My 75 Gallon Minimalist SPS build

[Montiguy1287]

My wife and I just finished building our house and I’ve been looking at upgrading my biocube 29 to something bigger in the home office. My wife agreed that I could do something over the next year if I accumulated parts slowly due to budget. I was leaning towards a 120 and have been perusing the forums for used equipment with no real urgency until last night...

I found a complete setup that I just couldn’t pass up. With much convincing on how much I’d save in equipment costs, I am now the owner of a fantastic 75 gallon system that I have the goal of turning into a top notch SPS reef.

For $900 I was able to pick up the tank/stand/and top with the following parts:

2x Kessil a360w with goosenecks
Eshopps sump
Eshopps S150 protein skimmer
Vectra M1 return pump
Some sort of reactor
2 MP40’s
A ridiculous amount of test equipment, supplements, plumbing, etc...
Algae scrubbers, refractometer, and plenty of other misc equipment I haven’t had a chance to go through and identify yet

This will all be combined with parts from my biocube and be controlled by my existing apex. I’ll also be pre-ordering the new AquaticLife T5/LED combo fixture tomorrow and waiting patiently for it to be delivered.

I will be taking my time and getting this one running with the goal of having something worth writing a build thread about. My first step will be to clean it all up and then re-finish the stand and top which I’ll start on this weekend. I’m leaning towards the antique farmhouse white look but haven’t decided for sure.

For now... here’s a pic of some of the equipment as it sits now. The blue thing on the right is a tote full of all of the miscellaneous equipment. Hope you enjoy!

 

[Adam G]

Wow, what a deal. Great lights, great return pump, and mp40’s alone would be worth way more than you paid for the whole package. What a great find. Have fun with it.

 

[Montiguy1287]

Thanks Adam. I thought so too! I was looking for these exact lights to combine with the T5’s and thought this was way too good to pass up!

 

[JCrew]

Wow, great deal!

 

[Montiguy1287]

Got the tank itself scraped and cleaned tonight. Now will start working on the equipment tomorrow. I’ll also be taking the stand and hood down to sand and will have my wife repaint it. Current idea is that rustic white farmhouse color. That’ll match my office and the rest of the house pretty well. Here are some before and after pics of the cleaning. You can see my little helper in some of the reflections.

And clean

 

[madweazl]

Pretty killer deal there for sure!

 

[firefishalumacraft]

What are you going for nitrate/phosphate reduction. Pellets/fuge/cheato reactor/ATS? I set up a SPS 75 rimless in June and shut down my 200g. mix reef. I transferred my pellets to the 75 but making a change to a refugium ( set up like Trition but not the additive/testing)

 

[Montiguy1287]

The plan is to plumb a fuge into the system. I am still deciding on how exactly I want to do that. Any thoughts? I’d like to keep cheato in the sump however that skimmer takes up a substantial amount of room in the sump.

I currently have two brs dosers on my biocube and these will be used until they cannot keep up with demand for alk and calcium dosing. I dose two part controlled by the apex. Admittedly, your question is probably my weakest spot in experience and I’m still doing a lot of research on the best routes while getting everything running.

 

[madweazl]

Your best bet might be a reactor(s) if you want to keep the sump you have.

 

[Montiguy1287]

I’m not opposed to selling this sump and building a custom one. The main reasons I have wanted a fuge is to have a good place to grow pods and keep the chaeto for nutrient removal. I’ve always been a fan of natural filtration and keeping chemicals minimal however I know that with an SPS dominant tank this may not be entirely possible long term.

Where would I plumb a fuge into this sump? Is it possible to run an extra pump out of one of the chambers and have it on a closed loop back to the same chamber and hen return up to the tank? I even have room to put a nice fuge next to the tank if I wanted to or it can just sit in the stand.

 

[madweazl]

It's certainly possible to do so but how much room do you have left under the stand with the sump you currently have?

 

[Montiguy1287]

Here’s a pic for reference if you can imagine it inside the stand.

I could build another nice stand and use this extra space for a fuge but then I’d have to design it to be something worth looking at. That space could be extended to up to 36”. This wouldn’t be ideal only for the fact that my wife would be less than impressed that I’d then be building a second tank ha!

 

[Husker]

Will the left chamber not function as a refugium? I always enjoy having a refugium on tanks. It seems to give you a little more wiggle room for oopses like a dead fish--> ammonia spike. Instead of having unexplainable RTN, you just get a quick bump in algae growth.

 

[Montiguy1287]

Will the left chamber not function as a refugium? I always enjoy having a refugium on tanks. It seems to give you a little more wiggle room for oopses like a dead fish--> ammonia spike. Instead of having unexplainable RTN, you just get a quick bump in algae growth.

It looks like it’s meant for the filter socks can I put the fuge in the input chamber like that? It just needs a small amount of sand/rubble/chaeto but I didn’t think all that would work in first chamber for some reason. For pods do you want the fuge before or after the skimmer or does it not matter?

 

[Husker]

There are theoretical advantages and disadvantages to having the refugium in a particular order with the rest of the plumbing. I and many others have shown it doesn't seem to make much difference. Pods still get to the display just fine even if they have to pass through the skimmer chamber. Skimmers just aren't efficient enough to remove them.

 

[Montiguy1287]

Maybe someone can help me figure out the sump now that I’m looking at it a little more detailed.

Front view

Center chamber is where I was planning on putting skimmer and right chamber is for return.

Here’s a pic with them in for space comparison

Here’s a side view of the left chamber

Now that I’m looking at it, can that front part of
The left chamber be the refugium? It looks like the water will flow in the back of the chamber at which point it overflows into the front. There’s two squares that I assume are for filter socks. I could maybe design a way for the water to flow directly into a sock in the back of the chamber and then overflow into the front where I could house the fuge. Does this sound like a good idea at all or what would others do?

Here’s a top view too

The setup did come with this hang on reactor and I don’t know what it’s for.

Lastly don’t mind all of the ugly soft tubing. The system will be hard plumed with pvc and ball valves for better control.

 

[Husker]

I think you are right. That section with the white walls would make a great refugium chamber. Get some chaeto and a strong light and you'll be in good shape.

 

[firefishalumacraft]

Just read everyones post. I agree use the first chamber for the fuge, Im setting my system up similar to a triton method with the fuge first then the skimmer. Im new to refugiums as well so I went with the largest one I can find and that was the Trigger 39 with a fuge thats 18x16 with 10-11" of water. Now what light are you thinking. Im looking at the Kessil H380

 

[Montiguy1287]

I’m still debating on the fuge and details there. I haven’t thought about a light for that yet. I do have a question on plumbing.

Why does this sump have 2 bulkhead inputs? Is one for an emergency? If so, how do I plumb it? Here’s a pic (don’t mind the missing bulkhead, I have it)

The system will be gravity fed. Here’s the bottom of the tank. One for gravity drain and one for return.

Should I get away from the flexible tubing and go pvc? Should any check valves be added to the drain line or return? If I have an overflow my wife will kill me.

 

[Montiguy1287]

Feel like a noob.... the second bulkhead input would be for a tank that has dual overflows correct? As mine has only single overflow, I shouldn’t need to use the second. That being said, I will use the existing flexible hose that comes with the skimmer for the drain line from the tank to the sump.

I will be using the two little fishies reactor for GFO. It is a hang on style so it will hang on the front of the sump for ease of access. I am replacing the wimpy rubber 90’s with nice pvc and will run solid pvc piping on a closed loop in the center chamber. That will mean that section will hold the skimmer and the reactor and then drain through the sponge and into the third chamber where the return pump will pump back to the tank. I’ll also plumb an ATO into the system. Does the float valve for that go in the third chamber with the return pump? Seems like the only one that should show any change in water level.

Where, if anywhere, should I add ball valves? I’d like to plumb for future additions so I don’t need to change plumbing. My thought was if I ever want to add ozone or another reactor or something like that I could put a couple T’s in now with ball valves that can remain closed until the additions need to be made? Thoughts and or suggestions on this idea?

Lastly, how do I account for a loss of power? I imagine the Durso drain won’t drain too much but how about back siphoning into the return pump? I could just fill the thing up and get it running and shut the return off and see what happens but that sounds like a dangerous game of trial and error.....

Sorry for noob questions. I’m very new to Sumps as my tanks have been all in ones prior.