My 90g + 20g sump mixed reef

[mikerobart]

Thanks hookup, maybe just an 1/8-1/4 more then with lock jaws. I still might silicone it for extra peace of mine, and I assume when I need to break the tank down in the future the silicone can be scratched off fairly easily to get the bulkhead out.

[groupie02]

I've never had one leak by hand tightening them then using lock jaws to do another 1/4 turn.  No need for silicone on the bulkhead.

[mikerobart]

Thanks  No silicone it is.

[JD]

Bulkheads...they can be a pain. I have had several leaks. On 1/2" and 5/8" glass I just grabbed my extra large channel locks and tightened another 1/4 turn. On 3/8" glass I gave it another 1/8" turn. On these ones the leak stopped with no issues. On 3/16" glass I tightened another 1/8" and cracked the glass...grrrrrrrr!!!!
I have tried putting a smear of silicone between the gasket and the glass. This method has ALWAYS leaked. When I took it apart the silicone was still goopy. I guess the lack of air prevents curing.
I now, regardless of glass thickness, put the bulkhead in hand tight plus another 1/4 turn. I put silicone around the sealing areas inside and out. Since then I have not had a leaker.
On a tank that was running I have used plumbers GooP on the outside of a slow leak and was able to stop the leak. Unfortunately this stuff will not clean off if you want to disassemble the bulkhead later.

[mikerobart]

Ok... removed the bulkheads, made sure the ribbed part of the seal was facing the glass, and tightened as tight as possible by hand, don't have the lockjaws or anything that will fit. I siliconed the under tank side just before finishing tightening, and siliconed the top side as well but only around the edge of the bulkhead, after it had already been tightened.

Hopefully this will work! At least if it leaks, I could always silicone more on the inside area of the tank. i really don't want to take any chances here!

I thought I'd have the plumbing finished tonight, but looks like I have one incorrectly sized barb fitting, so it will have to wait until after work tomorrow. I am also questioning whether this 1" clear braided pvc hose will make the two turns from the return pump over to the bulkhead.

Even my simple simple plumbing setup is a pain!

[jimskoi]

If the bottom of the tank and the rubber is dry and clean.It should not leak.Turn it as tight as you can with your hand and then 1/4" with a wrench.Silicone is not needed.
If you put the silicone on the underneath,it will not prevent a leak.The water side is where you want to put it(if using it).

[mikerobart]

Thanks for the replies guys. The bulkheads are in and so far not leaking. The silicone inside may be doing nothing but at least if there was going to be a problem, the silicone on the outside should take care of it.

Watching very carefully for water and all seems well. I did find a way to finish up my plumbing once I realized I can glue the braided pvc hose direct to the schedule 40 fittings. I will post pics in a minute... no leaks so far, but I want to run some things past you guys

[mikerobart]

Ok here is the VERY basic plumbing setup. One drain, one return. Both are 1" ID braided pvc hose. The drain uses a barb and hose clamp, the return is glued to part of the true union, and is barbed / siliconed / zip tied at the return pump.

There are true unions at both bulkheads, and another ball valve on the return pump itself. I really wanted to be able to reduce the flow on the return pipe and play it safe. At around 900gph, when I can only drain maybe 600 gph (if that) I need to really dial it down, and also consider if a snail or something else blocked my return  ...[ should I get a strainer / prefilter on standpipe .. kit didn't come with one ] .

An area of concern for me is the fact that my hose had to be looped outside the tank in order to make the curve it needs to get from return to the bulkhead.. you'll see in the pics. If it doesn't leak fine .. but if it does I would much rather it leak into the sump as the downpipe probably would. Please let me know what you think / if you see any major problems.

No leaks as of yet.. potentially a drop from one of the tru unions might need to tighten it up a little.

[salvini55]

lookin good. How hight is that middle baffle from the bottom of the sump?

[mikerobart]

Too freakin high! Probably 12" ish. I have the skimmer sitting on a tupperware container with holes cut out of the bottom to stop the water from stagnating completely. I may build a little skimmer stand out of eggcrate and pvc eventually. It is so tight working under the stand! This skimmer is such a beast.

Everything is currently running... it seems the overflow can keep up with my return without throttling but it's louder than I would like.

Skimmer pump was also very loud initially.. it is quieted down now... but gets intermittently louder and quieter. Hopefully it settles in soon. Should be nothing for it to skim now (just water and salt) but there is already some film in the skimmer body! I guess dust etc.

I installed a very simple fuge light. I got a spring loaded threaded socket at home depot, and a 23w fluorescent flood light with internal mirror that is supposed to have an output equivalent to an 85w incandescent. The spectrum looks pretty yellow. According to melevsreef, he tried two similiar bulbs, one at 2100k, one at 5000k or so, and the 5000k  (whiter) bulb actually grew chaeto much better.

I am planning on doing chaeto in the fuge, no dsb as I don't think it's worth it with a small footprint.

Any reccomendations on bare bottom or ssb in the fuge? I guess a bit of LR rubble in there to help with pods. Main purpose will be for pods, nutrient export, and I guess some macro for tangs ? Do tangs even eat chaeto? I have heard they will enjoy some types of macro. Might be cool to grow them some food.

Might get the sand in tonight to give some time for it to clear out. Planning on adding the rock tomorrow  (100lb from Ray) . Clean up crew over the weekend ( rock should be cured.) And maybe even a fish or two. This rock has been curing for quite awhile so I don't expect a cycle. Considering the water volume, and cured rock, I think there will be no problem adding a few small fish almost immediately. Also, adding my VERY healthy rock from my 29g should more than deal with any ammonia.

I am very pleased at the moment.. no leaks. Still trying to unload my 80g though, anyone who wants it can take it.. sitting in the hallway upstairs. Make me an offer (can't bump my classified ad.) More pictures to come soon! Responses are appreciated... we need to get more OVAS members commenting in general I think.. sometimes it goes an entire day without a comment on ANY threads in SW discussion! I know it's not reef central but...

[Hookup]

Sounds like you are on your way and running.  I just read up on your bulk-head questions and looks like in the end you nailed it down just fine.

I would put a few small (half size of your fist) pieces of LR into the fuge.  I've seen lots of them with sand and rubble, but honestly, cheato is a magnet for "crap" to get stuck and filter out... my fuge has to be vacumed out of detrius every month...  I have a slower moving sump (600gph or so) thus the slow-flow over a large (40gallon) fuge full of cheato causes any suspended materials that might sneak thru to fall out into that tank bottom.  If there was sand in there I wouldn't be able to vacume out that junk during water changes.  I just have a hand full of rocks that are too heavy to get sucked up in my vacume hose but small enough to easily move around in the fuge.

If you get into vodka dosing, amino acids, or similar systems you will likely dump the fuge.  Mine is almost the exact same size as it was when I got it... the ultralith system (which I owe ppl a write up on) draws all of the nutrients out before the cheato can use it...

A photo or 10 would be cool btw... no pressure, just saying.... 

[sniggir]

Lookin good so far.... 2 tangs should be fine just resurch as to the species as some such as yellow tangs are more suited for tanks your size... other's like the regal or unicorn are best suited for far larger system's.... lol not the tang police but like to try and help ppl make the best choice for there tanks and for the fish....lol


Love the set up btw

pat

[mikerobart]

Thanks for the tips...

I put a bit of sand in to let things start settling out but will need another bag soon (only added 40lb.)  I decided against washing the sand (instructions said it was fine , but may take longer to settle out of course.)

Hookup I also have a slower moving sump... probably about 600 gph or even less. The drain can just barely keep up with the return pump valve fully open, and I don't want to be anywhere near that tipping point where I can overflow the display / pump out the sump if the drain became partially clogged, so I dialed it back quite a bit. It also seems much quieter in terms of drainage with the pump turned down.

The noisiest thing now I think is the anti-siphon hole just before the return pump standpipe is attached to the loc-line current directors. Water level in the overflow area is slightly less than the rest of the display so there is a splashing sound here.

The skimmer has quieted down.. still reading up on adjustment and where to have the foam head break. I have it sitting in the correct water depth though, about 8.5" .

I agree perhaps no sand in the fuge, just LR and chaeto. Would that negatively impact pod population ?

It may be a pipe dream... but being able to have a mandarin at some point would be amazing.. of course down the road, and of course he would be going to a new home if the pods couldn't keep up / I couldn't get it to eat prepared food and started to lose weight.

The ultra-lith system does sound interesting but I am hoping to keep it simple for now and see how this all works out. If I can keep my corals and critters happy and nutrients down with this arrangement, I will be pleased.

Thanks Sniggir for the advice on the Tangs, I will definitely give it a lot of thought before putting in a regal as well as yellow.

One question for you guys... I am not running any filter socks right now, and crazy scum is building up against the middle baffle just after the fuge (the highest baffle in the sump.) Should I just slap some filter socks on the skimmer output and drain output ? The drain output is currently near the bottom of the skimmer section of the sump, and the skimmer output is partially submerged, directing it's flow over the skimmer section baffle into the refugium

[redbelly]

Personally I do prefer to run filter socks but they require changing every 2-3 days.
If you are not willing to change a filter sock every 2-3 days then don't bother.
I have several filter socks that I keep in rotation, then once a week clean them.

Even in a bare bottom system, with minimal nutrient importation, the amount of detritus that filter socks pull out is crazy!

[mikerobart]

Thanks Pat, would you say a filter sock on both the overflow output and the skimmer output ? Right now I have no filter socks or intake strainers of any kind in the system.

In other news, just picked up some more sand and some BEAUTIFUL Indo from Ray. Starting with about 84lbs and will move on up from there once I figure out how the 'scaping is going to work out.

[groupie02]

It may be a pipe dream... but being able to have a mandarin at some point would be amazing.. of course down the road, and of course he would be going to a new home if the pods couldn't keep up / I couldn't get it to eat prepared food and started to lose weight.

If you have a fuge, you should eventually get tons of pods. You don't need any sand in your sump to make them happy.  My 2 sumps have a bit of cheato and that's it.  I have tons of pods in both sumps and display tanks.

[redbelly]

Well if you run a filter sock on the overflow 24-7, there really will not be many solid particles coming out of your skimmer at any point so I would stick to just the overflows.

[mikerobart]

So as per the advice here I will have no sand in fuge only some LR rubble and chaeto, and I will run a filter sock on the overflow. Right now my overflow pipe output near the bottom of the first chamber of the sump (skimmer chamber.)

Should this be so deep underwater if I am going to use a sock? I am not sure what the extra noise would be like if it emptied above the water level in the sump... the tank is literally 5 ft from my head when I am sleeping.. should be very nice to watch when I'm falling asleep.. and a nice trickle of water is fine but sloshing and loud noise is a no go. So far I am very pleased with the volume level.

[salvini55]

I wanna see that live rock!!!!!  Man i should get a filter sock to karate chop the bubbles   

[mikerobart]

There were some requests for pictures... as you can see my skimmer pulled some skimmate... actually was much darker but then I adjusted too wet and flooded it a bit . Only LR in the tank right now but it got the skimmer foaming up nicely when I added the rock.. probably a little bit of die off. This rock is mega sexy though. You know you can always count on Ray for great deals on great rock.

Anyways, I still need GFI's.. I don't want to put change the outlet so will probably look at those power cord gfi's ... crappy tire maybe? Nice mess of power cables now.. I want to get myself a controller to centrallize things.. probably one of the next items. You can see the ATO unit from autotopoff.com. I want to put a reservoir in a chair I have (has storage underneath the seat... keep that hidden. Got the ATO with the double float switch (because I am paranoid) and the aqualifter pump. One pic I took from the bed to give you an idea of how this thing dominates my bedroom  . Safe to say my bedroom is wayyyyyyyyy cooler than my roommates  .

I might have a few microbubbles... seems ok but will keep an eye on it. Also finally got my sure-flow modded mj1200 to quiet down.. damn this thing makes the water move!. Ok enjoy the pics!