2ft Aquarium Sump

Disclaimer: This project was done due to blogger's boredom. At the time of this post, a month has passed. Blogger will not be held responsible should readers attempt to follow what he has done which includes broken glasses, cut fingers due to glass, wrong size glass panel purchased, wet floor, sticky silicone on fingers etc. At any point, blogger is not trying to show off, show he's the expert of this project or in this field. Blogger mere attempt is to share his project and have readers throw in ideas and feedbacks on the project.

 

I was feeling bored and wanted to play around with a sump. I went to Y618 and the sump they had cost a bomb! I was surprised it cost so much. I went to research it online, reading and watching videos on diy sumps and freshwater sumps.

 

I had three options which I can pursue.

 

1) Send my dimensions for a 2.5ft acrylic tank to Dama (a huge company that does acrylic of all kinds)

 

2) Send my dimensions for a 2.5ft glass tank to a glass manufacturer in Defu.

 

3) Use the spare 2ft tank I already have and just buy the glass panels and fix it myself.

 

I chose number 3.

 

Plan

A 2ft tank with a) trickle chamber b) refugium chamber and c) return chamber.

 

There is a chance I might remove the refugium chamber in future and add a glass panel and turn it into a media chamber where I can place media, corals, peat or carbon. Let me know what you think.

 

This sump will not be attached to any main tank. It will just circulate within.

 

Tank

I have a used 2ft glass tank that I once used for my planted scape. It had serve me well and was in process of doing a hamster diy mansion of sorts. It was for my fiance but she decline as she didn't want it to be glass. So the 2ft was up for the dustbin. Luckily enough due to my boredom, I found another purpose for it.

 

Glass Panels

I bought my glass panels (5mm thick) from Kwong Fatt Glass Merchants Pte Ltd located @ Blk 10 Defu Lane 10. Provide them a drawing and measurements and whether you want it polish or not. As I was anxious I didn't have it polish. (Handle with care)

 

For those who wish to have this done, I recommend that the glass to be at least 8 to 10mm thick. The latter will be ideal.

 

 

 

Silicone

Make sure that the silicone is safe for your aquarium. Selleys had a lot. Wet areas etc. But all that I checked states "Not for Aquarium Use" I had fear of this as I once had disaster with such unsafe for aquarium use silicone. Even when I waited 2 days for it to settle.

 

I found this silicone call DAP Aquarium. Cost about SGD$14. Yes it's a bit expensive but I wasn't gonna take any chance.

 

PVC Pipes & Joints

Using 16mm PVC for return and back to trickle.

 

Process

Chamber 1 - Trickle Chamber (kinda)

This chamber is roughly 36cm (H) 15cm (L) x 30cm (W)

Using pieces of glass which will hold an egg crate, I silicone them in.

The top portion will hold my filter wool. 2nd portion holds my bioballs which will have some above water and the rest submerged. 3rd are my Mr. Aqua media. The bottom is just a course filter pad.

 

Chamber 2 - Refugium

I know reef keepers uses this area to cultivate micro organism to feed their main tank and I was wondering what purpose it then have for freshwater. My research shows that folks place plants that absorbs nitrate such as duckweed etc. I'm still observing whether it will be better to convert it into a media chamber by adding another glass panel to have the water flow through the media.

 

Anyway, I added sand and plants for this area. And since then have added a couple of fish.

 

Chamber 3 - Return

I have an unused submersible pump from Dymax. Using it for this project.

 

After, I silicone the glass panels and waited for 24 hours (48hours ideal), I placed the pump, fix pvc pipe to it and it goes back to the trickle chamber. The pvc end I actually place a T Joint with a short pipe at each end with an end cap. I then drilled holes so it kinda rain onto the filter wool. Yes, I'm bad at describing things so the pic will tell you what I mean.

 

I flooded the sump. And watched. Success! I added the medias, filter wools and pad, carbon, sand, plants etc. One month later, I added a couple of fish from my other tank. Oh the water is used water from my other tank.

 

As you can see the filter wool has turn black. Exactly what you want. Bacteria being cultivated blah blah blah. Fish are doing okay and flaring their fins around. My lights are switched on 7hrs a day. Plants looking green and I will be doing a water test later on.

 

I'm pretty happy that it turn out great. Future, I might be doing plumbing to my 10 gex tank to this sump. What do you think if I turn my individual tank and placed aquasoil and some easy plants? Beats having an empty looking tanks right? Will think about that.

 

Using wood and clamps to hold the panels in place.

Carefully putting the silicone and filling gaps in between.

Yup, I suck at this. Real messy eh? Using my fingers didn't help.

The trickle chamber

2hours after putting the silicone

Picture taken about 56hours later.

 

<<Final Pictures Pending>>

 

Anyway, if you have any comments or feedback, do drop me a few. Would love to hear what you think.

 

Cheers!

 

 

Air Distribution System Part II

Disclaimer: This is the blogger own interpretation of his air system. Take note that this is not a guide but merely to share the project that he has made. Blogger will not be held responsible for any wet floor and lecture from the wife. Thank you.

Here's an update that I'm trying to do to my current rack.

First off, let me explain the number of tanks that I envision and decided to have on this rack.

Top Level: 5x Gex Tank Size S -> Pending. Will get this in future.
3rd Level: 5x Gex Tank Size M
2nd Level: 5x Gex Tank Size M
Bottom Level: 2x 45cm Glass Tank (Planted Tank)

Reference to my previous attempts at the distribution system, it is working fine. I added 5 more single valve to each level.

Now I decided revamp the whole thing. I plan to add the 5x Gex Tank Size S on the top most.

The equipments I used as follows:

Hi Blow 40 Air Pump

16mm PVC Pipes

Elbow Joints 

Tee Joints

One Way Air Valve

Teflon Tape

Black Air Tubing

PVC Cutter

Silicon

Zip Ties (Cable Ties)

I did a plan on Word so that it'll be easier for me to follow. It's a simple construction.

Did a small scale just to see how it looks. The sides have already been measured. Horizontal pipe is about 4ft long.

As you can see, the top most tier, I have yet to install the one way valve yet. Will do that later.

Anyway, that's it. It's pretty simple but I took a lot longer as I was doing maintenance for the tanks as well. I had fun doing mine; hope you have yours. Good luck.

Air Distribution System

Disclaimer: This is the blogger own interpretation of his air system. Take note that this is not a guide but merely to share the project that he has made. Blogger will not be held responsible for any wet floor and lecture from the wife. Thank you.

 

After much googling, youtubing, research, asking, asking again and annoying the hell out of people (LOL) I finally came up with a plan. Went to my drawing board and was figuring how I should get this done

 

So I came up with this diagram. Drawing is not to scale.
 

Note that I did not include a bleeder valve here. It is essential that one have an outlet as a bleeder valve. I'm thinking of changing the bottom end cap and add a valve to release the excess pressure. But, an unused valve will serve just as well.

If a bleeder valve is install then diagram will be as below.

 

There was another design on my drawing board which is a circular one. Like a frame. PVC running on the left and right but I've been told that it provide little advantage. So heeding that advice, I went with the 1st diagram.

Now, after getting the whole thing, I realise that only 13mm pvc pipe can fit the adaptor that's provided with the HiBlow. So a bit of changes needed. Connection from Hiblow -> Adaptor -> 13mm PVC Pipe -> Reducer (13mm to 16mm) -> 16mm PVC Pipe.
 

Well, here are the list of items I needed.

 

The Materials as follows

 

1) HiBlow 40 Air Pump

This is what you get.

The HiBlow pump

A rubber L-shape adaptor

A short manual

A warranty card

 

2) PVC Pipe 16mm 

 

 3) Elbow
 

 4) Tee Joints
 

 5) End Cap


 6) 13mm PVC Pipe


7) Reducer (13mm/16mm)
 

8) One Way Air Valve
 

 9) Teflon Tape
 

 10) PVC Glue
 

 11) Black Air Tubing
 

 12) PVC Cutter
 

 13) Silicon

 

As adding the joints and the pvc using glue is pretty simple, (you can search it on youtube for the videos. Here are a couple of links:-

1) Gluing PVC YouTube Link 1
2) Gluing PVC YouTube Link 2

I will show two parts of the setup.

1) Inserting the One Way Air Valve to PVC
Measure acordingly and mark it on the PVC pipe where you will be drilling.
I wrap the thread with Teflon Tape so it will be a tight fit.
As I am concern that the valve might easily be disconnected, I use silicon on the outside.
Keep repeating the above.

Mark each point to drill.



Teflon tape placed on the threaded one way valve.

Silicon is use to prevent leakage.

So far so good.

I found a youtube video done by user name tedrjudy
Check his video on air system here.
Fantastic video on the air system. Great advice and all. Credit to him!

2) Installing the Adapter to the Hiblow & PVC
So after receiving the pump, I started working on how to attached it to 16mm PVC pipe. The pump comes with a rubber L -shaped adaptor. It fits a 13mm PVC pipe.

I insert that in. Then glue the other end of the pvc to the reducer. And then the other end glued to the 16mm.

Hope you can see it.

Took the following pictures below a few days ago after setting it up.

Future enhancement, include a ball valve at each level to release excess pressure. The outflow right now for the 7 HMF tanks is too strong. I had to place the tank plastic cover so water won't splash onto the floor.

 

I'm uncertain if I can do a top shelf with PVC. I can place probably 6-9 outlets

 The L Shaped rubber tube. (Adaptor)

 A 13mm PVC tube is inserted into the L Shaped rubber tube
The other end of the 13mm PVC pipe is inserted into a reducer. (13mm to 16mm)
The reducer is then attached to a 16mm PVC pipe.

You could just do 13mm all round but I had loads of 16mm PVC pipe so it was logical to just get the reducer.

 

I didn't install the ball valve yet, so to release the excess pressure, I insert an airline tube and an airstone at the end. This is done to stop the "whistling".

The end cap. A mistake here. To be honest, all PVC joints have been glued. If I were to add the ball valve, I'll just cut that portion off and insert it.

Well, this is my 2nd level. 5 Gex M tanks.

The 3ft light is temporary solution.

Current setup. Have to do it slowly as I'm on a budget.

More tanks will be added in future as follows:

 

Bottom tank on the left is my planted tank.

On the right, seperated some males AMRL and Females AFR.

Have java and riccia I'm trying to grow.

Well, here's the setup. Not enough tanks yet but you get the idea.

 

Special Thanks Goes Out To Aquatic Quotient Members and Friends.
felix_fx2
wongce
Ronwill
Navanod
Stormhawk

And also to those who have given me feedbacks and comments on the system. Apologies, if I didn't mention you here.