120 Gal Aquarium build. Diy sump, stand, overflow, LED lighting and full auto WC

[Fkgriffin]

Do you have any tips on attaching the pvc to the tank? Trying to make it as clean as possible

[dbfzurowski]

I used aquarium safe silicone. Inner PVC needs to be sealed so that it doesn't drain your tank below the top of the PVC

[Magoo40]

I used aquarium safe silicone. Inner PVC needs to be sealed so that it doesn't drain your tank below the top of the PVC

i have read your 55 and 120 builds with interest some great ideas that have got me looking for a place to cut a hole in the wall and do the same, just thinking about your over flow idea my last tank had the same type of over flow in principal (overflow to an inner tube) it was quite noisy caused by the air being sucked down the overflow tube. My eventual solution after trying many ideas was to throttle the overflow with a gate valve just enough to have a full siphon effect (no air being draw into the overflow) this worked very well completely eliminated the noise.

This was my theory the overflow only needs to drain as fast as the pump can deliver to the tank and in most cases we throttle the pump so we don't blast the fish around the tank ,so why do i need to have an oversized overflow and drawing in air.

The disadvantage with my set up was a blockage in the overflow would have meant my sump would be drained by the pump and end up all over the floor.

So my next build will be your over flow idea with an addition emergency over flow for insurance higher than the normal operation over flow and with a throttle valve for fine tuning to eliminate the noise.

i love this site there are some really innovative people with great ideas like your auto water changer, as i travel a lot all the water changes ended up being a deal breaker for the wife so if i can automate that part i should be good to go with another tank.

[Magoo40]

Thanks Peter.


LED lights have been working real good. Haven't picked a good color yet so its soft white for now. Still need to get some red head geo's and maybe two golden nuggets.

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Lights look great, can i ask is there a reason you went for the suspended light, with you skills you could have built a hood for the tank with the lights inside. Also i assume you have them on a timer do the lights come back on to the same settings / color after the power has been off?

[dbfzurowski]

Hi there,

I didn't build a boxed hood because it would have to go all the way up to the ceiling. I felt it might overwhelm the display and pull attention away from the tank. Another reason is, the pieces of wood I have in there are really big and I need a lot of clearance to place them inside the tank.

Lights are on a digital timer that I adjust depending on the time of the year. Winter, it kicks on ~4:30pm till ~12am and summer 8pm ~ 12am. Color remains what I set it last.

I couldn't be happier with the setup. Auto WC has been 100% trouble free. About every 6 months I take the electronic solenoid apart and clean it.

[elbeeaz]

WOW! Very cool set up! I'm truly impressed and jealous that you have those super powers for DIY! :-) I am researching lighting and wonder if you have live plants in your tank. If so, are they responding to your LED set up?

[dbfzurowski]

Hi there,

Never kept any plants with in this tank. I keep the lights kinda dimmed and have 0 algae problems. Honestly I dont know if these would be enough for plants. You would have to check how much light output there is, lumens it was I think...

[noinoi24]

Hello,
Wow I am mismirized by your DIY set-up. Took me almost forever to look for the kind of set-up for my discus. I too have 120 gallon acrylic tank, no idea how to integrate the best poop cleaner, sump, and the auto water changer, and this has it all. I hope you don't mind elaborating how the set-up was done. The flow box placement and so on.. Best regard!

By the way, how much have you spend for all the DIY equipment? Thanks

[PaulPerger]

Thank you for the detailed explanation, photos, etc. You have inspired me. I am taking pieces and parts from both of your builds and building a 55 Gallon in wall (on one side) / in Custom Cabinet (the other side).

The only thing I am nervous about is cutting holes in glass... Any tips / techniques would be much appreciated!

[cedar]

great build!! I am showing this to my husband and it will become the next project!! I have a 120g upstairs and a sump and a spare 90 sitting unused so we should be able to rig up something similar thanks for sharing and congrats on the vaping!! 1 year and 3 months for me!! haha

[relliott]

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Here's a redsea sump for salt water that will be for a 120 gallon discus breeding setup.
These normally have a reserve 10 gallons tank that is used for evaporation and as an auto fill which contain RO water (see pics). Still deciding how to utilize this feature in a freshwater system..

[marinum]

gerat job

[PaulPerger]

I posted a while ago that I was emulating this build, and my tank is complete and fully functional but I have a question, as i had a problem and I was wondering if you had experienced the same thing and if so, what you did to resolve the issue. I hope you are still on the forum and see this question...

My issue surrounds this piece of the system...

Hello good people!
...
For the water line. I wanted the ability to control the incoming temperature, so I installed this:

Ghetto but works great!
...
Thanks for reading.

Someone suggested using a temp controller instead of a faucet as you did, and I tried that, but mine would not work properly. I was supposed to be able to set the temp in the range of 78 to 110 degrees. I couldn't get anything colder than 92. Obviously that is too warm, I don't want to cook my fish... Not the ones in my tank anyways!

I happened to have an old standard faucet with two handles, so I used it similar to how you did with your single handle unit above. I get great control of water temp. Initially I ran directly from the faucet to the tank, and I was "manually" managing water changes. I would drain the tank by opening a valve, turn on the water faucet to the right positions to fill it, and then turn off the water when I was done, just as if I were washing my hands or taking a shower. But recently I purchased an electronic valve to automate top offs (I still manually open and close the drain for water changes). But I had automated the refill and top off by setting the water faucet to release the water at the temperature I wanted and used the electric valve further "downstream" to stop water from flowing when the tank is at the right level (using an ATO unit). Over the next few days I discovered that a hot shower lasted no more than about 5 minutes, and the water would gradually get cooler and cooler. I noticed this was true throughout my house, Hot water lasted no more than a few minutes.

I checked all sorts of things, but bottom line, it turns out that it is the tank's faucet that is "Always Open" that is causing the problem. Apparently, cold water is getting into the hot water line through that faucet. If I "turn off" the hot OR cold water at my tank faucet, hot and cold water work fine throughout my whole house. The problem then is that if I leave the ATO operating, I am dumping scalding hot, or ice cold water into the tanks unless I manually turn the water on and off. So I have, temporarily, had to abandon my nearly totally automated system. I have rigged my auto Top Off unit to an alarm that alerts me to add water instead of the electric valve and have gone back to manually adding water to the tank.

I am curious if you had a similar issue after your post here and if so, have you found a way to resolve it? Or, does that faucet have some sort of backflow valve that prevents cold water from entering the hot water line, or vice verse? I may have to go buy one like yours...