Aquascaper
Fish Aficionado
From the beginning:
I started off with a 40g tank with no sump or skimmer:
I then decided that I wanted a bigger setup so collapsed my 65g tropical and moved everything across after rebuilding the stand to take the extra weight and putting in a partition using mirrors for the sump & skimmer:
Unfortunately this setup only lasted 2 weeks before a stress fracture occurred on the base of the tank and emptied onto my floor.
After hurriedly moving everything back to the 40g at 1am (which was still empty fortunately) it was time to get a new tank.
I found a secondhand tank + sump for sale by a guy who only lived 2 miles away, this tank was already drilled and plumbed for the external sump allowing full use of the main tank for display but meant a redesign of the stand again:
I painted the back and sides of the tank a pale blue instead of using a backing paper. The reason for this is if saltwater gets behind the backing it not only bubbles it but leaves a salt residue too and looks nasty:
It took a long time to get the sump working properly as the return pump was filling the tank faster than the outflow was empting it, in the end a smaller pump was purchased rather than the other option which would have been fitting return valves, etc.
My original idea was to connect all the powerheads up to spraybars and have both heaters in the main tank as well as the skimmer:
In the end I decided to put one heater in the main tank and all the rest of the equipment into the sump. I then plumbed the return pump to a network of pipes and two custom made spraybars:
There is also additional powerheads placed behind rocks so they can't be seen but still reduce dead-spots in the water.
After too many weeks of work and countless trips to LFS's and DIY stores this is where i'm at now (and yes, that is algae on the back glass
):
All there's is left to do is finish the stand surround and build the custom hood for the 400w metal halide lighting but that will have to wait till pay day.
Updates as and when
I started off with a 40g tank with no sump or skimmer:
I then decided that I wanted a bigger setup so collapsed my 65g tropical and moved everything across after rebuilding the stand to take the extra weight and putting in a partition using mirrors for the sump & skimmer:
Unfortunately this setup only lasted 2 weeks before a stress fracture occurred on the base of the tank and emptied onto my floor.
After hurriedly moving everything back to the 40g at 1am (which was still empty fortunately) it was time to get a new tank.
I found a secondhand tank + sump for sale by a guy who only lived 2 miles away, this tank was already drilled and plumbed for the external sump allowing full use of the main tank for display but meant a redesign of the stand again:
I painted the back and sides of the tank a pale blue instead of using a backing paper. The reason for this is if saltwater gets behind the backing it not only bubbles it but leaves a salt residue too and looks nasty:
It took a long time to get the sump working properly as the return pump was filling the tank faster than the outflow was empting it, in the end a smaller pump was purchased rather than the other option which would have been fitting return valves, etc.
My original idea was to connect all the powerheads up to spraybars and have both heaters in the main tank as well as the skimmer:
In the end I decided to put one heater in the main tank and all the rest of the equipment into the sump. I then plumbed the return pump to a network of pipes and two custom made spraybars:
There is also additional powerheads placed behind rocks so they can't be seen but still reduce dead-spots in the water.
After too many weeks of work and countless trips to LFS's and DIY stores this is where i'm at now (and yes, that is algae on the back glass
):
All there's is left to do is finish the stand surround and build the custom hood for the 400w metal halide lighting but that will have to wait till pay day.
Updates as and when
