New Tank with Sump Filtration Setup - Newbie

get-salty · Oct 3, 2023

Hey everyone, I am posting today to show my first tank build with a sump! Not only that im learning on how the system works but also.. plumbing is a pain * literally * with very little space under the cabinet. Had to get out of bed one night bc i thought i was using the emergency drain as the primary, so i adjusted the valve to lower the water level and that made a tons of goggling! After "googling" the WWW all day long, i then found something called the herbie method, which uses the emergency drain - partial, at the very tip, sorta... I then moved on to the aquascaping part - the fun stuff : ) I thought i had ordered the bigger grain of sand from caribsea but unfortunately, i got the semi finer one, i guess its okay for now (?) Well long story short.. sand is in, rocks are in, cabinet is built, and water is in. This is the current state as of today - The Nitrogen Cycle ! Going on the second week using dr. tims ammonia and bacterias in a bottle with a little help of bioballs from my AIO 65 gallon. Oh, almost forgot the controller board i put together parts from IKEA lol.. Lastly, cable management is also a pain in you know where ! so it is what it is - for now : )