Brick Brothers 300g Upgrade

[brick-brothers]

Hey guys, I finally decided to treat myself to the marineland 300g DD. I should be picking it up within a few days. With that being said I plan on using the same equipment that I have now thats on my 220g even the stand. The only issue im going to have is breaking down my tank and hoping that my corals and fish survive the transfer. I do have an deep blue 80g that I'm going to put the fish and corals in for the mean time. I have brute rubber maids so that I can keep most of my water if not all of it for the next build. My plan is to cut down 12" off my stand being how my stand is high and the 300g is taller than my 220. By me doing that it will eliminate my 3 draws ( not happy about that ). I'm also going to get rid of my 75g DIY sump because I wont be able to take the skimmer cup off when I make the stand shorter.

So here's a question for yall. I planned on using/ making 40g breeder DIY sump.

Do you think its a bad idea to have the 40g with just the skimmer inside as a sump?
Do you think I should keep the 75g sump and figure a way to remove the skimmer cup?
Is having a bigger sump will be beneficial to the tank and why?

Here's the before and after pix of my 220g thats running now.

 

[thirty6]

how much taller is the 300, 7"?

if you left the stand the way it is now and had ability to move the lights up a bit, would that be too difficult to work on tank for you? i would lean toward leaving the skimmer and sump in place. good luck with the build, 300DD is a great tank

 

[pmoneyt]

Manny I would get the 40 for return and skimmer and plumb in the refuge. If you could do it, I would have the water hit the fuge first the flow into the 40 wit the skimmer and return pump.

It would take some planning and pipe but it can be done. LMK what you have and we can sit down and plan it out, I have the drill bits so we can drill from 3/4 " to 2" if needed.

 

[Reefinny]

Can you add an external skimmer?? You could build a cabinet next to the tank for that stuff. Keep as much volume as you can in the sump

 

[theMeat]

Congratulations, and good luck
The best design for sump would be skimmer in first compartment. So it has a chance at the dirtiest water that comes from tank. Think for the fuge to control phosphate it needs to be at least half tank volume. If space is tight an ats would do the same work in a fraction the space. Good idea to have a fuge of some size to provide critters a place to breed away from predators.
Could also do some type of carbon dosing. Bio pellets work great but would need to feed into skimmer to be effective.
Hope your planning on some type of ghost overflow. Just put a reef synergy, which is a bean animal type, and it is dead silent. Love it

 

[theMeat]

What are stand's inside dimensions?

 

[salpet]

i had the same problem when i switched to my 125 it makes life a lot easier when you have the extra space for a larger sump and the ability to work on your skimmer/sump maintenance and beside the fact that if your power goes out you will have a flood with a 40 gallon sump

 

[brick-brothers]

I have a 20g High fuge already. So the sump will only have the skimmer inside. That's why I was asking does it matter how big the sump is if only the skimmer and return pump is only going to be in it?

 

[nanoreefer22]

I think a 40 might be to small only due to power outages and how much water is going to drain down into it. I have the 200g and when I kill the power switch I would say 5g flows back to the sump, maybe more. You could always run your sump at the minimum level needed for your skimmer and maybe have 20g to play with

 

[theMeat]

Would be better if you install a barrier in the sump so the skimmer and return pump are in separate compartments. Not only will it keep skimmer micro bubbles away from return pump, but will keep skimmer in a steady water level, as the water level/evaporation should only effect where the return pump is by design.
To answer your question...... aside from added water volume, added wiggle room for evaporation, and the point already brought up about when return pump goes off, no

 

[Macropora]

Manny, I would keep both tanks and connect them if you had the space for both setups and shared a common sump. Good luck!

 

[brick-brothers]

If I was to keep both I would probably turn the 75g into a fuge. Idk

 

[Macropora]

That's what I'm doing already. 4 tanks feed into a 65 gallon sump.

 

[thirty6]

If I was to keep both I would probably turn the 75g into a fuge. Idk

Could it be setup as a display fuge? Pretty nice sized fuge and would be interesting to observe

 

[allenjj]

Congratulations on the new tank. Always fun planning out new additions. Once you decide what your doing for the sump and fuge, please share some pics. Always love to see others sumps (display tanks are nice, but the working systems are interesting as well).

 

[brick-brothers]

thanks bro. I have a 80g deep blue tank that I have for sale but I might just use that as a sump and the 40g breeder as a fuge. IDK. I have to see when I down size the stand to figure out how much space I'm going to be working with.

 

[allenjj]

It sounds like your going to break down the 220 and move everything while your setting up the new tank. I did this when I moved from my 180 to the 450 as I used my 125 for the fish, and a large rubbermaid trough for the rock and corals. Even doing that, I spent and entire weekend on the move with lots of help. If I was to do it again, I would have had more help and taken more time for aquascaping initially so that I didnt have to go back into the tank. This time since the tank was down, i took a lot more time building the stone structures to give me the maximum growing area for corals as well as interesting visual. I am normally pretty good at planning things out, but the move was way bigger than i estimated. Just my two cents, oh forgot inflation so 1.2 cents now i guess.

 

[NYreefNoob]

75g minimum sump if you are going to run your sump at any height below the bottom of the tank. also depends on your return outlets and how far below the water line they sit.

 

[brick-brothers]

Went to pick up my tank today. Now getting ready to be bob the builder.

 

[Dk638]

Nice! How's the frags doing?