Michael's 300 In Vegas

[derek_SR]

Check valves are guaranteed to foul up and fail eventually, often within 6 months. All the professional plumbers I know in the aquarium hobby (one plumber) hates them. In the situation I have one pump down, I'll notice from my power drop eventually. In five years my main vectra l1 pump has never failed, so this is a pretty unlikely situation. It's not a problem if one pump pumps some water back into the sump. Turnover in the tank through the sump isn't as important a in tank water motion.

I was going to rig up a slick ball valve and union setup so I can swap pumps on the fly if it ever is needed though, because PVC parts are relatively cheap. I also liked my in sump salt mixing station so another ball valve that flows back into the sump directly will be there.

This was basically my approach as well. Some valves in key locations (including in between) to divert water wherever, including into both lines in the case of a failure or pump swap. If one pump goes down, it does dramatically reduce the flow and gets very noisy but it keeps the water moving which, as you point out, is the important part! In my case there’s a closed valve between so the good pump isn’t forcing water through the dead pump, but the tank IS continuously siphoning water back down through the dead pump…

My pumps are on distinct lines when running normally because of the valve in between, my impression from some preliminary couch googling was that two returns plumbed together would “fight” each other and create more head pressure. I have the luxury of using two return nozzles so I didn’t dig much deeper.

 

[H2OPlayar]

There are a few videos that go through the details of pumps in parallel but the graph on the below site shows it pretty well. Two pumps in parallel gets you more flow rate downstream. Two pumps in series gets you more head pressure.

Pumps - Parallel vs. Serial Arrangement

Adding head and flowrate for pumps arranged in parallel vs. serial.

www.engineeringtoolbox.com

Sure, funny stuff happens when things fail, but we are designing the system with robust parts so failures are rare, and with redundancy so if a part fails, the system is fine. Realistically, if the flow between the sump and tank stops, the tank is still fine with water motion in the tank from wavemakers.

My plan is also to have enough sump volume to hold the water that would backflow, which is how any good sump should be sized.

Now here's another good topic for discussion is sump manufacturer. The local shops recommend advanced acrylics and elite.

I think I'll need to go custom and don't plan on ruining mechanical filtration regularly. I might storm the tank and put socks in occasionally to get ditritus out of the crushed coral, but I had really good luck with no mechanical filtration on my last system.

 

[H2OPlayar]

Drywall and 2x 4 gang outlets installed on it's own dedicated circuit that used to be the tub upstairs. The thicker wall was existing and we demo'd the area where the thin wall is and reframed. This maximized the amount of tank showing in the office while keeping as much floor space as possible, and still keeping a fairly large tank volume. 36" wide just took too much floor space from the office, but it was seriously considered.

 

[Coral reefer]

I’m not a fan of socks, but I do like roller mats ok. If it’s only for occasional use socks probably good enough tho

 

[richiev]

I feel like acrylic sumps are superior to glass. Glass's benefits don't feel very relevant to something stuck under a tank, and the lighter weight plus much higher damage protection seem very valuable for a sump. I say this having accidentally chipped the corner of a red sea sump with just a seemingly minor tap on the ground while moving it.

Unless of course you're just using cheap petco breeders. Those also seem like a wonderful option.

I'm negative socks, but I like the DIY auto-roller I have on my frag tank. 3D printed all the parts. Water stays extremely clear and requires 0 maintenance.

For you, someone who'll likely have a ginormous fuge and a ton of rubble for pods, I feel a roller system wouldn't have many downsides, but of course you've shown it's not needed.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

This rocks!
I’m very happy for your new aquarium real estate
But I will say I hate “new” systems and “new” fish
There’s always some issue with a new system and new fish die first
All part of that ride...

 

[H2OPlayar]

This rocks!
I’m very happy for your new aquarium real estate
But I will say I hate “new” systems and “new” fish
There’s always some issue with a new system and new fish die first
All part of that ride...

I agree. That's why I'm bringing as much of my biome out to Vegas as possible. Already flew two pajama cardinals, and a bunch of leathers, gorgs, sponges and rubble to get a 40 cube "mature" as fast as possible. Also planning on driving my fish out in a rental car. So lots of planning and fun to be had there.

 

[richiev]

I agree. That's why I'm bringing as much of my biome out to Vegas as possible. Already flew two pajama cardinals, and a bunch of leathers, gorgs, sponges and rubble to get a 40 cube "mature" as fast as possible. Also planning on driving my fish out in a rental car. So lots of planning and fun to be had there.

You're giving me flashbacks to moving my tank in my car and losing everything because my car broke down! Have all your backup plans ready!

 

[Matma]

Hey BAR,

I'm starting the construction on the wall and ordered the tank so I'm starting the journal to get more eyes on the project.

I ordered a 72" x 30" x 30" peninsula with Starfire glass from Crystal dynamics. I was really happy with my last build from them and learned a lot with my last system I hope to incorporate into this next one.



View attachment 50979
Outside where the tank is flush with the wall.


View attachment 50980
Inside where the tank is going.

View attachment 50981
Framing going in.

View attachment 50982
The hole that used to be there


View attachment 50983
Where the tank is going to sit in the office.

Nice! This tank is going to be freaking great based on how your last one was.

Imagine it would look like this

 

[H2OPlayar]

The tank arrived and is now up on the stand.

When the drywallers came back to mud over the framing, they used too much mud so the stand and tank wouldn't fit.

By less than 1/16"

So we ripped the drywall off and are going to trim out the sides. Maybe we get a mantle on the bottom to hold drinks.

The lift up the front stairs was really tough. 5 large people should have been 7 but we got it.

 

[H2OPlayar]

The tank grew 2" in width in order to make the plumbing and overflow box work, so the tank is now 72" x 32" wide x 30" tall. That puts us at 299.2 gallons of tank, so just shy of the real 300 tank club. With the sump though we are well over. On the 4 foot stand, the system stand at 6'6" tall. It should have a cool effect of scuba diving since you can look up at the fish while they swim.

The black strip is adhesive vinyl that will prevent the wall from being seen when looking at the tank. We will still waterproof the walls with either more vinyl, masonite, or acrylic paint.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

The tank grew 2" in width in order to make the plumbing and overflow box work, so the tank is now 72" x 32" wide x 30" tall. That puts us at 299.2 gallons of tank, so just shy of the real 300 tank club. With the sump though we are well over. On the 4 foot stand, the system stand at 6'6" tall. It should have a cool effect of scuba diving since you can look up at the fish while they swim.


View attachment 54762


View attachment 54763

The black strip is adhesive vinyl that will prevent the wall from being seen when looking at the tank. We will still waterproof the walls with either more vinyl, masonite, or acrylic paint.

Winning!!
And welcome the the 300 club

 

[Turkeysammich]

that’s sweet. Hope you got some long arms tho. I had a inwall like that. The front scape was extremely challenging.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

@H2OPlayar
I hope you will have access from both front and back
If not it’s very difficult
You will kick yourself for not making it available
Firsthand…..

 

[H2OPlayar]

@H2OPlayar
I hope you will have access from both front and back
If not it’s very difficult
You will kick yourself for not making it available
Firsthand…..

Like my last peninsula, the wall that it is in is structural, so I will have to be okay with a little snorkeling to scape that far wall. I need that wall to be strong to mount my lights to.

At least I can get to both sides now, where my last one I could only access two of the sides.

 

[Coral reefer]

He’s got some prebuilt aqua scraping tho at least

 

[Kensington Reefer]

He’s got some prebuilt aqua scraping tho at least

Your work?

 

[Matma]

Nice work! Glad to see the setup coming up. Judging from your last tank, this one will be awesome. Can’t wait to see

 

[H2OPlayar]

Working on rock shapes and structures. Thanks to @Coral reefer for the great pieces. Most of them made it mostly. Now time for epoxy sticks and super glue to make it taller and more interesting.

I was debating on doing something different for the substrate. One idea was to make a wall out of small rocks and either sand or bare bottom the last 1/4 of the tank. I know things will move and change but it could make for a cool effect. I'm leaning towards trying a little bare bottom, then 3/4 of the tank has crushed coral.

 

[Kensington Reefer]

Rock on!