Alright, let's talk some hardware and sump design. One of my favorite parts of this hobby is how well my professional training as a mechanical engineer translates to solving problems on the reef tank. My continuous optimization which I am never done with is my sump design.
Temperature Control!
I installed a somewhat massive "squirrel cage" style fan on the underside of my sump to blow air and create a swap cooler effect. The motor is about the size of my fist, and without the guard moves thousands of cfm. The guard is made of thin acrylic and is there because I like my fingers and scalp as they are today.
I used to run 2x Eheim heaters, but after watching BRS videos talking about thermostats failing, and knowing how cheaply those parts really are made, I upgraded to brs titanium heaters.
My favorite piece of equipment in my tank might be my Inkbird thermostat. It has one outlet for my fan to cool, and the other outlet for a heater to heat. I use that as my primary, and set the second heater at a much lower temperature set point so I am relying on the Inkbird probe and not the thermostat in a heater. As I write this, I actually don't have anything plugged into my energy bar for monitoring because I had a spill with my Trident unit, caused by a hose being disconnected on the waste stepper motor. I dumped a bunch of waste liquid all over by sump area and set off a leak detection switch (no duh, I spilled it). The new Trident that Neptune sent out has worked like a champ, I just don't want to re-wire anything yet.
I also have the Ecotech backup batteries for my L1 pump. To back that up, I now have 2x hand carried generators (one dual fuel), as well as a solar system with the backup battery. I am not losing power to the tank this fire season!
For almost two years, I have told myself I would replace the C-clamps, and mount my jumbo reactor to the steel. I still have c-clamps. The battery powered, magnetic light switch I really like so I can turn on a light without using my cheato grow light.
I have an "in tank water mixing station" by plumbing my high pressure line from my main pump with this ball valve and non-glues pipe, I can run water back into my sump at high velocity and mix very efficiently. This also is great for kicking detritus up and feeding the tank with the sump. I run a "cheap" amazon waterproof cobb style grow light for growing my macro algae. Right now I hav green ulva, red ogo, and cheato. The first two I use as food for the tangs and rabbitfish. I also added a Kessil A80 in my last chamber to put frags and mushrooms in to get more grow-out space.
Algae growth was a big problem in my skimmer for a long time, until I found a robust flexible material to wrap my skimmer with. Mcmaster-carr for the win.
I am constantly debating space in the sump to be used for live rock vs space for other things. It is kind of a cluttered mess, but I am routinely taking ogo and ulva to feed my algae eaters, and the throwing hair algae and cheato away so the fuge is working. I do still deal with phosphate issues so I change the high capacity gfo and carbon out of my jumbo reactor every month. My current debate is if I should upgrade my skimmer to a fancy DC one, but I get great skim so if it ain't broke...
From my previous posts, you saw that the whole system evolved and grew over time. I didn't need, or want to spend all of the money up front. Nor did I know what I wanted my system to be when I started. There are things I would have done differently from the beginning, but for the most part, I am happy with where things are and where I can improve. This January was my birthday, and I decided this was the right time to treat myself and my tank. I did a bunch of measuring to make sure everything would fit, because boy is it tight. Happy Birthday to me!
Thank you Rob for having (almost) everything in stock for me to pick up on my birthday!
For flow today, I have 2x gyre XF 350's on each side, and my Tunze on the near size, which I angle around as I please. I also added the RFG (random flow generator) nozzles to my outlets, and so far I am happy with them. I kind of want to add a 4th powerhead to the end, but I can wait for a deal on a used one.
Here is the CAD for my under tank system. When I started this hobby almost 3 years ago, the Trident was still a rumor, but the idea of complete tank automation appeals to me as an engineer with a controls background. After I got a large portion of my equipment, I wanted to make sure I could still fit everything, so the below happened one day with a tape measure and a beer.
I am still working on the wire layout today, and may expand into my neighboring linen closet for my electronics, but I am doing my best to keep any water under the tank.
And here is the picture of everything in place with my first test fit.
It all fits.
Coming from product development myself, I know that every product can have bugs. This is why I have not yet hooked up the DOS with the Trident and I am still letting my Bubble Magnus dosing pumps control my dosing with my manual testing with Hanna checkers and using the Trident as a secondary gut check.
Yeah, 8 stages!
I am still debugging how to get my pressure switch and my shutoff solenoid to shut off water to everything when my container is full. Latest two iterations: I have the solenoid on the very end, creating a high pressure region for my sensor to turn off the booster pump. This is fine except that the water still runs through my waste water (unnecessary water through coarse filters and carbon blocks). Second iteration, which males more sense to me, has the solenoid and pressure sensor coming out of the carbon block, going into the DI membrane, which shuts the water off completely, but I cannot get the pump to behave correctly, likely because it is more than 40 psi in that line pre DI membrane. I feel like I need 2 solenoids, and the shutoff sensor at the good water end like situation 1 combined with the water stopping operation of the second.
Edit: the auto shut off piece was not working temporarily, something happened and now it works! I will keep my train of thought for the record.
plus a big sump, so maybe 230ish total.