DIY Concrete Aquarium 5,000 gallon - Anderson Family Reef
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dca22anderson
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That unit is producing about 300 GPD with the two DI polishers on there. So it will be great for water changes but a little undersized for the fill up.
rcrutherford44
Community Member
Awesome build, thanks for sharing this for everyone. Look forward to continue with this journey!
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dca22anderson
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Thanks for following along! Just getting to the good part!! LOL
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dca22anderson
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Added power and downspout returns to the 1-1/2” sea-swirls. Thinking I will plumb in a Hammerhead Gold as a return pump to start the cycle with the temp white bin sump and my old skimmer (on loan from a good friend). I should be able to add salt this weekend and kick off the reef!!
Also added another coat of paint to the skimmer pit!
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dca22anderson
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Doing double work as I wait for the right sized filtration gear to arrive, hopefully. Didn’t hear back from Bill Wann last week.
Installed two Hammerhead Gold return pumps both rated at around 5800-6000 gph on the undersized 200 gallon temporary sump. Used parts that were laying around from other builds I have done in the past.
I changed up the 3” drains a bit to handle the additional flow but nothing is glued in yet.
You probably guessed what would happen so I’ll confirm you were correct. The single 3” drain didn’t get enough water back to the sump to feed the pumps before they sucked the sump dry! I’m going to need a much bigger body of water to pull from. I’m going to add a second 3” drain set up to see if I can at least keep one pump running strong.
I plugged the bulkheads and drained the lines to the hammerheads till I put them in use.
Added a foam board base to the “skimmer pit”. I’ll start working on the skimmer redo next… just put on the undersized skimmer to begin the cycle.
Hi Dave,
Firstly loving following along with this, I honestly get excited when I get the email notification for a new post. I had a question re the photo below with your pumping. You have the join on each pipe, are you planning on something going in those joins?
Firstly loving following along with this, I honestly get excited when I get the email notification for a new post. I had a question re the photo below with your pumping. You have the join on each pipe, are you planning on something going in those joins?
Reef Jockey
Active Member
what an incredible build
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dca22anderson
Valuable Member
Thanks for following along!
Good question - this is just a temporary return set up till I get my real gear from Aquarium Engineering.
The black rubber couplers help with vibration and are easy to disconnect when the time comes to hook up to the new sump and filtration gear.
Figured I have lost enough time waiting on gear so I’ll start the cycle with some smaller gear to keep moving forward.
I am planning on a 6’x6’x3’ concrete sump in place of the 8’x4’x4’ PVC sump ordered and paid for from Bill Wann about 7 months ago…
Its double work and super frustrating but I’m now planning on alternative solutions for filtration. I will start however with some gear I have laying around to just get it salted up and cycling
I can identify with this "plow ahead" philosophy. Typically it is my own errors which is frustrating enough but I learn stuff along the way. Plow onward. Keep some notes. We are all with you.
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dca22anderson
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Sadly, he didn’t respond to my attempts to follow up on our conversation, now two Fridays ago…
Maybe I missed it somewhere but I want to know how you caught the Koi?
Looking Great by the way.
Looking Great by the way.
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dca22anderson
Valuable Member
Great question! This should answer it… LOL
That was great. I thought that you might have went full scuba.
McPuff
Valuable Member
I have dealt with a very similar situation though on a much lesser scale ($). Over a year went by and every few weeks I would hear that progress has been made but there is this/that holdup. Finally, I just said that too much time had passed and I needed a refund... keep whatever gear you have. After that I didn't have that constant knot in my stomach and I went with a different option (also for my reef, of course!). Sorry you are dealing with this but hopefully you can sort it out asap and move forward!
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