My slow 135g build

[tbittner]

Shouldn't there be a sealed skimmer box isolating the drains from the water in the rest of the aquarium? The water flows over the top edge of the overflow box and then down the drain to the sump.

Or you could make a durso pipe that comes out of the drain up to the top of the water level you want to maintain. In either case, the surface water is the water being sent to the sump, which is most likely where you're skimmer is.

The wall and installation looks great so far though. Well Done!

[JoJo]

tbittner, yes there is a corner overflow with bulkheads for drain and return. I was think of doing something with the other bulkheads, but with it being this hard to explain my thoughts it must not be meant for me to do it(sorry if i'm not making much sense in my post, im just so excited about this set up & i have so many ideas that i cant think straight ). so I am going to take the other 3 bulkheads that are outside of the overflow out and seal the holes with glass.

[JoJo]

ok, i've found the sump that I was looking for. Its on Melevs site, really nice set up.

Sump for a 340g reef

[tbittner]

Melev builds great sumps and all sorts of equipment. So does Jeff at LifeReef. I don't think you could go wrong with buying from either of these gentlemen.

[JoJo]

Here is a sketch of what i'm planning to do, please give all the feedback possible. thanx in advance.

[JoJo]

Hey, tbittner. I'm not planning on buying a sump, i want to duplicate the design.

[tbittner]

Ahhh, got it!

Why do you have a fuge area in the upper right side yet you also have a LR area? Typically the LR is in the fuge to give the pods a place to copulate. This diagram looks like you have two fuges. I don't know that you need to drain the water from the fuge through the bubble trap. I personally prefer the water to drain right into the return compartment so the pods get pumped back to the tank and don't have to make their way through the maze. But I don't doubt that it wouldn't work since that is what Melev did.

[JoJo]

yea, you're right about the LR area, just couldn't think of what to do with all that space. any ideas? i sketched my skimmer as being inside of the sump but its a coralife superskimmer 220 & i'm not sure if it will work if it's inside water, maybe I will build a stand out of PVC for it to sit on.

I figure the drain of the fuge goes through the baffles to keep lessen the risk of any bubble getting to the pump.

[tbittner]

I don't think that having the LR in that area is a bad thing. After all, it will still contribute to the natural biological filtration. I think the main use of that area is to add volume to your system. Maybe think about increasing the size of your return area a bit. That is where the evaporation will be reflected, in other words, the water level in the return compartment will fall and the water level every where else will stay the same. Are you planning on having an ATO? If not, then you want that compartment to be big enough to keep the pump wet if something comes up and you can't add water for a few days.

[JoJo]

good idea, I will basically divide the 55g so there is a small section for the drain, a section big enough for the skimmer, and the biggest section for the return. I'm still trying to figure the ATO out, i understand the concept but not exactly how it's plumbed and such

[JoJo]

I've been doing a looking around at equipment, my budget isn't as high as I would like so I have to work with what I have. These are the items I have in mine:

UV sterilizer: Saltwater Aquarium Salinity & Specific Gravity Testing: Portable Refractometer

Pumps(one for return, one for CLS, both 1000gph): Aquarium Water Pumps & Water Movement: Quiet One Pumps

R/O system: Aquarium Water Quality: Pure-Flo II RO Units

ATO: Aquarium Maintenance & Plumbing: Auto Top Off Controller

[Witfull]

happy new year JoJo. ill have to go over this a lil more. one thing i will say now is, dont over complicate things. KISS. one more quick thought is ventilation in the room behind the tank. how large and ventilated is it? you may need a bathroom vent to pull humidity away.

[kathywithbirds]

That LR area... could be used as a holding area for troubled fishies/inverts. Why not have two fuges, at least until you discover that you need that area for something else?

[Emg]

Originally Posted by JoJo

anyway, the person who rebuilt the area did a great job, the used about a 37g sump & a 20g fuge(which hadn't been filled yet but there was a red bowl with chaeto inside the fuge). The fuge had to drains the dump on top of the baffle going to the return of the sump. The huge drain line was split, one to sump, one to fuge.

This set up was perfect, and i would love to mimic it but i cannot find it. I'm going to try and sketch it out by memory, but I looked at sooo many set ups last night the image is kind of vague. For now I'll keep looking

Is this it JoJo ?

Sump for a 340g reef



*EDIT*......oooop.....didn't get to the second page before posting that.....I see you've found it

Nice chronicle JoJo !



...

[ragvette]

Good start JoJo

The only thing that someone else stated is to keep it simple. I notice your looking at a UV sterilizer, just my thought is you could leave this off the system to start off with. I had one on my 90gal many years ago and found it to be worthless for a Reef Tank.