JK's - 300 Gallon Build

[tdkee1]

looking good Justin..
but just a suggestion.
if you can, find 2 matching hang on back overflows with removable skimmer boxes. look for the kind that come apart into two pieces. discard the outer stuff and just keep the skimmer boxes.
connect the skimmer boxes to your drains up top and you will have better skimming and a higher water level.
you can also make one long diy skimmer box all the way accross the back...it'll be a nice even drain.

 

[tdkee1]

i did this before on one of my tanks that didnt have an overflow. i drilled the tank just like you did and attached a skimmer box from a used overflow box i had...
it worked great! and it looked good...
external durso too..same setup as you have. just giving you some ideas.

 

[JK47]

Thanks for the idea Kee! Yeah I thought about that as well and cayes has the boxes for $35 each. I didn't feel like spending $70 on just the boxes though. What do you think on the sump idea?

 

[epond83]

Sound like you have everything covered that need to be factored when building a sump, I have never built one but I'am about to so i've been researching everything.

On think to consider is that when the pump turns off water flows to the sump which you factoring for, but if you have an over flow on the sump for a drip system the over flow from the tank will go out this way.

The when the pump turns back on the tank will be back at it's operating level and the sump return section will be low. As long as theis low level is high enough to not run the pump dry you are ok and the drip system will fill the sump back up the overflow drain.

This you just did a small water change with a slow fill. However this means the sump needs to be able to hold enough water to not run dry after being turned back on.

Something else to consider, if the drain line from the sump was a small line only a little but of water could flow ( maybe double what your max drip rate would be) then when the sump is off the water will slowly drain out, depending on how long before the pump turns back on not all the water will have drained out yet. But to be safe i would still want enough water left incase all the over flow water drained out.

As far a wood or acrylic doesn't really matter i think. Wood with a liner would probably easier to build and make water proff.

If you can gut and glue acrylic so it doesn't leak this would probably look nicer and maybe easier to add baffles if needed. also might be easier to see water hight in the sump


Something you can also do for the hieght of your sump over flow is set it at whatever hieght you want and have it drain to a small tank and have a sump pump pump it out when it fills, I've seen that on another system here. But that would not help with the sump needing to be deep enough for a restart.

 

[tdkee1]

as for a sump, personally, on a tank that big i would just go the easy route and get a 75 gallon or larger and put a large plastic drawer in it and make a bio tower. all you'll need to do is add a baffle and a sponge to trap the micro bubbles.
ive seen some nice drawers that would be perfect with 2 or 3 thin drawers on top and 2 big drawers on the bottom. just drill the top for your bulkheads and drill the thin drawers with holes to drip and distribute the water evenly. the big drawers can be cut out with egg crate resting on the edges.
you can easily change your media because the drawers will just slide right out. no need to lift 2 heavy hoses filled with water connected to a lid.

 

[tdkee1]

the idea you have for the bio chamber you already have sounds good too.

 

[JK47]

Thanks Kee, you too epond83 for the thought. I had thought about that and have been trying to work out a float switch to avoid emptying the sump on power down, especially considering I like to kill the pump when feeding. The pumps power will be routed through a toggle switch board. I'll have to keep thinking on that one though since things are far more urgent now than they were before so I have to keep making progress.. I found a buyer for my 220g today so I will be running the tank off of two FX5's with a lower water level until I get it finished but will have to move the fish none the less. That and I have fish flying in Tuesday morning.

Anyway onto todays progress.. Not much but got the top drilled for the FX5's. I use masking tape to make sure the holes are where I want them and are 100% evenly spaced (I'm OCD so it will bug me forever if not even)















I did a rough mark on the the inside of the bulkhead fittings with a marker but changed where I wanted the hole to be, that's why they are crooked. The actual holes are spot on where I wanted them and level.





You can still see the masking tape on the back and where the returns to the FX5's are going. The two returns will be pointed towards the surface while the returns from the sump are pointed down towards the substrate in four directions. The LFS still hasen't gotten my loc-line in yet...

 

[JK47]

Challenge for you guys.. How to get rid of these hard water/salt stains? The tank has never seen marine salt since new but there are some serious stains that I believe are from general FW salt (bought the tank from a koi distributor). I'm reposting this pic to give you an example of what I am talking about. FYI, vinegar will not touch it.. I know I will have to buff the tank but was hoping to get this crap off first to prevent further scrathing.

Any thoughts of getting it off or just buffing it out? Will that scratch the surface further?
I will be visiting TAP plastics to buy the compounds for buffing tomorrow. Any suggestions on what has worked from your experience?

 

[epond83]

If vinager won't take it off i have no idea...

By the way, looks like windex in one of those pictures, ammoina based cleaned should not be used on Acrylic from what i've heard.

 

[JK47]

If vinager won't take it off i have no idea...

By the way, looks like windex in one of those pictures, ammoina based cleaned should not be used on Acrylic from what i've heard.

Yeah I know, there is a bottle of Novus in the back too. I had to try and experiment though so I was using the windex on the disks I cut out. Which didn't work BTW.. Neither did the Novus but I know that's just a polish. Its all I had laying around at the moment. We'll see what the guys over at TAP suggest.