180g basement tank

[AlanM]

What does anyone think about plumbing a rubbermaid stock tank?  I have a good bulkhead in the bottom hole.  My return pump can go external or internal.  I have a floor drain in the sump area for quick water changes.  

 

Should I use the bottom drain as just a drain or feed for the pump or both?  If the bottom is used as a pump feed, then my ATO will be sensing water level in the entire stock tank volume, which makes it less sensitive than if I put the return pump in a box elevated in the stock tank and set the level of the box to be the high point of the water in the sump, for instance.

 

I've also thought about putting the skimmer in a bucket or sweater box or something and having the main drain go right into the bucket and overflow into the sump.  The skimmer I'm using is not a recirc one, so this would basically make it a recirculating skimmer and also give it the dirtiest water to work with. 

 

Basically I'll be using containers in the stock tank to simulate baffles.

[AlanM]

Big skimmer!  That's a 5 year old kid standing next to it. I think instead of using it as a skimmer I'll just plug the holes and keep tangs in it and use the holes for a closed loop system.

 

[Anemone]

Wow, that is quite a skimmer. Surely it will get the job done.

Did you decide about whether the return will go into a separate chamber? In the unlikely event that the overflow is completely blocked, the box also limits the amount of water that can get pushed up into the display and perhaps onto the floor. Though with your (awesome) overflow setup this may not be a real risk.

[AlanM]

I'm going to put the return pump external, I think.  Now that I have this big skimmer I'm going to need all the space in my sump that I can get.  

[flooddc]

Looking great!

That's one monster skimmer. I am sensing larger tanks coming soon   

[Gatortailale]

Now you need a bigger tank to go with the big skimmer.  You know you want a 300!

[AlanM]

Now you need a bigger tank to go with the big skimmer.  You know you want a 300!

 

True.  It's sad, after seeing John's arrangement I came home and looked at the 180 that hasn't even seen water and realized how small it really is.  I couldn't even fit one of his coral colonies in the thing, heh.

 

I gotta find a boat builder to make me a fiberglass tank with a big glass window, then an excavator to open up the foundation so I can get it into the basement...

[YHSublime]

I don't know if that skimmer's gonna get the job done, you might have wanted to go bigger.

[AlanM]

True.  It only just barely fits in my rubbermaid stock tank sump once I put the pumps on it.  Too funny.  Guess that's all that is going in this sump.

[khh27]

I don't know if that skimmer's gonna get the job done, you might have wanted to go bigger.

Hhhhmmmmm..... perhaps this one on r2r right now might do? Lol

 

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[Cliff Puckstable]

Alan, is that the og gsa skimmer? I'll smell the fish farts all the from my house.

[AlanM]

Hhhhmmmmm..... perhaps this one on r2r right now might do? Lol

 

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Darn, wish I'd seen that one first.  I do have a spare room that could hold that skimmer if I put nothing else in it.

 

Alan, is that the og gsa skimmer? I'll smell the fish farts all the from my house.

 

Yes, I got the GSA one that monkiboy was selling a while ago.  It is a beast for sure, and I love dealing with Marcos.  Every time I get more than I thought I was going to get.

[AlanM]

Finally, some more progress.  Doo doo cooking off the rocks.  Lotsa rocks and more on the way.  Probably not going minimal.

 

[AlanM]

Here's what I have to work with.  Really nice rock after an acid bath and then a bleach bath.  It's a mix of reef saver, some fiji, some shelfs, some branch, and a nice cerameco shelf which will blend in better once the lights are on and the rest of the rock seasons.

 

They still smell like bleach, but that should evaporate well before I'm ready to get it wet.  I just put them all in to eyeball the quantity of rock in the tank.

 

[Cliff Puckstable]

How long did you let them marinate in the acid bath?

[Lowefx]

Shouldn't you bleach before you soak in acid? Also curious on your soak time because I just did mine the other day and soaked for an hour or two.

 

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[AlanM]

How long did you let them marinate in the acid bath?

 

I left them in acid for a day and in bleach for 6 hours.

 

Shouldn't you bleach before you soak in acid? Also curious on your soak time because I just did mine the other day and soaked for an hour or two.

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I don't know which is better to do first, but acid first makes sense to me. I only had a half gallon or less of acid this time, so I didn't get nearly as impressive of a foam as I got the last time when I did it with a full gallon or more. I kind of think the acid did very little this time.

 

The point of the acid is to dissolve the outer surfaces of the rock which all of the dead algae and other gunk is physically clinging too. As a result all of the gunk comes loose and the water gets nasty. When it stops fizzing it is probably close to neutral, so I pulled out the rocks (with gloves on just in case), gave them a quick spray with the hose, dumped the water, and put them back in with bleach. Half gallon of bleach. The bleach breaks down remaining organics and stains and makes them look even cleaner.

 

Normally I would then dump the water and soak a couple days in clean water with prime dechlorinator but in this case I wanted to put them in to see how much rock I actually had and don't plan on livestock for months, so by the time they are dry, they will surely be also dechlorinated.

[AlanM]

Plumbing has started!  Frankenmanifold in effect.

 

You can also see how I plumbed the UV to allow me to adjust how much goes through.  There's a Vectra L1 in the sump.  Bottom valve is for water changes and will go to drain.  The one above that is for a reactor. Returns will come off the top of the stack.

 

[DCReefer1964]

Alan the UV is mounted wrong

[AlanM]

Alan the UV is mounted wrong

 

What?!  It looks fine to me!  In fact, I love how it's mounted.

[Origami]

What?!  It looks fine to me!  In fact, I love how it's mounted.

Very interesting approach. You're installing the UV on a shunt and using the ball valves to regulate how much flows though the UV and through the bypass path. Is that correct?

 

Crazy question, but you'll be able to remove the lamp when it needs replacement, right? It looks rather tight there behind the HVAC duct.

[AlanM]

Yep. That's the idea behind the plumbing. Plenty of installation diagrams show the UV on a bypass, but I just turned one leg of the bypass in the other direction so I could mount it on the wall without taking up more horizontal space.

 

It is a little tight for bulb replacement, but the hoses are flexible and the clips holding it to the studs are easily removable. There is about a foot of clearance behind the duct and around four feet of width to pull out the bulb. I should probably make the hoses much longer to give me more room to maneuver if I pull it off the wall, but the barbs go into unions too, which will also be easy to remove if needed.

[Origami]

Is there a particular reason to do it that way rather than to just return the water back to the sump (since it's so close)? If it went back to the sump, you could actually positively confirm flow volume through the UV. Otherwise, I can't see how you really would know.

[AlanM]

I could do that, but I liked the idea of all the clean water going into the display rather than back into the sump. You'd agree that there was positive flow if the big valve is closed, right? It has to be continuous as the valve is slowly opened, no?

 

You're right, though, that if it went directly back into the sump I could check the flow rate through the uv and know what size critters I was affecting.

[Origami]

As long as there's enough of a pressure drop across that series ball valve to overcome the small lift , yes, you'll have flow through the UV in the intended direction. The rate, though, will be highly variable and, without an in-line flow meter, you'll only be able to guess at what it is because you're inserting it right back into the return which will put head pressure on the UV outlet. By opening it up back to the sump, that head pressure will be removed and you'll have a means of positively verifying flow. Feeding back into the sump is not unreasonable. You do it with your skimmer all the time, I'm sure. Just thinking off the top of my head: Assume that 10% of your water flows through the UV and 90% continues upward (or through other paths). On first pass, 9% of the processed water will go back to the tank and 1% will flow back to the sump, having been processed twice. In the end, all water will be processed. It'll just take about 10% more volume on average for all of the water to pass through the UV at least once. But it also means that you can increase the flow through the UV by 10% because you'll, on average, be exposing the water to 10% more UV (dosage) because of the multiple-trip factor. Thus, the total time to process all of the water in your system should remain about the same.