Chizer & Bunoi 67 gallon
 

Chizer and Bunoi are my 8 year clownfish. They are a mated pair. Chizer is the female and Bunoi is the male. They are also the names of my two yorkies but that's another story.

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Some of you might have seen their last home? They quickly ran out of room and got evicted. They are now moving into the pent house.
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Initially I was planning to put this build in my basement but with all the dust down there, I thought it would be nice to downsize from my current 90 gallon tank and go with a nice setup in my living room. Life is also very busy right now so I decided to sell off all of my fish tanks and keep only the reef. :wink:

The plan is to go full zeovit on this setup as 90 percent of my corals are SPS. I also plan to use local Calgary tap water. I have been reefing for over 2 years and never had any issue using tap water, so lets see what happens. I have yet to have any weird parameter issues due to TDS or nitrates/phosphates. How long before I get desperate and cave on an RO setup. :redface:

Also, I will not add any other fish to this tank. Just the two brats and that's all.

Equipment

• Tank: 67 gallon tank (48" x 18" x 18") with external overflow (4 x 1" holes) and one piece acrylic on back side
• Plumbing: Herbie setup with the two returns, will incorporate ball valves, gate valve, check valve, unions and maybe filter sock
• Light: TEK 6 bulb T5HO
• Return Pump: Eheim 1262
• Protein Skimmer: Bubble Magus NAC5E HOB (what I have) rated for 80G - 120G, plans to upgrade in the future
• Zeovit reactor: to be purchased
• Heater: Eheim Jager 300W
• ATO: Tunze Osmolator 3155
• Controller: Digital Aquatics Reef Keeper Lite
• Wave Movement: 4 x VorTech MP10 (still to purchase one)
• Sump: 20 gallon tank with no baffles
• Dosing: DIY 2 part
• Salt: IO Reef Crystals

Stand
This is a bathroom vanity purchased from Lowes that I modified to suite my needs.


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Tank

This tank was built by Concept Aquatics.

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Sump

LOL - In all it's glory. It's the only tank that fits in the stand.

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I installed a piece of plywood on the top and reinforced the stand with lots of 2x4's.

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I then painted it with an outdoor semi-gloss paint. I wish I could stain it but I don't have a garage and its way too cold outside (for the varnish to cure).

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The tank will have a layer of Oolite sand. Knowing how much water flow I intend to have, I decided to paint the bottom glass with a sand color acrylic paint. That way, it won't look so bad.

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I am just waiting for the paint to cure, then I'll start the mockup plumbing.

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Thats a great idea!

:pop2: not a bad idea why not just go with a deeper sand bed.

Thanks Wayne.

Hey Mike, I wish I could. Zeovit recommends a 2" - 3" sand bed so I can't go any deeper than that. As you might be aware, with lots of water flow, the sand will kick up in certain areas regardless to expose the glass. Plus my clownfish love having a bare bottom spot to pick up their eggs when spawning.

My current 90 gallon is barebottom without the paint. Trust me, it's hideous. That's why many people use starboard instead.

The starboard is inside the tank whereas your paint is outside. I am not positive but I think with the light refraction you won't see your paint unless viewing from above.

Build is looking great btw! Your nano looks bright what's it lit with?

Thanks for the comment Brett.

That old nano cube was lit with a phoenix 14K bulb. You don't remember looking at it last year? You probably saw it before all those SPS came through.

The paint is viewable from all angles. It's actually a lot nicer than the starboard. Here is a shot of my discus tank with the same sand color.

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I'm working on no sleep here show what I know! Yeah that is a very nice look i'm going to do the same thing if I ever build another tank <- insanely unlikely right? Maybe it doesn't work if the colour (paint of whatever) isn't directly onto the glass. Or maybe I should get some sleep =)

I think it's a competition between you and FishyFishy. You guys should start the tanked show here in Calgary.

Update

Paint is now done. What do you all think?

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Now Chizer, pose for the picture.

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Oh no, I think Bunoi is going to spend her days underneath the tank stand.

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I also picked up a 9 outlet powerbar. This plus the RK PC4 and I'm all set.

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It's 36" long and fits on the top back wall (inside the stand) nicely.

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And then I finished the plumbing. I installed true union ball valves for each bulkhead. I wanted to make it modular in case something happened in the future. I also did a bulkhead leak test and it's all good. Who would have thought it would take so long to glue stupid pipes together. It took twice as long because I was so anal about making sure that the glue was clean and tidy.

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And it's all held together with tie straps.

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Tomorrow I have to go pick up some more plumbing parts. I'll post inside pics then and then it's time for the water test and then swap.

Update

I somewhat finished the plumbing. I need to make some more adjustments.

Returns - everything has been glued together, but the down pipe connected to the 45 is not.

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See the herbie drain? That's only 1.5" difference between the primary and emergency. There is a problem with that which I'll get to.

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The main siphon has a union then a gate valve.

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Here you can see the emergency drain. I also have my tube holder for the dosing pump and ATO.

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And then the return pump. It goes from the return pump using flex tubing into the inside of the barb (it does not leak as it runs inside quite a bit and there is no way to pull that tube out now. Then it goes to a barb fitting, flap style check valve to a union.

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And the finally the sump. Only enough room for my protein skimmer and a zeo reactor.

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Leak test was a complete success.

The return pump is so noisy. I need to get a mouse pad or a piece of foam under there. That is also 8" of water in there.

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This picture shows the water level when the pump is on. You can see that I decided not to drill any siphon break holes into the pipe as the end sits above the water level at all times.

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And when the water is off, this is where the water level is at.

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So I am having problems with the herbie setup. The emergency drain is currently 1.5" taller than the full siphon drain. The water is gurgling into the emergency drain.

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Do I make the emergency drain taller by another 1 inches?

Also, I can hear the water splashing from the weir into the box. Do I need to raise the full siphon drain as well? sphelps help, I forgot what you said when you came over.

Tomorrow I am going to start washing the oolite sand and will let it run with the fresh water, to settle. It's brand new sand. Then I will drain the tank and do the transfer. My 90 is currently sumpless but is bare-bottom. :redface:

Does it make sense to transfer it all at once, or should I fill this tank with salt water and migrate it slowly? I was thinking that I could siphon all the clean water for the transfer. There shouldn't be any issues with parameters this way??

I ended up putting a piece of this filter material under my 1262 to silence it. I chose the green for it's cushion feel over the others available. It's a bit more than an inch thick and I use it under 4 different pumps with great results

If it were me, I'd lower the full siphon pipe. This will give you more flow due to more head pressure
My main drain is only about 4" tall and my emerg is a couple inches from the top

48x18x18 is closer to 67g

Hey there. Just like to start out by saying NICE TANK! Smart idea with the stand as well. It looks pro. To the Herbies. There's a happy spot you'll have to experiment to find. Every system is a bit different due to flow rates and weir heights. I found with mine that keeping the overflow water level higher it would make it quieter. Also I'm not sure if you're using fresh or saltwater in your test but things will change with saltwater and once the pipes start to 'slime up'. I ended up with some enkamat in the back of my overflow to help keep everything quieter as well. Are you using two drains as primary and one as an emergency? Once set up, you may have to have your primary drain 3-4 inches lower then your emergency just to get a decent head pressure above the drain. Once you cut your primary drain down lower the overflow should fill above the drain pipe at least an inch or two to keep the suction/gurgling sound away. Its all about throttling and matching the flow of your return pump. Herbies are great and I wouldn't go any other way. Just some set up involved.

Also if you want to chat a bit more in depth about it or you have any further questions shoot me a pm and I'd be glad to call you or vice versa

First off don't lower the full siphon pipe yet (primary, one with gate valve). This won't increase head pressure or flow, this is set by the gate valve and nothing else. Lowering the height will only drain more water to your sump and that's a pretty big overflow you got there. You may need to lower it if it's creating a vortex and sucking in air but I don't think that's an issue.

Seems to me the issue is your back up or emergency drain is too low. Try this procedure.

1. Stick a coupling on there or swap out the pipe with a taller one. Start with something too tall that extends an inch or so above the top of the tank, you can cut it to the right size after the next step.
   
2. Tighten the gate valve a little to raise the water level in the overflow, it's too low if the weir is dropping down too much causing waterfall noise. Water level in the overflow can be around 1/2" to 1/4" below tank water level, but set it as low as possible provided the noise is gone. The overflow should be completely silent now, if not check if the primary is creating a vortex and sucking in air, if it is the primary pipe needs to be shortened.
   
3. Now with the overflow water level set, mark the back up drain pipe 1/2" above the overflow water level and cut it there. I recall you have three drain pipes, so consider running two back ups at this height, it'll help for next step.
   
4. Now test the back up, with pump operating at desired or max output shut the gate valve completely but be ready to open it if needed. If the back up drain(s) can handle the flow without the tank overflowing you're good. If not you have to shorten them until they can, 1/4" at a time but note if you have to cut it more than once you'll need to lower your overflow water level in step 2.

I've had my emergency that close to my primary. They key is making really fine adjustments to the gate valve so that the trickle going down the emergency is small enough that it is silent... like a thin coating of water on the walls of the pipe going down.

Actually lowering or removing the primary drain standpipe will make life a lot easier in this configuration and it has everything to do with "head". Everybody remembers their first go at trying to adjust a herbie style overflow, even if you did shell out the bucks for a gate valve it can be a complete PITA to try and maintain with the primary standpipe that high.

However if you were to remove the primary drain standpipe and close the valve controlling that drain until the water level in the overflow stays within and inch or so of the top it so it's quiet as well it becomes much easier to do minute adjustments. The reason for this is the pressure built up in the box remains constant when it is at at given level, with a high drain pipe you get much less drain pressure and it fluctuates somewhat making it difficult to adjust. The force of the water is "static head", not to be confused the the "head pressure" we try and work out when sizing a return pump.

Some things to consider in this configuration; When the pump shuts down you will drain the entire overflow box, make sure you have room to catch the water. Also you are at a slightly increased risk of clogging the drain, make sure you open it up once in a while to flush built up gunk. You should be doing that in either configuration though.

Greg - I edit that part out. I realized I wasn't using an aquarium calculator. duh!

Skimmin - Thanks for the kind comments. I was able to leave the return pump fully open.

Steve - Your method worked very well. It sure is time consuming and cutting a 1/4" of PVC off on the mitre off is scarry. The rebound and kick back sure is dangerous.

Brett - I have my emergency drain sitting high in the sump so the thin drain doesn't work. I did this on purpose so that I could whether something was wrong with the primary.
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Thank you everyone. I ended up cutting the primary 1" and the emergency is now sitting 1/4" under the weir itself. No crashing noises or vortex happening. The emergency also works flawlessly.

I stuck a piece of 1" gym memory foam under the return pump which helped some what dampen the noise, but you can still hear a hum/vibration. I'm thinking maybe it's the vinyl tubing from the pump to the hard pvc? Or maybe I am hearing the echoing inside the stand itself?

There are only two drains on this herbie.

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Thanks for the tip. I didn't glue the stand pipes in for maintenance purposes. Also when I open the gate valve completely, it does a nice job of flushing the sump so that should be a regular task.

I chose not to use the ball valves to limit the return pump. Kinda silly since I them on there already huh? I think I'll stick with the stand pipe.

Completely false in regards to how pressure works, basic fluid mechanics here guys it's very simple.

Look at these two cases, the static head pressure at the valve (X) is identical for both cases. It's science don't argue with it cause you'll loose :lol:
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...adpressure.jpg
Shortening the pipe will do nothing for pressure and unless you're getting a vertex it will make no difference for adjustment and only result in issues relating to the entire overflow box draining during shut down.

Ha, I know all about that. Keep the saw down until the blade stops moving. You usually get a kick back by lifting it back up with the blade still going full tilt.

Glad you got everything working.

so what you're trying to say is that size doesn't matter?? :mrgreen:

You assume that the volume of water coming over the weir is constant but it's not. Having a larger volume of water over the drain makes adjustment easier because it evens it out.

First it is constant unless your pump is fluctuating which it shouldn't be and second volume has nothing to do with static head pressure.

Possibly I am using the term "Static Head " incorrectly, I'm more a wrench bender than an engineer. However I can show that the height of the water above the drain determines the velocity of the water draining by applying Bernoulli's Principle. There's all sorts of handy calculators on the web that help figure this out, like this:

http://www.efunda.com/formulae/fluids/draining_tank.cfm

It has been my experience that this increase in velocity makes adjusting a gate or ball valve on the drain MUCH easier. Determining the reason for this goes well beyond my math skills but it's very easy to demonstrate. I think it's because you end up with a full pipe before the drain valve which ends up giving you a more even flow rate. Regardless it translates into easy, repeatable and reliable adjustments.

You're still way off, the velocity at the valve and in the pipe will be the same regardless (delta z is equal for both cases), the formula you linked doesn't take an internal pipe into account, reason being is that it doesn't matter. Yes with the pipe extended the input velocity is shifted from the bulkhead to the top of the extended pipe but this won't effect flow and the velocity will be constant throughout the pipe until after the valve. Even if you want to break out Bernoulli's equation all you'll end up proving is the pipe friction from the extra 6" of straight pipe makes no difference, and even if it did it would still give constant flow and not result in anything constantly changing.

The issues you've experience are likely from the pipe being too close to the surface creating a partial or occasional vortex like I've mentioned a few times now. You need enough space from top of the pipe to the water surface to eliminate any vortex effects but you certainly don't need to remove it all together.

I assure you the typical Herbie has an extended pipe to prevent the overflow from draining and it doesn't cause issues. This you should have noticed with the problem already being corrected with an extended pipe.

If you wish to continue learning about fluid mechanics PM me, I'll happily discuss it with you but don't post incorrect information in this guys build thread.

.........

I'll take some of the blame for this as I'm the one who first posted increased head on his main drain

When I lowered my main from 10" to 4" I thought I saw improved drainage, even though I had no vortex issues, hence my assumption

Thanks for the great info Steve

In other words, nevermind? :lol:

I meant to add ...
I keep my overflow level close to the emerg level, as in 1/2", so I get absolutely no gurgling

Wow you guys have been busy. We'll so have I.

WE HAVE LIFT OFF!

All of these images are 30 minutes after the transfer. I can't believe how happy most of my SPS are. They already have polyp extension. :twised:

All of the shots are going to be actinic and then day lights.

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And the happy couple are digging their new cave that I made for them. It's a penthouse mansion.

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Now I need to add the sand bed and purchase the following items:

• MP20 or 40 (MP10 is too weak on this length even though I have 3 already)
• Zeovit Reactor
• More corals. muhahahhahahaha :twised::twised::twised::twised:

Gah my pictures suck! I need a new camera.

Wow, that looks great :smile:, like a SW version of an Iwagumi
I'm quite jealous of your Coast to Coast

Curious to know why you think you need more MP10s
I run 2 on my 4' 75g and only run them about 75%
Any more and I blast coral flesh

Pics look great man and I can't believe you got that tank looking so good already. Looks like it's been setup a lot longer than 30min :surprise:

I guess I'm weird that way. There is definitely a lot of flow as I recently added in some Oolite sand. It's blowing everywhere. But I don't see my LPS swaying around too much so... Maybe you are right and another MP10 will be enough.

Thanks. :wink:


Update

I decided to re-aquascape prior to adding sand in. I prefer the Iwagumi look of just having two islands instead.

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And in goes the sand. It's maybe 5lbs of Oolite sand? A good 1 inch only. I plan to never siphon it but will stir it up regularly. That plus the 3 Vortech MP10's, it moves around a lot.

I just added the sand so it's still covering all the corals/rocks. It's also on the glass which I didn't bother to clean yet.

Here are some close ups. This is from 5 months of bare-bottom with vodka dosing supplementation. I was dosing Foz-down the entire time and kept my tank at ULNS. Parameters were always stable.

See how horrible my corals look? The colors just aren't there. This is why I want to try Zeovit.

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Riceboy's special.

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Still need to setup the protein skimmer and auto dosers. But to be honest, with regular weekly 10% water changes and instant ocean reef crystals, you don't need to dose much if trying to keep NSW levels.

Very, very nice! :biggrin:

Looks awesome! Super clean looking setup. My daughter just said its pretty too lol.