HI everyone!
Jeff here, mid 30s and live in central NC. My mom had a saltwater tank when I was a kid so it is familiar, but that is about the extent of my experience. Recently started noticing nano reefs in my doctors office and in constant ads on facebook and thought, hell, why not? I'm 35, gay, and single. My choices at this point are become a crazy old cat lady or the creepy overly nice uncle type who has no chance with the early 20 somethings he stalks/befriends lol ;-)
Anywho, I'm a cheapo. I ALWAYS find a deal. I know this hobby isn't cheap, I get that. My thing is overall I'm sure I'll have a lot in it, but as long as I'm smart about the stuff I buy and get at least 40% off retail prices along the way I'm good haha. So, I had come to the conclusion that I'd be better off getting an older larger tank and just piecing it all together as deals arose which is my normal MO with stuff like this. But A) all of this stuff is a bit overwhelming and B) a really good almost complete setup for a jbj 28 gallon nano reef popped up, and I can't resist a deal. No hood but tank, stand, several extra pumps, 30lbs of rock/coral and a good $500 worth of chemicals and tests for $120 bux I couldn't pass that up. Found a good condition chinese black box led on mercari for 35 bux that is on the way, plan to tinker with that, maybe mod it with a pi zero, love projects like that.
Anywho, got my live sand, salt and everything running the other day and all seems good. Just trying to read and learn and let the tank cycle in the meantime. But I'm a total ISTP personality and if I don't have at least six DIY or remodeling projects going on at once my mind wanders. So now I'm thinking I wanna build my own sump in the stand now that I have a more thorough understanding of how the basic setup actually works (I have to learn by doing and getting my hands dirty, I can read a million times with no impact, but sweating and figuring something out on my own a light bings.) I have no issues tackling building the sump, in fact I think it will be a lot of fun, but I hate backtracking and "re-do-ing" things. I don't wanna drill the tank bc idk I just have bad luck with stuff like that. So, after this epic novel I've written haha... could I run pvc into the cube in ADDITION/in conjunction with the attached system on the back? The tank came with several pumps/powerheads so the parts are there. Been thinking it over and just wondering if I should leave the 2 stock pumps where they are now and run an outflow pvc from the bottom filtered area up and over to sump (since I don't wanna drill, and if I did I'd probably just eliminate the back filter area) then run pvc from sump to the front of aquarium at top flow facing in. Will this work? I worry that I'll end up just bypassing the filtration on the back of the tank (that's why I was thinking outgoing water needs to come from bottom of tank at the back post filters. But without drilling that means ill have to snake it up against gravity, which adds more complications) Anywho, I think it can work, just getting muddled in the specifics like pump/head placement etc. Any help appreciated!
Hope to meet some nice and knowledgeable people on the forum and find yet another black hold to throw all of my money into ;-)
Jeff/Jeffey
Jeff here, mid 30s and live in central NC. My mom had a saltwater tank when I was a kid so it is familiar, but that is about the extent of my experience. Recently started noticing nano reefs in my doctors office and in constant ads on facebook and thought, hell, why not? I'm 35, gay, and single. My choices at this point are become a crazy old cat lady or the creepy overly nice uncle type who has no chance with the early 20 somethings he stalks/befriends lol ;-)
Anywho, I'm a cheapo. I ALWAYS find a deal. I know this hobby isn't cheap, I get that. My thing is overall I'm sure I'll have a lot in it, but as long as I'm smart about the stuff I buy and get at least 40% off retail prices along the way I'm good haha. So, I had come to the conclusion that I'd be better off getting an older larger tank and just piecing it all together as deals arose which is my normal MO with stuff like this. But A) all of this stuff is a bit overwhelming and B) a really good almost complete setup for a jbj 28 gallon nano reef popped up, and I can't resist a deal. No hood but tank, stand, several extra pumps, 30lbs of rock/coral and a good $500 worth of chemicals and tests for $120 bux I couldn't pass that up. Found a good condition chinese black box led on mercari for 35 bux that is on the way, plan to tinker with that, maybe mod it with a pi zero, love projects like that.
Anywho, got my live sand, salt and everything running the other day and all seems good. Just trying to read and learn and let the tank cycle in the meantime. But I'm a total ISTP personality and if I don't have at least six DIY or remodeling projects going on at once my mind wanders. So now I'm thinking I wanna build my own sump in the stand now that I have a more thorough understanding of how the basic setup actually works (I have to learn by doing and getting my hands dirty, I can read a million times with no impact, but sweating and figuring something out on my own a light bings.) I have no issues tackling building the sump, in fact I think it will be a lot of fun, but I hate backtracking and "re-do-ing" things. I don't wanna drill the tank bc idk I just have bad luck with stuff like that. So, after this epic novel I've written haha... could I run pvc into the cube in ADDITION/in conjunction with the attached system on the back? The tank came with several pumps/powerheads so the parts are there. Been thinking it over and just wondering if I should leave the 2 stock pumps where they are now and run an outflow pvc from the bottom filtered area up and over to sump (since I don't wanna drill, and if I did I'd probably just eliminate the back filter area) then run pvc from sump to the front of aquarium at top flow facing in. Will this work? I worry that I'll end up just bypassing the filtration on the back of the tank (that's why I was thinking outgoing water needs to come from bottom of tank at the back post filters. But without drilling that means ill have to snake it up against gravity, which adds more complications) Anywho, I think it can work, just getting muddled in the specifics like pump/head placement etc. Any help appreciated!
Hope to meet some nice and knowledgeable people on the forum and find yet another black hold to throw all of my money into ;-)
Jeff/Jeffey
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