basement sump. slowly evolving

SeymourDuncan · Nov 15, 2012

Ok, so far I have been stuck on funds, thus haulting a ton of build threads I promised. In poordum I have came up with a GREAT TEMPORARY IDEA!!!

The pump I have makes it from the 55g in the basement, all the way up to the floor where the original sump is. Well, i decided to pump into the sump, which now drains back to the basement rather than hook up to a pump back to the tank.

Basically I created a reservoir of freshly mixed saltwater that sits on the floor under my tank. now my mangroves are in still water (for the time being as i took a break to type) in my old sump.

The flow is slow from the basement, so i took a MJ 600 and ran that from the "reservoir" up to the 55, which overflows back into the sump where it mixes with the new salt water. SO...right now it is sending freshly mixed saltwater up to the sump, mixing, then sending to display then back to mixing then back to basement where it starts over. At the rate its going im guessing this will be a 3 or 4 hour period until the water is completely mixed. I will test eventually as the DT was high, so i made the new water lower salinity. Will check periodically to be sure.

SOOO. this leaves me tonight with some must do tasks.

-I have a 55g DSB mangrove sump that is still.
-I have 3 more frags in my frag tank and NO GLUE :/ so i have to find them a spot
-I have a 55g to empty and move.
-I have a 75 g to empty and find holding places for its inhabitants while I redesign the overflow system and put it where the 55 is now.
ugh does not cut it lol, but i love my fish so I have to do this.

I have a few corals i am going to ebay to fund a pump, hopefully a frag pack will be a good hit. I have some cool stuff..it should be good

SeymourDuncan · Nov 16, 2012

ok, I got a pump, so i bypassed the reservoir sump and its a straight shot up to the display and the overflow goes straight back. YAY!!! this leaves me with a 900gph pump to BUILD MY PROTEIn SKIMMER!!! I am going to gather parts and come up with a good plan using a culligan jug. 5 gallon skimmer should be efficient IMO, that will wait, first i have some more conections to make between tanks. each facet of my reef filtration will be a seperate aquarium, also allowing me to customize, bypass, and manipulate each tank to what i want, rather than taking the risk of shaking the sand bed in a sump with my skimmer, clogging it nicely lol.

SO, i still have the mangroves in a bottle of water on my fridge by some cacti. I havent found a helper strong enough to lift my sand in one trip with me, i am not taking 8 trips from the front of my house to the back, then down stairs all the way back to the front...so i have my sand aerating and on standby. nothing worth photgraphing, but a mess of containers full of corals fish sand and rock.

SeymourDuncan · Nov 17, 2012

mangroves and dsb moved...crap that was a heavy container. They are now residing in a 29gallon, the water is still shallow, half the sand is sticking out of the water like a HH brackish tank and the mangroves are planted on the mound. I am slowly re adding water because they were stored in pre water change water, so the salinity was off...drip acclimate and i should have som happy mangrove trees again.

Still gathering parts for my skimmer. im using a laguna maxflow 900 (i think lol) It was my return forever...but it is now too small to shoot water that high...thus a mod and a few attachments and I got me a great venturi pump I am sure. Might see how the impeller is made and look into more of a needlewheel or mesh mod...I will test pre mod to see foaming capacity.

goodtogo · Nov 18, 2012

I used to have a basement sump and main tank was on floor above. I wish I had that same setup, much easier to work around.

SeymourDuncan · Nov 18, 2012

https://www.reef2reef.com/forums/do...lds-quietest-protein-skimmer-yours-truly.html

Here is the video to my skimmer I just made, I am going to make a more detailed build thread once it is done. Only because i have NO IDEA where it will end! haha