The Rebuild Begins!!!

[gwen_o_lyn]

Originally Posted by tdwyatt

...it's important to constantly expand our horizons...

yeah, uh huh. lol- my dad tried to teach me basic car care like checking the fluids and easy stuff- lets just say that didn't go very well! Good luck trying to get me to 'expand my horizons' on the car stuff!! If free frags are in the deal, then I may have to think about it!! I do wanna see the Walnut Grove Seaquarium very soon!!

Originally Posted by Geoff

Mr Phallic is a little limp, but not obscene.

ROTFLMFAO- maybe he needs a little help to get back to his previous self?!?!?! ha ha only kidding!! I'm still gonna laugh everytime I see your tank though.

Tank looks great Geoff!

[Berggy]

Hello ....
How wide and deep is that coast to coast overflow?

I have been thinking about one for my 46g bowfront.
I currently have a 4" square by 16 deep skimmer that has two - 3/4" pipe - self priming siphon over the side into a durso pipe ... I cannot have a outside box because the tank is only 1.5" from the wall. The trouble is that the 2 siphon pipes are not enough return flow and th skimmer box is always full and I don't get any skimming action unless i partially plug the air hile in the durso to drop the water level. However when the water level drops .. the tiny air bubbles gointot eh siphon tubes and stop my siphon ... bummer.

And since the tank did not start out as a reef tank .. it has no drilled holes. I'm tempted to drill a few along the top while the fish are still in it though, just so I can have a regular down flow out if the tank like all the other reef keepers..

The other trouble is that the storage space under a 46 bow cabinet is not large enough to have any real sound deadening setup. The noise from the skimmer and return pumps, water coming down the pipes and hitting the sump tank makes the home theater room too noisey. I'm thinking of piping everything down to the basement but that is a 10' drop and would be a 80 foot run ... too long maybe?

Thoughts anyone?

[Geoff]

Welcome to TRT!!



that overflow is 4" deep and 4.5" high. it is 72" long. you can drill a tank with fish in it, i have done it twice. once with a 75g and again with a 20g high. you can really only do it from the outside so it would be tough with your situation. i like to keep the flow leaving the tank by gravity to a minimum just to keep the noise to a bare minimum. this tank is also in my Home Theatre room. i hope to have this tank just about silent.

i have a 45' run with a 8' drop. it can be done, well i hope so, i have not actually run water through it yet, but i am pretty confident.

G~

[snowrip]

I'm thinking of piping everything down to the basement but that is a 10' drop and would be a 80 foot run ... too long maybe?

Welcome to TRT! As far as the drop and run, you can always find a pump large enough to keep your flow rate up; it just depends upon how much you want to spend to keep your tank quiet. As far as cost goes, also plan on LOTS of plumbing and a large sump. I would also want a backup drain system capable of handling that size water load should something fail or overflow, or should you need to dump everything out of the system.

[Geoff]

been really busy the last couple of weeks. have been making steady progress on the tank, but most of it has been hard to see, or take pics of. i am now completely done with the plumbing. i am really thinking about getting it wet this weekend. at least try a FW test and see where the leaks are. if not than i will start slowly adding salt.

this is my DIY adjustable float valve for controlling the water level in the sump. just some acrylic pieces. i screwed it into the Rubbermaid sump with some stainless screws.



it took me a long time to decide what i wanted to do with the return. everything was considered. i finally just decided on the tried and true split return with tiny holes in the back as siphon breaks.



this is looking at the left side of the tank. this is the left side T2 driven CLS. i will switch the impeller out of this pump and make it a T1 eventually. as you can see it has an eductor outlet. painting all of the PVC black really helps it blend in with the rest of the tank. you can also seem the 1" strainered drain.



finally is a pic of my tiny fish room. this is where most of my time has been the past couple of weeks. skinning the walls. putting in the electrical. running the plumbing for the sump and auto-top off. i have not had time to plumb the automated water change tank. (motorslaves design really). unfortunately i somehow managed to crack the 20h so i have to get and get another one. not in a real hurry yet since it will be a couple of months before my first water change. in front of the 20H i will place my skimmer collection container and my kalk reactor. have not had time to even start on these yet. once again i should have plenty of time to do this while the tank cycles.



hopefully i will be able to show some pics with some water moving in it later this weekens. somehow i have a feeling i will be cleaning up some water first. there is always a leak somewhere.

G~

[skeety]

SAAAAHHH-WEET!!!

here comes the WATER!!!

glad you are getting further along on this. Watching this and the others move along helps me wait a little longer on mine. As it's the smart thing to do, financially! hahahaha)

(btw...wanna share on the DIY float valve?)

[VWD]

Very Nice ,

[Geoff]

Originally Posted by skeety

SAAAAHHH-WEET!!!

here comes the WATER!!!

glad you are getting further along on this. Watching this and the others move along helps me wait a little longer on mine. As it's the smart thing to do, financially! hahahaha)

(btw...wanna share on the DIY float valve?)

i plan on doing it as a DIY group build at some point.

G~

[tdwyatt]

Pressure testing the plumbing first??? When do you plan to do the testing?

[Geoff]

pressure test, what is that. do not answer it is already to late.

Zac and i filled it up yesterday. would you believe no real leaks!! there were a couple of self induced links, but were easily solved by actually tightening the bulkhead or union.

i did do an update because i do not have a pic. did not want the pic police after me.

it is running fine. still fine tuning the drain to make it absolutely silent, but it is a very quiet system now!! looks like cooling will not be a problem. i ran my heater all night and it was unable to raise the temp in the system more than 4 degrees. i guess with 40' worth of evaporative cooling going on in the drain it will be tough to keep the tank warm.

the flow is quite impressive. running the T2 on eductors and the Ampmaster in the 2100 configuration. do not think i will need to put on the 3700 wet end.

ok, either Velocity seriously undervalues their pumps or the overflow drain calculator is off. we switched out the T3 return for a T1 because the drain could not keep up. the T1 is still to powerfull for a 1" drain. so either my drain is funky or that T1 is a lot stronger than it says. i have the T1 valved down nearly half.

i will get some pics tonight.

G~

[VWD]

Water pretty soon!

[Jasontkd]

great progress

[Geoff]

i was hoping to get a full update with pics, but was battling the silly overflow all night.

it still has water in it, no leaks so far. i am hoping to put salt in it by the end of the week. i would really like to figure out the overflow first though, just in case i need to drill the tank while it is full.

so far i am still unable to heat the tank. i let the heater run all day today and it raised the temp 5 degrees . i then worked on the tank for about 2 hours with the heater off and the temp dropped 3 degrees in that time frame. i will wait untill i get the MH's on it before i try and heat it up again.

i am fine tuning the pump mounts to make sure they are even more quiet than they already are. the Ampmaster is a bit of a vibrator, so you can kinda hear it upstairs even though when you are down next to it is not that bad. i should have it isolated tomorrow night.

G~

[gitsumpottery]

Yeah, that drain completely messes me up. I have NO idea why that Velocity T1 overpowers the drain.....

Maybe throw on an eductor? Because you need more flow... muwahahaha!

Zac

[snowrip]

so far i am still unable to heat the tank.

Would it help at all to sheath or otherwise insulate that 40-foot run?

Everything looks great!