It's been a frustrating week at work, which means I've spent a lot of time watching MACNA 18 videos. Can't wait for MACNA 19 in Orlando, since my family lives down that way.
Back to my tank build:
SUMP:
My sump is a 40g Breeder (I'm 99% sure on this). Assuming that the internal dimensions of my fish room can accomodate the 40B, I'll place it on the back wall that will be directly adjacent to the tank. I've decided to build a stand for my sump to raise it off the ground, and this will allow me to place ATO and Waste containers directly below it. It'll also have a 4-6" lip for test equipment, etc.
Let's go through this one step at a time.
Intial filtration: Incoming water from the DT overflow will come into a small holding area with one or two 4" filter socks. I'll be trying to build this myself out of acrylic, or I'll eventually cave and order some custom piece. I want to maintain a small footprint here. If this turns out to not be feasible, I'll settle for a filter sock holder and a single 4" sock. A small amount of noise shouldn't be problematic here since the sump will be in the fish room rather than under a stand.
Fuge: After initial filtration, the water will enter the Fuge area. Currently, there's no separate area in my sump for the fuge, rather just a large intial area before the baffles for the return. I'm going to place my skimmer in the sump, mark off the necessarily footprint, and add baffles that can accomodate a marine pure block insert. In the fuge itself, I have a large marine pure block already, so that will go in the bottom. I have an PAR light that I can use, or I'll eventually look into upgrading that. I want to make the baffles black and rather high up on the sump walls to block light going into the other sections.
Skimmer & Heater: In the middle section, I plan to have the skimmer and two small heaters for redundancy. My skimmer (Brand unknown) is rated for up to 250g if I remember correctly, so it should be plenty able to handle my tank. I'll have a line plumbed into the skimmer return cup for overflow that empties into the 20g waste container that's under the Sump stand.
Return: I plan on plumbing dual return pumps. I have an Jebao DC return pump, but eventually, I want to add a COR 15 or COR 20 with the Jebao acting as the backup. The return pump will feed a manifold as well as the return to the DT. If I can't fit both pumps in the return chamber, then I may plumb one as an external pump. The dual return pumps will act as a redundancy factor in case one fails. I think I'll have my Apex programmed to only run one, but if that one fails, then to turn the other on and send an alert.
Manifold: While not pictured in the drawing below, I'll have a manifold that will be fed from the return pumps. The manifold will feed a dual carbon/GFO reactor and a UV filter. The manifold will have ball valves and unions so that it can be completely disconnected from the main return line and overflow lines without having to shut down the entire system.
ATO: The ATO will be a 20g tank sitting below the Sump. I plan on connecting an Apex ATO system to it.
Waste Tank: This will also be a 20g tank sitting below the Sump. This will be fed by both the skimmer cup and the DOS-operated AWC.
Both tanks will have acrylic tops I'll be making. Both of these systems will be plumbed with inline check valves to ensure there's no backflow or back siphon issues. Both tanks will also be connected through the wall to my DT stand in my living room. Inside the stand, I'll have the ability to connect to longer lines. With the ATO, there will be a line to pump freshwater into the ATO reservoir to refill it from my living room (I would have a trash can on a roller to roll water into the living room), or directly from a pump in the RO/DI reservoir that will be in another room (I need to measure the distance and see if this is feasible). For the Waste Tank, I'll have a pump in the tank connected to a long tube line in the DT stand that I can unroll and place directly in my sink. Then I turn on the pump and the waste tank automatically empties. Both tanks will have optical and float sensors for redundancy. This helps to minimize the number of buckets I have to carry, helps with the AWC system, and keeps work to a minimum.
Saltwater Reservoir: While not pictured below, I plan to have a 30g saltwater reservoir in a Rubbermaind bucket to the side of the Sump. This will be connected via the DOS for AWC. As a backup to the optical and float sensors in the waste tank, the DOS pump will be programed to only do 15g of water changes during a time span so as to ensure that the waste container doesn't overflow. I highly doubt I'll get 5g of skimmate in there, so I should be good. The SW reservoir will also be plumbed to connect to the DT Stand in my living room to allow me to pump in fresh RO/DI water to mix with salt. It'll also have an optical sensors to measure high and low water alerts.
