Well, I figured it's about time for an update. Floors are done, so the tank is finally in progress. The whole setup consists of new-to-me parts that I'm slowly meshing. Most came in one package and had been run before, others are leftovers from my 75G that stayed in FL when we moved west. I FW tested everything over the weekend, and only had one tiny drip at the return pump outlet. A little more teflon tape and it seems to be fine now. Here's the specs, w/ pics of it's current state below:
- 90 G glass w/ single overflow of unknown brand (I think Oceanic, as I've seen an Oceanic that looked like this before...but no independant confirmation of that). Drains via Durso to a 1 1/4" flexi to a T inside a filter bag (note the too-small filter bag floating in the bottom of the first chamber...oh well, I'll find some use for it).
- 30 G glass sump w/ one full-height acrylic baffle w/ teeth, and then one 1/4-height baffle running perpendicular to the full-height and about 3/4 of the way to the back. It's not really visible in the pic. The 1/4-height has two 1.5" holes drilled in it, one on top of the other, at it's left edge, opposite where the return pump bulkhead is. Best I can figure, these were put in to improve flow from the refugium to the return pump, w/ the baffle serving as the divider from the fuge to the return.
- Return pump is an Iwaki WMD-30RLXT rated at 960 gph. It's running about 6' of head, and I've had to dial it back about 1/4 to keep the flow through the sump reasonable. I'm not so worried about water moving through the sump too fast, more so that the water from the first chamber dumps rather fast and loud through the teeth to the second chamber when the pump's wide open. Once it gets some good film going, I'm hoping to ramp that up just a bit. Returns via 3/4" to a SeaSwirl in the center (which currently gets caught occasionally and clicks...gonna have to work on that) and two other points on the right side.
- Lighting is AM Aquaspacelight w/ 2x250W MH and 2x24W PC in the center. The PCs aren't firing due to a bad ballast. I'm not enamored with the [hot] internal ballasts, so still giving some thought to how to rework that and replace the actinic function. The MHs are fine for now. Unknown generic fuge light.
- I've got an older Queen Turbo Skimmer that actually worked pretty well on my 75G that isn't in the sump yet, since I managed to lose the pump I had running it. I've got a tiny Rio that isn't enough, and a Rio 14HF that blows it away, so I've got to get something in between. I've got a bunch of parts to a Terminator (thanks downhill_biker!) that I'm working on that will be the real skimmer, but the Queen will do for now (they're a pain to dial in, but actually function pretty darn well).
-I'm toying with what to do w/ that 14HF (it's just stirring up water right now) - probably try and make it work w/ the DIY skimmer. I still need some more movement, so I'm thinking a Koralia in the upper left and lower right to augment the return (would love a Vortech...can't afford it). Maybe I'll just work a closed loop w/ the 14HF.
Heading out to the desert on Saturday with the wife and kids (yes, I'm missing Reef Fest) to get LB sand and rock (the kids are very excited). I picked up a bag of the Nature's Ocean Bio-Active reef sand to kick start the cycle (never used it before, but it came w/ a good recommendation), and that's what you see in the fuge. Need to get some rubble LR and macro in there too, and I'm going to deepen the sand as well.
I'm fighting some microbubbles coming through the return, but I think (hoping) that will correct itself with some macro in there and once everything gets a good film going. The plumbing is quite tight, and the overflow from the first sump chamber to the second/third definitely creates some bubbles, so I'm pretty sure that's the source. I tried to figure a way to engineer some more bubble-trap baffles, but the existing perpendicular baffles made that kind of un-workable. Oh well, I'll figure something out. The filter bag really helps w/ drain noise/bubbles - they're non-existent.
Please feel free to make some recommendations, and I'll get some more pics up after this weekend!
Ryan
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