270g Starphire build thread (pic intensive) (1 Viewer)

[morty]

Ok here is the build thread for my 270g starphire tank. I'm a gadget loving type, and sometimes (ok usually) a perfectionist. I get as much enjoyment out of building and tweaking the system as I do out of just sitting and watching the end product. I've seen relatively simple setups that have produced better results than I'll probably ever realize, but I sort of like complexity.

I moved into a new house in '05 and I was able to tell the cabinet mfgr what I wanted for an aquarium stand. It was built next to a basement bar, sort of partially backed up under a stairway. They built the stand and canopy to the specs I gave them, everything else was diy. I wanted to design the system so that was relatively easy get access to all parts of the tank in case emergencies came up, or if I wanted to move things around without it being a major pita. I find that if something is easier to do, I am more likely to do it. (I had a 180g in the past and I did a woeful job of designing the hood for it. Working on that tank stunk.)

I contacted a tank mfgr in NJ called Aquariums For You and had them build me a tank. Stay away from them. I found out afterwards they were overpriced and they were poor communicators. They didn't inform me that the tank would be built with vertical corner bracing glass strips, I had to learn about that as I uncrated the tank at my home.:mad_3: They were ugly and would get uglier as the tank aged because it would be very tough to clean algae off of them. The strips had to go. I decided to cut the tank apart with razor blades, clean off all the old silicon, and re-glue it with out the overkill bracing in place. (I consulted other tank mfgrs and some experienced TCMAS members who reassured me it would be ok to do this.) I reassembled it in an open-top design for better access and light penetration. (Thanks to Casey, Troy, Fritz, Rain, and Li on the glueup! )

Here's the tank after gluing it back together ▼

And this photo shows how I glued the overflows in place ▼

After letting the glue set up for a few weeks, I moved it into place with the help of a few people (including Kevin and Paul, thanks! ) Pics of the whole setup are below. Dimensions are 72L x 36W x 24H.

view from front-left ▼

view from behind bar ▼

view from front-right ▼

this shows how the canopy doors open up ▼

 

[morty]

Lighting

The lighting is most intense on the left end, for sps, and less intense on the right end (softies, zoas etc).
Starting from the left is a 22" actinic T5, a 400W DE pendant (IceCap 10K), a 250W DE pendant (Pheonix 14K) and two 17" 96W Coralife PC retrofits. Four 96W VHOs (two 50/50, two actinic) run lengthwise. I plan to change them to 46" T5s in a dimmable configuration. I want to have a dawn/dusk effect with the long florescents but I haven't had good luck getting the VHOs to dim smoothly.

view looking up from the left end ▼

I made fixtures out of plexiglas for holding the T5 and VHOs, and a plywood frame for the PCs. They are suspended from chains, and they can be lifted and hung higher up when I'm working in the tank. The first pic is with the lights down, the second up. ▼

The T5 and VHOs can also be completely removed for even better tank access, and for changing the bulbs. I used 4-pin DIN connectors to connect them to the ballasts. Note: See edit below. Here are pics of the fixtures. ▼

EDIT 2/21/08: The DIN connectors seen on my fluorescent fixtures are actually designed for A/V (low voltage) applications, and although they are working in my setup, this is not a recommended connector for high voltage applications. The following link shows some Switchcraft connectors (available at Mouser) that would be a more appropriate choice:

http://www.mouser.com/catalog/633/1257.pdf


This is a pic of the moon bulb that I added. It's an incandescent black light. It's driven by an X10 lamp module and controlled by an AquaController III which varies its intensity with the moon phase. I like using incandescents because they make a shimmer effect and IIRC their color temp is close to real moonlight. Edit: Turns out natural moonlight is about 4100K, and incandescent is about 2700K, but the "blacklight" coating may help filter the longer wavelengths and the resulting light looks very moon-like. This is a 75W bulb which is too bright. I tried using a dimmer between the bulb and the lamp module but it made the module flicker. I think I will switch to an un-dimmed 25W bulb. ▼

 

[morty]

This shows some fold-out stairs that I made so I wouldn't have to move a step ladder around when working in the tank. (The the tank is at standard bar height, so the bottom of the canopy door openings are 68" off the floor.)▼

The steps fold flat so the cabinet doors can close (left side), or they quickly pop out for sump access (right side).▼

 

[morty]

This shows the return lines from the sump to the display. I decided to run the main return lines under the live rock. I thought this would help minimize detritus buildup under the LR and also keep the water more evenly mixed (because the water flows out at the top). The horizontal spray bar between the overflows adds a little more water movement, but is mainly there as a siphon-break. ▼

The bottom of the tank is covered by egg crate to prevent the LR base pieces from slipping/skidding sideways. After the LR is put in the tank I will add a shallow sand bed of Carib Sea special grade aragonite sand, 1 to 1-1/2". I think the egg crate will also help keep it from drifting around too much. It was probably overkill, but I cut notches in the egg crate walls using a tablesaw. The notched side will be against the tank bottom. This allows all the egg crate compartments to not be isolated from each other, so microscopic critters can migrate around in the SSB a little better. This pic shows the notches. ▼

This diagram shows how I plan to aquascape the display ▼

 

[morty]

Here is a pic of the sump I built from 3/8" acrylic (thanks to Li for the assist! ) Total volume is about 90g. It's sort of L-shaped, to add a little volume and make working with it from the utility room side a little easier. (Other pics will make this more clear.) I elected not to use eurobracing, I can live with a little bowing. Back left chamber is the bubble tower, there is a lid that goes onto it that the return pipes pass thru. The temp, pH, and ORP probes also go into this chamber, so they're monitoring the conditions that come from the tank, not sump water. I built a rack that protects the probe tips from bubbles. The large chamber on the left is the skimmer chamber. Also a bulkhead attaches here that goes to pumps for the chiller/fuge and ozone gas reactor. Note the middle baffle does not go all the way across. There is a removable panel that completes the baffle. This is to allow me to insert a different cross-panel, to make a temporary chamber for a diatom filter (which attaches to the bulkhead holes). This will be explained later in more detail. The bulkhead hole on the right goes to the Dart return pump. (It was later enlarged to accommodate a 1-1/2" bulkhead) ▼

This shows the removable baffle panel. ▼

Here is a view of the sump in place, from the front side (steps removed). ▼

This is a closer view of the left side, showing the UV sterilizer (36W turbo-twist fed by OR2500) and return pump (Dart). I like this particular sterilizer because they're easy to open/clean, and bulb replacement is easier than DE bulbs. The twist fins inside do not increase dwell time (as the marketers would have you believe) but they do mix the water better and allow for more even UV irradiation. ▼

I added a 4-pin DIN disconnect to the sterilizer's bulb cord to make it easier to remove the sterilizer for maintenence. ▼

Here is a view of the tank and sump from the utility room. This shows the tank plumbing: drains to the sump, the closed-loop lines (going to the OceansMotions 4-way) and the return line. (The plumbing against the right wall is house plumbing.) The doors on the canopy are open in this pic, so you're actually seeing into the room on the other side. (The bright light in the photo is the sun reflecting off a pond in my back yard, and the spottiness on the tank is water spattered on the glass.) The ballasts and ACIII are on the right wall. ▼

Also, I built a platform that I can put in place and stand on if I need to access the tank/lighting from behind. ▼

 

[morty]

There are two weirs/overflows draining to the sump, here is a pic of just the corner overflow and drain line (as well as two of the CL lines). Note that there are actually two drain lines coming from this particular overflow. The larger (2") pipe is an emergency drain and is normally dry, unless the tank water gets too high -- then water will run down it to the sump (It has its own standpipe which you can see in the overflow chamber). Originally the tank did not have this extra bulkhead hole, but I added it later, and here's why. When I first started running water through the system to test it out, I did not like how loud the trickling noise was of air/water passing thru the drain lines. (Not to be confused with gurgling, which I got rid of by using Durso standpipes.) I could really hear this trickling from the viewing room. It sounded like the noise PVC sewer pipes make when someone flushes a toilet upstairs, except continuous. I read a thread on RC about how someone put gate valves at the end of their drain lines, and this allowed the water to "back up" to their display overflows and not allow any air to be mixed in the drain line, so it was virtually silent. Problem is, if anything gets into the line and clogs the valve, the tank will overflow, so you need the emergency pipe. The display tank had alread been placed on the stand when I decided to add the hole for the emergency drain bulkhead. So, I had to drill a hole for a 2" bulkhead with the tank in place. It wasn't easy, but let it be known that if somebody needs to drill a hole into a vertical glass surface, I can help. ▼

Here is a view of where the drain lines enter the sump. The larger line on the left is the emergency line, and the lines with the valves connect to the bulkheads at the bottom of the display overflows. (You can also see the temp probes from the ACIII and the Ranco heater controller, as well as the holes for the pH and ORP probes.) ▼

This is a view of one of the strainers I put on the elbows inside the overflows, that connect to the normal drain lines. This helps keep anything too large from getting into the drains and clogging the valves. They're just plastic shower drain covers. ▼

 

[morty]

This is a view of the ACIII, DC8, and ballasts. The bunch of wires at the top was part of the VHO dimming circuit, which I decided not to use. The dimmer/knob at the lower left was for the moon bulb, but I will probably get rid of it. ▼

This mainly shows the control circuitry for other pumps and devices. I added a Neptune PX1000, so I can monitor the status of several float switches, as well as the temp/pH of mixing SW in a Brute can. The black box with the speaker connectors is the break-out box I made for the PX1000's digital inputs. It allows me to easily swap out/modify the float switches and other connections. I built a plexiglax "spash guard" box to cover most of the electrical connections, because they're relatively close to the display and below the waterline. ▼

This just shows the door open on the splash guard. ▼

These are the float switches for detecting sump water level. The middle one is the topoff on/off switch. The highest one detects if the level is too high (like in case the topoff malfunctions) and the bottom one detects if the level is too low, in case something springs a leak. The top and bottom switches are linked to an alarm and emergency email system. ▼

Here are the switches in place in the sump. ▼

This is the display tank level sensor, which shuts things down if the display gets too low, and sounds an alarm. I may have to build a small case for it, to keep snails off of it which would weigh it down. ▼

This shows the kalk reactor and the Ca+ reactor. I sort of skimped on the Coralife reactor, but I haven't heard anything too bad about it, other than it's a little flimsy, and they say it's rated for 500g, which in reality means it's about right for my 270g tank . The 3-way solenoid valve at the top of the pic is a bypass for the kalk reactor. If the tank pH is below 8.4, then RO/DI topoff is routed thru the reactor. If the tank pH is over 8.4, then the topoff is straight RO/DI. ▼

Here is the tube holder I made for the Ca+ reactor effluent, kalk reactor outlet, and RO/DI outlet. The tube in the back is the supply line to the Ca+ reactor (reflections are confusing, and the wood block is between the tank stand and sump to keep the sump from bowing). ▼

This is the RO/DI topoff reservoir. I learned that each time an RO filter is pressurized, the first cup or so of water to come out contains a high amount of TDS, which the DI filters must then deal with. So, if I were to connect my topoff directly to my RO/DI filter, it would cycle on/off several times a day, and use up my DI resins too quickly. Instead, I got an idea from Weatherson's TOTM article on RC. He made a separate reservoir for his topoff water. His reservoir fills thru a valve housed in a special chamber inside the reservoir. When the reservoir is full, the valve closes. However, as the reservoir drains via topoff dosings, the water level inside the special chamber still remains high and keeps the valve closed. The valve does not upen until the water level in the reservoir gets near the bottom and allows a large bubble up into the chamber. Then the valve finally reopens and the reservoir refills. So the RO/DI filter is not cycling all the time, instead just one time, when the reservoir is almost empty, at which point it refills the reservoir completely. There is a good picture of how it works on the TOTM thread here. ▼

This is a closer view of my reservoir valve chamber. I had trouble getting a mechanical valve to work properly, so I chose to use a float switch/solenoid combo instead. ▼

This is the topoff peristaltic pump, from APT (thanks for the source tip, David G!) ▼

 

[morty]

This is the ozone/gas reactor (towards the back). They're also called hyperbaric reactors. This is one I bought about 10 years ago from Filtronics. Water is pumped into it and the water trickles over bio balls. It has an outlet valve that is slightly closed so the chamber becomes under pressure. Also, air/ozone is pumped in at the top and this pushes the water level to the bottom. The pressure in the chamber plus the water trickling down the bio balls supersaturates the water with air/ozone. (Every few moments a puff of air from the chamber is also released.) The tube filled with blue beads is the air dryer for the ozone generator. The 3-way solenoid valve at the top of the picture is a bypass for the air dryer/ozone generator. I installed a relay in the generator that opens whenever the generator is not producing ozone, and the relay connects to the PX1000. This lets the ACIII trigger the solenoid and bypass the air dryer/generator, so the beads don't get used up when the generator is not active (note that the air pump is always running and air is constantly being pumped into the reactor whether the generator is running or not). ▼

To neutralize the ozone in the water, and absorb the ozone in the air outlet, I built this carbon filter. (The reactor's air outlet line is going in the top.)
▼

The carbon filter has a screen at the bottom to hold the carbon in. ▼

This view shows the plumbing/loops for the gas reactor, chiller, and refugium. (I moved the CO2 tank out of the way for this shot.) A Velocity T2 supplies the gas reactor, and a T4 supplies the chiller and refugium. The refugium has a similar gate valve/emergency drain arrangement as the display tank, but I may change it to just use a standard drain with a Durso standpipe. All components are plumbed with single union ball valves, so anything can be removed/serviced without having to shut anything else down. ▼

 

[REEFSTOCK]

:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:



I just want to say.....


bah, Never mind....


:bow: :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

 

[morty]

Here is another pic of the back of the tank. The OM 4-way is at the bottom. I wanted to minimize the distances that water traveled thru the CL piping, so I mounted the CL pump under the tank with its output going directly into the 4-way. Also, I went with 1-1/2" pipe on the CL to minimize pipe friction loss. The supply line to the CL pump comes from the bulkhead between the two single union ball valves (middle right). ▼

This is a view showing the Dart CL pump hung underneath the tank stand. ▼

The pump is mounted to a piece of wood, and the eye bolts that attach the wood to the suspension chains are insulated by foam rubber to help minimize vibration noise. ▼

This is the inlet strainer arrangement I made for the CL pump. I wanted at least three spaced apart strainers so if something (like an animal) got stuck to one of them it wouldn't clog the inlet too much, and the suction wouldn't be so strong that the animal couldn't escape. ▼

These pics show how the CL lines are run to the corners of the tank. I used OM Omni-flex nozzles for outlets. (Note the florescent fixtures are removed in these photos) View from right end: ▼

From left end: ▼

 

[REEFSTOCK]

hey, the one sided union gatevalve in the bottom left of the last picture... what do you think about it? I'm worried about them holding up long term, but they are a decent price....
Also looking into knife valves.

 

[morty]

These are the connectors used to attach the Ocean Clear filter. ▼

This is a photo of the filter unit in place. One connection goes to the inlet of a Coralife Turbo-sea 1740-P pump, which pumps thru the Ocean Clear filter and back into the sump. This is a high volume pressure-rated pump that actually outpaces my return pump. So, when it's in operation, it is actually pushing water backwards over the baffle that's between its inlet and outlet. This means that 100% of the water draining from the display, and being pumped back into the display, is passing thru this filter. I intend to use this filter every few water changes, when I will "dust" off all the LR as well as stir up the SSB with a small jet of water on a wand extension, sort of like a tree/bug sprayer. This will get a lot of accumulated detritus "water-borne", and then filtered out by this unit. ▼

With pleated filters like this, I also like to use diatom powder. This polishes the water big-time. But in order to properly coat the filter with diatom powder, it is best to add the powder while the filter is running, and keep it running. This could not be done unless it was possible to temporarily isolate the water running thru the filter, because otherwise diatom powder would flow into the display. This is where the removable partitions in the sump are used. The baffle partition is being removed in this pic: ▼

And the temporary chamber partition is being put in place here: ▼

So now, with the filter running (which it actually isn't in this pic) I would add a couple tbsps of diatom powder to the partitioned chamber, which will circulate thru the filter until the pleated filter is coated. Then I just keep the pump running, and put the baffle partition back in place. I can then go about stirring up any detritus, which should be taken out by the filter after a few hours. ▼

 

[REEFSTOCK]

Sshazam. Everthing looks so clean and thought out!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[morty]

So that's about it for right now!:biggrin: The tank is about half full of RO/DI, and I will mix the SW next week, and begin aquascaping! At that time I'll put up a few more pics, showing the skimmer in place and the way the tank looks fully lit.

 

[morty]

Thanks Fritz!

Yeah, the gate valves are sort of cheapies, they may require periodic removal and a soak in vinegar. Every once in a while I will open and close them a few time to scrape off any gunk that builds up. The main one I have to worry about is the one that goes to the CL pump inlet, cause it'll be hard to get that one out without making a mess. I'd have to put some sort of plug in its bulkhead.

 

[MPH]

ummm, what? Looks awesome and yes you are a perfectionist. I can't wait to see more pics. :bow: :bln-wow: If and when I get back in my system will be a lot smaller and simplistic even though I also dig gadgets.

 

[oyam123]

Nice to have the tank in a location that you can enjoy 24/7!
Super Job

 

[Sizzlersonthebrain]

WOW! i NEED TO SEE THIS ONE!

 

[RogersCG]

Absolutely stunning...

Got any plans or details on the folding stairs? I'd love to do that for the smaller children in the neighborhood for my tank...

Chris

 

[Otolith]

Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!