in the beginning....

Im getting so excited! on tuesday i should have water in it, then the build will really begin!

 

so i returned the kit an got another 55G, 40lbs of aragonite sand and a koralia 2. seems like a fair trade. the aquarium is a REALLY heavy Hagen. never had one but i assume they are well made. pics of the stuff!

 

I see why the glass is so thick. No center brace. I have a 75 that I use as a terrarium that is like your 55. 3/4" thick glass. Really heavy, but heavy duty as well. I can't wait to see the progress.

 

attempted sumpicide

ok, here is my base sump design. the sump is a 25G 30x12.5x15.
- the inlet/skimmer section will be 6.5" long and 10" high. thats about 3.5G. it can be this small cause i just ordered a aquac urchin pro which has a footprint of 3.5x7.
- the return area will be almost the exact same size atm. im not sure what evap. will be like so i may go a lil bigger. the return pump is a quiet one 3000. should put out around 450-500gph at 4' head
- the fuge will be 16"long and the same 10" high for about 8G. it will be fed by a restricted split in the drain line. i am aiming at around 40gph flow, not sure how im gunna get it tho

that should give me 9G of extra space for power-outage situation(its about 1.5" drained in the 55G DT).

comments please! first diy sump so im not sure what too look out for.

 

might as well toss out a self bump, was planning on getting the glass tomolo so i need to know if this is gunna work asap.

 

Looks good to me. Your return area is about 3.8 gallons in volume with 10 inches of depth. However, not all of that depth is usable. You will need at least 2 inches of water depth (maybe more) to prevent the return pump from sucking air. You will probably end up with around 2.5 gallons of usable volume in the return area. That's how much evaporation you can have before the return pump sucks air. Is that enough based on your top off regimen? Only you can answer that last question. If 2.5 gallons is enough then you are set. Just for reference, on my 38 gallon I have a fuge area that is 9 inches long (out of 20) on my 10g sump/fuge. Your 16 inches is a large area (nothing wrong with that), but don't be afraid to make your return area larger. You have plenty of fuge area, so losing an inch or so won't really matter. A larger return area is the one thing I wish I had. I can go almost 2 days without my return pump sucking air, but wish it were larger so I could go away for a long weekend and not worry if the person watching my tank is refilling it correctly. Just something to think about, although there is absolutely nothing wrong with your design as-is.

Another option is to add an inch or so of depth without changing the length of your 3 areas. You are only using 10 out of 15 inches (67%). I use 9 out of 12 (75%) in mine and have never had an overflow problem when the power goes out. Again, you don't have to change anything. Just giving you some ideas.

 

was thinking of an ato as i have about 18" of length in the cabinet. however ill just ad another 2" to the return an extra gallon won't hurt i hope.

 

water, aragonite, base rocks.

OK! so i skipped a few steps here, but iv been making RO/DI since monday for 4 hours a day. iv been filling the aquarium in 16G chunks. so now, theres atleast 48G in there. the next 16 will fill over my overflow and my sump. i also wanna clear it up. the "live" sand i got had a packet of clarifier that i added per directions. just wanna know if i can use a regular sock(sport sock) as a filter to get some of the particles out. i do have a real filer sock but dunno if 200 microns is too fine, dont want it to clog and run my return dry. so any advice for the next couple of hours??? what should i be watching for??!!

 

Use the actual filter sock it wint clog in a couple days you can wash it with just bleach when it dries its safe to use again. I rotate about 4 socks so I can wait awhile and wash them all

 

oh, and should i be cycling with or without lights(4x54 t5ho). nothing live in there just wanna get bacteria