The 280 is finally going to get set up.. (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter NorthSide Reef
- Start date
OP
OP
yes, the scaffold you see throughout the photos is a permanent part of the equipment room and I can get into all of the tanks while standing on it.
salmonizer
Senior Member
looks like its coming along together swimmingly lol
OP
OP
If you saw how small my reef room is you would know why I am not doing it that way lol.
My wife bought me a sign for the room that said "Man Cave" I told her I was going to take the E off the end of cave. because it is not really a cave
wow, this is a lot of work and even more money! looks great
BashfulBacterium
Senior Member
Looks like a lot of effort was put into this.
Keep up the good work! I'm sure you'll soon have a thriving reef :biggthumpup:
Keep up the good work! I'm sure you'll soon have a thriving reef :biggthumpup:
OP
OP
the tank is 280 on the main DT and 92 on the seahorse tank. the refugiums hold 100 gallons each x 3 and the main reservoir holds 325 gallons. the frag tank I am not sure yet but is 30" x 30" x 60" but i think the level will be more like 20" so 30"x20"x60" is about 150 gallons. and 40 gallons on the chiller tank.
So if I add all of that up the system would be about 1100+ gallon minus rock and sand.
yeah, I guess so but I have been gathering stuff for about 10 years and I have found a lot of deals in that time. So in the big picture not so bad. Patience
Hope so
OP
OP
did not get as much done today as I had hoped. Still I did manage to finish the equipment room and hopefully tomorrow I will be able to hook the equipment room up to the aquarium room and get the leak test done.
I did get the chiller station hooked up, although I am having second thoughts about my original idea to have the intake come directly off the warm water coming in from the reservoir.
Looks like this:
I plan to put some insulation in front of that chiller tank to keep the heater from blowing on it.
Side view:
I started out with hot water just to give the chiller a chance to kick on. Maybe too hot, but it did cool down.
and a couple more shots for grins:
The reservoir:
I did get the chiller station hooked up, although I am having second thoughts about my original idea to have the intake come directly off the warm water coming in from the reservoir.
Looks like this:
I plan to put some insulation in front of that chiller tank to keep the heater from blowing on it.
Side view:
I started out with hot water just to give the chiller a chance to kick on. Maybe too hot, but it did cool down.
and a couple more shots for grins:
The reservoir:
OP
OP
yes I need to go outside to get in there. The room is heated and insulated. The first picture in the post above yours shows the electric heater, it gets very warm in there quick, it's a small room as you can see.
The little window (also seen in the picture) may have a small AC unit. I'm not sure yet, it did not seem to get too hot in there this past summer. But I may just put one in there to keep the room temp from getting past 80.
The little window (also seen in the picture) may have a small AC unit. I'm not sure yet, it did not seem to get too hot in there this past summer. But I may just put one in there to keep the room temp from getting past 80.
OP
OP
Filling the equipment room with water today! Working on the lower half while I do. it's going to take about 700 gallons of water to get those refugiums, reservoir and return sump filled.
Xmn reeferX
Senior Member
yes, the scaffold you see throughout the photos is a permanent part of the equipment room and I can get into all of the tanks while standing on it.
Why don't you get like a 3 step step stool. That would free up some space
OP
OP
ah, so I could move from one tub to the other. in fact I am making an extension for that (scaffold) so I have even more room to roam up there. I prefer to have things where they're going to be rather than move things around each time I need to get to where I want to go. Also trust me you don't want to be on a step ladder when you're moving those large covers around to get to those tubs.
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OP
OP
anticipation is killing me. and you would think something that has taken me this long to get going I would have a lot more patience.
The upper level is full (NO LEAKS!!!) and I am now waiting for the tank to fill so I can turn the return pump on and see what I have.
Here a a couple of pics while I wait (I really need something to do)
Water draining from one tub to the next:
the recirculation pump in the reservoir is on and doing a nice job of moving things around to mix the reservoir water with the incoming water from the tubs:
here is what it looks like full:
The lower level plumbing is in (sort of) I have the tank pulled away from the wall so I can fix any leaks I find when I turn it back on:
so this is what it looks like with the hose feeding the tank: (Those are temporary lines until I get the tank up against the wall).
I have the water dropping from the height on purpose so I can see how much is coming out of each line. It's S L O W as you can see.
The black line is from the chiller station it will feed the future seahorse tank. This is all from the garden hose, I hope it's (the flow) a lot better with the return pump on.
I did fix one leak I knew I had, I replaced this valve: (the valve off the return pump)
with this one: the shorter valve made that transition a lot smoother
So that killed some time tank is about half full (or half empty depending on who you are )
The upper level is full (NO LEAKS!!!) and I am now waiting for the tank to fill so I can turn the return pump on and see what I have.
Here a a couple of pics while I wait (I really need something to do)
Water draining from one tub to the next:
the recirculation pump in the reservoir is on and doing a nice job of moving things around to mix the reservoir water with the incoming water from the tubs:
here is what it looks like full:
The lower level plumbing is in (sort of) I have the tank pulled away from the wall so I can fix any leaks I find when I turn it back on:
so this is what it looks like with the hose feeding the tank: (Those are temporary lines until I get the tank up against the wall).
I have the water dropping from the height on purpose so I can see how much is coming out of each line. It's S L O W as you can see.
The black line is from the chiller station it will feed the future seahorse tank. This is all from the garden hose, I hope it's (the flow) a lot better with the return pump on.
I did fix one leak I knew I had, I replaced this valve: (the valve off the return pump)
with this one: the shorter valve made that transition a lot smoother
So that killed some time
tank is about half full (or half empty depending on who you are )
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I would attest to this.. a fixed scaffolding is much preferred over carrying a ladder around
Makes me see green everytime I see that OM plumbing web... if I ever redo my tank or if there's a next time I might give closed loops a serious thought...
OP
OP
So flow is better. actually the pump pumps faster up then the water comes back down so it will drain the sump, then suck in an air bubble slow down and then repeat.
I really thought the 1.5" returns would have kept up but they don't. So I will think about this while I am gone the next couple of weeks and come back with a plan B.
this is not a good picture becasue the flow down lags.
I really thought the 1.5" returns would have kept up but they don't. So I will think about this while I am gone the next couple of weeks and come back with a plan B.
this is not a good picture becasue the flow down lags.
OP
OP
Well thunk about it, I am going to add another 1.5" line through all of the (refugium) tanks and off of the reservoir to the return sump. Since it is just an add on to aid flow I won't need all of the fancy plumbing for the bypasses, just tank to tank. I probably do not need a ball valve but I think I will use the double slip cheapos from Marine Depot since I'll need a union to make the connection anyhow.
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OP
OP
So sitting in a hotel room in Brazil I got nothing to do so I was looking at this thread and thought I would share something somewhat interesting.
I started a build thread on Reef Central some 7 years ago, it was for this tank. I stopped that build and took some time off from the hobby so when I started the new build I started a new thread.
But here is a link of the bypass system I built back in 2005.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4877394&postcount=81
and here is that same valve system on my tank in 2012
Now there is a funny story about that. I was working on the tank and was thinking I needed a bypass valve for the upper and lower level. and I started thinking about how I Would design it. It wasn't until a couple of days later that I remembered I already built the dang thing 7 years ago... It was just a matter of remembering where I put it. I obviously found it.. Perseverance at its best lol
I started a build thread on Reef Central some 7 years ago, it was for this tank. I stopped that build and took some time off from the hobby so when I started the new build I started a new thread.
But here is a link of the bypass system I built back in 2005.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4877394&postcount=81
and here is that same valve system on my tank in 2012
Now there is a funny story about that. I was working on the tank and was thinking I needed a bypass valve for the upper and lower level. and I started thinking about how I Would design it. It wasn't until a couple of days later that I remembered I already built the dang thing 7 years ago... It was just a matter of remembering where I put it. I obviously found it.
. Perseverance at its best lol