Soyadrink's (Nelson) 50g

[edwing206]

I'll send you a PM.

 

[soyadrink]

Here are some pics of various things

I grew this frag from the very very tip of a branch(about 3mm)

 

[MC Lighting]

After seein your tnak in person it is coming along very very well!

 

[jnarowe]

great pics Nelson.

 

[tamarindthai]

yes, i saw your tank in person ,,,,,looks very nice cool looking clams and very well healthy sps you got,,you come long way,,keep up the good work

 

[soyadrink]

Thanks everyone.
Mike(LClighting) came over thrusday to plan plumbing and we are hopeully going to finally finish the stand and set up the sump with skimmer tomorrow. Thanks again mike!
I'll post pics as soon as I get done

 

[treehugger]

Good luck with the project. Is that little frag from that tiny tiny piece that i gave you a couple months back? If so that's remarkable. If you and mike need a break tomorrow, you guys are more then welcome to swing by
ps...nice growth on the acans

 

[soyadrink]

Good luck with the project. Is that little frag from that tiny tiny piece that i gave you a couple months back? If so that's remarkable. If you and mike need a break tomorrow, you guys are more then welcome to swing by
ps...nice growth on the acans

sure is! We'll see how much time we're gonna take up tomorrow but i just might give you a call

 

[edwing206]

Nice tank man! I love that crab, he's so cool.

 

[MC Lighting]

Treehugger great to see your tank in person its absolutly beautfiul! Nelson and I got a lot done yesterday but not as much as I had hoped to oh well another day...

 

[treehugger]

Maybe if you two didn't hang out at my house so long you coulda got some actual work done ...haha...hopefully it's getting a bit closer. Nelson let me know when I can swing by this week.

 

[MC Lighting]

Thank you Jeff for pointing that out :-(

 

[soyadrink]

So I'm getting kinda frustrated with the sump deal. Mike and I got it all together(thank you very much mike) and I filled it up yesterday. Now comes the problematic part. I can't get the balance right. If I open the valve all the way too much water drains out but if I close it too much too much water gets in. I'm running the tank low at the moment(about 1.5" lower than usual) so that the tank wont overflow. I could just put enough water into the sump that it wont fill up the whole tank but the skimmer wont work if I dont have the water in the sump lower than 7" or so(its only 3-4" if I dont want my display to overflow)

Anyone got anymore advice?
Mike suggested getting a gate valve so I can alter the water draining better

 

[jnarowe]

better to redirect water back into the sump from a wide-open pump. Normally you put a "T" after the pump output with a line going back into the sump. This ideally should have a gate valve so you can ballance out the flow easily.

 

[MC Lighting]

the problem that he is having is the ball valve is not very fine tunable as a gate valve I just could not find a plastic one, I think if we change that he will be able to much better tune the overflow output. It takes a very long time to bring the water level up as its only a 300gph pump we have much bigger drain plumbing than the pump puts out. Nelson lets work on getting a ate valve and see if we can fine tune this a bit better.

 

[jnarowe]

that shouldn't be the problem and I hope I can explain this correctly: If you need the fine tuning of a gate valve to get it to balance out, then there's something wrong in the design IMO. What I mean by that is, if you get a change in pump performance, buildup on the overflow combs, or any number of things that could in any way affect the flow, an then the water level is thrown off balance, either overfilling the sump or the display, then you have a design issue.

If a pump is pulling from a sump and flowing into a display with an open, gravity feed back to the sump, it should never overflow the sump or overfill the tank unless it is so over-powered that the overflow can't keep up. I don't think this is the case with Nelson's system. As long as the overflow is well above the flow you are giving it, there should not be an issue if the plumbing is properly designed.

So the questions I have are how is the water getting from the tank to the sump? Through a bulkhead or a siphon overflow? Size? 300 gph is nothing even for Nelson's tank. How is the return pump mounted? Inside or outside the sump?

Nelson...can you post pics of the setup and plumbing?

 

[MC Lighting]

you know I think I just realized what the problem is.... In Nelson's tank it is set up just like a typical overflow it has teeth at the top that would fill the overflow box and would work just as you describe... The issue is that he has drilled the bottom of the inner overflow wall for pumps which takes away the ability to keep the display full and let the overflow box do its thing. I have been banging my head on what was wrong and then thought about it some more. The overflow bulkhead is 1" that goes down to the sump and the return is just an over the top "U" as he did not want it to go back into the display side. Nelson we need to figure out how to block off those 2 lower holes you have for the pumps I am not sure how though since its full of water.

 

[MC Lighting]

another thought would be to make a overflow box that fits around the bulkhead, so anotherwords a overflow box in the overflow box since the overflow area is not working as designed with the holes in it; this make any sense Jonathan?

 

[soyadrink]

Mike, that makes a lot of sense to me. I do feel a little... now :s
It would probably be easiest to make a little overflow around the bulkhead.
Sound reasonable?

 

[jnarowe]

ah...when we drilled the tank for the powerhead, I mentioned that if he were to go to a classic sump design, he would have to put in a bulkhead with plug, or only use one half the back section as an overflow.

I need a drawing or photo to see how it has been changed since we installed the powerhead. We had been leaning toward a partial wavebox for the back, which I think Nelson has dropped as a flow method.