Hop's 800 gallon rebirth

[jnarowe]

looking great Hop!!

[Hop]

chris wright: Thanks for tagging along! I hope that some quality info, good and bad, is shared here I expect the thread to slow down a bit here soon as the next few tasks are rather tedious and boring... Sumps and plumbing, but I may have a few other little tasks in between.

salty joe: Thanks joe. I'm hoping that the cleaning of the room is easy and trouble free. Hopefully it looks good too I have to admit that the vision is a bit of a mix from several builds, but the wetroom concept was basically taken from Steve Weast's wetroom, as far as the laminating of the wood for easy maintenance.

jnarowe: Thanks bud! I'm sitting here relaxing after the kids got me up too early to go hunt for the eggs the silly rabbit hid last night With none of the stores open today, I can't buy any adhesive to finish wrapping the wood until tomorrow, so maybe I'll actually start cleaning up the display. Then I can get the few scratches in the acrylic fixed... Man that sounds like work

[jnarowe]

sure does. I have to go in and baby-sit my store. Our new Point-of-Sale system install did not go well. Bad data, one terminal down, the other with a serious lag, no credit card processing, etc... It's a real mess and my Sunday staff cannot handle the issues.

[Hop]

jnarowe: Sorry to hear that! Think how your staff feels. They wanted a nice quiet day and now they are stuck spending it with the boss




So are there any SLR gurus around? I noticed that the stock lens for my canon XT, a 18-55mm, has a particle of dust inside the lens and it makes a blip on all my pics. Is there anything I can do to fix it, or should I just plan on buying a new stock lens when I pick up a 100mm f/2.8 Macro?

[gkarshens]

Where did you buy it? It should have a warranty for something inside the lens. Are you sure it isn't on either end of the lens? I sometimes get some dist on the inside section of the lens. I recently had a small piece of something get inside the body itself and I was able to remove it with a pair of tweezers.

[Hop]

Yeah, I can see the stupid dust mite. It's on the inside of the inner lens. I can check on the warranty, I actually got it, I mean Santa got it, at sears when they were having a pre-Christmas sale.

[gkarshens]

If not a good camera store should be able to clean it for less than buying a new one.

[Hop]

You know we have good places here to service guns, tractors, monster trucks and snowmobiles... But no where to have a camera fixed Next time I go to the big city to the west of me, I'll take it with me.

Right now it's not that bad as I'm not taking any really great pictures, just documenting the build, but it is annoying.

[gkarshens]

If you have photoshop you can remove it using the Clone stamp.

[jnarowe]

Originally posted by Hop
You know we have good places here to service guns, tractors, monster trucks and snowmobiles...

Sounds like heaven!

[hsvtoolfool]

Hop, your room look great! I wish I had such a luxury of space.

I hope you don't mind a quick suggestion. If you haven't already
done so, you should add a vertical 2x4 to the back corner of your
counter-top. This is beneath your tower of RO/DI, mixing, and
frag tanks...



The entire inner half of your counter appears to be supported
only by screws into the wall studs. From your diagram posted
earlier, I estimated your tank-tower/counter-top must support
about 200 gallons maximum. This is about 1 ton of weight in a
6-foot square area. The downward force on the dozen or so
screws in that back corner is pretty scary. A single 2x4 in the
corner would carry the load down to the floor.

[jnarowe]

Just a reminder Hop...



That's less than 100g on a SS table.

[Hop]

Originally posted by hsvtoolfool
Hop, your room look great! I wish I had such a luxury of space.

I hope you don't mind a quick suggestion. If you haven't already
done so, you should add a vertical 2x4 to the back corner of your
counter-top. This is beneath your tower of RO/DI, mixing, and
frag tanks...



The entire inner half of your counter appears to be supported
only by screws into the wall studs. From your diagram posted
earlier, I estimated your tank-tower/counter-top must support
about 200 gallons maximum. This is about 1 ton of weight in a
6-foot square area. The downward force on the dozen or so
screws in that back corner is pretty scary. A single 2x4 in the
corner would carry the load down to the floor.

Thanks for looking close enough to notice Actually there will be a support placed in there just before the sump and fuge are placed inside, as well as one on the other side and one right under the frag tank. One thing though, is that the bench will only have to support a fraction of that weight. Both levels of the storage vessels are tied into the studs as well and then supported on each of the corners. Then to counteract the pull, if any on that wall, a bench is tied to the studs on the opposing side at a height of 42", to add stability to that wall. When I divided it up earlier, I want to say that it was less than 8% of the sheer strength on each screw, not accounting for the cross supports. I estimated that the total weight over the entire run of the bench was only about 700 pounds which it has already held without even a bow, when there was three of us on the bench while I was routing the top.

So hopefully it should hold

jnarowe: Thanks for the flood reminder

[hsvtoolfool]

Sounds good to go. I just like pointing this design issue out for
others who are reading along and are new to the DIY game.

[jnarowe]

I have a lot of experience in the area of floods!

[Hop]

Originally posted by hsvtoolfool
Sounds good to go. I just like pointing this design issue out for
others who are reading along and are new to the DIY game.

No worries!!! Please keep watching out. I may get forgetful and forget to put them in there and I'll need someone to remind me Plus there are a ton of other spots I'm sure I'll need some people watching out!

Originally posted by jnarowe
I have a lot of experience in the area of floods!

[chris wright]

Hey Hop,

I dont mind slow and tedious, the plumbing interests me on set ups. Different ideas for diiferent results. I like to see what works, and some threads have good details, making them a better thread to follow and learn from.

Still following

[Hop]

Well if it's plumbing you want to see, stick around

I've got a basic idea how things are going to be ran, but all and all, I think the plumbing will be pretty intense. I'm almost a little scared to start it

[chris wright]

youll be right mate

[LA-Lawman]

Hop. Great build so far....on your s/w storage tank. are you gonna wire in a salinty meter to help you out. if you have a mixing pump tied in. a meter would be the next best thing... plumb it in the top with a uniseal so it hangs. no brackets to fuss with..... or rig it into the ehiem pump flow like a calcium reactor would.....

i dunno maybe i am babbling....

[Hop]

Originally posted by chris wright
youll be right mate

I know, but it's going to be such an undertaking

Originally posted by LA-Lawman
Hop. Great build so far....on your s/w storage tank. are you gonna wire in a salinty meter to help you out. if you have a mixing pump tied in. a meter would be the next best thing... plumb it in the top with a uniseal so it hangs. no brackets to fuss with..... or rig it into the ehiem pump flow like a calcium reactor would.....

i dunno maybe i am babbling....

Nope, not babbling. It's certainly something to add to the idea. Just today after a slight mishap and an issue with sawdust and smoke, I was trying to figure out how to tie a smoke detector and water sensor to the Neptune.

Thanks for the suggestion it's one more thing I'll add to the think tank Now is certainly the time to think...

[Hop]

Well I've spent hours cruising the for sale threads and close reef club threads. I was hoping on trying to pick up a 50-180 gallon complete set up with some nice corals and live stock. I figured it would be a great way to get some mature corals in my tank, save some money and help someone out. Unfortunately when your looking for these deals, you can't find them. Just a few months ago it seemed they were everywhere.

And another thing I noticed is that while looking for parts for my tank in the used selling forums, no one ever has fifteen new 2" bulkheads for sale

[jnarowe]

no kidding. Several complete setups have gone on the block here lately, including one decent size system GIVEN away.

[Hop]

I wanted to spend a good portion of the day today and get the wetroom finished up but... My wife reminded me that we had a huge pile of junk on the side of the house. So after borrowing a buddy's trailer, I toted nearly half a ton of junk to the dump. Not sure how this became my responsibility as most of the so called junk was from my wife's yard maintenance. But at anyrate, that is now done

I spent some time and started cleaning up the looks of the edges. First off was to tile up the sump shelf. I had to leave a small gap in order to remove the brace when needed. Too close to the brace and I would need a prybar to get it out. :



Next up I was able to get the aluminum L pieces I put on the bench corners painted up. It's nice living next door to a guy that owns a body shop



I just added this pic to show that on the right side, I will be adding two braces. I have them cut already, but need to get some more adhesive and finish off the wrapping of the supports:



A little more caulking. And FWIW, a sheet of plywood, along with foam will be placed under each of the water vessels to support the acrylic:



Here I just wanted to show the seam that allows the front of the electrical panel to be removed to access the wiring. The top also hinges up and out of the way.


I think that's it for this week. I was going to work on the wetroom and tank starting Friday for a solid two weeks, but I'll be helping a family member with a u-haul and a whole lot of furniture... So I guess the tank will have to wait!

[jnarowe]

Looking great Hop! I don't think I would have painted the aluminum myself...I think it will just scratch off, but perhaps the auto-body guy has some serious paint!

I thik using the floor tile up the bottom egde is a good idea as it will be very forgiving.