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

[Chuckytt]

Sometimes the vibration can be because their is no air buffer in your pipes. I'm no plumber but usually their is a section of pipe that will have some air trapped in it to help with the banging that can happen/vibration from booster pump. Like if you turn a faucet off quickly you may hear a clunk throughout the plumbing. Mine had the same problem i could hear it anywhere their was plumbing. Bathroom kitchen... I turned off my main water emptied all my pipes and now I can't hear it. May help. May not.
Booster pump and a 150 upgrade was the best purchase I think I have ever made in this hobby. And I don't even pay for water. :greenguy:

Can't wait for a full video tour or a meeting of the setup!

Edit. Looks like u found the fix!

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Where is that in the line?

If it is after any of the RO DI Stages, watch for copper. if it is before all of them, it isn't any different than having copper pipes.

Where do they recommend putting something like that if your house pipes bang once in a while? Anywhere in the supply line?

Glad to hear you found a solution.

it's before the T going to the RO unit. don't know how it works but we went from a low vibrating hum in the laundry room and bathrooms to silence. So I am happy it is solved. You could actually feel the vibration in the Pex hose which is what we must have been hearing. It seems to dampen the vibration.

Sometimes the vibration can be because their is no air buffer in your pipes. I'm no plumber but usually their is a section of pipe that will have some air trapped in it to help with the banging that can happen/vibration from booster pump. Like if you turn a faucet off quickly you may hear a clunk throughout the plumbing. Mine had the same problem i could hear it anywhere their was plumbing. Bathroom kitchen... I turned off my main water emptied all my pipes and now I can't hear it. May help. May not.
Booster pump and a 150 upgrade was the best purchase I think I have ever made in this hobby. And I don't even pay for water. :greenguy:

Can't wait for a full video tour or a meeting of the setup!

Edit. Looks like u found the fix!

Yeah this thing seems to work, or maybe turning the water off and emptying the line before I plugged it in did the trick I don't know but the wife is happy so it's a win either way

Meeting at my house is August 3rd 12:00 PM to 4PM. But heck you're close enough once I get the whole thing up you're welcome over and I'll give ya the guided tour... Just don't laugh at how small my man cave is lol I have serious man cave envy..

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Ok this is from yesterday I have a few things to do this morning then I can start filling the tank.

The temp of the water is now 67 it took all night to warm it up. The reservoir pump has been on so the water has been well mixed and up to temp so after 3 more batches everything but the 92 cube and 45 cube will be on line.

 

[data_loss]

Can't wait to see this setup :beerchug:

 

[Taklu]

Ok this is from yesterday I have a few things to do this morning then I can start filling the tank.

The temp of the water is now 67 it took all night to warm it up. The reservoir pump has been on so the water has been well mixed and up to temp so after 3 more batches everything but the 92 cube and 45 cube will be on line.

I hope you do not plan to rely on that finnex controller to control your heater as the primary source; I think it needs some improved components. Mine failed on me rather very quickly. I noticed it because the heater in my display turned on when it was too early for that to happen (normally never happens even in -40 weather)

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Heya Tak,

No the controller will be a RKL just for the heaters for $120.00 I hear really good things about them and they're pretty versatile it will handle four of them in the return sump (in the shed) off of one outlet bar or whatever they're called.

I bought that Finnix a while back and since have read stories just like the one you mentioned. I think it will become nothing more than a digital display.
I promis an update soon a lot of things have happened since I last posted but the build has progressed and there are some good things to share. Some bad things too lol but I will have to get some photos and show you a few mistakes I needed to fix.

 

[Taklu]

I will have to get some photos and show you a few mistakes I needed to fix.

opcorn: Everything else is so unexciting FTR/JIT blah blah blah lol
looking forward to some real updates, now I'm back I will make time to swing by.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

lol well I told ya there would be nothing to see until March.

FTR/JIT?

Give me a week to put some stuff back together and there will be a real update.

 

[Taklu]

FTR = First time right
JIT = Just in time

:doh:






:kackle:

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Well tomorrow will be my standard Blah blah blah update. With pictures (I like the sound of my own voice...Or look of the way I type ). But I am having a hard time sticking to my plan to go all dry rock. I am very tempted to pick up a few pounds of live rock and put it in the main display.

I would really like someone to talk me out of it, or convince me to go for it...

 

[Taklu]

Use all dry rock - gives you the luxury of not having to worry about die off if you have to work with no water around, if you're not convinced look at my build thread (old build) that doesnt exist lol. seriously though my previous tank started with all dead rock. anything live was introduced by way of rock that came with corals.

the dead rock will be live rather soon.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

put a poll up here Join the fun, win friends influence people

 

[NorthSide Reef]

So I promised an update. It has been 10 days of pure hell. there was a moment there I was starting to wonder if maybe it was time to walk away for a bit.

I started filling the tank on Feb 3. I added some water. stopped went and checked things out. decided it was good to go. started filling the tank to the top. I got about this far when I noticed the tank is leaking from the bottom.
(I actually took this pic when I was filling the tank about 30 seconds before I noticed the leak).

The new sump was a pretty tight fit going in and I must have pushed too hard on the bulkhead fitting for the closed loop coming from the bottom of the tank when I slid it under. It was enough to put side load on the fitting and allow sand under the rubber washer.

This pipe on the left:

.


Not much I can do at this point that fitting is on the bottom of the tank. I was hoping maybe I could tighten the fitting enough to slow the leak down so I could empty the tank and fix it. Nope... that was a mistake. I made it worse and it poured out even faster onto the floor and into the sump below. I grabbed chunk of cardboard and tried to divert as much a I could into the sump.

Just a pic of the sump but you get the idea.

.

So I'm off to a great start.

Took out a bunch of rock and all of the sand to get to the fitting.

I replaced the bulkhead fitting with a new one. and used Spa Flex on the drop down from the fitting. The sump still pushes a bit on the pipe but the spa flex does not put any side pressure on the bulkhead fitting. This all took a few days since I did not have a bulkhead fitting and the 3rd was a Sunday.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

That was all just act 1.

Act 2 was even funner. Everything is back together and I am ready to fill the tank again. I start out slow, looks good. I fill it the rest of the way. It looks great. The tank is full. Time to start up the closed loop and get this baby cycling.

Well that was the plan anyhow. But one problem the Ocean Motion makes a couple of revolutions and then stops. It is stuck and I do not know why, but I figure I will take it apart and figure it out. That's why I put all of those ball valves with unions on right?.

I take the top apart all is good. I close the ball valve on the intake and take it off.......WOOOOOOSHHHHHHH!!!!!!!.

There is nothing in that valve that holds the ball in place if you take the union off. Do not ask me why I did not notice this when I put it on. My only answer is I am dumb *** and didn't. For the life of me I cannot figure out what value this bleeping valve has if you cannot turn it off and take it apart. But that's not the biggest problem I have right now. I have about 140 gallons of water blasting out of a valve and onto the floor at high speed.

My only saving grace is it is pointed right at the house sump and I still have the damn squeegee next to the tank from the last time I sent a bunch of mixed saltwater onto the floor. Which was just three bleeping days ago!
There is nothing I can do but watch, and try not to look at my wife while she looks at me like "that is not happening right?" I guide as much as I can into the sump and wait for the water to get below the intakes in the tank.
The best part is I have four of these damn things on the system. So that's going to be cheap to replace.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

So now we have these on everything.

and it's time to try again.

Let me just say I am a very lucky man and I love my wife, because she smiled and did not once say what she was thinking.... But we all know.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

The ocean Motion still does not work. I have been in contact with Paul over at OM and we're working on it. I can get it to work off the system, and it worked great when I leak tested with tap water but now if sticks almost as soon as I fire it up on the tank. ATM I have the drum pulled out and I am just using it as a manifold to send water through all 8 outlets at once while the wave making is being done with a pair of Vortech MP40's.

Those are awesome but incredibly finicky pumps. at first when I got them hooked up one kept faulting out. I could not figure it out. I have 3/4" tank panels I read all of the directions I knew to pull the spacer completely off. I did everything with the one that worked as the one that did not. It would start for a second then fault out.

I am pretty fed up at this point and I am certain the Big Guy is trying to tell me something. The only thing I notice is the one that works I have the cable run over the top of the tank from the right side. All the way over to the unit on the left that does not work. The unit the does not work I just have the pump cable sort of dangling off to the side. It can't be as dumb as that can it?

Yup, it can. I tie the cable from the pump that is not working power up and try again.
It has been running ever since.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

So I have a tank that is holding water (yay!) and I have enough motion/flow in the tank that the water will not stagnate. It is time to try to move water from the fishroom up to the fish shed and back down.

The way I plumbed the shed I can run parts of the shed or all of the shed. I don't have much water made at this point (gee I wonder where it went?) So the plan is to run up to the last 100 gallon refuguim down to the return sump and then back to the tank. Bypassing the other two 100 gallon refuguims and the 325 gallon reservoir. This should be a piece of cake the shed has been tested (except for the new drop from the reservoir but I am not going to be testing that yet).

It looks great, it works fine. Water goes up water comes down none of it goes on the floor. I am going to let it cycle overnight and see how it goes.

My wife wakes me up at 6:00 AM to let me know she could not sleep and had to go make sure there were no leaks.. (she loves me but I think maybe she has had enough). There's a leak.

I added these check valves in series (redundancy protection) they're both slightly leaking in the same place. Right below the gate at the union.

They are both as tight as I can get them but I put a pair of Channellocks on them and tighten more. I can't get the leak to stop. I have a Hammerhead pump pumping up 18' not counting all of the 90's and the pressure is too much for the check valves. The O-rings won't seal.

This is at least something I know about. I order new O-rings from Mcmaster-Carr they're called double lip seal O-rings.

and are a lot better than standard O-rings. And they fixed the leak.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Each day since I have added more to the system. All of the refugiums are on line. Each has a milk crate full of dry rock.

Everything is going well. Today I added the 325 and the entire system is on line (not counting the 92 gallon and 45 gallon tanks).

The new drops from the reservoir are working beautifully

I can actually speed up the water going up and it flows down just as fast. I turned it down to what you see there.

So here finally is a FTS of the 280 on line with the entire filtershed. I added some rock it may be replaced by Live Rock next week. I am still in limbo.

 

[Chuckytt]

Worst part of setting up a new tank is lack sleep. Every little noise makes me think "sh!* what was that.." takes a couple days to start sleeping again.
Sounds like you had a fun day playing in water.

 

[NorthSide Reef]

Yup, I am still getting up two three times a night to go check on everything.

And I dropped a dang fitting in the reservoir that now that it is on line I can hear clunking around in there (the shed is right behind my bedroom) so tonight I get to go fishing.