First sump (fw)/suggestions appreciated

[czcz]

Drilled my 7g vintage metal-framed tank following these instructions. Minor scratches but no cracks. Glass will not bear the weight of piping:

I find DIY interesting and want to increase the stability of my small tank, and so planned on making a sump with a 12g bucket (info/how-tos in the archives here are incredible. can't say it enough). Here's where it gets interesting. Today I stopped by a thrift store, the same one I bought my metal-framed tank from. I hoped to find a container I could sterilize/adapt to a wet/dry canister. I left with this (haggled the price from $15 to $12):

It's a wood frame around an (included, needs to be resealed) 10g tank. Its so incredibly awesome. The wood is beat-up and the aquarium glass is scratched... still:

Will it be a sump to the metal-framed tank, making a visually awesome retro set-up? Will it be the paludarium I wished for the family's 20 long was? Will it be both? I thought one cool vintage tank, with hood, for ~ $10 would be my greatest thrift store find ever, but two? Same store? This is ridiculous.

Also got a used Penguin 660 170gph powerhead from LFS for $16 a couple of days ago. Aquariums are so &*%$^@ cool.

 

[Menagerie]

Those are some pretty wild tanks!

 

[phishead]

That's Great! My Wife would kill me for bringing home any new tank, But good for you. Please post pics when your plans come to reality!

 

[czcz]

My Wife would kill me for bringing home any new tank...

Yeah... these tanks live in a converted garage (my bunker) I hope to have a functional wet/dry sump and a false bottom by the end of the holiday and will post pics. I can't get over the new tank.

 

[czcz]

Pics in progress. Maybe this belongs in DIY? I think I understand the howto part from the archives...

Experimenting with false bottom. Unfortunately sump only moves ~21gph per 3 trials with a 1g jug, so for now paludarium is probably out of the picture. Will get a nw pump when the PH mentioned before fails. Return is on the right.

Floating anacharis and hornwort trimmings. Only using filter floss in the "canister" and ditched wet/dry (not enough water moved, too loud).

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/czcz/images/7g/tank&sump.jpg - I can't link to this pic for some reason, but please click the link if interested.
Haven't decided what to use to block the overflow yet. Left 100gph HOB in the main tank.

Please excuse the mess in these in-progress pics. Learning - we'll see where it goes. I'm picking up a third otto soon Maybe two cherry barbs...

 

[czcz]

suggestions appreciated, by the way. As is a move of the thread to diy, if the advisors feel I misplaced this thread

 

[smallfry]

I want a tank like that !!!! :|

 

[Menagerie]

I'll move the thread so you get more suggestions.

 

[BillyZ]

nifty! The first couple of pictures don't really suggest a scale.. the first thing I thought was "What an AWESOME coffee table!" heh... a bit small i suppose... but that'd make a nifty lill DIY project... 40G coffeetable, encased like your sump is...

 

[czcz]

Thanks Menagerie! I changed the title.

BillyZ, and the 40g is aquascaped for someone looking down into the tank? That'd be sweeeeet.

Update:
For the bulkhead, I'm now using a 90deg elbow with slits to skim the surface. Black pantyhose covers the return outlet. In the sump's plastic canister, there is open celled foam below the filterfloss. Flow rate is up to ~25gph after taking apart the powerhead and putting it back together (? - wasn't dirty but cleaned a little). I've added a prefilter to the return pump since I'm planning on a shrimp clean-up crew in the sump.

Nitrates aren't registering on my test and I think I've seen an increase in algae, so must dose nitrates (I think).

Because of increased water volume I added to the kuhlii loach and oto group. I think they like the company.

Issues:
Temp increased to 78F with the heater unplugged and sump lights (13w) off. The PH is submerged -- I guess I'm overheating the thing. Temp before sump was 74F with a 50w heater. Any suggestions? Low RPM fans (low noise is important) above the sump? Would you just buy a proper submersible pump instead of fiddling with a more powerfull powerhead?

CO2 injection at the sump is inefficent, and main tank's plants stopped pearling. Returned Hagen bubble ladder to main tank. Water in the sump is almost still. Is this likely due to CO2 absorbed in the return piping?

Thoughts on filtration are especially appreciated. I'm still considering wet/dry, but wonder if its worth the trouble with very low flow rate and a small tank.

Thanks.

 

[jsoong]

I loved your ingenuity in converting thrift store finds into a cool tank. Plus all the tinkering must be giving you hours of enjoyment. <I personally love tinkering & improvising, much more fun than just spending oodles of money & having everything ready-made!>

I don't know if a wet/dry will be useful. With the low bioload, you prob. have enough surface area with all your filter sponges. OTOH, it is kinda fun trying to devise a wet/dry with common household objects.... so you might just as well go for it!

BTW, I don't know if this applies ... your low flow rate is due to pump having to get water uphill? If so, you may increase the pump output by decreasing the head pressure. Suppose you have the water return routed all the way to the bottom of the top tank. The siphoning action in that section of the tubing should decrease the head pressure & improve the flow .... <Note - you would have to drill a hole just below the water line as a siphon break in case of pump failure to prevent emptying the top tank>. I haven't tried that myself to see if that would work .... but I am thinking about seting it up. Just another thing for you to think about.

 

[BillyZ]

one thing you might be able to do to combat your temperature issue would be to remove the coverings on the sump. The top appears covered in the pics. This added ventalation might help a little. May also increase evaporation so be prepared for that.

 

[czcz]

jsoong, ~36gph per 3 trials (1g jug) with your suggestion! New siphon break only dumps a couple of inches of water into the sump per 3 trials. I love tinkering too. My dad used to say, "Only the things you've built are really yours." Of course, I'm only building by borrowing other pople's ideas... will play with wet/dry again this weekend.

BillyZ, will do. I'll post temps after experimenting.

Thanks!

 

[czcz]

~74-76F. I'm using a small fan when lights are on. Thanks, BillyZ!

Wet/dry progress isn't exciting, and since nitrates are still not registering I don't know how to test effectiveness. Added F and M cherry barb. (Stocking in the main tank is done. It's lively!) Now rock is over the eggcrate in the sump. Will post new pics soon.

 

[czcz]

After I figure out what I'm doing here, I'll silicone the rocks in place for easy clean-up (false bottom comes out easily).

You can kind of see my weak wet/dry attempt. I'm trying to balance space and filtration. Dunno.

Still can't tag full system pic...

Thanks again

 

[PatM]

Love that tank!

 

[czcz]

Thanks, Pat. I wish I had a 20 long as a sump, like yours

Update: Haven't done much. Siliconed rocks to false bottom. Clean up crew are rainbow and ghost feeder shrimp. False bottom has been raised a couple of inches with PVC L-pipes for the shrimp. Light is a 50w "plant grow" screw-in -- just experimenting.

The Anubias on the right has grown new leaves, despite no substrate. Kind of interesting.

Full system pic: http://members.dslextreme.com/users/czcz/images/7g/tank&sump0130.jpg

 

[PatM]

Good luck, I built an overflow box and it took 3 months to get it from 10 gph up to about 500 gph. Lots of tweaking. I still want more though, my return pump is rated at 800 gph so I have to keep it turned way down, bummer.

 

[czcz]

No new progress but here's an updated pic

Moved a lot of anacharis from the main tank to the sump. Many baby neocaridina shrimp live in here. Went back to CFL.

Full pic:

I've been looking at a few small pond/waterfall pumps to get sump's gph higher, but haven't felt the need to purchase anything yet.

Adapted HOB intake so current in the main tank goes from right to left. When sump power is pulled, it doubles as a somewhat effective surface skimmer.

Nitrates are still <5 (undetectable on test), but have been dosing to ~10ppm to reduce the algae that appeared after adding sump. Seems to be working.

I'll update in the future if anything exciting happens, and new ideas are appreciated. Thanks again.

 

[czcz]

Tried to condense some of this info if anyone is considering building a similar setup: http://members.dslextreme.com/users/czcz/howto_fuge.html
suggestions for making it better/easier to understand/etc are appreciated.