Juwel Trigon 350 build

[DavidW]

I'm in the process of setting up a new bigger tank so thought I'd share what I've done and what I'm planning to do.

About a 6 weeks ago I saw a Juwel Trigon 350 tank for sale quite close to where I live, now I've wanted a bigger tank for a while but have not been able to convince my wife. However this tank had a dark brown cabinet and she's always complained about the light coloured cabinet not matching the rest of the furniture on the trigon 190, so with my finger crossed I said told her I found a new tank going cheap and this one matched the rest of the furniture.

I showed her the picture -

And she liked it, so after a bit on negotiation I got the tank, stand and sump for £75 along with some of the pipework and a few other bits and pieces.

Now the tank had been used as a marine tank and had one hole drilled in the bottom, but didn't come with any of the original light units

I still thought it was a great deal so borrow a people carrier and went down to collect it.

 

[DavidW]

My next step was looking into how to setup a tropical freshwater sump, this took me a few weeks to research but I decided I wanted a refuugium or at least a sump with an area I could use to create a nano aquascape and hose some shrimp. Here's the design I came up with -

For this setup, I would need more glass to create the extra section and I would also need to move some of the existing separators. Now I searched locally for a glass merchant, and found a few but when every time I said how much glass I wanted they weren't interested in supplying me with such a small amount. I found this quite frustrating. Undeterred I looked into getting the pieces I needed cut from 6mm acrylic which turned out to be really quite cheap compared to glass, and the guys I approached online where only too happy to provide me with all the small sizes I needed.

I also ordered some egg crate to use as separators between the different media.

Here's what turned up -

Now I had a small issue when it came to sticking the acrylic to the glass. I seems that silicone is great for sticking glass to glass but not so good at sticking acrylic to glass, but then was recommended some Gold Seal Aquarium Sealant, and this did the trick.

Here's my built refuugium -

 

[ian_m]

No silicone will adhere to plastic 100% which is why you solvent weld acrylic or mechanically hold it against seals.

However for sump dividers, applying generous amounts and where failure wont result in a flood it will be fine.

 

[DavidW]

The Gold seal aquarium sealant seems to bond acrylic to glass really well, the bit's I've glued are rock solid. I did you a good amount.

 

[DavidW]

I cleaned the tank with a vinegar solution on the weekend and removed the small glass weir that was originally in the tank. I've drilled 2 more holes in the bottom of the tank and started to test fit the pipework -

 

[DavidW]

Here's the weir I had made, I'll be gluing this in-place once I test the tank connectors aren't leaking.

After doing a test fit I think I might need to drill another 25mm pipe hole an inch below the one that's there, so the return pipe is below the water line.

 

[Chris Jackson]

Good stuff, and a real bargain, I'll be watching with interest!

 

[zozo]

Nice.. Good luck with the build..

The Gold seal aquarium sealant seems to bond acrylic to glass really well

The Bison Glass silicone also does sufficiently and is aquarium suitable.. I got a glazier with shop in the street i live, thats a releaf cut in size while i wait.. He gave me a tube of kit for free the last time i bought glass. Silglaze Neutral.. But after looking up the factory data sheet it said not suitable for permanent submersed use.. I also noticed this silicone is much softer and more elastic when cured. The Bison glass cures much harder and less elastic. I guess thats a big difference when applying it to acrylic, the soft one rips off very easily also from glass.

 

[DavidW]

Thanks. I got the gold seal off the guy who make the custom acrylic weirs, he swears by it. It quite firm when it sets and seems to bind all types of glass and plastic. It can be a bit messy and takes a while to cure but when it does it's great stuff, only downside to it is the price.

I did originally want to make the partition out of glass but couldn't find anyone local who would supply the small amounts of glass I needed. I contacted a few firms who said they could supply the glass until I specified the amounts I needed

 

[zozo]

I've used 2mm acrylic as deviders, instead of egg crate i also used acrylic, took a soldering iron with pointed tip.. 60 holes a minute.. Well now you already got the 6mm, but it all doesn't need to hold any pressure inside the sump, so actualy no need to make it that thick.. 2mm also can be cut with a stanley knive. Almost any hardware store sells 2mm acrylic sheet rather cheap.. Your sump is bit bigger then mine, the acrylic was € 15 half square metre and used only half of it.. Runs like a charme since last year november, still stands as a house.

You realy do not need such heavy duty material inside a sump.. Meant as a heads up for the next one if you build one again..

Ps, What i noticed in my sump was at the trickle side, the water just runs over the edge of the divider. That way the water also only runs down along the divider.
like this, blue arrow

To make it spread more sufficiently over the bio media, i made a ramp (in red) so the water falls down on top half way. Like this. That way it spreads more sufficiently over the media.

 

[Chris Jackson]

Morning... I just had another look at this and I'm not quite understanding the flow from the first to the second section?
I presumed it was exiting from beneath the fine foam and into the refugium section but in the photo there does not seem to be any way for it to do that...

Definitely agree with the need for something to divert the water over the bioballs. You could make narrower ramp than Marcel has drawn and add a trickle plate (lots of holes in a piece of acrylic) just resting on the bioballs, that way you'd get a more even trickle effect and far better access for maintenance.

 

[Tim Harrison]

Nice project, good luck. Have you given any thought to how you're going to light it?

 

[Aqua360]

good luck with the build

I'll be watching closely, I also have a Trigon 350 black; but I've listed it for sale as I simply don't have the skill to aquascape it properly, as well as the difficulty in actually accessing it for maintenance

 

[DavidW]

To make it spread more sufficiently over the bio media, i made a ramp (in red) so the water falls down on top half way. Like this. That way it spreads more sufficiently over the media.

I was thinking about this too. I was leaning towards the idea of having a piece of acrylic with lots of holes drilled into it sitting on top of the bio balls to act a nit like a shower that spreads the water over the whole area. Do you think this would work?

 

[DavidW]

I presumed it was exiting from beneath the fine foam and into the refugium section but in the photo there does not seem to be any way for it to do that...

Yea, my diagram doesn't make this too clear there are actually 2 chamber in the first chamber one in front of the other. the water flows into the first chamber which feeds into the chamber in front from underneath, this goes into the mech pro, then ceramic noodles then into the foam which will sit on the top, then the flow goes over the top into the next chamber. The design changed as I was building it.

This picture better shows what ive done -

 

[DavidW]

as well as the difficulty in actually accessing it for maintenance

I'm finding this challenging too, getting access to a tank which is so wide and deep is a bit tricky!

 

[DavidW]

Have you given any thought to how you're going to light it?

I've got a thread in the lighting section. I'm scratching my head a bit with what to do about a light. I was looking at the iQuatics Juwel compatible 4 tube light with reflectors for £160 which would produce 160 watts of light but I don't now if the bulbs it comes with are any good or if I could get a decent LED light for that price that produced more usable light for the plants. I'm also not allowed to have a light suspended above the tank, my wife has said not to that

 

[Tim Harrison]

I'll take a look

 

[zozo]

I was thinking about this too. I was leaning towards the idea of having a piece of acrylic with lots of holes drilled into it sitting on top of the bio balls to act a nit like a shower that spreads the water over the whole area. Do you think this would work?

That's building sumps, it's trail and error till you find something that works, it is hard to predict how water will flow if there is need to redirect it. Actualy while the sump slowly gets dirty the route the water will take changes accordingly. I experience this with my overflow syphons, sometimes i hear it slurp and i go look i see 3 snails or a floating piece from a plant changing flow direction. Then i take it away and all is back to normal. Makes you wonder how 3 tiny snails or a tiny piece of a plant can have such an effect on the waterflow in a syphon.. But it does obviously..

Anyway you have to test the sump for a few weeks if not months and think of and change things along the way till all runs as desired.

If you are thinking of making some kind of sieve laying on top of the bio media, you have to make sure i's level.. Since water will always flow to the deepest point. You might want to make it V schaped, with the holes in the deepest point.

For me since i used 2mm acrylic making a ramp was the easiest solution, it's very easy the work with such thin material easy to bend when you heat it with a small penn gass torch.. I can take the ramp off and put back on after cleaning. It sticks on top off the first devider.. But my sump is very simplistic lttle 25 litre tank i used for it, nothing fancy, it also just runs a 110 litre tank.

In diagram it looks something like this. I had some K1 compartiment next to the pump, but took it out again, aint nessecary for such a small volume and i couldn't stand the noise of the airpump and bubbles.

Note you have your biomedia in the last compartiment, for me it's the first.. There will develop a lot of goo in and especialy bellow the biomedia on the sumps bottom.. This is normal and only telling you your sump is doing what it should do.. In this goo will house the anaerobic bacteria. It looks in your diagram like it is now this goo will be sucket out by the pump back into the tank. You have to prevent that with another barrier of foam..

 

[DavidW]

Thanks for sharing your design and sump experience. I'm going to adjust my design to include another lower eggcrate layer a few cm above the bottom of the tank in the biohome area for the good to collect. I'm also going to split the last compartment so I can incorporate a foam layer before it enters the pump area.