reefgeek84

Well I found out that Lowes has plastic and will cut it for free if you buy the sheets..So on my lucnh I went over there and got it cut...I still need to go to Tap plastics and get the epoxy for it, but this should be very interesting..and expensive project if I screw up (fingers) ...but If it works it will be only 60 bucks for a 20 gallon sump with 3 chambers. (fingers)

this might help you...

http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2006-05/gh/index.php

I've wanted to build a sump or tank out of acrylic for sometime as well. Would be a fun project' date=' too bad we are 2 hours away.[/quote']

Yeah that does suck...

I really want to build a custom sump for my tank, however i live in an apartment and lack the tools to cut the plastic and anything else that is required. I was curious if anyone would lend a helping hand...Ill buy you some beer and food and if need be pay you for your time, and of course pay for all materials...I am trying to do this a cheap as possible, so anyone that might be interested in helping me please let me know.

Thank you,

Brandon

24" is plenty tall my tank I am getting ready to set up is 24" and I would not want it anytaller...My stand is 36" so it sits at a very good hieght to view the tank.

I wanted to take a look at your tank pictures, but all I get is:

"Oops! My image for this link is no longer here."

 

Is it just me and my computer settings?

 

-Susanne

yeah my bad... i had to dump the pics to make space... I will take some more pics tonight...and post them first thing tomorrow morning.

Welcome to owning blue tangs...they seem to be very easy suceptiable to ich....

I have had maricin work for me on ich...It has not been proven, but it has for me...and if you add a little to the tank daily, it should not harm anything. If you have tangs, I recommend a UV as well on the tank.

I wish I had my big tank up, cause I would be the first in line for this...Only if it was 3 months from now...oh well maybe I can get on it next time.

Some other ideas open brain, some favia, galaxea, torch/hammer.

to give you an idea I have a 12 gallon nano with 30watts of light and i have an open brain, another brain of sorts, galaxea, candy cane, hammer, two different kinds of monti, and another SPS unsure of the type. I can tell you that everything is doing very well and is slowly growing. It can be done, I am proof. here is my tank http://www.pnwmas.org/forums/showthread.php?t=90

I have monti under 30w of light, they about 1" from the light so with that many watts as longs they were about 4-6" from the light I am sure they would do fine, they will not grow fast, but mine are slowly growing.

Please delete.

Just a note of caution on your skimmer

If you feed the skimer from the overflow, your skimmer water will rise and fall constantly. i thought about doing this when i designed my system. It needs constant pressure and flow to be efficient.

Also depending on how your skimmer is designed, skimming before a filter sock will send all the large particles to the bottom of the skimmer and wouldn't be extracted (large particles will not skim)

OK, well it looks like I am going to have to just run the skimmer via hanging it on the side of the sump.

Does any one if gravity feed alone with be enough for the UV and the sump? if so what way would I judge the the flow through the UV, so I know that I am getting 100-200 gph per hour? Would I hook up a power head put it in the water and let the water that passes through the UV flow into a bucket and after 10 mins measure the water that is in the bucket, and then hook the UV up to the T fitting from the bulk and adjust the ball valve until in a 10 min period I get the same amount of water out of the UV?

You should reconsider the mag9.5 I've run that pump with a 10gal sump on my 29gal display and its too much flow thru the sump. You get lots of microbubbles, and you also have to fill the tank with more water than the sump can handle should the power go out.

 

Why don't you want to skim the sump water? Its the same water as the display.

I am going to run the mag closed loop I think now so it should not bother the sump at all.

As for the skimmer it just seems so ineffiecent, as opposed to running all the water through the skimmer then into the sump. I do not know...I just want this to be efficent and with nothing in my tank....How can I do this?

I think that most UV units would need to have a very low flow rate through the unit. That said you may have more flow through the sump if you are using a mag pump. So I guess I would suggest splitting the flow through the bulkhead sump line to the UV and the sump, and use a ball valve or other restrictor to get the correct flow. I think most people would dedicate a line from the sump to the tank and have a separate feed pump for this task. This is how I run a chiller and a phos/carbon reactor in my tank. The return line from the sump to the tank has a "T" on it and this feeds the two units. You want the UV to flow back into the tank, so that you can get "dirtier" water cleaned, and not send sterilized water into recirculation in the UV? Does this make sense?

 

 

Routing the skimmer inline would have a similar flow issue.

 

As far as the closed loop is concerned, this needs to be closed, and not have any thing else plumbed in it. If you just use this as the sumps return, it's not much of a closed loop.

 

Hope I helped. If at all.

that is the problem, I do not know how I will figure flow out for the UV and the skimmer?

How about some other suggestions...it just seems inefficent to just have the skimmer skim the sump water? I am trying to make this all efficent as possible, with out having anything in the tank.

I am not sure what kind of info you are looking for or what age your students are but www.liveaquaria.com has some good info on what kind of care some inverts need.

OK...So here is the what I want to do, I do not know even know if it is possible....

I do not want anything in my tank, with the exception of some bulk head fittings w/ strainers in the back of the tank.

I have a 54 gallon corner pentagon tank... that will have about a 8 gallon sump.

So....Ideally I would like to be able to have bulk head that drains the water into the sump (so I do not have to have an overflow box), but in line with this I would like to have my UV and my protien skimmer hooked up and have the water pass through both of these before the water goes to the sump. Once the the water passes through both of these and into the sump I would then like to have a Mag9.5 pull the water from the sump and return it to the tank via the OM 4-way-nano. (heaters will also be in the sump).

Is this possible or not? Would I just need to run the mag and the OM closed loop?

Please help me.

Well i hope some good things come out of it. I hope it opens ppls eyes to see how much these companies are making' date=' and also how much our gov is making too. I hope it speeds up the demand for hybrid and hydrogen power cars as well.[/quote']

Ford is still claiming they will have a couple production hydrogen cars on the market by 2010. This means that we will be able to buy them and stop at a local hydrogen station and fill up...Here's the catch...Hydrogen right now is expensive, up to $20 a kilo depending where you get it from...A gallon of gasoline has the same energy content as a kilo of hydrogen, but vehicles using the latter get two to three times higher mileage. So I guess we will see if the hydrogen craze is really what it is cracked up to be. I think we need to focus on solor energy and how to store it and then use it at a later time.

Congrats!!!!!! So we all get to come crash, I mean be a witness the wedding right? LOL.

And details how did you ask her, where at etc?

Thanks for the really nice responses... I appreciate it

 

 

 

I'm 6'5" and the tank is only 20" so I'll be fine I much prefer the higher stands for viewing than more standard heights. I debated going to 40" but didn't like the visual imbalance it created with the other dims.

 

 

 

yes and if I didn't love doing it I would have set it on fire several times throughout the many design changes. Overall I prefer the clean modern lines and I'm glad I stopped where I did. There is always the next stand to try new things on...

 

 

Just out of curiosity what kind of dollar figure would the average reefer place on a custom furniture grade cabinet? I know upscales regularly has cabinets in the $600 and up category...if I were to place a value on this based on material and labor it would probably be around $700-800. If I had the time I would love to build furniture on the side...

 

Thanks for your thoughts,

Ben

You could get that with alot people...I wish I could afford it. I would build one myself, but I live in an apartment and have no tools, plus no where to work on one...That is what I was going up to my dad's for, but he is really busy now, so I have uncomplete stand, but have everything to get it up and going just need to finish it DOH!

But that stand is absolutely amazing...If you ever get bored and want to build another for fun, Ill pay for materials and provide all the beer (afterwards) and pizza you can eat.

Looks like the price of these corals will go up for aquacultured ones. They will probably turn into LE's and we will have to sell a kidney to get a frag DOH! Oh well I am glad they are doing something about it. i wish the government would get more involved on some other aspects of this trade.

I have a stand that my father and I were going to completey finish for my corner tank. However he lives about 2 hours away and is very, very busy so I think it might be easier to just try and finish it myself down here. I am just going to buy a generic door from home depot for it and drill some holes on the side of it for plumbing, cords, hoses, etc. All that needs to be done really is have it painted black. Does anyone know anyone that will squirt this for me? let me know, I would really like to get my tank up.

Thank you,

Brandon

(football) torch (gavel) threaten

 

LOL Well i'm not one to flame for your opinion, although i do feel we are contributing to global warming. I am fully on board with you that humans are destroying habitat for us to live. But who knows, as technology advances maybe things will turn around.

I just find it hard to believe that the coral reefs (or earth for that matter) have not gone through this in the hundreds of years that they have been around.

there was as huge thread on reefcentral on this... I do not think it is our fault at all... The corals have survived more then this in the hundreds of years they have been in the ocean. Also, global warming is not something that us as humans are doing to the earth, its more about the earth's cycle and the trend it is on right now... We are actually heading into an ice age. I think we should be more concerned about humans destroying habitat for us to live.... That is just my 2 cents though. I have a feeling I will get some flame on this one

I put my cats in front of the tank and they do not even look twice at them, they could care less, guess I am lucky!