Daytonajim00's 30/20 "Reef to the Backwaters" tank

[daytonajim00]

I recently bought a house and hopefully don't have to break my system down for a while. After 10 years of moving from place to place, I was excited to do a custom build that will stay put. I took my rock out and put it on life support while I built my new system.

I took my 29 gallon Biocube, cut the back wall out, plumbed an internal overflow with a herbie drain system, and built a custom stand that would hold a 20 gallon display refugium to the side. I made custom baffles for the display refugium so the front and right side is all refugium in view forming an 'L' shape with two chambers behind that. The water enters the first chamber where my skimmer is, spills under into the refugium section, spills over a single bubble trap, and into the last chamber where my Mag 3 return is.

I made the stand out of 1/2' finished plywood. My friend engineered it and there was minimal internal bracing needed because of the way it's constructed. If you use a craig jig and good glue, the outer boxs' shell provides all the structural integrity needed. I sanded the stand and topped it with real teak vaneer (good water resistant tropical wood).

These are the pictures of my new systems start up. I've done a lot since these pictures and I will update soon.

I've since:
-Seeded about 25% more dry rock
-Added a new fish (Purple Pseudochromis)
-Changed my refugium light to CFL (the cheap Ebay LED lasted but a month)
-Added a shelf in the stand
-Built a 8 relay DIY reef controller using a Raspberry Pi and ReefPi which I will go into detail on in a DIY thread soon

 

[daytonajim00]

A cool idea that never came to be...

I had this idea during this phase of the build when I took this picture:
Cut an 8" diameter hole in the stand top where the reef tank sits and make a bottom light 'moon window'. I would of made a custom rock with small rock and epoxy putty that would hold a pump that directed the flow right at the hole but where you wouldn't see the pump. The water flow would keep the sand blown back revealing the open hole that light would flood up through. I would of then sculpted my rock work around that 'moon window' lagoon. That would of been cool! Maybe in the future!

 

[Ranjib]

Love it.
I would say dont dump the idea of using rock to hide pump, even if you dont set it up now, no harm in keeping the rock in sump and let it age. As and when opportunity arrives, you can use the cured LR.

 

[TetoCCB]

I took my 29 gallon Biocube, cut the back wall out, plumbed an internal overflow with a herbie drain system, and built a custom stand that would hold a 20 gallon display refugium to the side. I made custom baffles for the display refugium so the front and right side is all refugium in view forming an 'L' shape with two chambers behind that. The water enters the first chamber where my skimmer is, spills under into the refugium section, spills over a single bubble trap, and into the last chamber where my Mag 3 return is.

Interesting sump design... Any further details or diagrams?...

 

[daytonajim00]

I haven't posted any new pictures of the 30/20 system so I'll list my status here and show some pictures from today.

For the refugium I threw in an old Instant Ocean skimmer I had on deck- want a nice low footprint skimmer to totally conceal in the rear sump chamber. I added some live rock today that you see in foreground of the refugium pic. It's shelf rock and I'm going to ultimately upgrade the aquascaping in the display tank to add more depth for the 30 gallons.

When I put that rock in the display tank I'm going to stick with the 'lagoon' look but will add depth with passages, chambers, bridges, and what-not. There is a single Purplepsudochromis. They can be territorial but I hope to add a mated pair of clowns in the future- clowns should hold their own. I have some soft corals but plan to add more frags for more color pop. Right now there's my old Polyps that spread easily, some Mushrooms in the lower right with have spread from one single, and some fanning type polyps in the upper right. I wish I kept track of the species names. Maybe will research it later.

You can see my custom stand with teak top in the overall pic- sorry it's a mess in there right now. I still need to put doors on it. It houses my Raspberry Pi tank controller which I am making a DIY build that you can check out here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/j...ld-tutorial-with-reef-pi.387296/#post-4696693.
I added a shelf in there and will eventually add doors and lights for inside.

 

[daytonajim00]

Interesting sump design... Any further details or diagrams?...

Yes, the idea is to have the equipment chambers in the rear and the refugium in the front. The refugium chamber basically wraps around the equiptment chambers.

Water drains from the main tank into the first chamber "skimmer chamber". Then it passes underneath into the refugium. Water flows around, up, and over the far right side, into the return chamber after passing under a single-baffle bubble trap.

 

[sergio706]

Great filter setup!

 

[Reef Recked]

hope this is still up and running subscribed! Im just starting a 30/20 build as well !

 

[daytonajim00]

Yes it is! I need to update pictures. Happy to hear about your custom adventures! Have fun!

 

[daytonajim00]

Yes it is! I need to put more time into the refugium with more macro but added some Zo's and Polyp to the main tank. Happy to hear about your custom route! Have fun!