30g Reef Cube Journal

[N1z]

After being away form marine for some time, the urge to come back has been over powering. So good bye freshwater and hello marine again, but this time i wanna do things propper .

So i have a simple 2nd hand aquatlantis Evasion 50 that i got from work and am going to drill it with two 22mm internal overflows, down to a 14gallon sump.

This will hold skimmer, heater, macro refugium and return pump.

Equipment:

Arcadia classica 150watt pendant
Blau Series Scuma NW110 protein skimmer
150watt heater
Tunze nanostream 6025
Eheim compact plus 2000+ for return pump
Arcadia pod 11watt for refugium

So bye bye freshwater aquarium... i will be closing this down and selling in matter of 2 weeks so any1 interested here is a link
Rio 240 with Eheim 2076


Anyways ive drilled both my holes

And here is the overflow setup...

And here is my sump design, any tips or extra ideas would be appreciated.

Now i need to do is build my cabinet and get some black acrylic to make my overflow box cant wait!!

Cheers

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Cool! Nice looking tank that.

And ideas on what your going to be stocking it with?

Very interested in watching the stand build. I need to build one as well but been putting it off because I suck at woodwork and its going to look rubbish

 

[SkiFletch]

Off to a great start

Forgot to mention, I had one more suggestion for you and your plumbing. Put union fittings up near the bottom-facing portion of the drain Tees so that you can disconnect plumbing if need be

 

[N1z]

Cool! Nice looking tank that.

And ideas on what your going to be stocking it with?

Very interested in watching the stand build. I need to build one as well but been putting it off because I suck at woodwork and its going to look rubbish

Cheers yer did pay quite a bit for it but tbh they worth 350 new and they dont come with any filter.

As for stocking, im thinking

2x clarkii clowns just cos i had one before and he was suck a character
2x Cardinals
1x Midas blenny
1x Yashia White Ray Shrimp Goby
1x Royal gramma but thats probs being bit over stocked so gunna think about it really.

As for corals will mainly be SPS and LPS cos tbh the softies we get in the UK are pants such dull colours.
And yer i am too thats when good old grandad comes into play


Good idea though ski, will think about that one, dont think im gunna run a none return on the pump though cos i cnt find one

 

[ben1987]

yeah i reckon you may need to drop a fish from that list. Add them very slowily and buy them small if possible then it will give the filteration chance to adjust. Looks like a good start though

 

[N1z]

Dw ben i do know, i aint overstocking only means more hassle on myself.

Anywho, random day the other day. Orderd my Blau NW100 skimmer and a eheim compact 2000, got a call from livingseas saying sorry we dont have either instock but ill will upgrade your skimmer to the next one up the NW150, free of charge! and would you be happy with a pump close to it thats also an 15 quid more but i wont charge you. Ofcourse i said yes aslong as its not too big i can send it back.

So today i got the BEAST! Mygod its huge! only issue its cracked from transit- not good but is being replaced.

It does up to 800litre aquariums for my 140lt tank haha overkill but hey i got the skimmer at no extra cost but is infact 60 quid more then the one i wanted! Bargin!

And luckly i just fits in my 12" sump space although will have to make the cabinet taller now nevermind.

Tonight im glueing my overflow box together so should be sealed on by sat so will update then!

 

[ben1987]

looks like a bit of a beast. WIll mean you dont have to empty the cup much aswel

 

[N1z]

Well, been busy doing my sump partitions... man i was pants on the first one lol, so you can probs see where i have improved over practise.

Here is a finished version of the overflow box, this will be sealed to the aquarium to make it water tight. Question does every1 seal there tank connectors just cos im worried the glass chip blow outs might not be fully water tight?

I also had some off cuts so i decided to make a pikey filter tray where i can put it in the flow of the overflow pipes and have rowaphos under it, just better then having it sittin on the sump bottom.

Once ive done the last of the bubble catcher and let it fry for a day ill test out the seals then run the tank in a mock up- before the cabinet is built! OOh cant wait!

 

[N1z]

Right quick update, decided to give the overflow a try out with the sump befreo the cabinet is built. It works! i never doubted myself although i need to fully test it for least 24hrs before im happy.

I did a sort of rough guess work with the flow rate on the sump return and it worked out at 2.85x the aquarium volume, that sound enough i know u need 3-5x but pretty close...?

So here is a quick mockup of the sump and overflow:

Note that my sealing seems to of done the trick in making the box water tight!

And finally a running shot.

What is also quite handy is i worked out the max and min levels in the sump but also how many litres. So from the full running height to the min i need exactly 10litres, so should help me out in topping up exactly!

Other then that its little noisy in the trickling any ideas to reduce it? What about not use right angles and more flexy pipe or 45deg angles instead?

But if you can help me out with the flowrate query id appreaciate it.

Cheers

 

[SkiFletch]

Wow it almost looks like you know what you're doing

I'd go with angle bends and then see if you can get the pipes so that they are partially in the water and partially out of the water when it enters the sump. That way air escapes the top and water lightly gurgles into the sump. I've been wondering for years how to easily eliminate bubbles from sump lines. If you come up with an idea you better let me know

 

[ben1987]

Looks pretty good to me

 

[N1z]

Well went down to my LFS today.

Went and bought my sand, tunze 6025, and decided not to send back my naff sump pump but went and bought a eheim compact 3000+ purely becuase it will add to my 20x flow and give me a bettter total circulation.

Also picked up a TMC v2 PH monitor, trade plus VAT, the joys of working in a FS.

Cabinet is nearly built just the door hinges and it will be in my room tomo!

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Cool Looks like its all coming together nicely.

When your working on the cabinet one thing I would suggest would be to attach some clips to the back of it to hold the piping in place, otherwise it will most likely vibrate quiet a bit which could lead to stress in the joint and leaks and could also be fairly loud.

 

[N1z]

Good thinking barney, will do!

Right the cabinet is in my room! drum roll please. Its HUGE think we went a bit OTT in size but to be fair its been designed to be high up and have large access and maintinence space with shelving. The doors are just being finished and tomorrow im gunna get the holes knocked out.

Here is the sump setup with the new sump pump. Got a 1" non return valve on order so should have to adapt that when it comes.

And overflow and return pipe.

With the more powerful sump pump now i will easliy cover 20x flow with my tunze 6025 hidden at the back on the glass. And mygod those magents are strong gave me a massive blood pinch.

So hopefully by saturday it should be filled with water and some LR! woop!

 

[SkiFletch]

Ah yes, the good old blood blister... Tank looks great man