sump setup

[psychadelicdrea]

ok i have a 46 bow front that i wanna drill and add a sump/refuge to.......can anyone offer any suggestions on how i could best set this up and to use the space that i do have under the stand. the stand at best i think has 34long x12-13 wide x 20 high higher then that but that dont matter much.....think i can fit 2 10's in here one for sump one for fuge.....maybe a 15long half and half? any suggestions are appericated

[psychadelicdrea]

whoa thanks for the help :thm:

[oscar83]

i dont think u can fit 2 10 gallon tanks under there, i belive 10's are 20" long. the 15 would just be easier either way b/c there'd be less plumbing. i plan on doing this underneath my 75 gallon tank and use a 20 gallon for a fuge. however my tank isnt drilled and i dont want to, so im going to get one of them hang on over flows.

[gomrjoe]

I agree with Oscar, I don't think a pair of 10 gal's will fit. Besides, there is no need for that. If stick with a 15 and split you will be fine.

I also would not recommend drilling your glass tank, no matter how much of an expert the person doing it says that they are, there is a decent chance it will crack anyways. Those hang on overflow boxes work very well, one of my friends uses one on his 50 gallon and it is great, pretty much just like having the real thing, only cheaper.

Besides, those 46 bows are nice tanks, I had one for a while, why risk it.

[psychadelicdrea]

because overflows do excatly what their called overflow...and onto the floor and cause damage...and they take up space in your tank and yes i understand the risk of drilling tanks and i know its a nice tank thats why i got it....i kinda wish i would of bought bigger but oh well the local board im on suggests it and the lfs they suggest have drilled many tanks with success no cracked tanks yet

and those hob overflows arnt cheaper then drilling most or at least all of the lfs's around me will drill for 10-12 bucks those overflows for a good one are 50-60 or more...but its personal pref...i'm not trying to be a d**k or crap on yer ideas....just trying to figure out how to maximize the sump space under the tank

[Crown Royal]

After much personal debate and hand wringing, I decided against going with a sump under my 46 gallon bow. As I'm sure you know, there's simply not much room underneath!

I chose instead to run a modified AC500 as a HOB refugium and a canister with some rubble and carbon for the extra volume and flow.

Been much less of a headache than plumbing a little sump would have been.

With respect to drilling glass: it's harder to drill smaller tanks (like a 10 gallon) since the thinner glass cracks more easily.

[psychadelicdrea]

yeah thats what i thought a few times...but i see so many people with tanks smaller then mine drilled and have very nice coral setups..and im like wft i got twice the tank and i cant put a sump on it?.....wth i got it cause i didnt want a hurge tank but i didnt want a dinky one eihter.......i should of bought a square tank.....then i would have pleanty of room for a sump

[Crown Royal]

They're nice to hide things in and for more volume, but sumps of not a pre-requisite to having a nice reef tank.

Here's my current tank (about a year ago):

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/fkshiu/Tank2.jpg
http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c197/fkshiu/Tank1.jpg


The corals have really grown recently such that I need to start fragging them pretty soon.

[gomrjoe]

Great pic's, looks like a very healthy system! What lighting do you have, MH? Also, how are you dosing calcium>?

I dose liquid calcium from Kent Marine, I keep it around 400, but I can't seem to get any of that purple calcerous growth on my glass or rock. I only dose once a day, I am wondering if I should go to twice a day, so that I have a more consistent calcium level.

Great tank, keep it up!

[psychadelicdrea]

nice but joe please try not to sway the thread off topic...

[BFisher244]

I've got the same setup as you, and I'm almost done with setting up a sump.

My method:
-hang on back overflow
-custom built acrylic sump to fit the narrow space from www.acrylicsumps.com
-pvc with lots of bends to fit into and out of the narrow stand

I highly reccomend going with a sump setup for your tank.

[psychadelicdrea]

yah some just dont like the drilling so they go with the hob overflow.....that sounds nice...whats the cost on making somthing like that? and how did you have him design it.....id love to be able to have a fuge in it also...but cost is also a issue and i dont wanna drop tons on making a containor to fit that tank when i could prolly just sell this setup and buy a 75 or somthing which then will have more room for a standard tank sump....theirs also a local or somewhat local shop that makes acrlic tanks and im sure he could make somthing to fit maybe save on shippin

[BFisher244]

I've ordered a 3 chamber setup that will takeup the whole width of the stand. Inlet. Basically there's an intake with a removable media basket into the skimming section. He custom shaped it for my aquac urchin pro, there there are 4 baffles to the center refuge, and then 3 more to the return chamber. I had a few little custom extras put in, so when all was said and done it was about $300 shipped. This is actually not a bad price is you cnsider that a number of premade sumps go for much more. Plus he does amazing work with acrylic. Mine will be arriving in about 2 weeks, but I've seen what he has done for other people. The pics on the site dont do it justice.

[psychadelicdrea]

do you know what the measurments are....did he bow the sump .....my rough estimate on the space avaiable is.......33lx 15hx 13w its 9 then it bows out to 13 in the middle then back......id love to see a 3d of how this was built

[BFisher244]

no 3d available but i'll have the sump in approx a week so I can take pics.
It's rectangular in shape and sits dead center. 24LX 9.5W x 17H. total volume is just under 17 gallons. With the additional space on both sides I can ft in a collection cup for the skimmer on one size, and I'm probably going to add a topoff bottle on the other side.

As far as designing it, I gave the guys accurate measurements, took a few pics of the stand, gave him specs on my overflow, and let him take care of the rest. There were a few custom items I requested such as split intake with dual bulkheads, removeable media basket, cutout for my specific skimmer, and pipe with bulkheads going from the intake to the return chambers to greatly slow down the flow thru the refuge area.

[psychadelicdrea]

i wonder if u have the same stand as i do.......mine is a aga stand.....and it has this brace in the middle of the back of stand....and if i could get rid of that i could fit a larger tank under the stand prolly a 20long and add some baffles and be way under 300...........but do u still have pics of yer stand... i need to take some of mine to show people what im talking about.....im gonna tear it down soon and mover my clowns to a 20 high for a lil while till i get this tank set up...

[psychadelicdrea]

bump