My first build... vertical!

Passedyouby said:

Hello everyone! Ive been creeping on the forum for a bit now and finally decided to reach out for advice and feedback on what to focus on next.

Ive spent the better part of 6 months building a really oddball tank. Ive needed something in my family room that adds height to the room, and decided "hey, i know nothing about fishtanks expect for a 5gal saltwater tank growing up, lets build something!"

Please excuse any beginner mistakes I've made... in fact the bad advice prob came from one of these forums!!!

Heres the setup:
Tank is 22L×11W×54H (55gal)
--1.25in overflow to a 3gallon "sump" purely for my heaters and for evaporation water.
--pipe pulls water from the "sump" (i really need a better name for that! Its def not a sump) and into a 5gallon bucket with lava rock at the bottom, .75in of filter floss above that, and 1.75in of sponge at the very top.
--water leaves bottom of the tank and flows to a check valve, followed by my return pump.
-- the return pump may be a mistake. I didnt realize yhere would be such a GPH loss from all that head pressure! Current pump provides 660gph and rated for 8.4ft head. Planning to pick up a bigger pump rated at 1098gph offering 13ft of head. Is this worthwhile?
--- leaving the pump i drop down to 3/4in pvc (worried about the new pumps flow) until i hit 3 ball valves. 1 valve flows up to the main talk as my return, one isnt being use yet but may lead to reactors etc down the road, and finally the last flows to my functioning sandfall (cheesy, i know, but i wanted to try).
What does everyone think about these pipe sizes? I understand technically they can handle the water flow, but am i drastically increasing head pressure? Or is the vertical tank my biggest factor here?

Lighting:
Just boring RGB led bulb connected via Zwave to my smarthome controls. Most of the day it runs at 6000k.
Once i hit the stage for coral i plan to pick up a kessil 360 and will most likely only put coral on the top two shelves. (unless there is a recommendation of something that penetrates deeper)

Whats in the tank:
Currently 2 very small damsels and a Moon Wrasse. This wasnt my preferred pick, but the local 4 stores withing a 1.5hr radius do not carry very many saltwater options


Here are my questions:
---For starters, what are the thoughts on my filtration for the time being? I have only had fish in the tank for 2.5 weeks and barely even have the slightest readings of Ammonia. cycling SUCKS!!!!!
Later i plan to add a skimmer and a reactor or two once needed.. but dont believe i am close to that yet?
--- plumbing, do i need to increase my pipe diameter for that new Jabeo 4000 pump?


Well thats the start to the zillion questions! Please dont hesitate to correct me, I'm new, but desperate to learn!

Andrew

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WV Reefer said:

That thing is crazy cool!

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Big G said:

Welcome to R2R! That is such a cool looking "tall" tank. I like it a lot My first thought is you could do some really interesting corals in your tank due to the depth and distance from the lighting.

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Geebs19 said:

Very interesting tank. Hopefully cleaning it isn’t too big of a pain!

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Big G said:

Lots of corals collected at depths most aquariums can't come close to simulating. Leptoseris for example will grow at the shallow depths of an aquarium, but are collected in deep waters. Would be so cool to see how they would grow and the colors they would achieve in your tank. They feed by using their mucous membrane. So it's easy to feed them by turning off the pumps and in your tank just letting the food settle to the bottom reaches of the tank. I bet if you grew some of them in a QT on a piece of rock, you could use one of those long grabber tools "hemostat" like they use in hospitals and easily set the corals in place, move them as needed. So look for corals that sellers recommend to be placed on the "bottom" of the tank that fit your unique vision of a tank.

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Passedyouby said:

Heres the setup:
Tank is 22L×11W×54H (55gal)
--1.25in overflow to a 3gallon "sump" purely for my heaters and for evaporation water.
--pipe pulls water from the "sump" (i really need a better name for that! Its def not a sump) and into a 5gallon bucket with lava rock at the bottom, .75in of filter floss above that, and 1.75in of sponge at the very top.
--water leaves bottom of the tank and flows to a check valve, followed by my return pump.
-- the return pump may be a mistake. I didnt realize yhere would be such a GPH loss from all that head pressure! Current pump provides 660gph and rated for 8.4ft head. Planning to pick up a bigger pump rated at 1098gph offering 13ft of head. Is this worthwhile?
--- leaving the pump i drop down to 3/4in pvc (worried about the new pumps flow) until i hit 3 ball valves. 1 valve flows up to the main talk as my return, one isnt being use yet but may lead to reactors etc down the road, and finally the last flows to my functioning sandfall (cheesy, i know, but i wanted to try).
What does everyone think about these pipe sizes? I understand technically they can handle the water flow, but am i drastically increasing head pressure? Or is the vertical tank my biggest factor here?

Lighting:
Just boring RGB led bulb connected via Zwave to my smarthome controls. Most of the day it runs at 6000k.
Once i hit the stage for coral i plan to pick up a kessil 360 and will most likely only put coral on the top two shelves. (unless there is a recommendation of something that penetrates deeper)

Here are my questions:
---For starters, what are the thoughts on my filtration for the time being? I have only had fish in the tank for 2.5 weeks and barely even have the slightest readings of Ammonia. cycling SUCKS!!!!!
Later i plan to add a skimmer and a reactor or two once needed.. but dont believe i am close to that yet?
--- plumbing, do i need to increase my pipe diameter for that new Jabeo 4000 pump?

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yungreefer2410 said:

For the pipe sizes, 3/4 inch is fine for the return. It depends on the pump outlet. For returns, generally you want the smallest pipe size the nozzle of the return pump fits into.

I also have the Jabeo 4000 and i will use either 1/2" or 3/4" return. Haven't gotten to plumbing it yet so not sure what size the small nozzle is. It is my understanding that upgrading to a larger return pipe size would decrease your pumps ability to push thru the vertical challenge.

For cycling, there are some great threads here in the new to reefing part of the forum. You do not want to use fish to cycle a tank, as ammonia kills fish. If you have any ammonia reading if your tank at all, you should add some bacteria (such as dr tims) and also do a water change.

For lighting, the kessil will do well with growing regular, photosynthetic corals in the first 24~" and up. Corals deeper than that I imagine will present a unique challenge.

For flow in the tank, all you have is the return pump correct? You will want some powerheads in there, placement for them will be tricky due to the dimensions.

Could you expand on your sump that's not a sump and 5g bucket? at 8-10 gallons max capacity, I am concerned when the return pumps turns off, that water from the DT draining down may flood the sump/bucket combo. Have you tested this yet? Post some pictures please, post a picture of your overflow as well. I am a little lost as to how the water drains down and is returned to the tank. You can see in the picture that the surface is almost completely still (unless the pump is off in the pic). You want agitation.

You can add a skimmer at any point in time, they have several benefits. Have you looked at any potential skimmers to buy yet? I am personally a reef octopus fanboy. But I hear the SCA (cheaper) works well also. What sort of reactors did you have in mind?

Click to expand...

yungreefer2410 said:

For the pipe sizes, 3/4 inch is fine for the return. It depends on the pump outlet. For returns, generally you want the smallest pipe size the nozzle of the return pump fits into.

I also have the Jabeo 4000 and i will use either 1/2" or 3/4" return. Haven't gotten to plumbing it yet so not sure what size the small nozzle is. It is my understanding that upgrading to a larger return pipe size would decrease your pumps ability to push thru the vertical challenge.

For cycling, there are some great threads here in the new to reefing part of the forum. You do not want to use fish to cycle a tank, as ammonia kills fish. If you have any ammonia reading if your tank at all, you should add some bacteria (such as dr tims) and also do a water change.

For lighting, the kessil will do well with growing regular, photosynthetic corals in the first 24~" and up. Corals deeper than that I imagine will present a unique challenge.

For flow in the tank, all you have is the return pump correct? You will want some powerheads in there, placement for them will be tricky due to the dimensions.

Could you expand on your sump that's not a sump and 5g bucket? at 8-10 gallons max capacity, I am concerned when the return pumps turns off, that water from the DT draining down may flood the sump/bucket combo. Have you tested this yet? Post some pictures please, post a picture of your overflow as well. I am a little lost as to how the water drains down and is returned to the tank. You can see in the picture that the surface is almost completely still (unless the pump is off in the pic). You want agitation.

You can add a skimmer at any point in time, they have several benefits. Have you looked at any potential skimmers to buy yet? I am personally a reef octopus fanboy. But I hear the SCA (cheaper) works well also. What sort of reactors did you have in mind?

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demonspeedn said:

Nice looking setup. Some tall Gorgonians would look good towards the bottom. Sun Corals would be pretty cool also.
You may be limited to fish and Invert selection with the Moon wrasse

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