My Fisrt 29G setup

[VG30DE-TT]

Hey guys I've been wanting to start a Reef tank for several years now, My parents always had Freshwater tanks, but I always wanted a Reef Tank, about 4 weeks ago I just woke up and decided a reef wasn't going to just start on it's own. I got a standard 29g for $29 at the local pet store and a 200GPH HOB filter, I mixed my own water up in the tank, let the dust settle and let it run for 48hrs on my kitchen counter until the water was crystal clear and everything was up to temperature. I added Live sand and a 25lb live rock, The cycling process went fairly well but it didn't take long to figure out that a 29G tank on my kitchen counter was no place for a Reef tank.

The original plan was to just add a 10g Sump, to the tank in the Kitchen, But then I talked my Wife into a 40B display tank and a 20L sump, when she saw how much space that was going to take in our already tiny living room I decided that a 29G display W/ 10Gal Sump would be fine (Even if that means no coral just fish and rock)

I made sure a SCA301 skimmer would fit into the inlet section of the Sump (with room to spare) I don't know if thats a good skimmer or the one I'll use but I left enough room to fit one in, then I did a Over-Under-Over bubble trap and felt like I was out of room. I wanted a refugium but at the time I was more worried about the pump having ample room to pull water from (so far it seems like I made the right choice)

I didn't take many pictures of the stand, it's just a standard issue 2x4 DIY stand. I'll skirt it later after I know all the plumbing is good

I got baffles for the bubble trap from HomeDepot they are .093" Lexan and came in a size that squeezed into my 10G tank I just took about a 1/2" off the bottom corners to clear the tanks silicone, I supose I could have just jamed them in there and piled up silicone across the bottom, but I just used a pair of pliers to chop off the corners.

I did a basic 3/4" DIY PVC Overflow

I ran a 1" flex hose off my Aqueon AQ2300 into a T with ball valves on each side. One feeds back up to the tank, and the other feeds a 3/4" flexible hose that I will use to get water out on water changes and to allow water to bypass the tank and circulate the sump If I want to limit flow to the Display tank without creating excess back pressure on the pump by just pinching shut the ball valve feeding the tank.

I still need a Light and a Powerhead. I'm also going to try to add a diffuse to the pump outlet and get it under the surface a little more. it's quite loud right now and ALL my flow is on the surface.

any input is appreciated, thanks.

 

[Ranjib]

Welcome to r2r. Looking good

 

[mike werner]

welcome to r2r. cool build,i have seen some great 29gal reef tanks in my daydepending on light choice you can put lots of different corals in it with great success.please keep us posted with pics and stories of your journey.look forward to seeing more



ps. I popped your cherry and gave you your first like.sorry second like by the time I posted ranjib deflowered you

 

[VG30DE-TT]

Thanks for the kind words, I grabbed a few more PVC fittings today, and I'm going to play with the return, now it's agitating the surface of the water so much the water level drops 1/2" on the right side of the display tank and goes up 1/4"

 

[VG30DE-TT]

When I first refiled the tank I my overflow was clearly air locked, I followed the DIY stuff allover the internet, except my overflow is hard mounted to the stand so I couldn't just tip it in and fill it, I decided to drill a small 1/8" hole in the top to let the air out while I primed it which worked well and I plugged the hole with a small machine screw.

The screw was from the old power outlet cover, I'll have to replace it with a SS screw if it needs to stay, this was just for testing.

I opened the valve at the bottom and all went well. went to work today I shut the pump down to to "Simulate" a serious power failure, when I got home I turned on the pump and the over flow had lost it's prime, I needed to remove the "Bleed screw" and refill the top pipe until water in the top pipe leveled off with the screw hole height, I replaced the screw, opened the lower ball valve and all was well. I've tried cutting pump power for as much as 30min and it fires right back up. but after 8 hours my house is going to flood.

This is my current overflow.... the Inlet is about 2" below the "T"

I'm wondering if pulling it apart and cutting off 1.5-2" would help it prime it's self better.?.?.?

 

[VG30DE-TT]

I made a short video, nothing special but I thought that I should do something to document the evolution of this tank, because I realized a day or so, what I have right now isn't much, but 4 weeks ago it was just a place that I would be able to watch fish die on my kitchen counter, but now it's turning into a place for them to live and is a center peice in our main living area.

 

[VG30DE-TT]

laying out my "new and improved" double barrel Wier/overflow

 

[VG30DE-TT]

While my dual diy overflow wasn't a disaster, I found myself constantly tweaking the flow on the overflow and return pump, and even things like a brand new foam pad in the sump vs. a 4 day old one would drastically affect the water height in the display tank AND the sump.

Here is the new and improved dual wier next to the first one I made

And the double barrel overflow next to the single.

The flow was incredible my cheapo Aqueon pump couldn't run the water half way up the weir. But I had the same tuning issues and a tiny leak right in the middle of the overflow. So I scrapped the dual quickly and used my first design in one of the new weirs.

I was about to give up, the constant tuning on the inlet and outlet was driving me crazy, and every attempt I made to simulate a power outage would clearly flood my house if I wasn't there trying to flood my house.

So I but the bullet and got a CPR HOB overflow. I was nervous at first, but now that it's been up and running for a week I couldn't be happier, money well spent.

Here it is mocked up on the front of my tank. It was VERY loud with rigid 1" PVC pipe and 4 90deg elbows

I switched to a 1" flexible clear hose and it's nearly silent. CPR is very clear about this and recommends not using rigid pipe.

So that's about where I'm at now. Still haven't skirted my stand. Two weeks ago I had added 3 "Ali snails and a blue leg hermit and I added a pair of sand sifting gobys last Sunday as well as a pair of black clowns.

 

[VG30DE-TT]

It's been a wile since I updated , noting has really changed the CPR overflow is amazing compared to anything I had previously attempted to DIY. I had an issue with my water mixing and was getting a TON of Ammonia in my mixed water.

Ive also replaced my cheapo aqueon 190gph power head with a MUCH MUCH nicer Sicce Voyager 3 (1200gph) and i'm going to add another one as well as a wave maker

currently in the tank i have
2 x Black Ice Clowns
1 x Tiger goby
2 x Blue leg hermits
2 x Nerite Snail
1 x Mexican turbo snail
200+ bristle worms
and pods and stuff

 

[VG30DE-TT]

It's been awhile since I've posted anything. so far so good. I think its time for a "Real" light and a good skimmer. I had picked up a eshopps PSK-75 that I thought I could just hang on my sump, but it's way to tall for my sump that is basically on the floor.

 

[count krunk]

that shrimp you have there is a harlequin shrimp that eats only starfish. I was going to suggest a HOB overflow since drillling seemed not like something you wanted to do.

Why no corals? my first decent reef tank was a 29g w/ 10g sump

 

[VG30DE-TT]

Yes I got the harliquin shrimp because the tank was being overwhelmed by little white star fish that where devouring all my Coraline and pooping little white spots EVERYWHERE

And yeah, I am using a CPR HOB overflow and a 10g sump

I do have a candy cane frag in there, I need to upgrade my light and get a skimmer going. Then get more serious about corals.

 

[VG30DE-TT]

Just a update, because people like updates!

 

[VG30DE-TT]

Man I t was SO!!!! clean back then, I took her down this week, I learned a LOT building this tank....... I didn't quit though, I swapped it all out for the opposite of DIY..... I moved my 7 remaining members of this tank (2x Balck-ice clowns, 2x engineering gobys, 2x blue leg hermits and 1x nasourious snail) into a new 32G bioCube, I was a a tuning point, a "do or do not" moment, as much as I would love to "go big or go home" I live in a tiny townhouse and steping up to a 100+ gallon tank just isn't feasible since a move is planned in the next few years.

It's ok these guys are gonna live there best life, while I adjust mine, Neptune APEXel on the boicube, a DOS doing daily water changes.... i'll actualy run a skimmer on this one ( yikes )

 

[VG30DE-TT]