fchidsey

I like it Fred. Thanks for sharing - your woodwork looks good to me. For pump vibration, try putting some filter sponge material under the pump.

Originally Posted by melev

I like it Fred. Thanks for sharing - your woodwork looks good to me. For pump vibration, try putting some filter sponge material under the pump.

Thanks for the comments, I put some Styrofoam under the pumps the problem was that I plumbed it with ridged pvc instead of flex. I fixed that after I built the new sump.

Looks like a great set-up! Where did you get your live rock from - and what type was it? Also was it cured or did you have to cure it your-self ?

Most of the live rock was from my previous tank. I had a problem with aptaista and broke the tank down because we were going to be moving across the country to California. long story short we are still here in Florida. the rock sat dry for about 1.5 years I then bought some more from Craigslist and one piece from the LFS. put all the rock in large blue tubs with my protein skimmer for about three weeks to let it seed then in the tank.

I probably should have cured it longer but I was anxious to get things running plus my wife was coming back from out of town and I needed to get things picked up. there have been no ill effects from the early entry into the display. i had a very small hair algae and cyano bloom and then things calmed down and the tank settled nicely

Hey Fred, ya tank looks great! I like the way you use it like a room divider where you can see everything from three sides. Very nice! Keep coming with the picks.

Oh and by the way, Very Nice Cabinet Work!!

Thanks, it has been a nine - ten month project and has come together well.

I had to go cheap with the finish cabinetry and use pine for the 1x4 and an oak veneer for the centers but it worked out ok. I installed some rare earth magnets (these things are great) they have helped to take out some of the warping in the pine. It looks good in the pictures I can pick out the flaws but I guess that is because I am really picky I just don't have the router table or the table saw to do a lot of the work.

The next one will be done with hard wood, and will be a 4x3x3 or bigger. I really have enjoyed the build and really like working with the acrylic I built my own sump after the first one cracked here are some pics. this sump was built two weeks after I put water in the tank because the glass tank I used to build the sump cracked from the vibration in the pumps. anyway here are the pics.




the first water test I thought I was good more on this later.



different angle



this is the drain end the large piece of acrylic with the big hole holds a filter sock.
the small box to the left is micro bubble settling chamber the return water from the skimmer has to escape from the bottom and hopefully not so fast that it takes the bubbles with (this actually worked better than I thought)

the chamber on the left holds the skimmer and is really just a settling area, later I added a small pump in here that draws the water for the U/V and Refuge.



This is the return area where the pumps get connected, there is also a media tray that I built in but should have added holes to it. I really don't use it for anything currently. I had a carbon bag in there but if my water level was to low the bag popped out of the chamber and started to go up the return pumps.



another water test, I found a couple of leaks this time. Not the end of the world I dried and cleaned the leak areas (there were 2) added some Number 4 solvent and later number 16 there were no issues (this was before my lesson in crazing.)



success at last and the final build product. For those that were curious the material cost in Florida was about 150.00 including the solvent and applicator bottle (buy more than one) I also requested the company to make the big cuts so they were nice and square (they did ok) but I don't have a table saw or table router so it was the only way to go. I made all the cuts for the weirs and the rest of the stuff.

Thanks for looking

Fred

Oh I forgot the installed picture.

It looks really good. That bubble tower is awesome, right? Add some LR rubble in there and you'll really be impressed.

The refugium seems to be sitting on the sump. Does it have any support?

Btw, you can edit your original blog as well as your comments if you need to insert new information or correct mistakes. Blogs aren't like build threads. When you have a new entry, start a new one. We can refer to your older entries by checking your profile. Of course from time to time, it's a good idea to make a full tank summary entry that covers everything up to that point.

Thanks I'll try to edit that way from now on. The refugium is sitting on a x brace on the top of the sump.

I like the bubble tower and it does work well. I did not plumb is as I should of but it still works really well. I should throw some rocks in there that would really break things up. I have to say that for my first sump built from scratch I was really happy with it. Thanks much to your site and insight. Thanks again for your help.

Wow, for being your first sump build it really looks nice. Did you use Melev's Reef as a guide? I was wondering if you used the pins to build and glue it like on Melev's tutorial. I've looked at it a few times and don't exactly understand it. I figured when I was ready to build Melev can explain it to me. Again, very nice job.

Thanks for the kudos, I did use Melev's site as a guide and used several ideas from the many sumps he has built. I did not the wire in the seams for this build but really should of because the solvent would have made a better and cleaner seam between the two pieces. if you look close at some of the joints you can see bubbles in the seam and if you use the wire you won't get the bubbles and therefore a better seam.