hello everyone, wanted to share my future system. taking forever with this build, but i want to change alot of things i didnt do before, for efficiency, and try some new things. i currently have a standard 55 and a 20 tall plumbed to a 10g sump. this systems contents for the most part will eventually be moved over to the new build and turned fowler, with the possibility of linking te 2 systems together in the future, but just a small amount of water exchange. still in the air on that though. the new system will be a 6" 125 g tank on an 8' 4" ft by 30" deep by 41" high stand, with quite a few modifications. on top of the stand the main display will sit to the left, 1" back and off of the edge of the stand. i installed a 24" long, 5" deep and 5" high overflow boxtowards the left side of the tank, drilled for 3 1" bulkheads to incorporate a beananimal design system, wich will pass through the plywood top of the stand and all drain to the skimmer section of the sump. about 6 inches up in the middle of the back glass is another 1" whole with a strainer that will serve as a drain to an external closed loop pump, wich will feed a hopefully 1" SCWD sent to holes 18" in from each side and centered from top to bottom. inside the tank these returns are a t fitting with 45 degree street elbows on each side, unglued, allowing me to aim them up and down to my liking. i will be attempting crude drawings on paint and by hand to help visualize everything untill theres actual pictures. also on the right of the tank on the back, i will be hanging an aquaclear 500 i will be modding into a refugium that will run off of the main displays lightingand serve more as a pod factory to randomly send live food that would normallly be hidden better into the water column, but will contain chaeto. now for the mad scientist part. i like to think of things and try to build them. on the right side of the tank i will be hanging an additional aquaclear 500, that will be modded to feed a 5g tank turned algae scrubber below it on top of the stand. the bottom of the ac500 will be drilled for 2 1/2" bulkheads with the pipes coming up about 2" above the level of the impeller. these will conect into a u shape and the bottom will be drilled as a spraybar. inside the 5g, a pvc stand will be made to hold a sort of water wheel, similar to the design of a biowheel, but will be small eggcrate material. the spraybar will be off centered and dump onto this and turning it in theory, and will be lit for now by a clamp lamp and cfl bulb. once the bugs are wiorked out i will most likely switch to a more visually appealing light fixture. the 5g will be drilled and a drain will be installed very low, so as the water level will only be about 3 or 4" operationally, and a second drain will be added up higher as a sort of emergency should 1st drain somehow plug. this will most likely drain into the refugium under the tank, or possibly the return section of the sump. then next to that on the stand will be a custom 20g shallow tank. i will be removing the trim from a 20g tall, and the front panel. the front panel will then be cut to close in the top, essentially taking a 24" l x 17"t x 12" d tank and transforming it into a 17" l x 12" t x 24" d. the remaining glass will be used as an overflow wier also and the tank will be plumbed similar to the displays overflow, but on a smaller scale most likely, and drain into the refugium also. i am unsure if i want to make this a frag tank or a sort of watervolcano setup, with a mountain in the middle and the return coming out of its top and running down its sides. could be a really cool crab /tidal type of setup. thats it for the top level of the system. below, will be just as complicated. all the wiring and plumbing is gonna be a project in its own right. beginning on the left will be a 30g long sump consisting of 2 chambers. first will be the drain and skimmer section, wich i am considering having 2 skimmers in, to be cleaned on opposite schedules(2 weeks apart, so that while one is resliming and/ out for cleaning, the other is still skimming) then a 3 panel bubble trap, and the return section, which will also house my heaters, and any other feed pumps should i choose to incorporate reactors wich there will be plenty of room for behind the sump with such a deep stand. a simple flourescent fixture will be installed above this to allow me to light the stand for service and inspection.next to the sump will be the external pump for the closed loop. this base section will be aproximately 2" above the ground and 4ft long. the other half of the stand will then be raised up and sit about 7" above the first section. immediately following the cl pump up on the riser will be a 30g tall refugium, drilled near the top to gravity feed into the return section of the sump. this will be fed by a t and valve from the return line, as well as most likely the algae scrubber and shallow tank above. it will have a relatively low flow rate of tank water entering and exiting it, but will have a smaller hob filter on the back filled with liverock rubble to provide an ample current inside the refugium. and following that will be my ato resovoir, wich i havent decided on using the 7g container i have now, or another20 or 30g tall aquarium. the lighting above the refugium will run reverse cycle of the tank lighting, with a slight overlap of approximately one hour and will consist of a combination of t5 and regular flourescent fixtures i currently run. i will most likely instal a second simple flourescent fixture above this for stand lighting when i need it. and i also plan on including exhaust fans into the stand, but havent worked that out yet.the return to the main display, after the t to feed the refugium will have a few more t's with screw in caps to allow for additions and changes down the road, and then will come up the back in the center and split across the whole back of the tank, with 1 return in each corner and one in the middle, and will also most like ly be used to feed the shallow tank, but fear of siphoning in power outages in each design so far may just end up with the shallow tank being fed by its own pump out of the refugium. the canopy i am planning will be the whole length of the stand and be quite complicated, so i wont even get into that yet, plus im still fiddling with designs. i do plan on mostly t5 and some accent led strips, but thats all still in the air. thanks for looking, and any imput/criticism is welcomed. it may seem like alot and complicated, but thats what i ultimately want.
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my 125 massive upgrade(taking forever)
- Thread starter cheezischrist
- Start date
will have pics eventually, just having a hard time with em. heres the link to the pobucket albulm though, with my original setup, a 30l, the current multi tank system, and the beginning of the big boy.
http://s1243.beta.photobucket.com/user/cheezischrist1134/media/111312190247.jpg.html
http://s1243.beta.photobucket.com/user/cheezischrist1134/media/111312190247.jpg.html
I'm not sure if this is the beginning of the stand, but if it is, there is an issue with the construction.
The issue is that the screws are supporting the weight of the tank....and you don't want to do that.
It is easily fixed by adding weight bearing portions to the frame as seen in this diagram (the purple studs):
The issue is that the screws are supporting the weight of the tank....and you don't want to do that.
It is easily fixed by adding weight bearing portions to the frame as seen in this diagram (the purple studs):
ha no, that was the stand the guy i got the tank from built. he was gonna keep his bearded dragons in it, but it wouldnt fit in his room so he traded me for a 75 and stand i was innitially going to setup. basically that stand i will be scavanging lumber from for the stand i will be building. i'm a carpenter by trade, and when i looked at that stand when i picked the tank up i almost pee'd. it does serve as a good workbench for now though lol
ha i just caught that lol, its my brothers fat slob of a puggle's reflection.
kevin
NJRC Member
I believe it's a ghost pug
water tested the overflow box last night. good news is the box is sealed water tight. bad news is the diy pvc bulkhead ide i had dreamt up and thought would work after seeing fittings in lowes i thought would work was a fail. update from ups as well, the 3 4 bulb 36" fixtures i bought used for 25 bucks each should be arriving tomorrow. actually have a forth of the same one from my original 30l setup. as of now i believe i will be disassembling all four fixtures along with 2 2bulb 4ft fixtures and retrofitting all the bulbs into one canopy. or just mounting all 4 fixtures above the tank. i kinda ave this crazy idea of a t5 and moonlight sunset/sunrise cycle, allowing 2 hours of total dark, 1 hour of some moonlights, 1 hour of all moonligts, then bulbs coming on every hour over the next 7 then 2 hours of everything on and ramp back down to darkness in the same reverse order. probably will end up not figuring that out and doing something more normal tough lol
thats A LOT of bulb time... I don't know lighting schedules as well as some, but that sounds like a VERY long time to have lights on. your one bulb(first activated & last to shut down) will be on for 20 hours straight. you're going to be replacing these things like crazy... not to mention your electric bill haha
yeah looking at it on paper, it definately needs some revisions lol. gonna rethink this on paper and change the schedule accordingly. luckily i dont even have the canopy built yet lol
not alot of changes as of now. slowly collecting equipment basically. and im itchin for some new frags lol. so where i stand now is a shopping list sitting behind a christmas list lol. ive gotten about half the lumber for the new stand so far.nothing for the canopy yet. and most if not all of the plumbing. i should be recieving my scwd for the closed loopand the natural wave powerstrip. now im down to basically this list.
1. external return pump for closed loop. looking for about 1100 gph pump
2. internal pump for return. looking for 1200 to 1400 gph, but i am considering possibly going external with this as well, and im sure i can get another couple holes out of my hole saw, especially in thinner glass.
3. 3 powerheads for the wavemaker. i have a noname 1350gph one i dont trust in lasting but could get me past initial setup, and 2 750gp ones that the mounts are broken off of.
4. skimmer for 200+ gallons. this is important because its interfering with my sump build.but sadly it will probably be the last purchase. hopefully i find a used one for a killer price sooner than later lol
5. 6 more 1.5" bulkheads.
6. 8 more higher end 36" t5 bulbs. unless i get lucky and stumble across enough money to get 3 led fixtures. 6 ft tank with 2 braces is killing me, when i traded the 75 for this tank i didnt even consider all the equipment i had for the 75 already and what was running on my current system now would not work.
1. external return pump for closed loop. looking for about 1100 gph pump
2. internal pump for return. looking for 1200 to 1400 gph, but i am considering possibly going external with this as well, and im sure i can get another couple holes out of my hole saw, especially in thinner glass.
3. 3 powerheads for the wavemaker. i have a noname 1350gph one i dont trust in lasting but could get me past initial setup, and 2 750gp ones that the mounts are broken off of.
4. skimmer for 200+ gallons. this is important because its interfering with my sump build.but sadly it will probably be the last purchase. hopefully i find a used one for a killer price sooner than later lol
5. 6 more 1.5" bulkheads.
6. 8 more higher end 36" t5 bulbs. unless i get lucky and stumble across enough money to get 3 led fixtures. 6 ft tank with 2 braces is killing me, when i traded the 75 for this tank i didnt even consider all the equipment i had for the 75 already and what was running on my current system now would not work.