415 Gallon Plywood Tank Build

[acrylic51]

Quick shot of the plumbing going on in the overflow......Only the middle pipe will have a valve. The only valve needed to tune/adjust the system......Planning to run Flex PVC down the the sump connections......Easier to work with than traditional rigid PVC.

Shut off valves installed on the CL drains/supply.....Those are 2" tru union gate valves.....

A shot of the CL again from looking into the fish room. You can see the shavings from drilling the holes in the euro bracing for 2 of the sump returns.....There are a total of 4 returns from the sump back to the tank.....

 

[al&burke]

Looking good my friend.

 

[acrylic51]

Sump is drilled for the bulkhead for the return pump. The suction side of the Reeflo Snapper/Dart Hybrid is 2", so all the plumbing to the pump is 2". Everything is temporary mocked up for dry fitting.

Another shot of the pump/tru union ball valve mocked up into place. Kind of hard to see in this shot, but the pump is sitting on a vibration pad to try to minimize any vibration or noise. The pads are quite thick IMO.......I'm considering making a cradle of some sort out of acrylic to support the run of plumbing. Feels solid, but there is a bit of weight involved in the plumbing and then factoring in water weight????? Considering some type of support on the plumbing being it's supported solely from the pump suction and the sump bulkhead. Anyone have any thoughts, ideas, input?????

Here's a quick shot of the plumbing somewhat complete......Takes me a bit, I'm being rather meticulous. All the plumbing if you haven't noticed by now is being painted black.....All bulkheads and valves will be the grey sched 80 color.........I could have; probably should have, but couldn't resist the color of the Cepex valves. Honestly after handling them worth the extra money IMO......Still haven't done any work yet as far as creating support/cradle for the plumbing........

 

[al&burke]

Shawn it looks fantastic - I was just about to comment on the black pipes, how do you find the Cepex Valves. Shawn in terms of supporting the plumbing I would maybe try to crazy glue just a straight piece on the pipe and tee off on the bottom and put some screws to fasten to the wooden stand or floor.

 

[acrylic51]

Thanks Al!!!!!! The black pipes........

That's honestly consuming a good portion of time doing the pluming......I had thought about using the sched 80 pipe, but was advised by a very reliable source on water flow that I should forgo the sched 80.......Just takes so much time taping off or covering threads or valves to avoid over spray......
The Cepex valves can be found a lot of places......I think USPlastics is 1 place I seen them, but I have been doing a bulk of my ordering from **************. Quick shipping is my biggest reason really......The place I ordered my FlexPVC from I will not order from again regardless.....

The nice thing about these valves is they come with the option to either use the threaded ends or to use the glue slip ends.....Also the wrench to adjust the valve if needed, and they can be rebuilt as well. Pricey, but nice options. Rather on the big/bulky side, but well built.
I had mentioned about black pipe............Here's a shot of the black FlexPVC I had to have that I waited for over a week, only for the shipment to arrive and find out that the valves to put the return lines into place are on back order..........

 

[acrylic51]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Al&Burke http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1240#post_3439935
Shawn it looks fantastic - I was just about to comment on the black pipes, how do you find the Cepex Valves. Shawn in terms of supporting the plumbing I would maybe try to crazy glue just a straight piece on the pipe and tee off on the bottom and put some screws to fasten to the wooden stand or floor.

Thanks Al....Your idea might be a little easier than what I was planning.....I had thought about taking some scrap acrylic and drilling it with my 2 1/2" holesaw bit and then cutting the circle in half, so basically having to 1/2's and then gluing connecting pieces between them to form a stand.....That way the pipe work would actually sit into a "cradle" more or less, but your idea seems easier.......

 

[2quills]

Looks good, Shawn. Where did you order the spaflex from, was it flexpvc. com?
Another idea to support the plumbing would be to simply stick some blocks or strips of wood under the pipe, screw it to the floor of the stand and then conduit clip it. I think they have conduit clips in 2", I know they have 1 1/2" for sure because I'm using them to support mine. Although, the other ideas would work just as well.

 

[acrylic51]

Thanks!!!! Yeah ordered from FlexPVC. I would have liked to know ahead of time about the valves though. The are shipping slip valves instead of threaded......

 

[acrylic51]

Thought this might be of some interest to you DIYers......I see a lot of people talking about building their own skimmers, cost, etc.....and this would be a more advantageous means to do so and save a little cash in the end as well.....

http://www.avastmarine.com/literature/CS1-Kit_manual.pdf
IMO a better option to building your own from scratch....takes the guess work and inefficiency out of the building process.......

 

[snakeblitz33]

I might be interested in trying that design. I was looking at an SC 150 with that same design for $120 shipped. I'll look into it. Thanks for the link!

 

[2quills]

Not a bad looking skimmer. I like the PSK 1000 option as well as the re-circ. option for it for the price. Looks like a rather small collection cup and I'm not crazy about the skimmate locker option. Would like to see a larger cup option available. Need more color options too. Worth a try for the price? Perhaps!

 

[snakeblitz33]

You know what's worth a shot to me? The SC150 Cone Skimmer... For $129.99 with an Atman 2500 pump... not bad.


Then again, I know your tank is much bigger then what this skimmer can do. I heard though that the company is coming out with a 300 model soon.

 

[acrylic51]

Yeah.....that "black pearl" skimmer caught my eye on RC and got curious and found the site.....You can buy them already built, but heck looks like it would be fun to build. I do like the pump choice, and have run recirc skimmers in the past, but really can't say if they are any more efficient run recirc vs conventionally........I'm with you on the skimmate locker. I think I'd have to pass on that option, but do like the option for the self cleaning head. That is one feature the skimmer will boast on the new setup for sure......I'm pretty sure though, that you could get them to cut the parts special order for a bigger collection cup. I'd like a bigger neck on the skimmer as well. They have an area for special requests, but not sure to the cost, but shouldn't be much IMO.....I do like the smoked body though!!!!!

Did you camera junkies happen to check out the "port holes".....Looks pretty neat for taking close up shots....

This is the longer of the 2.

The shorter port hole...

 

[acrylic51]

Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeBlitz33 http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1240#post_3443928
You know what's worth a shot to me? The SC150 Cone Skimmer... For $129.99 with an Atman 2500 pump... not bad.


Then again, I know your tank is much bigger then what this skimmer can do. I heard though that the company is coming out with a 300 model soon.
Good looking skimmate.....Is that the 1 you bought......Atman pumps are decent, but curious what their pump to air ratio figures would be.....What are the numbers the Atman is pulling on that skimmer Snake

 

[snakeblitz33]

Dang, sorry, when I read the thread the guy was using an Atman. That skimmer comes standard with a PH2000. The neat thing about this model is that they have a two-piece model which you can change the pump to ANY pump you want. One guy put a bubble blaster pump on it, another guy put a different pump on there that was pulling something like 1600lph of air...
Basically - the pump that comes with it is ok to use - but all you need to do to customize it is add a different pump and mess with the air intake. The PH2000 pump people modify their impellers with Enkamat to get finer bubbles... I've been researching this skimmer for a couple of days now - and for the $130 price tag I think it's worth giving it a try at least. If it doesn't work as well as it should, I could just switch the pump out for a better one and still be saving money!

 

[acrylic51]

Sounds like a winner honestly Snake.....I'm going to be calling on you an all the scrubber guru's.......Don't hide from me as well Corey and Al....I've seen both your designs and I'll be picking your brains as well shortly.......

 

[snakeblitz33]

Sure! I'll be happy to help!
I've used three different scrubber designs so far - all vertical scrubbers that aren't enclosed in Acrylic or built in a tote/aquarium. I can tell you this right now - the best design that I can think of right now would definitely be built inside an acrylic box, tote, or drilled aquarium. The salt spray must be contained, and the output pipe should be filtered... (IMOE, now.)
Scrubbers are freakin' awesome! But, I think they definitely need to be built in a container to control the water flow/spray.
I'm really liking Al's 10g scrubber right now. I'm thinking about how I could do one under my new stand.

 

[acrylic51]

Ok guys.....with that said and have went back and looked at Al & Corey's designs also looked at Floyds design over on RC as well, and need to be force fed the very basics at this point on scrubbers......From the onset I'll be totally honest, that my system will employ both a skimmer and scrubber. I do understand they will compete against each other, but feel both can work together IMO......With that said I'll start asking some specific questions. My question mark key on my laptop quit working so I'll be using *** when I'm asking a question.....Sorry guys, but priorities isn't a new laptop at this moment.......

1. How to properly size a screen for a system*****
2. Water flow requirements******
3. Lighting requirements***** Would honestly like to use LEDs in this area is that feasible******

 

[spanko]

So you have seen this yes?
http://www.algaescrubber.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1432

 

[2quills]

That's Bud's scrubber aka (floyd turbo) that he had mentioned. It's a kin to SM's scrubber design. And probably the better way to go in Shawns situation. For the larger tank size from what I understand is you'll want more horizontal width of screen rather than vertical.
Led's are definitely doable. SM used to be apposed to leds for scrubbers because there wasn't much testing done with them in the past. But more and more people are starting to run leds on their scrubbers and are finding they do an excellent job. Even the el cheapo grow light led panels that you can find on ebay for cheap seem to be producing just as good if not better growth than flourescents.
For me I've narrowed it down to 16 Osram Reds and 6 XP-E (yes xpe not g) neutral whites per panel. Reason being is that the XP-E neutral whites produce virtually the same spectral output as XP-G warm whites but with the benefit of a much higher peak in the blue range. So I'm not worried about adding any blue leds. Infact, just strait red leds seem to do really well just on their own.