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Sean Clark

Sean Clark

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One more little thing about the sump placement. There is only one brace the runs from the front to back. Really this is more of a ledge for the refugium lid to sit on than a brace. The brace lines right up with the vertical suport for the stand. So when you are working through either of the two doors, the brace is not in the way. Both sides are completely open to work in. This photo shows the brace better, the earlier posted photo shows how it all lines up.

20210824_143104.jpg
 
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Sean Clark

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Are you planning on running triton since you got the triton sump?
No, I do not plan on running the Triton system.

I liked like the sump for what I wanted to do and how it fit. Then BRS had it on sale so I pulled the Trigger... See what I did there?

Other sumps that I considered were the Icecap 48 XL, Bashsea SS-60, Tsunami Pro 7224 Reefugium, or going with something custom.
 

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No, I do not plan on running the Triton system.

I liked like the sump for what I wanted to do and how it fit. Then BRS had it on sale so I pulled the Trigger... See what I did there?

Other sumps that I considered were the Icecap 48 XL, Bashsea SS-60, Tsunami Pro 7224 Reefugium, or going with something custom.
I am planning to get the 44 Fiji cube or 48 bashsea smart so I can change from triton to traditional if necessary. I thought about icecap too since that's the cheapest but the bulkhead does not line up nicely with peninsula plumbing.
 
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I am planning to get the 44 Fiji cube or 48 bashsea smart so I can change from triton to traditional if necessary. I thought about icecap too since that's the cheapest but the bulkhead does not line up nicely with peninsula plumbing.
I like that Fiji (I had to Google it) but have never seen one in person to comment on its quality. I know Bashsea are quality sumps.

Here is my hindsight or buyers remorse advice for my sump. I do enjoy the extra extra room that I have in my stand by using a smaller sump. I also wish that I had more volume in my sump to Raise the water in the display another inch. Had I gone custom I could have had both. Basicly make the same sump while making it taller. The APS stands are nice and tall so a custom sump that was the same dimentions but a few inches taller wouldn't really make maintenance any harder.
 

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I like that Fiji (I had to Google it) but have never seen one in person to comment on its quality. I know Bashsea are quality sumps.

Here is my hindsight or buyers remorse advice for my sump. I do enjoy the extra extra room that I have in my stand by using a smaller sump. I also wish that I had more volume in my sump to Raise the water in the display another inch. Had I gone custom I could have had both. Basicly make the same sump while making it taller. The APS stands are nice and tall so a custom sump that was the same dimentions but a few inches taller wouldn't really make maintenance any harder.
That's good to know. I may have to get the Fiji 48 for the extra water volume. I plan to use the extra space in the stand for a 15 gallon tank for ATO and then a DIY controller board for Apex and other controllers.
 

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So in response to reef2reef's push to promote build threads, I will be posting photos, updates, perhaps video updates on my most recent reef build. This is an Innovative Marine 200 EXT Peninsula set up as against a wall on one of the long sides. This puts the tank right up next to the wall while still allowing free access to all of the plumbing on the end of the tank. More to come daily. Enjoy.
Man,my dream tank..following along..
 
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Sean Clark

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When I started the planing the plumbing for this tank it was much, much different.

I had planned for flow sensors everywhere. I bought fancy vibration isolators for all of the connections. I had union fittings everywhere. I had valves. I had dual UV plumbed through the returns with bypass circuits. I had dual return pumps.

K.I.S.S. keep it simple Sean.

I had all of this stuff just for plumbing. It was lot of connections. It was a lot of extra wires to manage. And, while every union is convenient; they are also leak points. The plumbing was very complicated.

But what if you "need" to take it apart? I have never "needed" to take plumbing apart. Should I "need" to take it apart then I will cut it out and guess what? Add union fittings where I cut it. Seams pretty easy to me and saves me the initial cost for all of those extra fitthigs that I don't need until I do need them.

I was caught up in the hype of "You need this.", and "You need that.". I wanted everything.

K.I.S.S. keep it simple Sean.

I finally woke up and realized that looking at a number on a screen that showes me a flow rate does not make me a better reefer. It doesn't do anything for my tank.

Yes, I can use that number as a reference point and dial it up or dial it down.

The measure of success is not the number on the screen. The success comes from observation. Learning and understanding what you are observing; and how to apply what you have learned. When I turn the flow up or down; it is based on my observations within the tank.

I do believe that people are not going to look at their screen and then adjust their flow rate based on that number alone without looking at their tank and observing.

So ok... maybe you would eventually learn to coorolate what you are observing within the tank to a number on the screen. This is still using observation to then later "confirm" your flow rate.

Outside of a few cases, The flow number on a return line means nothing in my opionion. I used a flow meter on a UV and RO previously. Both of these were let downs. Inconsistent at best. Fails at worst.

But here I was doing it again...

K.I.S.S. keep it simple Sean

You are not measuring flow within the tank. Add a powerhead and you are right back to estimating.

Want to know when a pump fails? Do you need flow meters for that? No power monitoring does that.

All I am saying here is K.I.S.S. Keep it simple Sean.

You can do more wit less. I removed it all from the build and went minimalist on the plumbing. I am happy that I did.
 
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Sean Clark

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I picked up this little blinking red LED light from Amazon and wired it up to my Apex to turn on whenever the alarm is triggered on my Apex.

The idea is that I would mount this in the back left corner on top of the stand. You can not see the light when it is mounted in the back, but you can still see the blinking light reflecting off of the wall when you walk into the room. This will provide a visual alert you to check and see why the alarm is on and what notification you missed. This is also nice to alert others in the household or a tank sitter to call and let you know "Hey, that red light is blinking...".

20210828_011633.jpg


You can pick this up for $16.00 here:


The light has a physical switch to change between flashing or solid light when powered. I have mine set to flashing.

The code that I use to make this light come on when the Apex is in a state of alarm for me is:

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Output Email_Alarm = ON Then ON
If Power Apex OFF 000 Then OFF

Your alarm name may need to be changed to match your set up.

The last line is not needed and is only in there to shut the light off to save battery backup power in the event of a power outage.
 

Griev

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I picked up this little blinking red LED light from Amazon and wired it up to my Apex to turn on whenever the alarm is triggered on my Apex.

The idea is that I would mount this in the back left corner on top of the stand. You can not see the light when it is mounted in the back, but you can still see the blinking light reflecting off of the wall when you walk into the room. This will provide a visual alert you to check and see why the alarm is on and what notification you missed. This is also nice to alert others in the household or a tank sitter to call and let you know "Hey, that red light is blinking...".

20210828_011633.jpg


You can pick this up for $16.00 here:


The light has a physical switch to change between flashing or solid light when powered. I have mine set to flashing.

The code that I use to make this light come on when the Apex is in a state of alarm for me is:

Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If Output Email_Alarm = ON Then ON
If Power Apex OFF 000 Then OFF

Your alarm name may need to be changed to match your set up.

The last line is not needed and is only in there to shut the light off to save battery backup power in the event of a power outage.


This is a great idea, definitely going to copy this!
 
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Sean Clark

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Out of curiosity why such powerful lights under your stand? Or are they just generic lights that look like full blown reef lights?
Good catch, they are reef lights. The lights I have under my stand are two Kessil A80 and one H80. I had them from a previous tank and simply repurposed them. They are 15 watts each. I would not buy them just to light a cabinet.
 

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Good catch, they are reef lights. The lights I have under my stand are two Kessil A80 and one H80. I had them from a previous tank and simply repurposed them. They are 15 watts each. I would not buy them just to light a cabinet.
Make sense. I mean if you got um you got um was thinking you may have bought them new just to light your stand $$. Are you doing a fuge? If so over head lighting or through the side wall of the sump lighting like the Chaetomax? I've always wanted a sump with a Chaetomax light on either side of my sump to reduce light spill and have unobstructed access to the top of my fuge section.
 
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What is your return pump? And out of curiosity how come you didn't go with a run of soft plumbing between your pump and the PVC?
The return pump is a Skimz Leopard 160. This is an AC pump. I did not run any silicone tubing between the pump and the return line because the pump has silicone feet and I have set it onto a custom made "sled" to eliminate vibration transfer. If you look closely at the return line you will see that there are not any clamps on the return line plumbing from the return pump, all the way to the edge of the stand. The return is floating and is only supported in three places. Two of those are where it exits the stand, the third is the pump itself. This minimises contact points, vibration, and noise. Because the return pump is a support, I can not have any soft tubing above it.

Basically, I have moved the cushion to the bottom of the pump.
 
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Make sense. I mean if you got um you got um was thinking you may have bought them new just to light your stand $$. Are you doing a fuge? If so over head lighting or through the side wall of the sump lighting like the Chaetomax? I've always wanted a sump with a Chaetomax light on either side of my sump to reduce light spill and have unobstructed access to the top of my fuge section.
I will be running a fuge. My solution to light spill is to custom cut some kaizen foam to fit tight to the sump and stand between the fuge area and the skimmer section. I have done this in the past and it works. I am kind of obsessed with light spill. You want to have two pieces one front and one back to make service easy. I lap my front and back pieces so that they fit together like a puzzle.

 

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