Sump & Refugium

[LoneStar]

Working on my new sump and refugium this extended weekend. Both will go underneath my 55 gallon reef tank. I bought the acrylic at Regal Plastics and they cut out a majority of it too. I'm going to try and post photos as progress comes along. ^_^


Here is the fuge with the glue setting. I used Weld-On #3 and #16 to assemble it. The #16 was more for a insurance on no leaks (using it like a thick bead of caulk). The only thing I still need to do is cut out some braces to 'eurobrace' the top. The dimensions are 16x12x12, which should put it at 10 gallons.
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/fugeglue.jpg

[hobogato]

nice!

[bigdscobra]

someone has been busy...

[LoneStar]

Well I'm glueing up the sump this morning. That Weld-On gives you a funky buzz :wacko :huh ;) There still needs to be a few more passes with the glue so hopefully I will get to unclamp later on today :)

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/sumpglue1.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/sumpglue2.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/sumpglue3.jpg

[bigdscobra]

Looking Good

[::pete::]

Nice job looks clean from here. Acrylic is simple isnt it?

[LoneStar]

Nice job looks clean from here. Acrylic is simple isnt it?

Thanks. Yeah it is pretty simple. Although I went the easy route and had Regal cut the sides, it would be pretty simple to cut them at home. Like painting, its all in the prep work. After its all clamped, the glue just glides right on :) That Weld-On is some pretty cool stuff.

[LoneStar]

I haven't even unwrapped anything yet :o I've been working on this all morning ;)

[gjuarez]

Very nice.

[LoneStar]

The #3 is cured and the #16 is drying now. This is the general idea of what it will look like. The pvc stand is just a temporary one and once Home Depot opens tomorrow I will buy parts to make a stronger and taller one.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/gluedry1.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/gluedry2.jpg

[::pete::]

Looks good, but how exactly are you going to support the fuge(?) with just that stand?

[LoneStar]

Not that stand. Going to build one tomorrow.

[::pete::]

Im sure you are aware, but just incase. The acrylic box will need the entire bottom supported flat and level so there are no "pressure/stress points".

[LoneStar]

yup

[::pete::]

Is this your first project?

[LoneStar]

First large scale one.

[::pete::]

Well graet job and work.

[LoneStar]

Well great job and work.

Thanks v.v I'm looking at installing it next Friday or so. Still have a few small adjustments to do/make before then. ^_^

[purplesprite]

where did you get the weld on?good job btw!

[LoneStar]

Regal Plastics in San Antonio. They are located off of Rittiman road, by Fort Sam Houston.

[bigdscobra]

Saw this in person defiantly looks cool can't wait to see it in use!!! :shades

[LoneStar]

Here it is with the stand for the refugium. The stand is made out of 3/4" oak plywood. The legs are 1.25" PVC. I weigh 250lbs and held a 65lb battery in my hands and got on top of the stand and did the twist. It held perfectly and did not break or twist lateraly. Pretty Strong! 8) Both boxes have been holding water for over 24 hours. The only leak I have is at the from the bulkhead to the ball valve. That is because I did not tighten down on it nor did I put on any thread sealer. It will get installed correctly once it is put in the stand. :)

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/122605.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/1226051.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/1226052.jpg

[bigdscobra]

That stand turned out pritty good!!!!

[bigdscobra]

You should notice a big difference when you have all that installed under your tank ;)

[LoneStar]

You should notice a big difference when you have all that installed under your tank ;)

I'm hoping so!! It will give me a larger fuge and a larger water volume all together. Plus it will help clean up the clutter too!

[bigdscobra]

You should notice a big difference when you have all that installed under your tank ;)

I'm hoping so!! It will give me a larger fuge and a larger water volume all together. Plus it will help clean up the clutter too!

A bigger fuge is always nice, when my sump broke I doubled the size of the fuge and sump and have noticed a difference in temp controll and in the live stock. Clean up the the clutter is always a plus!!!

[matt]

Looks really good!

[ReefOne]

One word.....

AWESOME!!!

You did a really good job on that. I'm going to be building my 275 L-Shaped soon and I just might have to do the same thing...slightly modified. I'm going to add a Frag tank. We'll see how it goes. Excellent job. Make sure you post a pic when you get it under the stand and all setup.

Ram

[LoneStar]

One word.....

AWESOME!!!

You did a really good job on that. I'm going to be building my 275 L-Shaped soon and I just might have to do the same thing...slightly modified. I'm going to add a Frag tank. We'll see how it goes. Excellent job. Make sure you post a pic when you get it under the stand and all setup.

Ram

Will do. I'm looking at installing it on Friday. That all depends on how inventory goes down at work ;)

[LoneStar]

Well it took most of the morning to pull the old sump/fuge out and install the new one(along with plumbing all the new lines). It looks pretty sweet! I'm mixing up new saltwater now to fill it. So once its full, I'll take a photo of it :lol

In the mean time, here is what I was using before. I didn't clean it up or anything, so it was a mess down there. (and instead of changing my fuge light bulb out, I just threw a old power compact fixture on it :roll )
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/before.jpg

And you just can't do this without making a mess!! :o
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/sneakpeak.jpg

[LoneStar]

Well its not completely set up all the way yet but this should give you an idea. I'm going to mix up some more saltwater and level out the sump. I still want to find a good spot to hook up my osmolator. I'm happy that the Dart handles the load well. Its now the only pump I need, along with the Tunze 6000, for the system. The Dart feeds the Trigger Systems 300 skimmer, the Pacific Coast 1/10hp chiller, and also does my return too.

The Phosban Reactors are feed through a tee on the return side of the chiller return. All I did was put a tee with a barb on the side exit and a ball valve on the lower end. Close the ball valve a bit, and that gives me the gentle flow through the reactors.

I'm fighting a little bit of a microbubble problem now. I'm going to level out the water and go get a 90 degree fitting for the gate valve on the skimmer to help disperse the bubbles. I also ran into one small leak at the pump. Its dripping one drop every minute or so. I'll have to pull the ball valve off and apply some better sealant. All in all it looks like it will work great!! Plus I free'd up a BUNCH of plugs in my power strip :D
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/donesorta1.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/donesorta2.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/donesorta3.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/donesorta4.jpg

[bigdscobra]

That is some crazy stuff!!! LOOKS AWESOME!!!! A+++

[hobogato]

wow!! nice work :shades

[LoneStar]

super nice man!! A+++++ work

Thanks! If you can't really tell, thats most of the sand I got from you this summer Brian!! 8)

[LoneStar]

The Trigger Systems 300 turned out to be an awesome skimmer http://www.maast.org/modules/PNphpBB2/images/posticons/image_8.gif

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/ts300.jpg
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/bubbles.jpg

[dwdenny]

looks great really cleaned up the sump area from before. That is some awesome work there. I was thinking of something similar and that help out a bunch. On a side note there is nothing scarier then seeing that much water around electricity :w00t

[don-n-sa]

Very nice work Lonestar!!!

One thing that I notice is the possibilty of a flood. Have you done a power loss simulation yet? When power goes out supply lines turn into syphons ( unless you do a syphon break)...looking at your fuge supply (ball valve) that is submerged several inches down into the fuge, it looks like when power goes out that it might start a syphon and drain down until the the ball valve gets air into it. Every system is different so I could be wrong, but I am just looking out for ya. I am the king of floods...just ask my wife... >_<

[LoneStar]

Very nice work Lonestar!!!

One thing that I notice is the possibilty of a flood. Have you done a power loss simulation yet? When power goes out supply lines turn into syphons ( unless you do a syphon break)...looking at your fuge supply (ball valve) that is submerged several inches down into the fuge, it looks like when power goes out that it might start a syphon and drain down until the the ball valve gets air into it. Every system is different so I could be wrong, but I am just looking out for ya. I am the king of floods...just ask my wife... >_<

I use a overflow box for my drains. The 'J' tubes flow into a center section of the box and then split to the outersides. One drain on each side of the box goes to the sump and the other to the fuge. If the power goes out, not a whole lot of water will be drained out of the drain pipes nor the return lines. The siphon break point is just a inch below the water line in the main tank. The pump is also connected to a APC 2200 series UPS. It will run for good while on that UPS and if I need more time, I have learned to live by the TS rule of life.

[dwdenny]

good rule there LoneStar

[gjuarez]

Great pics man, and great job on the acrylic project. Your room looked like mine looked today. I had a bunch of containers and 5 gallon jugs all over the place. After a couple of months of being tank less, it is up and running again.

[gjuarez]

BTW, what is the TS rule

[LoneStar]

BTW, what is the TS rule

pm sent

[seamonkey2]

great job, I wish I was as good as doing this things as some of you out there, it will save me a lot of money.

very nice acryllic/pluming work

Jose

[LoneStar]

I wish I was as good as doing this things as some of you out there



Yeah it sure did help to learn how. It has saved a BUNCH of money. Thanks for the compliments too, ya'll. It didn't turn out perfect but its been working like a champ for the past few weeks!

[LoneStar]

I set the skimmer to skim dry skimmate this week because I was out of town. Here is the results. Some super nasty chunky stuff in there :sick Before I got the remote canister with the carbon filter, I was a little iffy on if it would control the smell or not. I threw caution in the wind and took a big wiff right on the carbon hole and there was not even a hint of the skimmate!! :o :) But trust me, it sure did stink when it got flushed!!!
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/dryskimming.jpg

[Flobex]

mmmmmmm!!! looks like... :sick... soup... :sick... BLECH!!!
great acrylic work though!! it looks awesome. almost makes me wanna get up and do something... :P

:sick ----> :ph34r "mmmm soup..."

[bigdscobra]

mmmmmmmmmm looks tasty

[LoneStar]

Its ALIVE!

For now.

8)

I'm bringing back my sump for my new tank :)

I just got done adding a bubble tower, if thats what you want to call it. Its going to be a place for the 2 drains to flow into, reducing bubbles and to concentrate detritus for easy cleaning.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/sumpredone2.jpg

Other changes this go around is that I'm not going to use a external pump. So that big ball valve will either stay or just be replaced with a cap.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/sumpredone1.jpg

The return pump will be a Eheim 1262. Its going to be placed on the left side of the sump in this photo. The skimmer will either be placed on the right side, or external of the sump (still debating on which one to use).

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a142/LoneStarSA/75g%20Build/sumpredone3.jpg

Oh yeah...nice unlevel sidewalk I have ;)