WWIII 200DD

[CoralWealth]

Thanks!

Getting ready to do the sump switcharoo here soon. I know I keep saying that, but I swear I'm close. Lol. Just purchased an abyzz pump, a couple more valves I needed, a kessil for the refugium, and 8 sheets of black pvc sheet 4' x 8'. I think I have everything I need now to make the move.

I'm trying to future proof my sump setup for the possibility of a slightly larger custom display down the road (6 foot). As for the current display I will probably keep it mixed reef, but I haven't purchased anything besides sps, 95% acropora, in the last 6 months or so. My wife likes the euphyllia and "flowy" corals, so that's why most of those are in there. I myself wouldn't mind having SPS dominant, with a couple really nice torches on the sand. That's probably the direction I will go with the next tank, but will be some time before that happens. Seems I'm headed that way with the current display anyways.

I plan to setup a acropora tank in the basement with the vertex sump underneath it, once I switch out the sump on my main display. Hopefully I can handle 3 separate systems (QT, display, acro tank). The ghl gear and fishroom make it a little easier, but we shall see!

That all sounds great man!

My finance loves the "flowy" corals too and thats why I have 3 torches in the center of my tank on the ground and a couple rose bubble tip anemones throughout the tank.

I couldnt imagine having 3 seperate systems unless I had alk monitors in each one, maybe thats just me though. I love having my frag tank connected to my DT.

 

[WWIII]

A few coral pics for the heck of it!

Here's a little no namer acro (I think mille) that I got a while back. It was completely green and boring for over 6 months, but now it's starting to color up into something?

And here's a homewrecker nub Ibwas able to snag from cherry corals a couple weeks ago. Got it at a great price during their live sale here, it was all green, but trying to show a little pink already...

 

[Dsnakes]

Awesome reef I’m jealous of your basement. I wish I had more space for that kind of setup. That new sump looks sweet. Keep it up!

 

[WWIII]

Awesome reef I’m jealous of your basement. I wish I had more space for that kind of setup. That new sump looks sweet. Keep it up!

Thank You @Dsnakes ! Appreciate all the likes as well! The basement fishroom area is a great thing. Not sure where I'd put all my crap if I didn't have it, but it can get a little out of hand now and then. Definitely allows me to keep dreaming on future plans!

 

[Janci]

Great to see the progress soon.
How do you like the KH Director and additional GHL equipment so far?

 

[WWIII]

Great to see the progress soon.
How do you like the KH Director and additional GHL equipment so far?

I'm almost there with the sump deal! I will update when I get it all done for sure.

I really like all the ghl equipment. I had an issue with a doser head sticking, but they were quick to get me sorted out on that. Other than that I've just basically clicked buttons to set everything up and done the updates. Really haven't touched anything since originally setting it all up. The kh director is the best thing since I added an ato to my tank way back when. It is a major step forward in reef keeping imo. Having alkalinity constantly monitored keeps the tank extremely stable. The maxi doser is great as well. I have it set to change 25 gallons per week, by doing 150 doses per day it takes away and then adds back small amounts at a time. I will say I go through salt quicker, never missing a waterchange! Lol

 

[EdsReefOdyssey]

Which Kessil did you go with? 8 sheets of black pvc??

 

[WWIII]

Well I'm finally starting to make some progress with the basement fish room. Got the new sump in technically, although still have lots of stuff to tidy up and finish. It's a pain to do something like this to a system that is already set up and running. Everything takes 10x as long as I think it will. Here's a few pictures of the mess... errr...progress!

 

[WWIII]

Got to give a shout out to @Crystal Reef Aquatics for designing and building such an amazing and beautiful sump. Julian really thought of everything and makes sure you as a customer are completely satisfied. Dude must have been working on the design for this stealth series for years and years. Can't say how pleased I am with the sump and the service I got from him!

 

[WWIII]

Hopefully another week or so and I will have all the odds and ends buttoned up and the cords, dosing lines, etc hidden and organized. Can't have a tank crash just because I want to spend more time organizing everything first, so I threw everything in to keep it going.

Also have a box of some really nice frags coming from wwc tomorrow. Pretty stoked at some of the pieces I am getting! Will try to remember to share when I get them in and acclimated!

 

[Dsnakes]

That looks great! Can’t wait to see the new frags

 

[Crystal Reef Aquatics]

Got to give a shout out to @Crystal Reef Aquatics for designing and building such an amazing and beautiful sump. Julian really thought of everything and makes sure you as a customer are completely satisfied. Dude must have been working on the design for this stealth series for years and years. Can't say how pleased I am with the sump and the service I got from him!

It was an absolute pleasure working with you. We did spend an insane amount of time working on these designs. I'm trilled that you feel so pleased with the result! If there is anything we can do moving forward, please reach out!

 

[Crystal Reef Aquatics]

Great looking dosing setup by the way!

 

[WWIII]

Great looking dosing setup by the way!

Thank you sir! It makes it easier that's for sure!

 

[Fudsey]

Just read through... Great looking setup you got there

Question for you, I see you went with an internal pump for your new sump. What did you go with and what kind of head pressure do you have?

 

[WWIII]

Just read through... Great looking setup you got there

Question for you, I see you went with an internal pump for your new sump. What did you go with and what kind of head pressure do you have?

Great question as it was a subject I debated for a very long time. I finally went with an abyzz a200. I went back and forth between trying one of the newish sicce pumps, the adv 9.0, and the abyzz. The price of the abyzz is insane, but it is an incredible pump. With my head height of around 12 feet total and my flow requirements of around 1k gph, there were only a couple options for an internal pump (that I actually believe their charts for head loss).

At the end of the day I just wanted a pump I wouldn't be worried will stop randomly on me at any time. I didn't want to worry about it. I also didn't want to drill this sump, like I had with my last one. Just was never really happy with it. Between the noise and the hole forever in the side, I wanted internal. The build quality, materials used, warranty, etc. Had me sold on the abyzz. I loved everything but the price. I eventually talked myself into it. One day I hope to get a 6 or even 8 foot custom tank and I hope this sump and return pump will be there ready and working when I am able to make that move. Now I just need one more abyzz as a backup. Lol. I actually might buy the sicce and use it on my frag tank you see in the basement attached to the same sump. That way I can try it on the display upstairs and see if it could fill in for the abyzz if it should ever fail or need work.

Very satisfied with my choice. I will get over the pump price eventually. It really is a work of art... as far as return pumps go. I run it at 78% currently and have pretty good flow. I may try to crank it up a bit more and see how far I can go with the stock marineland corner overflows, but I think I'm pretty close to 1k gph at the current setting.

 

[WWIII]

Frags from wwc came in Friday! I'll have to get some good pics of them, but they include wwc 500 degrees, wwc pink passion, wwc ari's avalanche, wwc man of steel, wwc hollywood dreams, wwc pink duster, wwc brain freeze, wwc paintball mille, and a couple others. Picture stinks, but am happy with the frags! Got some really good deals I think on most of them...

Otherwise, the display is doing well since the sump transition. I had to remove some corals that were killing or invading some other nicer corals. Been trying to let the tank settle down other than that. Will get my kessil h160 and refugium going hopefully pretty soon. I also ordered 8 ignitus anthias today for the display. All these new corals and the same fish for the past couple years just didn't seem right.

 

[Fudsey]

Great question as it was a subject I debated for a very long time. I finally went with an abyzz a200. I went back and forth between trying one of the newish sicce pumps, the adv 9.0, and the abyzz. The price of the abyzz is insane, but it is an incredible pump. With my head height of around 12 feet total and my flow requirements of around 1k gph, there were only a couple options for an internal pump (that I actually believe their charts for head loss).

At the end of the day I just wanted a pump I wouldn't be worried will stop randomly on me at any time. I didn't want to worry about it. I also didn't want to drill this sump, like I had with my last one. Just was never really happy with it. Between the noise and the hole forever in the side, I wanted internal. The build quality, materials used, warranty, etc. Had me sold on the abyzz. I loved everything but the price. I eventually talked myself into it. One day I hope to get a 6 or even 8 foot custom tank and I hope this sump and return pump will be there ready and working when I am able to make that move. Now I just need one more abyzz as a backup. Lol. I actually might buy the sicce and use it on my frag tank you see in the basement attached to the same sump. That way I can try it on the display upstairs and see if it could fill in for the abyzz if it should ever fail or need work.

Very satisfied with my choice. I will get over the pump price eventually. It really is a work of art... as far as return pumps go. I run it at 78% currently and have pretty good flow. I may try to crank it up a bit more and see how far I can go with the stock marineland corner overflows, but I think I'm pretty close to 1k gph at the current setting.

Ya that price is a whopper, that's for sure. I have about the same head but I went with an Eflux. I was getting much better return in my 90 with it than in the Waterbox. I ran 1" all the way for the 90 but the Waterbox is only about 3/4 or less I think and it splits at the top. So it steps down 3 times from 1" to 3/4 to the metric that Waterbox uses. On the 90 it was only at about 60% now it's more like 90%. I get about 400-450 gph I think. Not really sure though.

 

[WWIII]

Ya that price is a whopper, that's for sure. I have about the same head but I went with an Eflux. I was getting much better return in my 90 with it than in the Waterbox. I ran 1" all the way for the 90 but the Waterbox is only about 3/4 or less I think and it splits at the top. So it steps down 3 times from 1" to 3/4 to the metric that Waterbox uses. On the 90 it was only at about 60% now it's more like 90%. I get about 400-450 gph I think. Not really sure though.

The pump cost more than my tank. Lol. Funny how this hobby has a way to ease into your wallet slowly and steadily. What seems outrageous today, may not seem so bad a year or so from now. The abyzz price will always be outrageous, but it is true about a lot of things in this hobby (equipment/corals). I just kept imagining my pump crapping out at the worst time or me not being able to get near enough flow and buying 2 or 3 different pumps trying to get the right flow. Then I would probably cave and drill the sump to throw my iwaki back on it. If not for the head pressure I think I would have looked really hard at the Reef octopus Varios pumps. Or just gone with a nice ac pump.

Hopefully we are getting closer with the technology to bring affordable and dependable pump options to basement sumps everywhere! I will be interested to see if the sicce will handle the flow. If I do end up getting one I will be sure to post the results here.

I'm reading your waterbox thread right now. It's a bit longer than mine here. Haha. Anyways, how do you like the eflux pump? It's yet another that I did look at long and hard. I thought it would be close with their largest model for my setup.

 

[Fudsey]

I have the 3170 and I like it but it's new and not proven yet. I bought one as a backup for it used on Boston reef for $100. Couldn't pass up that deal. Now at least I have a spare if it does crap out...