300 gal reef re-do

[pcostanzo]

Yes. I figure that would be the easiest way to plumb because it's going to run back into the sump.

[jnarowe]

geez...I even slur when I write!

well my concern with that placement is airflow. It is really important to give chillers as much cool air as they can get, and IMO, far more important than piping water to it . I know some is lost in transit, but when you have a bad location for the chiller, that can make it over-work and end up costing a lot to run and maintain. I would give it some serious thought. There are trade-offs of course, but you want that important piece of equipment to be in ITS ideal location.

[cbui2]

stand gave you a lot of room and less wood used. why didn't i think of that to notch ? placing a chiller outside my garage and maintaining fish room temp at 75deg 24hrs daily made work easy to performed IMO. great sketchup Paul, thats a lot better then me . are you going with a fuge?

[erics3000]

damm your fast ..that stand looks good..pretty decent with sketch too..MAybe you ca label your sketch

[pcostanzo]

Jonathan- I thought about that too for the chiller. Let me play around with a couple ideas

Bart- The large sump will have 6' of it for a fuge

Eric- Label? Thats the next step. Just getting this far with sketch up twisted my brain.

[jnarowe]

Just getting this far with sketch up twisted my brain.

Ain't that the truth!

[thirschmann]

nice sketchup work .

I know its been said but that rack will give you lots of room to work with, nicely done.

Agreed about the chiller location, outside is always better.

And I would have never developed my sketchup work to the detail its at today if I could have been working on my tank instead. Good luck and looking good.

[pcostanzo]

Thanks Tom. I use a CAD program all the time to design furniture and cabinets but there are some things on sketck up that has me twisted.

Here is the finished rack. It is 12' along the back wall


Here is the section over the oil tank. It is 6.5' over the rack and 8' over the oil tank.


The finished sump/fuge.

[jnarowe]

really nice Paul.

[erics3000]

That is sweet. About how much do you think you have into the sump minus the plywood?

[pcostanzo]

Under $200. Would have been the same as a buying a Rubbermaid tub, but I like the dimensions better with this. I always liked the plywood tanks I've seen people build and wanted to try it. Gotta love that DIY stuff.

[thirschmann]

nicely done man, and having exactly the dimensions you want on that sump must be great. Your going to have lots of room to play with in there.

I wish I had time to do more DIY stuff but I haven't had the luxury yet. Looking forward to making some stuff down the road.

Looking good, keep cranking it out.

[tanya72806]

looks awesome. BUT i would be very careful with that section over the oil tank only because if theres a leak or a repair need on it and you have tanks on the shelves its gonna be a head ache

[erics3000]

I really like the way the sump is made to your specs. Sweet dude... real sweet

[cbui2]

very clean and working pretty fast Paul. what's going in the fuge? keep up the good work

[pcostanzo]

Thanks guys

Tanya- the section over the oil tank is only going to be Ca reactor, Kalk, Chiller... Nothing major to move if I have to.

Eric- Thanks for the post on my DIY Ca reactor thread. No need to be jealous about taking time off from work. I broke my ribs 3 weeks ago and was stuck home so I started planning. I didn't schedule any customers projects so I could have time to heal. When I barely was feeling better I was tired of sitting around so I decided to start building. Next week will be different.

Bart- I'm planning live rock and various macros. I have to admit I looked through your entire thread again last night. I got in my final shipment of flex PVC, about 100', and just had to check out your plumbing again. I am also jealous of the 4' depth of your tank. I was very close a few days ago to just say "DO IT" and use the 300 as a sump. Then I came beck to reality.

[erics3000]

Damm Broke rib ouch..

It is cool that your are going full speed now that you have the time.

Reality sucks. Hey look at it this way you can add custom tank building to your site and have some cools pics for it..

[pcostanzo]

I actually have a picture of my tank under "built ins" on my website. I handed out my cards to local LFS owners in case someone is looking for cabinetry for their tank.
www.paulcostanzocabinetmaker.com

[cbui2]

thanks Paul, excessive viewing of my thread will cause brain damaged . yes i loved the 4' depth but wish i had done external overflows, didn't know that much then. there are so many things i could have done to make my system so much better, not that its bad now . seems to me you will have some fun with plumbing 100' spa flex

i could used some cabinetry work next to my fireplace we can trade off on labor with plumbing

[jnarowe]

love the flex PVC...good stuff!

[pcostanzo]

Well I painted the stand today. That should be it.


I also was brave and drilled the new drains. I have been dreading this. It wasn't too bad except the gallon of putrid dead snail water that drained on me when I took the old bulkheads out. The new 2" bulkheads are massive. Talk about a close fit.


My cramped working area under the tank.

[jnarowe]

looking good. those are good bulkheads too. I actually drilled my holes small and filed them to the exact dimension needed...talk about a PITA!

[pcostanzo]

Thanks again Jonathan for steering me towards the 2" drains. I would have hated to do all this work and not have it keep up with the pump.

[jnarowe]

Well I hope you can squeeze the stand pipe in there and get enough flow. It will take some adjusting I think, but once it is right, you and your reef will be happier. WIth the 2" drains, it gives you more flexibility in how you tune your system, what kinds of strainers you can use, etc. plus of course, being able to keep up with the return pump.

As I may have already stated, I have two sumps, and inbound and an outbound, primarily due to the cunstruction of my catwalk, and the desire to bleed off bubbles before the return pump. I have 2 x 1.5" lines w/vales between the sumps, and a T w/valve just after the return pump. This allows me to keep the water levels in the sumps equalized, and also provides a quick prime if needed.

Because I use the 2" flex PVC from my drains, it's possible to isolate and clean or remove an entire sump, yet keep the system running on just one, and I only allow the water level at 1/2 of sump volume so I can easily absorb any water from an electrical outage or equipment failure.

[cbui2]

looking good, what type of paint was used for stand ?