Brand New 8 gallon bio cube

[living_tribunal]

I feel like half the value of my water change is using the siphon to suck up detritus from the bottom. I’ll turn my flow off, grab the turkey baster, and blow off my rocks and sandbed to get everything to one spot. Then siphon from there. Obviously that isn’t as feasible to regularly do on a larger tank though, and the concept of an easy water change is very appealing!

For me it’s just replacing the trace elements so I don’t have to dose them and not know where the heck I’m at with them

 

[Fin]

You can still vacuum the sand and rocks on a monthly basis with a water change and still do weekly water swaps like I was talking about. @Katrina71 actually pointed this out to me last week when we were talking about auto water changes.

 

[Katrina71]

Running my old manifold off of a separate pump was something that I was REALLY pleased with on my last build. If it fits the space I would highly suggest doing that

Could you show me how that works?

 

[Katrina71]

@Fin and @JoshH can y'all show me a link or help me with a diagram on using a separate pump for the manifold? And is there a general rule on how many gph for that one?

 

[JoshH]

I can draw up a diagram of you wish but it's pretty straightforward. Essentially you build your manifold with however many outlets you feel you may need, in my case I had 4. 2 for reactors, one spare and one for water changes. These are fed by a pump of your choosing. Just think of it like building a manifold into your return line, but the end of the manifold just stops and doesn't continue into the tank. GPH will greatly depend on what you would like to run off the manifold, your pump has to provide the right amount of flow for all the outlets in use. DC pumps are great for this as you can ramp up the flow when you have a lot of the outlets in use or tone it back when you don't. I used an AC pump (Mag 7) on mine as it was mostly just for carbon and WC's so a specific flow wasn't really required and I used gate valves to fine tune the flow when needed.

Just a basic drawing to give you an idea...

 

[Katrina71]

I can draw up a diagram of you wish but it's pretty straightforward. Essentially you build your manifold with however many outlets you feel you may need, in my case I had 4. 2 for reactors, one spare and one for water changes. These are fed by a pump of your choosing. Just think of it like building a manifold into your return line, but the end of the manifold just stops and doesn't continue into the tank. GPH will greatly depend on what you would like to run off the manifold, your pump has to provide the right amount of flow for all the outlets in use. DC pumps are great for this as you can ramp up the flow when you have a lot of the outlets in use or tone it back when you don't. I used an AC pump (Mag 7) on mine as it was mostly just for carbon and WC's so a specific flow wasn't really required and I used gate valves to fine tune the flow when needed.

Just a basic drawing to give you an idea...

I was actually right in my thinking then.

 

[JoshH]

I was actually right in my thinking then.

Not much to it really aside from some extra space you need for the pump. The advantages of them FARRRR outweigh the downside.

 

[Magellan]

@JoshH do you have a backup return pump?

(just curious, you have a huge system!)

 

[JoshH]

@JoshH do you have a backup return pump?

(just curious, you have a huge system!)

I honestly haven't given much thought to the backup return pump yet, I haven't decided on my primary pump so a back up will follow. For the backup now that we are talking about it I think I will use my original planned return pump which was a Reeflo Yellowtail. As a backup it will work perfectly, the Seal issue won't be a problem if it's only run as a backup when needed.

 

[Magellan]

I honestly haven't given much thought to the backup return pump yet, I haven't decided on my primary pump so a back up will follow. For the backup now that we are talking about it I think I will use my original planned return pump which was a Reeflo Yellowtail. As a backup it will work perfectly, the Seal issue won't be a problem if it's only run as a backup when needed.

So, yes! Lol

I’ve already seen how crucial having 2 returns is, I’ve had a failure twice now...(got the tank used). fortunately it was fine to run with just one of them for a while. But now I have an extra ready to go just in case, I learned my lesson ;Dead

 

[JoshH]

So, yes! Lol

I’ve already seen how crucial having 2 returns is, I’ve had a failure twice now...(got the tank used). fortunately it was fine to run with just one of them for a while. But now I have an extra ready to go just in case, I learned my lesson ;Dead

It can be crucial to have a backup, I don't know that I'll plumb mine in directly just yet if I get one but who knows. Basement sumps can be awesome but things like return pumps can add to the costs SIGNIFICANTLY. $1000 for reliable AC pumps or $2000 for DC options, having a backup certainly makes you pause for a minute on the wallet side of things

 

[Why-Me]

President of our local reefing group and forum TCMAS, just posted this today...pretty darn neat.

Build Thread - 300gal DD 48hrs Marathon Build

Here's a couple time lapse videos of a 48 hour marathon build we did in the office.

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Katrina71]

Getting down to the nitty gritty layout.

 

[Katrina71]

Btw, rookie mistake, the cabinet openings had to be modified. 100% my mistake. It's been corrected. Honesty in Reefing.

 

[Why-Me]

Btw, rookie mistake, the cabinet openings had to be modified. 100% my mistake. It's been corrected. Honesty in Reefing.

Shhhhhhhh it happens

 

[Katrina71]

It actually worked out better in the end.

 

[JoshH]

It actually worked out better in the end.

Gotta love mistakes with happy endings!

I'll admit probably the biggest mistake I've had with my build thus far has been my drain plumbing size. I went with 1" and I should have gone with 1 1/2".

 

[Why-Me]

Gotta love mistakes with happy endings!

I'm not gonna touch that one this time...Maybe @crusso1993 wants to step in??

 

[JoshH]

I'm not gonna touch that one this time...Maybe @crusso1993 wants to step in??

You know you wanna...;Nailbiting

 

[Why-Me]

Gotta love mistakes with happy endings!

So when are you guys gonna finally have your first kid??