Few random questions for upgrade

[Jennylynn9579]

Hi all,

 

I'm progressing through building a sump for my 150 upgrade, I bought a 55 to use, as I wanted LOTS of space for anything that might come up in the future. My plan looks like this:

The red pipes are return lines and the line out for my gfo/carbon reactor, and the green lines are my overflows and line back from the reactor. I split the R overflow with a tee to a ball valve to feed my refugium. In the center compartment will be the return pump (which I haven't chosen yet), heaters, and pump for the reactor, along with room for probe holders, whatever else.

My question is that my skimmer, reef octopus, prefers a water level around 8-9 inches, and I planned that section to be deeper than that to give me more water volume. I'd like to elevate the skimmer about 3-4 inches, and I am torn on what to use. I thought of 2 options, 1: eggcrate bound together with zip ties, obviously not the sturdiest thing, but easy and cheap; 2: either buy/build an acrylic platform. Anybody wanna weigh in on this, especially anyone with experience building acrylic stuff or anyone with an elevated skimmer.

 

Next, I was thinking I'd like to change my lighting fixture for the refugium. Right now it's just a 13 inch power compact fixture that came with the setup. It's old and all salt creepy, and it obstructs my view of the fuge and I bump into it while working in the stand. Has anyone tried LED strips like stunners or similar?

 

Lastly, I need advice on the return pump. The tank is 150 G, 6ft long with corner-flows. I plan to split the return from the pump with a Y, then I was toying with splitting each return at the top to do 4 loc-line flare nozzles. I looked at the old return pipes that came with the tank, they're 1 inch or 3/4, I think. The return pump would pump from the center of the stand, thru the Y, to an elbow on each end, then up through the tank to the return outlets, I estimate about 3 feet from pump to bottom of tank, then 2 1/4 feet to the loc line. I've heard I need at least a 10x turnover, but I always have trouble figuring out head loss, resistance, whatever we call it. I like the mag drive pumps, but would I need an 18 or a 24? I'll have a ball valve on the main return pipe so I could dial it down if need be, but I think with splitting it twice, I might not need to. Advice?

 

Thanks for reading!

Jen

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Chad]

Hi Jen,

 

Overall, your plan looks good, well thought out and proven. Here are a couple of thoughts that you can take for what they are worth...

 

Will the line that feeds the refugium from the overflow have a valve on it? (it should, but I can't quite tell on the drawing). Also, the flow from your refugium will likely not be high enough to need the baffles, so I probably wouldn't include 3. If you really like then, you can do a short (2-4" tall) baffle that the refugium overflows into just to direct any bubbles... but I don't think there will be any. Make sure you have some means of preventing snails and other critters that may be in your fuge from getting into your return section where they can cause problems with the pumps.

 

I elevate my skimmer a bit (I use the space under it to run media bags). I did it by building a frame out of PVC piping and then zip tying a piece of egg crating to the top. IMO, using egg crating only is too fragile and tends to break when you are working on things. An acrylic platform is definitely the cleanest option... If I were setting up the sump to be more visible, then that is the route I would go, but a PVC and egg crate combo is cheap and easy to accomplish the task.

 

Member forrealb50 has an LED light for his fuge you can see in his build thread. If you go this route, make sure that you get a warmer color temperature bulb; most green algae needs red in the color spectrum to grow well. I would go with something in the 6,500k range. But certainly less than 10,000k.

 

As far as the return pump goes... I would probably go more in the 5x turnover range (enough to run the filtration) and supplement inside the tank with much higher efficiency power heads (like tunze or vortech). Generally, if you guestimate 6-8 feet of head loss (a combination of height, friction, and fluid losses). Here is a reasonably good web site to estimate with PVC better if you want http://www.pondarama.com/html/friction_loss_charts.html, but you don't really need to do that. Remember mag drive pumps are rated using 1.5" return lines (which I recommend using anyway to minimize losses). With a mag drive pump, this puts you in the range of a Mag 12. Maybe even a mag 9.5, but I'd go with the 12 (if you are set on an internal pump... are you?)

 

Hope this helps.

[zygote2k]

I use a cement block to elevate a Deltec 16" above the sump but still inside it. I place media bags in the block cavities. The block also keeps the alkalinity stable.

[smallreef]

If you only need 3 or 4 inches.. look into Acrylic Display Risers.... you may be able to get one long enough and high enough and for like $9...

[EGKS]

You could also do a reverse durso for the drain (the one in the sump). I had two pipes at first then added the durso. Big difference in sound.

[Jennylynn9579]

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

I had thought about one of those display risers, thought I would drill a few holes to allow flow through also.

 

The overflows are already Dursos I believe, I saw these things called Maggie mufflers, they looked pretty cool, saw some good feedback on RC.

[Jennylynn9579]

Chad,

Thank you for so many suggestions! Everyone on here is so helpful!

 

The refugium's pipe will have a ball valve on it, and good idea with the baffles, I don't want to cut more glass than I have to.

 

I've looked at DIY LEDs for awhile now, I'm just too lazy, I'll buy all the bits and hijack the kitchen table with parts and my husband will inevitably get tired of looking at it all and screech at me while he does it himself lol.

 

I'm settled on tunzes or vortechs for flow already, so I'm supposing I'll go for the mag 12, I don't want external, don't want to deal with plumbing anything more than necessary.

 

Thanks again!! I'll start a build thread once I actually get somewhere, rather than just collecting parts!

[EGKS]

Here's a photo of the reverse durso. I first tried two pipes with holes cut in them, but it was loud. The top cap has a hole drilled in it to allow air to escape just like the ones in an overflow. Please excuse the creep....I never glued the cap or the pipe going into the sump.