Turning my 45 into a 55.

[suver569]

Well, I aquired this tank, and I'm going to xfer my 45 to the 55. Thanks to David M for drilling the tank, and TimD99 for the sand on saturday.

Here is the 45. Been up for a year, on a 55 stand actually.

[suver569]

Here is the newly aquired 55. It's got a scratch or 2, but it'll be hidden in the corner.

Thanks to David M for drilling the holes. 1 1/4" for the overflow, and a 1" for return.

[suver569]

Here's a closeup of the holes. Testing for leaks right now.

[suver569]

Here is the fuge I setup earlier this week. Just a 10 gallon with a mag 7 for return. Running off a cpr 90 overflow right now and a jerry rigged spray bar. Going to reuse the spraybar on the 55 with the 1" return.

[suver569]

Here is my cpr skimmer crammed in the back. It barely fit. Actually, the tank is 1/4" over the back edge of the ledge it sits on so the dang thing would fit.

[suver569]

Crammed skimmer. Note the Arc Fault Interrupter plugged in. It's hard to see. Please get one if you dont have one :D

[Mike N]

My advice is to drill one more out flow hole, you're not going to get enough flow with only one hole.

I know because I can't get enough water out of my tank to run my mag 7 at full flow, so do it now before it's set up...

I'd also suggest one more return hole;)

[suver569]

Going with Ron's advice on the fuge, slow flow for better skimming.

Basically the theory is to use a slow flow in the fuge to allow the gunk to settle on the top, allowing the skimmer to do it's job.

I'll see how it works on this tank as kind of an experiment for future reference when I get my much larger tank :p

I'll have lots of flow inside the tank with powerheads. going to hide a few rio's behind the rockwork before I'm done, and a few up high.

[Mike N]

The rate of flow through the fuge can be adjusted with a bypass tube or routing one of the overflows to the pump section (if you use two), thus bypassing the fuge.

But once the tanks set up you won't be able to change it. I think you'll be sorry you don't have the ability to run your Mag 7 full bore. You'll be disappointed with the flow you'll get from one overflow bulkhead, but that's just my opinion.

Remember you're going to loose allot of flow after you install an elbow for depth adjustment and a screen to keep the critters in.

Your more than welcome to come by and see what I'm talking about on my tank.

[suver569]

Very good point. We'll see what happens. It's a learning experience, and I hate learning from others :P

Right now I have a ball valve on the Mag as soon as it leaves the fuge, and it's open about 1/3 of the way. I can open it up and it flows fairly well through the setup I have now, which is a 1" drain to the fuge, and a 1" return.

On the 55, It'll be a 1 1/4" drain, and a 1" return, so I think I'll be able to get the effect I'm going for. I'm only looking for a few turnovers in my fuge an hour. I want to keep the flow slow and steady to allow the gunk to settle and let the skimmer do it's work.

I do have an idea already in the works with a rubbermaid sump, so I might T off the drain, open the mag pump to full blast, and let the fuge take only a small portion of the flow, letting the sump take the rest. I will change the 10 gallon to a drilled style with a bulhead to overflow to the sump if I decide to go with that setup later. Money Money, and space restrictions are my biggest factor right now. I'm getting what I can right now.

[Mike N]

On the 55, It'll be a 1 1/4" drain, and a 1" return

That's what I thought too, it doesn't work that way.

Remember that the bulkhead will be 1 1/4" NOT THE DRAIN! Your drain pluming will narrow down to less than 1" and your return will be 3/4" so you'll have less flow than you have now...

Figure it this way: 1 1/4' bulkhead will accept a male threaded fitting that has an ID of less than 1". Then you'll have the losses for the strainer, each elbow, the length of pipe, and each coupler.

A 90 elbow equates to a 23% loss of flow by itself in a gravity system.

[suver569]

Actually, I was mitaken. The drain is a 1 1/2", not 1 1/4". Just measured it. I do see your point as the inside diameter being smaller. I may consider another drain just in case. You may have talked me into it.....persistant aren't ya! :)

[Mike N]

It's not that I want to be a thorn in your side, but I'd hate to see you make the same mistakes I have.

Looking back I wish someone had been persistent with me when I was planning my 40, it only has one overflow and I regret it :(

[suver569]

Well, looks like I wont have a choice. Just got a call from my wife saying that my 45 is leaking from the lower corner. It's a very slow drip, but none the less, it's leaking. Going to have to more forward tomorrow (saturday) with the transfer. Worst case scenario, I'll have to add my cpr overflow for additional flow unless David M is around to drill the 55 tonight.

[suver569]

Wow, even better, wife just called and said the tank leaked into one of the plug strips, and killed the power. Well, no choice now, going to switch to the 55 tomorrow.

[JeromeBaker]

Suver I'm going to have to recommend at least two drains as well. You will be about 8million times happier knowing you did. Huge difference. I was in a similar situation as you. I bought a new tank and sold my previous tank almost same day. So I didnt have time to get it drilled. Now I have a cpr overflow and it does fine but if I could only go back in time. From here on out I will have at least an overflow in each of the top back corners of my tank. Pulling water from each side is key. Better safe than sorry, you can always cap it. Good luck.

[suver569]

Yea, if David M is home tonight and available, i'll go throw in another 1.5 inch drain. I absolutely have to switch out the tank tonight/tomorrow though because the 45 is leaking :mad:

[Mike N]

I have a 20+ gallon rubbermaid container and an empty 20 gallon tank you can use if you need them....

[suver569]

I may need to actually. I have 2 15ish gallon tubs, which might get me by. I'll let ya know. Thanks for the offer :)

[SDMike]

Originally posted by suver569
Very good point. We'll see what happens. It's a learning experience, and I hate learning from others :P

You DO know the difference between intelligence and wisdom, right?

Intelligence is learning from your own mistakes
Wisdom is learning from someone else's mistakes.

HTH,

M

[suver569]

Ahh, yes, and I have an IQ of 137, but no wisdom. :p

What wound up happening is the bottom right corner started leaking around noon today, got home and I had lost around 2 inches of water. About 10-15 gallons. I HAD to do the swap tonight. Im about 3/4 of the way done, but I need alot more water. Sooo, heading to scripps right now.

[suver569]

Well, the xfer is almost done. Only 6+ hours. The tank is running wide open with just the LR, LS, and water in and the fuge going. It's clearing up as we speak. I'm pretty happy except for the pvc fittings are all white, but I will replace them as I find them.

I"ll post a small timeline tomorrow morning after I pickup the rest of the sand and get the canopy finished. It's kinda comical.

[JeromeBaker]

alright bro lets see this 55 your so excited about.:D

[suver569]

Pics inc....

[suver569]

Ok, here we go. Started by painting the tank. Looks good. Nice Krylon Blue.

[suver569]

Bulkheads. 30 bucks in PVC.....

[suver569]

Been a long day, time for Dinner...Errr, a drink.

[suver569]

Son of a..... Knocked a 1.5 gallon glass bottle off the fridge...

[suver569]

Well, back to work. Got the 45 drained, and corals in rubbermaids with powerheads. Here's the 55 with the bulkheads on.

[suver569]

Though I'd make an effort to.. Umm, clean up my mess. All done.

[BlueLagoonSD]

you sure u didnt shoot anyone:eek:

[suver569]

Ok, so my poor corals are in there new home for the next 12 hours.

[suver569]

Originally posted by BlueLagoonSD
you sure u didnt shoot anyone:eek:

:D

Looks bad, doesnt it.

[suver569]

Poor corals. Only thing missing was my little nemo. I think the LTA swallowed him when the lights went out.

[suver569]

OK, got most of the water back in, I sifted the sand and got out all of the old crushed coral. Helluva mess in the water. Had to throw a bunch of filter socks in the fuge to keep it from gunking up the macros.

Note the Ghetto 45 hood on top...

[suver569]

This morning after helping my sister move, and gettin the corals placed back in the tank, I started on the canopy.
Not bad for an electrician. It'll work until I can get David M to hook me up with a new one.

[suver569]

Inside the canopy. I lined the inside with aluminum sheeting for the hell of it.

[suver569]

Closer look at the canopy.

[suver569]

Now for the fun ones.

[suver569]

oops.

[suver569]

that was with mh, here is just actinics.

[suver569]

Close up of the right side,

[suver569]

Center shot

[suver569]

And the left side.

[suver569]

And there is something I never wish to do again, but unfortunately, I'll be moving soon so looks like i'll have to anyways.

It was fun. Only took me till 1am friday, and till about 6pm today to finish :)

[JeromeBaker]

It looks about about 1....no probably 2 million times better.

[JDubb]

Nice tank:) how Did the retun flow work out for you w/ the mag7?

[suver569]

The flow is about where I want it. Only about 2-3 turnover rate in the fuge.

The surface is skimmed quite well with my skimmer in the fuge. The water level is always at the same level, so I never have to mess with the surface skimmer. All of the gunk that is sucked off the display, is slowly put through the fuge and skimmed. Got a cup of muck out since friday, and it's almost full again. I'd say it's doing exactly what I want.

I wouldnt mind actually doing a duel overflow with 2 separate systems on my next tank. One that feeds a fuge with slow flow, and one that feeds a sump.

I can crank the flow rate of the mag 7 up alot. It's turned way down right now with a ball valve. I can get it up to about a 10x turnover rate in the fuge if I wanted without the pump running dry. I did step down the overflow down to a 1", so if I really wanted to, I could re-work it into a 1 1/2" drain and bump the turnover rate much higher, but like I said, I'm getting the effect I was going for.

[Mike N]

Looks good, but I'll give you a week before you loose a fish in the overflow. It needs to have a screen on it...