Blog Comments

as a member of the 6'+ club (6'6") I firmely endorse your 6' tall stand for optimum viewing and minimal backwear crouched down into it

the stand will be about 37", the tank is 24" and the canopy will be 12" tall, so it will be right at 6 feet tall when finished

How tall will your total system be because that stand looks really tall

Yep 26's, I really turn some heads when I am riding down the road in my Princess Pontiac Solstice.

No problem, I will keep the pics coming, got alot done today and hoping the weather holds to allow even more work.

It's lookin real good. That purple really shines with the chrome wheels. 24's or 26's?

:-P Keep the pics rolling in though, I'm interested in watching a few more of these come together before I make my own.

Ok I understand what you are talking about now.

Here are some more pics of the skin that I put on tonight.
Ok it is starting to look alot more like a stand now, instead of just a steel frame.

Pretty straight forward honestly... take your top front tube, and weld the arch under it. 6-8" deep on the sides going up to about 3-4" deep in the center. I haven't put it through any cad programs to see if it SHOULD fail or not, but I can't see it bending one of the strongest shapes in architecture

Think of it like an extended gusset going side to side the full 60" of the tank

cool would like to see the arch design, something to think about on my next build.

I like the stand. I'm definitely doing the same style setup once I upgrade this 75. Only thing I'm planning on different is an arch support under the front top beam of 1/4" steel. Will add some weight but I'm trying to avoid a center support in the front sump area. Gussets and triangulated supports on side and backs will be more then enough rack support, and I'm hoping the arch will be enough to keep the front true, although a bit more welding.

Not that I mind welding though... I finally brought my tig welder home from the old shop so it needs something to do these days.

It will be a mixed reef tank but mostly softies and fish, It took me several tries to get it dialed in but I have had it running now for about two week on my liverock and sand, The tank was made by visio and was ordered through a LFS with the center overflow.

What do you plan on keeping? SPS,FO, or mixed? I ask since I notice you have a G3, it's the same one that I had for my 110. While it worked OK, it made a ton of noise, lots of salt creep, and was a PIA to get dialed in. I would do the gate valve mod to it. Where did you get the tank from? i.e who made it. I like the center overflow.

you would probably want a tower or some thing to keep the in coming water from blowing to substrate around maybe with holes half way up

Yeah, that's my personal opinion. Especially since I never had microbubbles in there (except for a few days at the very beginning when the plumbing was breaking in.

ok so I should just use 1 divider on the refugium side

I wouldn't use the baffles on the refugium side as that has caused a slight buildup of detritus that I have to vacuum out periodically. Just my two cents worth.

Ok I think that I am going to go with this design, if anyone has any sugestions to make it better please chime in.

That's the basic design that I'm using to build mine.

Ok so if I build my sump like it is designed above I would plumb it this way, what do you think.

Originally Posted by bbandu

Is it ok to have water that has not been through the skimmer return to the tank.

Absolutely! The skimmer only pulls a fraction of the water that flows to it. Most just flows on by hoping to be caught on the next go 'round. Very common to have drains on both sides of the sump to flow to the center. Some water gets skimmed while other water gets 'fuged.

I have a 3d model I may be able to send to you. It's currently in a SolidWorks file, but I can put some drawing files together this weekend and put them in a pdf if you are interested. Also, my 40 gallon breeder has 29 gallons of water in it the way I have it set up. That's a pretty good amount of water in my opinion.