Todd's 240g Build

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

TheTodd

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
May 26, 2012
Messages
3,111
Location
Palm Springs, CA
I got this 240g about six weeks ago and have been tweaking the prior owner's setup and replacing all the bulkheads, as he hacked them all and left no room to splice new plumbing. I replaced the entire floor, as it was ruined from a flood he had when he lost power. I also threw another coat of varnish on it and stained all the scrapes. It was a little rough in areas.

I will provide more details later, but I just added a bit of water to make sure all the bulkheads are okay up top (2 owners ago, there were two outlets in the bottom for circulation) and down in my new sump/refugium setup.

I wanted to snap a shot and get a "build thread" started. This is without the hood, for now...


image-3862382966.jpg
 
Well, the monster tank won round 1 today. I filled it up, hit the return pump and could not get everything underneath to balance out properly.

The sump and refugium are two CPR wet/drys connected to each other and then connected to an acrylic 35g I had in the garage. The previous owner had one of the CPR tanks for input and filtration (bio balls) and that connected to the second tank that had a skimmer and the return pump. I wanted a refugium, so I used my 35g.

I could get everything flowing and stable, but the water levels were too high in the sump and fuge. If I killed power, they would have overflowed. If I tried to being it down, the chamber with the return pump would run too low. I ended up draining the bottom, trimming the acrylic panel lower that makes the return pump chamber. Will try again tomorrow and see how it works...
 
Well...day two and I think we call today a tie...one leak fixed, the other gets about a drip every 30 minutes and it drips into the sump, so for now I can live with that.

My issue now is finding the sweet spot between the drains and the return. I thought I had it...I tried killing the power,..it drained, didn't overflow the sump/fuge area and I thought all was well. I turned the return pump back on and could not get it to balance out like before. The sump runs about 1.5" higher and I could not keep my return lines wide open like originally.

The cool news of the days was a local reef guy had an add on Craigslist today looking to unload live rock, for FREE. He wanted more flow in his tank and was the lucky guy who responded first, so I picked up about 50 lbs for free!

I think I'm calling it a day and will try to figure out the water level underneath the tank another day. Frustrating, but I'd rather get it right up front...
 
Nice pull on the live rock! Keep looking and you always find a great deal eventually. :)

Can't beat free and i wasn't really looking for that either. The real bummer was he had some Zoas and a couple other corals he would have given me if I was doing a reef.
 
Well, the idea of calling it a day last night did not work. I was staring at this three-container sump/fuge that I have created and finally decided to rip out the two acrylic panels I had added to my 35g that is acting as a refugium. I figured those panels would slow the flow a little, which they did, but the return pump was in the third chamber and kept running too low for my comfort. With those panels gone, I was able to open up the return pump plumbing all the way and get all three tanks to where I wanted the water levels to be. I will try to get pics up later...
 
Looking forward to some pics. Might give me some ideas for my build.

Pics of the sump/fuge will probably not be good for anyone. The prior owner had two CPR wet/dry acrylic tanks that he used. for intake, filtration (bio-balls) and the second for skimmer and return pump. I added an acrylic 35g because I wanted a refugium. It ended up working, but it runs about 7' underneath my tank and has chambers that are kinda pointless. I might eventually just buy a 75g for under there and at least it would save some room and have everything in one big container.
 
wow, now thats a sump! I like it, looks nice and clean. lol

Waiting with the rest of everyone to see how this looks all stocked and ready. :)
 
I'm watching your build too. You are a step or two ahead of me. I'm thinking of trying to get my sand and rock in after my son's soccer practice tonight.

My problem with the frankensump is that it does not allow me to get a 10g to the right side for ATO, which I was gonna do later. I will have to figure something out when the time comes...
 
Hehe I have an issue with my ato reservoir as well, I couldnt get it out of the 125g stand. lol I think petco is doing a $1 a gallon sale in November so I will be waiting for that I guess. Also, the bracket for the jbj ato makes the float stick out like 2 inches since the tank has such a huge lip. lol Its the little things I think sometimes.
 
why not shorten the connector pipes between the two and see if that gives you enough room for an ato tank? im in the same boat. cant really fit anything short of a 5g next to my refugium... whats the point of doing that when I top off with about 3 g every2-3 days?? lol
 
Back
Top Bottom