DIY sumps

[marc harrison]

hey everybody i just recently registered and this is my first post on this forum pineapple house told me to come here to get some good information he told me to use a 50 gallon wet/dry unit i wanted to ask if anybody had any blueprints or any information on building and installing this type of sump unit im planning on getting a 100 gallon reef tank and if any body can help please do thank you

marc :lol:

[Zack]

Hey glad to see you here. A mod may move this down to the DIY forum! Anyway are you going to have a FO OR reef? For a reef IMO a refugium is better. I will go on once I know which one you are looking towards!

[marc harrison]

i want this to be a reef tank with the inhabitants of 3 green chromis,mated pair of false perculas, royal gramma,and a mated pair of purple firefish and maybe even a sixline wrasse but im not sure if that fish would be compatable with some turbo snails and asrtaea snails and i dont know if you would know but could i put 3 cleaner shrimp and a coral banded shrimp together becuase i heard coral banded shrimp are aggresive. but anyway sorry for getting off the subject i want it to to be a 100 gallon reef tank

[Zack]

No problem, I can see you have this all planned out right? Remember to be patient and GO SLOW!!! 3 cleanrers is quite I bit I would probly just do two. Have you thought about what kind of filtration, have you ever done a saltwater tank before? I am sorry for all ?'s.

[marc harrison]

no prob but no i havent done any saltwater tanks yet but i have done fresh water for a while and i saw a reef tank for the first time and said to myself i want to start one and ive been researching for about two months the type of filteration im going to use hmmmmmm the protein skimmer i want is a euro-reef cs6-2 and i talked to pineapple house about what type of pump i should use and he said i would do fine without one and to just get a good 50 gallon wet/dry sump unit and have about 135 pounds of live rock and a DSB
of about 4" or more of live sand

[RazerCorals]

If you get a Coral Banded it will rip your cleaners apart. Also I would not suggest a 6 line because it killed 2 peppermints and a cleaners of mine. Then died the next day.

[Pineapple House]

Hey Marc,

If you decide to go with a DIY sump, I would add some live rock in there, just for extra biological filtration. You skimmer seems exelent, Euro-reef is an exelent company, which makes very high quality products.

I have to completely disagree with Zack with the cleaners. Most cleaner shrimp produce such little waste, that you could have up to 7 in a 100 gallon reef. I have 3 in my tank, which is 80 gallons, and love them. There wouldn't be any problems with having 3 cleaner shrimp in the tank. These include the Scarlet Cleaner Shrimp (Lysmata amboinensis), Blood/Fire shrimp (Lysmata debelius), Peppermint Shrimp (Lysmata wurdemanni), and the Coral Banded Shrimp (Stenopus scutellatus). These are all part of the cleaner species. The Coral Banded shrimp can be extremely aggressive, which is why I wouldn't recommend them. The fire shrimp is quite shy, and I have found the Sclarlet Cleaners to have quite a personality.

Next, the live sand can be quite expensive, esspecielly when going for a DSB. There are alternatives to livesand, which is Southdown play sand. This is most commonly used for its calcium carbonate based sand, which will not alter the pH of the water. This is not live sand, but will do fine if you add it to the bottom of your tank. I have had best results adding 3" of southdown play sand (which can be bought at your local home depot. Please note it's not alvailible in all areas, and in some parts can be quite hard to fine. [Doesn't ship out of the U.S.]), and adding 1 inch of live sand over it. The life in the live sand will eventually spread throughout the substrate, and soon the southdown will even be live!

Also, if you want, you can turn a certain corner of your 50 gallon sump into a refugium. You can by some wire mesh, screen off an area, get some lighting to put over it, and watch it grow! I have seen quite a few people use these in their sump, and I've hear some pretty good things, although I cannot speak with personal experience.

PH =)

[Pineapple House]

Also, moving to DIY forum. I'll leave a shadow for now, and delete it when you post so I know you have found it ok :)

PH =)

PS. Merry X-mas!

[marc harrison]

thanks and merry christmas to you too :mrgreen:

[Zack]

I had 2 in my 50 and they fought a lot but I guess it worked for PH and may for you Good luck!

[ssgibby]

I use the rubbermaid stock tanks. I think I paid 55$ for a 50 gallon, and about 60$ for the 100gallon. They work great, and are heavy duty.

[ccicle]

:shock: whats the reason for the live rock in the sump. This is the first time i'm posting and am researching a 75 gallon reef tank. Just a question

thanks Chris :wink:

[phistio]

ccicle,

welcome to ReefLounge!

the main purpose for live rock in a sump would be bilogical filtration to help break down the de-nitrification cycle. :wink:

glad to see you here...if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

[ccicle]

Thanks for the warm welcome,

I understand now why I need to use live rock in the sump.

Thnaks Chris

[sinasster]

hey everybody i just recently registered and this is my first post on this forum pineapple house told me to come here to get some good information he told me to use a 50 gallon wet/dry unit i wanted to ask if anybody had any blueprints or any information on building and installing this type of sump unit im planning on getting a 100 gallon reef tank and if any body can help please do thank you

marc :lol:

Im interested in this too, if anyone would like to get this topic back on point :D