Fish's new tank project

[Fish]

Here is a photo of the new sump that I got from Paul today:





The baffles are a little low so I am planning on raising them up by about three inches or so, just to get a little more capacity in the sump.


Next I will post some pics of the metal stand I got as well.

- Chad

[midgetwaiter]

Hey Chad,

I've got a question for you, where did you get the lamp you refit the MH into for your old tank? I saw it over at Paul's place and I really like it. I haven't been able to find one like it.

[Fish]

Hi,
Really that lamp was a lucky find at Staples, but I've heard of other people having difficulties finding it. I think it will only get harder too because desk lamps all seem to be going fluorescent and LED and are built out of plastic that wont withstand the heat of a halide.
You best shot is looking for a "drafting lamp" with a double ended halogen bulb. They are made of metal and are the perfect size for a 70w halide reflector. Best of luck,

- Chad

[Fish]

Here is a shot of my stand:






I plan on sanding the rust off of it and repainting it black along with the wood pieces. I have small kids so I need to enclose the sides, but I am working on a visually pleasing (of course) way of doing that.

As you can see, this project requires more than just building the tank. I need to do a major cleanup on my unfinished basement and also run some electrical lines for power.

- Chad

[JOSH]

what tank dimensions are you going with?

[Fish]

I'm still waffleing a bit on the dimensions but right now it is 30"x18"x17".
The stand is 36 x 18.

I am considering going a little bit longer on the tank (like 32") but still want to leave a little room for the overflow and drain. I am also trying to decide if 17" tall is going to be enough, or if I should go 18". This darn thing has grown already. I was planning on 30x17x17 but when I got the stand and found it was only an extra inch across, I thought it would be nice to cover it completely from side to side.

- Chad

[JSTR]

Progress is looking good there Chad.

Sorry about creating the moral dilemma on tank sizes.

What kind of flow you planing on running thru the sump?

Paul

[Fish]

Haha no problem Paul, I appreciate all your help gearing up for this.
I will either use one of the external pumps as a sump return - in which case I would probably have about 600gph going through the sump.
If I can find a decent submersible pump I might use that instead. Ideally, I would like to do about 300-400gph through the sump.

- Chad

[Fish]

I've just been doing some number crunching and figure that if I use one external pump on the sump return and one on a closed loop, I would have about 35x turnover in the main tank (which is about right) but the water would be going pretty fast (600gph) through my sump - maybe to the point where it sweeps microbubbles into the display.

If however, I used a mag5 as a sump return, I would have a nice and manageable 280gph through the sump. But that would mean closer to 50x turnover in the main tank (because of the mags extra output and because the Iwaki would then be bolted to the underside of the tank and wouldn't have the same losses it would have as a sump return). I usually shoot for about 30-40x turnover but 50x is a little excessive on a zoo/riccordia tank. So, there's the dilemma.

I don't really want the added expense of buying and running another pump - especially when I've already fgot pretty good flow. I might just move the baffles further apart and raise them up and just go with the 600gph through the sump...


What are people's thoughts on this?

- Chad

[woodcarver]

Chad, That is a Coralife skimmer alongside your sump is it not ?...........Dave