Mike89t's 45gal Cube Build

[Sleepingtiger]

on your return pipe, no check valve?

 

[mike89t]

on your return pipe, no check valve?

Nope. Never was a fan of check valves. They all eventually fail.

I've setup my return so that the syphon breaks way before they sump fills up. Still have about 5" of room in the sump for additional water after the syphon breaks.

 

[cww180]

Looking good, great job! What did you use to do the mock up on your sump plumbing?

 

[cww180]

Now that I got my Tank drilled I put together a layout of my plumbing. Going for a Bean Animal style overflow:

View attachment 2270105

I thought the standard was to have the valve on your primary drain? I have not plumbed my yet so I’m curious on where and why so I can set mine up properly.

 

[mike89t]

I thought the standard was to have the valve on your primary drain? I have not plumbed my yet so I’m curious on where and why so I can set mine up properly.

Thanks. It was just PowerPoint

 

[mike89t]

I thought the standard was to have the valve on your primary drain? I have not plumbed my yet so I’m curious on where and why so I can set mine up properly.

Yep. Primary drain is the short one on the right. Secondary is middle and emergency is on the left

 

[cww180]

Ok I’ll put it on my main drain also.

 

[noopsyche]

My Fiji Cube sump arrived today!

View attachment 2256506

Nice to see your return-reef thread,and your cube sump looks nice

 

[mike89t]

Finished replacing the leaky connection. Hooked back up for another leak test. So far no leaks.

 

[noopsyche]

So back in the day I had a 190 reef system that I eventually sold off back in 2011. With two small kids at the time it just became too much to handle. Fast forward a decade and I baby sat my friends Biocube over the holiday weekend while they were on Vacation. Ooops I did it again. Caught the bug. Wife says I'm crazy.

So I re-joined my local reef club and within a day I was the proud owner of a 45 Gallon Cube. We have an awesome club out here in the Phoenix area and this member sold me his tank and stand for a price that I couldn't pass up. it needed a ton of TLC to get it back into shape and will need to be drilled to add an overflow but "I'm back baby!"

Here it is in sad need of some TLC:

View attachment 2204394

Here is the 45 Cube after some Elbow Grease:



View attachment 2204395

Here is the Stand after wiping it down and getting it ready for a new paint job:


View attachment 2204397

Looking forward to your complete tank;Woot

 

[Daniel@R2R]

Nope. Never was a fan of check valves. They all eventually fail.

I've setup my return so that the syphon breaks way before they sump fills up. Still have about 5" of room in the sump for additional water after the syphon breaks.

I have the same thoughts on check valves and set my return up so the siphon breaks as you did.

 

[mike89t]

Tanks been running for a full day without any leaks!

Calibrated my heaters as well so that they are heating to exactly 78 degrees.

 

[howaboutme]

Question for you. I'm trying to get my fijicube sump (the 12) setup and it seems super loud at the drain into the sump. I've been playing w/ how deep the pipe is under water. I tried ~1" below water line (not the overflow into the other chamber), loud. Then I cut it so it's about 1/2", still loud. Now I see yours (and some others) that have the pipes way deep under the water line. Is it silent? Did those internal pipes come w/ the sump or did you just trail and errored it?

Thanks!

 

[mike89t]

Question for you. I'm trying to get my fijicube sump (the 12) setup and it seems super loud at the drain into the sump. I've been playing w/ how deep the pipe is under water. I tried ~1" below water line (not the overflow into the other chamber), loud. Then I cut it so it's about 1/2", still loud. Now I see yours (and some others) that have the pipes way deep under the water line. Is it silent? Did those internal pipes come w/ the sump or did you just trail and errored it?
View attachment 2327559
Thanks!

Yes it is very quiet. Those pipes came with the sump. Were in the box with all of the other accessories.

However I also had to raise the water level in the sump to quiet the noise from the waterfall into the filter socks. I wanted the skimmer section to be at 8-9 inches deep. However the filter socks were too loud. So I raised the water level in the skimmer section to 11” and now it is quiet. I will have to put my skimmer on a stand so that it is at the proper level in the water.

 

[howaboutme]

Yes it is very quiet. Those pipes came with the sump. Were in the box with all of the other accessories.

However I also had to raise the water level in the sump to quiet the noise from the waterfall into the filter socks. I wanted the skimmer section to be at 8-9 inches deep. However the filter socks were too loud. So I raised the water level in the skimmer section to 11” and now it is quiet. I will have to put my skimmer on a stand so that it is at the proper level in the water.

Can you tell me approximately how far below the water level are those drain pipes? Wonder why fijicube didn't include them....

That's interesting about raising the sump water. I thought it was that too so I raised it high and didn't get any change. Perhaps I didn't raise it high enough. I can't raise it too high or else I won't have room for the water if pumps are off.

 

[mike89t]

Can you tell me approximately how far below the water level are those drain pipes? Wonder why fijicube didn't include them....

That's interesting about raising the sump water. I thought it was that too so I raised it high and didn't get any change. Perhaps I didn't raise it high enough. I can't raise it too high or else I won't have room for the water if pumps are off.

they are about 4” below the water line:

here you can see the level I have set in the skimmer chamber. Still give me about 3” of space to spare after the siphon breaks.

 

[mike89t]

Draining the tank in preparation of aquascaping and adding salt water tomorrow!

 

[mike89t]

DT Day!!!!! My Display Tank is finally up and running!

 

[howaboutme]

they are about 4” below the water line:

View attachment 2327665

here you can see the level I have set in the skimmer chamber. Still give me about 3” of space to spare after the siphon breaks.

View attachment 2327671

Thanks for your thorough response. I ended up extending my pipes in the drain and that did it (along w/ some adjustments to gate valve and pump speed). Weird that it goes against what is normally the suggested depth (~1" or less). I'm also playing w/ sump height to help minimize the trickle into the mechanical filtration chamber.

Congrats on getting it wet!

 

[mike89t]

Water cleared up really quickly. Started my fishless cycle.