JerseyWendy said:Thanks a million Mike, Phyl, and Ironhorse.
Before I answer Ironhorse's questions, I want to share something with you all. Today I received my very first tattoo. This is something I've been wanting to do for years, but was always extremely hesitant, especially since Alex was dead-set against it. Well, so much has happened in my life over the past few years, and after careful deliberation, and many hours of coming up with the right design, and even more careful selection of a good tattoo artist, I finally took the plunge.
Here it is, 1.5 hours after it was completed, and still shiny from the lotion:
It's a picture of a Japanese tree peony, the plant that got me addicted to gardening 4 years ago. Ok, my passion (other than reef keeping) is roses, and I grow nearly 3 dozen of them, but I needed to come up with something you don't see every day. So there, that's the story behind the picture.
Sorry for the sidetrack everyone.....just wanted to share something a little personal. :-[
Ironhorse, I wanted to stick with a 3' sump (aquarium that I convert into a sump) because I wanted enough room left under the stand for a container with automatic top-off (Kalk dosing), and possibly later on a Calcium reactor. Sure, I would have liked nothing more than to put a 75 in the stand, because the more volume the better, but in my case I needed/wanted the extra room. Hopefully it'll do its job.If not, I will definitely get a bigger sump.
The compartment sizes are determined by what's being kept in them. I like filter socks, but I like for them to stay in place, too. Therefore I built a VERY primitive thingy out of eggcrate, to keep them in place. The next compartment houses the skimmer. I'll be using an Octopus PRO 300S with a predetermined footprint and built the bubbletrap baffles accordingly. (The bubbletrap baffles are spaced 1.25" apart) The third compartment will be used for my sand/algae/rubble rock. I find that part of the sump VERY important and made it as big as humanly possible. It should hold about 15 gallons or so. The last baffle is for the return section, will house the heater(s), and includes the bulkhead leading to my return pump (Quiet One 9000). Instead of building another set of baffles I opted for one baffle, in which I drilled about 200 holes. Now evaporation will take place evenly in my return and refugium section.
I hope I answered all your questions.
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Wendy
PS. The sump I built for my current 75 is pretty much identical, other than being smaller. It has worked very well for me, so I adopted the same design.
Nice tat Wendy!! Welcome to the addiction 8)
Now stop playing around and finish your tank LOL
