That looks great, and I'm not surprised. Are you planning on door hardware, or is there enough room to grip them from the top?
3 Foot Nano Tank (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter eschulist
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OP
OP
I was going to do hardware when I modeled it up, but I can open it from the bottom very easily. Still undecided on if I'll add any or if I do what style they will be until I pick a top.
Right now that's my big thing, both in color and price.
I planned for solid black. I found one place that does granite remnants and I can do that for around $140. My wife then said black would probably be the worst color due to it showing any water spots and salt, food residue etc. So then I thought a travertine or similar looking sand colored top would look cool. I haven't been able to find a reasonably priced piece though. And buying it direct without going to scrap route is almost out of the question. Getting a new piece cut is usually 50-100+ a sq/ft.
I thought a solid surface counter top would be cool. They are acrylic and come in lots of colors. They usually are only 1/2" thick though.
If anyone has ideas or suggestions please put it all out there so I'm more informed.
Right now that's my big thing, both in color and price.
I planned for solid black. I found one place that does granite remnants and I can do that for around $140. My wife then said black would probably be the worst color due to it showing any water spots and salt, food residue etc. So then I thought a travertine or similar looking sand colored top would look cool. I haven't been able to find a reasonably priced piece though. And buying it direct without going to scrap route is almost out of the question. Getting a new piece cut is usually 50-100+ a sq/ft.
I thought a solid surface counter top would be cool. They are acrylic and come in lots of colors. They usually are only 1/2" thick though.
If anyone has ideas or suggestions please put it all out there so I'm more informed.
jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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I'm still in favor of the dark black granite top; for a few reasons.
Nice looking photos!
- The dark color will show salt creep, etc., but that's a good thing. You can easily notice when something needs to get wiped up before it causes any damage or smells.
- Granite is granite. Tough to beat for strength and durability.
- You've found a remnant that works. If you pass it up now, you may not find another piece for a while.
Nice looking photos!
The stand looks awesome, and I can tell you put a lot of thought into the design. Looks like Jason did a great job on bringing the design to life!
I agree with Jason on all three points for the darker granite.
I agree with Jason on all three points for the darker granite.
OP
OP
Dang!!
I just had about 40 random pipe fittings, valves, unions, and other misc pieces in my Amazon cart. I've been slowly adding to it each night as I've been thinking about layouts and planning for each needed piece. Tonight 20 of them say they are now unavailable or are now sold by some random company that is charging almost 5x the price of what they used to be direct from Amazon. All of the unions I had set aside aren't sold by amazon or anyone. The true union valves I had in my cart all went to low stock so I just completed my order with what was still available. Hopefully they show up. Looks like Im going to have to do a bunch of small orders to eventually get everything.
I just had about 40 random pipe fittings, valves, unions, and other misc pieces in my Amazon cart. I've been slowly adding to it each night as I've been thinking about layouts and planning for each needed piece. Tonight 20 of them say they are now unavailable or are now sold by some random company that is charging almost 5x the price of what they used to be direct from Amazon. All of the unions I had set aside aren't sold by amazon or anyone. The true union valves I had in my cart all went to low stock so I just completed my order with what was still available. Hopefully they show up. Looks like Im going to have to do a bunch of small orders to eventually get everything.
OP
OP
Ok so 4 different stores later and I think I have all my plumbing parts. Seeing them all lined up is making me nervous. This is a lot of PVC and joints. For each part having 2 (up to 4 on the unions and ball valves) points of failure or leaks this seems bad. Also a lot of the 3/4" and 1" parts are very big. I probably underestimated how big they were when doing my 3D model and may have to reconfigure some things to make sure it all fits. Maybe I keep it closer to my current build and just use one valve for the return line, one valve for the reactors and don't even use the Wye Check with double unions. If I get a good DC pump it might make the check and extra ball valves unnecessary.
Still waiting on the caps and mounting brackets for the mini reactors. They will be black. Its unfortunate that the canisters have a purple haze. Does anyone else have these, are they slightly purple, grey, perfectly clear?
The 2 White fittings are Male threaded Tees with sockets on both ends. This seems to be a unique fitting as it only came in Sch 40 but it shouldnt matter I was going to paint them black to match the black PVC on the exterior anyway. They are for an external durso style overflow.
The new 12 gallon tank is also ready to go! I ordered this one in low iron. Im honestly not sure what my current one is. The top is currently waiting to be cut. Should be ready by next week.
Still waiting on the caps and mounting brackets for the mini reactors. They will be black. Its unfortunate that the canisters have a purple haze. Does anyone else have these, are they slightly purple, grey, perfectly clear?
The 2 White fittings are Male threaded Tees with sockets on both ends. This seems to be a unique fitting as it only came in Sch 40 but it shouldnt matter I was going to paint them black to match the black PVC on the exterior anyway. They are for an external durso style overflow.
The new 12 gallon tank is also ready to go! I ordered this one in low iron. Im honestly not sure what my current one is. The top is currently waiting to be cut. Should be ready by next week.
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Looking awesome so far! If you need help with anything let me know, I'm just down Washington.
jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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Yeah, plumbing does seem like a daunting task when all laid out in front of you. It's such a simple concept when drawn out on paper but when you actually see it all sitting in front of you, it appears to be overwhelming.
Once you make the first cuts and begin piecing it all together, it's fun; just like a when you're a kid playing with legos. Wait... I still play with Legos!
Looks great!
And???? What did you choose?
Once you make the first cuts and begin piecing it all together, it's fun; just like a when you're a kid playing with legos. Wait... I still play with Legos!
Looks great!
And???? What did you choose?
OP
OP
I went with the dark granite remnant at the first place. I went to 2 other places and while they had a fairly decent size selection of scraps none were very close to what I wanted. At Eagans Building Supply Outlet there was one that looked nice and had a crushed coral/sand look, but they don't cut anything and you have to buy the whole remnant. Taking it somewhere else to cut plus the slab would have been too much $$$. For that price I could have bought new.
I totally understand on the plumbing. It should be fun once I get going. I'm just a little indecisive on what layout Im going to go with. I'll post a few of my layouts tonight or tomorrow and let others give me advice or tips on what I have so far.
Nice looking assortment of fittings. I wouldn't worry too much about all the unions. The Georg Fischer stuff isn't the crap they sell at Menards and Home Depot that leak. I'm surprised they only had that tee in sch 40. If it starts to bother you too bad, Spears has that one in sch 80
jlanger
@thatfishcookieguy
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Nice call on the black granite. It will look really sharp with your tank and stand.
I also looked at Savko's website to see if the had that tee fitting in black, but they do not; just the slip tee.
I still have your two door shelves sitting here.
If I make a trip towards The Cities soon, I can let you know and get those to you.
I also looked at Savko's website to see if the had that tee fitting in black, but they do not; just the slip tee.
I still have your two door shelves sitting here.
If I make a trip towards The Cities soon, I can let you know and get those to you.
OP
OP
Almost ready to start plumbing. A few straggler parts and the stand top should be here this week.
Until then can I get some help / recommendations / suggestions on ways to improve my plumbing and or sump. Here are 2 of my main designs. I've probably created 3-5 others but they are unfinished as these two seemed to be the best layouts and showed the 2 main styles.
[FONT="]In all these examples I have 2 1" drains, and 2 1/2" returns. The main pump plumbing until the split is 3/4"[/FONT]
Internal Pump Layout. This one uses less plumbing and allows the pump to be taken offline without dripping water everywhere. The issue with this design if that the large plumbing assembly above the pump is 17.5" tall. The stand interior is only 27.5" so that means the sump can only be 10" tall to allow the sump to be cleanly removed at the union. After looking at it more this isn't a HUGE issue as I could have a taller sump. I'd just have to disconnect both ball valves unions and I could remove a 12-14" tall sump if I really had to. In my example I show a glass AquaMaxx that fits. Its only 9.5" tall. This allows for the union to be in place and for the entire sump to be slid out if needed. The issue with having such a shallow sump is when operating it will only have 5ish inches of water. This barely covers the whole pump and is actually less than the height of my NeoTherm heater which says it should be installed vertical.
Blue tape is holding the reactors together as I'm missing the thread / thread union to join the two.
The next example is having the pump external. This allows for a taller more cube like sump. Two extra valves are needed to remove the pump from service. I just noticed while looking at this image that I screwed up the placement of the wye check valve. It needs to be above the Tee for the reactor (Like in my internal example) otherwise the water will just back flow through the reactor when the pump is offline. The two examples also show the difference between having both drains on the back of the sump or on the left side of the sump. Is there much of a benefit either way?
By having them both in the back I could do a custom sized ZeroEdge sump like this.
Or on the side like this
For people that have sumps like this, with the filter sock offset from the drains, how much detritus is trapped at the bottom of the drains that never goes over the wall to get filtered out by the socks? I'd imagine going straight into the sock would make sure everything is filtered out but I lose the ability to have a cover to reduce noise and splashing.
If anyone has tips or sees anything that could be rearranged let me know (Just like I noticed my mistake in the order of the tee and wye check valve placement)
Until then can I get some help / recommendations / suggestions on ways to improve my plumbing and or sump. Here are 2 of my main designs. I've probably created 3-5 others but they are unfinished as these two seemed to be the best layouts and showed the 2 main styles.
[FONT="]In all these examples I have 2 1" drains, and 2 1/2" returns. The main pump plumbing until the split is 3/4"[/FONT]
Internal Pump Layout. This one uses less plumbing and allows the pump to be taken offline without dripping water everywhere. The issue with this design if that the large plumbing assembly above the pump is 17.5" tall. The stand interior is only 27.5" so that means the sump can only be 10" tall to allow the sump to be cleanly removed at the union. After looking at it more this isn't a HUGE issue as I could have a taller sump. I'd just have to disconnect both ball valves unions and I could remove a 12-14" tall sump if I really had to. In my example I show a glass AquaMaxx that fits. Its only 9.5" tall. This allows for the union to be in place and for the entire sump to be slid out if needed. The issue with having such a shallow sump is when operating it will only have 5ish inches of water. This barely covers the whole pump and is actually less than the height of my NeoTherm heater which says it should be installed vertical.
Blue tape is holding the reactors together as I'm missing the thread / thread union to join the two.
The next example is having the pump external. This allows for a taller more cube like sump. Two extra valves are needed to remove the pump from service. I just noticed while looking at this image that I screwed up the placement of the wye check valve. It needs to be above the Tee for the reactor (Like in my internal example) otherwise the water will just back flow through the reactor when the pump is offline. The two examples also show the difference between having both drains on the back of the sump or on the left side of the sump. Is there much of a benefit either way?
By having them both in the back I could do a custom sized ZeroEdge sump like this.
Or on the side like this
For people that have sumps like this, with the filter sock offset from the drains, how much detritus is trapped at the bottom of the drains that never goes over the wall to get filtered out by the socks? I'd imagine going straight into the sock would make sure everything is filtered out but I lose the ability to have a cover to reduce noise and splashing.
If anyone has tips or sees anything that could be rearranged let me know (Just like I noticed my mistake in the order of the tee and wye check valve placement)
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Depends on the flow, mine is setup like that and at lessor flow it created more or less a settling area. Neat in some aspects, easy place it siphon out (always thought some crabs might make a neat natural filter there) but unless your sump is elevated for easy siphoning it would suck. In reality, it's just one more things to clean. Since I upgraded my return pump nothing settles in there due to high flow - overall I think that's better since I'm already cleaning the socks why clean one more thing.
My sump has two separate areas, one for each overflow pipe. The main one never has build up, the emergency will get a little since its low flow. I either close off the main so the emergency gets some flow to it or just turkey baster it. Not too much of an issue for me.
OP
OP
My flow is going to be way less than yours I'd imagine. The sump is only elevated 4 inches or so off the ground. A siphon can pull a little out but it has almost no suction and will likely stay dirty until I do my 6-12 month cleaning of everything and remove the sump from the stand. I am pretty fond of turkey basting my main tank, doing it to the sump too wouldn't be too bad. Maybe the 2 drains should go directly into two 4" socks, or all 3 lines into a short 7"er.
New Question
How much more vibration/noise would I get by having the pump be external?
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I run a Trigger Sump where the drains are offset from the socks, and water overflows from the drain section into the filter sock.
Because of the high flow, i don't have any detritus settling in the drain section. Only have a ton of Pineapple sponges growing there.
A big positive you have IMO is that you have 7 inch socks. my sump has 4 inch socks. I hate the 4 inch socks because they clog up in approx 4-5 days and are a PIA to turn inside out when trying to clean them. 7 inch socks are easier in that aspect.
Having 2 socks is good because incase if 1's clogged up the other is still usually doing its job while you change the clogged one out. with just 1 sock, if that's clogged the detritus overflows into your skimmer section and next thing you know you are vacuuming it pretty often.
Noise - you will hear noise with water going from the drain section and falling into the filter sock. When the sock's new its more noise, as the filter sock gets older, the noise does go down. For me the way around it were 1) i had the folks at Trigger Sys make me a perforated acrylic plate that i just place over the filter sock and that helps a lot. 2) I also run carbon passively in a media bag that i place in filter sock which again helps with the noise of water falling the filter bag, and 3) raised the height of the water in the skimmer section as much as possible to avoid having the water to fall too far when entering the filter sock.
Pump - i run an internal ehiem 1262 placed on a silicone pad (ones for kitchens), except for a low hum. very quiet.
Because of the high flow, i don't have any detritus settling in the drain section. Only have a ton of Pineapple sponges growing there.
A big positive you have IMO is that you have 7 inch socks. my sump has 4 inch socks. I hate the 4 inch socks because they clog up in approx 4-5 days and are a PIA to turn inside out when trying to clean them. 7 inch socks are easier in that aspect.
Having 2 socks is good because incase if 1's clogged up the other is still usually doing its job while you change the clogged one out. with just 1 sock, if that's clogged the detritus overflows into your skimmer section and next thing you know you are vacuuming it pretty often.
Noise - you will hear noise with water going from the drain section and falling into the filter sock. When the sock's new its more noise, as the filter sock gets older, the noise does go down. For me the way around it were 1) i had the folks at Trigger Sys make me a perforated acrylic plate that i just place over the filter sock and that helps a lot. 2) I also run carbon passively in a media bag that i place in filter sock which again helps with the noise of water falling the filter bag, and 3) raised the height of the water in the skimmer section as much as possible to avoid having the water to fall too far when entering the filter sock.
Pump - i run an internal ehiem 1262 placed on a silicone pad (ones for kitchens), except for a low hum. very quiet.
danknuc
Senior Member
A bucket Head vacuum from Home Depot will easily suck anything out and they are about $22, if you have enough room to run a siphon then there should be enough room the get the vacuum hose in there.
I did the ghetto version. I took a pvc end cap, drilled a 1/2 hole in it for some 1/2" tubing cut about 8-10" long ( extra that came with BRS Cannister filters ). Duct Tapes the end cap to the end of the bucket head hose. This gives you more time and not as large of suction and can fine tune since not as large diameter. Duct tape holds just fine since when it's on the suction will hold it on as well.
OP
OP
Still undecided on which layout I like more. It seems to be really sump dependent.
Tonight when I go home I'm going to fix the second plumbing layout as there are fittings that need to be switched and that will change the piping a bit. What if I go with sump 2 (both drains on the left) and have the pump external? Is there a need for having the adjustable weir, filter block etc? What if it was just the 2 drains, 1 7" sock and then a little space for more equipment and that was it. Total length around 18-20" I save a 7" filter sock holder somewhere, maybe all 3 drains just go straight into that and I just do the glass tank.... decisions decisions....
Tonight when I go home I'm going to fix the second plumbing layout as there are fittings that need to be switched and that will change the piping a bit. What if I go with sump 2 (both drains on the left) and have the pump external? Is there a need for having the adjustable weir, filter block etc? What if it was just the 2 drains, 1 7" sock and then a little space for more equipment and that was it. Total length around 18-20" I save a 7" filter sock holder somewhere, maybe all 3 drains just go straight into that and I just do the glass tank.... decisions decisions....
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any particular reason why you are leaning towards and external return pump vs internal. i prefer externals for a larger tank. you could even look at the Ecotech Vectra DC pump. that way you can crank it up for more flow through the tank when you need. you aren't putting in powerheads right?
as far as sumps go, i like to go with the largest sump i can fit in. more water volume you have the better off you'd be IMO. plus a larger sump gives you more room for upgrades/ease of maintenance
as far as sumps go, i like to go with the largest sump i can fit in. more water volume you have the better off you'd be IMO. plus a larger sump gives you more room for upgrades/ease of maintenance