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What do you all think about non-drilled overflows for a sump? I have a beautiful 100 gal tank that I originally wanted to make a planted FW, but hell I've got the time, money and a permanent residence, so why not do the SW tank that I've wanted since forever. I'd rather not drill the tank at all, even if it isn't tempered. Looking at the way this site explains it, I shouldn't have any problems using a over-the-top sort of overflow as long as it is perfectly air tight. Restarting is not an issue either, since the siphon is maintained even if water stops flowing. Any specific risks by doing this?
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Mar 15, 2010 21:15
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Well the LCD + polarized sunglasses test says it is untempered all around. I certainly don't want to drill it myself so I suppose will look for a glass shop. I was hoping I didn't have to move the tank much more. I had to borrow a truck to get the drat thing home.
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Mar 16, 2010 03:19
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Psimitry posted:Ever used a Calfo style overflow rather than the traditional "box & standpipe" type? That looks nice. Seems like you have much more linear overflow space than you could ever get with a normal box, and from what I have read so far the more linear overflow the better. I suppose the flow rate would be about the same since a standpipe is sucking from the top and the Calfo style is as well. I'll have to read more about both before I take a drill to the tank. I've got quite a bit of experience handling a drill, but usually on thick steel that won't do poo poo if you use too much pressure. I'll just have to take it slow. EDIT: Actually now I think I definitely prefer a side-drilled overflow. If I gently caress up anything, the water won't drain out the bottom and seriously, almost 800lbs of water and stuff is pushing on that bottom pane of glass and I certainly do not want it to break. porksmash fucked around with this message at 22:43 on Mar 16, 2010 |
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Mar 16, 2010 22:23
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ludnix posted:You should have no problem with it, just make sure to get a new diamond hole saw, they apparently cannot be reused for more than a few holes. If you read the guides online it should be a breeze. You usually just let the weight of the drill apply the pressue. It makes an awful racket, takes forever and will tire your arm out, but you end up with a pretty clean hole and awesome tank. I ordered the 1500 GPH kit and two 3/4" returns from glass-holes (thanks, ludnix, great recommendation). 1500GPH is probably overkill. I don't want all my water flying through the sump, so I think will only use one of the returns and get a couple powerheads to supply the rest of the flow. I picked up a used skimmer on craigslist, a ETSS SumpBuddy40. I really like the size of it and it allows me much more free space in the sump than I planned on. I could only fit a 20gal long tank underneath the stand, so any free space is a boon. I plan on putting the skimmer in the overflow-from-tank section to keep it as far away from the return as possible. I'll probably put it's supply pump in the return section. Circulate the water around a bit before it returns to the tank. Does this make sense? Once I get it all figured out I'll probably post the design to get a couple second opinions. I want to avoid any mistakes the first time around. Another topic is the RO/DI filter. I do want to purchase one, even if I end up dropping saltwater going back to fresh. I've looked around a bit on other forums and I see people not too enthusiastic about the Coralife Pure-Flo brand I was looking at. I do hear good things about Buckeye Field Supply, though. I'll have to figure out what my water pressure is at before I decide on a booster pump or not, but I was looking at the 150GPH premium one here. It is only $50 more than the 'value' version so why not. I'm already murdering my bank accounts. I also need to think about lighting! I'll have to build a top of some sort because I can't go mounting things to the walls in my apartment. I was thinking two MH bulbs supplemented by 2 T5 HOs. I am going to start out with just fish and live rock, but once I'm sure I'm not killing everything I want to add corals. If I want to get fancy I can add in some dim LEDs for night time. I basically plan on copying the features of this hood without spending $600. Hopefully buying the components and building it myself will save some dough.
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Mar 18, 2010 19:16
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Yeah, that was a typo. GPD. I want a higher capacity system just because they are usually only $25-$30 more expensive than a 100gpd one. You also have a good point about the evaporation. Now that I think about it I'm also concerned about my general power usage as well. I only have 20 amps available, and I think it is on the same circuit as my home theater stuff. I know MH and T5s consume about the same amount of electricty, though, so we will see. Time for maths. edit: and yes, I pretty much only want moonlights so it looks pretty. I'd be spending a lot of time around the tank at night. another edit: Would I be OK with a 4x tube 48" light fixture on a 60" tank? 60" seems like such an odd size for bulbs. porksmash fucked around with this message at 20:58 on Mar 18, 2010 |
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Mar 18, 2010 20:15
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Yeah, I was actually looking at that exact kit in 48" and 60" on marinedepot.com. The pricing on the 4 bulb kits doesn't make much sense to me. 2 lamp 60" kit is $238. 3 lamp kit, $276. 4 lamp kit, freaking $477. I suppose it is because at that point you get two ballasts, but that doesn't really explain the huge price jump. Two 2 bulb kits would be cheaper. Either way I am set on T5s now, just have to muddle through choices. Thanks for the advice!
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Mar 18, 2010 23:20
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Drillin' Drillin' Click here for the full 1280x960 image. I was nervous as hell to start. I bought a 10 gal aquarium from Walmart to practice on first. Hole #1 - CRACK! Welp that was enough practice, time for the real thing. All 4 holes were drilled flawlessly. It really is much easier to go through the thicker glass. Now I just have to fill it with water and see what happens. Here is the tank with overflow and returns in place. I'll probably change the middle to a Y setup.  Click here for the full 1280x960 image. porksmash fucked around with this message at 02:33 on Mar 24, 2010 |
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Mar 24, 2010 02:28
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Install was easy as pie, once the holes were drilled. Just put the bulkhead and o-rings in the right place, put the box on, and tighten the nut. My problem now is that I can't get the box off! I need a large pair of channel-locks to fit around the nut holding it from inside the box. I can't get enough grip with the box being so narrow.
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Mar 24, 2010 15:40
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Man I love looking at people's aquariums. I can't wait to get mine set up. I'm having a cabinet and canopy built now. Cabinet that came with the tank is, in short, a nice looking POS with bad construction. I'd love to do it myself but a lack of a garage kinda killed that. Today I painted my tank. I thought about some sort of background that wasn't permanent but I decided it would look like poo poo and just went with paint. I used a spray-on appliance epoxy that should be durable as hell and stick forever. Ready to paint. Good thing I'm not married. All this stuff is where a living room table should be.  Click here for the full 2048x1536 image. 5 coats applied. Dried for about 2 hours by this point, still shiny as hell. A lot of bugs decided to die on the paint, but you won't be able to see it when its against the wall so I'm not worried. If you got closer you can even see the little death throes they went through before they gave up and decided the paint didn't taste nearly as good as it smelled.  Click here for the full 2048x1536 image.  Click here for the full 2048x1536 image. porksmash fucked around with this message at 21:53 on Apr 3, 2010 |
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Apr 3, 2010 21:50
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arioch posted:I will be using a Vortech MP40W ES for water movement in the display, it has a feed mode. I'm basically looking for something to hook up between the UPS and the return pump. You can probably whip up something with an on-delay relay (like this guy (don't forget the socket)) and a momentary push button. I just glanced through the specs but I believe it'll be like so: Wire the button's normally closed contacts to the relay coil. When you press the button, the relay contacts open. Once you release the button, the timer will start timing, then close again once the set amount of time has passed. Edit: Actually you can use a NO button and put the pump on the NC contacts. Much safer. If the button breaks then you just won't be able to do your feeding time. porksmash fucked around with this message at 04:42 on Apr 28, 2010 |
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Apr 28, 2010 04:28
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Alright! Since my last post on page uh.... 21.. I'm finally able to get back to setting up this tank of mine! I ran into a small problem with my overflow plumbing, though. My drain pipes need to go through my stand. I'm leaning towards shaving out a divot in the shape of the outline in the second picture rather than wrangle the pipe around the stand with a bunch of fittings. If I add a vertical support right there I don't believe there will be any structural issues. It's so close to the end I don't think there would be a problem anyway. Does anyone see a problem with my cunning plan? And what sort of tool would I use?
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May 11, 2011 05:38
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I'll reiterate the don't-buy-things-yet advice. I got all excited and bought a skimmer from craigslist that I ended up replacing with a new, more efficient design. It still sits by my wall, remind me of my shame. I also bought a T12 VHO light kit which seems to be going the way of the dinosaur in favor of slimmmer, sexier T5HO or LED setups. The lights will work, of course, but I hope I can get rid of that skimmer and not have lost too much money on it. poo poo ain't cheap.
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May 20, 2011 03:09
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Well I finally filled up my tank and started cycling water through the sump. GODDAMN is it loud. The overflow itself is fine (thanks glass-holes.com), but the water going through the pipes and splashing into the sump is just nuts. Half the noise seems to come from the weird angles I had to put in to go around the edge of my stand, and the other half from the water's velocity as it hits the water already in the sump. http://i.imgur.com/MdiqT.jpg I've ordered some flex PVC so I can get rid of the angles and go more horizontal with the pipe before it exits to the sump. The water in the left-most pipe in that picture is moving insanely fast when it exits, and the right side is moving at a pretty quick clip too despite the couple feet of horizontal. I also want to try to put in a spash-down zone that serves to break up the flow and slow it down before it reaches the rest of the sump to avoid the splashy problem.
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May 23, 2011 23:55
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Right now the 45s at the ends are half submerged. I thought it would do good to let the air out without splashing too much but the water is just moving too fast. When I redo with the flex PVC I'll have some... flexibility to play around with where the exit is. I'll try the T option you mentioned, I believe I have some laying around.
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May 24, 2011 00:28
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I took the advice offered here and did a little research around the googles about quieting overflows and sumps. I ended up with a couple of these contraptions that seem to be called reverse dursos. They're connected with some flex PVC to get rid of those 45deg doglegs around the edge of my stand and to make it a smoother ride down to the sump in general. MUCH quieter and no gigantic bubbles making my water look like it's boiling. It was a major pain to do with the tank against the wall but I'm glad I got it done. Next step is to put some padding or something under my return pump because it's vibrating the whole goddamn stand. Edit: There's a hole in the cap of the vertical piece in case that wasn't apparent. Air goes out there, water exits sans bubbles. Most of the bubbles, anyway. porksmash fucked around with this message at 08:34 on Jun 10, 2011 |
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Jun 10, 2011 08:32
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Not to mention if you need a chiller because you had metal halides pouring heat into your tank from on high, you can probably ditch the chiller with equivalent LED lighting.
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Jun 17, 2011 02:48
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Those flame scallops will haunt my dreams. My tank has been coming along fairly well. I got a few various snails and some blue-leg hermits to eat the hair algae starting to grow and a couple blue chromis as my hope-they-don't-die first fish. All the tests say it's OK and I really didn't think they would but there's always that first livestock ever nervousness. I also got a couple clove polyps from a guy I sold my crappy-rear end skimmer to. From what I've read they grow like weeds so they should do well enough. I'm hoping I won't have to remove them in the future. Coralline algae is also spreading like crazy on every rock now. Really happy about that. Next weekend I plan on getting a couple oscellaris clowns. I was browsing this thread again to look at the pretty pictures and I noticed someone posted a picture of a flat black slug waaay back. I have one of the same and I found out it is an elephant slug. Pretty neat, my favorite hitchhiker. 
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Jul 3, 2011 02:16
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I'm having a bitch of a time finding a fitting/reducer to hook my Eheim compact 1000 pump up to my tubing. The pump itself has a 5/8" OD outlet and the tubing is 1/2" OD. I found this reducer which gets me two male ends of the same OD between the pump and the tubing, but there are no 5/8" OD union push-connect fittings (edit: made of plastic) on the planet. The compression type fittings, which there are plenty of, won't work with this hard plastic without cracking it.
porksmash fucked around with this message at 07:13 on Jul 7, 2011 |
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Jul 7, 2011 07:09
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arioch posted:Have you tried doing some wacky thing with pvc and barb fittings? I got a couple baby clowns and some frogspawn last weekend. The clowns are so small at this point they fit through the teeth on my overflow, so I fit a mesh media bag over it. Wouldn't want them to end up in my sump and get sucked into my skimmer or something. The clove polyps I got a couple weeks ago are already propagating too. 
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Jul 7, 2011 17:23
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About a week ago I got 2 baby oscellaris clowns, barely 1" long. They were just the right size to fit between the teeth of my overflow and take a ride down into the sump, so I cut up a media bag and put the mesh over the teeth. No danger, enough flow, all set. Now feeding time yesterday, I turned off the return pump as I normally do and started putting in the food. I only see 1 clown though. Where the heck? Not anywhere in the tank. Check the carpet, nothing. Check inside the hood/on top of the tank braces, nothing. Even though the mesh was in place, check the sump, nothing. Where the heck could it be?! Then I looked at my overflow nozzles and it dawned on me. In the 5 seconds between when I turn my pump off and the siphon break, the drat fish got sucked into the nozzle and down the pipe return piping. I undid the union down near the pump and out pops the little sucker, happy as can be. I can't wait until they grow bigger.
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Jul 21, 2011 01:48
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That's a good idea. I drilled the returns lower than I should have, but I can get a couple 90deg loc-line pieces and raise them up. I'm not worried about flow because my return pump has about 30-40% of the output just circulating back into the sump right now.
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Jul 21, 2011 03:53
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Sounds like a spaghetti worm. Does it look something like this? http://www.pirx.com/gallery/albums/worms/sworm01.jpg
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Jul 23, 2011 22:53
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I just had an explosion of stomatellas. I can't even clean the glass anymore unless I want to also scrape 20 little babies off. I'll leave them be for now but sooner or later I have to get back to cleaning.
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Aug 25, 2011 03:52
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arioch posted:As far as LEDs go I'm actually now thinking about jumping on board with the AI Sol units since their September price reduction ($399 a unit) which brings them to just above quality DIY pricing. I was looking at doing a DIY LED setup, but you got me looking at the Sol units. My interest was piqued even more when I saw they are controlled via a serial cable. I'm using a custom controller that has the ability to talk over a serial port, but unfortunately AI is being tight-lipped with what commands the lights respond to. Their support guy said they only work with Neptune Systems, GHL Profilux, and Digital Aquatics. I suppose I could buy their controller, but keeping all the control in one place and saving $80 with a few lines of code would have been neat. I don't suppose anyone here knows the AI Sol serial command set?
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Nov 9, 2011 18:47
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Just found a feature on my electric company's website. This is a 1 bedroom apartment. WORTH IT.
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Nov 14, 2011 22:55
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Internet Explorer posted:Yeah, and how big of a tank are we talking here? That is a huge jump. Are you using a chiller? 100 gallon display, 55 gal sump. No chiller. The lights pull about 250 watts (T12 VHO), and the rest of the stuff adds up to about 125 watts. The heater is 300w but it isn't on too often. I also run the A/C fan a lot more often to vent some of the humidity. Unfortunately I can't check how much I pay per kW/h because the site is now down for maintenance. I know the cost goes up and up once you pass a threshold of 'normal usage'. Needless to say I'm looking for ways to reduce this as much as possible. I'm planning on setting up a 72x 3W LED array, which should reduce the lighting expense quite a bit. I'm at a loss as to what else I can trim. My main return pump is an Eheim, which I understand to be on the more efficient side of things, and my powerheads inside the tank pull <5w each.
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Nov 15, 2011 04:46
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This may be a long shot. Is there anyone that owns an AI Sol controller and has the computer know-how to hook it up to a computer serial port and give me a dump of what it spits out over a few minutes? I would be incredibly grateful. My reason for asking is that I have a custom controller. It can talk RS-232 to AI Sol units, but AI flat-out refused to tell me what their commands are because I wasn't one of the major three (Apex, Neptune, Reef Keeper). I was hoping to save a buck by implementing whatever commands they use in my controller instead of spending more to do something I can implement for free.
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Dec 15, 2011 22:38
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Yeah, they are pineapple sponges. I had a billion of them too, but they've been slowly declining. They only grow in the sump, for some reason.
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Dec 19, 2011 17:43
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I'm leaning towards everything being fine. Hell, I screwed up my ATO and went out of town for a week and when I got back my return pump was churning air and everything was still fine. Do you have a lot of corals? SPS? LPS/softies?
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Dec 20, 2011 22:45
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SaNChEzZ posted:Aquastyle 72LED kit came in today Once you get everything set up I'd like to know what you think of it. I planned out a DIY 72 LED array w/ Crees that came to about $630 in the end. The Bridgelux LEDs from Aquastyle are much cheaper. Unfortunately I wouldn't be able to use their DIY kits because I need 0-10v dimmable drivers.
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Dec 28, 2011 19:24
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Man these suckers are bright! Gunna start laying out the LEDs on the heatsink tonight 
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SaNChEzZ posted:Why 0-10v? I have a custom controller and it has 2x 4-20ma or 0-5v analog outputs. No drivers I've seen take a 4-20ma input, but I can convert the 4-20ma signal into 2-10v with a 500 ohm resistor. I'll have to experiment to see if 20-100% dimming range is preferable to 0-50% range. Either way I need a 0-10v dimmable driver.
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Dec 28, 2011 21:22
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Well I am going to have 78 LEDs total, maybe 90 if I bump up to 48v drivers. Looking at having one 150w driver with 52 LEDs (4 parallel strings of 13 XP-E Royal Blue & a few regular Blue) and one 80w driver with 26 (2 strings of 13 XP-E Cool White). The two drivers specifically are a Mean Well HLG-150H-42B and a Mean Well HLG-80H-42B (or -48B if I decide on 90 LEDs). I don't have the room (drivers will be in a remote cabinet) or controller capabilities to have 6 of the usual ELN-60-48P drivers that I see everywhere. Plus, the HLG B type drivers can do all 3 of the usual dimming methods which works well for any future changes. Each individual string has a 1A fuse to protect it in case something wonky happens. The drivers are sized wattage-wise so that if they do go to 100% for some reason, they are still slightly below the max the LEDs can handle (according to spec sheets) and nothing will blow up. The 150w driver supplies 37.5w per string, and the 80W driver supplies 40w per string. Each string of 13 LEDs can handle 41.6w (3.2v * 13 * 1A).
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Dec 28, 2011 23:06
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Just picked up this baby for my downsize project. Now that I've had my 100g running for about 8 months I have a much better idea of the things I want to do differently. Rimless and pre-drilled was one of the things. Currently shopping around for a stand maker.
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Jan 17, 2012 22:03
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I definitely would if I, well, felt like it. I would rather pay someone to produce a quality piece of furniture while I work on the rest of the tank. I just heard back from a guy with 15 years of carpentry experience, and he also keeps reef tanks. He quoted me a reasonable price for a custom stand and I will gladly pay for quality. It'll pretty much be the same as this one in gloss black. I'm hoping for the effect of the tank itself being this amazing cube of color and light and motion and everything around it isn't even worth noticing. So, all black it is. Going to paint the back of the tank as soon as I can leak test it, which is difficult with holes on the bottom and no stand. Went ahead and bought a Vortech MP10. That plus sump return should be flow enough for LPS and a couple SPS colonies here and there. Now I'm just trying to decide if I want to build my own LED fixture or buy one. A local club member was posting his Mazarra LED fixtures and they produce some beautiful light. I may be copying their LED color ratios because dammmn they're expensive.
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Jan 18, 2012 06:39
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The Mazarra one is similar, but with warm white instead of reds:
I'll probably change the warm white to a neutral white to push the color temp up a teeny bit. I don't want my tank to look like blue kool-aid but I think I want something around 16-17k.
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Jan 19, 2012 21:40
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I'm of the opinion that water changes are really only necessary to get rid of things like nitrate and phosphates, or add back things like magnesium and calcium. When I had my 100 set up I didn't do a single water change. Trimmed the chaeto once every week or two and I dosed to keep my calcium, alkalinity, and magnesium in line.
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Apr 3, 2012 03:14
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To reduce the amount of water that drains to your sump you could try arcing your return loc-line up and then back down. The nozzle should be just barely under the surface. That'll break the siphon much sooner and you won't get as much drainage. If you drilled a siphon-break hole near the base you'll have to plug it again. The loc-line is water-tight enough to ignore any leakage unless you're leaving the return off for a few days. Here's a pic of how I did it on my tank (ignore the lack of effort screen cover, please) 
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May 2, 2012 21:03
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SaNChEzZ posted:Also, what tank is that, looks super nice. Oceanic Illuminata 57gal with a custom stand. I lied I didn't post, so here's a couple from setup. I drilled the return hole so I could use the two holes in the overflow for a Herbie drain. It's wonderful.  
porksmash fucked around with this message at 01:43 on May 3, 2012 |
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May 3, 2012 01:38
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I spent most of a day washing enough sand for my 60gal and it was totally worth it. Wear gloves if you like your fingertips.
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Sep 15, 2012 18:13
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| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 13:23 |
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I used to have my auto-feeder synced with a fancy digital light timer controlling my return pump. It could turn off for 15 minutes while the auto-feeder did it's thing.
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Dec 24, 2012 03:04
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