Help with Plumbing Upgrades - Adding Filter Mat

[Fishfry14]

I’m wondering if anyone can recommend a company or someone to help with a couple of projects and upgrades.

When I first setup my tank (IM 75 Int) I reached out to 4 local companies. One came out to take measurements but never followed-up to provide an estimate. One said they would only do setup if I agreed to a maintenance contract, and another never returned my call. The person I did find to help with the initial setup seems to have scaled his business back and is only doing work for customers on maintenance contracts.

Some of the plumbing is a little beyond my skills. Even when I plan things out, I’m more of a measure 3x and cut 5x type of guy . Usually after multiple trips to Ace & HD I end up with a collection of incompatible fittings and fixtures.

Attached is a picture of the sump (Trigger Sapphire 26 ) from when I first did the build. I’d like to add a filter roller to my sump, add an AWC system, and a controller for better monitoring, testing, dosing, redundancy, safety etc. I’m also debating about migrating to a smaller sump to allow for a larger ATO reservoir, dosing setup, controller board etc.

Does anyone have any recommendations or is anyone looking to earn some extra money?

Tom

 

[SynDen]

Who all have you tried? But honestly I doubt any company would ever want to install those for you without a maintenance contract and the reason being is that all those upgrades you mention each have the potential to crash the tank, so it would be a huge liability for them to come install those and then not maintain them because you could fiddle with it afterward and end up crashing the tank and then likely blame them for it. So for them its not worth it at all to do a minor upgrade for you like that.

Frankly too, adding upgrades are a major part of keeping a reef tank and every reefer should be able to install, modify, update and maintain the equipment on their tank(s) because stuff like that is core to being successful in this hobby. You should also fully understand the pros and cons of each upgrade and really be able to make an informed decision about why you want to add each upgrade.
We all spend a lot of time going back and forth to the hardware store to get pieces we forgot, or messed up, its part of the learning process. Unless you are a meticulous planner you will always have a number of parts left over when you are done. You can always return any parts you didn't use by the way, so keep your receipts as you work through the setup, and don't be afraid to make mistakes, its just part of the process.

If you post up your build thread the group here can help you make some informed decisions about what to add, and why, and then we can even help give you pointers on planning and installing the upgrades you need/want.

 

[Dr.DiSilicate]

Where are you? I’m decent at plumbing… but way up in Greeley


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[Fishfry14]

Thanks for the reply. I wasn’t going to mention names, but I had reached out to Premier Fish & Reef, Aquatic Art, and Mile High Tides before they became Murmans.

For the most part I enjoy the maintenance. It’s a small tank so it’s not too time consuming. I understand not wanting the liability, but even a client on a maintenance contract could tinker with their tank and blame them. I believe it’s more that they don’t have time or interest in a one-time project and primarily want to focus on reoccurring revenue streams. I can’t blame them for this, I understand wanting to service large systems for commercial accounts.

I do agree with your point that I should learn some of these skills. I have gotten better at RODI plumbing. Removing and cleaning return pumps and powerheads is easy. I’m more worried about retrofitting the sump. It’s also about finding the time and worrying about messing something up that leads to a leak, or crash.

I understand the ‘why’ behind the upgrades, especially as it relates to my system. I’ll start a separate thread with the reasoning and my thought process because it might help a fellow reefer facing the same decisions.

Tom from Lakewood.

 

[TheRealChrisBrown]

I was thinking along the same lines as Dr.DiSilicate was…..but Lakewood is quite a haul from Loveland.

From your thread it sounds like you are interested in maybe setting up an Apex from Neptune, aquarium controller?

I would think setting up the Apex would be easier than a roller mat, and could provide you with some serious bang for your buck. From your picture it looks like you are already using filter socks and the roller mat is kind of a fancier sock, IMO.

 

[SynDen]

Ya an Apex controller isn't that hard to setup for basic stuff like light timer or temp control. That's all mostly plug and play with easy timer programing.

I personally wont use it for much more then that though. I used to put everything plugged into the apex and everything programmed with back ups and fail safes, but in the end the apex became the fail point, and put my tank at risk multiple times. All that programing and fail safes wont do much if the controller its self fails, and it will fail from time to time. I learned my lesson with that, and now only use it to controls lights. Just my experience though

For the roller mats, those can be fairly nice, as long as you can afford, and don't mind the extra monthly expense they incur, since you have to buy new rolls fairly frequently, and they aren't that cheap. If you can find one to fit your sump, great, but I wouldn't go modifying that pretty sump just to fit one

AWC systems also seem like a nice upgrade but they arent all that they are cracked up to be. I know many reefers in the club have set up and run AWC systems before only to take them down and go back to the tried and true method they did before. Perhaps some of them can share their experiences with it.

Larger ATOs can be nice if you go on vacations or leave town frequently, but they come with a bit of a risk. If the ATO pump gets stuck on for some reason or a syphon doesn't break properly on them, they can end up dumping their entire contents into your tank. If the ATO is smaller then that is not as big of deal as the salinity will only be altered a small amount, but the larger the reservoir the more likely it is to dump enough fresh water into the tank to cause significant salinity swing and potentially crash the tank. Not to mention this could cause the tank to overflow, and if you arent around to catch that you could have a real disaster on your hands.

If I were to put a larger ATO reservoir, and it wouldn't fit under the cabinet, I would make it remote then and put it outside the cabinet. I would not recommend downsizing the sump for that because having the maximum amount of water volume for your tank is much more beneficial. The more volume your tank has the more stable it is, and if you start taking away the volume then you likely will make it harder to keep it stabilized

Just my 2 cents on those. Others may have other opinions on some of that but that's my personal experience