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The 50gal corner pentagon full set up, finally!!


reefgeek84

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Brandon,

Glad to hear that your pump does work. And it was fine that you called me...

 

Closed loop looks good...

 

Rich

Thanks for the compliment and letting me bug you.

 

Hopefully everything will be glued tonight and let it sit and tomorrow night I will run a water test.

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If you wanted to paint the back' date=' use Krylon Fusion. It is made to bond to plastics. I would suggest it, to make it look more professional as it already is.[/quote']

 

It only comes in a aresol can right? Homedepot.com and lowes.com does not have anything listed on their site about it. And I thought is was spray on...if that is the case I am SOL. But thank you for the compliment on how it all looks...

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Seeing your plumbing' date=' I wonder about the closed loop. Are you going to use another plumbed circuit to run your sump?[/quote']

The one union that has nothing attached to it, will drain to my sump and then from their I will have a return pump from the sump that will put the water back in the tank. Is that what you are wondering? or something else...Let me know and I apologize if I am confused.

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Are you returning water back through the OM?

No. That would not be a closed loop. A closed loop is when you pull water from the tank and just put it back in via an OM, SCWD.

 

my sump is purely for filtration and and not flow. So the far right union pulls water from the tank and goes to my mag, then from the outlet of the mag goes to the middle union which goes up to the OM and puts the water back in the tank. Does that make sense...The sump plumbing is not done yet. that will hopefully be tonight.

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Brandon,

I have a feeling that once you get this all setup your going to find that the Mag 9.5 just isn't going to be enough flow. For a setup like that (pipe size and height) you would be better off with a pressure rated pump. But its hard to say, I tried a Mag 9.5 for my closed loop and was very disappointed with the lack of flow, the external pump I have now is a lot better...

 

Rich

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Brandon, you need to got to Napa, they have it over there. I highly suggest you paint the back NOW, but make sure you cover everything else. I'd hate for you to regret something that you could have done to your well planned tank.

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Brandon,

I have a feeling that once you get this all setup your going to find that the Mag 9.5 just isn't going to be enough flow. For a setup like that (pipe size and height) you would be better off with a pressure rated pump. But its hard to say, I tried a Mag 9.5 for my closed loop and was very disappointed with the lack of flow, the external pump I have now is a lot better...

 

Rich

The calculator at reefcentral is claiming around 650gph. So we will see. if it does not work, then I will have to figure something else out, but for now I really do not have the funds to purchase anything new. I did take your advice and I picked up a bigger pump. I bought it used from Joel at Waves. I think the mag will be fine.

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Brandon' date=' you need to got to Napa, they have it over there. I highly suggest you paint the back NOW, but make sure you cover everything else. I'd hate for you to regret something that you could have done to your well planned tank.[/quote']

I do not have anywhere to spray paint the back of my tank. I live in an apartment and have no where to do something like that. I would like to but do not have the space to do that. Thank you though.

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No. That would not be a closed loop. A closed loop is when you pull water from the tank and just put it back in via an OM, SCWD.

 

my sump is purely for filtration and and not flow. So the far right union pulls water from the tank and goes to my mag, then from the outlet of the mag goes to the middle union which goes up to the OM and puts the water back in the tank. Does that make sense...The sump plumbing is not done yet. that will hopefully be tonight.

 

That's what I was trying to alleviate... there has been some confusion regarding this, and seeing the plumbing... well, I just didn't see it.

 

I also agree with Rich. Especially with the OM, you may want to get an external pump for this task. There will be a head pressure and this will be transferred to the pump, in the form of heat. Having it submerged may contribute to some problems down the road.

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That's what I was trying to alleviate... there has been some confusion regarding this, and seeing the plumbing... well, I just didn't see it.

 

I also agree with Rich. Especially with the OM, you may want to get an external pump for this task. There will be a head pressure and this will be transferred to the pump, in the form of heat. Having it submerged may contribute to some problems down the road.

Its not going to be submerged. its external. There are mixed reviews with this pump. There were also mixed reviews with me having SPS in my small tank with 30watts of light...and it is doing fine and is growing.

 

We will see how it goes. I understand that there will be head pressure, but like I said with the reef central calc. it is saying with all the 90's, vertical and horzintal feet, I will still have around 600gph. That is 12x over the volume of the tank and that should be plenty.

 

We will see what happens...

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I finished everything up last night, for the most part. I just need my box to cover the sump so I can mount my UV and then run that line and I will be able to fill it up with water and test if for leaks are some more pics of what I finished.

 

These are my extra two bulkheads that I had... There are already holes in the tank so I just attacthed them to the tank. Then one with the off with nipple, is for my vinyl UV line and the other comes from my pump in the sump. I am not sure what I want to use at the bottom of the bulk heads for those that have the water enter my tank but I will figure that out, when I go back to Lowes and home depot to take back stuff I did not use.

CIMG0567.jpg

 

Here is my pump, I got from Joel at Waves, and the plumbing to run to the "T" which goes to the UV, the ball valve will allow me to get the flow that I want for the UV.

CIMG0562.jpg

CIMG0561.jpg

 

here is that same thing excpet in the sump

CIMG0564.jpg

 

Same part but hooked up to the return pipe to the tank.

CIMG0566.jpg

 

here is the drain from the tank going into the section with the Protien Skimmer...

CIMG0565.jpg

 

Here is the waste that I ended up with. I was able to use alot of the pipe that was part of the waste and cut it and reuse it for smaller parts of the new pumbing set up.

 

CIMG0568.jpg

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Brandon,

The problem that you'll see with the Mag 9.5 on your closed loop is not the amount of flow it is with the pressure. The mag pumps have very little pressure and when you add the height of the plumbing, the 90's and other fittings and then the OM you will lose a lot of head pressure. Add this is all on a pump that had virtual no head pressure to start with. The only way that I could see to improve it would be to move the pump up to the top as much as possible, this would eliminate a lot of the pressure...

 

Rich

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Brandon,

The problem that you'll see with the Mag 9.5 on your closed loop is not the amount of flow it is with the pressure. The mag pumps have very little pressure and when you add the height of the plumbing, the 90's and other fittings and then the OM you will lose a lot of head pressure. Add this is all on a pump that had virtual no head pressure to start with. The only way that I could see to improve it would be to move the pump up to the top as much as possible, this would eliminate a lot of the pressure...

 

Rich

 

Well Mag claims that max head is 14ft and that at 4ft of head there is 800gph(I do not even have 6ft of total pipe on the return of the system). There is not even 2 feet of pipe to the OM from the pmup. On top of that, the reefcentral calculator claims I will have 609gph with everything that I have....But like I said I will see what happens...I do not have the funds to drop 150+ on a used pump, so I will just have to live with it, if it does not work out.

 

Thank you for your advice though.

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I understand completely, I was just telling you about what I've seen with those pumps. I think you'll be ok for a while anyway, but I think eventually you'll want more POWER...

 

Later!

 

Rich

Yeah, I see what you are saying.. I will probably upgrade in the future...Just like with my skimmer!!! that will for sure happen in the near future. I will be keeping my eyes open for a good deal on an external pump.

 

Like I said, I really do appercaite your input...I mean I upgraded my return pump, because you thought it would be best...so i do listen :D and take what you say to serious thought.

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OK, so I got everything hooked up last night...and Rich I see what you mean about pressure...so its a good thing that I made plans to buy a pump from Palani. Its a Gen-X/mak 4 external pump... He says its old but works, has some rust spots but is only 20 bucks. so hopefully that will do me much better.

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Brandon,

Thats awesome that you got everything hooked up and found a good external pump. I think it will work a lot better...

 

Get some more pics up.

 

I just got my new Tunze 9005 skimmer for me softy tank and I'm going to install it tonight. I'll take some pictures and post my mini review later...

 

Rich

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Brandon,

Thats awesome that you got everything hooked up and found a good external pump. I think it will work a lot better...

 

Get some more pics up.

 

I just got my new Tunze 9005 skimmer for me softy tank and I'm going to install it tonight. I'll take some pictures and post my mini review later...

 

Rich

I will have pics up tonight and a couple of vids between the 9.5 and the gen x/ mak 4 trhough the oceans motions and the box that is housing the sump and the tank with rock in it....

 

I have also decided that I am really going to try and build this tank up with 5 and 10 dollar frags of coral. I think it can be done and I want to show that once a tank is up, it is possible to do it on a budget. I am sure that there will be a couple of corals that I will need to buy that will be more then 10 bucks, but the majority will be cheaper frags.

 

So if all goes well I will have everything up and running tonight and going through its cycle. (fingers)

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