Just now getting around to the paperwork on this build, actually started about 3 months ago. I wanted to get a frag tank going for a couple reasons, one... I get bored. I also wanted a way to aclimate corals for displays, and not have to move them up and down in tanks that are a pain to get into as it is. The main reason though is that I needed to do some major trimming on some corals that are growing a little to well, the byproduct of that is getting to share corals with a great comunity.
I started with the intention of doing the build with a 75 gallon to make use of a 4' ATI 4 bulb T5 that has been laying around since I switched to LED in my 90G. Then PetCo had their $1 gallon sale, hmmm time to re think this thing. What I came up with was a 40g breader, and a 20g to form an L, with the intension of using the 20 as a utility tank. If I need the 20 for quarantine, I can drop the water level below the drain, and put on the aquaclear. I could just use it as an extension of the frag tank for overflow coral as it will be drilled, and easy to tie it into the frag system.
I drilled both, had my cnc guy at the shop cut me some slits in the acrylic to form the overflow box, and away we go. In the meantime I got about 50 lbs of live rock, but decided to nuke it. While the rock was cooking I moved some things around in the basement and got some storage shelving to make the stand with. Didn’t really need anything fancy, just support for the tanks, the snake Monty (ball python), and a workspace to frag. I cut the legs down to 30” and used several layers of plywood, and melamine to build up and extend the top over the legs, final dimension is about 2 feet by 100 inches.
After I read a couple posts on baffle less sumps, I thought I would give it a shot, but I like baffles. Baffles keep things where they belong! I thought about it, and decided to make it a little more of a modular design. I wanted to keep the total volume of the system under 75gallons just because I already had a Reef Octopus 4” Cone skimmer, so decided to use a 20 long for the sump. Took a couple of measurements, and made the pump box.
View attachment 14105
I wanted sand and some ruble under the cheato for happy pods, so I made a sand box….
View attachment 14106 View attachment 14107 View attachment 14108
The sand box turned out to be the best part of the modular design, and worked better than expected. I rinsed some dry sand I had, and after a final rinse in some waterchange saltwater, scraped it into the bottom of the new sand box. Added another half inch of live sand that I siphoned out of the 90 gallon tank from the same water change on top of that. I filled the rest of the box withsalt water, and let it settle for a couple minutes. It was a little awkward to lower it into the sump, but I lowered it slowly to the bottom of the sump, and virtually no cloud. Amazing…. That actually worked?
If you try something like this, be a little careful, and caution on the side of a larger than you think you may need pump box. I wanted the pump box to control bubbles, and mount ato switches control water level etc. but built it a little small for a900gph pump with 3 foot of head. The pump can empty that box in about 8 seconds if the level isn’t right. The other thing I really wasn’t expecting was all the micro bubbles on the acrylic making it float.. Hah!! Yup that makes sense now. Solution: put a rock in the box. Problem: even less volume in an undersized box. I turned down the flow from the pump, working solution for now.
On to the Tanks. It’s a container with racks right? I’m not sure why this melted my brain down so bad, but trying to figure out how to suspend the racks was painful!!! I didn’t want to use the egg crate for legs like I have seen, thinking it would be a pain to get the racks out to clean. So I came up with something much more complicated, and even harder to service….. PVC legs. I drilled holes so I wouldn’t have a bunch of dead water in them. Cut slits so the lower tray could share a leg with the tray above it, very slick on paper anyway. The slits were easy enough, and thought they would be great for being able to just pull out a tray for service. The holes took forever to drill and clean up. Final result… Uuuugggghhhh It all wants to float away in any kind of current. The live rock that I wanted in the unusedspace under the racks didn’t hold the pvc in place like I thought it would, so I just ended up zip tying it all together until I can figure out something else. It was a fun show though, if someone would have thrown this monkey a football, it would have been perfect, I think I had water in my socks by the time I was done zipping those racks in place.
View attachment 14110
I got in all new bulbs, that were overdue anyway, and thought I would give ati's coral plus a shot. Final light layout: coral plus, blue plus, coral plus, true actinic. The coral plus bulbs look better than the picture shows, there more of a 10k daylight look with a better blue tint.
I started with the intention of doing the build with a 75 gallon to make use of a 4' ATI 4 bulb T5 that has been laying around since I switched to LED in my 90G. Then PetCo had their $1 gallon sale, hmmm time to re think this thing. What I came up with was a 40g breader, and a 20g to form an L, with the intension of using the 20 as a utility tank. If I need the 20 for quarantine, I can drop the water level below the drain, and put on the aquaclear. I could just use it as an extension of the frag tank for overflow coral as it will be drilled, and easy to tie it into the frag system.
I drilled both, had my cnc guy at the shop cut me some slits in the acrylic to form the overflow box, and away we go. In the meantime I got about 50 lbs of live rock, but decided to nuke it. While the rock was cooking I moved some things around in the basement and got some storage shelving to make the stand with. Didn’t really need anything fancy, just support for the tanks, the snake Monty (ball python), and a workspace to frag. I cut the legs down to 30” and used several layers of plywood, and melamine to build up and extend the top over the legs, final dimension is about 2 feet by 100 inches.
After I read a couple posts on baffle less sumps, I thought I would give it a shot, but I like baffles. Baffles keep things where they belong! I thought about it, and decided to make it a little more of a modular design. I wanted to keep the total volume of the system under 75gallons just because I already had a Reef Octopus 4” Cone skimmer, so decided to use a 20 long for the sump. Took a couple of measurements, and made the pump box.
View attachment 14105
I wanted sand and some ruble under the cheato for happy pods, so I made a sand box….
View attachment 14106 View attachment 14107 View attachment 14108
The sand box turned out to be the best part of the modular design, and worked better than expected. I rinsed some dry sand I had, and after a final rinse in some waterchange saltwater, scraped it into the bottom of the new sand box. Added another half inch of live sand that I siphoned out of the 90 gallon tank from the same water change on top of that. I filled the rest of the box withsalt water, and let it settle for a couple minutes. It was a little awkward to lower it into the sump, but I lowered it slowly to the bottom of the sump, and virtually no cloud. Amazing…. That actually worked?
If you try something like this, be a little careful, and caution on the side of a larger than you think you may need pump box. I wanted the pump box to control bubbles, and mount ato switches control water level etc. but built it a little small for a900gph pump with 3 foot of head. The pump can empty that box in about 8 seconds if the level isn’t right. The other thing I really wasn’t expecting was all the micro bubbles on the acrylic making it float.. Hah!! Yup that makes sense now. Solution: put a rock in the box. Problem: even less volume in an undersized box. I turned down the flow from the pump, working solution for now.
On to the Tanks. It’s a container with racks right? I’m not sure why this melted my brain down so bad, but trying to figure out how to suspend the racks was painful!!! I didn’t want to use the egg crate for legs like I have seen, thinking it would be a pain to get the racks out to clean. So I came up with something much more complicated, and even harder to service….. PVC legs. I drilled holes so I wouldn’t have a bunch of dead water in them. Cut slits so the lower tray could share a leg with the tray above it, very slick on paper anyway. The slits were easy enough, and thought they would be great for being able to just pull out a tray for service. The holes took forever to drill and clean up. Final result… Uuuugggghhhh It all wants to float away in any kind of current. The live rock that I wanted in the unusedspace under the racks didn’t hold the pvc in place like I thought it would, so I just ended up zip tying it all together until I can figure out something else. It was a fun show though, if someone would have thrown this monkey a football, it would have been perfect, I think I had water in my socks by the time I was done zipping those racks in place.
View attachment 14110
I got in all new bulbs, that were overdue anyway, and thought I would give ati's coral plus a shot. Final light layout: coral plus, blue plus, coral plus, true actinic. The coral plus bulbs look better than the picture shows, there more of a 10k daylight look with a better blue tint.
