Amp's 25g Cube Seagrass build REDUX

Progress...progress...progress!!!

Very interested in seeing the sump and turf scubber being built and in action. Can you please post details your stand pipe mod to your overflow whne you get to it. I am on the "I need a sump" bandwagon again but don't want to tear my tank apart to drill and have always been concerned about noise from an overflow box (as well as the potential flood :)).
 
Looks good. I can't wait to see it see it when it fills in. I love these build threads because being new to SW, it will help me a lot.(Once the nano reef is full, I will need something bigger to give me an excuse to continue buying corals and fish and such.) :grinyes:
 
Thanks--I'm eager for it to start filling in, honestly.

greech, here's a photo of the standpipe--it's very straightforward, consisting of a 1" T and cap:
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The noise is minimal. There's a slight trickle into the box itself and a bit of noise as the bubbles go through the standpipe. It's certainly tolerable, IMHO.

More nighttime pics (excuse the mess and the yellowness of the room light):
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Looks good Amph :)
 
Something I wanted to make a note of, even though I won't be doing it with this system, is that this kind of setup is perfect for seahorses. The lush plant growth and algal scrubber are ideal for dealing with the waste and amounts of food the ponies will need. They'd feel right at home. If I had decided to not get an anemone, I may have gone this route again for this new setup.
 
Thanks for the pic of the overflow. So if you had room to put more of a downward curved pipe on the intake would that quiet it down even more?
 
Okay, a few minor changes, but worth documenting nonetheless. I moved some rock into the sump to free up more sand surface area. I also ordered a small amount of extra seagrass to help things along. The fins that hang from the halide fixture were also removed, since I noticed that they were channeling light too far to the center of the tank. This made the spread too wide, so I lowered it by an inch. Now it sits ~6" from the surface. There's no splash, so that is why I was confident in lowering it a bit more, in addition to reducing as much spill as possible. I'll update with pics when the seagrass comes in.
 
Well, I got the seagrass in and I actually ended up with a preponderance of Syringodium as opposed to Halophila. I did end up planting the other half of the tank with the Syringodium, though, in hopes that it may actually do well. I've got about 4" of substrate, most of which is pretty well established. Only time will tell.

On a different note, I'm having to hold off on my scrubber until it can be redesigned. As it stands now, it splashes far too much (which also makes a lot of noise in my bedroom) and takes up too much space--not to mention being rather clumsy. I'm going to have to find a better way to make it work. If not, I may have to rely on the seagrass to do the filtering for me. I'm at least going to try and see if I can't come up with a better design in the near future.
 
Slight update--I've managed to make an inadvertent algal scrubber that seems to be pretty effective. For those interested, it's my glass, lol. It has a nice, thick coat of filamentous algae that looks like a shag carpet surrounding the tank. The interesting part is that there isn't a shred of it anywhere else--not on the rock, sand, or elsewhere. Just goes to show you that they can work pretty well, I suppose. The only thing that concerns me is that my scrubber won't have nearly the same surface area compared to the glass. I'm still in the midst of re-designing my current scrubber, which will hopefully yield results as good (or better than)as what my glass seems to be doing, lol. I've got to use a shorter pipe and screen, since I don't have nearly the pumping power I did in my previous tank. I'm limited to what a mag 7 can do for me. I've also considered stepping up to a mag 9.5, but I think I'll hold off on that unless it is absolutely necessary for what I need to do. For now, I think I'll trim away 25% of the current screen length, decrease the pipe aperture a good bit (it's extremely wide right now) and see where that lands me. I'll have pics of my accidental scrubber up later.
 
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