Kessil

200g build needs your expert opinion.

So I'm in the process of building a 200g system. 125g display tank with a 75 gallon sump. Display is 6 ft long sump is 4 ft long. I did a lot of research on my system but that doesn't mean I know what I'm doing. I would love to hear plusses and minuses to my set up and what you guys would change. Like to hear feed back so speak up. I am not 100% sure if my tank is tempered or not so I'm doing off over flow inside a custom over flow box. Any suggestions?? I'm also curious about my baffles in my sump does it look like my water level looks accurate. Or am I missing the whole baffle consept.

Thank you for your time and info

Travis.
ec03f79694d5f43f9d63b109c63b2329.jpg


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If you use a tee next to the ell on the right side of your drain, you can add a capped riser with a small hole drilled in the cap. It will act as a vent in your drain line and keep it quieter with better flow.

You can wire your cabinet fans to a humidistat so they come on if the humidity gets too high.

Baffles on the macro chamber are too high and will make water level higher than shown in the skimmer chamber. The way to look at it is that water won't run uphill.
 
I'm not sure how your overflow box is setup. Is it in the tank? Usually only the bottom is tempered. You can buy and external overflow box from modular marine that issues holes drilled in the back.

As Mr. Ugly said, the water level can only get lower down the chain. You can't make it go higher. So the skimmer chamber will end up the same level as the fuge.

Where is the chiller returning water to?


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What you could do is move the return area to before the macro algae area, then tee off your return to bring water to that spot. Although I'd do that more for a refugium than a straight "lets grow macro" mentality. If you are intent on having a macro box, I'd only have 2 baffles installed, simply to have water flow pushing along the bottom as you might have a better job at getting tumbling action that way, unless you plan on having a sand bed there as well, the purpose of the 3 baffle system is to use as a bubble trap, and the last set is more than enough.

I'm sure it's just your drawing too, but I'm not a fan on your skimmer area, make sure your water level is set to be the usable height of your skimmer (usually between 8-10"), but you don't want too much water otherwise you'll have to build a stand for your skimmer to operate properly, and then you run into the issue of having enough room in your stand to remove the collection cup. Another idea too is to remove the skimmer from there, put the macro algae there (or a single baffle between the sock and the algae) then have the skimmer chamber next since your last set of baffles need to be lowered anyways.

And a humidistat could be useful, but I would worry that it would be on all the time. Something like this would probably be great
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Hum...883793?hash=item4b0c3d3011:g:HL4AAOSwmLlYAEsJ

I use something like this, but this is hardwired into the wall/power.
https://www.amazon.com/Humidity-Con...4197864&sr=8-5&keywords=humidistat+controller

Also, unless you have an airtight sump you might want to just have the fans blowing outward, as the lower pressure inside will naturally draw in air from any crack/hole/etc you have.
 
I would use both bulkheads inside the OF box as drains and set the return line/s over the rim.
I like a slow flow fuge and as much volume as possible for this, you could even set the fuge as a time out zone for some naughty fish of for some other corals that don't require tons of light.
I assume you will weld a steel stand, right? Double check on the height inside and plan for future upgrades, have in mind if you want some reactors, you can always place them inside the sump tank if you run out of real estate. Your chiller can be T'd off from either return or drain, since you could have two drains, flow to the chiller can be achieved by ball or gate valves to adjust as needed. The retun line can also be controlled with valves to divert flow to the chiller.
 
That center overflow box might look really ugly if it does not blend in well with the tank.
Consider placing smaller overflows in both corners.

Big sump. Not a bad thing, except it takes up almost all usable space in your stand.
 
Regarding sump/baffles:
Macros is lower, returns are lowest.

Alternatives:

You can send drains directly into socks in skimmer section, avoiding that extra section.

You can have your macros/fuge and return pumps in the same section, no baffles.
 
I was worried about humidity and was worried I'd need to put in some fans but I started with having lids on my sump and it works great. The only moisture I've noticed is when my skimmer over acts and bubbles over.
 
If you use a tee next to the ell on the right side of your drain, you can add a capped riser with a small hole drilled in the cap. It will act as a vent in your drain line and keep it quieter with better flow.

You can wire your cabinet fans to a humidistat so they come on if the humidity gets too high.

Baffles on the macro chamber are too high and will make water level higher than shown in the skimmer chamber. The way to look at it is that water won't run uphill.
I was going to put the spout with a cap and a hole to make it quieter but I wasn't a hundred percent on my overflow design but I think I have it dialed down now

A humidifier is a great idea I was going to attach them to my light timer so they turn on when my lights turn on and turn off and my lights turn off

And yes a few people also pointed out that my baffles are not correct now that I know I will redesign and post more pictures. It definitely makes sense that water will not run uphill

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I'm not sure how your overflow box is setup. Is it in the tank? Usually only the bottom is tempered. You can buy and external overflow box from modular marine that issues holes drilled in the back.

As Mr. Ugly said, the water level can only get lower down the chain. You can't make it go higher. So the skimmer chamber will end up the same level as the fuge.

Where is the chiller returning water to?


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My overflow box is on the inside of my tank I will post some pictures once I'm done with drawing up blueprint and change the baffles so they are correct. The chiller return is going back into my return pump section which I know is not the best place for it so I could change it if it becomes a problem I can also move the chiller and auto top off to the other side of the stand

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Regarding sump/baffles:
Macros is lower, returns are lowest.

Alternatives:

You can send drains directly into socks in skimmer section, avoiding that extra section.

You can have your macros/fuge and return pumps in the same section, no baffles.
I have the extra section at the very front hopefully to help reduce noise so that there's not a bunch of splashing into the sauce it just flows into the first section then over into the socks that is my thought process at least

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I was worried about humidity and was worried I'd need to put in some fans but I started with having lids on my sump and it works great. The only moisture I've noticed is when my skimmer over acts and bubbles over.
The reasoning for the fans is because it is inside of a warehouse and it gets really hot in the warehouse so my thought is the fans are going to help from the heat staying inside my stand and overheating my tank also will help ventilation for my chiller

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I would use both bulkheads inside the OF box as drains and set the return line/s over the rim.
I like a slow flow fuge and as much volume as possible for this, you could even set the fuge as a time out zone for some naughty fish of for some other corals that don't require tons of light.
I assume you will weld a steel stand, right? Double check on the height inside and plan for future upgrades, have in mind if you want some reactors, you can always place them inside the sump tank if you run out of real estate. Your chiller can be T'd off from either return or drain, since you could have two drains, flow to the chiller can be achieved by ball or gate valves to adjust as needed. The retun line can also be controlled with valves to divert flow to the chiller.
That's a good idea to tee off my Chiller under my return

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
 
What you could do is move the return area to before the macro algae area, then tee off your return to bring water to that spot. Although I'd do that more for a refugium than a straight "lets grow macro" mentality. If you are intent on having a macro box, I'd only have 2 baffles installed, simply to have water flow pushing along the bottom as you might have a better job at getting tumbling action that way, unless you plan on having a sand bed there as well, the purpose of the 3 baffle system is to use as a bubble trap, and the last set is more than enough.

I'm sure it's just your drawing too, but I'm not a fan on your skimmer area, make sure your water level is set to be the usable height of your skimmer (usually between 8-10"), but you don't want too much water otherwise you'll have to build a stand for your skimmer to operate properly, and then you run into the issue of having enough room in your stand to remove the collection cup. Another idea too is to remove the skimmer from there, put the macro algae there (or a single baffle between the sock and the algae) then have the skimmer chamber next since your last set of baffles need to be lowered anyways.

And a humidistat could be useful, but I would worry that it would be on all the time. Something like this would probably be great
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Digital-Hum...883793?hash=item4b0c3d3011:g:HL4AAOSwmLlYAEsJ

I use something like this, but this is hardwired into the wall/power.
https://www.amazon.com/Humidity-Con...4197864&sr=8-5&keywords=humidistat+controller

Also, unless you have an airtight sump you might want to just have the fans blowing outward, as the lower pressure inside will naturally draw in air from any crack/hole/etc you have.
I'm going to change my baffles and I'm thinking about where I should put my skimmer instead of being at the front maybe over towards my return

The reason I am having the vent fans is because my tank is in a large Warehouse and the warehouse gets pretty hot in the summer so much thought as the fans are going to help cool off my stand

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
 
I'm not sure how your overflow box is setup. Is it in the tank? Usually only the bottom is tempered. You can buy and external overflow box from modular marine that issues holes drilled in the back.

As Mr. Ugly said, the water level can only get lower down the chain. You can't make it go higher. So the skimmer chamber will end up the same level as the fuge.

Where is the chiller returning water to?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I thought only the bottom was tempered for large tanks as well but I'm afraid to take the risk because I got a quote and it was $200 just for a new back panel

Sent from my VS987 using Tapatalk
 
I would use both bulkheads inside the OF box as drains and set the return line/s over the rim.
I like a slow flow fuge and as much volume as possible for this, you could even set the fuge as a time out zone for some naughty fish of for some other corals that don't require tons of light.
I assume you will weld a steel stand, right? Double check on the height inside and plan for future upgrades, have in mind if you want some reactors, you can always place them inside the sump tank if you run out of real estate. Your chiller can be T'd off from either return or drain, since you could have two drains, flow to the chiller can be achieved by ball or gate valves to adjust as needed. The retun line can also be controlled with valves to divert flow to the chiller.
And yes I'm going to build up my own stand I was thinking about going 316 (marine grade) stainless steel but that is way too expensive. So I decided to go aluminum and I'm going to powder coat it

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I thought only the bottom was tempered for large tanks as well but I'm afraid to take the risk because I got a quote and it was $200 just for a new back panel

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So if the tank is not drilled, and you are not going to drill it in case it IS tempered. How is the overflow box going to work? Hang on the back?


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And yes I'm going to build up my own stand I was thinking about going 316 (marine grade) stainless steel but that is way too expensive. So I decided to go aluminum and I'm going to powder coat it

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Sweet!
Post pics of the welding process for Aluminum
 
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