Third Time's A Charm!

[einsteins]

Hi Brad

Great build!!

You said you bought some heavy duty PVC cutters?
How large of a diameter can they cut? I have a pair that can do up to about 1" but cant do 1.5". If yours can do bigger than that can you send me some info or post a pic of them?

thanks
eins

[Covey]

Not quite a 1.5 but close
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?actio...100&lpage=none

[Philby]

I can't find anything in the 2 minutes I spent googling, but I've seen PVC cutters that will do 2" ID PVC. They look very similar to the ones that cut smaller PVC, they're just bigger!

I know Brad has 2" plumbing everywhere so he must have found one that did at least that large...

[ZLTFUL]

Acme tools downtown has or can get one that does up to I think 2.5 inch PVC...it looks almost like a set of big bolt cutters with a funky blade...

[dascharisma]

My cutters are massive, and they handle 2 inch pipe with ease. Ryan Nielson is currently borrowing them, but I will be sure to get a picture of them when he returns them. I have owned a few of the smaller cutters, and they are a pain to use. The ones I found are really nice to work with. They have long handles which give you a lot of leverage and don't hurt your hands (I know I am a wimp).


Brad

[einsteins]

Where did you get them.....

Thanks!

eins

[acidlittle]

Don't know how I haven't gone through this thread before, but man everybody is making me jealous. Hopefully when I get a JOB I will be able to do something of decent size.

Looks awesome!!!!

[dascharisma]

Originally posted by einsteins
Where did you get them.....

Thanks!

eins

I found them at Menards, which is strange since the last times I purchased PVC cutters they didn't have any this large.


Brad

[dascharisma]

Here is the ventilation for the room.

I took a piece of acrylic (that used to be the cut-out for the top of my display) and cut holes in it. I used a hole saw on the small holes and a rotozip on the large ones (both worked well).



Then I put the exhaust vents in. I siliconed both sides and screwed the face plates in.



The next step was to remove the window and put the acrylic in its place. I screwed the acrylic in and then siliconed from the outside and the inside.





Then I hooked up all the duct work. The left two vents are from the halide exhaust fans, the middle vent is from the chiller and the right vent is from the bathroom fan.



Here is a pic showing all the vent work with the lights in place over the tank.



Here is a pic showing all the vent work with the lights pulled back. Connecting the halides to the exhaust fans are 4" flexible exhaust ducts that are used for dryers. It handles the heat with no problem, and it is very flexible, which allows me to slide the light rail back and forth with no special care.




Originally I intended to only use one exhaust fan for the halides, and run them in series. I played around with it that way, but the problem I encountered was that each reflector leaked too much air. The first reflector (the one closest to the fan) got a lot of air movement through it, but because the reflectors aren't perfectly air tight, each subsequent reflector down the line had less air moving through it. Since there is no good way to make the reflectors more air tight, I just bought another fan and reran the ductwork the way you see it above.

The amazing thing about the halide ventilation is just how hot the air blowing outside really is. I measured the air coming outside at 110 degrees. The steady streams of 110 degree heat that I am eliminating from the room should really help keep the tank from overheating and reduce the amount the chiller needs to run.

The only problem I have with the ventilation so far is that outside air comes through the chiller vent because it doesn't have any flaps preventing air from going backwards, and all the vents are very cold (though they will be hot in the summer time). I need to install some flaps on the chillers vent, and I think I need to put some insulation up around the window to cut down on the heat transfer.


Brad

[dascharisma]

Here are some pics of the VHO lighting I added. There are 4 URI superactinic bulbs on an IceCap 660 ballast. I love the look of a tank with straight actinic lighting, and I think people who run halides only are crazy! I have been running a 14 hour photoperiod with the actinics and will probably stick with that. In the future I might add 3 T5s for aesthetics, but for now there are more important things to spend the tank budget on.

A view from underneath.



These two black tubes hold all the wires that connect the lighting to the ballasts.





Brad

[Atticus]

Would it be cost effective to get a heat exchanger to capture that 110 degree air and pump it into the house?

[mwood]

Originally posted by Atticus
Would it be cost effective to get a heat exchanger to capture that 110 degree air and pump it into the house?

Only 4-6 months of the year.

[dascharisma]

Originally posted by Atticus
Would it be cost effective to get a heat exchanger to capture that 110 degree air and pump it into the house?

As Marcus notes, it would only be useful in the coldest months. My guess is that the tank will help heat the house even without a heat exchanger. I still don't have a canopy, and I am not yet running the halides for any significant length of time, so I don't really know how much the tank will affect the house. I will start watching how often my furnace kicks on once the tank is fully functional and try to decide if I should add an exchanger. If it seems like the tank is well isolated from the rest of the house, then an exchanger will definitely make sense.



Brad

[Atticus]

6 months is half a year... People buy snowmobiles that cost more and get used less...

[dascharisma]

Originally posted by Atticus
6 months is half a year... People buy snowmobiles that cost more and get used less...

You are definitely right on that one. The big difference is snowmobiles are FUN! A heat exchanger just seems so utilitarian. I am sooo sick of spending money on bathroom fans, valves, probes, extension cords, and all the rest. I just want to buy some fish and coral!




Brad

[dascharisma]

Below are a couple of pics of my ultra ugly tank. I originally put in 5 clowns and a royal gramma. The 5 clowns where very small and kept going into the overflow. Eventually they all met their demise in the return pump. That left me with just the royal gramma. In order to increase the fish load, I added a green chromis from my other tank.

Yesterday I added 5 more clowns (this time I got medium sized ones). One of them was essentially doa but the other 4 all look good. That gives me 6 current fish in the tank. I also added 100 astreas and 100 cerith snails. Right now they are busy cleaning up.








Brad

[annewayne]

Somebody said you might have some shelf rock left over?

[donk228]

WOW! That rock work is unbelievable! I can't imagine the time and effort it took to build it using concrete, but it was worth it. I've never been a big fan of the shelf rocks from Marco Rocks, but now I'm sold. Thanks for making up my mind on what rock to get for my 120 build!
Any chance you could post a full side shot to show the profile of the aquascape?

[dascharisma]

Originally posted by donk228
WOW! That rock work is unbelievable! I can't imagine the time and effort it took to build it using concrete, but it was worth it. I've never been a big fan of the shelf rocks from Marco Rocks, but now I'm sold. Thanks for making up my mind on what rock to get for my 120 build!
Any chance you could post a full side shot to show the profile of the aquascape?

Thanks donk. I found that if you use too much shelf rock it starts to look strange. I feel like a mix of about 5 to 1 of regular round tonga to flat shelf tonga makes a good mix. The other thing to keep in mind is that working with the shelf rock is hard because of balancing issues. In my tank, even though the rocks are held together with concrete. The entire structure would actually stay in place with nothing but gravity. The concrete is just there for long term security (and yes it did take forever to do).

Here are those pics you asked for from left to right, back when the tank had no water. Because there isn't any water in the tank there are a lot of strange reflections that make it hard to tell what is going on in the side shots (plus the pics steal all the depth from it). But you get the idea.

















Brad

[dascharisma]

Originally posted by annewayne
Somebody said you might have some shelf rock left over?

Unfortunately the last 30-35 lbs are spoken for by Zltful. If he backs out, then I will let you know.



Brad

[dascharisma]

It just keeps getting worse! The hair algae has started, and things are looking terrible. Right now there are 2 fish in the tank. A green chromis and a royal gramma. All 10 clown fish I put in have died (which are adding nutrients for the algae). I think that they were all weak and used to tank raised (ie no current) conditions and simply ended up going into the overflow and then into the return pump. At least I assume that is what is happening since I never find any bodies and I only ever find bone bits.


I am still suffering through high pH (8.64). I hope that it subsides soon.

Here is a FTS.




Yuck.




You can almost see it growing in this pic.




Here is a pic of what it looks like when I flip my return on.




Here are all the corals that are waiting for the end of the cycle.





Brad

[acidlittle]

Once again....I hate you.

Rock- looks badass
And the corals you got make me wanna rob you blind.

Can't wait to see how it looks fully stocked!

[RobynT]

Those Ricordia's look sweet. I hope things get better for you soon.

[heartben]

oh man... i want some of those rics, they look soo awesome

hope your tank starts lookin better soon

[ZLTFUL]

Hey guys...i know where brad lives and I also know how they put the window back in so i can show you how to sneak in for some midnight fraggin'!!! ;-)

Just kiddin' Brad.

Those corals look spankin' bro!