Bloke's 180g - It was bound to happen...

[aquawolf]

Originally Posted by Bloke

YEAH! Ain't it the truth? How are things way down in dixie?

It went up another 15 cents and is now holding at $3.50 a gallon.

Warm and rainy today. I am actually looking at making the 1 1/2 hour trip to the nearest LFS to buy for new sand today. I ordered the acrylic to make my FlyGuy rock lifts last night so am hoping to have a new project to work on this coming weekend.

Take care.

[Bloke]

Originally Posted by jfurg75

looks like you will be done before summer at the rate you are going!!

Well, I better!

Well, we had no idea that when this panel was first removed at 11:00 that it wouldn't get put back on until 6:30! Chad (stomperks), David (dngspot), and Jim (missile150) swung by today at varying intervals, to run the electrical lines throughout the basement.



Believe it or not, we never stopped nor sat down for a break! We kept working straight through and really spent the last hour trying to figure out just what was in the head of the electricians that wired the basement in the first place. For some reason, the original electricians wired together the furnace, the doorbell, the smoke detector, the bedroom closet light, and an upstairs hallway light. Of course as we ran power to the bedroom circuit, which included the closet, the line was double fed forcing the breaker to trip every time. We took apart the utility room switch and furnace switch several times. Now I admit, each time we did we found something needing fixed (the light over the stairs had to be run on the same circuit as the basement circuit, etc.) but it was aggrivating to trace wires running into some lost reaches of the upstairs.



In the end, I have a TON of trash and debris requiring some attention tomorrow, but after 7 hours of work the thing is complete. No more blown breakers and no more turning on the hallway light to watch the closet light up along with it. We ended up running two 15a breakers; 1 for the basement bedroom and one for the den/storage. Additionally, we ran three 20s breakers for the fish room. That should be plenty.

I can not thank the guys enough for their day's labor. Chad, the only certified electrician among us, worked his butt off and didn't even grab a piece of pizza until 6:00 (6 hours after it arrived). David killed about 6 bottles of beer and was a great help. Jim, well, he held up a few walls and contributed best when belittling David. I killed a few beers, a few slices of pizza, but worst of all, my finger! Not only once, but TWICE on the same finger, while nailing wires to the stud. Teacher's hands aren't supposed to suffer this kind of abuse!

[Bloke]

Tomorrow I have to finish the header over the tank as well as put a few nailers in for the drywall. I believe the drywall will be hung this coming week! Which should mean that I'll have the tank in place before too long and then fun REALLY begins!

[jfurg75]

OK ..... so you got me thinking about moving my 120 into the wall...... have a perfect spot with a closet behind!..... will post a thread when/if the process begins!!!

[Bloke]

jfurg75 - best of luck! Go for it!

Well, I've officially crossed the point of no return. David (dngspot) came by today for a little bit and we drilled the first four holes for the closed loop; four 2 3/8" holes to feed two external pumps.



All went well - except for my thumb on the already damaged hand which now has a 1/2" cut from the glass. I wont post a picture of this one - you'd only make fun of me.

[Bloke]

Well, I've called it good for the weekend. After David left I managed to put the final nailers along the window wall and then installed four can lights in the den.



The drywall is being delivered tomorrow and being hung on Tuesday. I still need to put in the header for the tank and run the cable and phone lines, but I should be able to do that tomorrow when I get home.

Whew... what a weekend. Seven hours of electrical wiring, 2.5 hours of tank drilling, one hour of framing, and then a few hours hanging can lights. I'm not used to wiping sweat from my brow.

[Bloke]

YEE HAW! They delivered drywall today! But as you can see, I am not ready for them to hang it yet! They are scheduled to be here early tomorrow morning and I still am missing the header for the tank as well as cable and phone lines to each room.



I built the header first since it was going to take the longest and decided to go with a full 36" wide opening (top to bottom). The tank itself is about 25-1/4" tall so that will leave me room to build some sort of front access panel.



Here is a shot from the reverse side of the stand. I still have to run support under the center braces, but I can do that after the drywall is installed.

[Bloke]

Drywall is almost completely hung. It still needs to be taped, etc. and then the ceiling sprayed and walls textured.

It's coming along. Perhaps next weekend I can have some students over to paint.

[VWD]

Originally Posted by Bloke

YEAH! Ain't it the truth? How are things way down in dixie?

Doing Good Shane, waiting to hear back from someone on a tank, I hope to hear tonight or tomorrow, I want to set another one up, Have the one, need another LOL


Your progress is looking real good

[Bloke]

I finally got the remainder of the holes drilled. That's 12 holes! Four holes 2-3/8" and eight holes 1-3/4". I will put the bulkheads in place and take a look on Monday. I have four 1-1/2" heavy duty bulkheads for the lower four intakes and 8 light duty 1" bulkheads for the return lines.



Taping this thing off for Krylon seemed to take hours. I had to cover each hole and then make certain that paint did not get inside or on the front panel of glass. Also, notice how I painted both side panels as well. I do not plan to scrape or clean the side panels of glass as most people do. I've seen others with in wall setups let the sides and back go and I thought after a while it gave it a nice look. Further, I needed to cover some plumbing that will undoubtedly be seen should the side panels not have been painted.

[Bloke]

YEE HAW! The drywall is completed! The walls are still a little wet, but this Saturday I will get to painting! Here are some shots of the completed rooms from similar angles to previous shots:

[Bloke]

Well, I got the back and side panels completely coated with Krylon Fusion. Four cans is what I used to get it nice and even.


The majority of the bulkheads arrived today. Because I will make the Durso for these overflows I had to include bulkheads for those holes too. Therefore, here you see eight 1" bulkheads for the return lines on the CLS. I have two more 1" bulkheads and two 3/4" bulkheads awaiting the Durso standpipes. The four heavy duty 1-1/2" bulkheads are on their way. These will be the CLS intakes and be covered by bulkhead screens about 4 inches above the substrate.



Here is a closeup of the bulkhead screen. The front of the screen says 80gpm which should correlate to 4800gph. Therefore, pulling 2500gph through two of these and 3600gph through the other two should work fine. I asked specifically about the holes covering with coralline and the gentleman at flexpvc told me that with the amount of water moving through these holes they will not crust over. However, they thread on/off so if they do, I will simply reach in and remove it for cleaning.

[Ratpack]

Nice set up you have going. This is a dream that I would like to have one day. Just need a basement and a 180 gallon tank!

[markrxdi]

Looks great, keep up the good work

[Bloke]

I HATE painting! Seriously - and I don't use the word "hate."
I got the rooms primed and ready for painting this Saturday.




My plan is to get the tank in place this Sunday and then start the plumbing. I have both closed loop pumps (Dart & Snapper), the OM-4way and the return pump (Blueline 100HD).


All bulkheads are here and in place. When I buy the PVC to do the plumbing I will buy the required parts for the overflow kits as well and I have a 15g long for my refugium. Sounds like I have everything I need right? Nope... So what are my needs? Well, here is a list of things I need to collect before too long. I'll try to put them in the order I need them:

100g Rubbermaid Sump
POWER STRIPS!
3 Lumenarc (Lumenbright) Mini Reflectors
Aluminum angle iron for light rack
Exhaust fan & Dehumidistat
Gen X PCX 40 pump (or equivalent) for skimmer