240 gallon split display with 75 gallon sump

Logical_Plan

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Alright, here it comes, my first reef tank and we are going big!

3 displays commonly sumped. A 60 gallon cube for reef with caution fish. A 120 gallon community reef and another 60 gallon cube for a mantis shrimp.

I know the mantis and the reef with caution fish can be messy eaters, so may have to go to separate sumps. Will isolate down the road if necessary. Stocking slowly should let us stay ahead of things if it becomes an issue.

We are not wet yet.

We just got our BRS 7 stage RODI system running. That was a cool project by itself.

We also made our first batch of saltwater and are cycling 3 blocks of marine pure 8x8x4 and dosing ammonia and monitoring with a seneye.

Finally we are working on our aquascape. Pictures attached of the main bones of our nsa. We are going to add more habitat and close them up a bit still. But this is the main bones so far.

Tanks will be ordered soon and we are having a stand built. Electrical and structural are in the works as well.

Probably another month or so till our tanks are wet.

Then we will start our fallow for rocks and sand and start our clown and CUC QT.

Should be an interesting journey.

PXL_20211015_185817122.jpg PXL_20211015_185832503.jpg 0029_RODI_2_CloseUp.jpg 0054_RODI_27.jpg
 

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Looks awesome and you have clearly done your planning. I like the idea of multiple display tanks with a common sump. I’m in Brookfield, and I recently started my first Reef Tank s as well, but since I have a one year old I just started a 45 gallon all in one. I can’t wait to see how this goes from plan to reality.
 
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Logical_Plan

Logical_Plan

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Looks awesome and you have clearly done your planning. I like the idea of multiple display tanks with a common sump. I’m in Brookfield, and I recently started my first Reef Tank s as well, but since I have a one year old I just started a 45 gallon all in one. I can’t wait to see how this goes from plan to reality.
Thank you! I hope it works out with the multiple displays. I am really concerned about filtration and nitrate and phosphate management as well as how well the biological filter will keep up with the messy eaters. I think there is a challenge there for sure, but I am hoping that following BRS and tuning a chaeto filter will help with that management. Perhaps in the future we can trade frags since we are close and hopefully will both have successful tanks!
 

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This is a cool idea to keep multiple species. Do you plan to have all three tanks side by side as if they were a single tank, or spared out some?
 

210 Reef Tank

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Looks like a great build. Dont rush and enjoy the journey. I think its cool that your son is involved.
What are you using for a sump to manage these 3 tanks?
 
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Looks like a great build. Dont rush and enjoy the journey. I think its cool that your son is involved.
What are you using for a sump to manage these 3 tanks?
Looking at building a custom 75 gallon, 4' long. I think I want a 6' sump, but it seems too many of those get too tall. I still need to calculate total water into sump if return is off. If I figure a 3" drop in tank level for overflow siphon, I think that was 35 gallons. So I am slightly concerned right now that 75 gallon sump is too small.

My son needs to do a project that spans all 4 years of highschool to graduate. This aquarium is his project. I am letting him take the project lead and make the main decisions. I am overseeing though and trying to backfill gaps so we have the best chance of overall long term success.
 

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I like how you did your ro/di. Doing your research and being organized helps you get things right the first time. Something that took me a while to figure out. Generally I go with a short large sump. Short so that the skimmer can be hooked up to a skimmate locker. Large so that there's enough room. The last chamber large so that you can turn your return pump(s) off without overflowing chambers. You don't want the water level to lower or rise in the skimmer chamber otherwise it will overflow. Witch is semi apparent but I thought I'd throw it out there.
 

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Looking at building a custom 75 gallon, 4' long. I think I want a 6' sump, but it seems too many of those get too tall. I still need to calculate total water into sump if return is off. If I figure a 3" drop in tank level for overflow siphon, I think that was 35 gallons. So I am slightly concerned right now that 75 gallon sump is too small.
Lol looks like your already onto it. What equipment are you going to be running in your sump?
 
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Lol looks like your already onto it. What equipment are you going to be running in your sump?
I am looking at a reef octo 10" recirculating skimmer https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/rega...ting-protein-skimmer-varios-reef-octopus.html, Kessel h80 fuge light for chaeto fuge, marine pure bricks in the fuge, bio balls under filter socks for qt tank quick starts. 6 - 4" filter socks, external dc return pumps, haven't selected yet, but going for a 2 pump config so I can maintain and hopefully keep half flow on a pump failure. Still working on heater sizing. Leaving space for future media reactor, future 3 part BRS dosing, future apex controller and test ports. I am going to plumb a manifold off the sump so some equipment can be external if needed. Moving the skimmer external may also be necessary, the space goes away so fast!

The picture is a first pass at layout. Concerned about space and constructability right now. Probably 6 or 7 more passes before I get it nailed down.

I need to see if I can make a drain header for my full siphon. Want to run a bean animal overflow, but struggling to figure out 9 bulkheads into sump.
 

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Pico bam

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I am looking at a reef octo 10" recirculating skimmer https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/rega...ting-protein-skimmer-varios-reef-octopus.html, Kessel h80 fuge light for chaeto fuge, marine pure bricks in the fuge, bio balls under filter socks for qt tank quick starts. 6 - 4" filter socks, external dc return pumps, haven't selected yet, but going for a 2 pump config so I can maintain and hopefully keep half flow on a pump failure. Still working on heater sizing. Leaving space for future media reactor, future 3 part BRS dosing, future apex controller and test ports. I am going to plumb a manifold off the sump so some equipment can be external if needed. Moving the skimmer external may also be necessary, the space goes away so fast!

The picture is a first pass at layout. Concerned about space and constructability right now. Probably 6 or 7 more passes before I get it nailed down.

I need to see if I can make a drain header for my full siphon. Want to run a bean animal overflow, but struggling to figure out 9 bulkheads into sump.
Very good! I am setting up my reef room slow and steady. Love the manifold idea, I am going to run one myself. I'm linking 2 tanks in the beginning 2 80g seapora's but will end up with 4 most likely. A 50g lowboy for lps and 25g anemone tank. You choose a very good skimmer imo I don't have experience with the exact skimmer but my brother always ran the recirculating skimmers. I always give myself extra sump space for a few reasons. extra water volume, the space needed to run equipment, future changes, a place for a frag tank, etc the sump is often overlooked. Some may say that 6 filter socks is a alot but as long as you have alot of them on hand I don't see why not. I'm going to running 5 on my setup witch will be pushing 300gallons. I'm excited to see your project come together.
 

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Always over size your heaters. Especially when running multiple tanks. Im a fan of the finnex/inkbird combo that brs has. They've worked well for me.
 
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Always over size your heaters. Especially when running multiple tanks. Im a fan of the finnex/inkbird combo that brs has. They've worked well for me.
A calculator that I looked at suggested 1500w heaters for 310 gallons and a delta t of 8F. This seemed large to me, that would be two dedicated electrical branch circuits for heat. If that is what it is, I'm good with it, but still need to dig a bit deeper.

6 socks was based on 10x display flow from the return pumps. I figured I would buy a week's worth and replace daily or as needed in the beginning then rum them through the washing machine with no soap weekly. Not sure this is correct yet though
 

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A calculator that I looked at suggested 1500w heaters for 310 gallons and a delta t of 8F. This seemed large to me, that would be two dedicated electrical branch circuits for heat. If that is what it is, I'm good with it, but still need to dig a bit deeper.

6 socks was based on 10x display flow from the return pumps. I figured I would buy a week's worth and replace daily or as needed in the beginning then rum them through the washing machine with no soap weekly. Not sure this is correct yet
Not certain where you live but I like to oversize my heaters by about 50%(minnesota for me) my house has gone down to 65 degrees before so go overkill I know. I have a 1000w in my 120. Sometimes I hit 76.5 degrees the thing is that the heaters are located in the sump. When the water goes threw return lines and to separate tanks you have to oversize them even more due to the cooling effects of glass tanks, return lines, multiple body's of water surrounded by ambient air temperatures. Perhaps someone with more experience will Chime in. It might be a good idea to run two heater controllers one mane and one slave. And I always use titanium heaters with heater controllers. Glass doesn't cut it long term. Im not certain on the circuit's but id go 20amp with at least one gfci on every circuit if not the circuit itself.
 
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Update time!

We have been busy little bees in getting things set up for our aquarium!

Custom stand is being built, should be done and installed the week of Christmas or New Years. This gives us some time for some fun projects while we wait!

Tanks are on order:
Community Reef - Aqueon 120 gallon 4'x2'x2' - standard bracing
Reef with caution cube - Seapora 60 gallon 2'x2'x2' - standard bracing
Mantis shrimp cube - Seapora 60 gallon 2'x2'x2' - standard bracing
Sump - Aqueon 75 gallon
Fish QT - Aqueon 20 gallon
Invert QT - Aqueon 20 gallon
Coral QT - Aqueon 20 gallon
Aiptasia Farm - Aqueon 10 gallon
Berghia Nudibranch Farm - Aqueon 10 gallon
Snail Farm - Aqueon 10 gallon

Water Storage tanks are on order:
RODI Tank - 100 gallon Roto-Mold
Saltwater Tank - 100 gallon Roto-Mold

With everything on order, we should have our displays wet, just after the new year.

Projects we are currently working on:
Finish aquascaping
Install RODI faucet in slop sink
Grow Chaeto from our excess nutrients in tank cycling
Establish and breed aiptasia for Nudibranch farm
Design and plan mixing station stand
Design and build mixing station plumbing
Design and build QT and farm stands
Design and build sump
 
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So we started by cycling some marine pure brick in a brute trash can, 300W Jaegar heater, 317GPH pump, a bit of pvc to circulate water and a seneye to watch it all. We dosed ammonium chloride 3 times, once at the start and you can see the other two seneye ammonia spikes.

We saw a huge pH dip during our cycle when the Nitirite was being converted to Nitrate. Nitrate levels peaked at about 150ppm, so I suspect that either the Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride is a higher concentration than labeled or that we measured wrong. In either case the marine pure cycled fine.

The pH rise is when we added two more brute trashcans to the system and the chaeto farm. Water volume went froom 40 gallons to 150 gallons.

We also finally got around to trimming the seneye temperature and pH. We used 5 different thermometers to get an average temp and set the seneye temperature to the average.

For pH we calibrated a HM Digital PH-200 pH meter with Milwaukee calibration fluid. Calibrated at 7 pH, then 10 pH, then 7 pH and finally 4 pH. We then took a series of 3 readings in our rock cycling and trimmed our seneye to that. Seneye was reading 0.1 low on pH during cycling.
 

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Here is our rock cycling station / chaeto farm!

I tried to balance flow from each Brute can into the chaeto farm and from the drains with ball valves. This was a huge mistake. I will get gate valves if I ever try this again. Ultimately, my hack fix was to bulkhead the three brute trash cans together to balance water level and avoid floods. The bulkhead is higher than I would like but that was the lowest I could get the water level and drill the cans still. It is still below the overall water level so it is serviceable enough for a temporary set up.

The Aqueon is the first tank we ever drilled. Found a broken test tank in the alley and drilled a couple holes in there to get technique down. Drilled the back of the Aqueon without issues!

Set up - Old Aqueon 26 gallon bow front aquarium, 3- 55 gallon brute drums, a bajallion plumbing fittings, 3 - 300W heaters, 3 - 317Gph pumps, Kessil H-160 grow light, 3 blocks of marine pure and some bio balls.

It is all set for our aquascapes once we finish them, then I will dose ammonium chloride and learn to balance nutrients with my chaeto while I wait for main displays and stand to be built.

I have a powerhead and some chaeto grow on the way and should be arriving today!
 

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Final Update for today - Aiptasia farm!

Got this little guy up and running, 10 gallon Aqueon tank, aquarium gravel, glass lid, airstone and pump, some cycled bio balls and a 50 W Jaegar heater.

Getting a shell from my LFS that has aiptasia on it on Saturday. Will start to grow it out and propagate it so I have food for my nudibranch farm.

Light is coming today for growing.
 

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A worm with high fashion and practical utility: Have you ever kept feather dusters in your reef aquarium?

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    Votes: 64 36.8%
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  • I have not had feather dusters, but I hope to in the future.

    Votes: 25 14.4%
  • I have no plans to have feather dusters in my tank.

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