My 3.5 footer...at long last! :)

[southpaw23]

At long last, the tank is finalised and setup...here's the specs as it stands:

Tank (3.5' L x 2' W x 22" H)

Sump ( 2.5' L x 19" W x 16" H)

Hailea HX 6540 (2800lph) Return Pump (Think it's too low a flowrate for the tank and skimmer)

Seio 820 x 2 (have yet to add the second one)

Rio 20HF for the Beckett

27" RM Beckett Skimmer

Skimz Fluidised Reactor (Not hooked up yet)

Eheim 1250 for the chiller

Arctica 1/10hp Chiller (Seems to be doing fine cooling my tank volume)

36watt PL for the sump/refugium

Here's the first set of pics....first one of the tank as it arrived...

[southpaw23]

Pipings being setup by the tank maker....

[southpaw23]

Here's the eventual piping setup for the return pump feed. Wanted to incorporate a ball valve as well as a quick release before hitting the return pump...unfortunately, i wasn't aware of the other type of ball valve with the quick releases already incorporated into them...and the tank maker didn't have them with him so i'm thinking i'll have to redo the piping when i get around to changing the return pump to a higher flow rate pump.

[southpaw23]

Here's another look at a different angle...

[southpaw23]

Here's the sump that almost drove my tank maker crazy...a lot of thought was put into designing this sump as i wanted to make room for the beckett and at the same time still leave room for a separate compartment for a possible refugium in the future.

The idea was to have the fuge at the front creating a pseudo second tank that's perfecty viewable and accesible at the front. So i designed the sump to flow in at the back right hand portion of the tank and flow into the centre chamber at back which will house the beckett, increasing skimming efficiency by skimming tank water directly from the main tank upon entry of the sump.

The next chamber at the back left is created to house my chiller pump and also to handle the microbubbles with the incorporated baffles...seems to work like a charm as no micro bubbles seem to get to the chiller pump or the fuge.

The front chamber is the fuge or just a second tank to keep all the naughty inhabitants...the specs are 2' L x 7" W which is a lil narrower that i'd like but i needed the 12 inch back space for the skimmer so this is what i had to work with.

And of course the last chamber is plumbed to my return pump..

here's the pics....

[southpaw23]

Oh and to qualify, the sumps still not perfect, didn't take better note of the backflow volume for when the return pump turns off. The first time i ran the sump and tank, the backflow almost flooded the sump cos i only gave a 4 inch clearance from the water level to the top of the sump...should have got the sump tank up to possibly 18" to allow it to handle the backflow better with the increased volume..

To solve the problem, i went and got myself a check valve that seems to be working well now....will still drill a small airhole at the return outlet to break the siphon just in case the check valve malfunctions...

Here's another view...

[southpaw23]

Side view.....

[southpaw23]

Last pic for the moment...still have to resize and organise the rest....

here's the overall setup without the doors and hood setup...

stay tuned...more to come tomorrow...

[zephyros]

welcome ... all the way pal

[LoReNsIa]

hey bro.. got ur tank from woodland LFS ah heng right? haha.. he inside the pic.. lol.. btw nice tank..

[Travy]

Bro very nice tank and a unique design for yur sump too.

Drove my tank maker crazy with mine too... ended up with mulitiple delays.

But bro thing i have to bing up... Abt the way yur return is drawin water from the sump. Too many elbows leh. Could end up reducing the flow rate of the pump, and hence making the pump work harder too. Can try to improve on that?

Just my tots. DONT FLAME ME AHH...

[jem]

thats what i thought so too..

but din dare to raise the question up as im dumb in piping

[Tigger]

Its a well thought sump design. Great job.

[southpaw23]

Thanks for the feedback guys....and yes, Lorensia, it is from Ah Heng...guess i shoulda kept him out of the pic eh?....but he's quite easy to work with...made lotsa changes to the standard design and he was quite "chin chye"....nice chap...

As for the sump....yeah...this was the third or fourth edition somewhat...haha...started out with a certain design and it evolved with time as i found out potential flaws and need to work around things etc....but am quite happy with the final design...minus the lack of space to accomodate too much back flow

And Travy,no worries about the feedback...it's appreciated actually...and i kinda agree with you on the piping to the return pipe as well...like i mentioned before, we were having trouble trying to incorporate the ball valve and quick release and the tank maker eventually came up with taht design...but will probably be redoing the piping soon when i replace the return pump...thinking of going with an MD 55. Any thoughts on that? It's rated at 400 sumthin lph...but i'm planning to tee it off to my FR and felt that the increased flowrate would help in my skimming efficiency with the increased sump to tank exchange rate...

the other concern would be if the durso would be able to handle the increased flow...i'm currently running a 1.25 inch drain...which i think should be able to handle it but if anyones got more concrete evidence, that would help...think i'll go check reefcentral for those interesting flowrate calculator thingies.

Either way, i'm definately gonna have to change the piping, it's also a waste of space. Wanted to build like a lil table to sit above the piping and pump to place my top up reservoir....so...looks like there's still more work to go with the tank.

Anyways...another look at the sump from a different angle..

[southpaw23]

Thanks for the feedback guys....and yes, Lorensia, it is from Ah Heng...guess i shoulda kept him out of the pic eh?....but he's quite easy to work with...made lotsa changes to the standard design and he was quite "chin chye"....nice chap...

As for the sump....yeah...this was the third or fourth edition somewhat...haha...started out with a certain design and it evolved with time as i found out potential flaws and need to work around things etc....but am quite happy with the final design...minus the lack of space to accomodate too much back flow

And Travy,no worries about the feedback...it's appreciated actually...and i kinda agree with you on the piping to the return pipe as well...like i mentioned before, we were having trouble trying to incorporate the ball valve and quick release and the tank maker eventually came up with taht design...but will probably be redoing the piping soon when i replace the return pump...thinking of going with an MD 55. Any thoughts on that? It's rated at 400 sumthin lph...but i'm planning to tee it off to my FR and felt that the increased flowrate would help in my skimming efficiency with the increased sump to tank exchange rate...

the other concern would be if the durso would be able to handle the increased flow...i'm currently running a 1.25 inch drain...which i think should be able to handle it but if anyones got more concrete evidence, that would help...think i'll go check reefcentral for those interesting flowrate calculator thingies.

Either way, i'm definately gonna have to change the piping, it's also a waste of space. Wanted to build like a lil table to sit above the piping and pump to place my top up reservoir....so...looks like there's still more work to go with the tank.

Anyways...another look at the sump from a different angle..

[Tigger]

SP,

Can u reload yr pics again?

[southpaw23]

Hmmm...what happened to the pic?...and sorry for the double posting...my internet connection is a lil nutty this morn....

Here it is again....

[southpaw23]

Here's a look at how the ball valve and check valve was incorporated to the return pump plumbing as well as the drain to the sump from the tank....

[southpaw23]

Pic of the side doors installed. I wanted to ensure that i had good accessibility to the tank so doors were incorporated into both sides along with the front. The tank maker did a great job on this...when the doors are closed, it's flush against the stand and doesn't even look like the door exist...

[southpaw23]

The corners of the tank....i've seen this done in other tanks on the forum, where the tank maker incorporates a thin glass strip diagonally at the corners then siliconed in....don't exactly know what method this is but it was well done...am very happy with the finishing on the tank etc...

[LoReNsIa]

hey da ge.. is my internet connect error or ur pic got prob? cause only 2 pic can see.. ya.. haha..

[southpaw23]

No...it's not ur connection...it's mine....damn connections...

here's the sump pic again...

[southpaw23]

And here it is again, the pic with the tank finishing/corners...

[southpaw23]

The tank hood was designed taking it's cues from Willamuk's hood design with a lil alterations. As u can see, there's a separate piece to the left of the hood that's made to fit right on the bracings. I made that piece specifically to accomodate for if and when i decide to upgrade my lightings to say a 250 watt MH, i can just mount the lights on that particular piece.

As it stands, i'm currently using a 3ft Hilux MH with a 14k 150watt MH...and the best thing about the 3.5ft length is that the unit can sit snuggly in the hood as opposed to being on the hood. Noticed that most 3ft MH lights are in actual fact longer than 3ft but around 40 inches in length so, the hood was made to accomodate for any 3ft lighting fixture

[southpaw23]

here's another look with the separate piece in place...