270 Gallon SPS tank for JBNY

[JB NY]

Update,

First of all a word of advice, never put up a reef tank in the summer. There are way too many distractions. Nice days, BBQ, the beach, wineries. summer afternoons, ahh... who want to work in a basement setting up a fish tank? So there is my disclaimer for the lack of progress.

But all that said, I have managed to get some things done.

The main tank I am letting sit for the month of August. I have measured no NO3 for 2 weeks but feel the tank is much better if left alone for a while before fish and corals go in. Besides it's the summer.

So I spent a while getting my ATO set up. For me this was actually one of the most important parts of the tank. Being able to never have to worry about water, in and out of the tank, is a good thing IMO.

For my top-off and water changes I am using what was an Aqua-FX 4 stage RO/DI unit. I say was, because at this point I have replaced about everything in it so it's not really the same anymore.

Due to my ro/di unit sitting unused for almost a year, I needed to replace all of the canisters, so I am using a new 75gpd membrane, sediment, carbon and DI filters. I also bought an inline TDS meter. I never had one, it's a nice thing to have. My TDS is 157 in and 0 out.

I set up a 55 gallon Rubbermaid plastic container the same as with my old tank. The tank is used for all RO/DI storage. This time I used a low/high float switch, from top-off.com, that I bought at last years MACNA.

http://www.top-off.com/viewitem.php?it_id=21

It works real well. When the water drops to a set level it turns on a polypropylene solenoid valve I got from mcmaster.com I think it is PN#7877K23. That turns on my ro/di until the top level switch is reached and then turns off. There is a redundant switch above as a safety switch. So really there is no worries about the unit not switching off.

Once I got that all set up I went to work on getting the water into the sump. I am using a large polypropylene tank. Which works well as a sump but I don't have anything to attach stuff to. I drilled out a 1/2" bulkhead and attached a 1/2" PVC pipe so I can attache some float switches to it.

On my last tank I had float switched on a piece of PVC that was cabled tied down. The cables would always move just a little, once in a while, to change the level a bit. This time I wanted to make it was a bit more solid.

I decided to use three float switches.

1) A low level that would sense if the water level in the sump became too low as to allow the main pump to suck in air. If the low level trips the main pump will get shut down.

2) A high level. That will shut down the power to the top-off pump in case the top-off float were to stick.

3) Top-off level switch. Just a standard float kicking off a pump in the ro/di reservoir to replace water that evaporates.

First I cut out a piece of acrylic and used a tap to make a hole to attach the float switch as well as a 1/4" nylon screw. Then I bent it to a 90d angle.



Attached the float, the screw, and two cable ties to keep it from shifting.



Then I attached them to the pipe. I left everything in place for a day or so to make sure the positions were good. then I pulled the pipe and tapped three holes so I could screw the floats in. Now when I take the floats off to clean them I can be sure I am putting them back in the same place.

[JB NY]

Next I needed to hook up the float switches to my Aquacontroller. The controller can take two switches on it's own. On the old tank I had the floats wired into a terminal block, but it was a pain if I need to take them off. So I built a nice little enclosure.

First take the cable and break out all the wires to their terminals on the block.



Next drill some holes in the box to mount hardware to plug the floats switched into. Then put in the terminal block and wires it all up.



Close it up and I'm all done. Now it will be much easier to add and remove the float switches.




Mounted everything up and tested it. So far it works great.When the top-off float kicks in everything works as it should, the water levels doesn't seem to vary more than 1/2" in the sump. So you really never see a sump level change at all. If the low level float trips, the Aquacontroller shuts off the main pump, trips an audible alarm in the house and send me a page and emails a few different accounts telling me the low level alarm tripped and the main pump is on.

If the high level alarm trips the power to the top-off is cut, an alarm sounds in the house, and I get paged and emails sent as well.

Hopefully this system will allow me to take vacations and have some piece of mind with the tank.

Ok, believe it or not this took me like three days to do.

[kev apsley]

Good Stuff Joe! Looks like you are doing a fantastic job updating this system, plus giving yourself time to recharge the ol' batteries over the summer

[JB NY]

Oh don't know if I posted about getting my skimmer set up. So here it is.

I am using the same skimmer as my last tank. A Barr Aquatic SK4200. 3 feet tall, duel becketts, yeah it's a monster, but it skims the daylights out of the tank. I have it plumbed into my return pump, so it's not taking up much electricity.

It took about two weeks to start skimming anything. I think that had to do with all of the piping I put in, for some reason my skimmer seems to stop working for a week or so especially when I add flexible PVC.

Anyway, I wanted to put the skimmer close to the sump this time. Last time I had the skimmer a few feet from the sump, and a few times I either forgot to plug in a tube or attach a hose and dumped water or skimmer scum all over the place. So I decided to try and put the skimmer over the sump. My first dilemma was what to put it on. Luckily a friend of mine gave me a scrap piece of fiberglass grating that he had. After I cut it to the right size with a saber saw it works get for what it does. Super strong and no worries about salt water!



I also tapped a hole at the bottom of the PVC tee that attaches to the skimmer. So when I need to get to the becketts to clean them I am not spilling water all over the place. I can just shut off the skimmer and open the valve and drain the exit water into the sump.



Here is the exit pipe for the skimmer, I put the same bend that I did with the return form the main tank. It really works well so you can have a ton of flow coming out and it really doesn't splash around when going back into the sump.



I have some more pictures of the skimmer set up that I will post later as I can't find the pics right now. But I also made air values to control the amount of air going into the skimmer as well as a muffler to cut down on the sound and filter the air going into the tank.

[JB NY]

Originally posted by kev apsley
Good Stuff Joe! Looks like you are doing a fantastic job updating this system, plus giving yourself time to recharge the ol' batteries over the summer

Thanks, Taking my time this time. The tank does better when things aren't rushed anyway.

[melev]

Joe, very nice updates.

It looks like you were using a serial cable in that float switch project. Which Aqua Controller are you plugging that into? I have the AC II and have never used that port.

[bleedingthought]

Joe, you just triggered some questions that are forthcoming about your top-off system. I'm also going with autotopoff.com's top off switch and also using a 55G container (but it's just a plastic barrel) but the way you have your float valves is really redundant, which is what I was looking for! I wonder how to modify it until I get a controller, though. Again, I'll probably have some questions for you about it!

[JB NY]

Thanks Mark, it's a mini8 cable. I have an AC3, that's what the connection for the I/O port is. For the AC2 you have to splice into the serial cable input cable and pull out the wires for the I/O.

[Zoom]

You know what happing to me. I set up my reef system for me to take care of it almost all manually . I had to go to hospital unexpectedly for a week and the wife almost crash my tank
After i came back home i set everything up electronically so the tank can run automated for a long time .
Very nice system is getting to be Joe
Don't forget you never know, set everything up so your tank survive without you for a long time .

[TTrout]

Did you ever create a bubble trap or put in baffles for your sump or did your drain pipe design make them unnecessary? Also, where did you get the sump?

Is it possible that you could post a complete diagram of your autotopoff system for electrical and plumbing?

This is a very nice setup! Keep up the good work

Thank you,

[cwegescheide]

Originally posted by JB NY
Thanks Mark, it's a mini8 cable. I have an AC3, that's what the connection for the I/O port is. For the AC2 you have to splice into the serial cable input cable and pull out the wires for the I/O.

Hey Joe so how do you know which cables on the mini8 cable are for what? I've got an ACIII and would like to do the same thing your doing. How did you get your ACIII to recognize the new inputs? I'd really like to know how you did it. Where did you get the box as well?

Thanks and what an incredible setup this is going to be!

Chris

[JB NY]

Originally posted by Zoom
You know what happing to me. I set up my reef system for me to take care of it almost all manually . I had to go to hospital unexpectedly for a week and the wife almost crash my tank
After i came back home i set everything up electronically so the tank can run automated for a long time .
Very nice system is getting to be Joe
Don't forget you never know, set everything up so your tank survive without you for a long time .

Thanks Steve. Yeah, that's one thing I learned with the old tank, over the years you can't always be right in front of the tank. With the old tank my top-off was good for 5-7 days if I went away. Now, as long as something doesn't fail, I can be away for months and the tank will not need anyone to attend to it's water needs.

[JB NY]

Originally posted by bleedingthought
I'll probably have some questions for you about it!

No problem, ask away when the time comes.

Originally posted by cwegescheide
Hey Joe so how do you know which cables on the mini8 cable are for what? I've got an ACIII and would like to do the same thing your doing. How did you get your ACIII to recognize the new inputs? I'd really like to know how you did it. Where did you get the box as well?

Thanks and what an incredible setup this is going to be!

Chris

Thanks Chris! If you look in the manual for the AC3 it has the pin arraignment for the I/O. If you have a continuity meter you can tell what cables are assigned to what pins.

Originally posted by TTrout
Did you ever create a bubble trap or put in baffles for your sump or did your drain pipe design make them unnecessary? Also, where did you get the sump?

I have not made a bubble trap yet. I need to, but I just haven't figured out how to do it exactly.

The sump was bought from www.tank-depot.com luckily I noticed that they ship out of NY. I called them and found their manufacturing plant was only 20 minutes from where I work, so I was able to pick it up and not pay shipping.

[JB NY]

Originally posted by TTrout
Is it possible that you could post a complete diagram of your autotopoff system for electrical and plumbing?

This is a very nice setup! Keep up the good work

Thank you,

Here is a diagram of my ATO setup. Description below.



All top-off water is kept in a 55 gallon Rubbermaid brute trash can.

For the Top-Off Container
Controller #1 controls the water level in the top-off container.
When the water level drop lower than float switch #4, Controller #1 energizes float switch #1. Water from the house water supply now goes into the RO/DI unit and then goes into the top-off container.

When the water in the top-of container gets to float switch #3, Controller #1 turn off float switch #1. If float switch #3 fails, float switch #2 will be activated and Controller #1 will turn off float switch #1.

Fr the sump
Controller #2 controlls top-off for the sump, water falls below float switch #6, Controller #2 will activate the top-off pump and pump water into the sump until water is above float switch #6 then Controller #2 will shut the pump off.

float switch #5 and float switch #7 are fail-safes. they are hooked into the switch input box that connects the switches to Controller #3 (aquacontroller3).
If water goes below float switch #7, the main pump is shut off by Controller #3. An alarm sounds, pages are sent to phone and emails accounts.
If water goes above float switch #5 Controller #3 shuts off power to Controller #2 which cuts the power to the top-off pump.An alarm sounds, pages are sent to phone and emails accounts.

I think that is it, if something does not make sense please let me know.

[JB NY]

Here are a few more pictures of my ATO setup.

Here is the ro/di unit and the polypropylene solenoid valve (Float Switch#1). They are located under the sink.



Just the solenoid valve.


top-off container controller on left Controller #1. Top-off contoller for the sump top off (life reef controller Controller #2) on right. Need to clean up the wiring.



Floats switches in the top-off container. Switches #2, 3 , AND 4.


Float Switches in the sump. Switches #5, 6, and 7.


Switch input box and the aquacontroller 3 (Controller #3). Still need to clean up the wiring.

[kozmo02]

Looks great Joe, what kind of cartridges are you running in your RO/DI and what kind of DI resin?

[JB NY]

I'm using a filmtec 75gpd RO membrane, MARTIKX CTO/2 carbon block filters, 5 micron sediment filters, the DI resin is probably Purolite, that's what everyone seems to be selling.

[JB NY]

Here are a few more pictures of the Skimmer setup.

Here is the skimmer (Barr Aquatic SK4200) up and running over the sump.I still need to find some place to put the air meter/filter that is sitting on top.



Close up of the air meter I made. It uses dyer flow meters, I believe it is the Dwyer RMB-53-SSV Flowmeter that I have on there. http://www.dwyer-inst.com/htdocs/flo...MPrice.cfm#CRA The flowmeter allow you to find the best amount of air for the beckett to use. Once you have that, you can easily clean the becketts and always get it back to the same setting you had before.



Here is how I set up the back of the air meters. Air is sucked in from the top of the PVC tube. Inside the tube I have carbon sandwiched in between polyfill. This filters all the air going into the skimmer, which is really all going into you tank. It also acts like a muffler for the becketts, effectively making the skimmer almost silent. The air is pulled into the air meters from the tubes on bottom sides, and then the air goes from the meter to the becketts. The tube at the bottom middle is for injecting ozone.

[JB NY]

So here is something cool.

I finished setting up the wall mounted LCD screen for my tank. It pulls information about my tank and the fish room. I have it change from tank to room information every 3 seconds.

When everything is up and running. I get this screen.


Room stats are on this screen.


When I am doing maintenance (e.g. a water change) I have the heaters and chiller as well as a bunch of pumps turned off. When I am doing that I see this screen. This is to remind me to turn everything back on when I am done.


If something goes wrong and any alarm on the tank trips I get this screen.


Pretty slick, eh?

[thirschmann]

so how much do i have to pay you to set up and send me one of those sweet @$$ screens? That is awesome, wish I had the knowledge to set something like that up. Very nicely done.

[SERVO]

Thats awesome Joe!

I am thinking about setting up a zoned audio/video system ran by Crestron controllers. If I do this, I'm going to integrate my ACIII into it Pretty sick indeed!

[Bax]

That screen is very cool!

Are you running your becketts "normally" or have you modded them? I ask as you're running the skimmer off the return pump. Granted, it's a major pump, 5,500-6,000 gph at like 40-50' of head or something crazy (crazy good) like that. I thought you needed a dedicated presure rated pump to run dual becketts?

[danskim]

Cool screen. I think I remember seeing in on another build as well.
Are you using the 55g Brutes or 44g? I haven't been able to locate the 55gs locally.

[TTrout]

Thank you for all of the information on the ATO setup! It's definitely going to help me out. And that LCD screen is pretty cool. Would be interesting if they would let you change the backlit color. Like changing to Red instead of blue if there is an alarm and maybe yellow or orange when in maintenance...but still very cool

Thanks again,

[AcroSteve]

Originally posted by JB NY
Now, as long as something doesn't fail, I can be away for months and the tank will not need anyone to attend to it's water needs.

Have you addressed the gradual decrease in salinity due to the water your skimmer removes? With a system designed using float switches, this salt water is replaced by fresh water.