The 280 is finally going to get set up.. (1 Viewer)

[NorthSide Reef]

Worked on the top half of the divider today. As I mentioned I redid the first run at it. The access holes where way too high. I can almost touch bottom now with them moved down. and the tank still has to go on some plywood and Styrofoam so it will move up a bit. Add some sand and I should be able to reach pretty far down there.

The bottom half is just roughed in and clamped in place. I will still have to cut some plywood and Styrofoam. Plumb the tank and leak test it before I can finish the bottom half off.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Here is something pretty cool I think.

I ordered some rock from Marco Rocks. Wow I am impressed. I plan to attach this rock to the back of the tank and the left side wall. He precuts one side of it so it is flat. It's very cool not sure if these pictures will even do it justice. There is a lot more so I can do the whole back wall but I figured this will give you an idea of what I plan to do

Top side uncut

Bottom side very smooth and flat.

Very happy with how well these turned out.

 

[PengXiong]

I have a few of those from marco too. They're pretty nice... :beerchug:

 

[NorthSide Reef]

hmm well I forgot what I had that tank drilled to. I want to use 1" Schedule 80 bulkhead fittings for the closed loop returns but I guess I had it drilled for schedule 40. Hopefully I can do the old hole saw within a hole saw trick to drill them out big enough. I will have to give it a go tomorrow or Sunday time permitting. Don't have any that are the right size here.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

So finally had some time to work on the fishroom. One of the things holding me up was I needed to replace the old side by side washer and dryer with a pair of stackable units. They arrived Christmas eve so I was joking with my wife that they were her Christmas presents.. She didn't think it was too funny lol..

That let me move the wall out giving me a little more room for the fishroom. As it is the room is only 11'x8' so that extra space was huge.

a couple of more shots but it's pretty tough to get good photos because the space is so small. I will be working on getting all the nailers in place for the ceiling sheetrock this weekend

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Also, What type of Styrofoam are you guys using under your acrylic tanks?

Was at HD today and was really not sure what I should get.

 

[Taklu]

nice water mixing station, never thought of that :gay1:; The white styro in 1/2" is what some of the reputed custom glass tank builders recommend. but I've seen folks use the "pink" styro under acrylic and glass tanks. I'm using the 3/4" version under my glass tank

 

[NorthSide Reef]

guess I could put the old side by side back up in the garage I'm sure she'll understand the new set has a higher purpose :biggrin:

OK cool, just plane ole white styro. Thank You.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

I have some white Styrofoam in the shop but it is in smaller sections would there be a problem if I tapped that up with duct tape into the size I need?

 

[Taklu]

It should be ok as long as they are all the exact same thickness and they are all supported by a ply or something flat under them. but thats just me..I can be frugal at times I'm sure there's more experience and thoughts out there

 

[NorthSide Reef]

yeah, it's all the same size and will be sitting on two sheets of 3/4" plywood. I have a bunch of the stuff sitting there and no reason to buy a 4'x8' chunk of it and then try to figure out how I am going to get it home if I don't have to.

Thanks Taklu

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Well, it has been forever since I updated this thread. My free time has been pretty hard to come by and there is just a lot more to this build than I thought.

The fishroom is almost done, the insulation, sheetrock, wiring and painting is complete. Still to do is finish the stuff around the tank.

I think I left off around here:

The fishroom now looks like this:

I had some help cleaning the tank

The tank is plumbed and tested, found a couple small leaks that still need to be addressed.

The back wall is plumbed through an Ocean Motions via a closed loop.

The main return is a Reeflo Hammerhead, it will need to move water all the way to the top of the equipment shed above the tank. It currently is way too much as just a return to the main tank and needed to be valved way down to keep the tank from over flowing.

The sump is not something I had originally planned to use it is something I picked up from Chris over at Midwest Custom Aquariums for real cheap "just in case" when someone designed it and then decided they did not want it. The reason became pretty clear when I realized I was going to be changing my design and needed that sump under the tank.

The space between the last baffle and the end bulkhead was very narrow (the 1" pipe I have in there is a tight fit) and I would not be able to get a bulkhead fitting in there. SO I had to figure out something else. Since the return is not going back to the tank but rather up to the equipment room and to the three refugiums I have up there it really did not matter about the baffles. I just plumbed the sump in reverse.

But it also meant I would need to plumb the outlet before the first baffle so I could keep the level lower then that baffle. I need as much room in the sump as I can get for flow back in case of power failure. This tank is located very close to the house sump, so I am going to pipe that last chamber over to that sump so if I do have a power failure and the tank sump cannot contain all of the flow-back the overflow will go into that last chamber and then out to the house sump. Between the two sumps that should be plenty of "storage" until power comes back on.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

This a picture of the equipment room. This room is an addition to the house and is located above the fishroom. This is what it looked like empty.

It is packed now and it is really hard for me to give you any kind of a decent picture but I will do what I can.

Here are the three refugiums.

and here they are plumbed into the system:

You can really see the sun light coming down the solar tub in this one:

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Next up is the lower half of the equipment room.

Front

Left

Right

 

[NorthSide Reef]

And inside:

The sink is plumbed and working:

I decided that I wanted the main reservoir to circulate so I put in a pump to move the water around the room with several breakouts to add in the skimmer, calc reactor, ATS, and a couple extra for whatever. The reservoir also has a breakout right at the sink to dump water for water changes (seen above).

Recirc pump off of reservoir:

During a water change I plan to bypass the reservoir and dump a predetermined amount out of the reservoir. I will have level indicators marked on the reservoir so I know how much to take out and how much to put back in.

The valves on the back wall here and to the side are for that purpose:

The water returns back to the tank from the upper sump/future frag tank

through the wall (I will be using "Great Stuff" to fill those holes back in):

 

[NorthSide Reef]

In addition to the main tank, there will be a seahorse tank. I purchased this tank from a member here:

But what I did not know about seahorses is they had to be kept at a lower temperature than what I will be keeping my reef at. I made the "Finding Nemo" mistake of promising my daughter we would have seahorses before I knew anything about seahorses.

So this meant I would have to figure out a way to get the reef water temp down to the 74 degrees I would need for the seahorses.

What I designed was a chiller station. It is hard to see but it is a 1/2 chiller recirculating through a 40 gallon reservoir that is fed off the main reservoir.

This all needs to be plumbed still

The seahorse tank will be plumbed into the main sump below the Main DT so the entire reef + seahorse tank is all on one system. That's pretty much where I am at, I don't know when it will be done. I still have a lot of work to do.

As you can see here I still have to hook up the upper level to the lower lever. the shot is of the bypass valve for the upper level and the pipes coming down to the lower level.

 

[Taklu]

excellent detail and documentation... thats a lot of filtration and promises to be a very stable tank.... only if it could move a little faster :biggrin:

 

[NorthSide Reef]

excellent detail and documentation... thats a lot of filtration and promises to be a very stable tank.... only if it could move a little faster :biggrin:

All help is willingly accepted and encouraged :biggrin:

 

[marty9876]

Copps @ RC has a bunch of tanks linked together with one requiring lower temps. Run the chiller on a closed loop on just that tank with only enough water from the main system to maintain life support. e.g. 1x tank turnover an hour or so form the main tank. Enough to keep the water quality in check, not enough to overwhelm the chiller.

 

[marty9876]

Are the fuge's accessible for maintenance? Algae harvesting etc.