Dons diy project

[Donw]

I finished the stand integrated wiring. The back and bottom converge in the half circle under the stand. As you can see the dark line is where they travel and go into the dry area of the sump. These include all power, control and ato wires.

[sabbath]

Your skills are over the top. Wow, Very detailed. I have been reading and viewing in ah.

[Kentanner11]

you are the mark aka melev of wood working!

[nanoguy]

Originally posted by Donw
I spray with a turbine hvlp, unless I'm doing a hand rubbed diy recipe. This will be sprayed with deft, not the waterbase version.
A good finish tip I guess would be to use the 65/65 rule. Eliminates alot of problems like blushing and fisheye.
Always use sanding sealer of some sort. I like plain old fashioned shellac flakes.

Finish at 65+ degrees with less than 65% reletive humidity.
or
If its impossible to get 65 degrees then make sure the dew point is 20 degrees or more less than ambient.

Don

Thanks for the info Don. I was under the impression that you don't need to use a sanding sealer if you are using oil based products.....only with water based products. Is this true?

[Donw]

Originally posted by nanoguy
Thanks for the info Don. I was under the impression that you don't need to use a sanding sealer if you are using oil based products.....only with water based products. Is this true?

Use a sanding sealer of some sort on any type of finish if your going to be sanding. It also raises the grain which will produce much better sanding results especially on things like cabinet grade plywood.

Don

[jnarowe]

Originally posted by liveforphysics
Hi DonW- Your woodworking skills look increadible, I would love to see it in person sometime.

For lighting the fuge, I would recomend 70w HPS sealed and well reflected outdoor fixtures. They are quite cheap, durable and water resistant, selfcontained, reliable, and have a small footprint.

HPS is also able to make around twice the light of CF for the same power consumption. That means less energy goes into heat. The spectrum grows macro algae quite well, and bulbs cost around $10 to replace and have very long usable lifespans.

Best Wishes,
-Luke

That's a really smart suggestion Luke. I wish I had done that on my fuge rather than my giant CF retro.

DonW: Sweet work. Really impressive. If you get up to Kitsap, drop me a note. I would love to get your suggestions on finishing out my viewing side wall.

[Donw]

Thanks, I may end up just scraping my fuge and my light. I was cleaning saw dust out of the sump yesterday and doing a little plumbing. I think the fuge/return sections is going to be to narrow to work in without alot of foul language. This is one thing I'd really like to avoid on this system. I'd rather scrap it than knowing full well if its a pain I wont maintain it properly.

Thats a 2" pipe so you can see how small it really turned out.

[jnarowe]

to be honest, small fuges are about worthless for nutrient export as you just can't grow enough macro to have an impact on water quality. (JMO of course) But the way I look at it is there are multiple uses for a fuge, like a good place to grow pods without predation, as well as a nice quiet place to acclimate incoming animals without the stress of other fish.

As far as maintanance is concerned, this is extremely important as you note in your post. If it isn't easy, it will not get done! Check out on my weeb site the multi-media reactor I built. With your skill sets, this is something you could build and actually not need a sump.

[Donw]

I'm not really to concerned about the fuge. This tank is so small that I propably wont even install the calcium reactor. That little tube you see in the pics is more like a IV for the tank. It sends top off water, ca and alk additive, water change water to the sump from my laundry room. It will change its own water constantly so I probably could even get by without a skimmer or dosing anything. I figure if the tank comes out to 70 total gallons I'd just do 50g per week in a constant water change and see what happens. I have a auto salt water maker that holds a half bucket of IO that Ive used for a few years. I just tore it apart and am making it bigger to hold a full bucket of salt. Pretty neat gizmo and works great for lazy people like me.

Don

[jnarowe]

I love the way you rigged the tubing. Any thoughts about whether over time it might become not removable?

I will be interested to see you SW change system. I use a lot of SW for my system and have it fairly automated in the sense that I always have plenty of RO/DI and SW at the ready, but there still is some involvement from me having to flip valves and turn on a pump to drain the sump. I do use gravity as much as possible though.

I have toyed with the idea of constant water changes, but just haven't gotten my brain around the whole concept.

When I suggested you look at my reactor, I was NOT suggesting you build a giant on elike that, but a rather small version, but with just 70g of water volume, 2 or 3 part dosing is probably easier on you.

[woz9683]

Of course you know you have to show us pics of that auto salt water maker as well, especially once you get it built up to hold a whole bucket of salt. It will be interesting to see if you can get away with no calcium reactor, no protein skimmer, no addition other than ato. You'd save yourself 2K or so in equipment/additives and instead you just have to buy a bucket of salt every 3 weeks or so. Not a bad idea for some smaller setups, it will be 2-3 years or more before the cost of equipment vs. just salt would even out, and even that's uncertain because you would still have to do water changes (salt), media changes (more additives), etc.

[Donw]

I already have all the equipment, ca reactor dosers and such running on my current system but would rather just sell it all off. That 2" pipe is nothing more than a stand pipe going to the sewer via a waste trap burried in the ground. Constant water changes are easy. I use a peri pump and pump water in it will overflow out that stand pipe and go into the sewer.
I'll post some pics of the salt hopper when I get it put back together. It very simple, I wont say cheap but it was affordable to build. Its simply two 6" stainless knife valves and linear actuators in a 4ft tube sitting over a big rubbermaid can.

The can has a latching float switch system. When it empty the rodi turns on filling it back up. The bottom valve opens, dumps the salt then closes, Top valve opens refilling the the measuring section then closes. Then it just waits for the container to be empty agian. This keeps the salt nice and dry, I also strapped a back massager to the side of the pipe. So when either of the valves is open the massager is vibrating the pipe so the salt does stick or clump.

Don

[woz9683]

Well, I figured you had all that stuff, but in general it could definitely be a cost saver, not to mention, much simpler than changing out water, media, and adding additives separately.

That change system sounds pretty cool. So you're just making the salt hopper larger I'm assuming, or are you making the saltwater container bigger too? But, I'm curious, if it's really a constant change, how do you account for the time when the container runs dry, gets refilled with RO, and then salt added? Doesn't the system need time to prepare the new saltwater? Or do you have an intermediate container that still contains saltwater as the primary container is being refilled?

[erics3000]

I was wondering the same thing. I can't wait to see pics of this thing?

[Donw]

The big can has a sealed 5g jug inside with a air vent above the water line and it own single float ato.
Water is drawn from the little container and sent to the sump. As long ast the big container is not in fill mode the little container is auto filled. This leaves 5 gallons since its only changing 7g per day there is plenty of time for my 10 stage rodi to make up a fresh batch of SW.

The hopper is simple. Picture a dual blade Guilletine, first it wacks off the head then hacks at the waist. I know gross analogy, but easy to get the point.
This time around it going to slice through a actual bucket sized hopper. The new actuators have 12" of throw and 150lbs of force. The new blades will be sharp and more rigid so they will slice through any clumps.
The thing will also double as a watermellon slicer.

Don

[liveforphysics]

OMG! Did you just say 10 stage rodi? I have a 6 stage, and I thought it was overboard. Do you just run a load of extra redundant stages or does it do something more than normal rodi?

Tank looks great. In reguards to the fuge, even a small fuge with powerful lighting can easily offset the nightly pH swing and provide O2 for the animals that feed at night.

I like the clever auto-salt mixer setup and continous water change idea. I'm certian you would have no need for calcium reactors or additional nutrient control methods if you just changed 5gal a day on a moderately stocked 70gal system.

Very clever work!

[Donw]

Originally posted by liveforphysics
OMG! Did you just say 10 stage rodi?

I run 3 sediment, 2 carbons, 2 membranes, 2 di's, 1 final carbon. I used to use 4 membranes but got tired of the booster pump in between them. I'm getting rid of alot of complication with this new system. I need to have a garage sale.

Don

[liveforphysics]

When I was living in Tacoma, the tap water normally tested around 25-40 TDS, and the bulk of that was often calcium.

Is there something you know about Tacoma water that we should know about or make extra precautions to remove?

[erics3000]

I need a booster pump. Pm me if you want to sell it.

[jnarowe]

25 - 40 TDS? In Tacoma? Wow...I had no idea. My well averages around 80 TDS and I thought that was good. Unfortunately, my water has varying degrees of nitrate, phosphate, and CO2.

[Donw]

Originally posted by jnarowe
25 - 40 TDS? In Tacoma? Wow...I had no idea. My well averages around 80 TDS and I thought that was good. Unfortunately, my water has varying degrees of nitrate, phosphate, and CO2.

Most of the year is low around 30. In the summer the Howard Hansen damn has issues and dumps loads of iron and Mg. The highest Ive seen it so far is 110. This year was so bad when we fill the bath tub it looks like pee. I think they had to issue a press release this year is was so bad. They also do line flushing on a regular basis, when they do it can even plug the screens on the faucets, this is why I use the extra sediment filter to catch the big crud when they flush. One draw back to living in the old parkland ghetto.

Don

[jnarowe]

nasty.

[hebygb]

Don... I have been following this thread and I am amazed by your expertise and vision. I have learned a great deal about woodworking here as well which is like a bonus. Thanks and keep sharing your build. I look every day for a new installment.

[Donw]

Originally posted by hebygb
Don... I have been following this thread and I am amazed by your expertise and vision. I have learned a great deal about woodworking here as well which is like a bonus. Thanks and keep sharing your build. I look every day for a new installment.

Thank you, here ya go sump with holes.

[jnarowe]

you are a sick man Don! I love to see those sweet tools just laying around on the floor!