Woot! My sump has Arrived!

[Anonymous]

I am stoked!

I got this baby free from a lady that watched my kids during the afterschool program. She was getting rid of it because she has had algae problems with it for years and years and just decided to get out of fish keeping all together.

It was a freshwater tank, and she never dosed it with any kind of medicine.

SO, 1 - 45 gallon I think its a tall tank

maybe a couple powerheads in the box of stuff she gave me



Here is my plan...

This puppy will go in my basement so that I can take the 20 gallon tall out from under my stand. I have an Iwaki pump that I am currently using for a closed loop for the return pump. Oh boy, I better check the model and make sure it will pump that high, its about 10 feet straight up....

I am going to build a stand for it, I am unhappy with the current one, it looks way way too wobbly and flimsy for me.

I am also going to have a 20 gallon tank on top of this one, obviously on its own platform, and that one is going to have RO water pumped into it. Then when I want to do a water change All I have to do is fill that bad boy up with RO and add salt and heat and stir. Then I can suck a bunch of water out of my tank upstairs or out of the sump, and simply open a valve and let the water out of the RO water tank.


Anything I missed?

I will be so happy to get the skimmer and stuff out from under my stand, its so tight in there I rarely clean the skimmer....


Well, here is the pic, and I am just going to detail the entire project in this thread....

 

[Anonymous]

My pump is an Iwaki md30 rxlt. From a look at the head chart it looks like about 9 gallons per minute at 10 feet.

I am going for an almost straight run with that, although there are 2- 90 degree elbows at the top to get it over the top of the tank.

That gives me 540 gallons an hour through my 45 gallon sump and my 55 gallon main tank.


the only pumps I will have left to play with is a Mag 3

That is my current return pump, and I need to get that on a closed loop somehow.

I have heard they leak when you try to do a closed loop with them, is that true?

 

[Anonymous]

One last question....

How do you figure how much flow you can get through a pipe with only gravity draining it?

I have some calculation to do to see what size pipe I have to run to the basement.


Oh, and I think its time to rewire this mess don't you? Since I am at it....



Here is a pic of my current sump, I am going to have to cut that tank apart to get it out, its just about 1 inch too big diagonally to squeze out....

 

[Rob Top]

Instead of cutting out that sump why not use it as a second sump. You have the mag 3 you can use for it. Reverse light refuge or something. Something is better than boken pcs. Put the skimmer and stuff downstairs and just have a feed and return for the tank. Even if it isn't a refuge it adds a few more gallons to the system which isn't a bad thing at all.

 

[Anonymous]

I want to use the space to store all my fish junk in, plus I am tired of the noise....

Maybe I will use a window punch on it, just to see how it works.

I have two more 20's sitting in the basement if I decide I need more water anyway....

 

[Anonymous]

I am building the stand right now, pictures maybe tonight....

 

[Anonymous]

Well, I had to go to my shop and get a couple pieces of plywood. The long piece is some nice marine stuff. It was the only scrap I could find. I hate cutting full sheets for stuff like this. The other piece my grandfather used to build a rolling cabinet about 40 years ago. Its 5/8" Plywood. I just took the cabinet apart a couple weeks ago and figured I would reuse it.

There are three scraps of paper there on the table next to the box of screws. That's the master plan hehe

I will probably end up remaking some of this due to poor planning.

 

[Anonymous]

Had to run and stir the red bean stew that was cooking all night....

Good time for a break

 

[Anonymous]

I had to quit for tonight

All that is left to do on the stand is to add a piece of plywood across the bottom back and across the tall end. Those will stiffen it up real nice so there is no chance of it collapsing.

Then I need to scribe it to the floor, the floor in my basement goes all over the place. I will probably have to cut all six legs, and it looks like its over an inch and a half out of level.

Then there will be one post going all the way to the ceiling to keep it from rocking.

 

[Anonymous]

really, the next step is to decide how to set everything up in the 45 gallon sump.


Oh, and figure out what fittings I need to buy, I know I need a float valve to top off the tank with....

 

[Anonymous]

Well,

Tonight I finished the stand and got both tanks sitting on it.

The first thing you need is a pair of scribers. These are antiques and are extremely hard to find exactly like this.

My floor was about 1.25 inches out of level across 16 inches 8O

 

[Anonymous]

Then, as my Pop Pop always said (god rest his soul)...


"Mark it careful and hew to the line...."





Btw that is an Atkins hand saw there, try to buy one of those puppies at Home depot...

That one was my Great Uncles.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, now I really am stuck, I have to get something to cut the bulkhead holes in these tanks before I do anything else.


Oh, I guess I could start planning out where I want dividers in the sump....

 

[Anonymous]

Today I got the bulkhead fittings, tomorrow I am going to start drilling tanks.

Woot!

 

[trido]

nice...
I like the train to

 

[FragMaster]

Dont forget about the Hot Wheels track. LOL!

 

[Anonymous]

Bryan wrote:

tomorrow I am going to start drilling tanks

So, how'd the drilling go?

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Holes are finished.


I cut two of them, one in a 45 tall and the other in a 20 tall.

It took about 10 minutes a hole.

Not bad.


I did the same thing that Tungee over on RC did when he cut slots in his glass tank for an external overflow.

Way way easier and less stressful than watching somebody manhandle my tank and drill it with a hole saw.

Would I do it again you ask?

In a minute...

My wife could handle cutting a hole like that and she is not mechanically inclined at all.



Pics are here....

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.p ... c&start=20

 

[trido]

Ok. so now about selling me the hole cutter for my refugium.....
Or maybe the place you got yours? :lol:

 

[Anonymous]

It was a dremel bit

I spent 30 on dremel bits.