the 210gallon upgrade thread

[mbaychuk]

Hi what we are doing is using all the predrilled bulk heads from the all glass aquarium to drain to the sump, so we have 2-1 inch
drains and 2-3/4 inch returns which instead of a return we are using for drains to the sump to increase water flow. We were going to take 1 of the 3/4 inches and feed the protein skimmer is that enough? We are also making our own retrun lines from the return pump come from the back of the tank which will be 1&1/4 inch till it get reduced right at the lock line to 3/4. I guess thats where were the confusion is, all the predrilled holes are being use for drains then 1" and 3/4" and we are making our own return to increase flow.

[melev]

If you plumb the skimmer the way I explained it, it should work. Running a line from a drain straight into the skimmer without the Tee bypass and gate valve (not a ball valve), you'll never get that skimmer working as it should.

And remember putting more flow through the sump often results in microbubble issues is the display tank.

[mbaychuk]

Hi Melev we are doing exactly what you suggest and about the bubbles we added 9 baffles for 4 chambers to the 40g sump. the chambers go intake,sump,fuge,return.Here are the pictures.

[purebullet417]

tank should be completed this week

[melev]

You are making good progress.

[purebullet417]

watch out melev i might have to challenge you in the custom sump business lol

[ukspice69]

i love this thread because I am working on my 210 too , on the sump did you use glass or acrylic on the baffles , if so glass how did you cut it
or did you get a custom sizes

[purebullet417]

my uncles friends brother works with glass so he cut the peices for us. it shouldnt be that expensive though if you go to a glass shop to get the peices though. got the rest of the plumbing today and hope to paint it tonight and get the savko plumbing by wends

[mbaychuk]

I was also told you should use glass with a glass tank, not acrylic because you may have a problem with silicone holding the acrylic to the glass ,so because my friend cut the glass for free I opt for glass, Im not sure if the acrylic thing is true. Im painting the back of the tank flat black tonight, and I ordered the gate valve for the protein skimmer could not find any where so ordered it on line.

[mbaychuk]

Picture of back of 210g painted

[purebullet417]

melev after looking at alot of your sumps i noticed you only had 1 bubble trap before the return. my question to you is are the baffles i circled in red necessary

[purebullet417]

[melev]

The only area that needs a bubble trap is after the skimmer section, in my experience.

[purebullet417]

we dont have a skimmer section since it is external we are going to have it drain before the last bubble trap so that means we only need to last bubble trap and just plain baffles between the rest

[melev]

I would have the skimmer drain into the same section where the tank water drains in to increase the travel time and give those bubbles more time to rise and pop.

Your return section is very tiny. Are you going to have an auto top off hooked up?

[purebullet417]

yes we are its from autotopoff.com and is currently on the current tank. i think im going to see if we can remove the unnecessary baffles to make everything eles bigger. i would only leave in the last bubble trap. dose this sound good

[melev]

I think I would pull out the center set of baffles and make that middle section a refugium. The rest is fine.

[purebullet417]

if i completely pull out the baffles i wont have a sump section. where would i put say a phosphate reactor which is the only piece of equipment i can think of.

[melev]

The entire thing is a sump, with a refugium section in the center. You can hang phosban reactors inside or outside the sump anywhere they'll fit. The heaters can go in the refugium.

The tank and the skimmer should drain into the first section before the refugium.

[purebullet417]

thanks alot ill run it by my uncle sounds like it should work out good. could we then put frags in the refugium because i was going to put frags in the 2ed chamber after the intake with the phosban reactor

[melev]

You can, as long as algae doesn't grow on them.

[purebullet417]

sounds like a plan

[mbaychuk]

just moved the tank pictures to follow

[mbaychuk]

plumbing

new sump with big refugeium

the rest are of the move




just enough clearence

tv on opposite wall

thats it for now

[hansmatt]

you'll have to turn off the tank in order to see your plasma!