Living Room Nano Peninsula

[YHSublime]

Soliciting advice on a good return pump for the 80 gallon. The overflow is set for a 1600gph turn over. 

[howaboutme]

15 minutes ago, YHSublime said:

Soliciting advice on a good return pump for the 80 gallon. The overflow is set for a 1600gph turn over. 

I decided to go with Simplicity:

 

https://www.simplicityaquatics.com/pumps/

 

It's the Jebao pump with a US warranty. I bought 2 of them because of it's cost. Very quiet and so far so good. Because of laziness in either cleaning it or switching it out (which is one of the same), I've just turned the pump up when it slows down a bit. This buys me time to get my act together.

[wildcrazyjoker81]

This is always such a touchy topic these days for return pumps. Do you spend 300+ on the "name brand" pumps or spend 300 or less (sometimes way less) on one or two pumps. On my 80 frag I started out with my old trusty Jebao DCT12000 (this pump is almost 7 years old now and still works like new) and it worked great. I then switched in my even older Mag18 (over 10 years old) since I needed a controllable pump elsewhere and who doesn't love a double duty pump/heater combo. 

 

For my 220G I am setting up I highly debated getting a nice Sicce/Vectra/Octo return pump, but at the end of the day they can just as easily fail like the cheaper china knock offs. Sure they have a warranty, but that doesn't help while the tank is down. So I was able to buy two DCP18000 return pumps for the same cost as one L2/Varios 8. Hard to beat having a complete new backup.

 

Just my 2 pennies and thoughts.

Edited May 9, 2022 by wildcrazyjoker81

[YHSublime]

21 minutes ago, howaboutme said:

I decided to go with Simplicity:

 

https://www.simplicityaquatics.com/pumps/

 

It's the Jebao pump with a US warranty. I bought 2 of them because of it's cost. Very quiet and so far so good. Because of laziness in either cleaning it or switching it out (which is one of the same), I've just turned the pump up when it slows down a bit. This buys me time to get my act together.

 

Nice, that's always my MO as well, x2 for when one craps out or for maintenance. Price looks right. 

 

19 minutes ago, wildcrazyjoker81 said:

This is always such a touchy topic these days for return pumps. Do you spend 300+ on the "name brand" pumps or spend 300 or less (sometimes way less) on one or two pumps. On my 80 frag I started out with my old trusty Jebao DCT12000 (this pump is almost 7 years old now and still works like new) and it worked great. I then switched in my even older Mag18 (over 10 years old) since I needed a controllable pump elsewhere and who doesn't love a double duty pump/heater combo. 

 

For my 220G I am setting up I highly debated getting a nice Sicce/Vectra/Octo return pump, but at the end of the day they can just as easily fail like the cheaper china knock offs. Sure they have a warranty, but that doesn't help while the tank is down. So I was able to buy two DCP18000 return pumps for the same cost as one L2/Varios 8. Hard to beat having a complete new backup.

 

Just my 2 pennies and thoughts.

 

I appreciate the experience and thoughts! As above, I have the same ideas about it. By the end of this calendar year I think we'll have the basement redone and the upstairs redone as well, I'm lobbying for a dedicated fish room/sump area/water changing station, then I can talk about pumps that can clear 20-30' head space for my basement sump

[Schg]

Oh man, things are looking great! I might have to come buy some frags from you again, since I decided to get back into the hobby! Funny thing is that I was actually thinking about your homemade Kombucha recently before I decided to take the plunge again, it must have just planted the seed in my mind to start another reef!

[YHSublime]

Oh man, things are looking great! I might have to come buy some frags from you again, since I decided to get back into the hobby! Funny thing is that I was actually thinking about your homemade Kombucha recently before I decided to take the plunge again, it must have just planted the seed in my mind to start another reef!

Welcome back! Finally outgrowing the nano, so new stuff is getting there. I’ve got frags for you when you’re ready, out in Hyattsville, MD now.

[YHSublime]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[YHSublime]

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[YHSublime]

 

 

 

 

 

[lowsingle]

Looks like the new tank will be full from the start 

 

Darren

 

[YHSublime]

Looks like the new tank will be full from the start 
 
Darren
 

It really will. Busting at the seams currently.

[Pedro]

Incredible colors

[YHSublime]

Incredible colors

Wish I could say I knew why, but doing something right I guess!?

[JJKK]

37 minutes ago, YHSublime said:

It really will. Busting at the seams currently.

Is that why you haven't picked up my Indo Rainbow Torch?  That HW is coloring up amazing in that tank.

[YHSublime]

Is that why you haven't picked up my Indo Rainbow Torch?  That HW is coloring up amazing in that tank.

Just waiting on my top board, which will be beautiful, then I’m ready to plumb. As soon as I plumb, everything moves!

[howaboutme]

Looks great! How did the fijicube overflow come together? Easy drilling?

[YHSublime]

Looks great! How did the fijicube overflow come together? Easy drilling?

Thanks!

Drilling was easy, will report back once it’s wet!

[tpallas]

Whats up with this 80 gallon?

[YHSublime]

53 minutes ago, tpallas said:

Whats up with this 80 gallon?

 

Well, it's sitting in my office with a lot of expensive equipment inside it. Ben went to start making the top on it for me over the weekend. Unfortunately, the board I had provided for the dramatic live edge sprung out warped as could be after cutting down the middle, so it's going to be unusable. He's going to just make a fresh top for me, so once that is ready I'll start plumbing. 

 

I'm a little nervous about moving things over, as everything in the nano is doing really well right now. Same with the 11.4 I got from you. The zoo's are popping off, and everything is chugging along. 

[DaJMasta]

You can probably do a sort of slow move over, do a water change on the smaller tank and just add that water to the bigger one, that sort of thing.  Won't avoid all the settling in, but getting some of the gunk and the microbiome from the established tanks should go a long way for making the environment feel familiar when they're moved over.  Provided everything can stay up overlapping for a bit, I'd probably give it a couple weeks and transfer things gradually - a little bit of rock, water, and sand initially, then similar in a few stages until you start moving corals and other livestock.

[YHSublime]

38 minutes ago, DaJMasta said:

You can probably do a sort of slow move over, do a water change on the smaller tank and just add that water to the bigger one, that sort of thing.  Won't avoid all the settling in, but getting some of the gunk and the microbiome from the established tanks should go a long way for making the environment feel familiar when they're moved over.  Provided everything can stay up overlapping for a bit, I'd probably give it a couple weeks and transfer things gradually - a little bit of rock, water, and sand initially, then similar in a few stages until you start moving corals and other livestock.

 

I've thought about that, unfortunately, the current footprint of the tank currently will be overlapped by about 1/2 of the where the new 80 will be going. Moving one tank to get it settled and then moving the other one seems oddly redundant, as the only real thing that will be changing tremendously is quadrupling the water volume. 

 

Then lights, and flow. All those seem huge enough that something might/could go wrong? 

[howaboutme]

Granted my situation was at a smaller scale but I did all of mine at one time. I did use new sand and water though. I also cured my "new" rock that wasn't in the previous tank.

[YHSublime]

2 minutes ago, howaboutme said:

Granted my situation was at a smaller scale but I did all of mine at one time. I did use new sand and water though. I also cured my "new" rock that wasn't in the previous tank.

 

I plan to use literally the exact same rock, from the display to the sump. I also plan to add the rock from my "frag tank" in with it. And moving over all the water (I don't really think the water matters that much, tbh.) 

[DaJMasta]

The water will bring whatever nutrients are in it, just diluted, instead of starting from zero.  I agree it's probably not much, but it probably makes the new environment somewhat more similar.

I think so long as you can minimize the in between time, that should help a lot too.  Just not spending time out of the water, being shaken around in shipping, having consistent lighting and flow on either side, etc., I think goes a long way.  A good example is buying live rock - if you get 2-3 day shipping, the rock is live but most of the creatures aren't, if you get overnight, you get some creatures with minimal dieoff, if you get air freight the same day, you lose very little due to the transit, it just comes down to how the conditions compare when you stack it up on the far end.

If you have a way of moving over the smaller tank to make space (or similar), that could give you some overlap to minimize the change in environment even more, but I doubt it's really required if you can do all the movement sort of in one go.

[YHSublime]

48 minutes ago, DaJMasta said:

The water will bring whatever nutrients are in it, just diluted, instead of starting from zero.  I agree it's probably not much, but it probably makes the new environment somewhat more similar.

I think so long as you can minimize the in between time, that should help a lot too.  Just not spending time out of the water, being shaken around in shipping, having consistent lighting and flow on either side, etc., I think goes a long way.  A good example is buying live rock - if you get 2-3 day shipping, the rock is live but most of the creatures aren't, if you get overnight, you get some creatures with minimal dieoff, if you get air freight the same day, you lose very little due to the transit, it just comes down to how the conditions compare when you stack it up on the far end.

If you have a way of moving over the smaller tank to make space (or similar), that could give you some overlap to minimize the change in environment even more, but I doubt it's really required if you can do all the movement sort of in one go.

 

I have been cycling rock for the past 3 months or so downstairs in a rubbermaid tub. I don't think I'll end up using it, but had plans to originally. I thought in my head I might just jam it down into the sump, or as much as I could. 

 

I did make sure that I got enough equipment that I could do a straight swap and not have to worry about moving over pumps, or lights, or skimmers, etc. so there will be some variation in the flow and the lighting