Smitty's 90g Build!

[Smitty]

Howdy!

Finally I get to do one of my own! I'm like a child in a candy store after I've eaten half! Yippie!

Ok, now that I've gone and made fun of myself I'm ready to get down to business!

I have a 90g tank (used) with a 55g sump (used). Built my own stand (see http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/new-tank-stand-153924.html) and built the sump (see http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f20/yet-another-sump-thread-yea-140895.html).

Right now I have 110 lbs of dry rock and will be picking up 40 lbs of live rock in a couple days. I put in 100 lbs of fine sand (well, not too fine but I really like it). I have two power heads going and will have a good sized return pump (1200 gph split between coming back to the tank and feeding my fuge in the sump). Right now I have one 300 w heater that came with the tank but it isn't adjustable and is pre-set at 76 so I really don't like it. It also came with a no-name skimmer (never used). I'll give it a shot and see how it works because my wife will skin ME if I spend more money right now.

Here are the money shots:

First are the rocks all laid out to see what I have:

Got the tank on the stand (which was fun because it was so heavy!):

Made sure it was level (hehe):

Got the sand in:

Put in the rock before the water:

And finally a slightly cloudy shot (still letting the sand settle):

I put in 2 medium sized shrimp last night (see the stocking on the right) and have ammonia at 0.5 right now. Zero NitrIte and NitrAte (expected) and a pH of 7.6. Salinity is right at 1.025.

The sump isn't hooked up quite yet because I didn't have enough water made up. I was about 5 gallons shy (oh so close!) but have most of the sump full of water. Waiting for the rest of the water then can get it up and running. That is my small heater in the tank to maintain the temp (but in FL and it is hot so it isn't coming on). The big heater is in the container with the new water to get it up close to this same temp.

Thanks for looking!

 

[Gti_Leo]

looking good so far, got pics of the skimmer?

 

[Smitty]

Well, I'm embarrased to show it because it doesn't even have a name. I've never done a skimmer before so have no idea how they are supposed to work or look like. People talk about having to 'adjust' their skimmers but this one has nothing on it to adjust, it doesn't even say where the water level is supposed to sit. But, it came with the system so I'm going to give it a try at least.

 

[carey]

Looking good. it looks to me like a generic skimmer, you might get lucky though, some people do.

Keep us updated. I'd love to know how you are splitting your return pump, doesn't the water already go through an in sump fuge? Or is it separate?

 

[Gti_Leo]

hmm the skimmer is an old style venturi not even a needle wheel, it will do the job but the skimmer can be improved big time

 

[Flake]

Lookin' good!

 

[Smitty]

hmm the skimmer is an old style venturi not even a needle wheel, it will do the job but the skimmer can be improved big time

Well, it is already on my list to replace but I have a lot of other things (like a new lawn mower) that has to come first. I'll give it a couple months and see how it does. At least I know they used to make skimmers like this!

Keep us updated. I'd love to know how you are splitting your return pump, doesn't the water already go through an in sump fuge? Or is it separate?

I'll post up pictures once I have it plumbed. Right now I'm still waiting on my final pump so all I have is a mag 7.5. The sump has 4 chambers: enters on the right with skimmer and eventually heater, then goes into live rock rubble, then bubble trap, then return section. The far left is going to be the fuge. The return will have a T for water to go to the tank, and to the fuge. I did this for low flow through the fuge section (shooting for 150-200 gph only. Plus I have a DSB in the fuge (about 14" by 12" and 7" deep).

 

[Gti_Leo]

you can make the skimmer better with a little bit of DIY if you'd like

 

[Smitty]

you can make the skimmer better with a little bit of DIY if you'd like

I'm all for DIY. I'm pretty good at some stuff too! I've never worked with acrylic though so would have to learn how before messing something up.

 

[Gti_Leo]

well the main thing is the pump

look up DIY needle wheel, you're basically using a bio ball on the pump impeller to chop up the air bubles that the venturi is pullign in into much smaller microbubbles, making the skimmer more effective.

another thing you can do is try and find a funnle type extension to add below the collection cup to lessen the turbulance in the bubble travel

 

[Smitty]

I'll do that.

So I got the rest of the water into the system (filled up the sump) and tried everything out for the first time and it basically failed. The pump would push the water up into the tank and it would start to drain into the sump but the water in the overflow would keep filling up, then it would drain into the sump so fast it would get to the siphon break, then it would fill up again and drain (so on and so forth).

I'm guessing that the mag 7.5 isn't strong enough. They were using this one before but on a stand that was 1/2 this height and the added height is killing it.

Does that sound about right? It is trying to lift to about 5 feet (just measured) and that puts it at around 390 GPH whereas I have a 1" drain and I think that is around 600 gph.

 

[melosu58]

Looks like a pretty good start. I really like it.

 

[Smitty]

Thanks!

On a side note... I don't know why I thought that having siphon breaks on my return line was a good idea. Too late to go get a replacement piece of PVC tonight, will have to go in the morning.

What does everyone else do? Have one of the return nozzles close to the surface and use that as the break point?

 

[hackteck]

i have one of eshopps return jets it has a syphon break on it

 

[Smitty]

Ok, since this was a used tank I have now discovered several hitchhikers coming out of the woodwork. I did try and remove sand but didn't get all of it. I would say I have about 4 hermit crab looking guys in pointy shells, a couple of snail looking things that stay in the sand all the time (and can only see their bottom), 3 black urchins and 2 pink urchins.

I hope they survive the cycle process. I have no idea what else may be hiding away.

Right now I'm only at .5 amm with zero nitrite and zero nitrate but I'm only into 1 full day of cycling with shrimp. Salinity is holding steady at 1.025. PH looking like 7.6.

 

[Gti_Leo]

the PH is a little low, do you have your power heads pointed at the surface?

burrowing snails are most likely nassarius snails, they are awesome good guys

 

[Smitty]

I do have one power head hitting the surface pretty hard, I can move that down a bit.

Another question, is it normal to have a LOT of bubbles in the intake part of the sump? It seems like quite a lot. It isn't a problem because they are all getting stopped at the bubble trap but it foams up my intake and live rock section on the surface a bit.

 

[Gti_Leo]

its common to get air bubble, but not really common to get the bubbles foaming up the chamberhow high is the plumbing above the water surface?

 

[Smitty]

It has a pretty good drop in it. This is a pre-drilled tank so the drain is going to be at the top water level as normal, then it drops another 6" below the bottom of the tank, then I have it going to the left 2' 4" and then a 90 elbow and another 2' 4" or so drop into the intake section. That distance puts the exit about 2-3" from the bottom of the intake section of the sump that is 13.5" deep. Here are two pictures:

 

[Smitty]

Ok, so here is an updated FTS. Still cloudy from moving the rock around yesterday and adding the live rock. The pump in the middle isn't doing anything but holding down a back with shrimp for the fishless cycle.

The next one I'm really concerned about. I think I may need to re-plumb my drain. It is putting a LOT, and I mean a LOT of bubbles into the sump and the only thing I can think of is that I have an almost 2.5' drop into the sump. I can re-plumb it so that it has more of a drop from the drain in the tank, or easier would be to put in a "step" so to speak so that it drops from the top of the tank to about 6" under, then has a horizontal run of a couple inches, then another 12" drop, then over to where I want it in the sump and then the final drop into the intake. Confussing?

Here you can see all the bubbles:

EDIT: Another thought would be to put a 180 bend at the bottom of the return and see if that helps any... not sure if that would help or hurt.