Project Fishroom underway for new 240 setup
- Thread starter acrylic51
- Start date
acrylic51
Active Member
Finally got the pieces to finish the plumbing of the sink in the filter room... God do I hate plumbing... Seems like it was almost impossible to find what I was looking for to just finish up the drain line today....Did get it together and leak tested it, and holy smokes no leaks...Maybe tomorrow I'll finish the supply lines and be able to post pics!!!!
areijin
Member
So I have a serious question: I saw that would made a glass "reef read" overflow, but how are you going to prevent you fish from jumping over??? I have an overflow hangon box with large grooves, which makes it stay about an inch above the water line. In the end my Wrasse jumped it twice and was luckly that it keep just enough water and room to let him live. I hope you have a plan or something.
I was playing with the idea of drilled one myself but the largest drill bit size I've seen was a half inch. Where did you get yours?
I was playing with the idea of drilled one myself but the largest drill bit size I've seen was a half inch. Where did you get yours?
acrylic51
Active Member
Thanks ManjiSan, Hughes07, Mkcsil18, and AREIGIN!!!!!
The tank was built by Glass Cages and Tom the owner of Glass Cages was easy to work with and helped me out along the way... Would definitely recommend buying your tank from him if your in the market... The tank is built with eurobracing which will allow you to forgo having the traditional cross bracing as on most tanks... My eurobracing is a little wider than most and is drilled to allow me to plumb my OM super easy without having to loop everything up over the rim of the tank... Just drop the line right through the hole and done.... Toms' tanks are built like "tanks".
I'm planning on building my own overflow covers out of acrylic...I have a tank currently that uses the same principle with no teeth on the overflow and haven't had any problems with fish getting pulled over or jumping. I do keep mostly Tangs, but have thought of that happening so I will be building the covers; just can't decide on the color of the back panel of the tank and would be the overflow covers to match accordingly... The back panel of the tank will either be aqua blue or black!!!! Still haven't decided on that as of yet either... Still to many other things to finish up before I turn my attention to the tank itself. I still need to do the drywall over the tank on the canopy and finish up sanding. I will give you guys a hint the canopy will feature to doors that will "flip up and slide back into the canopy over the lights to be totally out of the way"....
Will post more pics as project progresses!!!!!!
The tank was built by Glass Cages and Tom the owner of Glass Cages was easy to work with and helped me out along the way... Would definitely recommend buying your tank from him if your in the market... The tank is built with eurobracing which will allow you to forgo having the traditional cross bracing as on most tanks... My eurobracing is a little wider than most and is drilled to allow me to plumb my OM super easy without having to loop everything up over the rim of the tank... Just drop the line right through the hole and done.... Toms' tanks are built like "tanks".
I'm planning on building my own overflow covers out of acrylic...I have a tank currently that uses the same principle with no teeth on the overflow and haven't had any problems with fish getting pulled over or jumping. I do keep mostly Tangs, but have thought of that happening so I will be building the covers; just can't decide on the color of the back panel of the tank and would be the overflow covers to match accordingly... The back panel of the tank will either be aqua blue or black!!!! Still haven't decided on that as of yet either... Still to many other things to finish up before I turn my attention to the tank itself. I still need to do the drywall over the tank on the canopy and finish up sanding. I will give you guys a hint the canopy will feature to doors that will "flip up and slide back into the canopy over the lights to be totally out of the way"....
Will post more pics as project progresses!!!!!!
acrylic51
Active Member
Well after many, many months away from the fishroom due to 3 back surguries, 5 discs removed and hip boned fused in I'm finally starting to get around alittle better and starting to get moving again......
Since the layoff I had alot of time to sit and think about equipment choices and how things were going to be laid out.......Front canopy of the tank changed from hideaway doors to totally removeable front, still not built yet....I decided to change the front face of the stand from drywall to a wood finish.....I was tired of looking at the same design of basic inwall setups.....Due to bad planning (some) on my part I had to pull the plywood flooring up off the subfloor to run a dedicated 220 line for the 1HP chiller which sits out in the other part of the garage to keep everything cool.....
Equipment wise, stayed the same still going to run the Sequence HammerHead pump, 4 250W MH on dual PFO magnetic ballasts, bulb choice to start is XM 10k. After doing alot of study and research this bulb ballast combiation gives 1 of the highest PAR readings for SE bulbs. The change came into play when I swapped the standard MH reflectors for the new Lumenarc III mini reflectors......It was a real pain, due to having to cut the plywood base of top over the tank which is storage for ballasts and wiring on the back side of the room in the filter area.......it took some time, but was well worth the work.....Moonlighting is being handled by IceCap led unit....These units are super sweet, but wish the transformer portion could be slimmed down, but I'll deal with that......I'm also running 2 IceCap 660 ballasts to handle my VHO needs....I'm running 4 72" URI 03's......actually it's not URI anymore, but I still refer to the company as that.....
My entire system will be monitored by the Neptune AquaController Pro.....with (2) DC4HD's, and 1 DC8. The AquaController Pro monitors just about everything under the sun...the only downside is that you can't use the dimmable function on the controller for moonlights, which isn't a big deal, but no unit on the market right now has the feature.....The controller monitors, temp, PH, oxygen, conductivity, and ORP....it's also ethernet ready, and will send email alerts if things are out of range.....These units are so incredible and you can program them anyway you please.....Another draw back is that I can't hook my chiller up to the AquaContoller due to the chiller being 220, but the chiller has it's on GoldStar temp controller. As a safety measure for the chiller and most people don't due....Since I have more than enough pump I'm using my HammerHead to also feed my chiller so I have installed a flow switch inline to detect if there is no or dropped flow to the chiller which in turn will shut the chiller down protecting my $2,000 investment.....(
Wife doesn't know though!!!!!!! The AquaController also controls heaters, fans and other goodies......I'm also running a 65W AquaLogic UV sterilizer on the system as well....it has 2" in and out ports and has the wiper as well....At some point ozone will be added to the system and will be injected through the skimmer which was ordered with the optional ozone port ready to go.....
I finally made a decision on skimmers during the layoff
. It was a tough decision, but was torn between the ASM, EuroReef, and MRC.......I install tons of ASM's and Euro's, but it just wasn't enough juice for me.....I need a challenge and like to tinker......Needlewheel skimmers are fantastic, just I want raw skimming power and to be able to handle large volumes of water and the Beckett skimmer fits that need.....I chose the MRC 4R. The MRC 4R is a recirc skimmer which you don't see in any other beckett skimmers on the market today.....The recirc feature which is praised by needlewheel users will be utilized on my setup....the recirc feature allows the water to make numerous passes increasing the contact time and increasing the amount strip from the water.....The skimmer will be fed directly from 1 of the tanks overflows......The line leading from the drain line will have a flow meter on so I can easily adjust and have a pretty good idea what my flow rate is to maximize the efficiency of the skimmer....To fast a flow it's no good and vice versa........The nice thing about the MRC skimmers is that they can grow with your system.....If you upgrade you just call Andy at MRC and order a taller riser, and your back in business no learning curve with a new skimmer.......The taller riser tube increases the capacity of the skimmer.....The beckett skimmers are sometimes given a bad "rap" saying they need power hungry pumps to push the becketts and it's not true.....I've seen and personally run and installed becketts utilizing a MagDrive pump and do these guys foam......
The skimmer is however going to be pushed with a BlueLine HD70 to get the most out of the skimmer.......
Will post some pics as the work is completed shortly.......
Since the layoff I had alot of time to sit and think about equipment choices and how things were going to be laid out.......Front canopy of the tank changed from hideaway doors to totally removeable front, still not built yet....I decided to change the front face of the stand from drywall to a wood finish.....I was tired of looking at the same design of basic inwall setups.....Due to bad planning (some) on my part I had to pull the plywood flooring up off the subfloor to run a dedicated 220 line for the 1HP chiller which sits out in the other part of the garage to keep everything cool.....
Equipment wise, stayed the same still going to run the Sequence HammerHead pump, 4 250W MH on dual PFO magnetic ballasts, bulb choice to start is XM 10k. After doing alot of study and research this bulb ballast combiation gives 1 of the highest PAR readings for SE bulbs. The change came into play when I swapped the standard MH reflectors for the new Lumenarc III mini reflectors......It was a real pain, due to having to cut the plywood base of top over the tank which is storage for ballasts and wiring on the back side of the room in the filter area.......it took some time, but was well worth the work.....Moonlighting is being handled by IceCap led unit....These units are super sweet, but wish the transformer portion could be slimmed down, but I'll deal with that......I'm also running 2 IceCap 660 ballasts to handle my VHO needs....I'm running 4 72" URI 03's......actually it's not URI anymore, but I still refer to the company as that.....
My entire system will be monitored by the Neptune AquaController Pro.....with (2) DC4HD's, and 1 DC8. The AquaController Pro monitors just about everything under the sun...the only downside is that you can't use the dimmable function on the controller for moonlights, which isn't a big deal, but no unit on the market right now has the feature.....The controller monitors, temp, PH, oxygen, conductivity, and ORP....it's also ethernet ready, and will send email alerts if things are out of range.....These units are so incredible and you can program them anyway you please.....Another draw back is that I can't hook my chiller up to the AquaContoller due to the chiller being 220, but the chiller has it's on GoldStar temp controller. As a safety measure for the chiller and most people don't due....Since I have more than enough pump I'm using my HammerHead to also feed my chiller so I have installed a flow switch inline to detect if there is no or dropped flow to the chiller which in turn will shut the chiller down protecting my $2,000 investment.....(
I finally made a decision on skimmers during the layoff
Will post some pics as the work is completed shortly.......
acrylic51
Active Member
Progress has been slow as usually, but finally starting to get in it gear here are some update pics.........Room painted with first coat and front of tank not yet sanded or finished....haven't decided on stain choice yet.....Tile work well underway, glass door installed so I can stand in the kitchen and look at tank as well.......
acrylic51
Active Member
Pics of some of the workings behind the scenes in the filter room.....Excuse the mess still working.......pics of plumbing work for Closed Loop and lines running from overflow box along the wall over to sump/fuge rack system......Great detail is being taken to paint all PVC black
acrylic51
Active Member
Pics of some equipment in use....Lumenarc III reflectors, IceCap led moonlights, which I'm really impressed with the looks, URI VHO bulbs already mounted will show detail pic from fishroom of wiring involved overtop the tank.....Wire looming and tie offs almost complete......and finally a pic of flow meter
acrylic51
Active Member
Pics of my DIY RO/DI unit.....Started off years ago as a Kent unit, but through time and experimentation only thing Kent original now is 3 of the canisters......Membrane housing was upgraded that has the automatic shutoff built into the housing instead of having those bulky units off the side.....Flow restrictor was upgraded to 75gpd, don't care for the external flow restrictors and the new inline is inhouse just not concerned with putting it in place yet......Flush kit installed need to do some replumbing to tidy things up a bit......Did install booster pump from airwaterice, that has a adjustable pressure regulator, and prefilter as well, dual inline TDS meter, to monitor everything going in and out......I've been looking at the units by Spectrapure that dumps the initial water on startup until the water reaches 0 TDS.....this is a problem for all RO/DI units, that when they are shut off the water in the lines aren't pure and that water needs to be discarded before it enters your main water source.....Haven't gotten a price on the add on unit, but will definitely be an addition I make shortly to the unit......I also bought a gallonage counter for the RO/DI unit, which hasn't been installed yet, but I'm not super concerned with that, because the number your looking for is on your good output water TDS reading, but it's a little perk to know what type of gallonage range I can get out of the filters.........Please excuse the shape of the filters.....I'm still getting a TDS reading of "0" with an input of around 140.......
I ran water lines out to my filter room under the flooring to make hooking up the unit a snap........poor pictures though, but you can see some of the plumbing work below the sink area....you'll also notice the 2 "big" black lines running parallel under the sink? They are the feed lines going out to the chiller and back......On the feed line to the chiller is a "flow switch" that monitors or senses flow to the chiller. In the event the pump would go off line it would shut the chiller down to protect it.....The flow switch is wired between the chiller and the temp controller for the chiller......I added that safety device inline, because the AquaController units are capable of handling 220V, so I don't have a double safety in place and thought this was the next best thing.....Will post pics of flow switch and temp controller as time comes.....
I ran water lines out to my filter room under the flooring to make hooking up the unit a snap........poor pictures though, but you can see some of the plumbing work below the sink area....you'll also notice the 2 "big" black lines running parallel under the sink? They are the feed lines going out to the chiller and back......On the feed line to the chiller is a "flow switch" that monitors or senses flow to the chiller. In the event the pump would go off line it would shut the chiller down to protect it.....The flow switch is wired between the chiller and the temp controller for the chiller......I added that safety device inline, because the AquaController units are capable of handling 220V, so I don't have a double safety in place and thought this was the next best thing.....Will post pics of flow switch and temp controller as time comes.....
acrylic51
Active Member
Thank you!!!!! Thank God my wife supports my addiction.....She's not into all the technical stuff and loves to look at it and show off my work.....She always takes pics to work and stuff and shows off alot of my custom work.....It's a shame I don't get more time to spend on my own systems, but we have to pay the bills.......
tx reef
Active Member
My wife loves my tank, too. She doesn't mind me spending money as long as it is on something pretty. If I need to get expensive equipment, I just show her a nice coral and say "If I have this new piece of equipment, then we can get this." Works ever time.
She doesn't want anything to do with the maintanence or the technichal stuff. She just wants to look at it.
She doesn't want anything to do with the maintanence or the technichal stuff. She just wants to look at it.