My New 72 Bowfront

[CHEMCHEF]

It seemed like time to upgrade my 72 cichlid tank to a reef tank. I have an aqupod 24 and it was starting to get a little crowded. So this is it .
I am posting pictures of the begining of my build. Keep in mind this is my first sump and i have learned alot along the way, and still have alot of improvements to make. My plumbing is a little loud for a living room, so a reverse durso for my overflow and my skimmer exit (for lack of a better term) is soon to come.
I look forward to all advice and criticism and tips.

 

[CHEMCHEF]

DAY 2 and no floods yea!!!
Sorry pics are so bad

 

[KathyC]

From the progression of pics it doesn't look like your rocks are sitting on the bottom of the tank, but on the sandbed.
Please tell me I'm wrong

Is your first baffle (from the left) sitting on the bottom of the sump or is it raised up for the water to flow under it? If its on the bottom, I think you need to install another baffle that is taller to the left of it.

Have you tried shutting off the system to see if the sump can accommodate the water in the event of a power failure?

Looks like it will be a very nice system

 

[CHEMCHEF]

Yes my rocks are on the sand bed. I didnt know that was bad.
The first baffle is sitting on the bottom of the tank. why would i put a taller baffle to the left of it, wouldnt that make the water level higher, I was worried the water level was too high already. I did my power failure test with everything crossed, finger ,toes, eyes and i had like 20 beach towels ,a mop, and 17 wet vacs LOL.:tongue1:, its on the second floor. But everything was ok. In one of the pics you can see two sharpie lines one runnig, one pumps off.

From the progression of pics it doesn't look like your rocks are sitting on the bottom of the tank, but on the sandbed.
Please tell me I'm wrong

Is your first baffle (from the left) sitting on the bottom of the sump or is it raised up for the water to flow under it? If its on the bottom, I think you need to install another baffle that is taller to the left of it.

Have you tried shutting off the system to see if the sump can accommodate the water in the event of a power failure?

Looks like it will be a very nice system

 

[SaltyFlip]

It's looking good. I'm liking the whole setup. But they do say it's best to have the rocks directly on the glass first. Since it's on top of sand, it has the tendency to shift and move, worste case is that could crack your glass later and be left with a big mess. With a setup as big as yours, I think it would've been best if the rocks were placed first then the sand around it.

BTW i'm liking word SOLD!

 

[KathyC]

Rocks should be placed first and then the sand afterwards (or base rocks can be placed level with the top of the sand and then you can do your aquascaping on top of it)..the reason is that flow will blow some sand out from under the rocks and add to that any burrowing types of fish (gobies etc) will undermine your rock structure as well as fish just picking around the base of the rocks looking for goodies and can cause it to fall over breaking your tank.:Yikes:
It's kinda the first rule of aquascaping

About the baffle...the 1st & 2nd baffle appear to be about the same height..so it's kinda like one big chamber with a piece of glass in it that is doing not much more than stopping/slowing flow. Any bubbles that your skimmer return is creating look like they are just going right over the top of it. If you drop a couple of pellets or food flakes in there you'll see there is very little motion to the water and that isn't the purpose of a sump (from what I understand).
Both of my sumps (I didn't design them ) have the 1st baffle about 1 " UP off the bottom of the tank so the water flows under it and then up and over the 2nd baffle..and that's where my bubbles dissapate so there are none in the fuge section of my sumps.
Hopefully others will chime in and explain it a lot better than I have

17 shop vac huh? You ought to have a sale lol
..why does it say 'sold' across your DT? lol

 

[SaltyFlip]

question! what's a baffle...where is it? sorry, it might sound ignorant but I currently don't have a sump set up. I'd like to know these kinds of things in case of future upgrades and such...once I know what the baffle is then maybe i'll understand KathyC's explanation better.

EDIT...WAIT I think I just got it...is it the divider thingy? if it is then I am awesome!...hahaha just kidding.

 

[CHEMCHEF]

About the aquascaping, what you say makes sense. I cant belive that in all the time ive spent reading about reefng i neve once read anything about that. Common sense i guess huh:duh:.
All of the rocks on the bottom do have very large flat bottoms though, I dont know if that make a difference or not. The total rock weight is 155lbs. There are only 17 pieces of rock in the whole tank and 6 of them are huge base pieces. The purple:splitspin one in the midddle weighs 41 lbs.

i extended the hose coming off the skimmer exiting into the fuge, it seens to have picked up the pace of the flow a little.
I decided to put the bubble trap after the fuge. im getting to understand water physics better through all of this.
LMK what you think about the rock, I hope its ok
OK maybe not 17 shop vacs

Rocks should be placed first and then the sand afterwards (or base rocks can be placed level with the top of the sand and then you can do your aquascaping on top of it)..the reason is that flow will blow some sand out from under the rocks and add to that any burrowing types of fish (gobies etc) will undermine your rock structure as well as fish just picking around the base of the rocks looking for goodies and can cause it to fall over breaking your tank.:Yikes:
It's kinda the first rule of aquascaping

About the baffle...the 1st & 2nd baffle appear to be about the same height..so it's kinda like one big chamber with a piece of glass in it that is doing not much more than stopping/slowing flow. Any bubbles that your skimmer return is creating look like they are just going right over the top of it. If you drop a couple of pellets or food flakes in there you'll see there is very little motion to the water and that isn't the purpose of a sump (from what I understand).
Both of my sumps (I didn't design them ) have the 1st baffle about 1 " UP off the bottom of the tank so the water flows under it and then up and over the 2nd baffle..and that's where my bubbles dissapate so there are none in the fuge section of my sumps.
Hopefully others will chime in and explain it a lot better than I have

17 shop vac huh? You ought to have a sale lol
..why does it say 'sold' across your DT? lol

 

[SaltyFlip]

BTW IMO if you don't want to or can't add another baffle...you might want to reverse your sump tank (curent left side to the right and vice versa) so you'll have a bubble trap still, considering that you probably won't be able to change your pipes/tubes.

 

[JARRETT SHARK]

what size sump is that ?, who made it for you ? and what skimmer is that ? have the same set up and its not working for me and looks like yours is the way I want to go by the pics. Keep posting more as you go

 

[CHEMCHEF]

I dont understand why the bubble trap shouldnt be directly before the return chamber. Most designs i have searched were like this. I dont know if everybody can see in the pictures that there is a bubble trap before the return chamber. and it def. working because I dont have a reverse durso yet on the intake so it gurgles and makes alot of bubbles and i getting no bubbles in DT

BTW IMO if you don't want to or can't add another baffle...you might want to reverse your sump tank (curent left side to the right and vice versa) so you'll have a bubble trap still, considering that you probably won't be able to change your pipes/tubes.

 

[CHEMCHEF]

The sum pis a 20 long It just fit under the stand LUCKILY, Because id dint measure. I made the sump its my first one, and seems to be ok so far.
The skimmer is an aqua c ev180, I dont know how well it works but if u are considering this skimmer be aware that the water exit MUST be above the water line or it WILL overflow (not might as the company states.) Ive tried an elbow to quiet the splashing but that restricts the flow also PITA.
There is a great video on you tube on building this exact sump http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxnugJGiT3o or if this link doesnt work type in diy sump on you tube

what size sump is that ?, who made it for you ? and what skimmer is that ? have the same set up and its not working for me and looks like yours is the way I want to go by the pics. Keep posting more as you go

 

[SaltyFlip]

I guess....I mean I guess everyone has their own thing on how to setup a sump. If it does it's job and as long as you don't have any bubbles on the return tank I guess that's all that matters. BTW are you gonna make your middle compartment are fuge?

 

[CHEMCHEF]

I guess....I mean I guess everyone has their own thing on how to setup a sump. If it does it's job and as long as you don't have any bubbles on the return tank I guess that's all that matters. BTW are you gonna make your middle compartment are fuge?

Yes middle compartment will be a fuge

 

[SaltyFlip]

Yea that'll do just fine. Watching the video it looks exactly the same as yours. I guess what Kathy was saying was that all of her sumps have a bubble trap in between the skimmer or first compartment and the fuge or middle compartment. Most sumps I see have the same setup...if it doesn't have a bubble trap between first and second, they usually have a bubble tower where water from the tank go in this nice little section with live rock rubbles (to take some bubbles out) and then join the sump through a hole on the bottom...then it goes skimmer-divider-fuge-bubbletrap-return area. Yours is one of the first I've seen like that. Maybe other MR's will give their input too so we get more idea. I guess it's to each his/her own.

 

[boardryder]

I think it seems like it should work pretty decent especially after setting the skimmer return to the refugium. This forum is similar to your setup http://www.manhattanreefs.com/forum/reefs-beginners/46869-sump-planning-build-2.html.

I'm in the process of making mine and after doing some google pictures search and between yours and this other forum I have decided to go with the following using a 20G long. Starting from overflow into sump(skimmer section, 10" baffle 2" above bottom, 6" baffle on bottom, refugium, 4" baffle on bottom, 10" baffle 2" above bottom, 10" baffle on bottom, return section). For me the shorter baffles will give me decent flow through my refugium.

It's what works for you.

 

[CHEMCHEF]

Yea that'll do just fine. Watching the video it looks exactly the same as yours. I guess what Kathy was saying was that all of her sumps have a bubble trap in between the skimmer or first compartment and the fuge or middle compartment. Most sumps I see have the same setup...if it doesn't have a bubble trap between first and second, they usually have a bubble tower where water from the tank go in this nice little section with live rock rubbles (to take some bubbles out) and then join the sump through a hole on the bottom...then it goes skimmer-divider-fuge-bubbletrap-return area. Yours is one of the first I've seen like that. Maybe other MR's will give their input too so we get more idea. I guess it's to each his/her own.

I sort of wanted to end up with alot of volume in the fuge Because i would like to have a fairly deep sand bed (although i dont know if that is a good thing or not) so i went with tihs design. Its probably not the best design but im sure if it is a problem i will change it down the road. After all that is a big part of the fun and challenges of this hobby. I really do appreciate everybodys input though, so feel free to keep ideas and comments comming
Thanks

 

[georgelc86]

Looks like the sump has too much water.

 

[CHEMCHEF]

Looks like the sump has too much water.

I did a power failure test and the sump does not overflow, But i do wish i made the baffles a little lower:banghead:

 

[georgelc86]

Ok cool