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Look what I built in my garage!!!
- Thread starter PMolan
- Start date
PMolan said:
I don't think you ever recover from group buys. There's always another one behind it and one behind that and one behind that and one behi . . . .
Looks, great though. I actually thought it was going to be a closed loop with the pvc resting on top of the tank. That's a really cool idea. Are you going to do anything else to support the pump or does it feel pretty stable like that?
Which Mag pump is that you have hooked up to that monster?
Man, I don't want to burst your bubble or be a project killer because that sure looks like a nice piece of work you did, but if are planning on adding a lot of live rock to the sump to help reduce nitrates you might find out it doesn't work as well as you planned on it working. Nitrate reduction with live rock in a sump is usually marginal because the water is highly saturated with O2. If you then mix it even more like it appears is going to happen the rock itself won't have a lot of anaerobic areas. Normally to get the most "bang for the pound" you want the rock in much less turbid and less then O2 saturated areas like the display or refugium (if you're trying to get good anaerobic areas).
I'm not suggesting not to do it by any means but the rock won't "work" as well as it would in the display or fuge areas. Roughly speaking it takes about 3 times more rock in a high flow sump then a fuge or display to get the same amount of nitrate reduction.
Carlo
PS I sat on this for a while before I posted it because I didn't want it to come off being negative. I hope you don't take it that way. Some creative uses of bubble traps and whatnot where the water enters the sump can alleviate a lot of the problem and make the rock work better for you. What you built looks really cool and would be awesome for curing rock. I'm going to build something very similar, so thank you very much for the great idea!
PPS If you weren't adding the rock with the main purpose of reducing nitrates then totally ignore my whole post except for the thanks for the idea part.
Man, I don't want to burst your bubble or be a project killer because that sure looks like a nice piece of work you did, but if are planning on adding a lot of live rock to the sump to help reduce nitrates you might find out it doesn't work as well as you planned on it working. Nitrate reduction with live rock in a sump is usually marginal because the water is highly saturated with O2. If you then mix it even more like it appears is going to happen the rock itself won't have a lot of anaerobic areas. Normally to get the most "bang for the pound" you want the rock in much less turbid and less then O2 saturated areas like the display or refugium (if you're trying to get good anaerobic areas).
I'm not suggesting not to do it by any means but the rock won't "work" as well as it would in the display or fuge areas. Roughly speaking it takes about 3 times more rock in a high flow sump then a fuge or display to get the same amount of nitrate reduction.
Carlo
PS I sat on this for a while before I posted it because I didn't want it to come off being negative. I hope you don't take it that way. Some creative uses of bubble traps and whatnot where the water enters the sump can alleviate a lot of the problem and make the rock work better for you. What you built looks really cool and would be awesome for curing rock. I'm going to build something very similar, so thank you very much for the great idea!
PPS If you weren't adding the rock with the main purpose of reducing nitrates then totally ignore my whole post except for the thanks for the idea part.
Its a mag 12 on top. I dont know exactly where I'm going with this project.. If nitrate reduction is a side effect then great. I was going to start to load this with live rock and see what happens. One section of it was going to be a frag area at least. As far as nitrate reduction I put this together.
I get bored sometimes and just make things just for the sake of making them. I appreciate the input.
I get bored sometimes and just make things just for the sake of making them. I appreciate the input.
Well the plumbing under the tank in not much more than what is in the tank pic. My idea was to have 30%-50% of the tank overflow to flow into that fuge, mainly for using up unused food in the tank to feed pods, frags, or whatever, then overflow to the pump directly back to the tank. The remaining 50%-70% of the flow gets dumped into a lower sump. Skimmer, UV, Calc reactor etc cleans and processes the water.
I have a bi-level house. This is the area underneath my stairs.
I have a bi-level house. This is the area underneath my stairs.
Hey Carlo.. Instead of keeping my pvc creation on all of the time, would you think it would be better for it to turn on once an hour for 5 minutes just to prevent the water from becoming stagnant at the bottom? I am buying an aquacontroller in the group buy and would be possible to cycle it on/off. What do you think would be a good compramise between "on all of the time" and "not at all"
I'm sure that would work. I'd bet you could turn it on a couple of times a day like that to clean off the rocks and not really cause any problems with nitrate reduction.
Once you get everything in the sump and running watch closely for bubbles. It's the bubbles that are the killers for the liverock denitrification process. If you can eliminate the bubbles somehow/someway you really wouldn't have a problem running it 100% of the time.
Maybe if you could barricade the overflow water with a couple pieces of rock and/or socks to stop the air bubbles from getting into the main part of the sump then it won't be an issue at all. What you really don't want to do is blow/force the bubbles into the rock. If the pump happens to also suck in bubbles then it's only worse. Some strategic placement of rocks could solve a lot of this problem and you'd have a real sweet sump setup where you could run it 100% of the time or as much as required to keep everything clean with no issues/problems.
Carlo
PS I'm playing around trying to figure out how to kill off the bubbles in my sump also. For me it's not because of liverock but because the bubbles get stuck in some of the probes and throw off my reading. If I find something that works well I'll let you know.
Once you get everything in the sump and running watch closely for bubbles. It's the bubbles that are the killers for the liverock denitrification process. If you can eliminate the bubbles somehow/someway you really wouldn't have a problem running it 100% of the time.
Maybe if you could barricade the overflow water with a couple pieces of rock and/or socks to stop the air bubbles from getting into the main part of the sump then it won't be an issue at all. What you really don't want to do is blow/force the bubbles into the rock. If the pump happens to also suck in bubbles then it's only worse. Some strategic placement of rocks could solve a lot of this problem and you'd have a real sweet sump setup where you could run it 100% of the time or as much as required to keep everything clean with no issues/problems.
Carlo
PS I'm playing around trying to figure out how to kill off the bubbles in my sump also. For me it's not because of liverock but because the bubbles get stuck in some of the probes and throw off my reading.
If I find something that works well I'll let you know.
Nope, photo chopping won't help in the sump.
Yep, I think you're on to something there. I wouldn't bother to build it until you get a feel for where the bubbles are in the sump. Then do what you indicated in that pic to get as much bubble-free water in the pump and you're in business.
With your design you'll be able to swing the pump around, extend the pipe out and decide how deep to go. You got it all covered and should be able to find a sweet-spot in the sump to pull the water from.
Good idea,
Carlo
Yep, I think you're on to something there. I wouldn't bother to build it until you get a feel for where the bubbles are in the sump. Then do what you indicated in that pic to get as much bubble-free water in the pump and you're in business.
With your design you'll be able to swing the pump around, extend the pipe out and decide how deep to go. You got it all covered and should be able to find a sweet-spot in the sump to pull the water from.
Good idea,
Carlo