Ok, thank god that's all done. now I can get to the part I thought was actually going to be a problem. the plumbing. Here's how it looks ready to be tested.

I spent many trips to HD trying to figure out if it was 1.5" PVC and connections I needed or 1 1/4" or 1"... I didn't want to disconnect overflow box and lose suction cuz so i bought the whole store basically.

I then connected the pieces and brought it up to bathtub and poured water down to test some ideas. I tried all design with the 1.5" pvc but couldn't get pressure enough to shoot over to both sides. pipe was too big i guess. so then I realized overflow box was 1" which made life easier.

To make a long story short, here's how the final design looks.




top piece goes to overflow box

Items used:
(1) 45 that connected to overflow box
(4) 90's
1" PVC piping
(1) "T"

all in all, this design worked fairly decent (in a bathrub at least).

keep in mind, this was my very FIRST plumping project so all of this was new to me

I then filled up the sump with water making sure to fill each section evenly, so I could adjust the length of the pipe draining into the Fuge/Skimmer sections. I didn't want the tube all the way in water because I wanted to see how much water was coming out.

here's how the Fuge section looks.

after turning it all on, everything worked out nicely. the Fuge gets a little of the water and the skimmer gets majority of water. Damn am I good :worthy:
Of course if i was that good, I would've did it right and glued all the PVC connections to make sure no leaks, but it wasn't leaking and it was already midnight so I said looks good to me.

now the messy part that you probably don't want to see.
I had to add my sand and LR and chaeto to my Fuge.


here's the "southdown" sand I have in main tank and using in Fuge. I got this from a guy with a 600g tank years ago. This stuff causes so much cloudiness it's insane. I remembered from my main tank it was cloudy for 3 days.

This time around I heard about rinsing your sand out first. well, I didn't know what that technically meant so I put the sand in a bucket, filled bucket half way with water... stirred sand around... then dumped water. did this about 5 times. Then I took a coffee mug and went as slow as I could to put sand in Fuge.

Unfortunately, that didn't absolutely nothing and my tank quickly got cloudy.
how cloudy you ask?


not too bad, but then as more and more sand went in my tank completely went cloudy. I thought about turning off all the pumps/powerheads, return pump... but my tank was completely unplugged since 3pm and it was now 12:30am so I just said. screw it

Linda, if you thought watching the cutting of the stand hard.... get ready!

and now the cloudiness quickly makes it into my main tank. Hide Fishies! Hide! Get the H, E, Double Hockey sticks out of there!!!!
oh well.... too late. now I must pray this doesn't kill all my coral and fish.
Here's my tank at 1:30 am (don't be Jealous)
Loser!!


this can't be good for the skimmer huh? what a newb I am


yum yum

I knew from few yrs ago when I put this sand in my main tank that it didn't kill any fish and it cleared up after awhile. I'm sure it's ruining my pumps but I've had same stuff since then and it's all running still. I figured by morning it would hopefully be much clearer.

well, when i woke up at 6:45 my tank was much better. here's how it looked when I woke up


And before Noon it's perfect again basically.

All my coral are open and looking good. (except my candy canes. oh no... I did chop them up yesterday for meeting and then this... so to say their "pissed" would be an understatement)

Here's the light I got at Home Depot for my Fuge. No clue if it's good to grow Cheato so someone let me know please.


that's it folks... I have myself a brand new sump with a Fuge and some Chaeto. I'm praying the chaeto eats up some nitrates and phosphates so i can finally get a stable system.

thanks everyone for helping out with this design and answering my million questions I asked to do this. It was a fun, scary, and exciting experience and I'm glad I did it. I love the new sump and having that extra space in the skimmer section.

Hopefully this thread will help many many more newbies understand how to do a sump like this

[Aquadiva]

chief,

You got a plan for the hole in the stand? You gonna add some additional bracing? You did glue the PVC together, didn't ya?

You're scaring me, man... holymolly!

I would NEVER have the guts to do that. you da man

no, I haven't glued the PVC yet. that's what makes me a champ. I'm off the charts! I'm a plumber in training, teaching people you don't need to do the obvious anymore. it's 2007 baby Oucher!!

I think we're just gonna make some door with hinges for the stand... since I need to open it to clean skimmer cup.
-chiefieeeeeeee

Originally Posted by Aquadiva

chief,

You got a plan for the hole in the stand? You gonna add some additional bracing? You did glue the PVC together, didn't ya?

You're scaring me, man... holymolly!

I would NEVER have the guts to do that. you da man

[chief]

if I keep my sump light on 24/7 will that help with chaeto growing quicker and eating up some nitrates while doing so....or is just a waste?

here's a closer shot of the Fuge after everything settled down