Our 2 new 80g tanks + 2 x 60g Sumps + 8 foot Fuge

[redbelly]

As some of you know we are still chipping away on our newest build.
This build is for 2 80g nutrient poor sps coral beds + 2 x 60g sumps (one glass, one acrylic) + an 8 foot fuge.

But first the old system had to be removed. The 2 x 8' tank plus 2 x 4' frag tanks.

Shutting down the old system is not that easy of a task though as the 120g on the main floor is plumbed into this system. Simply shutting down this system would mean also shutting down the main tank, which would then also have no skimmer... Not an acceptable option.

The first step though was to shut down the top 8' tank. Once this tank was shut down it would be set up again on the right hand side of the room, under our existing system as a fuge. Nothing can beat a solid 8' of cheato! Here is a pic of the tank and its future home:


Here is a pic of the existing system with the top 8' tank removed.
As you can see there is a birdnest of wires that have developed here over time which are part of why the old system needs a revamp.
The top part of the stand could be recycled as a "stand" for the 8' fuge. By cutting the legs off short, the top section of this stand could be reused to keep the sump off of the ground.
You can also see in the pic the cuts made in the legs. The real challenged here is that the bottom half of the system is still running to supply the 120G on the main floor and the frag tanks on the wall. All the legs were cut off longer than required so that they could be cut down square, to the perfect height for the fuge once the top half was down and there was actually space to make exact cuts.


Now for the fun part... cutting the back leg off, behind the skimmer plumbing, above the CA reactor while all of this is running, and using powertools to do so!


Once the top of the wood frame was removed, the legs were cut down into feet. Then the feet were drilled with 1/2" holes and stainless steel leveling inserts were put in. As the feet have to be made entirely out of stainless steel (and fully stainless feet could not be found) so large stainless steel bolts bolts seemed to fit the bill. The total weight of this fuge is around 600lbs so thats 100lbs per foot. Leveling inserts were used as the ceramic floors are sloped and uneven. Just cutting the legs off and not putting in the inserts would mean that the base of the fuge would wobble and over time would most likely sag. And of course the rest of the stand could be painted now


Now the sump could be installed onto its new/old stand and slid into place under the existing coral beds.


With the fuge now in place the next step is to start preping the new sumps. One of the goals of this system though is a complete easy of use and to absolutely maximize every inch of space that this system could provide. The nicest option for a sump would have been to reuse the acrylic water fall system. This system is already divided up which would have allowed for a very interesting fuge in which different marco algae's could have been in each section. Unfortunately though the acrylic water water fall system was just too high and using it would have meant that the new coral beds would have to have been raised at least 6" above the ideal height. Instead a 36"x36" x16" white acrylic tank and a 30"x30"x14.5" glass tank (that just happen to be sitting around..) were chosen.

For plumbing and layout design the water from the main tank flows down and through the first glass coral bed, then through the second glass coral, hopefully soon into a nice big recirc skimmer, then into the white acrylic sump, and then into the 30" square glass sump. From the glass sump, a Sequence Wahoo will draw water from 2 holes in the bottom on the sump and pump it back upstairs. Another important feature that was required for this system was to be able to have a very fast an easy way to perform water changes. So while Patrick (Snigger) was drilling the 2 holes for the return pump, we also had him drill a third hole in the bottom of the glass sump. This intention of this hole is so that the sump could be connected directly to the drain. A ball valve would soon be installed so that with the simple turn of a handle the entire sump drains dry in a matter of seconds. A similar hole was also added to the white acrylic sump. Before this sump could be used though all of the silicone had to be stripped out and the tank needed resealing. In the pic below you can where Patrick has already drilled his three holes and where the bottom seal has been redone with the professional strength silicone.