Sump Build
Ok so this will be a lengthy post. Like I said up top, we wanted this tank and maintenance to be as streamlined as possible. I looked through countless build threads and ideas on water changes and sumps and then came up with idea that I think is unique. The idea is that there will be 2 barrels, a new barrel and a current barrel. The flow of water will go from DT to Sump to Current Barrel to Pump and back to DT. A water change will consist of making water in the New Barrel and getting it up to correct temp and salinity and then turn 2 valves. Then the Current Barrel becomes unused and the New Barrel becomes the Current Barrel and we can empty the one and the cycle continues. The plan is to do 1 water change a month of about 40 gallons, but we will use water parameters to be the judge of frequency.
To start this part of the build, we ripped out the jacuzzi tub in the basement and installed a floor drain and installed draining pvc tile. The draining tile is great stuff and will allow water to run underneath it to the drain. It is made by a company called ModuTile (
https://www.amazon.com/Interlocking-Perforated-Drain-Floor-Tile/dp/B006QQFQ5G).
Next, we built a sump cabinet as both a test build for the aquarium stand and as a way to keep the sump setup tidy. The plans came from the DIY King youtube video. Being an engineer, I did do an FEA (Finite Element Analysis) on the aquarium stand to make certain it wouldn't fail and to know where the weak points were so I can reinforce it. I ended up modifying my original stand design and the sump stand is the taller version of the redesign.
I was given a 40 gallon tank for free that was used a freshwater tank for a couple years. I cleaned it up and re-siliconed it and water tested after letting the silicone cure for a week. We were tossing around ideas of how to make the sump baffles and my wife found Jax.Racks on ebay and he makes a sump baffle kit out of acrylic and can do custom cuts. It came out super nice and was easy to silicone into the tank. It has a separate chamber for the filter socks and drain pipe and then skimmer/refugium/overflow sections with an additional filter rack for the last section. I will have to build a stand for the skimmer, but I need to do some tuning and measuring first.
The barrels came from a distribution center in Detroit and were $25 each. I originally bought uniseals to run the pipes in but those leaked regardless of which side was facing out. I do kick myself for installing both the uniseals and bulkheads backwards the first time I installed each haha. As the previous sentence alludes to, I ended up replacing the uniseals with bulkheads. To install the bulkheads, I actually flame treated the holes first and heated up the surrounding plastic enough to deform and then tightened the bulkhead on so that the plastic deformed to the shape of the bulkhead creating a better seal. They don't leak now! I also made my own hinged lids using replacement plastic cooler hinges and pvc bolts and nuts because the pre-made ones are expensive and I can make the opening as big as I need if I did it myself. I also plumbed in a float valve for each barrel and connected the RODI line to each.
The RODI is from BRS and is a 5 stage 150GPD system since our water is treated with Chloramine. We have a water softener as well and it feeds the RODI unit. We also have an RODI unit for drinking water but that is separate from the aquarium setup. This was probably the easiest thing to install so far except for a leaking pressure gauge which BRS promptly fixed so I won't dwell on that too much. We also installed an auto flush valve on the RODI because who wants to manually flush during a 6 hour fill? It has a line connected to the barrels and a separate one for filling whatever we want and both have their own valves.
The plumbing took some searching and designing to make it function like we wanted. I tried to find L-Type valves, but found them to be expensive. I found T-Type valves on
Amazon for $30 a piece and went with those, which actually turned out to be a better solution. For those that don't know the difference, an L-Type valve is a 3 way valve that will only ever open 2 of the 3 ports at any given time and a T-Type valve is a 3 way valve that can open 2 or 3 of the ports at a time. So that others can learn from my mistakes, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT IS HOLY INSTALL UNIONS AT ANY AND EVERY PLACE YOU CAN. The unions you see in the pictures were not there originally and were added after leaks were found and I needed to remove sections. I also added a check valve for the pump and a ball valve to adjust flow rate, which may not be used at all considering we have 24ft of head pressure that I calculated and possibly more in reality. Since the sump system is in the basement, we have to pump water a long way upstairs to the DT. I will be using braided hose to run from the pump to the DT and mostly hard line from the DT to the sump so that I can ensure a continuous downward slope. The pipe into and out of the DT is 1 inch (although the Durso in the DT is 1.25" necked down to 1" at the bulkhead to ensure maximum flow rate).
Electricity, my favorite! So we have Google Home and have been automating things around the house and the aquarium will be no exception. I bought a weatherproof electrical enclosure and mounted 4 duplex sockets to some PVC and mounted it inside the enclosure. Each socket is wired independently by breaking both tabs on each duplex outlet. Each outlet is them wired to a wifi controlled relay that works with Google Home (Sonoff is the brand and are on
Amazon). From the relay, it is wired to a DJ switchboard. The idea is that whatever is plugged in can be controlled via wifi or hard switch. Everything will plug into the box with their own drip loops and the box will be sealed to prevent any water from getting in. Two of the plugs do not have wifi relays on purpose and will be for the things that we want on in the case of loss of wifi (the relays can be set as default ON or default OFF, but I have doubts).
I also did a structural analysis of my floor to know whether it would support the new tank. I had a design load of 3000lbs and calculated the necessary joists to support that loading so that the existing joists would be "additional" support to the new joists. Sistering in new joists to existing floor joists was much more labor intensive than we thought it would be. Thankfully I have a patient friend that helped and a scissor jack and a sledge hammer to persuade the joists into place. I used Laminated Veneer Lumber as the new joists since they are structurally superior to dimensional lumber. Now that I can park a small car in my living room, I am confident the tank will never relocate itself to my basement.
The water test was a success with no leaks, although this is like the 8th water test hahaha *incessant sobbing*
Next will be re-siliconing the DT and building the stand so stay tuned!
