20L w/ 9G Sump, First time saltwater

[othercents]

After much deliberation with my wife we decided to get a 20L tank for fish and I decided it would be saltwater. So during my research I decided to get a 3/4H 15G tank for my sump with 7" baffles, which fits perfectly in the TV stand we are going to use.

Parts List:
-20L Glass
-3/4H 15G Acrylic w/ 7" baffles
-10G Glass for QT
-4x24w T5 HO 30"
-Mag 3
-Koralia Nano 450
-PVC overflow (to be build later)
-Maxi-Jet 600 for salt mix
-(2) 150W heaters for main tank and salt mix
-RO/DI

Here is the tanks when I brought them home:

The Quarantine tank with filter was only $20, and I will use filter floss that will be stored in my sump.

Here is the supplies and TV Stand:

Here is the paint job (the QT is 3 sides black and bottom pebble color):

Thanks for looking
David

 

[othercents]

I just got back from Home Depot with supplies, however I forgot to get the screen for the tank, so I have to go back. However this time my wife can pick-out the shoe cabinet she wants to store our shoes in.

Here is the supplies. Take note of the dremel toolset I picked up. Going to use it to cut the hole into the cabinet, so that the fuge light will fit.

Here is my overflow noodle (took me 5 minutes to make):

All of this and I'm not planing on having salt water in it until after Christmas.

David

 

[chris 67]

cool what are you planning on putting in there

 

[chris 67]

cool what are you planning to stock it with

 

[deadrock]

looking good

 

[othercents]

cool what are you planning to stock it with

I'm not sure. Rock, Sand, Fish, and Corals. Looking for suggestions for great color and slow growing. I don't want one coral to overgrow the tank to quickly. Keep in mind I also have a daughter, so she probably want's a clown fish too. The lighting should be good enough for me to keep any coral and clams.

 

[deadrock]

im running 150w halide with 2x t5ho over my 20l

 

[hurrafreak]

Here pretty soon I'll have six T-5's over my tank and 2x250MH's!! You can never go wrong with MH's!

 

[othercents]

I'm running thin on funds, so I did the best I could with lighting. My preference would be a DIY LED setup, but before I upgrade my lighting I will want to add a controller for heat and reporting ph, salinity, temp, orp, and dissolved oxygen. I'm still hoping my brother just builds me one of his controllers for Christmas.

 

[deadrock]

aquatraders.com
150w hqi x2 t5ho
$99
its a great deal imo

 

[othercents]

I guess I didn't put my lighting info in my supplies list, but I already have a T5 HO 4x24w 30" fixture. Any upgrades in light will be a DIY LED fixture. The fixture from aquatraders looks really good, however if I had originally used them I would probably had gone with the T5 HO 4x24w fixture.

Stuff I need:
-sand (live seed sand will be nice too)
-LR (15 pounds of dry rock already ordered)
-salt
-sump (ordered just waiting)
-aquarium screen cover (kitty protector)
-(2) 5G buckets
-GFI extension
-Turkey baster

Stuff left to do:
-glue PVC overflow and return
-drill table for overflow and return pipes
-install baffles in sump (acrylic)
-setup RO/DI
-remove christmas tree and install aquarium
-setup QT aquarium

All of that and I have to wait for the end of the month before I will have salt water in the tank. Oh I hope my fixture can handle a cat laying on top. Because tall and warm location with fish underneath will be inviting for any cat.

David

 

[chris 67]

can't wait to see how it turns out

 

[deadrock]

you better be careful with that cat lol . a friend of mine lost alot because the cat knocked the light into the tank

 

[68sting]

Looks good. I'm not sure how your over flow works. Can you explain that. Can you drill the tank or is it temperd?

 

[othercents]

Looks good. I'm not sure how your over flow works. Can you explain that. Can you drill the tank or is it temperd?

I didn't want to drill the tank because I want to use the 20L as a sump in the future, so the next best thing was a HOB siphon overflow or noodle PVC overflow. The PVC overflow is significantly cheeper. Here is the best picture I can find of how it works.

I'm not using a check valve. I will use a small air tube to pull the air out of the U joint that goes over the back of the tank. Once the air is removed the water level inside the tubes will equalize at the T where the water exits into the sump if there is a power outage. The last U joint and T works like a P-trap before going down the drain into the sump, and the air vents in the cap keep the water from being siphoned down the drain.

The drawback of this system is if air builds in the U joint over the back of the tank which is the same if air builds in a HOB siphon overflow. My engineers say that with the right amount of flow then the air will never get trapped in the U joint, and since there is such a long pipe it is very unlikely that air will make it past the first U joint.

David

 

[that0neguy1126]

Nice. I have heard and seen people use this system, but I have never seen a drawing laid out so nicely for it that explains how it works.

 

[othercents]

Mine design has some modifications to this design (or maybe this design was modified from the norm). For the 20L I'm using 3/4 tubing until the T and the T is a 3/4, 3/4, 1/2 which makes the drain lines 1/2. The reason for this is to reduce the draining noise and allow some water build up above the drain. I also have the 3rd U joint going to the T then the 90, instead of the 90 then a T. I think most people do the T first, but it can probably be done either way. The air vent pipe hasn't been cut in my picture and I'm just waiting to setup and test to decide where to cut it, but the water should never get more than a couple inches above the T unless the T becomes clogged (which is possible if there is a snail that fits the 3/4" pipe, but not the 1/2" pipe). My drain line will also go straight down into the sump without any turns or flex line. This is because of my table and how the sump is set back 2-3" further in the stand than the tank. Plus doing a straight PVC allows me to pull the overflow straight up out of the stand for maintenance.

My preference for overflows is actually the coast to coast weir with the bean animal overflow. The coast to coast weir allows for more surface skimming that will place more protein into your sump and will give the skimmer the most protein to work with. The bean animal is a very redundant system and unless you don't do any maintenance and inspection on the system, it should work safely even through a power outage.

I hope that helps. I am going to take my design to my engineers again and see what they say about the T then 90 instead of 90 then T.

 

[Wicked Color]

that is a crazy looking overflow, I saw build threads on them before being banned from RC, I know at least 1 guy built it wrong, then fixed it wrong, and ended up drilling his tank

 

[othercents]

My tank is not tempered glass and I can drill it, however I do want to use the tank for a sump later on, so I would prefer not to (I could always buy a new one and sell/donate this one to a fellow reefer). There are minor adjustments that I could make on the PVC overflow if I run into issues including placing clear 90s in the U joint that goes over the back of the tank. At this point I fall under the "cautiously optimistic" category. As we all probably know, each build is unique and no build goes exactly as planned, so I'm at a wait and see mode.

This build started as an AC70 then went to AC110, AIO, and now sump designed. I will keep everyone updated since I still have other stuff to do to finish up this build.

BTW. Is there anyone in the club that does drilling?

 

[othercents]

My sump has arrived. I think the inside dimensions are shorter than I wanted, but otherwise it looks good. There is 4" to the shelf, 21" from the back to the door, and the sump tank is only 12" deep, so I was wondering if that is enough space to place a PC fixture without cutting a hole in it. If so what do I need for cheato that won't rust in that space?

David