New Build - DIY heavy...New FTS!

Marc.The.Shark · Oct 12, 2016

Chads_Coral_Collection said:
I'm looking to build something similar. I see you didn't do a standard overflow and just used bulkheads. I like that. It seems much easier for me to do.

How is the sound and performance?

I have a lot of 90's in my piping, so I ultimately had to install reverse durso's in the sump, but it's virtually quiet now. Performance is good, I have a gate valve on one drain so that I can tune & not get gurgling sound. You have to drill the holes pretty close to the rim so that water level is high enuf tho. I had the guy that built my tank drill it for me. It's 3/8" glass. I used two 1" bulkheads as my plan was to have 2 returns running at a time for a total of 4, but ended up only going with two 1/2" returns (one running at a time & switching with a SCWD), so my drain with the gate valve is dialed back quite a bit (75-80%). If I had to do it over I'd use 3/4" bulkheads. My goal was not to have any powerheads in the display & I have plenty of random flow from a DCT8000 & the SCWD switching about every 6-7 seconds. So it's working just as I wanted.

Daniel@R2R · Oct 13, 2016

Awesome build!! Following!!

Marc.The.Shark · Oct 13, 2016

mdbannister said:
Awesome build!! Following!!

Thanks for the compliment!

Marc.The.Shark · Oct 14, 2016

Well, update time. A little slow going as I developed a bad case of white slime bacteria. I got the tank transfer complete & all coral moved in and doing fine and then about two weeks later the bacterial outbreak. White stringy stuff everywhere & clear slime all over the sump walls/baffles/equipment. I went the Dr Tims ReFresh/Waste away route & also ran a UV sterilizer for part of the time. This knocked out about 95% of it over the course of 2-3 weeks. Then on the advise/experience of a couple members here, I ran some GFO for 48hrs, then a 3 day blackout this past weekend and did a deep cleaning. It's now 99% gone and things are looking up.
This was at the height of outbreak before treatment.

I managed to lose a couple pieces of coral in the process as I was skimming very wet & not keeping track of salinity. It dropped pretty low. Got all that back in order and also managed to add a couple new fish over the last few weeks. So now I have my clown plus an ORA Yellow Assessor and an Orchid Dottyback. Started mounting some various zoa frags on the rocks the last few days & have another order coming in next week with some more. Time to get back on track! Lol. Current tank shot from a few days ago before I started cleaning the frags off the sand bed.

Marc.The.Shark · Nov 14, 2016

Tank is on the mend. Finally beat the bacterial outbreak and things are starting to come around. Have some diatoms on rocks/ sand, but happy to see that as I didn't get much when I set up the tank & it went immediately into the white slime outbreak. Couple pics, mounted some coral. Made a zoa rock....

New RFA and some encrusting coral on the left most rock structure.

Zoaeasy · Nov 14, 2016

Is it just me or does this have the appearance of a much larger tank ! Love this thread and admire your DIY skills. Following along.

Marc.The.Shark · Nov 14, 2016

Zoaeasy said:
Is it just me or does this have the appearance of a much larger tank ! Love this thread and admire your DIY skills. Following along.

Thanks & yeah, that was the whole idea. Wanted to stay around 20gal. But make it appear larger.

Tokash23 · Dec 15, 2016

Clean setup holly smokes. Looking through this thread has pretty much answered any questions i had about a drain. I was considering doing the exact same thing you have setup except with only one drain w/out the overflow box, but was not sure if it would work properly. Seeing yours though makes me want to move in that direction when i set up my 30g. Where did you find the "grate" covers for your bulkheads?

Marc.The.Shark · Dec 15, 2016

Tokash23 said:
Clean setup holly smokes. Looking through this thread has pretty much answered any questions i had about a drain. I was considering doing the exact same thing you have setup except with only one drain w/out the overflow box, but was not sure if it would work properly. Seeing yours though makes me want to move in that direction when i set up my 30g. Where did you find the "grate" covers for your bulkheads?

Thanks. Here ya go..
http://www.fishtanksdirect.com/bulkhead-1-suction-screen-jt00030.aspx

Just make sure you get the JT bulkheads too, they have a slight dome shape to them and the screen will snap right on. These were the lowest profile ones I could find. I just had to play around with the setup to tune it in/quiet it down, no biggie, but I have a Ton of 90's to keep the plumbing out of the way. Any other questions, let me know.

wowkingjames · Dec 15, 2016

Amazing tank, love it!

Tokash23 · Dec 15, 2016

Im so happy i found this thread im am litterally going for the same type of setup and im also going to look into the ocean box design for a 10 gallon sump. Probably be spring before i can get everything together though.

Marc.The.Shark · Dec 15, 2016

wowkingjames said:
Amazing tank, love it!

Thank you so much!

Tokash23 said:
Im so happy i found this thread im am litterally going for the same type of setup and im also going to look into the ocean box design for a 10 gallon sump. Probably be spring before i can get everything together though.

Phuong over at Oceanbox does great work & will do custom work too. Had him make me an ATO container & a few other things. Tell him I sent you. I actually worked on my build for a year off & on before I set it up. Wanted to have it exactly how I wanted it and didn't want to have to screw around making changes once it was running. Let me know if you need any other assistance. Are you going with just one drain or gonna have a backup?