Shawn's 75 Gallon LPS

shawnmackey · 11-14-2006, 02:11 PM

I will be setting up my 75 Gallon LPS dominted tank in Februray when I move into my new condo. The 75 Gallon Display will be in the Living Room. The overflow pipes will run into the basement/garage and into a 29 Gallon Baffled Sump. An ASM G2 will Skim and the sump will overflow into a 40 Gallon Refugium and the into a 20 Gallon 2nd Sump. A Panworld PS 150 will send water back up to the display.

Small Fry · 11-15-2006, 12:27 AM

if you're looking for feedback the only flaw i see is the skimmer being the only way for water to get back to your fuge
i do not have much knowledge on the asm g2 pump or the total gph of youre pump with all factors considered. But what im saying is if your skimmer pump is weaker than your return pump, your refugium would quickly run dry, ur pump will burn out, and ur sump could burn out. At least thats what i would imagine would happen.

In my opinion you should have a secondary line going to you refugium from the sump to equalize the water levels and let the water that the skimmer does not overflow into the refugium.

Again, you probably did not feel the need to explain this becuase it is early and you did not think it was important,but i would assume you posted looking for advice or porblems in your setup? so i simply do what i can.

Hope this helps, good luck with the set up,
and welcome (i need that cool fishy one) to talking reef

shawnmackey · 11-15-2006, 03:55 AM

Thanks for the Reply Josh,

I guess I should clarify....The G2 Skimmer is in the first sump. The first Sump overflows into the refugium, and the refugium overflows into the second sump which contains the return pump. So the Skimmer takes water from the 1st sump and returns it into the same sump.

Thanks again

**JustDavidP** · 11-15-2006, 11:54 AM

Another concern would be that in times of return pump failure, would your 29 Gallon sump be able to handle the overflow before the siphon in the display is broken?

Dave

shawnmackey · 11-15-2006, 04:12 PM

Here is a quick diagram to explain it a little better.

The last sump will only be running about 1/3 of the way up, so there will be room for about 13 gallons of water if the pump shuts off.

Also, the return in the display will be in pretty shallow water, so there wont be more than 10 gallons syphoned in before the syphon breaks.

I'm also considering. put the return deeper and drilling a syphone break into the pipe...

**JustDavidP** · 11-15-2006, 04:18 PM

Okay Shawno.. not only have you helped the "conceptually imparied" (ie. Me) but you have just given me a marvelous idea/answer to a problem I've been thinking of..

Yeah..that looks okay to me! Go forward and conquer!

Thanks for the thread and the excellent graphics. Welcome to the most incredible site on the web

D

shawnmackey · 11-16-2006, 04:51 PM

Thanks David... i do have one question though. For the pipe that runs from the 20 gallon sump to the return pump: should it be oversized? the Panworld 150PS has a 1" input. I've heard that you can have problems with cavitation unless you oversize the pipe (to say 1.5" or 2")

**Seahorsedreams** · 11-16-2006, 06:57 PM

I've never had a problem with cavitation using the same size tubing as the fitting/connection.... just the other way around when you restrict the outlet. But it wouldn't hurt to open it further.

JR Aquatics · 11-16-2006, 08:53 PM

I would atleast run the pipes at 1.5 if not 2. This will solve any restriction problems/uprgades you may have in the future. Plus, larger never hurts either.

JR Aquatics · 11-16-2006, 08:54 PM

Forgot to ask what kind of overflow tdo you have in/on your display?

**Seahorsedreams** · 11-16-2006, 10:41 PM

K, which pipe are we talking about? I'm talking about something different, I think. I was talking about the pipe literally connected to the return pump... the intake..... wasn't sure of it's purpose, but that's the way I took it.

Sooo... which one are we talking about exactly?

shawnmackey · 11-17-2006, 05:19 AM

I was talking about the pipe that sucks water in from the sump and goes into the inlet of the return pump :-)

The overflow on my display is a verticle box in the corner, that contains 2 durso standpipes..each one connected to a 1" bulkhead. So I'm taking a safe estimate of running about 350gph through each 1" bulkhead, even though I propably could push more. I used Reefcentral's head loss calculator and determined that the pump I will be using will get about 700 gph after all of the head loss (my sump is in the basement, and about 20 feet across the house). That will Give me 10x turnover in the display which I am going to supplement with powerheads for now, eventually upgrading to tunze streams, depending on the coral I am going to keep.

shawnmackey · 11-17-2006, 05:25 AM

Another question I am wondering if anyone could help me with. The lights I have right now are 2 Coralife 150W HQI with 20000K bulbs. The display is a standard 75 Gallon (20" high). Will this be too much light for most LPS corals? (fogspawn, torch) or possibly not enough for acropora/montipora/clams?

PSH · 11-17-2006, 08:18 AM

Shawn, I have that same light fixture on my 75 gallon. Plus I have 2 x 65 watt 50/50 PC's. My frogspawn is doing great. Has several new heads budding. The bubble coral is doing better, but I still haven't found the perfect spot for it yet. I have a 150 watt 15k MH on my aquapod and my LSP in that tank love the light.