Have been on here for quiet some time, I have currently running an AR300 with mixture of fish and corals that has been running for over 2 years. I set out looking for a new project though as I am considering looking at maybe closing down my big tank and merging the few fish I want to keep with some coral into my smaller tank project. I wanted a sump style tank, I believe the freedom and extra capacity makes them a touch easier to look after on a daily basis and having owned a RedSea 130D pervious to my AR300 setup, I also liked the idea of having a smaller setup again.
So I searched ebay looking for a suitable tank, and the ORCA 80L had popped up with a very cheap buy it now price,the owner had never used the tank and had set about the process of trying to add plumbing and a sump to the setup to ultimately create a Frag only tank.
I picked the tank up, included was a custom built sump, Tank and cabinet, and some nice Eheim pumps that the previous owner was going to use to set it up. Problem he had was how was it to be plumbed, hence why it was on ebay cheap. So this leads me to my build thread...
Firstly, I had to come up with a strategy of how to best accommodate plumbing while keeping this looking nice as it sits opposite the AR300 in my Lounge room. I decided to modify the rear of the tank to make a drop down weir setup.
1. Drilling the Sump Holes, Purchased glass cutting hole saw from masters, and made a jig up with some pine to hold it in place while the cutting takes place. Key to cutting it yourself is to make sure you have it braced, and to add water while cutting so it stays nice and cool.
2. From there I set about cutting the holes into the cabinet to once again keep it looking tidy. Using a hole saw I made the holes bigger so it was easier later to fit the plumbing from the tank down to the sump. I then touched it up, with some black paint to keep it nice an clean and standard looking.
3. So from there, it becomes more fun
. So I purchased some bulkheads from Masters to get started on setting up the start of the plumbing. I did some flow testing and worked out sizes required for pumping and draining via gravity with the weir to make sure it flows equally with no issues of overflow. As there is limited space is the rear of the tank, I had to modify the bulkheads to fit the rear of tank.
To get the best fit and to make sure it is in fact water tight, I made some perspex spacers to fill the gap between the bottom of the tank and the plastic trim that supports the tank, I made a jig up to support the perspex while I cut it.
4. Next stage was then to assemble to tank, now that both holes were plumbed it was then time to fit the bulkheads and do a quick leak test that they in fact sealed. I was slightly paranoid so i added silicon around the return to sump hole to make sure, results were no leaks, and it worked a charm. I then created the center piece that would make up the weir to the sump, I simply modified some piping I had that fitted the bulk heads and created a V to allow it to continue to work if the water evaporated further and I hadn't relised. I thread locked it in also, no leaks visible with a full tank of water which is what I was after.
5. Finally assembled I chose using flexible pipe for the return to make my life easier when getting it down into the sump from. I also had to dremel out the holes further to fit the bulk heads into the cabinet to give it that flush look and also so it wasn't resting on any part of the plumbing potentially causing issues down the track.
So that's how it currently sits its cycling fresh rain water atm for next few days, before I decide what an how I will scape it with, I have a excess of Christmas live rock covered in Coraline algae so I may start there... will report back here soon