New Tank Build

[russbriscoe]

I am thinking about putting up a 1/2" plywood with drilled holes and butt the drywall up to it. then running a small piece of trim around to make it look finished.

[russbriscoe]

My custom stand and canopy is done and looks great. I would call it a DIY, but that would be missleading since I started producing and selling them. I got my tank in and set it on top my stand and it looks AWESOME. I cant wait to get some water running. I also started plumbing the sump room and hope to have all of it done in a few weeks.

[russbriscoe]

I have been working like a mad man trying to get the plumbing done. My goal is to have water moving this weekend. Possibly tomorrow!!!

[russbriscoe]

Whew, 2 full days of plumbing and I am not much further along. I have at leat 2 more days. I did a fres water test of the fresh water/mixing tank and it works great. I also started to paint the back of my tank. I really need to get the flow going through my tank, but need some paint on the back.

This wet room will be be nice wen it is done.

[russbriscoe]

I have had tap water in the tank since last tuesday, 5/1. Had my dad in town and couldn't post. When I filled it pu I the floor moved when I shook the tank and I was worried about the sturcture of the tank stand so I reinforced it and then had a friend comve over on wedneday to look at it. I have a little more plumbing to do and then it is off to the Elec. I am hopping to drain and clean the tank and add saltwater next week.

[BGJ223]

Any updates on the tank???

[russbriscoe]

My tank is comin along nice. I have fish one light hooked up... Sump room is coming along well too. It is pretty sweet, at least my friends say so.

[Wolfenbuttel]

looks sweet

need more pics

[russbriscoe]

Been a while since I added Pics so here goes:

[russbriscoe]

This is the return and the over flow drain runs. From the tank to the sump it is about 55' of pipe. I had to tear out the ceiling of a room and closet, but I didnt photograph that. Under the tank the overflow combinds two 1" pipes to a single 2" pipe and the return is a 1 1/2" pipe that splits into two 3/4" under the tank.

The sequence 5000 The pump on the bottom) is the return. I can choose to drain the tank by turning the big valves. When I drain the tank the water goes into the drain sump and is pumpoed out to the sewer.


This is just a glimps of some of the pipe I ran to make up the 55" +/-


This is where the overflows enter the sump. the "y" at the top is how I add new water durring a water change.


Here is a shot of what it looks like when it enters the sump. The small tank to the left will be my RO top off water.

[russbriscoe]

In picture of the return pump in the above post, the small Iwiaki 70 is what I am using to feed my skimmer, chiller, and will also feed my Calc reactor. However, I am rethinking all of this. I may add another pump.

Water is split behind the wall. Currently some goes through the UV and then into the Skimmer and the rest goes into the chiller.

This is my new UV's they have an awesome slide that cleans the Quartz (notice I have one pulled down so you can see it). I dont know how well it works as I have not taken it apart to look at it, but I will soon. For the mean time I just tell myself that it works great and don't worry about it. I will move them lower later because when I sheetrock (or whatever I will do) it will be to hard to service the bulbs at that height. I guess I learn by trial and error. You will see more of what I mean as I move along here. I have a lot of mistakes.


Here is a shot if the skimmer working its little heart out. Poor guy.


And finally 3 weeks of FUNK...

[russbriscoe]

Finally, the chiller. Water goes from the iwaki into the chiller. I think I need to change the pump because I am not meeting the ruquirements for the min flow of this chiller. they want to have about 1500gph.


This is where my skimmer drains into the tank. the "y" is where I screwed up and combined the out for the chiller too. The problem is that I dont have a vent and it doesnt drain well. I took a piece off my skimmer to rig it, but I need to do something else, but I am not sure what.






Also, I want to change where I am dumpiing the water to the left side of the bubble trap at the far left of the photo. Then the area with the egg crate will be where I put fish before I place them into my mian tank.

[Hop]

Looks good. The only thing I see from the pictures that concerns me a tad is how far submerged the drain from the tank is in the sump. It can lead to surging which is possibly aiding in the problem you had earlier in the week.

You can slow the rate the water falls (from 3.8 meters per second if I recall) by getting some spa flex and making an "S" or zig-zagging some PVC so that if you move the drain up out of the bottom of the sump and near the water level the water is not flowing out at such high speed.


Do you have any water noise that bleeds up into the house from that much pipe? I had a 90 right under the lower bathroom and it would carry the water noise up through the wall into the upstairs a bit.

[russbriscoe]

Hop: You are right about the length of the pipe. my frined actually told me the same thing. However, two things happen when the pipe is short. 1) the water bubles on to the top of the sump and makes a mess. 2) the long pipe keeps the bottom of the tank clean. I am going to change it, but I need to figure out how to resolve those two issues.

I guess I could get some flex and figure "s" it down the wall in the studs? then pop itout the same way I did the return for my skimmer?

What about keeping the bottom clean? I am trying to no have a bunch of pumps running.

You dont hear the long runs of pipes unless you are laying on the floor above them and it is quiet. Where the tank drains it was very noisey, but before I sealed the holes in the basement room below my fish tank, I sprayed a few cans of the insulating foam you get at home depot. This seemed mute the noise. However, you can still hear it at night. Most of the noise in my home is in the breakfast room above my sump room. My return pump makes a lot of noise and you can hear the buz. I am thinking about siting both pumps on 3/4 foam core and bolting them down with rubber washers... I will also put foam core under some of the long runs of pipe. The unfinished room in my pictures will be a theater and Bar. I do not want to hear the pipes there so I will be very extream. I am going to insulate the entire cieleing, put 1/2" foam core, 5/8 plywood. I am not using sheetrock in there. I am actually going to have Cherry walls and cieleing. it will have that old pub look. When i say cherry I am not talking about venere plywood either. All the panels will be glued up. I dont think i will hear the pipes then.

The sump room will also be insulated and i am debating about what to do on the walls. The wall in-front of my sump room, leading into the bar area, is double framed. It will have 2 layers of insulation and the door there is an insulated exterior door. on the bar side there will be a hidden door that can be opened exposing hte exterior door of the sump room. So basically no one will know my sump room is there when you are in the bar/theater. Building wood rooms, winecellars... is what i do for a living so when I say it will be a secret door, it really will be hidden. You will stand in front of it and not know it is there.

[russbriscoe]

Ignore the RO unit for now, I just have is sitting there but all the tubes will be behind the wall and it will look good one day. This is my water change tank. It has two equal side (a little over 100gal each). there is an external pump that circulates the water and will mix the salt and pumps the new water into the sump. the is what the bulkhead in the middle of each side is used for. I will put something on the bulkhead to point the water down to mix the salt better, it is not very effective the way that it is. the tank has a drain at the top, just incase it trys to overflow... You can see it in the top left of the photo. I will also put one of these on my sump.


this is the valve system for each side of the tank. each side has a valve (the black one) that will mix the water. the red valve on the left side sends the water to my sump for water changes. the red valve on the right side sends the water to the sewer. This is used for cleaning.


One problem that i have whit this is I am not able to drain it 100%. I am not sure what to do about that.