Skywurz - 175g /w 55g sump build (First Saltwater Tank)

[skywurz]

Hello All

I am finally posting my build. Some of you may have seen my posts over in the noob section. Things kinda started when my wife got a small fresh water tank. She ordered reef sand on accident. We put it aside and i said well maybe i will build a salt water tank because I had a fresh water tank for years growing up and if I do a new tank i want a new experience. A couple years pass and we finally upgrade our boa to a 175g tank from a 55g. We now had a extra 55g laying around so I finally decide to look into a saltwater tank seriously.
After some research I decided I wanted to do a tank with a sump and I wanted to do at least a 120g display tank and the extra 55g could be a nice sump. I started looking for second had tanks and after resisting the urge to jump on the first ones I saw and full setups I ran across a tank with a vague description that happen to be only a couple blocks away from me. Im not sure what the make of the tank is or its actual capacity because its kinda nonstandard it is glass and has a seamless front so the front corners are curved as 1 piece. It measures 60" Length x 24" Width X 30" Height best i can tell that is 175 gallons for a standard seamed aquarium. My sump is 48" Length x 12" Width X 24" Height. My display tank came with a custom stand that was kinda ugly but the bones seemed to be in good shape.

I put together an extensive list of how im going to do this build.

Phase	Task	Note
0	Acquire Tank
0	Clean Tank
0	Prep Stand	This Includes Painting and adding doors to the existing stand.
1	Fit Overflow to tank
1	Size and fit new acrylic sheets for top of tank.
1	Silicone Acrylic sheets as dividers in sump	IE Make the 50 gallon tank into a sump
1	Build out live rock for Display Tank	Attach them together
1	Put Stand In Place
1	Put Tank On Stand
1	Put sump in stand
1	Install return pump in Sump
1	Install Heaters in Sump
1	Add plumbing between Display Tank and Sump
2	Fill Display tank 1/3 of the way check for leaks
2	Fill sump 1/3 of the way check for leaks
2	Add live sand and rock to display tank and sump	5" in display tank
2	Fill Display tank
2	Let Display tank overflow into the sump until sump is full	Check for plumbing leaks
2	Turn on return pump and check for leaks
2	add water treatment/ Chlorine eliminator
2	Add Salt	Check levels
2	Wait until tank cycles and stabilizes.
3	Add Light to Refugium in Sump
3	Add Cheeto to refugium
3	Add Turbo and Emerald to refugium
3	Add some Pods to refugium
3	Wait for system to restabilize	Feed the Refugium
4	Add Lights to Display Tank
4	Add PowerHeads to Display Tank
4	Add some frags
4	add some fish	probably a sand sifting starfish or 2

If anyone sees anything wonky in my posts or how im setting things up please let me know. Like i said its my first salt water tank and its always nice to have extra eyes on things especially when they are as experienced as all of you.

 

[skywurz]

I cleaned the tank

I started working on the stand

It needs another coat of pain but its looking good

 

[skywurz]

I turned my 55g tank into a sump

I did a rough layout then taped things into place

Then I silicone everything into place

 

[skywurz]

I got a pile of heavy things

 

[skywurz]

Today was put in place plum and fill day!!!

I filled it and the sump up up 1/3 of the way to check that the tanks were sound.

I then started all of the plumbing. Once the plumbing was done and I was waiting for glue to dry I added water conditioner and Sand. I started filling the tank the rest of the way. once i was at the 2/3rd mark i added all of the salt i should have needed.

I fired up my return pump and checked for leaks. I had 2 minor leaks at my overflow(the bulkheads were not tight enough). so far so good. i have both my heaters going and the temp is slowly rising.

I also learned today that some horrible person puts some sort of bag of water conditioner inside each sand bag... i have yet to find them all.

 

[KrisReef]

I wish I had seen your build before you added the sand.

I posted this in your other thread, but will leave it here also FYI.

Official Sand Rinse and Tank Transfer thread

If you are reading this thread to cure a tank invasion from a link I sent you, we do not need to identify your type of invasion here we do not need you to test anything at anytime regarding nitrate, phosphate etc Above all, we do not need to see a microscope slide picture of your invasion at...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[skywurz]

I picked up a canister filter for 20% off it's a bit small for my setup but because it's not the sole means of filtration I think it will be fine. I had planned to hook it to the sump but I couldn't get it to prime. Worst I can't seem to fit it in my sump cabinet.
However after having it hooked up for only 13 hours or so I can finally see into the tank and sump!

 

[skywurz]

I guess its well past time for an update.

I got my live rock into the tank but its not fully glued yet i do have acrylic rods glued into place on one side of them just need to glue the top.

I started my Reef-pi build.

I wanted to do a build like this before i learned about reef-pi. I had built something like this from scratch to control 2 outlets each for 4 reptile enclosures (8 outlets). I did that one on an arduino with custom software and i wrote a web interface to see what the current stats were. When i read about reef-pi i realized it was the same thing with less steps.

Now i did not want to use the $250 power par that was recommended in one of the build docs so i decided to do my own thing using proper external mount 2 gang boxes and an abs junction box.

I used waterproof conduit between the 2 gang boxes and the junction box/enclosure.

I decided to just use the press in wire connectors. I never use these but i felt it was cleaner for this setup.

I wired up my relays i have 2 power inputs using standard PC power plugs. I have 1 plug wired to power the outlets on the left and one to power the outlets on the right. This allows me to split things off on UPS power. I also wired the relay array for normally closed so that if the unit dies or does not have power the whole thing will work like a power bar.

all of my outlets work and are in the reef-pi

I had a bit of issues with the thermometer circut because it was not quite right in some of the docs. Also im not super happy with the fact if it gets unplugged while the Pi is running it causes a short. I will be using BNC connectors for the rest of my preferential connections to avoid things like this and provide a lock on the connection.

 

[skywurz]

Worked on my DIY ATO tank. I took a mini pump and ran the power and the tubing through a 3/4" pvc pipe . I put a float switch on a pvc T so I can get an alert when the tank is low and to disable the pump so it doesn't run dry.

 

[skywurz]

Wow a lot happens in 2 weeks. Time for an update!

My Sump failed catastrophically (Not really it was just a baffle)

I had to drain my sump and run without it for a few days. I got a 1/4" ABS sheet and used a full tube of silicone to secure it. I also sanded the edges of the ABS to allow the silicone a place to stick. The ABS has way less bow than the acrylic. I am just glad this happened while i had nothing in the tank except cheato. I had to move my cheato to my display tank for the few days and now i have strands all over my display tank .

Also in this 2 weeks i got a seneye monitor and have hooked that to my reef-pi and use a USB emulator to allow the the windows software on a computer in a different room to access it.

I also got my wave pumps installed. Im not sure how much flow i should be setting it on but i guess i will have to play it by ear.

While my sump was down i decided that my whole mechanical filtration setup was horrible and i needed to change it. I pulled the canister pump that i had been running mainly to combat sand clouds. I think i have a good handle on the sand issue now that i have stirred it up enough and filtered out the particles. I did most of the stirring getting my rock to the floor of the tank. I had added my rock after the sand and had not thought about the possibility of sand sifting/burrowing creatures undermining the foundation of the rock. I dug down and sank all of my rocks to the glass.
I then decided i was going to use filter cups for mechanical filtration. I was not finding a filter sock or cup holder that i was liking so i decided to build my own. I got a couple 4" x24" ABS pipes and cut them to about 18" i drilled holes in the bottom for water to go out and sat them in my sump. Once my sump was up and running i had the overflow feeding into cups in the 4" pipes. the freaking ABS pipes were buoyant. They kinda shifted to the side and the filter cups overflowed immediately. I then took the 6" sections of 4" pipe and drilled holes on each side of them near one end. I then hung them inside of the sump with the overflow pipes feeding into them. this took care of my tilting pipe issue but the filter cups still started to overflow quickly. I then decided to pickup a couple of filter socks to see if this was an issue with the way i had packed the filter cups or my flow rate. The socks worked great no overflow just random odd bubbles coming to the top of the sock. I then built an acrylic box around them so the bubbling would not splash on the wood of the sump. During this time i tried to run my skimmer. Im not sure whats going on with it. The thing immediately fills full of white bubbles and overflows at any depth and flow.

 

[skywurz]

My last post was getting a bit long and boring so i wanted to break it up to the part most people will be excited about... I got some frags!!!! I picked up 4 Zoas from a local reefer.

Sonic Flares

Radioactive Dragon Eyes

Fruitloops

Eagle Eyes

I also got a hitchhiker

 

[skywurz]

I guess im updating Bi-Weekly, man a lot has happen in 2 weeks. Im going to start at the beginning.

3 weeks ago i had contacted a reefer leaving the hobby about a RODI/Mixing Station setup. I then had my baffle failure so I bailed on that. 2 weeks ago i decided to check and see if he still had the setup and HE DID!. i picked it up and installed it in my garage.

I moved my Black Mollys from QT after acclimating them to saltwater into my display tank.
Since my QT tank was free I ordered up some fish from Live Aquaria. One of the things i wanted but they had a better price locally was a sand sifting starfish. I had some growth on the bottom of my DT so i thought it would be fine to get one. I will be trying to spot feed him as well

I then got my shipment in.
2 Clowns
5 Firefish
2 Kaudern's Cardinalfish
1 Pom Pom Xenia Coral
1 Heteroxenia Polyp

I dipped the coral and put them in my DT

 

[skywurz]

Unfortunately one of the Kaudern's Cardinalfish didn't make it. This caused the other to really sulk. I decided I was going to try to source at least 1 locally. I decided I was going to venture to San Francisco to check out a couple of places i had yet to go.
I picked up 2 Cardinalfish 1 Blue Tang and a zoa frag from the 9.99 frag rack from 6th Ave aquarium.
I got home and started acclamation. The sulking Cardinal really perked up and started hanging out by the bags.

Once acclamation was complete they all seemed happy

Unfortunately my QT is way over full. I am now having to do a 30% water change every day to keep things in check. Lucky its only for a few weeks.

 

[skywurz]

When I was out with my family exploring fish stores my wife commented on the torches at one of the stores. torches had always been way too expensive for me to think about getting. I was looking around online and found a head of torch for half of what i had been seeing them locally. They also had some other really neat stuff. So I placed an order with Corals.com for
1 Torch
1 Neon Fungia plate coral
1 Ultra Favia

I was trying to feed my starfish some shrimp and some were floating around in the current and my Neon Fungia caught some.

 

[dohc97]

interesting tank, I am just seeing your build but am curious, how high is your water level in the sump? it looks almost full in pics.

 

[skywurz]

interesting tank, I am just seeing your build but am curious, how high is your water level in the sump? it looks almost full in pics.

Thank You!!

Yeah the early shot it was quite full. It is still a very full sump but this is what it looks like now.

Also a compulsory update of the DT

 

[dohc97]

pretty high, do you have enough room in there to hold water when return pump is off?

 

[skywurz]

pretty high, do you have enough room in there to hold water when return pump is off?

Oh yeah plenty of room. I have my upper outlets pretty high and close to the surface so the tank doesn't back siphon so much.

 

[skywurz]

Just going to add a bunch of pics of where im at in my DT

 

[skywurz]

Ive setup a Raspberry pi with Pi cam to live stream. Still working on a few bugs but so far so good.