Comments/criticism on my new filter setup

[jawwad2004]

what do you guys think? Ill put more pics on later.

 

[House of Laughter]

Tough to see - I see an Aqua C 180? in there, some macro, and a busted baffle not a bad start

Seriuosly, though, looks good so far in order to keep the baffles in place you should T them off so they don't bow and break the silicon seal.

Also, typically the macro comes after the skim -

Not bad though for a first go round.

House

 

[jhale]

your making a mistake using acrylic baffles in a glass sump.

silicone and acrylic do not mix, in a pressure situation it will separate
as shown by the second picture. i learned the hard way, glass sump = glass baffles.

 

[pecan2phat]

Depends on how well you silicone the baffles down. Yes, generally sillicone does not adhere well to acrylic but as you can see in the pic, my baffles are holding well and I have about 1600 gph going through them.

 

[Sean]

If you want the acrylic to hold to the glass you need to use a lot of silicone about two or three times the amount you would use on glass it's going to look sloppy but it will hold.

nice job pecan

 

[jhale]

pecan, I can't tell from the photo, where is your water line?

your baffles are low, that might work since they don't have much pressure on them.

I had some full height baffles fail, and trust me I used plenty of silicon.

 

[Deanos]

pecan, I can't tell from the photo, where is your water line?

Jon, I don't think there's water in there. The skimmer's not running and the filter socks look dry.

 

[cali_reef]

You'll get more consistent skimming if you raise the skimmer output gate valve above the water line. The skimmer will be affected by the water level in the sump as water evaporates thru out the day.

 

[jhale]

Jon, I don't think there's water in there. The skimmer's not running and the filter socks look dry.

took a second look, I think your right.

 

[cali_reef]

Pecan's acrylic baffles are holding fine, I have seen it a few times (with water too ), he didn't use a terrible amount of silicone on it either. The water level in his sump is no where near as high as JAWWAD but he does have a lot of water flowing thru it.

JAWWAD's picture looks as he intentionally pulled the baffle away to accommodate the 90 deg ell from the skimmer.

 

[nanoreefer22]

Pierce, I didn't even notice the skimmer elbow. Maybe he pulled it out on purpose??

 

[herman]

I am all about neat and tidy and doing it right the first time around. My recommendation is get some pipes bulkheads etc and clean it up a bit. It looks rather messy at the moment. Im not saying that it is a bad thing, but a well planned system reduces problems in the future. Get proper connections and glue them correctly.

And as far as the glass on acrylic or vice versa - THEY SHOULD NOT MIX SO DONT. Get a piece of glass cut and do it right. Save yourself future headaches man. Ive been there dude and when something goes wrong you will kick yourself in the ass and pay dearly. You invest so much money into the tank and even more time. You pour your heart into it. Do the same below the tank.

I dont mean to be harsh but your sump to me looks like stale warm beer and thats not too good. You have all the help you could possibly get on this site. Have a look at Jhale, Spykes & Stingnyc. They said they will consolidate their thread. What they built from the ground up is proper, solid and looks good. I am also keeping a close eye on that project cause I am learning alot from it.

Good luck on it man. And if I was too harsh you can kick my butt in the parking lot at the frag swap followed by some beers.

 

[pecan2phat]

Jon,
Deanos was correct, that pic was from Feb when the tank was being set up. My baffles are about 7" at the highest point so I'll take your word on the failure part in regards to high baffles for refugiums.

Cali is correct about the AquaC's, they should be ran with the gate valve above the water line. Quick fix is to raise the skimmer by constructing a stand out of egg crate and tie wraps.

 

[herman]

Pecan, youre work looks cleeeeen. I like!!!

 

[DEEPWATER]

You'll get more consistent skimming if you raise the skimmer output gate valve above the water line. The skimmer will be affected by the water level in the sump as water evaporates thru out the day.

this is true ,i just got off the phone today with aqua c ,i was having a prob (diff one) ,,but i did have that prob last year ,,hooked up skimmer where gate vavle was below the water line ,aqua c told me that if your out take on your skimmer is in or below water level it will not work properly ,creates a siphone ,

 

[jawwad2004]

Pecan's acrylic baffles are holding fine, I have seen it a few times (with water too ), he didn't use a terrible amount of silicone on it either. The water level in his sump is no where near as high as JAWWAD but he does have a lot of water flowing thru it.

JAWWAD's picture looks as he intentionally pulled the baffle away to accommodate the 90 deg ell from the skimmer.

Yes I did move the baffle on purpose. so the water wouldnt go over the baffle and gives the microbubbles a chance to rise, so the water is going from underneath the baffle.

 

[jawwad2004]

I am all about neat and tidy and doing it right the first time around. My recommendation is get some pipes bulkheads etc and clean it up a bit. It looks rather messy at the moment. Im not saying that it is a bad thing, but a well planned system reduces problems in the future. Get proper connections and glue them correctly.

And as far as the glass on acrylic or vice versa - THEY SHOULD NOT MIX SO DONT. Get a piece of glass cut and do it right. Save yourself future headaches man. Ive been there dude and when something goes wrong you will kick yourself in the ass and pay dearly. You invest so much money into the tank and even more time. You pour your heart into it. Do the same below the tank.

I dont mean to be harsh but your sump to me looks like stale warm beer and thats not too good. You have all the help you could possibly get on this site. Have a look at Jhale, Spykes & Stingnyc. They said they will consolidate their thread. What they built from the ground up is proper, solid and looks good. I am also keeping a close eye on that project cause I am learning alot from it.

Good luck on it man. And if I was too harsh you can kick my butt in the parking lot at the frag swap followed by some beers.

No, not at all, I wanted criticism, and Im glad Im getting some. I rather have the truth told to me, rather then it being covered up by lies! So thanks a lot! This was my first shot at a sump, so for now, I am content with the simple fact that I built it with my hands, lol. When I setup my 90, I will use my current 55 as my sump, so some of you guys can definitley help me out.

So besides using the acryclic on glass, what else is wrong?

 

[gforce6]

Like cali said, did you put skimmer output below the water level on purpose? Is your water level of skimmer changes up and down? I am not sure this might help, but here is my skimmer output looks like.

I put tee at the end of the output. I got this idea from jackson. I didn't want to hear water splashing.

 

[jawwad2004]

Well the reason the skimmer is put the way it is, its because there isnt a lot of head room, which raises another concern. I noticed that it becomes extremely humid, to the point that there are water droplets on my light for the refugium. Will this cause damage to the wood?

 

[jhale]

salt water is brutal to finish and paint. eventually the wood will be effected. how long depends on the finish.