[chriss]

It's been apparant over the last few months that my sump/tank turnover rate isn't good enough leading to a build up of nutrients in the main tank.


This is the layout of the existing sump system...



Water from the tank comes into the blue barrel on the right and then thru the sump system which comprises of a deep sand bucket, cheato tank and bottom cryptic/live rock/pump tank. Also plumbed in is a frag tank.



The plan is to replace it all with two large (250litre) cheato tanks, remove the blue barrel and upgrade the return pump. The sand bucket will also be moved outside of the cupboard but kept in-circuit for the time being.



New pump = larger pipes which needs my favorite tool...



and lots of plastic sheet...




The pipework to and from the sump has to go under the lounge floor, which happens to be concrete. This was the channel we made the first time a couple of years back...



... and last weekend's efforts resulted in something twice as wide...



I can fit three 40mm pipes down here, two for tank->sump and one for the return. Depsite the copious amounts of plastic sheet the dust still found it's way thru. One hours cutting, three hours cleaning


Unfortunately the wider channel now needs to be cut thru to the garage and as luck would have it, it will exit right behind one of the legs on the sump cupboard, so that needs to be dealt with.

The "blue barrel" is being removed from the system completely, reducing the water volume by 250'ish litres giving less work for the skimmer to deal with and removing a detritus trap. Doing this now also allows access to the area where I need to cut thru for the new pipe access.

So, now you see it...



.. now you don't...



The 'green pipe' you see is a pumped feed from the bottom sump up to the dsb and current cheato tank. The current tank->sump return is now going straigt thru to the bottom sump tank.

That's it for this weekend.

Chris

[Joey]

Starting to look like its getting somewhere now mate, keep the updates coming

[Dave.I]

Looks like a good plan Chris.I would have removed the blue barrel too.Its ok having a detritus trap if its cleaned every couple of days but who wants to do that! I think you said you were going to try biopellets? If this is the case it could be worth trying them first before finnishing the system.I have done this and now i know how i want my new sump set up with the biopellets.You could probably end up needing no cheato and no dsb bucket with the pellets and the money you save in lighting the cheato would pay for the pellets.You could then use one or both of the tanks on the new sump for frags and make a good bit of cash from that space! If you could get your hands on some neon green polyp sinularia and other easily cultured high end corals you could turn a good profit.

[dave14]

Looking good so far

One thing, I hope you wore a mask whilst cutting out the channel as it's quite common for the type of floor tiles you have to contain asbestos

[chriss]

Dave.I, on Feb 27 2010, 09:29 PM, said:

Looks like a good plan Chris.I would have removed the blue barrel too.Its ok having a detritus trap if its cleaned every couple of days but who wants to do that! I think you said you were going to try biopellets? If this is the case it could be worth trying them first before finnishing the system.I have done this and now i know how i want my new sump set up with the biopellets.You could probably end up needing no cheato and no dsb bucket with the pellets and the money you save in lighting the cheato would pay for the pellets.You could then use one or both of the tanks on the new sump for frags and make a good bit of cash from that space! If you could get your hands on some neon green polyp sinularia and other easily cultured high end corals you could turn a good profit.

I'm certain bio-pellets will feature and the dsb will be dumped. Having had no personal experience of the pellets, at this stage I'm gonna go with the cheato as well. If the pellets work out, then maybe I can turn-off one of the cheato tanks or do something different with it at a later date. As for fragging, I've given that up for now; I've chucked out more frags than I've given away. To date, it hasn't been worth the effort, more lighting (250W halide), more flow pumps, more bio-load, more pest potential, more fish to keep pests/algae at bay. Right now, I want to get the water quality sorted for the display tank.

One gotcha that came up last night, was an increase in tank temperature. The blue barrel had previosuly been acting as a heatsink. Hopefully 400-odd litres of cheato tanks will restore this.

Chris

[SLAPPY]

Looking good Chis, keep the updates coming.

[chriss]

This weekends task was to cut thru the wall from he garage, pretty simple.



Well, the hole needs to be extended to the left which is right where one of the sump legs happens to be. The back of the sump cupboard has three oddly spaced legs, the next one along is only a foot or so away, so I used a couple of anchor bolts to help tie this one to the wall and then cut off the bottom hoping it wouldn't all come crashing down, so far it's still standing!



I've also revised the flow around the sump compared to the earlier revision above.



Now the water will enter the middle tank before being split three ways, one to the top tank, one to gravity feed the skimmer and the other third thru this tank. This now ensures that the 'dirty' water will get to pass thru either cheato or the skimmer before getting to the return pump. It also reduces the number of additional pumps and means that the only extra one we need now can be 'smaller' since it has less head to pump the water up to the top tank.

Here is a great tool that any diy'er shouldn't be without. It's basically a 'detail sander', I got it for christmas a few years back, but what I didn't realise until a few weeks ago was that the oddly shaped bits of metal that came with it are actually blade attachments - duh RTFM! They are FANTASTIC at cutting wood, pipe, stone, plasterboard and metal particularly in awkward to get areas.

[lindsay]

Looking very good chriss,this should work well m8,keep the updates coming .

[dave14]

Good progress Chris,
I like the idea of 2 or 3 sumps, might try that on my upgrade

[chriss]

Well, the next step has taken longer than I expected due to a delay in getting the sump glass cut. Eventually got it done so progress has commenced once more. Got one tank built last night, only to realise it's not too heavy for me to move on my own and is sat in the middle of the garage so I'll have to build the second one outside.



It measures 51inches long x 21 inches wide and 12 inches high made from 10mm glass. It'll be filled to about 8 inches depth which is around 140 litres.

The returns from the display tank will come into this sump at the top of the photo where I will have two filter socks. Some of the water will be pumped up to a second tank that will be stacked above this one, the rest will flow thru a large cheato bed in the middle and down the outlets at the bottom of the photo into the return sump.

I'm hoping to get the second one built tonight and then give them a week/10 days to cure before putting them into action.

Chris

[TrevC]

Coming along nicely Chris.

Does it need to be 10mm if it's only going to be 8 inches deep?

[Joey]

Looking good Chris, if you need a hand to lift it, im only 5 mins away from you so just shout

Joey

[chriss]

TrevC, on Apr 23 2010, 05:15 PM, said:

Coming along nicely Chris.

Does it need to be 10mm if it's only going to be 8 inches deep?

No, but it's the only glass Jas had. Tis nice and strong tho and no need for brace bars. They'd make a nice pair of shallow, rimless lagoon display tanks when in the future for someone!

Got the second one done tonight, just got to ban footballs, bikes and skateboards from the driveway for a few days until it's set and I can move it.

Joey, thanks for the offer, I might give you a shout one evening next week if I get stuck.

Chris

[Joey]

No worries mate, ill PM you my mobile number so you can get hold of me

Joey

[dylan]

yeh im up for giving ya a hand mate

[ben]

nice work chris. looking forward to seeing it all running.

also may be able to help after work if you need it.

[lindsay]

Looking good chriss,should all work well m8.

[chriss]

lindsay, on Apr 24 2010, 06:41 PM, said:

Looking good chriss,should all work well m8.

bloody better do!

[lindsay]

Just thinking chriss,if you were to cut another channel in the floor you could separate the feeds and returns from each sump .

[lindsay]

Just a thought chriss,are you going to put any kind of baffles in the bottom tank that feeds the return pump,the water may get well saturated with air bubbles from the pipes from the above tanks and skimmer return,may cause problems for the return pump.