New 20g Nano build. Need help please

Kevbot

Reefing newb
Hello Everyone,

Well I've been off and on in the saltwater hobby for about 8 years now and have had a few tanks and setups through high school and college. I haven't had a tank for about a year and a half now but the hobby is simply to enticing and I'm looking to get back into it.

The Plan:
I'd like to have a 15-20 gallon nano reef aquarium. I have thought about a Biocube setup however I am leaning for towards my own setup simply for the customization factor. What I was thinking was a 20gallon aquarium with a single 1 inch drain into a 10-20 gallon sump. I would like to make the sump myself and I planed on buying the aquarium and the sump (just another aquarium) from the LFS.

For filtration I wanted to create the sump to lead into a mechanical tray first followed by protein skimmer through a baffel and into a refugium. Here is a diagram of what i was thinking.
Tank.jpg


My biggest questions are:

Would a custom setup be better than a biocube?
I wanted to go with the Reef Octopus NWB 110 protein skimmer but is this overkill for the system and would it take out to many trace elements? (i.e. Calcium and Iodine for my sps plans)
Is there a better skimmer out there smaller aquariums?
Does anybody have detailed instruction on the drilling of the aquarium and plumbing installation?
In terms of a water pump any ideas of the ideal flow rate and a product?

Other things to keep in mind:

I plan on focusing on a pristine coral landscape with a variety of exoctic corals including all soft, sps, and lps

Inverts consisting of shrimp starfish snails and crabs

Maybe a clownfish and firefish. No more than 2-4 fish ever

Future plans for U.V. installation as well as Ecoxotic LED lights someday when I start sps.

Plan on doing a 3-4gallon water change weekly on 20 gallon tank.

Thank you for looking over this. I understand its a lot of information and filled with questions. Basically I am looking for help from people with more experience than me. I would like to come up with a system that can maintain pristine water quality so that I can focus on maintaining even difficult corals.

Also I am on a budget being a college senior and holding a part time serving job. I have however saved up about 800$ to get this thing started.

Thanks for all your help

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Hello and Welcome to the Site!

I honestly wouldnt suggest anything more than a fuge in your sump area. I think a skimmer is overkill on that size system. I would just do your weekly water changes. I also think the UV light is going to be pretty useless, and maybe do more harm than good on your system. So i would save the money on not buying those two things.

Also LPS and other soft corals tend to release toxins that can inhibit the growth of SPS corals. So in a tank that small, you are probably going to have to choose one or the other.

Also, im not sure what you mean by "mechanical tray"
 
Thanks little fish. In terms of the mechanical tray I was thinking along the lines of in case I needed some type of phosphate control or other chemicals however I have alway been weary of chemicals in the system and I figure if I do incorporate a scrubber then those things shouldn't be a problem.

In terms of the corals that is a good point. For this tank then I will stick with Soft corals and LPS since the lightning requirements wont be as high for those. I didnt even think about the system size there and the effects if each on the sps.

The one thing I want to make sure of is if I simply have a fuge and scrubber will this be enough to maintain water quality to support some of the more sensitive corals? I guess im kind of one of the old fashioned saltwater hobbyists who thinks the key to any aquarium is a good skimmer.
 
I think if you have a fuge and a scrubber (or even a fuge OR a scrubber) you will be fine without a skimmer. Especially if you're going to do 15-20% water changes every week (like you said you would).

And welcome to the site.
 
Many people on here have neither (including myself) and do just fine. But i am building an algae scrubber because it seems to have so many awesome benefits.

But if you do a scrubber and still want to run chemical media, i would scrubber them chemical media.
 
Yea I will definitely be doing a fugue and a scrubber. However if I do upgrade and go with a 30g tank would you recommend a skimmer then?

Also should I not do a skimmer because it is simply a waste because the system is so small? Or is it because it would be removing so much it would be detrimental to the system
 
Both on why you dont need a skimmers. And i think a scrubber is a great thing on ANY sized tank, reef or FOWLR. If you wanna see some really awesome scrubber magic, check this out: https://www.livingreefs.com/bl1s-75g-upgrade-t27931p16.html

Scroll down a little bit to see the scrubber magic!

But i also had santa montica (the scrubber god) write this up so that you dont have to sludge through the whole thread to find the most current recommendations
https://www.livingreefs.com/build-algae-scrubber-t32422.html

but the whole scrubber build thread can be found here. I still recommend looking through it because there are so many different designs in there, and lots of good information on how scrubbers work and how they really are amazing for any tank.
https://www.livingreefs.com/mega-powerful-nitrate-and-phosphate-remover-diy-t16734.html
 
Thanks little fish. One other thing I was wondering and I'm not sure if you know or not. But when drilling the plumbing for the tank how does using 3/4 inch piping sound? Would this give me enough flow rate on a 20g? and What gallons per hour should I look for in a return pump? Thanks
 
3/4 in. piping will be fine. As far as the return pipe it will all depend on the flow rate of the overflow you're using as well as the head height.
 
What I had planned to do was to drill a drain hole in the tank instead of doing an overflow. Here is a picture of what I was thinking. Does this work? and with what gph return pump?

Tank2.png


Any detailed help would be much appreciated. I have not done my own plumbing before.
 
For the hole, you're going to want to use a bulkhead fitting. Double Threaded Bulkhead Fittings
And for a 3/4 bulkhead you actually want a 1-1/2" hole. And if your just going to drill a hole instead of an overflow, I would put a 90 degree angle in it so that it will surface skim the water for you.
 
It will self regulate the flow shouldn't it since the drain should drain out as fast as the water is pumped in? I read that 3/4 is about 650 gph so as long as my return pump is not higher than that it shouldn't pump the sump dry correct?
 
If 3/4 inch does drain at 650 gph, then you'll want a pump rated at about 750 gph to account for head loss. You should also add a ball valve between the return pump and tank so that you can fine tune your flow rate.
 
You might consider doing a 1" inlet and 3/4 inch return, Im running 2x 1" bulkhead overflows on mine with 1x 1" return on a mag 7, its probably running around 450gph. it sounds like it would regulate but it doesnt due to evaporation and so forth. Im constantly having to adjust my ball valve on the return and the angle on my overflows to keep my water levels where i want them. If not, it overflows to fast, or pumps water from the sump to fast and begins to suck air. Heres a link to my current build. You can see my plumbing on the first page in the first thread.

https://www.livingreefs.com/and-were-live-buddys-75g-setup-t32251.html
 
K so how does this look? And what exactly is head loss? Also is 650 to 750 an acceptable flow rate for a 20g?
Tank2-1.png
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I can't see your picture. Headloss is hard for me to explain but, the further your pump is from your tank the lower gph it will pump. For an eheim 1262 pump it's rated at 900 gph but, at 4 feet it only pumps 662 gph.

You might consider doing a 1" inlet and 3/4 inch return, Im running 2x 1" bulkhead overflows on mine with 1x 1" return on a mag 7, its probably running around 450gph. it sounds like it would regulate but it doesnt due to evaporation and so forth. Im constantly having to adjust my ball valve on the return and the angle on my overflows to keep my water levels where i want them. If not, it overflows to fast, or pumps water from the sump to fast and begins to suck air. Heres a link to my current build. You can see my plumbing on the first page in the first thread.

https://www.livingreefs.com/and-were-live-buddys-75g-setup-t32251.html

Something doesn't sound right if you can't match the pump/overflow. I've never had to adjust mine since setting it up.
 
its matched, like i havent adjusted my bulkheads or ball valve in the past 3 days but its something i have to monitor. If my water level in my sump drops, i angle the bulkheads downard and close the valve some, if the sump water level is to high, i angle the bulkheads up and open the valve some to keep my water levels at a safe level incase power goes out. my bulkheads can swivel. when tank is fully topped off, the bulkheads are pointed up. as evaporation occurs, i naturally have to lower the bulkhead or else it wont skim as much water.
 
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Thank you BL1 Im pretty sure I understand head loss now. Also the picture that didn't show is basically the exact same as the one at the top of this page just another valve on the return allowing me to adjust flow rate on both the drain and return.
 
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