75 gal Holy crap what have I done? Errr, make that 90gal.

[Beza]

SO things have taken a turn for the worse with this project...

By "turn for the worse", I of course mean "turn towards the expensive".

I am now undertaking a deal to obtain a 90 gal reef tank from some really friendly people! The bad side of this is that I paid for a 75gal freshwater tank, complete with cichlids, which I probably won't use! The tank just sits there, mocking me. The cichlids seem concerned, but not overly. I'm pretty sure that they realize that whatever happens, they'll be fine.

But back to the SW dreams...

In recent news, I obtained what apparently is a fairly decent, albeit overdone, skimmer. This thing came complete with some loc-line, and a PCX-40 pump. The random guy down at Big Al's tells me that it is a Beckett-style skimmer. To this, my reply was "Ok. Huh? Duh. Seems scientific enough."









Any info on this stuff, or even tips on rigging it up, would be appreciated. I used to be a plumber, so at least I know that fish-**** rolls downhill, and payday for everyone else is anytime I walk into a reef store.

Oh, and here is what I am getting (sorry, I took these with my cellphone):









Hopefully I can do it justice. Plans right now include getting rid of everything in the 75 gal, including the stand, then using it as a sump with perhaps a partition for a refugium or isolation tank. The 90 gal looks amazing and I can't wait to get my hands on it, but I need to have everything else set up, and the owners are nice enough to wait for me... how awesome is that?

Any thoughts? I'd love some suggestions. Especially as far as looping everything through that pump, if it was possible (except the isolation tank, of course).

[rjengen]

Just went through your first post...I'm entertained now...lol. I have several fresh tanks and love them all, and I've just started into the dark world of salt. Little tip from the noob...stalk this place like it was your super hot x-girlfriend (minus the going phyco hijinx of course) If you look in this section (The journal) you will see lot's of post from noob sauces like ourselves that are just staring out...with lot's of questions and answers. Your off to a good start though. Check the thread I have going...there's some info and a closed loop that I'm doing...still waiting for santa to bring me the final pieces though

[Beza]

So thought I'd mention a great tip for all you others out there who may have what you *think* is more general knowledge about the world than the average bear...

Calm down before you do ANYTHING and READ more about it! Ha ha ha.

Case in point:

I figured I'd start with the design of the 90gal I'm getting. Already traded the cichlids for 2 pumps, danners, 1200 and 1800. 75gal which I will use as a sump is all cleaned and ready for bastardization...

Moving the 90 is going to be a beyatch, so I thought I would begin my experimenting early by running a temp system in the 75, just to see how all the plumbing and everything performs. Plan is to move all the stuff from the 90 into a functioning environment in the 75, then transfer it back after everything is at my place.

As of right now, I have 3 pumps total, one will be used for CL, and the other will be used to run that massive beast of a skimmer I picked up (bullet 2). I am aiming at around 800-900gph on the CL, and I haven't decided if I will run the bullet with the danner 1800 or the pcx-40.

So of course I decide that I should waste like 50 bucks and build a temporary CL system for the 75, complete with 4 weird loc-line head thingies. This way I can run the skimmer and everything to see how well things perform. I can practice my chemistry on a plain old boring piece of water, too.

After getting my nose into a bit of reading that seems to preach on the benefits of variable flows and things like that, I look into getting a wave-maker or something expensive sounding. Research leads me to find that wavemakers actually ARE expensive... great. So the inventive wheels in my head start grinding. Slowly. What I come up with is that I should use a sprinkler controller, and maybe sprinkler valve systems with all those neat little solenoids.

What I find is that solenoids will NOT work. They all open directly to the water supply, as far as I can tell, and they all appear to be made of a plain old bi-metal disk that will of course explode into rust if I even mention saltwater in the general area.

So Shawn holds up a sprinkler itself, and peers at it in the light... slowly remembering his time as a valve technician, in addition to the job when he was younger as a golf course sprinkler mechanic. Then it hits: the idea. Of course those damn sprinklers run on water pressure, leeching a bit of the flow to turn that crap little mechanism that turns the head slowly... why not make something that uses all that pump flow that I so obviously will be wasting?

So I visit my dad that weekend, and tell him about my plan with subtle hints that he should lend me a copy of masterCAM so I can make a file that his machines can mill me the perfect sprinkler drive. I am rewarded for my efforts with a polite "no", and 2 old sprinkler heads that don't work.

After days of intensive research & development, I happen to be trolling the internet for any pvc valves I can find, when suddenly I come upon something called an SCWD... for 30 bucks. Oddly enough, it does exactly what the thing that I had designed does, albeit at a greater loss of flow, and with a lot less style - but it works.

So I throw away the sprinkler heads, and grab the SCWD from A.I.

...a bit of reading could have saved me this trouble. Why the hell didn't I look for some newb tank-building site?

I'll put some more pics up soon.

[mark]

Just a comment if still planning FOWLR, skip the expensive light and don't bother with the CL.

Planning on keeping with the softies in the picture again lights and flow not all that critical (compared to SPS).

and take your own advice "Calm down before you do ANYTHING and READ more about it!"

[Beza]

Here's what I came up with using google sketchup for design ideas:



Basically it just shows the 75gal which will be used as a sump shoved into the bottom part of the stand to make sure it will fit. I am still in the dev stage, figuring out materials needed, sizing, etc.

I may be increasing bracing as well, I'm not sure if this setup with 2x4s will be sturdy enough. I may also switch to 2x6s or 8s for the vertical pieces. Other considerations will be disassembly because I don't plan on living where I am now for very much longer (anyone selling a house? lol). It has to be pretty high because of my damn giant skimmer, ha ha.

I would appreciate any ideas or input. The main tank will be a 90gal FOWLR.

[Beza]

Here's what I've come up with. I think I want a nice big fuge to grow pods and whatever else may strike my fancy...







Ok so I spent like 6 hours working on plans today! Time to go actually do something a little less time consuming, and maybe a little less fun...

Also considering getting rid of my GenX PCX40 and buying a bigger submersible for the return... I don't want to drill 3/4" glass just to put an external which will take up more room. I wonder if the 1200 could run the skimmer, and maybe use the 1800 for the return? Hmmmmm.

[Beza]

Went out today and bought a bunch of scraps of plexiglass and acrylic off a local shop. I tried doing the old score and snap thing, but unfortunately my workspace is a computer room right now, so I totally sucked at it. I need to go out and grab a bunch of woodworking clamps.

I'm also beginning to wonder if having flow go BELOW the refugium might be a bad idea.

Has anyone else built a sump like this? I was hoping to have a high flow rate as well as reducing microbubbles, so I made the fuge elevated and had DT return flow whipping underneath.

Lol. It's back to work tomorrow, so I get to second guess myself for another week or so... I think I'll put this on hold again. Sigh. I want to be really sure of what I'm creating before I actually start slapping baffles in.

[Chase31]

this is the first time i'v ever seen a sump like that :P mind you i went baffleless in my sump

[new but handy]

That's almost exactly how I built my sump. I t'ed off my drain into my fuge so I could adjust the flow. Then The excess and the other drain go into my sump. Makes the fuge nice and gentle with good flow through my sump. Make sure the bottem of the fuge slopes up in the direction of water flow or else a lot off air will get caught under it

[new but handy]

I lied
I put my baffles on the other side of my fuge, just before my return.
how are you feeding your fuge?