Soulpatch's 150 SC build

[homer1475]

If it were me and I had the money, I would go with the BAO option. It has everything you want, you just have to wait for it to be built. It's not like you NEED it right now, but I can totally understand dropping a grand and having to wait for something.

[soulpatch]

I have an email into Synergy to see about changing the size of sump to 40" & location of bulkheads. The sumps are not stock pieces with them and need to be built anyway so curious if they could move a few things without additional cost. If so Synergy would be way to go to save a few hundred bucks.

[soulpatch]

UGH I need to make another decision in that I see the Harlequin tusk is available from LA. Though a smaller one is available from Blue Zoo but their warranty is worse as it is really only a 5 day since they count the day shipped as a day of the warranty.

So looks like another 300 or so in fish to be ordered tonight. I need to either get someone's 15% off LA code or wait till I get home to use mine.

[soulpatch]

Well decision on tusk was made as it was ordered tonight.

Also think I made the decision to go with the emerald sump. It meets my needs other then looks and the holes for the reactor tubing and of course it is not the best looking. I think I will worry about looks and such when I ave a fish room and can go a different direction.

As for additions to the tank my wrasse is done QT on Friday so will be in the tank. My clowns, powder blue, blonde naso, and tusk will all start their QT period on Friday and should be in end of April or so.

Fun never ends.

[soulpatch]

Slept on it more and still coming to the solution to go with the green trigger emerald sump. It solves my water containment issues and let me keep things in the stand. I dont have a custom tank or stand so it strikes me as odd to spend so much on something hidden and I know should I get a custom sump I will redo all of my plumbing, change out other things to match, and more just because I am OCD.

Of course I say this all now and will probably regret this decision next year when I buy a custom sump because that is how I operate. HA HA.

Probably order it in the next few weeks. I need to pay for a birthday golf weekend, taxes, and a few other things first this month.

[choss]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

No clue why but lost my powder blue today. He was eating as of last night and I came home today to see him in the fillter in the QT tank. Out of the warranty period for liveaquaria but such is life. My LFS is going to order me in 2 more tangs and I will figure out what to spend my LA credit on later. Probably use it to order in more particular CUC when I need.

Awesome build. Sorry to hear about your tangs. I have to ask. I QT but don't treat the fish with medication. I watch and wait. If they show signs then I medicate but otherwise I just watch and wait it out. Do you think the meds are the cause for the fish deaths or do you think they were sick from a parasite? I wrestle with this all the time.

[soulpatch]

No I do not think the meds are the cause as it was only prazi. I guess if you go through something harsher like copper or such it could be a cause.

The powder died after treatment and the naso died before I started to treat while undergoing ttm.

Regardless I will always treat my fish and have them undergo ttm to protect the rest of my fish and such.

[mnkykng77]

Contact Trigger systems. You can get a emerald sump with any of the other colors they have. I believe it'll be a little more in cost. They also might be able to add reactor holes for you as well.

[soulpatch]

but then we start to get back into custom work and chances are with the increase and shipping I would be at same cost as going with the Synergy.

[Blink2824]

Ahhhh life's decisions. It all comes down to your timeline and total cost of ownership. I think you mentioned a dedicated fish room in the future? Personally...my decision would rest on how far out that is. 1-2 years away, stick with the current setup. Then go custom. If it's 2+ years away... get a dedicated fish room sooner?

[soulpatch]

Already sinking 20K on kitchen this summer to prepare house for final stages to be sold. I will go with default Trigger sump and upgrade later. I need to swap out a ton of my plumbing as is with the new sump so that will close me close to $200 in additional expenses.

[mnkykng77]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

but then we start to get back into custom work and chances are with the increase and shipping I would be at same cost as going with the Synergy.

I believe if you want a different color besides green it's not much more then their standard emerald set up. I think I might have asked them about doing white vs green but the same set up as an emerald 39 and it was only $50 more from their retail price.

[soulpatch]

Well I ordered the emerald since I am in the group buy with BRS so I essentially saved 10% I will worry about going full custom and having everything match in the next build when I have a big fish room and set up a separate refugium and such.

As is I not only ordered those items BUT I got in my tusk today. It is at the LFS to go into his QT tank with my clowns and tangs. Since I was going there I came home with a few items:

Finally have my melanarus wrasse in the tank
brought home a few pieces of ricordea
and a beautiful rainbow anemone to see if it will work out or not.

Here is a macro shot of the nem...

[mav3rick478]

Oh damn that rainbow anemone is awesome looking!

[soulpatch]

Yeah I just have to wait for the lights to come on and see where he moved to. I figure in the large tank it will take him a bit to find a spot...

[soulpatch]

Ha can't see him so might have been sorry lived experiment. Who knows where he is our if he went through the power heads.. I dint see him though

[Bracka345]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

OK so starting thinking about the upgrade for the upgrade. HA HA.

Slow your horses though as I am not talking about tank but rather sump. I would like to have a larger sump. As it stands now I am really pushing it when I kill the power. I fill the sump to the top of the rim and have had some water trickle out if I overfilled slightly. So I have pinged a few places for a replacement option. I need to contact a few more.

I have a few demands with the new sump from my current trigger ruby elite. I want the sock area in its own chamber, holes for dosing/ato, prefer holes for reactor plumbing, and a refugium/socks not located in the back as it is currently a PITA to handle either in current sump. Cost is a concern though I do not have a set budget so everything is currently on the table. I do have all the parts save for the tub currently so that saves some coin. I imagine I will need to redo my plumbing so whatever I decide will add roughly $100 or so in new valves and parts. As it stands here are my current options:

Stock Trigger Emerald sump 39. (530 roughly though I can get 15% off bringing that to 450)

Pros:
Ability to use foam instead of socks
chambers laid out as I would want though I would have refugium in larger part
probe holder and dosing lin holes

Cons:
no holes for reactor
sounds stupid but it is green...

Synergy Reef CL-44 (around 950)
Pros:
Has all of my needs in terms of layout and and holes for equipment
Again stupid but it is white so would match other equipment
Holds a ton of water so would fit my needs better when power is killed

Cons:
Cost
Size - My stand is roughly 54 inches of useable space as the bracing and such eats a couple inches for the sump. If I went with this sump I would need to move some equipment outside the stand. The likely result would be that my ATO would need to be moved outside and I would keep the sump, dosing containers, and apex gear in the stand. I could gain a slight bit of space should I mount apex to stand as opposed to my flip out panel.

Building an Obsession custom sump (1100+shipping so I figure 1400)
Pros:
All of my specs met including exactly where I want holes and bulkheads
Would make it roughly 40 inches so I should be able to squeeze ato and dosing containers in stand still though would be extremely tight and still might need to put ato outside stand
Again would match color of current BAO gear

Cons:
Cost
Timing - Since this is custom it would be a month or more post order to recieve. Sure I dont NEED it right now but when you drop over a grand I want it NOW...


Lifereef (cost TBD as I have to ping Jeff)
Pros
His systems are set up to be sockless
Can be made to my needs
He actually does a seperate refugium plumbed in which is cool

Cons:
Cost as I would be looking at roughly 1400 with shipping (though need to see what he takes off since I have pumps and skimmer)
With the refugium seperate it eats into space sump can be which impacts the water I can hold in power outage.


I do NOT want to make my own sump from a stock tank as quite frankly it looks bad. I like my stands to look good as well as the tank. I cant spend the type of money to get into the dream boxes or such so those are ruled out as well. I would say 1400 is probably my ceiling and that is pushing it.

If I had to say right now I am leaning Synergy or Trigger due to everything above. Trigger would get me by and I like the build of my current trigger but the synergy would have everything I need as well as the looks. I am just not sure if that is worth double the price basically. So help me spend my money...

Check out Primo Reef Acrylics. He makes some mean looking sumps and they are made to the specs you want.

[Devaji108]

that's one very nice nem. did you find it yet? I do hope so...

[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by mnkykng77

I believe if you want a different color besides green it's not much more then their standard emerald set up. I think I might have asked them about doing white vs green but the same set up as an emerald 39 and it was only $50 more from their retail price.

Damn you. HA HA. I had sent them an email expecting to pay more and a larger shipping fee to make myself feel great about my BRS purchase. Well they answered me and it is only going to be a total of $555 to get the sump to me in white and with the refugium wall moved to have more space there. Basicaly flip the large skimmer size to the refugium.

So now I have a PM into RT and a voicemail with BRS to cancel the sump portion of my order and am going to get the white trigger. Stoked to get that in my hand.

Though with all of that matching and needing to redo my plumbing I might spend a bit more to get colored PVC and such to do the plumbing in a better looking way.





As for the Nem I did a water change today and looked around but did not see it. I am sure it is under a rock as it gets used to the tank but I shall see. I have a matching one on hold at the LFS in case this one does not pop its head back up.

In other tank news all corals have been moved from the nano that willmake the move. The only things left in the nano currently are my tail spot blenny, my cleaner shrimp, and some CUC. The nano should be shutting down next week or so when I have more time to pull rocks and such to break it down.

I am still wishy washy about keeping it running at this point. I think I might take it down for the summer while I am busy with everything else and then decide to put it back up in the fall when I should have some frags both incoming as well as outgoing to work with.

[Blink2824]

Awesome, this is going to look super clean!

[soulpatch]

Yeah decided to go with the blue PVC. I will consider this my Penn State stand with blue and white everywhere. Sure the gate and ball valves are grey but I can work around that. HA HA

[soulpatch]

blue pipe and gloss white fittings ordered. No markings on either so should be a clean build.

[Devaji108]

nice! I woul dnot expect anything less form you bro...haha
I was gonna go with blue PVC but I had some Kyron fusion spry paint in blue so I went that way. turned out pretty nice, but for your OCD would not do the trick..haha

[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by Devaji108

nice! I woul dnot expect anything less form you bro...haha
I was gonna go with blue PVC but I had some Kyron fusion spry paint in blue so I went that way. turned out pretty nice, but for your OCD would not do the trick..haha

The current plumbing is painted and while it looks ok I was upset I tried to paint instead of doing it right with colored PVC. I can see the markings on some of it though the paint which bothers me.

My concern now is how I will get the current sump out and the new one in. I had to remove the one brace on the stand to get it in initially. So i imagine I will have to drain the tank and have roughly 70 gallons of salt made up to handle the switch. Drain the tank, remove brace, swap sumps, replace brace.

I just have to have anything mocked up as best as I can so I can swap in the new plumbing. Main drain will be easy as I swap union fitting. The other drain and the return have a union ball valve and I dont have spare slip fittings for them so i will try to slavage them by heating and pulling out the pipe OR will slip one end on them to be the FPT sitting and have 2 threaded joints. There will remain one small sliver of red pipe betweenthe bulkhead and the one valve. That marks which is the emergency though so it can stay.

I just need the contact from Trigger to get back to me with next stpes so I can place my order and have my sump in the next month.

[soulpatch]

So my nem is MIA. He might have curled into a ball somewhere to die or something I do not know. Going to try one more this weekend and if it doesnt work out then well nems aren't for me. HA HA. I was iffy about putting one in the tank to begin with since I love my corals and worry about it walking but the wife REALLY wants one and I have a new clown pair coming that I think woudl like it so another shot will be taken.

I am still waiting on Trigger to get back to me so I can place my order. All I need at this point is the invoice so I can get it in a month or so. I can live with my current setup for that long I guess. HA HA. Though all the new blue and white pipe is supposed to be delivered today so I will see that while I wait... UGH. I am not patient enough for reefing.

Thankfully my fish are all QTing at the LFS so that is one less worry I have. I go to check in on them and feed them weekly. My LFS is great though to set me up with my own tanks for everything to be safe and ready for my tank. Not even charging me for the time and space (though he makes fortune off of me....)

And thankfully X2 I have a kitchen remodel I start this week or next so I will be super busy with all of that for the next month. Perfect timing since I need to wait to work on the tanka nd this will keep me busy.