My 200gl

[cracker]

Ok, Let's see how this works out! 1st allow me to say my pc & picture taking skills are adequate at best but I'm working on it! I'll start with a few current pict for now & then come up with an equipment list & a brief history. Folks ,don't hold your breath this may take a while!
the entire beast

the gang & left side

the right half

the sump

 

[kinghokus420]

still looks great brian!! after all we talked, i expected to see lots more corals.:bouncer:

 

[cracker]

Ok! At this time ,the tank is basically FOWLR The lighting consists of three 4 ft shop lights with a variety of "coral life" & other fluorescent bulbs. In the tank there is a calcium based DSB & about 180 lbs of LR , More on that later. Internal overflows in the back corners with 1.5 bulkheads & a couple of Koralia# 4's.
The sump has 3 sections & holds an ASM G4X skimmer, a basket of LR rubble, mechanical topoff valve & a mag 36 return pump. All water drains thru a micron sock. There is a seperate 20 gl refugium. It's bare bottom with chaeto & receives water off the return. The mag 36 returns thru a closed loop manifold. I have no idea what this flow rate thru the sump is. I can say it's a lot! About 90% of this setup is diy. More on that later. I was determined to save a buck. Some efforts went well others did not.
This is what a 3 by5 sheet of tempered glass looks like after trying to cut it

I didn't "think" it was tempered!

 

[cracker]

still looks great brian!! after all we talked, i expected to see lots more corals.:bouncer:

Thanks King, I had some lean times & had to "tighten the belt" so to speak. The tank paid a price. I have high hopes that now I can get things going. The MH lights will shine once again!
I do have one softie

 

[Melanie]

Ouch, that's alot of glass!

Can't wait to read more.

 

[lcstorc]

Glad to finally see some pics of your tank. Next time you are coming this way let me know. I have some softie frags that you could have to add to your one.
Nice to see you back posting again.

 

[Woodstock]

:hallo: Hi Cashew! Love the scaping. Great job. That wooden sump is very different. Wood holding water sorta confuses me..LOL~ I have seen a huge (320 gal I think) SPS reef tank made of wood that Brian_e had and it was amazing!

 

[BigAl07]

Hiya cracker! Nice to meet you. That glass pic was disturbing until I got to see the story behind it. Thank goodness that wasn't an established tank!!

Hey your sump/fuge set up is EXAVTLY what I am trying to make. I have a 29g tank already set up as a sump but I need a fuge as well. I'll try to take your picture and get someone to make me a small cubicle tank that fits in my 17 x17 x 38" opening to use as my fuge. Your timing is perfect!

Can't wait to see more pics of your set up.

Allen

 

[BigAl07]

I'm going to use your pic as a "template" if you don't mind. I'm going to link directly to it in my tank chronical if that's a problem just let me know.

Allen

 

[cracker]

Thank Everybody, The tank managed to survive a long stretch of poor maintenance.
Big Al, It's a pleasure to meet You as well. Feel free to use any pic You want. I will post some closeups pics of how I plumbed the refugium. Of course it needs to be changed/ improved. The broken glass was indeed "disturbing"! I had acquired the glass & wanted to construct internal overflows out of it. I suspected it was tempered but JUST had to try anyway. Right in the middle of the living room.It made a "crunch" sound right off , then a less audible "crinkle" sound for another 15 seconds or so as it continued to break into ever smaller shards. It stands out as one of my less successful DIY attempts. I suppose the fact I'm single helped a bit.

 

[cracker]

Big Al, I tee'd off the 1.5 return & ran a 1" line with ball vavle to the refugium.

A 1.5" drains back into the sump.

The refugium is a 20gl tall. It's bare bottom with chaeto only. My intent was to have a high flow ref. It needs two changes. It's not set high enough for good drainage, 2nd the drain needs to dump past the skimmer section closer to the return. I see a lot of pods in the ref but not to optimistic how many are making it to the tank intact.

 

[BigAl07]

I like the idea of the "T" and ball-valve for the fuge. I don't know why I didn't think of that myself. That saves me some $$ and the heat another pump would put into my tank.

I'm curious as to if you would go bare bottom again for your fuge? My current Nano-tank has a HOB fuge with live sand and LR Rubble in it. It gives the pods a plethora or hiding and growing places but I suspect that the cheato does the same thing. Maybe it's redundant in that respect.

I'm going tomorrow to have my fuge tank made and will start collecting the parts to do the plumbing shortly. I'm in no hurry as this is truely a "slow build" project.

Thanks a ton cracker for your input, support and generosity with pics and information. It's greatly appreciated.

Allen

 

[cracker]

Big Al I just like the high flow concept. My main intent for this bb refugium is for nutrient export. Seems ,the more water flow thru it the faster the Chaeto grows. I do see a lot of bugs in it. Now how to get mega Macro growth for removal & still promote the bug's growth is another matter. Possible to have both? I can't pull hand fulls of Macro out without hurting the bug population. I have a few ideas for this I'll throw by ya'll soon.
Miss Woodstock ,This plywood sump has been holding water for close to 4 years now. The saltwater has taken it's toll however. We will see how long it holds together. I found a few old pics.
Made of 1/2 " plywood ,65 by 17 by 17 the edges were glued with 3M 5200 Marine sealant & screwed together with galvanized deck screws. The 5200 caulk is some bad stuff! I should have used stainless screws as I see some corrosion around the edges. I added top braces later as there was a little bowing.

I used this two part epoxy paint. After more than several coats it cured rockhard & watertight. An important note, I didn't heed the directions concerning proper ventilation & need for a respirator. The fumes were bad news folks.

I needed the sump to be as large as possible & just couldn't afford a custom acrylic. Ok I've rambled enough for now.

 

[BigAl07]

Big Al I just like the high flow concept. My main intent for this bb refugium is for nutrient export. Seems ,the more water flow thru it the faster the Chaeto grows. I do see a lot of bugs in it. Now how to get mega Macro growth for removal & still promote the bug's growth is another matter. Possible to have both? I can't pull hand fulls of Macro out without hurting the bug population. I have a few ideas for this I'll throw by ya'll soon.

Cracker,
in my current fuge I have a shallow sand bed (2-3") with some loose LR rubble. I have phenominal Cheato growth in fact I had to thin it out this past weekend. I use a piece of egg-crate and lift the part of Cheato out of the fuge and lplace the egg-crate over the fuge edge as a strainer. I place the cheato that's leaving on this for maybe 30 -45 mintues and this allows the water, snails, stars and pods to make their way down back into the fuge. I'm sure there's a large number that still get "exported" but I can't see any difference in the "Pod-pulation" long term from this action. I think I'll still incorporate some LR Rubble in this fuge just for some additional "Pod-housing" but not a significant amount. I don't think I'll do a sand bed in this one at all.

Keep us posted on your tank Cracker and I REALLY appreciate your help and input. Just don't break any more glass panes

Allen

 

[blue_eyes53813]

Tank looks great

 

[cracker]

Thanks Blue eyes , It still needs a lot of work.
Big Al, T ing off the return to feed the refugium is an easy ,practical way to do it but has it's drawbacks. I'll bring this up later. I didn't give much consideration to pods in this refugium until now. I usually waited until the ref was full of Macro. Then I'd remove 50%. I plan to remove smaller amounts more often. Imho, for a big system with a dsb in tank like mine, a dsb in such a small ref (20 gls) isn't large enough to be much help. I agree on a smaller setup it would work. If pods are what you want , again IMHO ,I think rubble on the bottom with good water flow would promote pod populations better then some sort of sandbed. I plan to keep the ref bare bottom with a lot of flow thru it. I "do" plan to add more rubble to the center section of the sump. Folks I'm a beginner & my theories are based mostly on what I have read. I have little practical experience to back them up.

 

[BigAl07]

Sounds like you're well on your way cracker. I got some plumbing supplies today ( I work for a building supply company) but we didn't have EVERYTHING I need so I'll swing by Lowes tomorrow evening to get some more stuff.


I'm anxious to hear about the drawbacks of "T-ing" the drainline off into the fuge. From my current HOB fuge it takes very little flow for the fuge to thrive and allow for sufficient "Dwell" time in the fuge for nutrient export.

Allen

 

[cracker]

Big Al, I understand raw water from the tank is best for feeding a refugium. Water (not all of course ) off the return has passed thru the skimer/other filtration thus has less of the excess nutrients the refugium is designed to remove in the 1st place.Also some pods that pass thru the system, destined for the tank just get blown back into the ref. I don't care how small the average pod is, getting sucked thru a return pump impeller has got to be tough on the little buggers. Also T ing off the return really hurts the pump's efficiency.

 

[BigAl07]

Oh now I see where you're going. I stated mine wrong. I'm "T"ing off of the DRAIN line coming from the bulkhead in the bottom of the tank. Not the return going TO the tank. My fuge will get the "raw" unfiltered water from the tank. Then this same amount of water will gravity feed back into the return pump area of the SUMP to be carried up into the Display tank.

Now the part about the Pods vs Impellers I don't really know a way around that. There's no other way to get water up from the cabinet base into the DT (60+"). I'm open to suggestions but I just don't see any way to get "non-impellered" water from the fuge up into the tank. Maybe I could devise a "Pod-basket" of LR Rubble to keep in the fuge and maybe once a week lift it from the fuge and place in the DT for a few hours before back into the Fuge.

Thanks cracker. You cleared up a lot here. I had mis-state my intentions but I think we're on the same page now.

Allen

 

[cracker]

That's great to hear. You are correct. No way to avoid the pod versus return pump with an undertank refugium. My apologies if I confused You. These days I find it hard to get a point across with the written word. Now on the other hand I can talk ones ear off! I will follow your 90 gl chronicle to see how you T off this drain!