20L Frag Tank Plans

DB9181

DB9181

New member
Alright... Tired of having my 120g reef be a frag tank (those of you that have seen it can agree... 5ft of eggcrate lol) Plus Im sure my fishies would love their swimming space back. Thus, I am hoping to set up a grow-out tank in the very near future.

There is just enough room to fit a 20L perpendicular to my 120g Reef therefore I can plumb it directly into there...

Lighting: Jimmy uses two Par38s on his 20L and said its great light/coverage, so thats what I was thinking... Might just use two goosenecks from him as well so keep a 'clean' look (unless other suggestions), Probably a dimmer as well. Going to be mainly softies/ Zs & Ps, but want to make sure I can support SPS as well.

Being a frag/grow out - BB? CUC? Again...it will be plumbed to my 120g sump/fuge which is a 40B. It already has an oversized skimmer but If need be a have an extra mini-skimmer for up to 30g, or use the big boy HOB SS-65 for extra filtration. Maybe ~4in worth of live rock under eggcrate? Probably afew 'cleaner' fish...coris wrasse, etc

Plumbing: This is where i need some input:
Again, going to be hooked to my 120's sump/fuge. Planning on drilling the 20L ... I have bits for 3/4" and 1.5" bulk heads. Thinking 1.5" drain w/ a ball valve so I can close it/fine tune it to the return. I think I also have a 1.5" strainer head to clean it from clogging.

3/4" Flare nozzle return. Ball valves/union close to the 20L end so I can easily disconnect everything if I need to move/Transport the tank and Flex-hoses (painted black for algae purposes) so I don't need to go through the trouble of fitting together Hard PVC. Tank stand edges (120g and 20L) should pretty much touch so you wont see any of the hose... but also, I want it to be one solid piece because there will be no real way of me getting back into that corner of the room once they're set up.

Return pump??? I have a eheim1262 for my 120g, have it balanced with the drain rate perfectly so I dont want to pipe off that. Water would be traveling 3/4" flex-hose roughly 3-4ish ft and up ~4ft. Drain on the other hand would be traveling ~8 ft... I can pin/clamp the flex line to my stand...

Thoughts/Opinions - GO!
 
here is my plan for 20L frag tank:

glassholes 1500gph return (2x 1.5" drains) Mag 9.5 driving SCWD to 2 3/4 bulkheads on opposing sides so i dont need any powerheads in the tank.
 
I had trouble setting up a frag tank with a 20l. Seemed as though the power heads took up too much real estate. My next option is using a system of PVC around the tanks edge to introduce flow.
 
:bump:
Still looking for input on this build.

For flow, I have several small powerheads to choose from to place at the other end - I can also put a small HOB filter (extra carbon or something) to get more flow. Currently have a 20L QT with a HOB and 1 PH and it would probably be too much for softies.
 
it would mostly be z/ps growing out on tiles but yea...

So...closed loop... Never full understood it?

My other concern is since its plumbed to my 120g's sump/fuge.... if i lose power, the 20L will drag to that too. Right now if the 120g loses power theres enough room to hold the extra water, but unless the drains/returns in the 20L are really high i doubt id have enough room w/o flooding.
 
Just go with a simple drain/return. Do a 90* elbow for the drain and put a flex locline on the return. It wont take up much space. Drain it right into ur sump and get another Return pump and plumb it into the 20L . Done and done
 
My 20L is plumbed in with two tanks below it. One is a 20t fuge and the other is a three chamber sump with a center return. It's all cobbled together with various old and used parts, but I have most of my flow coming from a mag 9.5 return over the top (small holes drilled in the botom of the return into the tank will break the siphon or you can use a check valve to keep that water in). My drains are in each corner. One feeds directly into the the skimmer section of the sump and the other feeds the fuge with a much slower flow rate (adjusted with ball valve). The fuge uses a redundant DIY PVC overflow to run into the main sump as well. none of that applies really to your situation, but the idea of using your return for the majority of your flow when your fuge is on a separate run might.
 
Check out my closed loop thread for more info, but basically you use an external pump to pull water from one part of the tank and pump it back into another. Easiest is a circular gyre flow, basically plumb the input on one side of the tank and the output on another, and you have a constant flow of water across your tank. I'd be happy to help with anything as well.

In terms of overflowing, I'm not 100% sure of what you are trying to describe, but check valves always stop backflow, and
 
Joe5688 said:
Just go with a simple drain/return. Do a 90* elbow for the drain and put a flex locline on the return. It wont take up much space. Drain it right into ur sump and get another Return pump and plumb it into the 20L . Done and done
Click to expand...

That's basically what my thought was w/ ball valves/unions close to the 20L so i disconnect easily and move the tank if needed. I can also always toss an extra HOB filter (got tons of them) on it for extra flow and add carbon or something as well as an extra small skimmer in that tank to help (ill be target feeding heavily).

Herb... I understand a check valve on the returns bc the PH is pushing water against it thus opening it. But a check valve on the drain - gravity is still enough to go through? Ive never understood how they work on the drain. Ive always drilled the backs of my tanks, could the 'drill hole theory' still apply to make it work?
 
oh, no check valve on a drain. I use two of these for a cheapo alternative to drilling or an overflow box setup on my 20 to 29 transfer below the 20L. I only use two because they are open and seem to be snail magnets. They work like a charm though.

[video=youtube;fzt2qXbOah8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzt2qXbOah8[/video]
[video=youtube;65yVr7DiDls]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65yVr7DiDls[/video]

I also have my drins up pretty high and that can always keep more in the dt when you shut off the retrun.
 
Yeah if i drill as high as possible... There return locline flare nozzles could be just below the surface, pointed down - that way very little water drains before the suction is broken.

The actual drain bulkhead could be drilled whereever, then with a piece of PVC going up (off a 90) and strainer on top - again close to the surface so very little water would drain before it drops below that opening.

By doing that and pretty much having the drain at the very top, does it do anything for filtering out waste? I guess overflows 'skim' from the surface too - maybe just have to vaccum out any larger/heaver particles that end up on the bottom
 
Alright Post-Swap the 20L is up and running on its own - Hopefully will plumb it into the main system sometime this week...

View attachment 15329

Its being lit by 2 dimable Par38 Full Spectrum from Coral Compulsion - Currently they are 20Ks, but I think its too much blue and washing out some of the colors (example: cant even tell what are pink hippos) so next week I'm swapping them out for 14Ks.

For plumbing, I picked up a Rio3100 which should be fine on the 3/4" return flex-line. There will be a ball valve and union just before the bulk-head so I can quickly & easily disconnect the lines with the tank still full. For the drain... 1 1/2" bulkhead w/ 90* elbow turn toward the surface w/ a bulkhead strainer on top and/or clear mesh rubberbanded/superglued to act as a strainer. Hopefully I can drill is so that the Top of the elbow is just below the surface of the water, thus if the power goes out very little water will continue to drain. The clear mesh strainer option is a last resort on if the strainer ends up sticking out of the water too high and i can't put a mesh top down.

Best part, I already have 3/4" and 1 1/2" drill bits and the bulk heads because I was going to use them on my original 75gal - I think i have extra ball valves as well and unions so I just need to get flex line.

Flow will be from the 3/4" flared loc-line return and probably a small K2 PH on the other side. Currently I have a HOB filer w/ carbon along with a K2 PH and seems to be working well.

It will be bare bottom - Since the system is running solo right now, I have live rock stacked up on both sides of my egg-crate 'shelf' with my Female Blue-Star Leopard Wrasse in there as QT/Observation. (I have another 20L QT that will be used for copper treatments, etc). I also have a small in-tank AquaLife Skimmer (rated to 30g) skimming wet to help clean up the tank.
 
um so u set it up by it self and then u gonna have to break it down to drill it and reset it up again plumbed into the system ?
 
OTP PVC OVERFLOW FTW!!! (is that what you're doing? ((you can see mine tomorrow to see if that will work for you)))
 
Pretty much - but i "broke it down" to move it to the other side of the room in a matter of 3mins - put a PH w/ hose in the tank and drain to 5g buckets ~10 mins. Z/Ps can be out of water for a decent amount of time and still be fine but i can move them into tupperware for the time being. Drill it & test fill (its only 20gals) then just hook up the ball valves & unions - Flex line will be 2 pieces (one drain/one return). I figure I should be done in less than 2hrs MAX if I have all the parts ready :)
 
If its nice out Monday, I may drain it for the afternoon to spray paint the back/bottom and let it dry outside in the sun, then re-fill since it takes no time at all - much easier than moving around a 75g or the 120 lol

It'd be alot easier if i just sold all my extra frags or made them back into mini-colonies but im slowly consolidating the 5'x6'' of eggcrate racks in the 120g and getting my reef back - its amazing how much better/bigger it looks with out that sh*t in there
 
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