75g upgrade; advice, guidance & suggestions.

[Xavier613]

I know it cant be done and its past the magical number but heres the thing, I kept ALL types of coral and anemones and fish in here and guess what??? None of it did anything less than thrive! So i guess theres a minute possibility that when i drilled the tank for this setup and designed everything myself i had no clue what i was doing and it was just dumb luck, but im going to bank on the fact that I did know what i am doing and it works because its not too much flow.

The way the sump is designed, the one drain goes into the skimmer chamber and the other one i had going into the refugium and coming out of a pvc pipe that was drilled 18 times to create an even flow across the length of the filter, tumbling my cheato very nicely and creating an even distribution of water.

If you say a mag 9 will be the best, do the math. one overflow, one mag 9. = standard 75 gallon setup. so..... follow closely here.... TWOOOOOOOOOO overflowsssssss ====== douuuuuubbbbbbbllllleeeeeeeeeeeee the flowwwwwww. Soooooooo 9 times twooooooooo ======= 1......? oh yeah. 8. 18.





trust me. it works.

 

[TanksNStuff]

Xavier, I think what people are saying is that that flow rate is too much for a 75g tank. Not that the overflows can't handle that amount of flow... just that it will be going thru the sump too fast to be effective.

On the other hand, I've seen your tank while it was up and running and it appeared to be working fine to me. Everything was thriving and looking great. In fact, I've never seen better looking bubble tips than those you had. There's one thing that I've learned in this hobby and that is there is more than one way to do everything! The rule of thumb can get bent if there are other factors involved that balance everything out.

Your design of the "spray bar" type of outlet for the fuge feed drainpipe sounds like a great idea and that probably created enough contact time with your macro to be effective... even though the overall flow rate would normally be way too fast. Also, the additional flow rate gave you extra movement in the DT just because your return was double what it "should have been". It's like adding a mag 9 in your DT strictly for flow. So there was a plus and minus for this extra flow. Perhaps one cancelled the other and it equalled out?

Kevin,
I think you will do fine if you set it all up like Xavier did. If you find that your 2 MP10's aren't enough flow... you could always just get one MP40 and sell an MP10 and give you more than enough. I run just a single MP40 on mine and I have even more rock built up than Tommyboy!

I'd also like to make a suggestion that I got on our forums a long time ago. Before you add new rock (Live or Dry) make sure you drill some holes all over it (or at least the pieces that will be on top) that will allow you to stick a frag plug into. Make the holes slightly bigger so you can just add a wad of epoxy or glue to your plug and then stick it in a hole. It will make things much easier for you later on instead of having to find a crevice to stick it in.

Well, that's if from me for today. Looking forward to see this build get going. Hope you'll be posting some pics along the way!

 

[kevin]

Xavier, I think what people are saying is that that flow rate is too much for a 75g tank. Not that the overflows can't handle that amount of flow... just that it will be going thru the sump too fast to be effective.

On the other hand, I've seen your tank while it was up and running and it appeared to be working fine to me. Everything was thriving and looking great. In fact, I've never seen better looking bubble tips than those you had. There's one thing that I've learned in this hobby and that is there is more than one way to do everything! The rule of thumb can get bent if there are other factors involved that balance everything out.

Your design of the "spray bar" type of outlet for the fuge feed drainpipe sounds like a great idea and that probably created enough contact time with your macro to be effective... even though the overall flow rate would normally be way too fast. Also, the additional flow rate gave you extra movement in the DT just because your return was double what it "should have been". It's like adding a mag 9 in your DT strictly for flow. So there was a plus and minus for this extra flow. Perhaps one cancelled the other and it equalled out?

Kevin,
I think you will do fine if you set it all up like Xavier did. If you find that your 2 MP10's aren't enough flow... you could always just get one MP40 and sell an MP10 and give you more than enough. I run just a single MP40 on mine and I have even more rock built up than Tommyboy!

I'd also like to make a suggestion that I got on our forums a long time ago. Before you add new rock (Live or Dry) make sure you drill some holes all over it (or at least the pieces that will be on top) that will allow you to stick a frag plug into. Make the holes slightly bigger so you can just add a wad of epoxy or glue to your plug and then stick it in a hole. It will make things much easier for you later on instead of having to find a crevice to stick it in.

Well, that's if from me for today. Looking forward to see this build get going. Hope you'll be posting some pics along the way!

Thanks for the input. Very good idea on drilling holes in the rock! I have such a hard time with my scape now because I don't have many holes for them to go into.

I picked up everything from Xavier on Saturday. I'm in love with the stand & the modifications he did to the tank itself. Lots of room with tiny overflows. My wife almost could not handle the weight of the stand, LOL.

Reefrocks has been shipped today.
I pretty much have everything I need coming. I just need to decide on a skimmer.

I E-Mailed avast marine, but they haven't gotten back to me yet.
Other options I've been looking at Reerf Reef Octopus NWB150 6" Pinwheel rated up to 150. BRS recommends it up to 120. Xavier was running the NWB200 which is rated up to 250. BRS recommends up to 160.

 

[kevin]

I've never shimmed a tank before. The tank is not level. If I shim it & then I fill the tank, will it then be off level again?



How does this plumbing look?

I'm going to drill holes like Xavier said in that pipe in the fuge area and keep that pipe submerged.

I ran out of PVC parts. I'm go to cap the T so I can hang a filter sock from it. How should I have the pipe go into the skimmer area. Should I just have it go straight down.. or ?

 

[greybolt03]

Once the stand is level from being shimmed adding water shouldn't affect it it should stay level unless the stand is warped..

 

[jgraz]

Not sure about restricting flow from an overflow. Always heard that was a no-no. But if Xavier had it that way then far be it from me to tell you otherwise.

 

[kevin]

Not sure about restricting flow from an overflow. Always heard that was a no-no. But if Xavier had it that way then far be it from me to tell you otherwise.

edit: Do you mean the ball valve? or the fuge pipe that will have holes in it?

 

[greybolt03]

The spray bar affect doesn't restrict flow from the overflow it spreads it out across a length of the pipe instead of being forced out a one inch hole it's across a twelve inch section of pipe

 

[jgraz]

Right, I was referring to the ball valve. Just didn't know why it was there.

 

[kevin]

I just put it there in case I have to close it off for some unknown reason or something

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk 2

 

[jgraz]

Gotcha. I was more just curious. Anyway things look like they are coming along great. Your gonna love the reef rocks by the way. I did my whole tank with them and in less then 2 months they are well covered in corraline already.

 

[kevin]

Gotcha. I was more just curious. Anyway things look like they are coming along great. Your gonna love the reef rocks by the way. I did my whole tank with them and in less then 2 months they are well covered in corraline already.

Thanks, I'm excited! The rock comes tomorrow ! ! !

 

[TanksNStuff]

Kevin, couple things I noticed that I thought was worth mentioning now, before it's too late:

1. Make sure you support all those PVC pipes. Those long horizontal runs and all the water weight in the pipes will cause stress on the bulkhead... and you don't want a problem with cracking there! They sell pipe hangers that work well, but in a pinch you could just use metal coat hangers. You would be better off with a plastic one like this one so you won't have to worry about rusting later on.

2. Do NOT shim the tank. Shim the stand to level it out, but don't put shims between the stand and tank! This will put a stress point on your tank and will eventually give you another possible leakage problem. If after leveling the stand with shims you still can't the tank to sit level, then put down some foam padding that will absorb the pressure and spread it out so it doesn't put stress on the tank itself.

3. As for the drain with a Tee for the filter sock, that's a good idea and it works well for me. For the pipe extending down from the tee, you can just get a small piece of flex pipe and cut it just long enough to fit your sock over it. The deeper it is when it discharges, the less bubbles it will cause because the bottom of the tank will deflect some of it in all directions.

And one question: Looking at the last pic (the full view of piping behind the tank) there's that one pipe that tee's down and goes back behind the sump. What are your plans for that?

 

[kevin]

Kevin, couple things I noticed that I thought was worth mentioning now, before it's too late:

1. Make sure you support all those PVC pipes. Those long horizontal runs and all the water weight in the pipes will cause stress on the bulkhead... and you don't want a problem with cracking there! They sell pipe hangers that work well, but in a pinch you could just use metal coat hangers. You would be better off with a plastic one like this one so you won't have to worry about rusting later on.

2. Do NOT shim the tank. Shim the stand to level it out, but don't put shims between the stand and tank! This will put a stress point on your tank and will eventually give you another possible leakage problem. If after leveling the stand with shims you still can't the tank to sit level, then put down some foam padding that will absorb the pressure and spread it out so it doesn't put stress on the tank itself.

3. As for the drain with a Tee for the filter sock, that's a good idea and it works well for me. For the pipe extending down from the tee, you can just get a small piece of flex pipe and cut it just long enough to fit your sock over it. The deeper it is when it discharges, the less bubbles it will cause because the bottom of the tank will deflect some of it in all directions.

And one question: Looking at the last pic (the full view of piping behind the tank) there's that one pipe that tee's down and goes back behind the sump. What are your plans for that?

Thanks for all the input. That pipe was holding up the rest of the piping so it didn't stress it. I'll try to check home depot today. It says those pipe hangers are NOT in my local stores. I was able to glue it all last night.

 

[kevin]

As far as when the tank is ready. Can I just plop my fish in ?

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk 2

 

[kevin]

As far as when the tank is ready. Can I just plop my fish in ?

Sent from my HTC Glacier using Tapatalk 2

??????????

 

[greybolt03]

I would still acclimate them to the new water just to be safe....

 

[TanksNStuff]

I would still acclimate them to the new water just to be safe....

+1

A change in temp, or pH etc. can stress them out.

 

[jgraz]

I matched my two tanks in those prams. That way I could just move from one to the other. I figured that would be less stressful then having to get caught in old tank then sit in a bucket for 2-3 hrs just to get caught again to go into the new tank. I had zero problems with any fish, invert, or coral in this way. I lost nothing in the move.

 

[kevin]

I tested today & I'm not seeing any Ammonia, Nitrate, or Nitrite. Some snails made it into the tank on accident and they're doing fine. Should I still wait it out to see if I get any?