmvox/09052011818.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/bmcmvox/09052011817.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/bmcmvox/09052011816.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/bmcmvox/09052011815.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/bmcmvox/08262011811.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/bmcmvox/08262011807.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/bmcmvox/08202011799.jpg

[ScubaSteve]

Tagging along for your build. I am, as we speak, building my new 50g (24x24x20) rimless with an external beananimal over flow. Looks like we're going down almost identical roads. I haven't put much into my build thread yet but by next weekend I'll be putting up some tutorials and such as I go through it.

You should try putting baffles in your sump; that'll cut down the bubble issue dramatically. I know you can't really do that until you get your skimmer... But, you know... Just saying.

Do you have a check valve on your return line?

[ReefOcean]

Hi, No, I have no valve installed in my return, but that is a mighty good idea. All my return plumbing is screwed in unlike my overflows which are glued, so installing another valve would be pretty easy.


I checked around several places and every place wasn't too helpful on getting a custom tank built. I guess really, unless it is a big tank, many businesses aren't to keen on wasting too much time in helping me out. Until I contacted J&L, and Jeff must have sent my upwards of 30 email back and forth, advising me and helping me design the best possible tank. After a couple of weeks, I settled on this design:


http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b353/bmcmvox/tankdraft.jpg



*** Note, there was a measurement discrepancy in those plans, as well as a few things were adjusted after Jeff sent the plans to the manufacturer. Teeth were added etc.

So special shout out to Jeff and the J&L staff. Definitely went above and beyond.

At this point, I have a shabby acrylic baffle that is slumped between my pump and drains, it is sort of doing the job for now. I started drafting a custom sump. With space in the stand being so limited, it is hard to find a pre-fab tank to be a suitable sump. Right now I am using a 10 gallon since the space I have to slide a tank in is only 21 inches.

The beananimal is awesome. Silent. It isn't hard to tune either. I read a few posts on reef central on how the overflow is finicky, but I had the valves set in about 30 seconds and haven't had to adjust them yet.

I just used 1 inch ball valves found at home depot for 7 dollars. I was reading that gate valves are probably better, but there valves I have are very heavy duty and seem to be doing a good job.

I had the pump running externally, but the micro bubbles were intense, like a sand storm in the display.again, due to the junky sump. The key is to maximize the flow from the siphon and limit the flow in the air injected overflow, that is the only trick to "tuning" the overflow. SO now I have the pump running submerged. The pump is a Life Guard Quiet One 3000, dialed down to minimum flow.

If you have any sump ideas, I would love to hear them. I was thinking of a 14 deep X 12 High X 20 Long which several baffles before the return and places to put filter media and whatnot. Since the tank drains about 5-6 gallons of water in the pump fails, I could only have the sump filled about half way.


FOr the plumping, you don't need to go overboard like the original beananimal did. No reed for all those extra plumbing doohickies, especially the ones you can't find at home depot. Both my siphon and air overflow are simply 1 inch. I use a T fitting. The pipe goes down, and there is a cap on the top of the T. The siphon has no hole in the cap, the air-driven one does. Easy. Both the Siphon and the air-driven have a ball valve, the emergency does not. I put the ball valve onto the air-driven because I can shut it off, and left the overflow box fill and let the siphon kick in a lot sooner. So I would suggest it.


Anyhow, I still need my lights, skimmer and I plan on running neozeo through a reactor.

Still much to be done