DocRobster's First Reef Tank Build Up Picture Story (1 Viewer)

[Guest]

Thanks for the advise everyone. If anyone looks, I still have to flush cut the top board on the tank. Kind of hard with a full tank up there.

Also I need to add a refug. Any ideas?

Rob

 

[Niko5]

Very cool!!!

I would recomend picking up some "cold zinc" and spraying those brackets BEFORE painting. Also be sure they arnt oily before paint they normaly are.

 

[Guest]

Yeppers, AKA cold galv spray

 

[BrianPlankis]

I would suggest having two (or three) holes in your return pipe to break the siphon, just in case a snail or coralline algae plugs the first one.

Brian

 

[Guest]

Where exactly?

 

[BrianPlankis]

Where exactly?

Forgive the very crude drawing, but I drilled two holes in my black locline on the return line. I raised up the middle of my locline to where it is almost all the way out of the water and I drilled the holes straight down (so they won't spray water up). I lose very little water from the main tank when I shut off pumps by doing this.

Brian

 

[Guest]

Ok.

I drilled one already at the base of the elbow inside. Do you think I need more that one hole?

 

[BrianPlankis]

Ok.

I drilled one already at the base of the elbow inside. Do you think I need more that one hole?

Yep, I've heard of many stories of people that drilled only one hole, had a power outage and a snail was caught in the hole, resulting in an overflowing sump.

In case that happens to me, I designed my sump baffles to keep the sump only half full. Even if both my holes get clogged my sump should still handle the excess water.

Brian

 

[Guest]

Brian:

Thanks for the advise. Do snails get past the grills at the back of the tank? I will make another hole in the lock line as well when I do the finished set up.

 

[BrianPlankis]

Brian:

Thanks for the advise. Do snails get past the grills at the back of the tank? I will make another hole in the lock line as well when I do the finished set up.

Depends on what kind of snails you have. If you have small snails they will find a way past.

I breed snails so they are babies and get past them all the time. What is mildly amusing is when one crawls through and spends some time eating in the overflow and grows larger and can't squeeze through back into the main tank

Brian

 

[Guest]

Revision 2

Time for an update.

I just finshed making a second set of mods and added a refuge. Thanks to John at Global Pets, he drilled a hole in a 5 gallon tank for an overflow. Now on top of the sump is my refuge. I can control the flow via a ball valve above the tank. It works great!

I plan on running it a couple of day and watch the connections.

Thanks for looking.


Rob