20gal mantis home backed by a 105gal system

i want to start by saying thanks for everyones help on this forum, and all your hard work and documentation. without it i wouldnt be as far, in as little time, as i am today! HAIL 3reef!

this is my writeup on my recent changes to my setup. i now have ~125gal of water volume in the entire setup. everythings working great and thriving. i intended to use a 20gal tank that was originally a sump and make it a home for a mantis. heres what i did:

after a year of research, educating, trial and error, and now actually running my first mixed-reef for 7 months i felt it was time to expand.

the 75gal tank had a 20gal tank initially that was its 3 chambered sump/mini-fuge. i later was given a 40gal long that i converted to my new sump to be able to house a skimmer, GFO reactor, carbon reactor, and a calc reactor if I choose to add them down the line.

i recently decided that i had enough spare parts from my original setup to add the 20gal tank into the mix. i figured why not? it would provide me 20gal more water volume and in-sense a refuge for me to grow or raise something that isnt compatible with my mixed reef. MANTIS!

i quickly tore out the baffles from the 20gal sump. and built up another "stand" to support the tank.

the tank is mounted in-wall next to my 75gal which is also in-wall. the inside wall is actually within a 8x6 utility room now renovated for my fish keeping which i may document seperately or just post pics in this thread.

i had a spare Maxi-jet 1200 which I already knew could have a 1/2" hose connected to it. i use one for my mix bucket to move the water into my sump when i do water changes. i decided with a 20gal volume of water that i would want 5x turnover rate. i determined that with the length of the hose id need and the height it'd be at ~110GPH at the end of the hose into the tank. i then found a old fluval hose suction clamp thing (review pics) which i used for the hose. it held it in place but i wasnt happy with how the water just came out like a garden hose and kicked sand up everywhere. found the fluval hose adapater that originally came with it that i dont use, and cut it down and affixed it to the hose. i now have a diverter to direct flow and am ~100GPH with the additional head. PERFECT.

found a T8 24" fixture that was from an OLD aqueon tank. i picked up a 50/50 reef bulb from petco for now to get some light into there.

found the overflow that originally came as the package deal with my sump. its a standard two box overflow with a 1 1/4" u-tube. i had no idea what the thing is rated for. the package said it was for 75+gal tanks. i figured i would try it out anyways. after some recent posts from a few members here that have educated me on how this device works i decided id try this out with a 10gal bucket below and make sure i understood how to use this before i plumbed it into my existing reef.






i figured out that the thing is rated for a ton of flow. i could pour buckets of water into the overflow box and it'd handle it. i was then concerned with bubbles. i read more articles here on 3reef and determined a few things. 1) my u-tube is not "SMOOTH" the mfg used a ribbed tube and bent it. bubbles build up from this as they cant easily move along the plastic. 2) with the lack of flow (100gph through something rated for 500-1000+GPH) its going to naturally have an issue. at this time i have no solution other than to buy a smaller non-ribbed tube and bend it myself. i havent found anyone besides eshopps that sells the utubes and they only offer 1 1/4" as their smallest which is what i already have. perhaps someone else can help here with that? right now im just taking a 2qt handled container and scooping up water from my sump and pouring it back into the front box of the overflow to get a quick burst of flow to move the large bubble that starts to form out. on day 3 or after ~10 simulated power outages the bubble gets big enough to break the siphon. so this is something im still working out.

heres a link to a video of the bubbles that wind up building up in the middle of the tube. you can see at this time after starting the pump its got no bubble in the center of the tube but certainly a dancing display of them at the outlet of the u-tube. power failure, or 2-3days of that will cause it to start building up in the top of the tube

direct vid link: 7-1-10 046 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

no bubble:


bubble:


i went to my local petsmart who had 30lb bags of aragmax oolite aragonite sand for $19 giving me a 2" sandbed. i took a few scoops of sand from my mixed-reef which has aragonite sand as well and added it to the 20gal. (different kind its actually pure white, but i did this for beneficial bacterial)

had ~8lbs of fiji nuked live rock (from a old setup) and put it in place



plumbed it into the sump after i was confident in how the overflow works. the issues i forsee with the bubble buildup in the utube is fixable, and i intend to put a float switch in the box to kill the pump as a safety factor. havent quite worked out this idea yet, but its the only thing i could come up with for a redundant safetly mechanism to prevent flooding my floor if the bubble in the utube drops siphon while im away.

i took a piece of cured live rock out of my mixed-reef and put it into the 20gal to bring over more bacteria, etc. i also put a piece of flame algae in there and one hermit, one dwarf cerith, and one astrea snail.





so with only the cost of a bulb, sand, and 1/2" tubing its been quite cheap. its starting to make me wonder what else i got laying around aquatic related that i can use to expand further. i now have to get a mantis shrimp and the tanks ready! i just have to work out that little forseeable issue with the u-tube on the overflow.

ill post some pics of the full setup in another thread sometime.

 

hrmm i just realized i never took pictures of the completed return piping. ill take more plumbing pics and post them soon.

 

Well done great idea and setup. You could make a u tube from 1/2" pvc with a valve or some similar item inplace at the top of the tube and then put airline on it and run the airline to the maxijet air inlet to keep the bubble down.

 

You also seem to be quite the handy man, so you could also drill and attach a nipple or spout thing at the very top of the overflow for one of these bad boys:


Tom Aquatics Aqua-Lifter Dosing Pump

It's originally a dosing pump, and uses airline tubing to slooowly move water from one place to another. Actually...it could also be a great way to drip aclimate something (just thought of that ) but it'd have to be throttled back for that to work. Anyways, we have a CPR Overflow box that uses one of these to start the siphon and keep the bubbles out, and we have the outlet in our sump. You can sometimes buy utubes with airline nipples already on, but you might do better making one yourself. As long as airline tubing can snugly fit onto it, it'll work. Anyways that's worth a try to help with your bubble problem.

Do you know what kind of mantis you're interested in?

 

thank you. i had considered making one from 1/2" pvc that i can heat and bend. i was trying to find one already 'made' but the smallest i seem to find is 1-1/4"

the lifter pump could fail. im looking for something with no moving parts that fixes this issue. i think a smaller u-tube that isnt ribbed will work. if it doesnt ill go this route with a lifter pump or hell just hook the thing into the air inlet of one of my maxijets as mentioned.

for the size tank i have i was going to go with a G. Ternatensis or a G. Smithii. an LFS of mine has a 2 1/2" O. Scyllarus which I REALLY want, but as i understand would outgrow a 20gal and would be better suited for a 30gal tank.

the LFS has a non-identified mantis that they got out of a piece of LR that came in which is about an inch long. its TINY and they only want $20 for it. so it may come down to throwing that lil fellar in there to see what he turns out to be. its a dark green color with no visible colorings (its really hiding out in the rock too so its hard to see)

i want a smasher for sure though.

 

Great write up on your system! Whatever Mantis you decide to go with you'll enjoy I'm sure. I would guess that the HH mantis at your LFS is either a wennerae or more likely an osterdii. Especially if the rock came from around Florida.

 

the rock did come from florida, and it does look like a wennerae. again for $20 it might be worth trying