57 rimless illuminata build

[Reefnoob84]

Sold my 46 bowfront cichlid tank yesterday and picked up an oceanic 57 gallon rimless reef ready tank. I still have my 48" coralife light that never sold so perfect! Let there be light

I'll be buying a plain black stand for it. I don't have the time to build one at the moment.

I'd like to plumb it into my existing system but it'll be 15 feet away and have to go below the floor and then back up and over into the sump.

I don't have a basement but a deep crawlspace.

The return line isn't an issue. No brainier.

The drain is what I'm concerned about. The opening will be 24 inches above the exit at the sump.

What size pipe should I use for the drain? 1" or 1 1/2"? I'm trying to achieve a 10x turnover for the tank. So around 570 gph.

I'll probably use a mag 9.5 with 5' of head. Somewhere between 6-700 gph.

So will that work? If I go from the over flow down through the floor 4' over about 12' and then up 2' and into the sump?

 

[carey]

I would go with a 1 inch return pipe and install a ball valve on the return line to tweak it.

You'll only be able to return the amount of water the overflow allows into the sump so it will balance out.

 

[Reefnoob84]

That's what I had planned for the return. My question was mainly on the drain end.

 

[Reefnoob84]

Got the back painted. Used a blue that we had leftover from painting my sons room. It's light blue but I'm going to put a coat of black on tomorrow to darken it up a touch.

Just ordered the hanging kit for the light, a new cover plate for my mag 12( I'm using this instead of the 9.5), and 50' of 1" spa hose to connect the tank to the sump.

Still wondering if I should use 1 1/2" for the drain.

 

[Reefnoob84]

Stand is built for the most part.

 

[Reefnoob84]

Got it plumed up to the sump. Waiting on 20 more gallons of water and a new cover for my mag 12.

Light is hung but I'm not sure if I'm going to keep it this way.

 

[fort384]

Very cool... I just setup my first reef tank a couple of months ago and it is the same tank. Not sure if my journey would help you or not, but here is the thread:
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f14/forts-57-gallon-rimless-reef-build-195353.html

Lots of pics, especially towards second half of it.

 

[Reefnoob84]

Got the clowns today.



Black ice



Black ice / buckshot

 

[redsea]

Got the clowns today.

Black ice

Black ice / buckshot

Congrats on your new Clownfish, Black Ices are very cool.

 

[Reefnoob84]

So I'm trying different things with photographing. I'm getting a dslr for my bday but wanted to try something else out. Tell me what you guys think





I took these with my iPhone 4s and a 3$ camera app. 1 pic is raw and the other is through the auto exp/foc