The inwall 380 starfire reborn

[jnarowe]

day jobs bite.

[mako56]

Did you use wheels inside of it or just the unistrut lock nuts ?

Yep there are wheels in there it works really nice because I have the room. They are a bit over built but that's what millwrights do and it was all scraps from work so the price was right. But I still wish the tank was wider 24" just doesn't do it. You will have so much fun with your new tank.

[Sparkss]

Well, as I reported earlier I finished upo the electrical, but I still need to clean up the extension cords and what not. I will take care of that tomorrow.

I finished up the plumbing, here is what I have so far :0
From the back:



a shot where you can see the left side return. I used the 45's on both returns in order to re-use the union ball valves from the previous tank setup. It ended up pushing them out further from the tank than I wanted, so they don't line up with the 90's coming out of the bulkheads. If this ends up being a problem I will jsut cut them all off, put in regular 90s on the bottom and buy new valves. The valves are to control the flow and help balance the return to both sides of the tank.




and the right side return



Here is a shot underneath (yea, I got a little messy with the glue ).

[Sparkss]

Here is the drain that will be plumbed to gravity feed the skimmer, and the standpipe for overflow/backup purposes. The open end of the 2"t will have a gatevalve attached for controlling the flow through the skimmer. I am waiting until I move the skimmer into place before doing the last bit of plumbing, so that I can accomodate the placement of the inlet to the skimmer, etc.




As you can see from the other pictures, the tank is about 75% filled. I lost a day+ due to our ATO reservoir running out and needing to be filled via the RO/DI unit. The way I have it plumbed in it puts priority to the top off reservoir, so it filled that until full then automatically went back to filling the tank. We get about 4" of water per day, and it is 9" from the top. So right around Tuesday evening it should be filled. That works out as the salt is scheduled to arrive on Wednesday .

[Sparkss]

small update. The plug in the right hand CL bulkhead just won't seal. No matter how much teflon tape I use it still drips *aarrrgghh*, so I am going to use the trick I read about here, to put some silicone on the threads versus the teflon tape. Hopefully that will stop the drips.

Also, several of the teeth for the overflows were broken in the original move, and I managed to break even more getting it up onto the stand and into position. So I am planning to just cut them all out (and file down the lip so it is smooth) and put in some egg crate instead. Does anyone know where I can find black egg crate ? or at least gray ? (ones that are reef safe, naturally ).

I made a run to HD today and picked up a few supplies for the lighting rack, I should have enough to put it all together when the box track gets here on Thursday. I debated just building the rack today, but decided to take a break and just knock out the projects in one day (later this week), versus a little bit each day (I change into work clothes when out in the garage, so I will only ruin one pair of jeans, etc, throughout this project ).

I also still need to get in there and clean up the extension cords, etc. I will try to get to that later this week.

We are working on replacing our current Deltec skimmer with a larger one. Once we have certain aspects finalized I will share the details here . I just want to make sure that the new one will fit and workout with the space we have available before committing to it , but suffice it to say that I will do just about whatever it takes to get the new one in... just short of moving the tank itself

[mrcrab]

Just use the regular eggcrate and spray it with Krylon for plastic.

[mrcrab]

Hurry up with the light rack thing. I need to make one too.

I'm actually having a garage door guy stop by tomorrow to give me his thoughts. I'm thinking one system, garage door track, as opposed to 2, rails and pulleys.

[jnarowe]

better yet, use these removable overflow combs like I did. All you have to do is glue them on and they can be removed for cleaning.



They are from AquaMedic and you can get them on eBay.

[Sparkss]

MrCrab
So the Krylon Fusion for plastic is reef safe once it dries/cures ? I was also thinking about the gutter guard material, especially since it already comes in the darker color(s)

And as soon as the box track arrives on Thursday I will get the lighting track done :P . I am wanting to use 2 tracks for stability sake. Even a garage door uses two tracks, and a 3rd if you have an automatic opener. The only thing I have not completely decided upon is if I am going to use a separate light mover for each light or one mover to move the entire rack back and forth. There are advantages to both methods (and I already have 2 movers). Right now I am leaning towards 1 mover for both, although that will take more effort in setting it up (believe it or not ).

Johnathan
Those removable teeth look great, but I was interested in the egg crate, or some other similar thin material so as not to block the flow of the surface water. Basically to make it like a toothless overflow by putting the egg crate back behind the lip, so it would break up the water after it goes over the lip, versus before, where it would stand a better chance of mixing the surface protiens back into the tank/water instead of skimming them off into the overflow. That was also why I planned to sand down the lip to make it smooth across it, to offer less chance of breaking up the surface before it enters the overflow. But since we plan to gravity feed our skimmer, and will likely be injecting ozone, I need to make doubly sure that nothing makes it into or past the overflows (or it would be toast).

Thanks for the heads up on the removable teeth though, at least now I have a really good fall back option if my original plans don't work out (which happens more often than I would like, or care to admit ).

[mrcrab]

Originally posted by Sparkss
MrCrab
So the Krylon Fusion for plastic is reef safe once it dries/cures ? I was also thinking about the gutter guard material, especially since it already comes in the darker color(s)

Yes. I used it to paint pvc down tubes for my seaswirls. No problems.

[strittmatter]

I have also read that the Krylon Fusion is reef safe once dry. I don't have water in my tank yet but have painted some PVC with it so hopefully what i have read is true.

[tacocat]

Originally posted by Sparkss
Does anyone know where I can find black egg crate ? or at least gray ? (ones that are reef safe, naturally ).

Yeah, I do. There's some in my garage.

How much do you need?

Hector.

[Sparkss]

Hector,

Just enough to go across the overflows, so only about 4" X 36". But I think I will try the Krylon route since you are so far away from us (and Walmart is significantly closer ). Thanks for the offer though .

[jnarowe]

egg crate will grow some serious algae so make sure it is removable. My removable combs are installed on the outside of the tank wall but are you saying that you would use it in a horizontal position inside the overflow?

[tacocat]

Originally posted by Sparkss
Hector,

Just enough to go across the overflows, so only about 4" X 36". But I think I will try the Krylon route since you are so far away from us (and Walmart is significantly closer ). Thanks for the offer though .

No problemo.

[Sparkss]

I will need the Krylon anyways to paint the nylon screws that I am going to use to hold the egg crate in place . Although I would love the opportunity to come out and see your tank setup . Maybe another time, when I am not so crushed with work

[Sparkss]

Originally posted by jnarowe
egg crate will grow some serious algae so make sure it is removable. My removable combs are installed on the outside of the tank wall but are you saying that you would use it in a horizontal position inside the overflow?

No vertical, installed inside the overflows. I have nylon thumb screws and nuts/washers to hold it into place. I need to hurry to get them drilled though, as the water will reach that level by this evening

[Sparkss]

Well, looks like I will be going with the removable teeth since our overflow is glass skinned with the plastic that makes up the teeth, so no rdilling through that for me *sigh*.. oh well

[strittmatter]

how about using siliconing a bracket type thing to the overflow then srewing the egg create into that?

[Sparkss]

I had thought about that, but at this point if I am going to be siliconing anything I would rather do something that I know will work out long term. I have heard stories of some of hte negatives to using egg crate for the overflows, just that they need to be cleaned alot more than regular teeth and are algae traps. I don't see it myelf, but either way I have 4 of the removable combs that Johnathan posted on order and hopefully on their way to us shortly

[jnarowe]

Tom, in the long run you will be a lot happier with the removable combs. They let a lot of water pass through and just keep the fish out of the overflow. When you can yank one out, take it to the sink, and clean it, it's just a better experience. The egg crate would be VERY difficult to keep clean. When they get covered with coraline, then you can soak them overnight in vinegar.

[strittmatter]

Why does egg create get dirtier faster?

[mrcrab]

it catches alot more garbage because you have a blockage in both directions.

[jnarowe]

plus a much larger horizontal surface area.

[Sparkss]

Well, salt arrived earlier today, so I added a second Vortec and put them both on a wavemaker (with a 15 minute cycle so as to try to avoid the code corruption issue with them) and dumped 2 buckets of salt into the tank. I also added a 400w heater to bring the temp up a bit, there was a 300W in there that did a decent job, mostly because I put a piece of 1" foam over top of the tank to keep the heat in . I have it filled to about 2" or so to the bottome of the overflow teeth (the ones we have left ). I only filled it this much for a couple of reasons, the main one being that I will need the level lower when the new overflow combs arrive and I go to glue them on and another reason being that once I add all of the rock next week it will raise the water level somewhat.

About the overflow combs... I made the payment yesterday morning and it is now afternoon the next day and no shipping notification nor have they returned my Email. So far the Ebay seller AquaCave is not living up to his Ebay ranking . Do these combs get glued to the outside or inside of the overflows ?

Once the salt is all mixed and what not I will add some seed sand and LR form our main tank to seed the new one, along with suspending some chaeto from our fuge in there as well. Hopefully that will allow the microfauna population to really take hold.

Work is progressing on the new skimmer, I may end up having to move our sump and replumb our return pump and some other pieces of equipment to make it fit where I need it to, time will tell how that will work out. I am stoked about the skimmer, and although I have not really talked about it much here, I have spent a significant amount of time measuring and diagraming our fish room area for where the skimmer will go for Spazz, so that he can design and build it to suit our space needs. I can't wait for it to be finished so we can put our Deltec 902 up for sale and recoup some of that money .


Once the water clears some I will do what I can to take a few more pictures, but for now it is still just a big empty fish bowl

the track for the lighting should arrive tomorrow, although with work I am unsure if I will get to it before this weekend. Then again the pods and what not could care less about the light, so I am not in a huge rush at this point. Look for more pictures by the end of this weekend at the latest !!!