[thefatman]

ok well, here is my apparantly stolen cls idea...

i had been plannign to do one like this for some time, but cromagnum and tpeck beat me to it, so i guess it appears i stole the idea from their heads :funny:

i made a few changes, to make it my own though. the left side has more outlets than the right side does. that way the tank has different amounts of flow throughout.

the high outlets on the right, are 5" above the sandbed, those two bars will be topped with eggcrate, and allow me to build a nice little cave over and around it. that's basically the only reason i put those there, to be a support for a large piece of rock.

there are 14 outlets throughout. it's all plumbed in 1/2" pvc and the outlets holes are 1/4" drilled in the endcaps.

borrowing yet another idea from cromagnum, the 45deg elbows on the outlets will not be glued, so they can be rotated however i need them to be.

the rock support bars on the right, also have 3 holes drilled in the bottom of each of them, this will allow water to spray down inside the cave.

the entire thing will sit on the bottom of the tank, then the sand will be added. i made it so that once sand is in, the water outlets will just peek thorugh the top of the sandbed, totally hiding it. and of course, strategically placed rock will hide the parts that poke through. and the tall part will be surrounded and topped with rock aswell.

this test was done using my cap2200 pump, that only has about 500 gph with the head. but the cls will ultimately be run off of either a mag7 or a mag9.

i'll have both, just depends which will be required to run my skimmer after it's built.

i'm on my way back out to the garage to glue it all up, i'll take pics throughout and post in the diy forum.

 

[thefatman]

and here it is turned out. water is coming out of every outlet, including the tall ones. so i'm happy with the results. should be even better with the higher capacity pump!

 

[Reefer Addict]

Looks great Jay! :beer:
Now I almost wish I had done it this way in my tank... I have a single 45-degree elbow for my return...
With that many outlets you may need more than a Mag7 though... the Mag9 looks like it would be a good bet.
So do they know you by name at Home Depot yet? I figure you'd be a preferred customer by now.

 

[thefatman]

oh they know me at lowes. i'm there daily they are getting to know me in the lumber dept at HD but mostly i go to lowes.

i THINK a girl in the plumbign dept was hitting on me today, but i'm not sure.. she asked why i was always in there buying plumbing and wood, was i building a house. i said no, builing a reef tank. she said ohhhh i looooove reef tanks. when it's all done you'll have to invite me over to see how it turned out i think she's just wants to use me for my fish though

 

[thefatman]

yeah i think yo uare right on the mag. i mean it performed well with the cap pump, and thats not quite comparable to a mag 5. so itwould be much better with a mag 7 or higher. i'll havea 5 for my return pump. and then a 7 for eitehr my skimmer or cls. then i'm goign to get either a 9 or 12 for the skimmer or cls.

it really depends on the skimemr i'm gonna build. gonna go with 3" tube o nthe skimmer. so if it can be run with a mag 7, then i'll get a mag12 for the cls.

but the third pump is still up in the air.

 

[Tpeck]

Lookin good, I would also go with the bigger pump

 

[Reefer Addict]

Heheh... who'da thunk that reef tanks would be a babe magnet...

 

[georgiajams]

Dude, that is very elaborate. My only advice, and you've probably already thought of this, is that you need something to break siphon between your spraybar and the sump. Else, you're going to have water all over the place when the pump goes off.

I have a single spray bar at the back, bottom of my 120g tank. The return line comes in from the top, so I just drilled a small hole in the pipe near the surface of the tank. Once the water goes below this line the air hole allows the siphon to break and it stops dumping into my sump.

 

[thefatman]

thanks georgiajams. howeveri wont need a siphon break.

this isnt goign to be on my return pump. it's on a cls.

my water wil lexit through a hole centered in the back of my tank, into the pump, then return thorugh another centered hole, lower in the tank, straight into the spray bar setup.

so it's a true cls. if the pump dies or whatever, the water is still contained within the pump and plumbing lines. no worries about a flood.

but, thanks for the heads up jsut in case it was for a return and i hadnt thought of it!

 

[georgiajams]

Ohhhhh. My bad. I thought that was your return. You're right, you should be all set as a CLS.

 

[ReefDave]

I am looking at this and a bit confused...it looks like a couple of those outlets will be feeding from the "front" of the tank......I am still tossing the idea of something like this around, (just buying another mag) but I don't know yet........how you gonna hide those outlets?

 

[ReefDave]

Oh by the way...carefull pulling all that water out of the pond, remember you gotta add salt now or your auto top off will delute it badly

 

[SouthernReefer]

looks great, jay! can't wait to see it in the tank when its all set up!

 

[Joel]

I can't wait to not see it when the tank is set up. That is a lot of pvc to hide Jay. Looks good though.

 

[thefatman]

well it looks like it's really tall, because it wasn't glued together yet. but now that i i'm in the middle of gluing (had to get out, fumes were killing me) it's only about 5 3/4" tall. i'm putting it 200-250 pounds of southdown, which should give me 5 - 5 1/2" sand bed, which will cover everything except the tips of the outlets.

then the only thing that will be above the sand bed will be the arches that will support the rocks for the cave structure

i noticed somehting funny when i was gluing it together...

during my test the two front outlets only had a light stream coming out, but weren't shooting out like the others. which seemed odd to me, since htey are the closest outlets to the inlet from the pump..

then upon taking it apart and getting ready for glue, i found the problem, there was a nickle lodged inside the cross!!!! when i bought the fittings i threw them and my change in the bag. well one of the nickles found itself inside the cross :funny:

here is a closeup.

 

[125G's]

i THINK a girl in the plumbign dept was hitting on me today, but i'm not sure..

If you aren't sure you've either been married too long or dateless for too long!!!

Of course I'd better be careful with what I'm saying... I've been single and dateless for so long that I wouldn't know a come on if it weren't printed in triplicate

Seriously, a couple of things. I'd go Mag 9 if possible. I own a Mag7 and while it's a great pump I doubt it will push the volume with the pressure required to produce the desired current.

Are you going with a reef or is this going to be a FOWLR?

Have you considered having this "assembly" split into two separate sections and adding a scwd so that you can get some wave action?

Are you going to leave the jets unglued so you can change the directions should you feel it's necessary?

Phil

 

[thefatman]

phil... umm well lets see.. been divorced for 7 years so it cant be that....i havent had a date sincei went on my state funded vacation back in february of 2002. .so its been almost a year and a half sicne i been on a date i think you might be on to something lol

i'd like to go mag 9, provided the mag 7 will be able to push my skimmer, it will be made using 3" pipe.

this is definitly going to be a reef.

actually i had thoguht about putting in a scwd, but i only have one return hole in the back of the tank. i could put a scwd in the center of the config. but it owould be buried under the sand and rock. nto sure how long scwd's last or how often they need cleaned/serviced etc.. it would suck to put it in there, and then have it get clogged up and not work.

yes the 45deg elbows will be loose. the endcaps are glued in place, and hte pvc that the elbow attaches too is glued. but the 45's are loose that way they can be moved/redirected acording to how the rock is setup and where the flow is needed.

jay

 

[mojoreef]

YOu know Jay if You kept that on the deck...and then kinda stood in the middle of one of the squares....It would make a real neat shower....or maybe a bedae....Hehehehehe

 

[thefatman]

i kinda like the bedae idea

 

[thefatman]

CAPTAIN IMPATIENT STRIKES AGAIN!!!!!!!

yes yes that would be me

i built that CLS while the tanks were at the shop being drilled. and of course over the weekend, i glued it all back together. well today i picked up the tanks and guess what.. it doesnt fit!!!!

i had the outline of the tank on the stand, so that's what i worked from. but i forgot to take into account, the tank trim, adn the glass thickness. the cls is about 3/4" too big from front to back

but i used my handy dandy new miter saw that i got for christmas, and cut off the two ends, just have to insert a few couplers and four new elbows, and all will be fixed

i already chopped off the parts that needed chopping, goign to hd tomorrow to pick up new elbows and couplers, and that will finally be done, the right size lol

ordered my bulkheads tongiht too so those should be here before the weekend is over.

also, i was goign to use a mag 7 on this, but everyone said it may be too small, and now casey's ag 7 went out so he will be using the one i was goign to buy, so it looks like i will go with a bigger pump?

think a mag 9.5 will cut it, or should i go even bigger? the pump will sit right next to the tank, in the cabinet unit, so it wont have a lot of vertical head pressure, only left right head pressure, which is significantly lower.