Banner image

Glenn's First 90g Reef Build (1 Viewer)

hypertech said:
You are probably going to want that 3rd baffle taller. That pump may suck a vortex down at that height and it isn't going to give you much room for evaporation. Id also slide it over further and put the pump perpendicular to the way it is now with the intake pointed towards the glass. This should keep it from sucking up any bubbles that might form from the water going over the baffle. Bubbles into the pump make microbubbles in the display.
Click to expand...

Matt,

Thanks for the suggestion of rotating the pump 90 degrees with intake aimed at glass, will do.

Now when you say "3rd" baffle, do you mean the 8.75in (last bubble trap baffle) or the 5in baffle seperating the pump? The area after the bubble trap will have a depth of 8.75in so it will be 3.75in over the last baffle seperating the pump (that's the baffle that will have an additional 3.75 of egg crate added to its height). So the water height over the return pump with be 8.75in. Hope that makes sense.

Will vortexing still be an issue? Or maybe still increase water height of the return area for the sake of countering evaporation rate.

Thanks again for the input!

-Glenn
 
The short one right before the pump. Make that higher. You want more space to make sure there is no vortexing. Also, all your evap water will come out of that section. So, if you lose a gallon a day (or two days), you want to be sure you have enough volume in there the pump won't run dry if you forget to fill the tank (or reservoir in an ATO) for a day or two.

As it is, it doesn't look like you have any extra water in there for evaporation.

If you were planning on 3" of egg crate, maybe change that to 1" of egg crate and 2" more baffle.
 
Well, I decided to NOT go with the "pressure locking" baffle method mentioned in an earlier post; so I'll be using silicone to lock in the baffles:

Here's why:
1) leaks - sides and bottoms; I even had 2 panels just shy of 11.75in (wider than in article) in width that I thought fit pretty snug -> leaked. I just couldn't get the leaks to stop.

2) loose baffles - I had one baffle (1st one after the skimmer) at exactly 11.5in (width) and it gave in during filling of the skimmer section and got pushed towards the 2nd baffle.

I was warned by David about potential loose baffles but I really wanted to give the method a try for really one reason - ability to easily move/replace baffles. I figured worst case - I silicone - and that's where I stand now. On the plus side, it gave me a chance to see how baffles work and also how a sump chambers work in general. It gave me a chance to change up spacing/positioning of the baffles to my liking - so I made some final placement measurements. So not all was a waste.

So, a question - I have about 1/4in gap on each baffle side from the glass, is this too wide to silicone in? I don't think it will be but I'll looking for those with experience siliconing in baffles.

FYI, Matt, I'm taking your suggestion of raising up the baffle for the near the pump.

Thanks,
Glenn
 
Last edited:
1/4" is pretty big, but there shouldn't be that much pressure on the first baffles. I'd cut a new one for right before the return pump though. Out of all of them, that one has to hold back the most water.

I don't think you need all three of those baffles by the skimmer. Just put the first in and if you need to add the other two, its no big deal to glue them in later. I don't have them in mine and once the skimmer broke in, I have not had a bubble problem.
 
Thanks again Matt!

I'll go ahead and make a new baffle for the return section and also go with one baffle to seperate the skimmer.

I'm now debating if I should go higher than 8.75in for the baffles to help with evaporation, the Octopus Extreme 200 has a recommended operational depth of 8-10in. I could probably go as high as 11in on the baffles and still have room for drainback during an outage; this would require raising up the skimmer. Not too big of a deal since I extra acrylic laying around anyways. ;)

Thanks again,
Glenn
 
I used a little egg crate to adjust the height of the skimmer. I like tall baffles and run my sump pretty deep. That said, make sure you have enough volume for all the water that drains out of the skimmer, down the pipes, and out of the display before the siphon breaks for a power outage.

If you are running a herbie, make sure you have enough space for the water in the overflow that will drain down too.

So long as you have space for that, make them as high as you can.
 
Sump done and dry fit of PVC

Well I've finished the sump:
IMG_7525.JPG


The skimmer chamber is 15in wide and the baffle is 11in high, I'll need to raise the skimmer up a few inches. I'll be making an acrylic base with the scrap pieces I have.
IMG_7526.JPG


Here's the return section, with an 11in high baffle which has 1in cuts into it (my okay 1st attempt at using a router for this design); per Hypertech's suggestion, I've rotated the 1262 (this chamber is 9in wide):
IMG_7527.JPG


The PVC is just dry fitted so I can tweak positions, I also need to make a brace attached to the stand to support the PVC.

So, I'll be performing final fitting of the drain PVC, create the PVC brace and make the acrylic stand for the skimmer. Also, I'll finalize layout for the return plumbing. I'm going to have a T fitting off the return pipe to a valve which will feed water back to the middle section of the sump. The return output will go to a LocLine Y-split as you see in the right corner of the FSS (full sump shot).

With any luck, I'll be performing full leak testing by the weekend. I'm still waiting on those free 55g barrels from my wife's work but there's some red tape to deal with. Hopefully soon; otherwise, I'll be filling this tank the hard way with two 5gal carboys.

Thanks again for hitching along and for the suggestions!

-Glenn
 
Now that I've been tinkering and researching more on sump layouts, should I switch the drain lines to the far left of the sump (away from the 1st baffle)?
(The skimmer's position would reverse also - the collection cup would face closest to front of the sump, at least it'd be easier to clean).

Would this reduce bubbles vs my current layout?

Thanks,
Glenn
 
I don't think it would change bubbles much especially if you are doing a Herbie. With two drain lines, you are doing a herbie right? I don't see the gate valve.

I prefer to use 45 elbows over 90s, but I couldn't say if 90s cause and problems.
 
hypertech,

Can't really say if it's a Herbie design, I'm using a glass-holes.com 1500gph overflow. With their design, they recommend no valves to control drain flow (I'm controlling flow at the return side via a T return + valve to the sump); this is to avoid clogging.

Is there a way to water test PVC layout without having to glue? I may go with the 45 elbows for the drains, I would think this would cut down on "gurgling".

I am using 45s on the return line, FYI.

Thanks,
Glenn
 
Can you put a street elbow on one of the drains in the overflow to make it higher than the other? If you can, you can do a Herbie and I highly recommend it. NO air = NO bubbles = NO gurgling = NO noise.

You may be able to get away with water testing the drains. That return may blow apart an unglued joint. For testing, you could have someone hold a long line of PVC for the return into the tank and keep your finger on the power switch for the pump. Remember that once it is in the tank, it is going to drain whether or not your plumbing falls off.

I went through several iterations on mine and I am happy with it now. Most of it was on the return. Have a nice long piece of flex tube to a barb on a union before switching to hard pipe. That way, you can undo the union and remove the whole assembly for cleaning vs trying to undo the tube/barb under the tank.

Also, install an under cabinet light on the bottom of your tank. You'll be happy about it later when you need to do a little work or clean the skimmer and it is dark out.
 
Last edited:
hypertech said:
Can you put a street elbow on one of the drains in the overflow to make it higher than the other? If you can, you can do a Herbie and I highly recommend it. NO air = NO bubbles = NO gurgling = NO noise.

You may be able to get away with water testing the drains. That return may blow apart an unglued joint. For testing, you could have someone hold a long line of PVC for the return into the tank and keep your finger on the power switch for the pump. Remember that once it is in the tank, it is going to drain whether or not your plumbing falls off.

I went through several iterations on mine and I am happy with it now. Most of it was on the return. Have a nice long piece of flex tube to a barb on a union before switching to hard pipe. That way, you can undo the union and remove the whole assembly for cleaning vs trying to undo the tube/barb under the tank.

Also, install an under cabinet light on the bottom of your tank. You'll be happy about it later when you need to do a little work or clean the skimmer and it is dark out.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, no, the overflow is only about 1.25in in internal width and their design involves baffles (supposedly the design mimicks a durso set up, though don't quote me on that - though it is a cool set up, if you want picks, I can take some).

I think I'm going to glue the drain pipes (unions and a straight run) upstream of that 2nd upstream elbow - that section will not change anyways. This way I can play around with drain spout location; the unions will allow me move the pipes in a Left/Right fashion until I finalize placement.

Funny, I also thought, my biggest challenge is the return plumbing since I want to have a T off the return to dump back into the return section which is controlled via a valve - the idea being to control return flow to tank but not stress the return pump.

So, I think for now, I'll just work on finalizing the drain position while just using flex tube for the return.

Thanks again Matt for your input! I just want to try and get it right and ideally as quiet as possible.

-Glenn
 
WooHoo!!! Drain plumbing to sump is DONE! Return line is semi-complete, enough that I can perform a full tank leak test and test run the equipment!!!

Going to bed now, way too light headed from PVC primer and glue....:greenguy:
 
Well, the tank is filled!!! with tap water:nuts:

Testing for leaks and switched the position of some of the drains. I changed the 90 degree elbows to 45 elbows for the bottom part of the drains (thanks hypertech!). I used spa-flex for the entire return line.

A gate valve controls flow to tank while a ball valve controls the T-split return to the sump.

Filling the tank up:
IMG_1280.JPG



Sump in action:
IMG_1283.JPG


Return line valves (gate is gray, ball is white):
IMG_1285.JPG



Vid of sump running, that Octopus Extreme is pretty loud.

The return pump is an Eheim 1262, this sucker kicks out some flow - at full bore, the overflow and drains are noisy, but some tweaking with the valves correct that.

The skimmer is the loudest piece of equipment in the sump, I can here it from 20+ft away. I'm hoping this will quiet down in saltwater.

I know things are different when running saltwater and after some biofilm builds up, but I'm a bit concerned on the noise of the skimmer. I'll have to see if things calm down after running in salt water; this will have to wait until after Thanksgiving - heading to Chicago to visit family.

-Glenn
 
Last edited:
Hmm, I'm debating adding a 2nd baffle downstream of the skimmer baffle. This would be an "under" baffle (water flowing underneath baffle). When I increase drain flow, large water bubbles flow over the skimmer baffle and carry over into the middle chamber. This may not be a big deal when I'm running saltwater and have LR in the middle chamber; it's just from a timing perspective.

I'll be draining out the tap water and prepping for saltwater fill, so this would be the ideal time to "lock-in" the sump design. I have the baffle cut from the "pressure-lock" design, it's just a little wider than I like; but if I overfill with silicone, it should be fine.
 
Finally, saltwater!!! :greenguy:

IMG_1351.JPG


It's filling slowly and I've added some salt, though I need to get more tomorrow. Also, may go ahead and pick up sand. I already have about 60lbs of dry rock.

If I go with a DSB using 4in of "sugar-fine" sand (~180lbs), should I put the sand in first then the rock or visa versa?

Thanks,
Glenn
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Back
Top