55 All in one plan. looking for comments.

[Spiffyguy]

I am going to turn an AGA 55 gallon into an "all in one" tank. The tank is a standard size, 48 inches long. I am currently planning to take 6 inches at one end and convert it into a "sump" I will have a false wall with a small overflow attached. My current idea is to have 3 chambers. The center will house a removeable medai tray and the skimmer powerhead, skimmer will be a hang on; probably a remora. The outer two chambers will house a maxi jet jet 900 as a return. I am also planning two MJ 900s with the mod as main circulation in the tank.

Here is an early pic of my idea. The red outlet circles can be ajusted up and down depending on where I think they will be better. If I run the modded MJs up top then I will have a total of 6 points of water movement. The center outlets I may put some rotating Hydors, I like them as a cheap way to shoot water.

http://spiffyguy.com/images/reefcentral/posts/slides/55_intsump.jpg

I am not sure if I will need the baffles or not. Maybe just 2 baffles as opposed to 3 on each side. The width will be 12 inches so it will be a bit tight. I will need 3 inches in each of the outer chambers to get my hand and power head in there. I would like to try to figure a way to put a small area for cheato with an external light coming through the glass. I have a 24 gallon nano cube and I do this with my center chamber and it seems to work well. If anything it is something to look at and grow pods. I know it may be easier to put in and external over flow and such but I like this project and I have the tank already.

here is another shot of my plan.

http://spiffyguy.com/images/reefcentral/posts/slides/55gallon_01.jpg

So here are some questions if you have any thoughts.

1 - Should the false wall and baffles be glass or acrylic. I have access to 1/4 acrylic for the false wall and some thinner stuff for the baffles. Being that it is not bearing a load I thought it would work.

2 - Are the baffles going to be needed. Since the skimmer will be outputting back into the center area I figured micro bubbles may be an issue so I am trying to factor that in now reather than trying to resolve them 4 months into it.

3 - If I need baffles, would I need the 3 or can I work it with 2 and save an inch or so.

4 - How far apart will the baffles need to be? I was figuring a 1/2 inch in between.

5 - Is there a better way to configure the area. The heater will be in there as well but that can be put in any chamber.

6 - should I y the outputs of the mj 900 or just do a single output.

Think that should work for now :). Anyway thanks for the input I am excited to get this going and get out of my nanocube.

[Spiffyguy]

I needed to rework it. I forgot about the legs from the light will be in the center of the tank, right where the skimmer would go. So I switched things around. SKimmer can now go on the back side of the tank and feed back into chamber one. This will be the view looking down the length of the tank. Area once again will be 6 inches long 12 inches deep and 19 inches high.

http://spiffyguy.com/images/reefcentral/posts/slides/55_intsump_v2.jpg

I think this will work out. I will hard plumb the outlet lines either inside the false wall, and cut the baffles to fit, or I can run the lines outside the false wall. May not look as good. It will be a slightly tight fit plugging the mj900s into the return lines but I will use softer hose between the MJ and the hard lines. The area will be roughly 3" by 6" so I will have some room for my hand. If I don't need all 3 baffles for that bubble trap then I can gain another inch.

Anway any ideas or problems you may see arising?

Thanks

[cbonito]

I just don't see you having enough room to work with in such a small space. IMO, you need to make the "sump" larger.

[Spiffyguy]

well I can make it larger but the tank is still 12 inches wide, which is where the issue lies. The skimmer will be a hang on so that will free up space that would be needed by that. The Mj900s will fit in the space provided. a bit of a tight fit but if I hard plumb the the outlets then I just need to plug them into some flexible hose. That won't be any harder than it is on my nano cube right now.

Do you think a remora puts off that many micor bubbles? Could I lose the left baffle in the bubble trap, readjust the other two up and down? That would free up about another inch. I can also make the macro area smaller giving more area in the return chamber, which may be needed with evporation.

I started plotting it out with cardboard in the tank. Made a Home depot run to get some plumbing stuff. I was planning on doing 1/2 CPVC since I have 6 foot of the pipe already. Anyone see an issue with that size? MJ 900 is about 230 gph. I will be using a T to split it off to two locations. I couldn't find a Y, don't think they make it that size.