Looking good. What ball valve brand did you end up going with? I ordered some Hydroseal Kaplan off of Amazon and they look really similar. Also where did you pick up the sound dampening foam? That looks pretty sweet.
440g System Setup
- Thread starter DThompson
- Start date
I think you got the same ball valves I got from Amazon. Also got the foam from Amazon. The ball valves are great quality, super smooth motion, easy to install and thread on, plus they're a lot cheaper than the ones on bulkreefsupply.
Nice build i like it. Im sure you have the air pump and k1 figured out by now. But it needs to be cycled for it to flow right in the sump. needs around 1 LPM of air, per Liter of K1 for movement, and about 60 percent k1 to 40 percent water volume to flow how i like it to flow. If you look at the secound picture i am posting here for you is my K1 micro sump for reference is a 30L x 12W x 16H salt sump i converted to a k1 moving be. there are 3 magic marker lines drawn on the right side of the sponge the highest line is were my water level starts before evaporation, with out water my k1 Micro goes up to the top of the white divider i the moving bed section were the black sponge is for reference hope that makes sence. there is a half a five gallon bucket of K1 micro in here moved by a altima 15Liter pump and four 3 inch circular air stones in each corner. IF i add another air stone to the tank it is not enough to move the k1 properly there are no air stones in the tank just what is mentioned in the sump
allso if you are still having trouble with the baffle in the sump. I found a few years back a product called E-1000 works better then silicone to adhere acrylic to glass. the problem with silicone is it done not stick to acrylic. But the E-1000 works great for this kind of product it is weird to use is about half as thick as silicone so kind of runs but works amazing can get it in tubes just like caulking for a caulking guy at home depot. and is fish safe once cured
Thanks for the info, I'll have to look into E-1000. I don't think my current silicone job will hold up very long.
Nice setup. I’m looking to do something very similar size wise this summer. Have you noticed any problems with the lvp flooring with that much weight? I’ve been looking into leveling out my concrete and installing some lvp but I’ve had a few flooring places tell me they are very concerned with that much weight on a “ floating floor” and with the seams.
My tank is in the basement so there is concrete under the LVP. I haven't noticed any deflection or movement in the planks so far and it's been full with water for about 2 months now. I really like having the LVP under it because when I was plumbing I had leaks and spills throughout the process and I wasn't worried about getting them cleaned up and dry right away, since it wont warp like wood does with moisture.
For the air tubes, I should buy a new manifold/splitter for the airlines. The one I bought has 1/4" outlets for the airlines but all the airstones I use require bigger tubing, so I have to use 2 of the 1/4" outlets to connect with a T to 3/8" or 1/2" airline tube to go to airstones for the tank or the sump. Not a great setup but it gets enough air to the locations needed for now.
For the return pumps, I have 2 of them. 1 for the sump and 1 for the Ultima. Both use a reeflo dart/snapper hybrid. I have the sump set up with the dart configuration for slower flow and the Ultima set up with the snapper for slightly higher flow. I might change them over time but they seem to push plenty of volume for now. I have a bare spot in the front-right corner of my tank where the water pushes out of the return pumps and hits the front glass, then turns down to the bottom of the tank and pushes all the sand away from that location.
