Wow that was a LONG night of work. I just created a new sump and installed my Ampmaster 3000 on my 55 reef and I am VERY pleased with the results!
The sump is a 20 low breeder tank; I bought a sheet of 1/4" acrylic and cut 8" tall partitions with my table saw (wow this stuff cuts CLEAN!). Siliconed the partitions to the bottom and sides; now I've got an inflow chamber with heater, which overflows into a sandbed / refugium chamber (no macros yet but they're coming), and that overflows into my skimmer/outflow chamber.
The whole thing is lit by a suspended LOA 65W fixture.
An inverted 1 1/2" U-tube draws water to the Ampmaster intake, the pump flows out into a 1 1/2" manifold which currently has two 3/4" ID flex tubes - one goes to teh tank return and the other WILL go to my skimmer so I can ditch the Eheim powerhead I'm running on it now. The pump is WAY too much for this tank but I like it a LOT - I can max out my tank overflow and its quiet and makes lots of circulation in the tank! It even primed itself thru the U-tube with very little difficulty!! Fortunately it can run dry safely so I don't have to stress with what-ifs.
Anyway I was up until 3am finishing this (had an incidental 10-gallon carpet wash and spilled an entire container of PVC cement on said carpet but wife took it surprisingly well!)
Check out photos: (if this works)
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/db_manning/lst?.dir=/SUMP&.src=ph&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/db_manning/vwp%3f.dir=/SUMP%26.dnm=SUMP%2bshot.jpg%26.src=ph
The sump is a 20 low breeder tank; I bought a sheet of 1/4" acrylic and cut 8" tall partitions with my table saw (wow this stuff cuts CLEAN!). Siliconed the partitions to the bottom and sides; now I've got an inflow chamber with heater, which overflows into a sandbed / refugium chamber (no macros yet but they're coming), and that overflows into my skimmer/outflow chamber.
The whole thing is lit by a suspended LOA 65W fixture.
An inverted 1 1/2" U-tube draws water to the Ampmaster intake, the pump flows out into a 1 1/2" manifold which currently has two 3/4" ID flex tubes - one goes to teh tank return and the other WILL go to my skimmer so I can ditch the Eheim powerhead I'm running on it now. The pump is WAY too much for this tank but I like it a LOT - I can max out my tank overflow and its quiet and makes lots of circulation in the tank! It even primed itself thru the U-tube with very little difficulty!! Fortunately it can run dry safely so I don't have to stress with what-ifs.
Anyway I was up until 3am finishing this (had an incidental 10-gallon carpet wash and spilled an entire container of PVC cement on said carpet but wife took it surprisingly well!)
Check out photos: (if this works)
http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/db_manning/lst?.dir=/SUMP&.src=ph&.order=&.view=t&.done=http%3a//photos.yahoo.com/bc/db_manning/vwp%3f.dir=/SUMP%26.dnm=SUMP%2bshot.jpg%26.src=ph
