six's 40 gallon breeder build

[sixspeed]

Yeah john, i like the idea of having it Tee'd so i can adjust flow to both sumps. I have a few modifications in mind, i wish i had a copy of solidworks so i could sketch something up. Too bad they run for like 17 grand. Wish i was still a student.

I'll try and get some drawings together of what i am thinking about doing.

 

[dasco]

awesome tank thread!!

 

[sixspeed]

awesome tank thread!!

Thanks dasco.

 

[sixspeed]

Ok, so i have been thinking, and i dont think i am going to add on the other tank to the system. I feel like i should just leave it to do later if i want to upgrade something on the system, a project for down the road. But one thing needs to change on my sump, i am getting a ridiculous amount of water splashing/bubbles bursting from where my drain enters the sump. As of a result, i can see salt creep forming pretty fast on my skimmer, phosban reactor, and any pipe near the drain. I need to build some sort of splash guard or a way of reducing the splashes.

Here is what im working with currently, needs a modification badly.

I tried to draw up a sketch of something i was thinking about.

So basically this would be made of acrylic, and be located in the corner of my sump where the drain is. The top half will extend 4" above the trim of the sump, it will have one side open to allow for the drain pipe to enter. The lower half will be made to fit square with the sides of the sump, and slots will be added to the bottom to let water flow out of the column.

I would then plan to fill the column with some LR rubble to further help with any micro bubbles and to add some more natural filtration.

Does this sound like a good solution?

 

[Mcubed]

So are you thinking of something along the lines of Melev's bubble tower?
http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/a/sump_model_a.html

I'm trying to decide bewteen using filter socks for my drains or a bubble tower design.

 

[JohnK]

"reverse duroso" time

Search for it here, you'll find plenty of info.

 

[sixspeed]

wow reverse durso's make perfect sense, nice, this is going to be an easier mod than i thought.

Thanks John for the heads up.

 

[sixspeed]

So are you thinking of something along the lines of Melev's bubble tower?
http://www.melevsreef.com/acrylics/sumps/a/sump_model_a.html

I'm trying to decide bewteen using filter socks for my drains or a bubble tower design.

Yup i was thinking about doing something similar to melev's bubble tower. But now that i have looked at the reverse duros, i can rig it up in about 5 minutes once i buy the needed PVC parts.

 

[afboundguy]

"reverse duroso" time

Search for it here, you'll find plenty of info.

What I thought of right away... Made a huge difference in my plumbing...

On a side note it looks like the water level is really high in the sump... If all the power turns off can the system handle it witout overflowing? My sump is only half full (10 gallon tank part) and with everything unplugged I put about 3 gallons back into the sump and it's taken me a while to tweek it so it doesn't overflow...

I might have missed or forgotten (it's early and I'm at work so I'm sorry if it's already been brought up)

 

[sixspeed]

On a side note it looks like the water level is really high in the sump... If all the power turns off can the system handle it witout overflowing? My sump is only half full (10 gallon tank part) and with everything unplugged I put about 3 gallons back into the sump and it's taken me a while to tweek it so it doesn't overflow...

I might have missed or forgotten (it's early and I'm at work so I'm sorry if it's already been brought up)

Yup, dont worry, i have tested my sump a few times by simulating a power outage, and the sump has plenty of room for the extra water from the display. I have a slightly larger sump (20 long) and a smaller display than yours, you have a 55 right? Maybe mine looks real full cause its a little bigger and the amount of water coming from the display is less as well.

But thanks for the heads up, would be a bonehead move if it were to overflow.

 

[afboundguy]

Yeah I have a 55 gallon... And it was early and a first day back to work in 2 days... Gotta love getting up at 4am

Doesn't hurt to ask... Maybe someone new will read it and save a floor from gettin wet (man I'm stretching right there lol)

 

[sixspeed]

Doesn't hurt to ask... Maybe someone new will read it and save a floor from gettin wet (man I'm stretching right there lol)

I agree, i never mentioned anything about it earlier in the thread, but it is definitely something to keep in mind when you are setting up a sump. Its a small thing but could cause major issues.

I hope this thread helps people with any similar projects they want to start.

 

[sixspeed]

Reverse Durso Build

Ok, so i did some quick reading on reverse durso's, and plunged right in.

I am going from a 1" drain to a 2" reverse durso. For this i needed to get a coupling that reduces from 1-1/2" to 1". From there i got another connector that reduces from 2" to 1-1/2".

The end cap has a hole drilled in the top to allow for the air that will be released from the durso.

I wanted to show how each part is fitted together in the assembly.

Here it is put together.

As many of you can tell the part that will be submerged is very long. I am worried about having this massive thing hanging on my drain piping, because the only thing supporting it is the bulkhead in the overflow. I would like to not place an necessary stress on the glass than is possible. So i was thinking that if i made the section of the reverse durso long enough to support itself on the bottom of the sump, it would take the stress off of the glass/bulkhead. What i have not done yet, is to cut slates in the long piece to allow for the water to flow out easily. If i make these cuts from the bottom to about 2 inches from the water level, do you think the reverse durso will still work properly?

Hell i guess i do have 8 more feet of 2" pvc, cant hurt to have at it and see what happens right.

 

[sixspeed]

Here are some pictures of the result.

It (reverse durso), in no way has helped the micro bubble situation. But it has made the drain significantly quieter, and there is way less splashing going on. (i hope that helps with the salt creep)

The water is really cloudy once again because i had to empty the tank due to a bulkhead leak. But i have fixed the issue and it should no longer be a problem down the road. Unfortunately the sand bed got stirred up, when it clears hopefully the microbubbles did not get worse. We will have to see in the morning.

 

[sixspeed]

Hey i am sorry i havent had any updates in the past few days, but i have been in Chicago for the American Wind Energy Association conference.

Chicago is a very cool city, i was able to catch the cubs giants game at wrigley acouple days ago. It was a great experience, i had never been to wrigley before and it truely is a national landmark. It was very much like fenway, small, traditional and full of history. I was also able to check out the Shedd Aquarium today, and it was pretty impressive. Not quite the size of the New England Aquarium, but very well maintained and put togehter. I do think they could of used a little bit of help on their seahorse tanks and a few of their "reef" displays. Overall though it was great, it only cost me about 14 bucks to get in, and compared to the new england aquarium that was a steal.

I will be back in Mass on monday and i'll see how my tank has done, and hopefully the cycle will be close to over. (gonna keep my fingers crossed).

 

[sixspeed]

Finding a job and boston sports has taken up a lot of my time since i've been back from the midwest. But right now i think the cycle is coming near an end. I took some readings yesterday, but of course i cant find my nitrate kit, so what i have is limited. After i took these readings i put about a 5 gallon bucket full of already established lr that has just been cooking for a while, waiting for this tank to come online. So this should help with seeding the limited LR i had in there.

NH4: 0-.25 (it was either 0 or between 0-.25 it was hard to read)
SG: 1.027
ca: 300
dKH: 8.8
pH: 8.2

The ammonia could be detected because i added some mysis shrimp to help the cycle along.

 

[sixspeed]

Hey guys, i need to start running my skimmer already, but every time i fire her up the water level rises so high that it fills the collection cup within a few minutes. How do i adjust the height of the water in the skimmer? (it is a octopus nw-110)

 

[JohnK]

I probably won't make a BIG difference, but try cutting the strainer pipe (with the uneaven table saw cuts, who would have done that sloppy work ) MUCH shorter.

From the pic it looks like the water is flowing through it fast enough to be carrying a lot of air down through the strainer and into the sump. by shortening it, a lot more water would make it out the big opening at the bottom of the pipe, and less would have to go through the slits. This should at least slightly reduce how much the air/bubbles are pulled deep into the sump. By going less deep, the bubbles will rise out quicker and you should see at least a little reduction in microbubbles actually passing through the sump.

HTH
jk

 

[sixspeed]

So i played around with the water level adjuster, who would of thought that would of helped.

Right now it isnt skimming too too much, i think the combination of me having my hand in the tank for an excessive amount of time this evening and the skimmer needing to break in to be the culprit.

When do you guys think it would be appropriate for me to start running some carbon?

Thanks

I'll try and find my camera tonight and get some pictures of the final aquascape. I know you all are picture starved.

 

[sixspeed]

I probably won't make a BIG difference, but try cutting the strainer pipe (with the uneaven table saw cuts, who would have done that sloppy work ) MUCH shorter.

I might give this a try. The only reason i have it so long is because the reverse durso parts have some significant weight to them. So i did not want to leave this weight hanging on a lever and that lever is connected to the hole in the glass.

I was thinking as a solution maybe to stack up some liverock in that section and have to come up high enough to have the drain rest on top of it. But this also will restrict flow to some extent. The ideal solution would be to suspend it, maybe if i get a hook or a O screw thing, i could just get some rope/cable/wire and tie it up. I am kind of thinking out loud here.

Also John, i have been thinking about adding the 29 gallon onto the system, I think its about that time. I want to be able to drill the 29, and have a nice overflow made so that if i wanted to deatach it from the system i could, and it could be a nice functioning RR display. But i need to have it drilled on the back panel. I know there are setups like this, but i do not know the complexities of them.