t-raptor's blog

[t-raptor]

Blog Created for t-raptor

[t-raptor]

I am currently on my way to putting about one years worth of communications, reading, and thinking into action. Previously I had kept a 75 gallon reef with many LPS corals, a sea anemone, assorted fish and the standard clean up crew. The operation was pretty standard: 2 -175W HQI, 4-65W power compact, 140 pounds of live rock, protein skimmer, 30 gallon sump, 2 inch sand bed, wife, and one child.

Today, I have an 180 AGA with twin megaflow (currently empty), a new house, same beautiful wife, and now another son for a total of two boys! Needless to say our second child has had a large part into why my dream of an upgrade is finally comes true.

But as every parent knows ... when the children are screaming in the backround and your spouse is calling your name it is time to go. So, the story will have to be told when the kids are in bed. But I will have to say, stay tuned it will be worth the wait!

[t-raptor]

And so the story goes:

My wife was in her first trimester when the conversation of the evening once again turned to the birth of our upcoming child. This particular conversation was not new. My wife was insistent on finding out whether we were going to be having a boy or a girl during her 20 month ultrasound. Needless to say, we did not find out whether we were having a boy or a girl with our first son and somehow he has manage of flurish even while having to spend the first year of his life in a gender neutral room . So, it is easy to see what my position was from the last sentence.

Anyway, the fish tank gods must have been on my side that evening. For out of the blue my wife utters this statement: If you will agree to findout whether we are having a boy or a girl, I will let you choose the name. At this time, I am sure most are confused how this statement could have landed me my new tank. I will admit even at the time not even I was aware of what the fish tank gods were up too. But in time their vision would be seen.

Now getting back to her statement. If I say yes, I have undertaken a great responsibility. Naming a child is no easy task for many reasons.

First, we all have some memory of childhood. Most of us liked to rythm ... and some even enjoyed it more when it was inappropriate and tied to someone elses name. But I am sure it is not true of the individuals reading this blog ! But a concern when naming a child nontheless.

Secondly, you must not only like the proper name, but all other names that can be modified or shorten using the letters available. Family, relatives, friends all seem to be the biggest abusers.

Lastly, you do not want to call your child's name and have 10 other children run. You do not want the name to be too common but not to over the top. I had thrown out Percula as a name, but my wife did not think if was ... FUNNY ! Just like many of you did not think last statemnet was either. Moving on ....

If I say NO then maybe my wife will not think 1-3 and name our child ----. I will let you insert the name so that I do not offend anyone. So go ahead ... think back in time to when you were in grade school using your most mature humor ... laugh little ... but not too much because it is not appropriate to make fun of peoples names ... at least that is what my elementary school principal told me .

I said YES. Three days later we found out we were having another baby boy .

Three months later I was doing my rythming, modifying, shortening name thing. I felt like I had four pretty bulletproff names but could not come up with THE ONE. That is when the fish tank gods finally revealed their vision .

So, later that evening I approached my wife with an envelope. An envelope that contained five boy names and a contract attachted. The contract was simply this ... If she would like to see the names that I selected (again I am dealing with a women three months earlier needed to know whether we were having a boy or a girl) and have the ability to choose the final name from this list, all she had to do was sign and date at the bottom!

Simple enough yes ... but the contract also stated that in signing the contract she would full heartidly support me in my efforts in creating and maintaining a 180g reef tank. And I am sure all who have maintained aquatic life know what that means. But just to make sure my wife knew what "full heartidly" meant, I clearly defined it to cover all aspects of time, money, and energy involved. I am completely serious on this ... the contract does exist and is located in a fireproff secure box in our house not just for me, but more importantly for her ! Some people may not believe I have my wife's best interest at heart. Let me explain with an example.

I am going out to purchase a calcium reactor or splendid SPS coral and she feels like she want to role her eyes. I can stop her by quickly grabbing the contract before she makes this mistake ... saving us time, which we could then spend with our children instead of in debate ..and tax payer money by not weighing the court system down secondary to this breach of contract .

And for those who still are in disbelief that I would use our unborn child as leverage to get my fish tank do not be worried. I would do any thing for my wife and she would tell you the same. If you are still not convience the story will be made more clear ....

If you were reading closly, which after some of my poor humor I am suprised that you still are, you will notice I only had four names choosen. Then fifth name on the list in the envelope was blank. In the end she could have selected any name she desired!

So, do you really feel that I should not hold my wife, who more than likely was on a hormal rollercoaster during all these events, accountable ... I have to say YES ... and so does my new 180G tank!

And that ends the story, but is the start of my blog on the process of making my 180G SPS reef tank a reality.

[t-raptor]

The beginning of my vision should have been fairly simple. Frame in my 180g tank in our family room. But as the powers that be have convienced me so many times before ... I like to may the simple things what I call a little more ... entertaining . Because I am not overly comfortable working with plaster, and we live in a house that was built in the early 50's, I decided I would tear down the existing plaster wall and re-frame with sheetrock to include the new tank.

About 45 min. into the demolition with my three inch cold chisle and hammer... plaster dust, plaster pieces, and old framing members now filling the air and every square inch of the room ... I step back take a deep breath and realize none of this demolition truly needed to be done ... A person has every ability to screw sheetrock over plaster with none of the mess and all of the ease of building something into the wall!!!

So lesson #1 was very simple:

If you are uncomfortable doing a built-in into a plaster wall. Drywall over the top of you plaster, frame in your tank and open the space up with your Sawzall. Saves you time both from the construction standpoint ... and sometimes can save you from an extended conversation ... say with your wife ... about the 2 inch layer of plaster that somehow made up to the the main floor .

Nonetheless it did get done. Haven't primed and painted yet as you can see the picture, but hopefully this will be occuring soon!

Next project on the adjenda was, a project I will write on next, how to overcome the fear of drilling a 3" hole in a newly purchased tank to allow for a closed loop hooked up to a very, very large pump !

[t-raptor]

I was able to find a lot of information on drilling glass ... but oh my taking a drill to my new tank seemed a little risky. Another issue in this particular project was the location of where I wanted the hole drilled.

Because it was a fairly large pump that was going to be running my closed loop, I needed the drilled hole to be one-third to one-half of the way down into the back wall of my tank to eliminate potential cavitation from the water-air interface. This longer distance limited me from using a drill press. I was only able to a get a quarter of the desired distance because of limitations created by the structural components of the machine itself. I have used jigs/templates in other areas, so now I just had to figure out a way to create a template that would give me the lattitude to place the hole wherever desired and the security that my free hand drill would not go screaming across the glass ! After a lot of thinking I finally went to work.

I gathered two pieces of scrap wood and purchased a piece of 1/4 inch (depth) plexiglass. I had bought a 3 1/4" diamond embedded hole saw (I was going to be using a 2" heavy duty bulkhead that required a 3 1/4" hole) on ebay for about $6. If I remember correctly, I paid more for shipping than I did for the bit. If you are a machinist or into plating, you will not be getting the prettiest of bits ... but you will be pleasently suprised how well it will work. Lastly, keep in mind I have only cut 2 holes to date with this bit so as for its longevity/durability I can not speak ... but for $6 I am sure you can guess how long it will last . I had already had a 3 1/4" wood bit so I had everything I needed for my template.

The size (hxw) of the plexiglass I choose was correlated with the distance I needed to have the hole in the glass. After all, I needed a way to secure the template to the tank. The width just needed to be greater than 3 1/4 inches (the diameter determined by the heavy duty 2 inch bulkhead) in my application.

Continuing on with the template ... I sandwiched my plexiglass between two pieces of scrap wood securing this sandwich with clamps to eliminate movement. With my wood hole saw I proceded to cut through both the first layer of wood and completely through the plexiglass. My template was done . Others my be able cut a hole directly into plexiglass ... I am not as talented with my drill. It seemed that my pilot bit that was a part of my hole saw would scream across the plexiglass versus directing the hole saw to where it needed to be. That is where my idea of sandwiching the plexiglass between wood was born. The pilot bit easily directed the hole saw through the wood ultimately into the underlying plexiglass.

Next I secured my template to the back side of my tank positioning the hole exactly where I wanted the bulkhead in my tank. Actually I first built a putty dam on both side of my template to hold water to keep my diamond bit cool. When I orginally used the putty only on the drill side, letting all of my water existed from underneath my template onto the floor ... again I am only a novice! With light pressure and medium speed the hole in my tank was fitted with a bulkhead in about 10 minutes. And more importantly no other holes, cracks, or scratches were created .

There is an aboundence of information on drilling glass on the internet. This process just worked for me and can not promise anything beyond that. It only proves that it can be done ... the potential for making a tank into swiss cheese is only limited by imagination ... of course, remember in the end, you want your tank to hold water .

Next step ... create the closed loop that this new bulkhead with be feeding.

[t-raptor]

The desire for my new 180g reef tank was to showcase SPS corals. After reading through numerous web sites, book, and conversing with plently of people, the thread of knowledge that was shared by all was in regards to flow ... and in most situations a lot of it. Now this is not true for all SPS corals ... just like not all dogs love puppy chow.

Most information that I came into contact with out in cyberspace, the bookshelves, and the speaking world seems to stress the downfall of a lot of SPS reef tanks tends to be in the area of inadequate circulation. And I can already see my message box filling up with people citing sources that are contrary to my aforementioned statement ... and for that I am greatful! I am still fairly young in the hobby and welcome any information that is shared. And I apologize in advance for some my statements that some may feel are not so informed ... but its my blog and I'll write what I want too!" ... within the TRT rules also of course.

So, with the information gathered I went to the local hardware store and pick up my materials. Some general rules in constructing a closed loop I aquired and followed were:

• for all 90 degree elbows use long sweeping elbows
• eliminate as many elbows as possible
• limit any restriction to the inlet of the pump and keep the distance from tank to pump as short as possible
• Maintain pump outlet diameter until you need to reduce at tees in the manifold
• Keep your closed loop and sump return seperate

In my previous writing, I stated I was using a 2" bulkhead to feed my closed loop. My pump has both a 1 1/2" inlet and outlet. I decided to go with the 2" in attempts to flood the pump with enough water to eliminate potential cavitation. Sounds impressive doesn't it . I did not come up with this on my own. I did not even know how to spell cavitation (and maybe I still do not ... haven't figured out how to use spell check yet ) let alone know what it was until patient people began to fill me in! Thus I trusted them and their experience. Thank you to all who unknowingly participated!

In the end my closed loop system consists of the following:

2" bulkhead - 2"PVC - 2" true union - 2" PVC - 2" to 1/2" threaded PVC - inlet of pump - outlet of pump - threaded 1 1/2" to 2" PVC - 1 1/2" PVC - long sweeping elbow - 1 1/2" PVC - 1 1/2" true union - 1 1/2" PVC - 1 1/2" gate valve - 1 1/2" PVC - to 1 1/2" tee ... you have arrived at the manifold.

Each effluent was a 1 1/2" x 1" x 1 1/2" tee that was bushed down to 3/4" outlet housing 3/4" loc line. A total of eight make up my system.

The thing I like the most about this set up is that the true unions allow me to easily change the design of my closed loop or change the size of my pump if need be in pretty short order. Also, the loc line gives me the flexibility (yes you are right, that was too predictable ) to shift my flow as my tank inhabitants need.

In this project, just like the plaster wall before, I got a little excited before completely thinking everything through. The lesson for that particular day:

Yes the perimeter of the tank is helpful in laying out the design for your closed loop manifold and after construction of this manifold I am sure it will fit nicely on the tank while it is sitting in your garage. But remember the tank is not going to be sitting in your garage. Instead it will be displayed as a built-in potentially. Built-in being the key word ... DO NOT FORGET TO ACCOUNT FOR THAT 2X4 THAT YOU USED TO FRAME IN THE TANK ... IT NEEDS TO BE ACCOUNTED FOR WHEN CALCULATING THE DISTANCE OF THE SHORTER SIDES ... not that I would do such a thing ... not twice anyway !

Next on the adjenda ... construction of my tank stand.

P.S. here are some pictures of the above.