Only 11 days since I got my 125 gallon....

shwstpr88

shwstpr88

Member
I like to think I have made good progress. I am upgrading from a 30 gallon tank that has a porcupine puffer, yellow tang, and two clown fish. I know big bio load for a little tank, but they have been doing great and the water is perfect. In the new tank I bought 120lbs of Carib sea live sand, rinsed it out and put it in the tank with some sea water 1/4 full. I am currently plumbing the sump system right now, I was able to buy a 55 gallon tank on c's list and copied the design by limpits reef from you tube. I am going to have a refugium in mine though. the drain chamber will have live rock that I bought yesterday and the protein skimmer, the second chamber will hold the refugium, bubble trap area and then out to the two 600 gph pumps. I am still waiting for my pumps to come in the mail so I cant finish the return lines until I see what I am working with. Hope you enjoy some pics and please let me know if you see anything bad, wrong, etc. Thanks for looking!








 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
great start its hard to see in the pic how high do the dividers come up to in the 55
You are going to have back flow to some extent into your 55 when you turn off the pumps so you are going to have to adjust the level of water in the 55 for that. Will that level still allow the water to go form one chamber to the other or are you going to feed each chamber independently and have a dedicated pump for each? Can you post a drawing of how you plan the 55 to operate?
I have never clamed to be advanced in any aspect of this hobby to anyone on the boards. I will go out on a limb here and say having undertaken the instillation of my Refugium under my 110G which was preceded by many hours of homework on the subject, I can speak from experience and will help as much as I can and I am sure others will as well if you so desire
 
C

cmaxwell39

Guest
Looks good so far. The only thing I think I would change is to use a little larger return pumps. If a pump is rated for 600 gph then it will pump 600 gph at 0' of head. The farther the pump has to lift the water and the more plumbing that it has to go through (90's especially) the less water it will be able to pump because of the extra pressure that the pump has to overcome (headpressure). It looks like you are going to end up with about 4-5' of head so you want a pump that will push 500-600 gph at 4' of head pressure. I would suggest a mag 7.5 or 9.
FWIW I run a mag 9 on my 75 gal single overflow and it works about perfect.
Great job on the plumbing so far BTW.
 
shwstpr88

shwstpr88

Member
THanks for the information, I am going to upgrade to a better pump later on, I dont have an extra 100+ to buy that pump so I bought some budget friendly ones to get me by for now. I have shut off valve for the returns to block out any return water in case of backflow in the event a pump is shut down. However if one fails without me knowing your saying the pump will backfill, thats no good if thats the case how do people remedy this?
 
shwstpr88

shwstpr88

Member
Oh btw....all the return piping will be soft tubing no elbows. All the hard pipe you see in the pictures are for drains.
 
shwstpr88

shwstpr88

Member
THe chambers do fill into each other Drain goes into chamber 1 to fill into live rock/protein skimmer, waterfall into refugium, waterfall into bubble trap, waterfall into pump chamber and back to tank.
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Remember to put couplings in so you can remove sections as needed. I am not a big fan of strictly “water fall” going from on chamber to another. You are basically just skimming from one chamber to another .I would put one way valves to prevent back flow as well as drilling air brakes in your influent pipes back in to your tank just below the water line
 
morval

morval

Member
Originally Posted by shwstpr88
http:///forum/post/2900127
THe chambers do fill into each other Drain goes into chamber 1 to fill into live rock/protein skimmer, waterfall into refugium, waterfall into bubble trap, waterfall into pump chamber and back to tank.
the baffle on the right of ur pic is to high i think...the water level in ur sump will have to be almost to the top if im looking at right. this leaves know room for back flow, ur return line will create suction should u loose power and it will suck out as much water untill the return noozle is in the air it should be the same hight as the others that are attached to the bottom.
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by shwstpr88
http:///forum/post/2900280
Does Home Depot sell one way valves? I am not famiilar if this is a common part or ntot
common valve, with all due respect just make sure you install it with the right direction of flow Orientation
 
robertmathern

robertmathern

Active Member
That sump will work you have to put something in there for your skimmer to sit on unless it is a hob type. The first comaprtmant will be deep all the way to the top of the baffle. If you keep the other 2 chambers with enough water to stay above the baffle you will be ok no water fall effect. Your bubble trap is all the way up the tank so you can put your water level about half way up in the 2nd and 3rd compartments. That should leave. enough room for back flow
 
robertmathern

robertmathern

Active Member
Thats a good sump. I personaly would make the return pump compartment a little bigger. To hold enough water for evep. Or get a ato system.
 
florida joe

florida joe

Well-Known Member
Originally Posted by shwstpr88
http:///forum/post/2901687
Thanks for the tip with the check valve Lowes has em in stock. I'll put more pix up tonight where I'm at
great, please just go slow IMO there are many experts in the art of Fabrication of sump/refug on the boards and with a little patience you will have a first rate one under your tank
 
shwstpr88

shwstpr88

Member
Well I got some good progress last night almost done with the pluming ran out of elbows last night so I couldnt finish up I did fill the tank as high as I could go for now and put in the salt probably will have to add alot more so now its just got some power heads in there pushing water to mix salt. I am very excited!!!! I have an existing 30gallon tank how long will it take before I start adding fish?
 
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