Good day all!
Who could say no to IM's current sale eh? Not I! This will be my biggest tank by far, and my first setup I'm building from scratch. There will be a lot of firsts here, so follow along, hang out and if you see the chance, help flatten my learning curve. Here’s the plan:
Tank: IM EXT 150 Lagoon
Sump: Looking for recommendations
Lighting: Aquatic life 48” t5 hybrid fixture + undecided LED
Flow: 4x Vortec MP40 on back of tank
Return: Sicce Syncra SDC 9.0
Tank arrived last week:
Stand package was damaged:
Minor damage to stand components:
IM was awesome to deal with.
I hired a structural engineer to make recommendations for supporting the floor under the tank. He came back with some pretty simple reinforcements:
Aside from that, I need to add a couple dedicated circuits behind the tank before bringing it in. I plan to have transfer switched in the basement so I can plug a generator into them in the event of a power outage.
I have 3 steps between the garage and the house. The plan is to build a ramp to the doorway. The tank will be turned onto it’s face onto 4 wheel dollies so it can be rolled up the ramp and into the house. The goal is as little lifting as possible, so as little risk for drops as possible. I looked into hiring a moving company, but the one’s I called required I sign a liability waiver in case of an accident, so that’s out.
My first hurdle is proving to be matching a sump to this system. It almost seems like I’m missing something. Seems to me that the most important consideration in choosing a sump should be backflow capacity. If the power goes out, or I just want to shut the pump off for a water change, I don’t want to rely on check valves to prevent a flood.
IM tells me, with the return lines at the surface, up to 17 gallons may drain into down when the return is shut off. I’ve only found 1 sump that lists backflow capacity, and its only the 1 sump from that manufacturer that has it listed. Other build threads I’ve read for this tank the backflow capacity is either a silent consideration or not a consideration at all. I’m really at a loss here. I’ve been playing with a volume calculator to try to figure backflow capacity on my own but it’s really difficult. Especially when the highly rated sump builders have such hard to navigate product lines and poorly built websites.
I hestitated to buy a blemished Trigger CR44 for a steal, and someone got to it first. If you’re reading this, well done.
Current tank is a Red Sea Max E-170 with the in cabinet sump upgrade:
New tank will also be SPS heavy. This take will eventually be phased out.
More to come soon!
Who could say no to IM's current sale eh? Not I! This will be my biggest tank by far, and my first setup I'm building from scratch. There will be a lot of firsts here, so follow along, hang out and if you see the chance, help flatten my learning curve. Here’s the plan:
Tank: IM EXT 150 Lagoon
Sump: Looking for recommendations
Lighting: Aquatic life 48” t5 hybrid fixture + undecided LED
Flow: 4x Vortec MP40 on back of tank
Return: Sicce Syncra SDC 9.0
Tank arrived last week:
Stand package was damaged:
Minor damage to stand components:
IM was awesome to deal with.
I hired a structural engineer to make recommendations for supporting the floor under the tank. He came back with some pretty simple reinforcements:
Aside from that, I need to add a couple dedicated circuits behind the tank before bringing it in. I plan to have transfer switched in the basement so I can plug a generator into them in the event of a power outage.
I have 3 steps between the garage and the house. The plan is to build a ramp to the doorway. The tank will be turned onto it’s face onto 4 wheel dollies so it can be rolled up the ramp and into the house. The goal is as little lifting as possible, so as little risk for drops as possible. I looked into hiring a moving company, but the one’s I called required I sign a liability waiver in case of an accident, so that’s out.
My first hurdle is proving to be matching a sump to this system. It almost seems like I’m missing something. Seems to me that the most important consideration in choosing a sump should be backflow capacity. If the power goes out, or I just want to shut the pump off for a water change, I don’t want to rely on check valves to prevent a flood.
IM tells me, with the return lines at the surface, up to 17 gallons may drain into down when the return is shut off. I’ve only found 1 sump that lists backflow capacity, and its only the 1 sump from that manufacturer that has it listed. Other build threads I’ve read for this tank the backflow capacity is either a silent consideration or not a consideration at all. I’m really at a loss here. I’ve been playing with a volume calculator to try to figure backflow capacity on my own but it’s really difficult. Especially when the highly rated sump builders have such hard to navigate product lines and poorly built websites.
I hestitated to buy a blemished Trigger CR44 for a steal, and someone got to it first. If you’re reading this, well done.
Current tank is a Red Sea Max E-170 with the in cabinet sump upgrade:
New tank will also be SPS heavy. This take will eventually be phased out.
More to come soon!
