Finally - 40 Breeder Reef Journal/Build Thread

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I am perfectly fine with the flow of the mag 7. I have a 700 gph overflow, and using a headloss calculator I found, looks like I'll have just over 500gph with the mag 7. That leaves me plenty of wiggle room.

I really wasn't planning on a moonlight. I've got one on one of my planted tanks and it's ok, but not worth spending any money on one IMO
 
I got my RO/DI unit in today... flushing it as we speak. Man, not much water coming out. Oh well, I'll only need 5-10g a week. Rock got delayed by fedex. I called to check on the status and spoke with the owner. He kept apologizing, though it was no fault of his. Definitely impressed with his business method. I'll be ordering more from him in the future, guarantee it.
 
At least its just base rock, so shouldn't matter other than the fact that it delays things. Are you planning to seed the rock at all? Those RO/DI filters are kind of a hoot aren't they? Do you have yours set up to feed into some type of a storage device?
 
I'm not sure whether I'm going to seed it or not. I really don't want to, since I don't want ANYTHING in the tank that I didn't purposely bring in.


I've not set up anything yet for storage. I might do that, but I'm not sure. I'm going to have the unit set up by the washing machine, with the waste going in to it so it's not actually wasted. I figured on just having two 5g buckets down there to fill up, then take upstairs (up 2 flights of stiars) and mix, as well as top off my ATO. I'm sure I'll streamline the process at some point, but for now, that makes the most sense to me. It also keeps my 2 year old away from it!
 
You might want to consider something like this on a smaller scale (say 5 gallon containers). That way the water is ready on demand or in case of an emergency.

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Obviously you wouldn't need anything that big.

Anybody near you have a reeftank? One of the things I do when I start mine is hand select the rock to seed with. Without seeding you will limit your beneficial critters like microstars, tiny feather dusters, etc. Unless you spend money buying a lot of these things individually. FWIW, if you're adding corals etc. from other places it is pretty much impossible to keep everything you don't want out of the tank, even if you quarantine everything.
 
as far as storage, I like to keep enough water already made to do a 50% water change if necessary in case of emergency. You should plan on making an extra 10g or so just in case. If you dont use it just rotate the backup water with the water changes.

I also usually keep 4 5g jugs of ro/di water in my closet as a backup as well. All these darn tanks! LOL

I also like the idea of not bringing in any hitchhikers from live rock. I may do that with my next build just so I know exactly what is in the tank.
 
I got my stuff from BRS in today. That's really fast, considering I ordered it after 3pm on Tuesday. Kind of excited. I stopped by HD and picked up some plumbing parts. I plan on getting the top half of the return plumbing finished up today, then maybe start working on my 20 long sump.

Here's the stuff-

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And, here's the plan for the return... not sure how far I'll need to go down in the tank, but I'm going to leave enough room to drill a hole or two.

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I would assume that your overflows should come with some directions? Just a quick measurement off some I've helped out on shows the hole centered between 2 1/2 and 4 1/2 inches below the plastic lip. I believe the overflows themselves may be able to be adjusted for height by either turning or by adding an additional piece of PVC, so its probably more a matter of preference as far as looks. Just don't drill to close to the top as that may cause the glass to crack.
 
I should have been more clear... I meant anti-siphon holes in the return line. But, that's good info for the drilling of the glass. I figured I would set the return on the glass and see where I wanted my water line, and drill from there. How far from the top should I be at minimum to prevent any cracking? Looks like the overflow might not be here until Monday, which will suck, but what can I do...
 
I am officially the worlds worst sump builder. I'll post a pic at some point so everyone can get a good laugh. I managed to use a whole tube if silicone for 3 baffles.... and a non-functional bubble trap. oh well, maybe it'll work.

EDIT:

Here's a pic-

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If I remember right directions should come with the overflow, but I would stay at least an inch and a half below the top edge.

Looks like you've got quite a bit of space between the baffles? Practice makes perfect on the silicon ~ LOL, I should know, I've had a lot of practice and I'm still no where close to perfect. Blue painters help to clean up the edges may help some. Did you use acrylic or glass for the baffles?

Keep in mind the sump is out of sight, so its not like it has to be perfect.
 
Yeah, I hope it to be functional. A quick test should tell over the weekend once everything dries out. If it works, great. If not, well... I have that 15g manufactured sump to fall back on.
 
Made some good progress today. Just waitin on the silicone to cure and I'll be ready to set this thing up. Sand won't be here until Monday or Tuesday, but I may just add it in later anyways. Got the tank drilled (and almost had a stroke), overflow temporarily installed (gotta put the gaskets on and stuff... going to wait until I pick up the plumbing supplies tomorrow), and the rock placed how I was wanting it after thinking about it for a bit. I'm sure that'll change, but I managed to get it almost exactly how I had been thinking it out over the last few days. Getting really excited now. Drilling isn't that bad either. Once I got over the fear of cracking the tank, it went pretty smooth. Definitely let everyone within a 10 mile radius know I was working in the basement though... man that was loud.

Scraped off the paint-
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Got a circle started with the template-
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And I worried over nothing-
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With Overflow installed-
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My return idea-
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And, my rock plan-
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Good job. It seems so scary to drill glass. I bought 4 panes to practice on. It turned out to be easy. Glad yours went well.
 
Thanks :) I was actually quite happy with it. To be honest, I was scared out of my mind. No idea why... it's a $40 tank... but succeeding my first time without issue was certainly encouraging. I just got done gluing all my fittings together for my return. I put a union in because I wanted the ability to remove the pump for maintenance, without having to use flexible tubing. I just hope I measured right haha. Guess thats why I bought a few extra elbows. I'm going to pick up some pipe to plumb my overflow tomorrow. I think I'm going to use 45's instead of 90's, to try and eliminate any restrictions. I'm not going to glue anything together though, until I've tested it and know for sure my sump is going to work. I want to avoid having to cut everything apart in the event that my sump is junk and I have to revert back to the smaller one. I don't have to worry about the return pump, since I'll be moving the sump to that side if I have to. I'm going to start making water tomorrow. I'll probably set this up Tuesday or Wednesday to give everything some time to cure, and to go ahead and get my sand in. The more I think about it, the less I want to do that after the water is in.
 
Got everything plumbed tonight. Letting it dry overnight, then doing a functionality check tomorrow. If all goes as planned, sand will go in when it gets here (crossing my fingers that'll be Monday), and we'll be ready to set this thing up. I've got water being made now, got 10 gallons made so far, another 40ish to go.
 
Tested everything out. Works perfect... or at least, it works. Sump is running a bit higher than I wanted, but it still has over an inch of room left after everything drains when I unplug the pump. I've tested it with the return lines in several different heights to make sure there was no extra siphon once it drains to the holes. The waiting game is almost over.
 
When you say an inch of room, do you mean its just too full? I did that with mine and once everything settled in, it was fine. With evaporation, it should be ok. Just set your ato at the right height.
 
Well, what I mean is that if I unplug the pump, the sump fills up to about 1" below the top. So, I'm not too full, it's just more than I had thought. Originally, I thought I might have put my overflow down too far, because I put it 1/2" lower than I wanted per the instructions based on their recommendation that the overflow would run about half way up the teeth... they were right. It easily handles the mag7, but there's still a good 3-4 gallons to overflow once the pump shuts off.
 
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