415 Gallon Plywood Tank Build
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acrylic51
Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubeck http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1920#post_3513491
Wow that is super clean work Shawn. You need to be sure to take another pic once you have it full. Where will it be mounted in the fish room? I'm curious to,see how the power cords bend from the eb8? I can tell you that I have 2-eb8s and I'm using all the outlets. Not sure if you have any extra outlets?
As far as modules for the apex, I have the lunar module but am looking to get the salinity probe and module as well as the the led dimmer module if I switch out my kessils. Looking at the orp and the leak detection as well. Have you decided on lighting yet?
Thanks.......I'm getting anxious to get it full......
I should have the additional Eb8 in hand tomorrow, so that's 1 piece out of the way.....I will probably buy an additional Eb4 for the mixing area in the laundry room.....Not really a dire need or a must, since I can control the mixing pump from inside the filter room......Currently I should be good splitting the load up on the (2) Eb8's.....Figuring return pump, CL pump & OM on same outlet, heaters (2) and (2) skimmer pumps.....Going to run a special outlet for the skimmer pumps to put them on the same receptacle, so right now I'm looking at using a total of 5 of the 16 outlets.....Now once the lighting comes into play could theoretically use 8 just for lighting.....Might be pushing it, but I still have some spare room in the cabinet to add additional Eb's if needed......
The cabinet will be mounted on the 1 wall between my RO/DI unit and the tank........Being that's where I wanted to mount it, I wish I had originally planned for it and moved the RO/DI unit down on the other wall a bit more, but somehow things always seemed to get added into the mix.....The cords from the Eb8's are and will be a challenge.....I had originally made the box (X) deep and then when I had a fubar in my ability to read a tape measure and set my mounts to high the depth of the box had to change....Actually you'd be hard pressed to see where I actually added an 1" depth to the box.....I'm good at hiding my screw ups....only I know where the depth was added.......I needed to add the extra depth back due to once the cords are plugged in, it wouldn't allow the door to close right, so adding the 1" gives me a little "head room" per say. I'm thinking of tying them off with clamps, but that will be decided once I start laying things out.....But the plan is every cord will be neatly tied off and secured with a clamp....Excess cabling will be coiled and tied off underneath the access panels.....
I just bought the PM2 module from a guy off RC.....He bought it and didn't realize how expensive the salinity/conductivity probe was.....$70, brand new still in the original box as well.....Hopefully he ships it tomorrow......I might add another PM1 module, since there will be an addition frag tank being added to the system...... ORP probe is on the list as well.....I thought about the Lunar module as well, but I think I'm going to incorporate moonlights actually into my LED build itself.....
I called my buddies over at Grims Plastic and gave them the measurements I need for the frag tank acrylic.....Hopefully they'll call me tomorrow and say my material is cut.......
Originally Posted by Lubeck http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1920#post_3513491
Wow that is super clean work Shawn. You need to be sure to take another pic once you have it full. Where will it be mounted in the fish room? I'm curious to,see how the power cords bend from the eb8? I can tell you that I have 2-eb8s and I'm using all the outlets. Not sure if you have any extra outlets?
As far as modules for the apex, I have the lunar module but am looking to get the salinity probe and module as well as the the led dimmer module if I switch out my kessils. Looking at the orp and the leak detection as well. Have you decided on lighting yet?
Thanks.......I'm getting anxious to get it full......
The cabinet will be mounted on the 1 wall between my RO/DI unit and the tank........Being that's where I wanted to mount it, I wish I had originally planned for it and moved the RO/DI unit down on the other wall a bit more, but somehow things always seemed to get added into the mix.....The cords from the Eb8's are and will be a challenge.....I had originally made the box (X) deep and then when I had a fubar in my ability to read a tape measure and set my mounts to high the depth of the box had to change....Actually you'd be hard pressed to see where I actually added an 1" depth to the box.....I'm good at hiding my screw ups....only I know where the depth was added.......I needed to add the extra depth back due to once the cords are plugged in, it wouldn't allow the door to close right, so adding the 1" gives me a little "head room" per say. I'm thinking of tying them off with clamps, but that will be decided once I start laying things out.....But the plan is every cord will be neatly tied off and secured with a clamp....Excess cabling will be coiled and tied off underneath the access panels.....
I just bought the PM2 module from a guy off RC.....He bought it and didn't realize how expensive the salinity/conductivity probe was.....$70, brand new still in the original box as well.....Hopefully he ships it tomorrow......I might add another PM1 module, since there will be an addition frag tank being added to the system...... ORP probe is on the list as well.....I thought about the Lunar module as well, but I think I'm going to incorporate moonlights actually into my LED build itself.....
I called my buddies over at Grims Plastic and gave them the measurements I need for the frag tank acrylic.....Hopefully they'll call me tomorrow and say my material is cut.......
acrylic51
Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubeck http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1920#post_3513492
How much would you charge for one of those boxes? Seriously.
Honestly they aren't that bad to build.....All the "junk"(as my wife calls it in the garage) I usually have laying around.....The only thing I actually bought were the shocks....But I've been drooling and obsessing over these for quite a while......We'll talk.......We'll talk.......Hopefully you'll like the one I did for the side of the stand where my heater controllers will be housed......Being that the temp probes on the heater controllers are ridiculously short they couldn't be mounted with all my other electronics, so I came up with an ingenious idea to use an area where I had planned to house my Vortech controller and battery backup since the Vortech cable lengths suck IMO........
Here's a pic of my stand with the skin in place.....This is an older pic since the stand skin now is 90% polyurethaned. You can see I haven't put the doors on yet, but I have the doors made already for the stand, just need to be sanded, stained and poly applied to mount.
Anyways.....In the pic you can see I had bought the Vortech, and the area where the Vortech's are sitting is where 1 of the controllers was going to be mounted since their cords are short and won't reach to the other side of the tank.....Anyways, instead of the Vortechs I'm going Tunze, but in that area where their sitting I made an acrylic box which will sit in the open area there in the stand. It's a black acrylic box which will house my heater controllers, and then when the door is installed and in place you will never know the heater controllers are there.....Of course I will be putting a lock on the stand doors as well.......The heater controllers are mounted in a black acrylic box, and then I overlayed a black acrylic cover over top of the heater controllers. The top cover is routed out again to just show and access the face and controls for the heater.....I will have to get pics of the heater control panel for you tomorrow........
Originally Posted by Lubeck http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1920#post_3513492
How much would you charge for one of those boxes? Seriously.
Here's a pic of my stand with the skin in place.....This is an older pic since the stand skin now is 90% polyurethaned. You can see I haven't put the doors on yet, but I have the doors made already for the stand, just need to be sanded, stained and poly applied to mount.
Anyways.....In the pic you can see I had bought the Vortech, and the area where the Vortech's are sitting is where 1 of the controllers was going to be mounted since their cords are short and won't reach to the other side of the tank.....Anyways, instead of the Vortechs I'm going Tunze, but in that area where their sitting I made an acrylic box which will sit in the open area there in the stand. It's a black acrylic box which will house my heater controllers, and then when the door is installed and in place you will never know the heater controllers are there.....Of course I will be putting a lock on the stand doors as well.......The heater controllers are mounted in a black acrylic box, and then I overlayed a black acrylic cover over top of the heater controllers. The top cover is routed out again to just show and access the face and controls for the heater.....I will have to get pics of the heater control panel for you tomorrow........
acrylic51
Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubeck http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1940#post_3513498
That stand is killer. Incredible. So you don't have any scraps lying around for another box Shawn, come on I know you have some stashed away. Do you have a date or month when you plan to get water in that beast?
I just might have a secret stash........
Hmmmm a date....Well I'm really going to start pushing it here....I did a little calling around today for my Tunzes and the 6255's won't be available till mid to late March and even having issues coming up with my Tunze 6095's as well......Those 4 pieces are my hold.....
Originally Posted by Lubeck http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1940#post_3513498
That stand is killer. Incredible. So you don't have any scraps lying around for another box Shawn, come on I know you have some stashed away. Do you have a date or month when you plan to get water in that beast?
I just might have a secret stash........
Hmmmm a date....Well I'm really going to start pushing it here....I did a little calling around today for my Tunzes and the 6255's won't be available till mid to late March and even having issues coming up with my Tunze 6095's as well......Those 4 pieces are my hold.....
novahobbies
Well-Known Member
I agree, you don't really need your powers heads to start your cycle...do you?
acrylic51
Active Member
Not much to update lately....Been trying to get ready for my daughters' 21st birthday party here as of lately.....Trying to save money since she wants to go on a "road trip" as part of her birthday present.....Anyways been doing odds and ends and hopefully Sunday I'll be able to go full bore and make some progress......
Finally got the "control box" mounted in fish room......Still have to do the finish sanding on the door for the box itself and get it stained and poly applied, but shouldn't take super long......Need to do a final sanding on 2 of the stand pieces and a final poly coat on them as well....Everything is being hand rubbed out with 12,000 grit, so it takes a bit. A quick pic of the "control box" mounted, and the Apex controller pieces being mounted inside.....I still have to order a couple custom USB cables for the Apex. The Apex does come with USB cables, but they are a bit long for my application and I'd prefer to have the cord ends angled vs the straight ones supplied with the unit.....Not a big deal the originals will work till the replacements come in though.....
As I had mentioned before I'm attempting to hide as much cabling as possible from sight......Not many people care, but cords distract me for some reason and always seems to collect all kinds of junk on them as well.....You'll see in the pic the 2 gray conduit lines coming up from the bottom with all the cords draped over.......Those cords actually run from the stand itself, which has outlets strategically placed to plug in equipment and the final cords terminate here in the control box. The cords will be routed up behind the panel with the Apex display and such and then out and over to the Eb8's. The cords will then exit out the 2 larger holes on the left of the panel and get plugged into the Eb8. The 3 smaller holes will be used to route wiring from the Apex underneath and to the "brain" of the unit. I used the simple organizer hole kits you'll find on office desks....that way I can route the plugs through them and snap a cover over top to close them up......
The probe cables I'm not so much worried about concealing....they will be routed down from the "brain" and to the right, which has 2 smaller holes drilled in the side of the cabinet to allow the probes to be run over to the tank......You'll also see the gray conduit entering the top of the "control box".....This is wiring that is coming from the exhaust fan I finally installed in the fish room.....The exhaust fan will draw it's power from the Eb8 , but the humistat that will be connected to the Apex break out box will control when the fan actually comes on.....Basically the Apex will be programmed to sense through the break out box, when the room reaches a certain humidity to either turn the fan on and when it reaches desired level will shut the fan off.......The Apex break out box should be in house tomorrow after work......
Side note, I have bought 2 Tunze 6105's and just received them this evening......Very nice units IMO......I knew purchasing them that the magnets weren't up to the challenge of 1" thick material, but to my surprise they do hold through the 1" material, but not as strong as I want.....For comparison, they have about the same holding capacity IMO comparable to what my MP60's had......So with that said MP60's are designed to work through 1" and needed to be secured and Tunze only rated these magnets for 1/2"-3/4" I think......
Finally got the "control box" mounted in fish room......Still have to do the finish sanding on the door for the box itself and get it stained and poly applied, but shouldn't take super long......Need to do a final sanding on 2 of the stand pieces and a final poly coat on them as well....Everything is being hand rubbed out with 12,000 grit, so it takes a bit. A quick pic of the "control box" mounted, and the Apex controller pieces being mounted inside.....I still have to order a couple custom USB cables for the Apex. The Apex does come with USB cables, but they are a bit long for my application and I'd prefer to have the cord ends angled vs the straight ones supplied with the unit.....Not a big deal the originals will work till the replacements come in though.....
As I had mentioned before I'm attempting to hide as much cabling as possible from sight......Not many people care, but cords distract me for some reason and always seems to collect all kinds of junk on them as well.....You'll see in the pic the 2 gray conduit lines coming up from the bottom with all the cords draped over.......Those cords actually run from the stand itself, which has outlets strategically placed to plug in equipment and the final cords terminate here in the control box. The cords will be routed up behind the panel with the Apex display and such and then out and over to the Eb8's. The cords will then exit out the 2 larger holes on the left of the panel and get plugged into the Eb8. The 3 smaller holes will be used to route wiring from the Apex underneath and to the "brain" of the unit. I used the simple organizer hole kits you'll find on office desks....that way I can route the plugs through them and snap a cover over top to close them up......
The probe cables I'm not so much worried about concealing....they will be routed down from the "brain" and to the right, which has 2 smaller holes drilled in the side of the cabinet to allow the probes to be run over to the tank......You'll also see the gray conduit entering the top of the "control box".....This is wiring that is coming from the exhaust fan I finally installed in the fish room.....The exhaust fan will draw it's power from the Eb8 , but the humistat that will be connected to the Apex break out box will control when the fan actually comes on.....Basically the Apex will be programmed to sense through the break out box, when the room reaches a certain humidity to either turn the fan on and when it reaches desired level will shut the fan off.......The Apex break out box should be in house tomorrow after work......
Side note, I have bought 2 Tunze 6105's and just received them this evening......Very nice units IMO......I knew purchasing them that the magnets weren't up to the challenge of 1" thick material, but to my surprise they do hold through the 1" material, but not as strong as I want.....For comparison, they have about the same holding capacity IMO comparable to what my MP60's had......So with that said MP60's are designed to work through 1" and needed to be secured and Tunze only rated these magnets for 1/2"-3/4" I think......
acrylic51
Active Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by Al&Burke http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1940#post_3515317
Looks great Shawn, running all your cable in a conduit how do you remove something if you need to clean it or do maintenance on it?
Thanks Al.......Running the cables through conduit isn't an issue with removing something......Basically the main hard wiring is run through the conduit.......
As you can see Al I strategically placed outlets on the stand that will allow me to easily run the power cords from pumps and such to the outlets, and in the picture you can see that the outlets are then connected and the wiring run through conduit.....
On the back side of the stand I have 4 separate outlets and the wiring runs around the middle of the stand and runs over to this point, and then there is a junction box which the actual black power cords you see in the earlier picture gets connected to the wiring from the outlets on the stand.......Really there would never be a need to remove the power wires from the conduit......The wiring I ran across the ceiling from the exhaust fan and the humistat wouldn't need to be removed as well.....All permanent wiring....Just didn't think far enough during the initial build of the fish room to incorporate that......All the things you think of later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All the electrical connections are made inside the junction boxes.....Easily to remove cabling if needed......
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubeck http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1940#post_3515313
Nice job Shawn. It looks so clean. So your daughters b-day is coming up? Is it that cute gal you've had on your avatar all these years ?
Thanks Bob......No the daughter that is my avatar is my youngest.....She's actually 12 now......
Originally Posted by Al&Burke http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1940#post_3515317
Looks great Shawn, running all your cable in a conduit how do you remove something if you need to clean it or do maintenance on it?
Thanks Al.......Running the cables through conduit isn't an issue with removing something......Basically the main hard wiring is run through the conduit.......
As you can see Al I strategically placed outlets on the stand that will allow me to easily run the power cords from pumps and such to the outlets, and in the picture you can see that the outlets are then connected and the wiring run through conduit.....
On the back side of the stand I have 4 separate outlets and the wiring runs around the middle of the stand and runs over to this point, and then there is a junction box which the actual black power cords you see in the earlier picture gets connected to the wiring from the outlets on the stand.......Really there would never be a need to remove the power wires from the conduit......The wiring I ran across the ceiling from the exhaust fan and the humistat wouldn't need to be removed as well.....All permanent wiring....Just didn't think far enough during the initial build of the fish room to incorporate that......All the things you think of later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All the electrical connections are made inside the junction boxes.....Easily to remove cabling if needed......
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lubeck http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1940#post_3515313
Nice job Shawn. It looks so clean. So your daughters b-day is coming up? Is it that cute gal you've had on your avatar all these years ?
Thanks Bob......No the daughter that is my avatar is my youngest.....She's actually 12 now......
2quills
Well-Known Member
Quote:
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1940#post_3515388
Thanks Henry.....Health right now is mostly the obstacle......Honestly need a good day to put the plumbing back in place and she's ready.......
Feelin any better lately, bud? Beautiful family you got there.
Originally Posted by acrylic51 http:///t/376802/415-gallon-plywood-tank-build/1940#post_3515388
Thanks Henry.....Health right now is mostly the obstacle......Honestly need a good day to put the plumbing back in place and she's ready.......
Feelin any better lately, bud? Beautiful family you got there.