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bollands

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Okay as the title says i just bought a fluval vicenza 260 tank off ebay and although it comes with 3 small marine fish im giving them to the LFS staight off, hopefully for a bit of cash to go towards an RO unit! Anyway, this won't be like my last tank which as my dad says turned into a science laboratory in the hallway! Due to so many mods! So now im going to go slow and do it the right way.

Im going to have a sump from my old hagen 68L aquarium and will make my own baffles (or maybe i should let the glass shop to that :blush: lol) I was also going to use the fluval fx5 it comes with as the return pump from the sump to the display, this should be okay?

So hopefully when the sumps built in the new year ill put the red sea prizm skimmer it comes with and if it will squeeze my tunze nano DOC 9002 from my orca, for extra skimming power :hyper: :hey: :fun: ! and all the other things like heaters etc.

in your experience have any of u got any pointers for me about sumps? wont the cupboard get humid and rot the wood? the tank is pre-drilled so no problem there and the supply to the sump will be gravity fed.


Plz help me, lol its coming on sunday! :crazy:
 
Okay as the title says i just bought a fluval vicenza 260 tank off ebay and although it comes with 3 small marine fish im giving them to the LFS staight off, hopefully for a bit of cash to go towards an RO unit! Anyway, this won't be like my last tank which as my dad says turned into a science laboratory in the hallway! Due to so many mods! So now im going to go slow and do it the right way.

Im going to have a sump from my old hagen 68L aquarium and will make my own baffles (or maybe i should let the glass shop to that :blush: lol) I was also going to use the fluval fx5 it comes with as the return pump from the sump to the display, this should be okay?

So hopefully when the sumps built in the new year ill put the red sea prizm skimmer it comes with and if it will squeeze my tunze nano DOC 9002 from my orca, for extra skimming power :hyper: :hey: :fun: ! and all the other things like heaters etc.

in your experience have any of u got any pointers for me about sumps? wont the cupboard get humid and rot the wood? the tank is pre-drilled so no problem there and the supply to the sump will be gravity fed.


Plz help me, lol its coming on sunday! :crazy:

You could make the baffles out of acrylic since they aren't going to be holding much weight and might work out cheaper than the glass, also less chance of cutting yourself, unless the glass shop are smoothing the edges of the baffles?

The flow through your sump should be about 1500LPH. The FX5 moves 2300LPH, so at 1m head height, this will probably give you around 1500 - 1700 LPH, so absolutely fine for the flow. Just remove the filters from the FX5 and fill the canister with live rock rubble. You could also use the FX5 as a reactor for phosban/activated carbon.

The cupboard will get humid and moldy, very quickly if its not ventilated. It can also cause wood to split as it expands. Get yourself a 72mm holesaw and pop 2 - 3 holes through the back of the cabinet. You can then fix 80mm PC fans to the back of the cabinet. All you need to do then is wire them into a 12v adapter. Get one of the ones that have variable voltage. This will enable you to control the fan speed / noise. Make sure you put the holes above the height of the sump. You can fix them in place using 80mm fan grills.

As for the sump itself, it might be an idea to split it into 3 sections, one being a refugium. You can fix an arcpod or another light source inside the cabinet and grow macro algaes like chaetomorpha.

A good tip for your Prizm is to connect an airline valve onto the air intake and not rely on the two little barbs on the collection cup. It will enable you to fine tune your skimmer in terms of flow/bubbles and noise. Its good that you are taking the time to do things properly. It will be well worth it in the long run! :good:
 
okay it has arrived! Im gonna use a sump made from my old 68L tropical tank and use the fx5 to return the water as you can see in the photo. Next i need to raise the pipe taking water to the sump up to water level, how will i do this? i think the pipe that pumps water from the fx5 will be fine as it is.

Also now need to make the baffles for the sump :blink:
photo-3.jpg
 
Set the downpipe to roughly where the maximum fill level of water is in the tank, as this will dictate the height of the water in your display tank. If the current pipe is too low, simply extend it with straight couplings and solvent weld together. I'd also suggest you use a durso to help silence it.
 
Set the downpipe to roughly where the maximum fill level of water is in the tank, as this will dictate the height of the water in your display tank. If the current pipe is too low, simply extend it with straight couplings and solvent weld together. I'd also suggest you use a durso to help silence it.

Sorry may sound stupid but whats a durso?
 
oh ok ive found a diagram, wasnt intending an overflow box, am i right that this wont surface skim as much if i still used a durso? is this adequate if i have enugh surface agitation?
 
Its a small device made from pvc pipe fittings that allows air to be drawn down into the sump, without being excessive enough to cause loud gurgling sounds or the downpipe to go into full syphon. Have a look on www.dursostandpipes.com. Another type of device like this is the stockman standpipe. Its a similar idea.
 
oh ok ive found a diagram, wasnt intending an overflow box, am i right that this wont surface skim as much if i still used a durso? is this adequate if i have enugh surface agitation?

I suppose the surface skimming will be slightly reduced but, it will still be drawing water down from the top inch or so of water, which is where most of the pollutants are. I fitted mine with a JG tap valve to control the amount of air. I have to leave it fully open, otherwise it goes into full syphon - probably because my pipework is a bit on the narrow side (25mm - probably nearer 20mm inside diameter).

The beauty of this is though, if I close the valve every once in a while, the tank drains down to the height of the standpipe inlet. Providing your sump can handle this addition volume, its a nice little feature as all the skim goes into the sump and is attacked by the protein skimmer.:good:
 

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