30 gallon AIO (DIY)

[10gnano]

So I have been contemplating turing my 30 cube into a AIO instead of drilling it. This is my plan....Chamber 1 will be the overflow from the tank, I might keep some chaeto in this area. Chamber 2, I will fill with live rock (still trying to decide if this is a good idea or not, i figure more natural filtration the better) , and chamber 3 will house the return pump.

I haven't figured out how I'm giong to work in my skimmer (CPR Bak-Pak). I was thinking maybe have the pump in chamber 1 or 2 and the return in either 2 or 3 (pending on where the pump is). Any thoughts on this?

What do you think of this setup? will it work properly? I based the design of the solona tank.

By ltllindblad at 2011-08-23

By ltllindblad at 2011-08-23

 

[Peppie]

I would not put rock in sec 2. IME a media chamber would be better.
You may be able to mount the skimmer to the back of your filter section. Can you post a pic of the skimmer?
Macro in the first sec is good place for it.

 

[Peppie]

I forgot to add make sure you leave enough room in your return chamber to get your hand in there to pull the pump for maintenance. I did a mock up full scale with the pump,bulkhead, and tubing. ll conected before I decided on what size to make that chamber.

 

[10gnano]

I would not put rock in sec 2. IME a media chamber would be better.
You may be able to mount the skimmer to the back of your filter section. Can you post a pic of the skimmer?
Macro in the first sec is good place for it.

What would you recommend putting in for media? I currently only run carbon and have success with this.

I've uploaded a pic of the skimmer below, it's your typical CPR bak-pak. As of right know the chamber measurements are; 5 3/8" (1), 6" (2), and 6 3/8" (3). All chamber are 4" wide by 21 7/8" tall. The piece pictured above is the actual size of the rear chamber, I wanted to make sure I had measurements right. My return pump measures 5 1/2 x 3 x 5.25 so I would imagine that chamber 3 will be large enough.

As of right now the skimmer is my main concern as I would like to make this one work so I don't need to buy another.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

pic of rear chamber in tank.

By ltllindblad at 2011-08-24
this is an older version of rear chamber, I have updated chamber layouts. Gives you an idea of it in tank.

By ltllindblad at 2011-08-24

 

[Peppie]

Your skimmer will work as a HOB of the filter sec. Put the intake pipe of the skimmer in your 1st chamber, Put the exit pipe from the skimmer in the next chamber over. You may have to adjust the width of those two chambers alittle to accommodate the plumbing for the skimmer. If you choose to do it that way you will not want the macro algae in the same chamber as the intake to the skimmer. You could set up the filter section a couple different ways

1st chamber ---

I just had a brain storm. Sent you a PM

 

[Peppie]

 

[Peppie]

I need to talk to you to explain

 

[10gnano]

Special thanks to Peppie on helping me work out my design for my rear chamber. I spent the day constructing a to size replica of what the rear chamber will look like. I have incorporated a coast-to-coast that will run along tank from front to back and empty into small chamber housing my skimmer pump. Water entering this chamber will either go into the skimmer or overflow and run through some baffles and enter the fuge. This will then go into the return chamber and back into the tank. I still have a little more work to do on the return section, i'm in the air on what kind of pump i'm going to use. This shouldn't make any major changes to the design though. Any thoughts?

 

[Peppie]

10g That looks good,You will now have lots of room in your fuge. If at all possible try to light your fuge from the back of the tank. Not from the top.
The more surface area light you can provide the better. If you light from the top, only the top of the micro will get light. You have a deep chamber there the micro will get much more light from the back side opposed from the top.

Also I think your bubble trap should be on the other side of your fuge. As I see in your pic the skimmer dumps the skimmed water into the fuge. Yes? The micro bubbles from the skimmer would be in that chamber.

Are you going to use a piece of eggcrate to set the skimmer pump on? It would help the flow in that chamber.

Other thoughts?

 

[10gnano]

peppie, I plan on lighting it from the back to fully utilize the deep fuge I will have. I wasn't thinking to much on the bubble trap, I have come up with a two different options to fix this issue. I'm leaning towards option A, this should give me a little more room in the middle compartment with how my skimmer hangs on. The skimmer will over lap a portion of the fuge section.

This is my thought on how it will work. The water will overflow into chamber with skimmer pump, the excess that is not put through the skimmer will overflow down and up through the second chamber (fuge, still debating if I will put live rock in here), then flow over and through the baffle reducing any air bubbles that enter the system and then to the return chamber. Will this work with reducing bubbles? My system now is bubble free so this is something i'm not to familiar with.

Option A

Option B

As for putting the skimmer pump on eggcrate I hadn't thought about that. I have it set up so the pump is about an inch from the bottom of that chamber.

 

[Peppie]

Plan B is better for bubble trap, If you dont have a bubble problem with your skimmer then I wouldnt do the trap
It is ok to have rock in your fuge but I used small pieces of rubble and put them in a nylon mesh bag. That way it was easy to remove the rock to clean the chamber

 

[10gnano]

I'll have to run the options over a few more times, I just want to make sure that no water is sitting stagnant. I'm still waiting for my return pump and plumping parts to fully design the rest of the setup.

So really I could cut out the first baffle and the second one and be completely fine if I have no need for a bubble trap.

 

[Peppie]

Try to make the water enter the return chamber at the bottom.

 

[10gnano]

I'm trying to figure out my return chamber... On the good side of things it looks like I will be able to squeeze another inch or so into the fuge area! I'm stuck on the return though. How far down from the top should I have my return nozzle? Solana and Biocubes have the returns about 1/4-1/2 down from the top of the tank. Is this How I should do mine? Also what is the benefit from having it down so low? and what issues with back siphon will occur when the pump stops?

 

[Peppie]

There are no worries about back flow. Your tank is an AIO it will only hold so much water. Just be sure to have your pumps on during a water height test, then turn them off and see were the water height finally settles.
IMO the lower you have your return nozzle going into the display the better. Most of the time your power heads are placed near the top of the tank and pointed downward. IMO that means there is not as much flow near the bottom as there is at the top. It makes more sense to me to aid in keeping particles suspended in the water column to have good flow near the bottom. Just my thought

 

[10gnano]

makes since. I think I will go about 3/4 up and then angle the return down with locline to get that flow on the bottom of the tank. This way I can have the pump up a little bit so It won't be as difficult to reach, it's kind of a pain to reach the bottom of the tank.

So I've finally got my acrylic cut, It will soon be gluing time. This is my first time working with acrylic so hopefully all goes well.

 

[Peppie]

Its not very hard to work with at all. I have done several projects with acrylic.
Just be sure you do some research on how to prep the edges. and if you can practice the welding process a couple of times before you do the actual build.

Good luck

 

[10gnano]

My return pump and plumbing came today.

 

[10gnano]

I finished up the false wall and glued it in the other day. Here is the final result, Pic's are kind of bs. Tested it yesterday and had a couple leeks in the corners and under a baffle (completely forgot to glue it). I will give it another test run in a few day's once everything cures. Hopefully no more test runs after this, I want to get some water in this thing.

 

[Krish]

Nice work man!! Cool little DIY project!eace: I still say you should have stuck with the cardboard baffles over the plastic, but that's just me