So this is the official kick off of my project. Alea Jacta est and all that...
if all goes well, it will be fish, LR and Coral tank...
I believe in Lebanon it will be the first ATS only tank (and first ATS implementation) since no one I talk to seems to have heard of it ... but this is another story.
yesterday I ordered the glass parts for my sump and I will be drilling the acrylic tank to install an overflow to feed the sump on Saturday if all goes fine.
Aquarium
Measurements: L80cm H55cm W45cm which makes the volume around 180 liters (47.5 gallons I believe).
its a chinese acrylic type. used to be FW tank with a cannister, will convert it to SW. canister will go to my other tank, a 700 liter (180g) tank which already has two filters or I might sell it ...
I plan to remove the top cover (which contains the lights) and it will be replaced with egg crate and external lights...this will be at a second stage once I get to the corals part.
I will be drilling it on Saturday. here I have a question though: should I drill it from the back or on the bottom? which is, from your experiences, more effective? or is it a matter of taste?
I am more inclined to the hole in the back as this would save me having to drill the stand as well since the tubing will just be in the back...but I am open to suggestions. any link you can share with me would be very appreciated.
Sump
will have approx the same footprint (a couple of cm shaved off the width and length to have it fit underneath the stand) and a height of 40cm.
It will be divided into 3 compartments: one for auto top off, one for the water coming in from tank/scrubber and the central one will be left as is for now...most likely ill add some live rock and DSB if necessary...maybe also a calc reactor but this is in a future stage...
for now I plan to stay with the ATS and do things manually...
aim here is to have a working POC to prove the ATS point to the skeptics and a personal point that fishkeeping can be enjoyed without having to shell out thousands of $$$...
ATS will be over the sump actually and fed either directly from overflow or through a pump in the sump (still not sure which method to use here - again inputs welcome....)
For the ATS design, since we are close to the release date of the new SM concept, I will wait for that and design accordingly...once SM releases the design, I will go out and purchase the components and make the acrylic frame for it...
of course pictures will come for each step so stay tuned folks