An unforseen fork in the road

[Putawaywet]

Here’s the plumbing between the tank and the wall. Just need to install a couple bulkheads for the returns and 3 more bulkheads for the drains. Can’t wait to see how much fun this one will be.




Rock is in. Still need just a little more, but this is pretty close to how the finished reef structure will look.




Here is a close-up of the rock. Lot’s of quiet evenings spent putting this rock puzzle together.




This shot gives you an idea of how the tank will sit in relation to the rest of the room. Once it is up and running and I tear down the old system my leather love seat will occupy the spot where the EcoWheel currently sits.

[Putawaywet]

And just so you don’t think I sat around on my rear end all summer here’s one of our dining rom/pub that is starting to come together. I did all the brickwork myself, including building the riser for the gun safe. I also ran all new electrical wiring for the wall sconces and beer sign. Just to the right of the safe you can see one of the two cutouts for my In-Wall liquor cabinets that should be arriving in the next day or two. Ultimately the entire dining and living room will be getting the pub treatment, along with full brickwork on the skirt that will be going around the tank stand.


Beyond that, I guess that's about all I have for now. It’s probably going to be a bit before I will have another update as I have some big ticket items that need to be purchased before I can start adding water to the tank. I still need to purchase at least 2 Vortec’s and their controllers, along with my lighting. Those two items alone are going to set the old bank account back just a little, not to mention Christmas is coming up and 2 of the 3 kids still believe in Santa

Happy reefing!

Brett

[Konadog]

Brett, nice to see your still around!

Welcome to the real world of familyhood


Your tank is coming out very nice, the thought you have put into the details shows thru.

[adddo]

Haha enjoyed reading these last updates nice writing

Your dining/livingroom looks great! I wonder if i can steer my wife in that direction..hmm prolly not.. Lucky guy! Oh.. and yeah the tank looks massive! Looking forward to seeing more updates!

[H20ENG]

Looking Good Brett.
NOW do you believe I dont have much time for playing?

Hope your "bag of rocks" situation dies down soon (or just dies )

[melev]

I love that tank. They did a beautiful job and that top lip was a great idea. Very classy.

Your soap box commentary was fun to read as well.

[thechad21]

Wow, I just stayed up an extra hour past my bed time to read this thread. I love the care and detail you place in your words!! Felt like I was reading a novel. I've been planning the plumbing on my 225 sps for about 10 months now, so I would say that I can relate. I loved your comment about standing in front of your stand just trying to envision different ideas. I do that all the time!! In fact it's occupied at least half of my mental capacity for several months. I'm finally close to having all the plumbing I need to get started. I too want to get the majority of my project started before I post my build thread. I have two questions for you. One, why did you divide the tank into three compartments like that? I see you had to use bulkheads to connect the lines between the compartments. Seems like you could have saved a lot of time and money by having one open compartment. And two, I see you're going with the low flow approach going into your sump, seems like you're on the extreme side of low flow for the size of your tank. How many gph do you expect to get from those two pumps after you factor in head loss? By my calculations you'll be getting 1796 gph with 0 head. Add 5 feet of vertical head loss, friction and fittings, and I'm sure the gph goes way down. Just a little constructive criticism. If it were me I'd opt for a single Sequence Dart, but that's just me. Hope to get plenty of constructive criticism on my thread! Good luck with everything!!
Oh and on a side note.. I struggled for a month first buying schedule 80 plumbing to get the grey fittings to match my savko valves, then took it all back when I realised I'd spent $300 and was only half way there! Then searched for weeks to find a supplier that sold grey schedule 40. Then found long radius elbows from McMaster Carr that only come in white. So long story short I went with white. Might paint it all when I'm done, depends on how sloppy I am with the primer and glue. So, congrats on going all grey! I'm sure it took a bit more effort than white.

[RGibson]

You will fine long radius ells from Spears part number806-010LSF for one in dia and thay are gray.Spears has all sizes from 1/2 to 4 in dia.Call them and thay will tell you buy them. 1-800 6626326

[thechad21]

Aww. Well, thats nice to know. Unfortunately I've basically bought everything I need in white. Soooo I won't be changing any time soon. Thanks for the info though! Hopefully other people will find it usefull.

[melev]

Krylon Fusion spray paint comes in several colors, and is available at Walmart.

[Shaun120]

Awesome tank...one of the nicest tank setups I’ve seen. You really paid close attention to detail. Can’t wait to see you to get it going.

Best of luck!

[Tank Predator]

SWEET

[Putawaywet]

Season’s Greetings everyone,

No doubt few of us here are strangers to the chaos that sets in around this time of year. Or, how hectic and tiring our days seem to become as we steel ourselves for those time honored family celebrations that precedes that ever-popular end of year blowout. And yours truly is not immune to it all as I slug it out in the trenches right along side all of you as you brave the increased traffic, short tempers and general overall upheaval of your day-to-day lives.

However, with that in mind, I must say I do seem to be having a bit more fun this year than in years past. Perhaps it’s the growing excitement that I see emanating from the kids as they gear up to rake in the presents from good old St. Nick. Or perhaps it’s the fact that I will get a small reprieve as they bounce off to be with their dad for a few days allowing for a restoration peace and goodwill throughout the land (our house) if only for a few brief days.

Regardless, I am smiling, grinning from ear to ear, if for no other reason then as I type this I am listening to the relaxing sounds of water gurgling through my new tank. And even more soothing is the fact that I am starring at a completely dry floor.

Of course it wasn’t quite so soothing and relaxing a few days ago as I wrangled a shop vac to correct a small oversight on my part a few minutes after throwing the switch. It seems in my misplaced enthusiasm to see water movement I failed to notice a pipe, that up to a week before, had been connected to my skimmer. But, needing access to my pumps I had yanked the skimmer and rerouted the water flow. Or so I thought. Nothing like a little flood to damper the moment. Oh well, all the liquid stayed put in the bottom of the stand so it’s all water under the bridge as they say. As of last evening everything is now humming along swimmingly. Albeit with tap water instead of the real deal until such time I feel confident to drain everything down and call the big truck in with the long hose.

So, obviously I’ve been quite busy. Very, very, busy. But I have been helped along with a week of well-timed vacation that has allowed me to wrap up so many of those final details that have been holding this project up. And surprisingly, after a mere 20 or so hours of work I have one of my two electrical circuits up, all stubbed plaumbing connected and the system is now gurgling along nicely. Not, fish ready per se, but at least filled with some form of liquid so I kick the tires and check under the hood.

[Putawaywet]

Opps, double tap!

[Putawaywet]

But first, before I continue with the boring dribble of my daily labor I must pause for a moment to say I just absolutely love when Santa comes early, and this year was no exception. OK granted, the jolly old fat man in the red suit was actually a young guy clad in FedEx blue, but who’s going to pick nits when he delivers this to your door:








This is my brand new Sifiligoi 12x80w T5 Stealth pendant that I picked up from Will at Aquarium Obsessed. This thing looks sleeker than sleek and I couldn’t be happier with my purchase. Better still, Will and his fantastic crew at A.O. shipped it out Wednesday of last week via FedEx Fast Freight and according to their tracking it made it cross country and arrived at my local distribution center sometime over the weekend. I called them first thing Monday morning and was scheduled for next day home delivery. However, imagine my surprise when my doorbell rang Monday only a few short hours after hanging up and I discovered a FedEx truck at my curb. I was a little confused at first, especially so since various delivery trucks have been stopping by nearly every day these past few weeks, but still, there he was telling me he had a light fixture for me. So I guess, in spite of all the problems reported on this board with FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc., for one lonely little day out here on the left coast when FedEx says Tuesday they really mean Monday and Fast Freight really means Fast Freight. God, what a refreshing change!

OK, back to the finer details of my new toy:







The unit comes with ventilation screens on both ends as well as a good portion of the top. It contains 6 individual fans on one end for active cooling. It also has some incarnation of individual parabolic reflectors, although they are a bit more narrow than the likes of IceCap, Tek, and the rest. They are also formed into a semicircle at their midpoint (12 o’clock) with the parabolic bends beginning around 2 o’clock and 10 o’clock. Each reflector does have individual screw attachments, but given that the spacing is closer together than what we are used to seeing I doubt it would be easy to retro anyone else’s reflectors into this unit. I guess I will just have to wait and see how it performs before I decide if it was truly money well spent.







One thing of note is this super mondo modular plug that is supplied with the Stealth. I have not seen the likes of anything quite like this before, but then again I don’t dabble in high voltage/high amp reindeer games like others here. Regardless, it’s mate...







located on the ballast box is an even more strapping young lad who comes with his own rubber gasket and cam lock mechanism to ensure the connection will stay the course even in the event of nuclear war. Not sure how I’m going to get all of this routed thru my wall and into my electrical cabinet but I promise to report back as soon as I have something to show.







Otherwise, the ballast box is pretty straight forward, 3 power cords (no switches) and the monster that routes to the fixture. Additionally, there is also a second small wire coming off the light fixture that terminates in a RCA style jack on the end which mates up to an AC adapter that powers the cooling fans. Of note is that the AC adapter can be dialed in for various voltages up to 12 volts. There is a tiny rotating slot on the top and you simply insert a screwdriver and turn it to set on any number of stops up to 12 volts. The instructions say you can control fan speed by adjusting the voltage, but my unit came preset for 12 volts and I’ll probably just leave it at that.

[Putawaywet]

I’ve never hung anything quite like this before so it was definitely an interesting first time experience.





I really didn't have a clue as to what the best course of action was so I just grabbed a couple of 1x2”’s from the local hardware store and placed them across the tank. I then set the light fixture on top of those and moved it around until it was where I wanted it. After that I threaded the cable into the two part dohickey for the ceiling and inserted a nail into the hole for the screw. Using a whole lot of freehand eyeballing along with a little help from a level that I gently pressed against the steel cable, I lined everything up to the best of my ability and then pressed the nail into the ceiling to mark the spot. After that, I just drilled the hole, inserted the appropriate fastener of choice and screwed the nickel base into the ceiling. Then I screwed the second part of the base into the first that’s attached to the ceiling and I was all set. At least with number one. I need only repeat three more times, flop down on the couch to cool off with a beer and it was a done deal.

Raising and lowering the fixture is a snap. You just depress a small collar around the cable on the fixture end of the wire and pull on the excess wire while lifting one corner of the fixture up. With two people doing this you can raise all four corners in about 30 seconds on a little over a minute by yourself.

Obviously as you can tell from he pics I’m coming up a little short on each end as far as light coverage goes, but them's the breaks when you install a 5 foot fixture on a 7 foot tank. Luckily, I prepared for this in advance and have my rock work placed accordingly. The good news, I reduce the amount of light hitting both ends of the tank, especially so at the back end where the Vortec’s will ultimately go. The bad news, it’s softies and the like on the first 6” of my rock work on the walk around end of the tank. But I can live with the trade off given how clean the fixture looks hanging over the tank.

[Putawaywet]

One thing that I briefly touched on a while back was how the top of the tank was finished. I think I explained the black acrylic overlay in enough detail so everyone can understand the concept behind it, and I must say, it is indeed working out quite nicely. However, I want to add something else that hasn’t been previously mentioned and that is how SoCal Creations transitioned the overlay into the rest of the tank. The original design called for just the black overlay but the guys at SoCal discovered that if you were looking up from what would be a seated position you would see some of the bubbles that were trapped in the glue on the underside of the black overlay. To remedy this they came up with the rather unique (?) idea of painting on a trim ring around the perimeter of the tank, down approximately 1.25” from the top. At first this sounded like it had the potential to go south really quickly, but when the tank was delivered I was amazed at just how nicely it all turned out. Randy said he just masked off the tank and sprayed on Testors model paint of all things. Suffice to say as one who likes to fancy himself as being relatively adept at the obscure art of unique materials and creative techniques I was quite impressed when he confessed his secret formula. And being no stranger to Testors paint on occasion I couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of using $10.00 worth of paint on a tank worth several grand.



Obviously, time will be the judge and care will have to be taken when leaning over the top so it doesn’t get scratched, but all in all I’d have to say it definitely passes the three foot rule. You really have to get up close before you can tell it’s paint and not plastic. So the secret’s out folks. Go figure.

Need to run for now as I just got a call informing me another load of bricks is in. After that it’s back home to add some sand and go to work on a stubborn leak that’s preventing me from opening the valve on the skimmer bypass.

More updates to follow in a few days... promise!

Brett

[H20ENG]

What, No switch on the ballast? Take it back.

Nice deciscion Brett. Looks great. Glad your stand held the water for you. Its already paid for itself
Have a great Christmas!
Chris

[melev]

As always, great documentation with fun, descriptive verbage.

[Mizer67]

Just read the whole thread. Great work! They say nothing good happens fast in reefing, and your patience on this set up has really paid off. Will be watching this one in the future!

[Konadog]

Very nice Bret!! When you fire up the lighting I would like to come over and see it. I think it's going to be brighter than you think.

Nice to hear that all the planning on your stand worked the way you wanted it to, even if it was sooner than you planned.

[Putawaywet]

Mucho gras everyone!

Actually I took a quick road trip to Reef Geek yesterday and picked up a case of bulbs, another couple Vortec's and a couple, three bags of sand that he had marked for clearance. Greg cut me a great deal and gave me a group buy price on the bulbs since I bout 25 of them. That helped considerably to offset the sales tax.

Right now I'm running:

4x ATI Blue plus
4x ATI Blue Special
4x ATI Pro Color

But I also picked up some actinics and GE daylights just in case.

However, as of about 45 minutes ago 2 bulbs just went out on me. I'm not sure if I lost a bulb or a ballast. I'm assuming one ballast for each power cord, but maybe there's 2 ballasts per cord, in which case losing a bulb would take out it's partner no?

I can tell that at least one of the bulbs is trying to light by looking at the tank but I can't plug them in and visualize the bulbs until my other half gets home to give me a hand.

Ken, if I get the lighting sorted out I'm home all weekend. Feel free to drop in. Otherwise, my next weekend off is after New Years.

Brett

[Konadog]

Brett, I don't know what ballasts are used in your fixture, but usually it's two bulbs per ballast. Have you checked the igniter? I think that's what it's called. It's the little can thing that makes the funny sound when the bulbs are trying to light, or is it all electronic?

Are you kidding, this weekend it's pandemonium and mayhem with Xmas just around the corner Thanks for the invite but maybe after the holidays.

[Putawaywet]

Haven't checked the igniter yet Ken, but I did turn it off for about a half hour and then back on again and they all stayed lit for a good hour or so before I called it for the night. So at least I know it's not the bulbs.

I did take a peek in the louvers on the box and can see what looks like 6 mag ballasts so you're right on the money about 2 per ballast. The bad news is no e-ballasts, which I was really hoping for, the good news is 6 ballasts means there is a chance I might be able to mod it and add 3 more cords. As it is now 4 bulbs is darn bright, way more than I'd prefer for sunrise and sunset. Two bulbs would me more ideal. Six cords and six timers and my lighting would ramp up and down quite nicely I would think.

I'll run them again tomorrow and see what I get.

Change of subject here... watching all that flow going round it's quite tempting to just go get a few bags of salt and dump it in and call it a day. Taking the time to drain the tank. sump, as well as purge the lines is starting to seem like a real bummer of a task right about now. Kinda makes me wish I had used RO instead of tap water. Oh well!

G'night all ...Brett

[piercho]

T5 HO bulbs should run on a program start ballast to run at spec. They can run on instant start but I think the life may be effected. Either way, its an electronic ballast with no little can.

Quite often the problem is corrected by gently rotating one of the effected bulbs in its sockets to get better contact at the pins. You can also move an effected bulb to a diffent location to see if the problem moves (the bulb is bad). It the problem does not move it could be the ballast or a manufacturing defect (like a poorly crimped connector) in the fixture that made it past QA.

Merry Christmas. Thats one YOWZA!! setup you've put together there, man.