2nd Sump Design Help please

[outdrsyguy1]

Hi all!
After my painful and expensive foray into Zeovit I'm going to switch to a remote DSB design. I don't really have enough room in my sump for what I want so i wanted to build a seconday sump beside the tank. I"ll attach some pics of the new "bench" that will hide the sump. It will go on the left side of the tank between the window and the tank.

I've got 31" long x 17" wide x 25" tall clearance inside the new bench. My main goal is to have 3 compartments of DSB that I can easily pull out and change one compartment once a year.

I need suggestions on how in the world to make this thing! I was considering a 20g long but wasn't sure how to do the 3 "compartments". I was also pondering 3 5 gallon tanks turned sideways but wasn't sure how to get water from one to the next. I do have room to stack things should I need a double decker or stairstep design. Heck I could even put a rubbermaid inside it if I could figure out how to compartmentalize the DSB (large tupperware maybe?)


I also have to work out flow so everything follows gravity and there's no risk of overflow. I did build the stand with 6" basin that i'm lining so it could actually hold a fair amount of water should something get really ugly.

Don't want to do something super pricey, and not sure I have the skills to work with plexiglass. Plus everytime I look at the stuff in home depot it seems super expensive!

anyways, just getting the ball rolling. anyone have suggestions or ideas?

thanks!

 

[outdrsyguy1]

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Pics of nearly complete bench. Needs doors in front and stain. And the spray in water liner basin.

 

[myreefclub0070]

Hey rusty,
I like a challenge, so let's start.
How do you plan on getting water from the tank to the fuge?
Why put doors, hing the top to flip open and the opening in the front is a display( part of the tank).
Acrylic is the easiest when it comes to coustomizing, glass is cheaper but you have to be exact.
The built box already limits your options.
Why 3 compartments?
And more ????'s to come.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

Skip to the bottom if you don't want the diatribe lol

i want to replace 1/3 dsb yearly without risk of nuking the tank and to prevent old tank syndrome that can haapen with old dsb's. i've read about a lot of folks that have great success and stability from them. ive also seen several awesome tanks that aren't babied daily like bb tanks and zeovit. i've lost soo much money and corals that if i cant get this to work ill probably quit. i think ive wiped out a tank full of frags and acro colonies at least 4 times in the last 2 years. I just thew away a batch of 18 frags from reef pets and have probably 15 frag/colonies that are just skeletons glued around the tank.
I went zeovit at first because I had a TERRIBLE time with nutrient management for the first year of my tank's life. usually way to few and got washed out/slowly dying corals. Then started dosing stuff, feeding more and got unending algae and such. So figured zeo would be the most scientific way to manage nutrient input/output.
Zeovit worked pretty good for me at first and colors/corals were doing well but over time it was like a train wreck waiting to happen. If my alk dropped to 6.5 - dead corals everywhere, alk over 7.5 - dead corals everywhere. My tank eats .3 alk per day if doser doesn't work so you can see it's a knife edge. Also I think I had a mystery crash that I never knew what caused it. I'm thinking possible lack of trace elements but no clue really. Also had a crash from changing carbon too long between changes which nuked all my sps.
I'm a fairly intelligent person and read a TON about all this stuff but somehow my tank can never sustain sps beyond birdsnest (and even that i've killed). I even starved GSP to death with lack of nutrients (didn't realize it till much later). It's so frustrating because I see some people who have so much success who can barely use a test kit correctly yet my tank just doesn't have it.
I've tried to build this tank for the long term from the start (apex, led's, redundancy, email notification, etc). So in my last ditch effort I want to continue that strategy.

I want this bench to hide cables, dosers, etc. and dsb's aren't anything special to look at. Long term I want to get my wife to like the tank so I can one day put a huge 300 to 450 gallon in the family room with a fish room in the basement. I haven't really made much progress, especially during the AEFW/zoapox/Red bugs sessions.
Doors in the front because it needs to be aesthetically pleasing and I really don't have room in my current sump for this sort of thing. I also don't have a bubble trap in my sump which is a pita as I have the skimmer dumping into a felt filter sock to try and reduce bubbles.

I was thinking of either having the tank overflow go through the dsb on the way to the sump under the tank, or split off a line to go through it. Or possibly set up a closed loop system between the sump and the dsb/2nd sump area.

 

[outdrsyguy1]

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Oh and the top is already hinged as part of the design
Bench is as large as will fit in the space without interfering with window shutters opening. Any taller and it's no longer a bench hehe.

 

[demifelix]

I like your bench design Rusty. I'm planning on a new build and I actually thought about doing exactly the same thing you are doing with the bench thing too. I don't have space for a "fish room" so I have to hide my stuffs. Your bench looks great so far. I don't think I have the tools or skills to do the same but I'll see how bad my bench will turn out. Tagging along for ideas and learning from your mistakes (j/k...I hope not).

 

[outdrsyguy1]

lol, well this is my 2nd ever carpentry project so it's definitely got a few kinks. Originally planned to have 2 piano hinges and no doors on the front so I could just lift the whole front and top and fold it back against the wall. However, to do that your height must be about the same as your depth. When I went to fold it up the taller front piece wouldn't go back far enough for top access. So front doors it is!

Also, all you need is a t-square, circular saw, and a sander of some sort to make it more appealing and cut down on the splinters. I borrowed the circular saw from a neighbor and my wife had a t-square lol. All the wood/nails/liner spray can/hinges cost about $100 at home depot fyi.
Oh, also, masking tape is handy. If your exterior facing wood has laminate (I used oak to match my current stand) then when you cut across the grain it peels back chunks of laminate and looks bad. If you tape over your cut line and cut through the tape it really does a pretty good job of keeping the laminate in place!

 

[demifelix]

awesome, exactly the advice I was looking for. I don't have T-square and even if I do I don't know how to use it. I have a circular saw, miter saw, jig saw, and recip saw, some nails, sand paper, sander, and a few other stuffs. I like to think myself being handy but I'm not handy at all. I think I messed things up more times than I fixed them