Prop tank suggestions

[aquanut92368]

Hi Whirley,
I sent you an e-mail a couple of weeks ago, got no reply. Msn has been messed up off and on so maybe that was the reason. I am going to be up in chicago in a few weeks and thought about your xenias. How close are you to lake forest? Reply to my email and maybe we can set something up.
Kevin

 

[scavdog]

I see no problem housing the rock in the sump if all the tanks are on one system.

In regards to your shelving I have seen good results using plastic light diffuser (AKA egg crate) available at Home Depot. IMO it would probably handle waterflow better.
Good luck

 

[aquanut92368]

Hi all,
Here is my dilema. I have a 55 and 65 gallon prop system that is tied into a 110 poly stock tank sump. The sump has a plenum with 4"-5" sand bed, I have 3 types of caulerpa in there with about 20# LR. The sump only holds around 60-70 gallons of water.The tanks each have around 40# LR with a 2"-3" sandbed. My situation is this, I am getting tight on space and I am going to put some acrylic shelving in the 55 and 65 to utilize more of the tank space. Would it be safe to house all of the LR in the sump? Or do I need some in each of the tanks for a reason? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Kevin

 

[whirley]

dude, I wish I had your problem ;-)

I've got a 15, 20, and soon a 30 all
hooked to my one sump.I'm not an expert, but I'd say it would be ok to move the liverock into the sump. Course, you could always give some frags to your buddies in Chicago.

whirley

 

[reefer6]

The only thing you need to watch out for is water displacement. If you add 100# af live rock to a 60 gal sump with a 5"DSB you now have roughly a 30gal sump or there abouts. thats not a bad thing it simply leaves less room for error in power outages or pump failure.

 

[aquanut92368]

Reefer,
If I take the LR out of the same system, just place it into a different part of the system the amount of water displacement would be the same. The sump is a 110 gallon poly stock tank, the sump only contains 60-70 gallons of water, there is still a lot of room in the sump, probably 10"-12" of depth that is not being used. The return pump has a check valve on it to prevent back siphoning in the event of a power outtage, the overflows from the tanks would possibly allow another 15-20 gallons of water to enter the sump, maybe 5"-6" of water. I guess my point is, the level of water in the sump would not change if the LR were to be moved into it, the volume of water would be more in the tanks to replace the amount of LR removed. I don't know if that makes sense.
I appreciate everyones input and thanks. Hopefully I will be able to get this done in a week or so. Any other comments would be appreciated.

 

[aquanut92368]

Hi RD,
I think I get what was being referred to. Yes there will dtill be room for the added volume of water. As soon as I get time I am going to make those changes. Thanks everyone for the input.
Kevin

 

[RDHoagla]

Aquanut,
I think that what reefer6 was getting at was that the extra rock in your sump would mean more water in your prop tanks and less water in your sump. As long as your sump can still handle the water from your tanks when power goes out, and you don't get too many micro-bubbles from your sump volume being too small, go right ahead.
My prop tank has no live rock in it and it is hooked up to my main system. The live rock is for boilogical filtration, and as long as you have the same amount of rock in the system, it doesn't matter which tank it is in.
As for shelving, I am using egg crate and pvc shelving and it works great. Feel free to look at my web site and take a look. http://www.funshinexpress.com/corals/index.htm
Good luck,
Ryan