• Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.

What do you guys think?

Hey guys,

My 55g stand has a brace right in the middle of the tank like 23" on each side of the brace. The biggest sump i can stick in there is a 10g i think... What should i do? would something 22" be big enough sump for a 55g? Also though about doing a sump/skimmer on one side and a refuge/frag tank on the other side. but i wanna ask what you guys think I should do...

Thank you,


Nick
 

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
We have a 10g under our 65. You might be able to get away with a 15 tall? We had a fuge in there for a while, but took it out in favor of more water changes. We keep the 10g tank and a salt bucket under the tank. The salt bucket holds about 5g of topoff water. Those two items fill the space nearly wall to wall so there's no room for anything extra in there anyway.

You have a couple of other options:
1) Cut a hole in the side of the cabinet that you can use to push the sump through, replacing the piece of wood by making a door/access panel out of it.

2) A 2 piece sump connected by uniseals at the bottom.
 

MadReefer

Vice President
Staff member
NJRC Member
Moderator
Is it possible to tap out the brace on top with a rubber mallet? Then once the sump is in you can use flat head screws to put back on. I tapped the back vertical brace out from my 75 and screwed it back in with no problems.

Mark
 
I'm sorry i mean the brace doesn't run across the back it runs front to back... The top of the stand that the tank sits on is two pieces and the brace connects them pretty much. I'll find or take a picture of it. I thought the Sump/skimmer with a 1" PVC at the top of the tank and connect it to the middle of another 10g Fuge/frag/return was kinda cool i guess I've still got some time before the tank is filled up.
 
Typical commercial stands are made for the cheapest amount they can be made for but engineered to handle the weight with as few boards and supports as needed. I'd be very leary of removing that type of brace if it's a common type stand ($100-$200 range).

I wouldn't do it if it was mine.

Carlo
 
As long as you can solidly replace the brace, removing it temporarily shouldn't be an issue unless the structural integrity of the stand is already compromised.
 
My bad. I confused this with something else I was helping somebody with earlier where the skimmer was to tall and hitting the brace.

I agree Matt, he should be able to tap it out and put it back after getting the sump in.

Sorry about that,
Carlo
 
If you go to Melevsreef.com and click on his sump section, he provides step by step directions/pictures on how to cut out the side panel of the stand to fit a sump under an existing setup.

I once cut the center brace on a 72 bowfront stand. I would not have noticed a change in the level of the tank until I saw the water starting to favor the front side of the tank. In a panic, I called my brother for help, told him to keep his comments to himself and we prevented what could have become a huge nightmare.
 
I'm confused This brace goes down the middle like this top down view of the tank. I thought the 2 sumps would be cool but after i drew it up it is really a waste of money... I think i'm just going with a 15g sump/skimmer/fuge

[_|_]

Not
. _
[___]
 

panmanmatt

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
What folks thught you meant was that your stand had double doors with a brace between them. That is the brace they thought you wanted to remove.

If you put your sump in from the top, that means you have to drain the tank to get it back out agin if it ever starts to leak or anything along those lines.

You should go with the largest sump you can fit through the door opening. I remived my door divider/center brace before i put the tank on the stand and replaced the staples with screws. This way if I ever need to remove my sump, I can add a 2x4 support to either side of the door opening and take out the center brace. This will give me the strength to support the tank for the short time it takes to get the sump out.

Think your top diagram but instead of a top down view, it would look like that from looking straight at the stand from the front.
 
I have that too but i'm not worried about that. What i'm talking about is i have a brace holding that brace up making pretty much a T. So i have that brace in between the doors and in the middle of that brace there is another brace running from front to back of the tank.
 

panmanmatt

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Yup, same set up I have. But like I said, how would you get your sump out if anything happens to it if you put it in from the top? That brace across the top holds the front and back of the stand together. Very similar to the center brace on the tank itself.
 
I was going to post that link Mike. You won the race!

You know what I hate. This industry has been around long enough so companies get plenty of feedback on stands and things. WHY, WHY, don't they put a door on the side of the stand? Or offer it as an option/upgrade?

Most people could slide in any size sump that way!

I guess for the most part most tanks are used for FW or FOWLR and it's not a general issue, but still...

Carlo
 
Yeah Carlo, melevs site is great. Lots of DIY info.

As for the side door-
Are there such things as reef ready stands that have the holes in the top for the drains, I'm not sure cause I built my stand, but if their are RR stands then those should deffinatly have the side door.
 

Phyl

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
Could you please take a picture of the inside of the stand? I'm not sure that I would be incline to cut a (very large) square out of your center brace. Maybe enough to send the pipes through, but not enough so that it would fit a whole sump (without extra supports being added somewhere else).

Where's that architect when you need 'em!?
 
Top