Wooohoo finally got new sump and pump installed!

[db]

Wow that was a LONG night of work. I just created a new sump and installed my Ampmaster 3000 on my 55 reef and I am VERY pleased with the results!

The sump is a 20 low breeder tank; I bought a sheet of 1/4" acrylic and cut 8" tall partitions with my table saw (wow this stuff cuts CLEAN!). Siliconed the partitions to the bottom and sides; now I've got an inflow chamber with heater, which overflows into a sandbed / refugium chamber (no macros yet but they're coming), and that overflows into my skimmer/outflow chamber.
The whole thing is lit by a suspended LOA 65W fixture.

An inverted 1 1/2" U-tube draws water to the Ampmaster intake, the pump flows out into a 1 1/2" manifold which currently has two 3/4" ID flex tubes - one goes to teh tank return and the other WILL go to my skimmer so I can ditch the Eheim powerhead I'm running on it now. The pump is WAY too much for this tank but I like it a LOT - I can max out my tank overflow and its quiet and makes lots of circulation in the tank! It even primed itself thru the U-tube with very little difficulty!! Fortunately it can run dry safely so I don't have to stress with what-ifs.

Anyway I was up until 3am finishing this (had an incidental 10-gallon carpet wash and spilled an entire container of PVC cement on said carpet but wife took it surprisingly well!)

Check out photos: (if this works)


http://photos.yahoo.com/bc/db_mannin....jpg%26.src=ph

[wuelfman]

looks great !!!!!!!!!
is the pump running?
i have mine on a 225 and get a ton of bubbles
i had to put it on a closed loop
keep the pics coming

[db]

The pump is running - throttled WAY back because the tank is only a 55 and a single 1 1/4" overflow (you can see where the valve is in the pic) but I cleared the bubbles from the intake by running it wide open for 10 sec or so. Since the intake is pointing straight down and is about 9" below the surface it can't draw any air in so I'm not seeing any bubbles at all!