Plumbing a grow out tank into reef system

[Claus84]

Hi all,

I'm currently planning my upgrade system (280g - 96x28x24 w/60x18x18 sump) and am thinking about plumbing an additional tank within the cabinet for use as a grow out tank. I primarily buy captive bred fish and its a bit of a lottery as to what sizes are available, with some species being released to market pretty early at absolutely tiny sizes (my azure damsels were the size of my little fingernail!) so it would be good to have a seperate tank plumbed into the main system so that once past QT they have a place to pack some size on before heading to the DT.

I'm wondering what the best way to do this is and if anyone has any examples or pics of setting something similar up?

I'm thinking of having a split of my drain or return line to the seperate tank which would then overflow back into the first chamber of the sump (Triton method so in this case the algae compartment) but i'm not sure of the best way to go about it so am open to suggestions.

Thanks

Nick

 

[pluikens]

I have multiple tanks tied into one sump in my fish room. I have a 90, a 40, and a 20-gallon tank and will soon be adding a 50-gallon frag tank. My 90 gallon has a return pump in the sump and the 90 drains right back into the sump. My 40 gallon also has it's own return pump in the sump but that tank drains into the 20 which drains into the sump. For your situation, I think it would come down to the return rates and the size of your grow out tank. If your 280 gallon Triton display has something like 2,800 GPH of return, that would be a lot to send through something like a 40 breeder grow out tank. What were you thinking of for a grow out tank size? I know you mentioned splitting the return off but I am hesitant of this as I think it introduces potential issues that can be avoided. I think it's also adding difficulty in tuning your display overflow to be silent when you have additional valves splitting off water to this grow out tank. I would suggest a second return pump to feed the grow out tank with it's own separate drains. Then if you shut off the return to the display to say, feed corals, you'll still have good water flowing through your sump and grow out tank.

 

[Claus84]

I have multiple tanks tied into one sump in my fish room. I have a 90, a 40, and a 20-gallon tank and will soon be adding a 50-gallon frag tank. My 90 gallon has a return pump in the sump and the 90 drains right back into the sump. My 40 gallon also has it's own return pump in the sump but that tank drains into the 20 which drains into the sump. For your situation, I think it would come down to the return rates and the size of your grow out tank. If your 280 gallon Triton display has something like 2,800 GPH of return, that would be a lot to send through something like a 40 breeder grow out tank. What were you thinking of for a grow out tank size? I know you mentioned splitting the return off but I am hesitant of this as I think it introduces potential issues that can be avoided. I think it's also adding difficulty in tuning your display overflow to be silent when you have additional valves splitting off water to this grow out tank. I would suggest a second return pump to feed the grow out tank with it's own separate drains. Then if you shut off the return to the display to say, feed corals, you'll still have good water flowing through your sump and grow out tank.

Thanks, that's a good point re return flow, I guess I don't really want to be messing with teeing off the return if I can avoid it.

The tank would probably be around 20g so I could easy feed this from a separate, small return pump and have it drain back into the sump, that hadn't crossed my mind for some reason. the tank would likely be contained in the sump cabinet so I would have to raise the level of the grow out tank slightly so I could have it drain back into the sump I guess? Rather than have the sump drilled.

Thanks

Nick

 

[pluikens]

Thanks, that's a good point re return flow, I guess I don't really want to be messing with teeing off the return if I can avoid it.

The tank would probably be around 20g so I could easy feed this from a separate, small return pump and have it drain back into the sump, that hadn't crossed my mind for some reason. the tank would likely be contained in the sump cabinet so I would have to raise the level of the grow out tank slightly so I could have it drain back into the sump I guess? Rather than have the sump drilled.

Thanks

Nick

Sounds like you could get some good inspiration for placing/plumbing the grow out tank under your stand by looking for folks with remote fuges. I think the idea is basically the same except you're growing coral rather than macros. You may still want something like 20x flow rate through the grow out tank to make sure the chemistry there is as close as possible to that of the display tank. With a @Vivid Creative Aquatics RFG and some locline on the return for the grow out, you could probably get away without a powerhead/wavemaker if you had something like 400-500 GPH through the 20 gallon.

 

[Vivid Creative Aquatics]

Sounds like you could get some good inspiration for placing/plumbing the grow out tank under your stand by looking for folks with remote fuges. I think the idea is basically the same except you're growing coral rather than macros. You may still want something like 20x flow rate through the grow out tank to make sure the chemistry there is as close as possible to that of the display tank. With a @Vivid Creative Aquatics RFG and some locline on the return for the grow out, you could probably get away without a powerhead/wavemaker if you had something like 400-500 GPH through the 20 gallon.

that's pretty much exactly what i did with my personal tank - I have a 20gllaon(ish) remote refugium/grow out tank, fed with a small DC pump and then it drains back to the main sump. The DC pump drives a single 1/2in RFG nozzle at around 350GPH, which is plenty of flow for the entire tank.

 

[Claus84]

that's pretty much exactly what i did with my personal tank - I have a 20gllaon(ish) remote refugium/grow out tank, fed with a small DC pump and then it drains back to the main sump. The DC pump drives a single 1/2in RFG nozzle at around 350GPH, which is plenty of flow for the entire tank.

That's a great looking setup, my growout tank would be for fish rather than coral so flow wouldn't be too critical, probably a small DC return would do the job as you say.

Thanks for the input