my sump... NOW NEW AND IMPROVED !!! or GlassCages part Deux

[Dewman]

Well,
For all of you who had read my last thread on the GlassCages.Com experience, I won't go into detail.
For the rest of you, I will refer you to my previous thread

http://www.reefs.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=90756

Anyway, I made due, out of necessity.
Here is how the sump came out after about $60 in materials and about 4 hours of work (minus curing).
It works nicely.
I how have my under-powered QuietOne 3000 in the pump side. I have not retrofit my skimmer for it yet, but will do that as soon as I start cycling the tank.
I have to get some liverock and sand before I leave on my trip. That way I can just do the Xfer when I get back.

Here are a couple of pics of the sump and plumbing...

 

[WRASSER]

Nice job Dewman,
You clean up well, more pics when up n running :wink:

 

[Anonymous]

8)

 

[Anonymous]

Nice job!

You should send GC the bill...

 

[Dewman]

Wouldn't that be funny.

I'm over it now. I'm just ready to get this thing done.

I am having some problems getting the media/filter area worked out.

Can anyone give me some ideas as to how I can get the water to fall into the sump evenly and quietly?
I may post this in a seperate thread so I get more responses.

Currently, the water is coming through the rear of the sump and dropping onto a piece of light diffuser that will hold filter media when I need it.
But the water doesn't come out of the hose evenly.
How are other folks doing it?

 

[Dewman]

Does anyone have any ideas?
I have placed the light diffuser into the media basket, but the water level will be slightly below the bottom of the cage.
Can anyone give me some ideas?

 

[cjsrch]

i would find a way to get that 60 bucks back. you got somthing that you had to fix.

anyways it dosnt look that bad from a distance


put stuff in bags and let the water flow over it.. it dosnt need to be actualy submerged

 

[Dewman]

No, I don't think you understand.
It is noisey when the water falls through the 3 inch gap into the main sump water.
I need a way to keep it from splashing into the sump.

Maybe I'll just raise the level of water in the sump to meet the bottom of the media basket.

Oh well... Thanks

 

[Anonymous]

But the water doesn't come out of the hose evenly.

Are you using a Durso from the overflow down into the sump? If not, you should, as with one you can get a steady flow into the sump.

Otherwise, can you lengthen the hose that enters the sump, so that it's below sump waterline?

 

[Anonymous]

Aha!

Just looked at pics again and saw you don't have a durso/standpipe in the overflow.

 

[Anonymous]

Soooo...having lookd again, I think your uneven-flow-to-sump problem could be caused by the lack of a standpipe inside your overflow. (By adjusting its air valve, a standpipe gives control over flow.)

But your overflow area looks too small to squeeze in a Durso.
What are the dimensions of your overflow box?

 

[Dewman]

I don't know what a durso does in the overflow, but behind the tank, I do have a piece of 1/4" rigid plastic pipe inserted into the elbow exiting the ovberflow box.
This allows water to flow freely down the hose into the sump.

JohnHenry,
Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

What I really meant was that the flow from the back of the tank is great. I am at maximum flow from the bulkhead on the back of the overflow.

Where the noise comes in, is the splashing of the water falling through the media basket and into the main body of water in the sump.

I think I am going to try just raising the level of the water in the sump so that it doesn't have that far to fall from the basket bottom to the surface of the sump water. I was hoping someone would have a solution for making the transition from the basket to the sump water level without splashing. By raising my water level, I am decreasing the amount of leeway I have when my tank drains into the sump when the power is off. (until the siphon breaks appear above the water line).

 

[trido]

You could put a pipe with a "T" into the bulkhead of the sump, get a spread of about four inches or so, then add two 90s. Then use more pipe with holes in the bottom drilled larger as you get to the end caps to create low pressure spray bars to pour the water over your media filter.You will l likely have to experiment with the sizes of the holes to get an even flow across the area. The only problem I can see with this is potential for clogging. If you have a cover in the tank to protect the overflow from critters you should be O.K. It seems with the way you set up the sump up with this you may always have a waterfall effect from the filter unless you do raise the water level up high enough to get rid of the noise. Good luck.

A durso in the overflow stops the waterfall noises( in the overflow) as it raises the water level near the top of the box. you have a short one so you may be spared this problem. It sound like this is the case. You should cover it as a preventive measure to keep snails and fish out. I've had it happen. My durso kept the animals from clogging the pipe and potentialy dieing.

 

[Dewman]

Oh! Got ya.

Yeah, no noise from the overflow. You are correct, just too small. I may get a little, but i am going to add some prefilter material to the box, that should stop any noise.

I will just try to raise the water level.
I guess better luck next time designing the media box. I should have done more research before I just started cementing.

Oh well, live and learn.

 

[bleedingthought]

Dewman, any updates on your build?

 

[Dewman]

Yes... As a matter of fact, I was just about to do one.. and then I realized that I didn't really have much more progress to give.
Unfortunately, everything is still in about the same stages I left it when last I posted.
I work in the Transportation Logistics field, and as you all may know, from about September to the end of November is about the busiest time of the year. Black Friday is almost upon us, and alas, the shipments have started to slow.
If it didn't ship by Wednesday of last week, chances are, it will not be on the shelf by this Friday.

As my season winds down and life returns to normal, I will now have more time to work on finishing my tank.

As for actual work on the tank it's self, I installed a right angle return inside my overflow box. This required rebuilding my acrylic internal overflow to accomodate the fitting. I will need to drill an air tube hole in the back of the return line to complete my Durso-esque return set up.

I ordered a new skimmer today after measuring and working with my old one, I realized that it would not fit in the space I had allotted for it. I also bought 30 lbs of mixed oolitic aragonite and crushed coral.

I began to prep my existing tank for the move. I had purchased a Ranco dual stage temp controller which is attached to 2 30watt heaters and one small (6") powerful fan pointed at the surface of my 10gallon. It has been keeping the tank at between 78.5 and 80.
In the words of Borat, "it's very Naaaice".
I have never had to not worry about the temp of the tiny tank.
Also, since my new tank is deeper than the old one, I have raised the MH up a little higher so that it wouldn't be such a stress when everything was moved into the lower light situation.

I gave up on trying to use my return pump for flow...
I Found a Tunze Turbelle Nanostream(sp?) which is a really fantastic little water mover. I have 2 of these on order now. I am pretty excited about these. They come with a magnetic base which allows you to reposition the pump without hands in the tank.

Other than that.. I am just biding my time until I can get someone to make me a canopy.

 

[Dewman]

HOLY COW!!!
I just got the Tunze Nano's today and they are HUGE! I thought they were going to be smaller. I think I am going to return one of them.
It said 70mm in the description.. I should have read.

Well, I have the whole thing up and running. The only thing I need to do is replace the Downtube I am using for a return hose. I am currently using ribbed sump pump luine and it is noisey. I am going to switch to plain clear tubing. I also have to figure out the size of the hole in the top of my Durso and insert a piece of rigid tubing.

I have the return pump and skimmer running on the tank right now with no lights or heater to see how much heat they impart to the system. This way I will know these things ahead of time.
I measured the pumping power of the Quier One 5000 in my setup. I filled the sump up to the intake of the return pump and then dumped in 10 more gallons. Then turned on the pump to see how long it would take to empty it. It drained it in 26 seconds.
That equates roughly to turnover 25 X per hour.

That's about it for now.
After fixing the few little things I have to do to it. It will be time to add the sand gravel and rock !!!! Wooo Hooo finally!!!

 

[Dewman]

Here is proof.
I have scooted the old tank and stand out of the way and moved the new one in place and filled it to test for leaks and get my flow readings.

Not long now...

 

[bleedingthought]

Nice!

 

[IceMan0124]

looking good!, could post pics/overall thoughts on the nano stream?, I'm debating between getting one of those, or just modify a MJ