- Joined
- Apr 22, 2020
- Messages
- 25
- Reaction score
- 35
- What state or country do you live in
- North Dakota
Been planning a build for about 2 years. With the world wide lock down and needing things to do I pushed the build into overdrive. UPS and Fedex are already demanding Christmas cards, we became family. Lol
Currently working a 90 gallon DT and using an old 75 that I turned into a sump, located in the basement. Finished plumbing Monday night. Completed leak test, added new sand and filled with water that has been mixing in the basement sump for about 3 days. Also had a couple additional mixing containers to make up for volume difference. Sent the water upstairs last night and all seems well. Fixed a couple minor leaks and things seem somewhat okay. Rock will show up on Friday so get to aquascape this next weekend. Excited!
My only concern at the moment is using right product to start cycle and return volume of return pump. LFS recommendation was MicroBacter Start XLM. But! I bought and installed live sand already which bottle says in bold letters not to use. While filling tank last night I got rough measurements (using 5 gallon bucket, stopwatch and calculator) on return volume. Came up with about 550 gallons per hour. I’m using the Syncra 9.0 SDC. I’m a little concerned that I should have gone with something different. I sure like that I have Wifi control of pump but I fear I will burn it up. By pushing it to hard. Plus do I have enough turnover? Well that is me for now.
Opinions matter to me because I’m definitely new. Yes, I have watched almost every YouTube series out there but I’m always open for more information. TIA!!!
Picture is basement plumbing setup. Need to cleanup a few things but lots of videos and planning went into this design.

Currently working a 90 gallon DT and using an old 75 that I turned into a sump, located in the basement. Finished plumbing Monday night. Completed leak test, added new sand and filled with water that has been mixing in the basement sump for about 3 days. Also had a couple additional mixing containers to make up for volume difference. Sent the water upstairs last night and all seems well. Fixed a couple minor leaks and things seem somewhat okay. Rock will show up on Friday so get to aquascape this next weekend. Excited!
My only concern at the moment is using right product to start cycle and return volume of return pump. LFS recommendation was MicroBacter Start XLM. But! I bought and installed live sand already which bottle says in bold letters not to use. While filling tank last night I got rough measurements (using 5 gallon bucket, stopwatch and calculator) on return volume. Came up with about 550 gallons per hour. I’m using the Syncra 9.0 SDC. I’m a little concerned that I should have gone with something different. I sure like that I have Wifi control of pump but I fear I will burn it up. By pushing it to hard. Plus do I have enough turnover? Well that is me for now.
Opinions matter to me because I’m definitely new. Yes, I have watched almost every YouTube series out there but I’m always open for more information. TIA!!!
Picture is basement plumbing setup. Need to cleanup a few things but lots of videos and planning went into this design.





