415 Gallon Plywood Tank Build

[acrylic51]

Actually my biggest holdup right now is finishing the plumbing on the CL......Without those valves in place at this point water would be everywhere since I trashed the plugs I used for water testing. Hopefully I'll make some headway tonight and tomorrow, Sunday is out due to Mothers Day, and I'm off next Thursday, so hopefully I can start pumping water to the mixing vats by next weekend possibly......I do have to remove the original light racks over the tank as well, before I start filling the tank.....The move able light rack is getting totally redesigned.....

 

[2quills]

Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1620#post_3474021
Shoot......Anything can be moved!!!!!!
Was just thinking you could add some vertical supports to the stand roughly in the areas where the receptacle boxes are. So they'd rise strait up the back of the tank and then you could maybe use those conduit clips to clamp the pipes to the supports. Or something along those lines.

 

[acrylic51]

Evil minds do think along the same lines......I was considering vertical supports as well.....The only thing that stopped me at that point was getting the lines in line with the OM.....Not sure if that made any sense or not......

I understand what you mean about bring vertical supports down where the electrical boxes are, but I'm assuming I'd need to run a vertical piece across between the vertical supports to tie the valves to......

 

[2quills]

I'm not terribly sure. But I was definitely thinking there would have to be some type of vertical supports involved. Do you happen to have a full shot of the back of the tank? I might could get a better over all visual if I can picture where all of the plumbing needs to be ran.

 

[acrylic51]

Here's a quick video Corey of the back of the tank.....Not possible to get a FTS of the back of the tank...

 

[acrylic51]

Sorry Corey for no pics......The plumbing needs to come from the 4 bulkheads in the back of the tank to the 4 (white) fittings in the OM unit......

 

[2quills]

What is that up turned elbow with the union valve on the back of the tank for? And is that the center of the tank? Did Al ever make you a drawing of your set up?

 

[acrylic51]

The turned up elbow is another supply for a CL.....Not sure if I'm going to put the other CL into operation as of yet, but possibly down the road......The center of the tank is roughly where the CL and OM are located.....The supply (drains) for the CL are drilled mid way between top and bottom of the panel. Not sure if Al ever did a drawing of the back of the tank or not, will have to look through some stuff.

 

[acrylic51]

This is my crude drawing of the back of the tank.......Again the CL pump and OM are centered basically between the 2 CL supply bulkheads......

I think this was something Al had drawn up, but the location of the bottom bulkheads were moved inward as shown in the top pic and the overflow is on the opposite end.......

 

[acrylic51]

Been awhile since I did any type of update......Progress has been slow, but getting there.....Did work out the mounting issue for the CL plumbing along the back of the tank. After a lot of fabrication and scraping materials from failed attempts I did come up with a solution, but after completing the mounts I happened to stumble upon a thread elsewhere where someone did similar plumbing similar to mine, and used no supports at all, which was a bit of a comfort, but still feel better that my plumbing is secure and supported. Hopefully I'll get the camera out and take a few quick shots of the plumbing done on the CL.
I've also turned my attention to the plumbing of the skimmer....Being the skimmer is going to be run externally, I had to plumb the skimmer with a dedicated feed pump. The feed pump will feed the skimmer and a future frag tank as the system develops. Also part of the plumbing nightmare, I had to figure a way to get the drain water from the skimmer back to the sump as well. Through some trial and error I came up with a way to put a slight bend in the PVC pipe work to let gravity do the work as far as carrying the water back to the sump. Again pictures to follow at some point as well.
Also have been doing more and more reading and planning for the LED build.......Did a little checking on my drivers of choice again, and of course they are out of stock, so not a big deal, but hopefully won't be a long delay as before. I had mentioned a material to Corey that I've been considering using for my build. I would like to use this material for a track system on my light rack. Not entirely sure if this is the way to go, but some objectives with the light rack are that the lights themselves (heatsinks, leds) can be adjusted side to side and moved to get them into the exact location I see fit. Another piece I'm going to incorporate into the build are the tv mounts which I got from Corey on his LED build. I love the idea of being able to tilt the heatsink in any direction that it's needed......Any suggestions thoughts.......
Here's a pic of the material I'm considering using for the heat sink track work.

 

[spanko]

Motorize the light fixture on the track so that it travels across the rail from east to west over the course of the day simulating the moving sun, then back again with the night lights to simulate the movement of the moon.
Just sayin!!!!

 

[2quills]

That would be kinda neat. Shawn if you havent already try doing an image search for extruded alluminum profiles. There are tons of options out there for similar products.

 

[acrylic51]

Cool deal will have to check out more stuff!!!
As far as motorizing I had looked awhile ago at the light movers and honestly hated the look, but loved the concept. I've also looked at the circular movers as well. Henry how would you suggest using an alter mover slowed down to do this??? I understand about going east to west, but with it moving slowly at some point a portion of the tank would be unlit or dark???? That is what I've seen and don't like???? Suggestions!!!!

 

[spanko]

First off have a read here.
http://blogs.thatpetplace.com/thatfishblog/2008/06/30/the-use-of-light-rails-and-moving-aquarium-lighting-in-reef-aquariums/
I think the light and shadow to be more natural looking especially to the coral. You would probably have more spawning events that us normal folk with stationary lighting.
Lightrail products
http://www.lightrail3.com/
also go to the second thread link here
http://www.google.com/search?q=%3E+General+Interest+Forums+%3E+Lighting%2C+Filtration+%26+Other+EquipmentReload+this+Page+Light+Rail%2C+who+is+using+one&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-USfficial&client=firefox-a&channel=fflb#hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=PUJ&rls=org.mozilla:en-US%3Aofficial&channel=fflb&sclient=psy-ab&q=aquarium+light+rail%2C+who+is+using+one&oq=aquarium+light+rail%2C+who+is+using+one&gs_l=serp.3...3532.5916.6.7110.9.9.0.0.0.3.175.1298.0j9.9.0...0.0.AAWc748BtZk&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&fp=86fa095157477f71&biw=1280&bih=612

 

[acrylic51]

Thanks for the links Henry......ThatPetPlace is actually my LFS.....I see their coral tanks with the light movers and definitely hideous looking......6 or 7 years ago and even when I was building the plywood tank I had contemplated the circular mover.......This is my dislike with the units.......





As I said the shadowing or darkness is a major issue IMHO.......I understand the principle completely, but ascetically it's not appealing to the eye by any means.....Another suggestion I did find while googling was to supplement with T5's, and I have never used T5's and had no intention of running anything other than LEDs on the tank. I'm curious as well as I'd still be in the realm of using 4 units over the new tank anyway I guess some of the darknessshadowing could be reduced by the spacing between the units.......

 

[2quills]

I think if you really wanted to get a fade like that across the tank then just design something like 4 panels across the width of the tank and have them fire up and and go off in progression as well as ramp up and down in intensity. You could always supplement the shadow with a little bit of moonlight as the tank transitions into an evening viewing period. There were a couple of videos kicking around in the past of folks doing that with sol pendants I think. This way you wouldn't have any wasted light spilling outside of the tank or build a bulky rig. JAT

 

[acrylic51]

A bit of an update!!!!!! Talk about mad.....I finally worked out all the plumbing on the CL, and had the CL pump replaced due to a bad noise back in late January.....The pump has sat idle and has never seen water or power.....Finally get the tank filled (fresh water) to run a leak test on the CL plumbing, and upon flooding the pump with water the "new" pump leaks out the rear seal just as the Hybrid Snapper out of the box......To make it bad I immediately got on the phone with Reeflo and was advised rather quickly that they should refund my money.....She stated to me that I have foreign matter in my tank and restrictions......WTF!!!!!!!!

Restrictions my a$$.....I'm feeding the pump with 2" pipe, and what does restrictions have to do with flooding the volute with water and with no power applied to the pump it leaks out the rear down the shaft.......
On another note the CL does run very well would like a little more umph possibly, but I do have a leak at 1 of the bulkheads at the top of the tank....it's leaking out around the threads......The more I tighten the bulkhead the worse the leak gets.....I think I probably cracked it somehow, so looks like I'll be making an order today for the bulkheads....Still waiting on a reply/phone call from ThatPetPlace since that is where I bought the pump originally and returned the faulty pump as well.......

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1640#post_3481151
A bit of an update!!!!!! Talk about mad.....I finally worked out all the plumbing on the CL, and had the CL pump replaced due to a bad noise back in late January.....The pump has sat idle and has never seen water or power.....Finally get the tank filled (fresh water) to run a leak test on the CL plumbing, and upon flooding the pump with water the "new" pump leaks out the rear seal just as the Hybrid Snapper out of the box......To make it bad I immediately got on the phone with Reeflo and was advised rather quickly that they should refund my money.....She stated to me that I have foreign matter in my tank and restrictions......WTF!!!!!!!!

Restrictions my a$$.....I'm feeding the pump with 2" pipe, and what does restrictions have to do with flooding the volute with water and with no power applied to the pump it leaks out the rear down the shaft.......
On another note the CL does run very well would like a little more umph possibly, but I do have a leak at 1 of the bulkheads at the top of the tank....it's leaking out around the threads......The more I tighten the bulkhead the worse the leak gets.....I think I probably cracked it somehow, so looks like I'll be making an order today for the bulkheads....Still waiting on a reply/phone call from ThatPetPlace since that is where I bought the pump originally and returned the faulty pump as well.......
I hate that! We spend a ton of money on the equipment, and they want to get hard nosed about replacing a part...don't they have enough sense to know if they treated the customer right they would make so much more money from us on more equipment? Instead they worry about the cost of one pump and give us a hard time and risk losing our business.

 

[acrylic51]

Beth is SUPER to deal with, I just didn't care for the notion of just get your money back your pumps must not be suited for YOU........I've only exclusively used their pumps, and to insinuate that I have a restriction in my plumbing.......Your smoking crack......2" line feeding the pump and all I did was open the ball valve to let the water flow into the pump; cord still wrapped up at that time, and I hear water hitting the floor and look and see it running down the pump shaft......The bad thing is I had the issue with the Hybrid Snapper, and there was no surmising on their part just get the parts out to me.....She did offer to send me new seals for the pump, but it's the principle at this point, where I want to flow test the tank, and get my sand in..........
I did confirm that somehow, and I know I'm not that strong, but somehow putting the threaded elbow into the back of the bulkhead I did crack it.....I took the union apart and spun the bulkhead over and could confirm, because I used white teflon paste on all threaded fittings, and it was showing some paste, and running my fingernail across the area it catches....(I bite my fingernails, so I have none), so if I could catch the mark it's a definite.......

 

[flower]

Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1640#post_3481154
Beth is SUPER to deal with, I just didn't care for the notion of just get your money back your pumps must not be suited for YOU........I've only exclusively used their pumps, and to insinuate that I have a restriction in my plumbing.......Your smoking crack......2" line feeding the pump and all I did was open the ball valve to let the water flow into the pump; cord still wrapped up at that time, and I hear water hitting the floor and look and see it running down the pump shaft......The bad thing is I had the issue with the Hybrid Snapper, and there was no surmising on their part just get the parts out to me.....She did offer to send me new seals for the pump, but it's the principle at this point, where I want to flow test the tank, and get my sand in..........
I did confirm that somehow, and I know I'm not that strong, but somehow putting the threaded elbow into the back of the bulkhead I did crack it.....I took the union apart and spun the bulkhead over and could confirm, because I used white teflon paste on all threaded fittings, and it was showing some paste, and running my fingernail across the area it catches....(I bite my fingernails, so I have none), so if I could catch the mark it's a definite.......
LOL...superman, don't you know your own strength by now?