My new 400 G tank - Page 12

Crusty Old Shellback · #**276** 11/08/2006, 03:12 PM

Naw, I got off cheap, a 14G custom paint job on her truck.

It was hit and miss for a long time on the tank though. I still get a squeeze every now and then from her to remind me about the little spill.

I never thought that much water could come out of a 1 1/2" hose so fast. I had a input to one of my pumps come out. It just so happened that it was coming from a intake on the bottom of the tank. By the time I got the 2 valves secured to stop the flow, about 75G of water had hit the floor.

It was kind of a good thing as I decided that my plumbing was way to complicated and so I redid it all. I think I'm going to be happier with the new setup.

crescent1 · #**277** 11/08/2006, 05:52 PM

I'm sorry but, your wife has great hooters.

Snap-on · #**278** 11/08/2006, 07:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by crescent1
I'm sorry but, your wife has great hooters.

Ray: Glad you got the problem solved, sounds like the plumbing is a lot better than before. Good thing your wife was understanding.

Lordhelmet · #**279** 11/09/2006, 11:29 PM

here is another thread that i thought just went away. Great update. I hope everything goes ok. I know what it's like to be in the dog house and hope your better half has forgivin you. it makes this hobby so much more fun.

Crusty Old Shellback · #**280** 11/13/2006, 10:25 AM

Well the tank is now full of water. I finally got the temp up to around 76 but it took a few days. I moved some of my LR rubble from my holding tank into the sump along with some LS into the sump low flow area. I still have a couple of dribbles from the pipes but hope to have them fixed soon. I'll see in a few days if my fix worked.

The only problem I'm having right now is the amount of noise coming from the pumps. I know one motor has something wrong with it. I've replaced the bearings in the motor but it's still not right. Anyone know of a really wisper quiet pump? I want to just go ahead and bite the bullet and replace all three pumps.

As long as nothing else leaks, I'll be out of the dog house.

The rock work came out looking really good I think. I did raise the right island some more and turned the top rock over so that it's more flat and looks more natural. Plus it gives me a lot more room to glue corals.

I've also noticed that the left half of the tank gets a lot of sunlight. I'm also debating about replacing the center pannel in the back with the windows. When the sun goes down, it gives some nice sun line sinto the whole tank from the back. I may try it one day and post some pic's to see what everyone thinks.

Joao Monteiro · #**281** 11/13/2006, 12:07 PM

Have you considered the Red Dragon pumps ? Expensive purchase (even in Europe) but operate at low cost, are very reliable (lifetime guarantee) and no noise at all

thor32766 · #**282** 11/13/2006, 12:18 PM

wow looks great, keep up the goodwork.

818 · #**283** 12/07/2006, 02:55 AM

Raaaaaaaay can we please get an update!!! THANK YOU AND SORRY FOR SCREAMIIIIIIING!!!!

Crusty Old Shellback · #**284** 12/07/2006, 10:10 AM

NP Sam.

Well i got a replacement Hammerhead from reflo and it's a whole lot quiter than the one I had. The old one was still under warnty and so they shipped me a new one at no cost and all I had to pay was to ship my old one back. Great customer service. I'm talking to them now about purchasing a new motor for my Barracuda pump as that motor is way noisey. That should cure all of my noise problems with those pumps. Next is to clean my 3 Sedra 9000's that run the skimmer and see if I can get them quiet.

The tank has been running for a while now with just water, my old sand, dead rock and a few peices of LR from the holding tank. I'm going to put some more rock in it soon with more pods so that I can try and get a good pod population going in the tank.

The tank is going thru a alage cycle right now, mainly because of all the bad stuff in the old sand. No big deal as it will go away once the cycle is complete. Been there, done that before. With the pumps and returns set up like they are, I seem to have a good amount of flow in the tank so everything should work out fine.

After the new year, I should be starting hard and heavy on building the cabintry that will cover the tank. I've got a good idea of the design I want to use so now I just have to make it happen. I need to get it enclosed to mask the last bit of noise so I can run the system 24/7. Right now I'm shuting down the pumps at night because of the noise.

I do have a few snails and urchins in the tank right now and they are taking care of the alage somewhat. Also I'm starting to see abit of skimmate now from the skimmer. The tank went for about a month without producing any skimate. Guess things are starting to come alive in the tank as I know when the tank was set up befoer, I got a good cup of skimate out of the skimmer almost every day. I did fill the tank completely with NSW from UCSB and since I didn't get any skimmate for awhile, I'd say their water is pretty clean.

I'll try and keep the thread updated but it may not be until after the first of the year as not much will be done to the tank during the holidays. Hope everyone has a great holiday.

818 · #**285** 12/11/2006, 05:32 PM

Thanks Ray.

I cant wait to see that beast alive and running with life.

Are you still running that monstrous G6?

Crusty Old Shellback · #**286** 12/11/2006, 11:26 PM

It's not a G6 but a home made one that's probably bigger than a G6.

thrlride · #**287** 12/12/2006, 08:40 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by blown63chevy
It's not a G6 but a home made one that's probably bigger than a G6.

That's got to be a monster!

Crusty Old Shellback · #**288** 12/12/2006, 09:52 AM

Hey Stranger. How you been?

The skimmer sits in a 30G cube sump. It has a box about 12" square. The colum is 10" diamater and about 5' tall. On top is a cone that necks down to about a 4" dia and into the collection cup that can hold about a gallon of skimate. But I have a drain line on it that empties into a 1 G jug which I am getting about 1/2 G of skimate a week right now.

thrlride · #**289** 12/12/2006, 11:03 AM

I've been pretty good, and you?

That's a ton of skimmate! My skimmer (asm g4x) has been giving me fits recently. It will skim great for a few days and then go nuts and dump the skimmate back in to the water. I'm ready to chuck the darn thing.

Crusty Old Shellback · #**290** 12/12/2006, 01:42 PM

Been doing good. Working on this monster as best I can. Been busy at work now that I'm on a ship again so not much time to hang out in the lounge.

Did you see my update to my truck thread? It's got pic's and everything.

Take care. Looks like the youngin's are doing good to I see.

thrlride · #**291** 12/12/2006, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by blown63chevy
Been doing good. Working on this monster as best I can. Been busy at work now that I'm on a ship again so not much time to hang out in the lounge.

Did you see my update to my truck thread? It's got pic's and everything.

Take care. Looks like the youngin's are doing good to I see.

I didn't see that thread at all. I've probably posted in the lounge 5 times in the last 6 months. Can you link it for me?

The youngin' is doing good. Getting big and testing the patience waters with me but that's part of it I suppose.

Crusty Old Shellback · #**292** 12/13/2006, 06:32 AM

Here you go. A little story for you. Enjoy.

http://archive.reefcentral.com/forum...hreadid=847465

yea mine are getting older and really testing the waters. Son is now 16 and I've got to take him out and teach him to drive. I may be going bald soon at this rate. Or at least more gray. Have fun.

MargaritaMan · #**293** 12/21/2006, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by My F1sh R D34D!
Are you still running that monstrous G6?

It's not a G6, it's a BINFORD SHxTSUCKER!

Crusty Old Shellback · #**294** 12/21/2006, 02:39 PM

How you doin? Hope your enjoying that ride.

tank is full of water and setteling in. No fish in it yet but I'm suer everyone wants back in the big home soon.

Have a happy holiday and a great new year.

dgasmd · #**295** 12/21/2006, 08:13 PM

Do you have a specific model for the pool filter? I ahve a bigger sister of that one in my home's pool, but there is metal inside like the middle screw that holds the pleated filter material and other parts. If you are 100% sure it has no metal whatsoever on the inside in contact with water, I may get one just to polish the water from time to time.

Crusty Old Shellback · #**296** 12/21/2006, 11:05 PM

The center rod is metal but i beleive it is stainless as it has not rusted in over 4 years. As for the filter, I replaced the paper one with a cloth mesh one I found. Only bad part was their frame was made of metal. I designed my own frame from PVC and Acrylic and used that to attach the filter sock. It is a hayward 500 pool filter.

I'm headed out of town but will try and post some pic's next time I take it apart to clean.

Crusty Old Shellback · #**297** 02/05/2007, 07:39 AM

OK for those of you who think I'm crazy, I'll confirm your suspesions, I am.

As of this weekend, I'm now the proud owner of not 1, but 2 4ooG tanks.

I picked up the second tank this saturday. It's a 8'L x 2'D X 4'H overbuilt acrylic tank that weighs a ton. It's got 1 1/4" acrylic sides and 1" acrylic top and bottom. Built in overflows are on each end so it can be used as a see thru tank. Friend of mine said his wife's work wanted to just get rid of it and if I could move it out, I could have it. Thanks to some very good friends, we moved it out on Saturday.

Wife says to keep it and put it in her sunroom at the oppisite end from the other 400. So I'm going to have a 30' long sunroom with a 400G tank in each end wall. How's that for cool factor? Since this tank is 4' tall, I'm going to make it a FOWLR tank for mostly Angels and butterflies. I'll post more later and be asking some questions.

It did ccome with a sump, skimmer and 3 X max 40 pumps. I'm not sure about the skimmer and am wondering if I need abigger one. I'm thinking this one is a bit small for such a large tank.

I've got to get the wood working done on the first tank though, then I can start on installing this tank. Should make for a exciting room.

thrlride · #**298** 02/05/2007, 11:16 AM

man, you're nuts! LOL

Crusty Old Shellback · #**299** 02/09/2007, 10:15 AM

OK thanks to LA Lawman, I've gone and done the mesh mod on one of my Sedra pumps on the monster skimmer. The mod was very quick and easy.

Also thanks to his demo at our club meeting, I figured out that I had my venturi's in backwards and that was part of the cause of the excess noise and the lack of fine bubbles in the skimmer.

It's hard to tell how much of an effect the mod had on the skimmer since I also installed the venturi's in the correct position while I was working on the pumps. I did install the moded pump first and it seems to have more/finer bubbles but yet it did not push the water up as high as it normally did.

Once I got all three pumps installed in the skimmer and running, I had enough flow to push the water up the colum but yet it did not go as high as it had before. Also I noticed that I do not have as much water flowing thru the skimmer as before as there is a noticable increase in flow thru the overflow port on that sump.

This could be a number of things, the mesh mod, the venturi's being installed correctly. I did not change the height of my collection cup yet as I didn't really need to. If anything, I may need to lower it some. But I do have a nice frothy head on the top of my skimmer. We'll see how it works over the next week. It does seem to be pulling out some more stuff.

maxxII · #**300** 02/24/2007, 10:55 PM

Updates?