Peppie
Well-known member
I am new at this site. I heard about it at one of the LFS. I was glad to hear it was a local site. I hope you will enjoy this build as much as I have. I'm sure it will give somebody an idea or two.
As with most of us I was limited on space and money. I started out building an 80gal acrylic tank.Shortly after I got the tank glued together I got laid off. So needles to say that tank,stand, and sump are sitting in the garage waiting for my union job to stablize.
I started a smaller tank assuming it would be much cheaper and I wouldnt take up as much room, for now. I wanted it to be an all in one. I didnt want your typical glass tank on a cabinet with all the pluming going on from top to bottom and bottom to top.
I studied another reef site for about 4 months. I saw an AIO that had the similar need that I wanted in my tank. Trust me I am not one to copy someone elses prouduct but it did get my mind going.
I bought a 20gal glass tank at our local Good Will, cheap start. I basicly divided it into 1/3rds 2/3 show 1/3 filter. The overflow is 2 1/2 x 4 1/2, I spit that on an angle so I could use a media bag if needed. You can see in the pic that the blue angle plastic is the divider. That chamber flows into the return chamber. I bought a QuiteOne pump rated for approx 300gph. This will feed the last chamber at the rate of 50 to 75gph. Whitch flows back to the return chamber, The remaining 250 or 225gph will return to the DT.
Here are a few pic of the tank so far.
I made all of the chamber overflows addjustable so I can fine tune the water levels during the startup tests. Once the flow looks good I will place some plastic gutter guard at the opening too keep critters were they need or need not be.
As with most of us I was limited on space and money. I started out building an 80gal acrylic tank.Shortly after I got the tank glued together I got laid off. So needles to say that tank,stand, and sump are sitting in the garage waiting for my union job to stablize.
I started a smaller tank assuming it would be much cheaper and I wouldnt take up as much room, for now. I wanted it to be an all in one. I didnt want your typical glass tank on a cabinet with all the pluming going on from top to bottom and bottom to top.
I studied another reef site for about 4 months. I saw an AIO that had the similar need that I wanted in my tank. Trust me I am not one to copy someone elses prouduct but it did get my mind going.
I bought a 20gal glass tank at our local Good Will, cheap start. I basicly divided it into 1/3rds 2/3 show 1/3 filter. The overflow is 2 1/2 x 4 1/2, I spit that on an angle so I could use a media bag if needed. You can see in the pic that the blue angle plastic is the divider. That chamber flows into the return chamber. I bought a QuiteOne pump rated for approx 300gph. This will feed the last chamber at the rate of 50 to 75gph. Whitch flows back to the return chamber, The remaining 250 or 225gph will return to the DT.
Here are a few pic of the tank so far.
I made all of the chamber overflows addjustable so I can fine tune the water levels during the startup tests. Once the flow looks good I will place some plastic gutter guard at the opening too keep critters were they need or need not be.
