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#51
06/22/2007, 12:54 PM
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Great Setup !!!!
I'll be keeping eye on this one....
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Keith |
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#53
07/12/2007, 12:06 PM
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Sorry for the lack of updates...
To make a long story short, my wife was strongly pressuring me to get the tank going; while she has been very supportive of me getting back into this hobby, she does not understand the typical time spent conceptualizing, designing, and starting a large reef aquarium. Because of heavy work obligations this summer, and the desire to not be nagged daily about it, I am hiring a local maintenance/installation company (actually a 1-2 man operation) to do the plumbing and start up. I anticipate them starting this weekend with the closed loop system. Sourcing a custom sump turned out to be a bit harder than I expected so that has held things up a bit. A few local sources have apparently gotten out of the custom sump business, limiting their offerings to tanks. We are likely going to use Tenecor since they give nice discounts to locals for custom acrylic work, and their lead time is only ten days. I've read mixed opinions about their quality, but this is a sump and if there are major problems they will obviously rebuild it. All the equipment is now here, save for PVC fittings and pipe which will be sourced by the installer. The chiller (Teco TR20 with heater) arrived with major shipping damage; Aquarium Specialty and Teco were great about sending a replacement out quickly. It is borderline in capacity for my water volume but I think it will be enough given the 250cfm of air going through the canopy and the use of pumps that won't heat the water up. And we keep the ambient temperature around 76 degrees year round. If needed I can add another TR20 (would be nice to have as a backup even if not needed for cooling) or sell it and replace with a larger capacity unit from Tradewinds, Pacific Coast, Aqualogic, etc. Hopefully woodwrangler can start on the millwork soon, the room will look a lot better with the cabinet skin attached! Basically once the CL is finished all the remaining work will be done in the equipment accessed via the hallway. Nothing else to report, other than plans for a R&R/snorkeling/diving trip to Bora Bora in November  One day I would love to travel to Fiji and select some corals for my tank...
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#54
07/12/2007, 03:48 PM
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I understand completly in so many ways. I use to be a PACS admin for a 4 office outpatient.
I started my wall before I left and put up the drywall. I am trying to see if I can get someone to finish the mud for me so it is done when I get back. My soon to b wife wants to go to Fuji too. I think next year we are going to take a trip. I didn't think about bringing anything back. I am in Cali now and they are some decent stores. I might take some stuff from here back home. How are the LFS up there? At least we can order stuff on line. Keep the pics coming...
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Eric (Red House for my 425 system) |
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#55
07/12/2007, 04:53 PM
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Quote:
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#56
07/12/2007, 05:12 PM
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Quote:
Tenecor will give you great pricing on a custom acrylic tank which may be worth considering since you're not planning a living reef. Their stand pricing, on the other hand, was exorbitant -- definitely look elsewhere for that. Also I met someone locally who builds nice custom glass tanks, including large ones... 500G is right up his alley. He can get starphire. If you want his contact info let me know. Price won't be any cheaper than A.G.E. but probably faster and local. SL65 is just awesome. Even here in PV and Scottsdale you don't see too many V12 Benzes. My next vehicle may well be a CL65 (new body style) once the girls are out of their car seats. Eric PS -- are you with Valley Anesthesia or another group ? ever at Scottsdale Shea ? |
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#57
07/12/2007, 05:16 PM
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Quote:
It is actually pretty inexpensive to go to Fiji, at least considering the vast distance. I think the flight is about 12 hrs (overnight) direct from LAX, piece of cake with a pre-flight cocktail of 15mg valium and a beer! Bora Bora on the other hand is very expensive... travel distance is quite a bit less than Fiji but three flights are needed to get there from Phoenix (Phoenix > Los Angeles > Tahiti > Bora Bora). |
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#58
07/12/2007, 05:20 PM
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wow looks amazing cant wait to see you have it up
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#59
07/12/2007, 06:44 PM
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Yes gota love intenational travel flights.. way too long...
WIth going from FL to CA it can where me down with just one stop. There is another engineer here form Pakistan his flight was 20 hours..Ouch..
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Eric (Red House for my 425 system) |
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#60
07/12/2007, 08:55 PM
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there is a local RC forum that may interest you:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/fo...s=&forumid=228
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"Try not to become a man of success but rather a man of value" Albert Einstein |
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#63
08/15/2007, 03:47 PM
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Sorry for the lack of updates. Plumbing is about 3/4 done, still need run the loop to the chiller and finish the returns to the tank. Most of the difficult stuff is done including the gravity feed to the skimmer and the return manifold.
I'm probably going to get a pair of Deltec FR509 reactors, one for carbon and one for RowaPhos, which I'll run off the return manifold and then return back to the sump. Still have a bit of work to do with water management. Plan is to use SpectraPure LM3 and accessories to perform auto top off and semi-automated water change. The total drain tank will hold RO/DI water for top off, and can also be used to mix salt water. A float valve will be installed within the tank to cut off the RO/DI. Waste water from the RO/DI will be diverted through the Deltec self cleaning head to keep the skimmer collection cup clean; once it fills to just below the skimmer head the water (and whatever nog has collected) will automatically siphon into the drain. I'll try to post some photos tonight. Last edited by ekovalsky; 08/15/2007 at 03:58 PM. |
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#64
08/16/2007, 12:25 AM
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As promised.. better late than never!
closed loop with OM 4-way inside stand  equipment closet plumbing in progress   The sump was made by Tenecor. They did a nice job, it is basic but will suffice. Waste water from the RO/DI will be used to flush the self cleaning head on its way to the drain (black pipe coming out of the wall). The total drain tank will be the reservoir for top off water, and also do double duty as a salt water mixing tank for semi-automated 10% water changes. Two Deltec FR509 reactors will be added to the shelf with the KM500 kalk stirrer and PF601 calcium reactor. The return pump is hard to see, it is sitting behind the skimmer. The 1.5" outflow leads into a tee then is reduced to 1" for the primary tank return line. The branch of the tee supplies a secondary return line, passing through the Teco TR20 chiller (in the pantry on the other side of the wall) before going back to the tank. Another tee from this same branch will supply the fluidized reactors (sequentially phosphate then carbon) before going back to the sump. There are ball valves on each limb to adjust flow. I expect to throttle the Dart return pump down, although there is a lot of pipe and numerous fittings so head pressure will take care of some of the excess flow. I did use long sweeps instead of 90 Ells which should a bit. There are two drains coming from the overflow. The primary drain is the gravity feed to the skimmer, which ideally gets 800gph. I kept plumbing at 1-1/2" to the inlet where it reduces to 1". There is a bypass line from the gravity drain to the sump which should keep any surging out of the skimmer. I put ball valves on both the bypass line and the skimmer line, with the later as close to the skimmer as possible, to allow fine tuning of the flow into the skimmer. The other overflow drain is basically an emergency drain and empties directly into the sump. Normally I expect this to be closed, or nearly closed, with the ball valve. It is mainly there in case I need to take the skimmer drain of line. To answer a previous question, there is black vinyl on the back of the tank only. I do need to do something with the sides. At this point I am undecided between painting them black, trying to apply vinyl (difficult now that the tank is in the niche), and using foam on the interior which will eventually cover with coralline. Hopefully water testing will begin in the next 1-2 weeks. Last edited by ekovalsky; 08/16/2007 at 12:35 AM. |
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#65
08/17/2007, 01:49 AM
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the entire room is very clean and compact. on your OM4 if needed to removed the drum for cleaning, how will you be able to do this as i didn't see any ball valves on the outlet side? keep them pics coming and project coming together.
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Bart ********************* a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle (red house for 600gal) |
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#66
08/17/2007, 01:57 AM
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#67
08/17/2007, 02:30 AM
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LOL, that would have been pretty nasty when all rocks and sand was added
. let me know how the self cleaning head works out as i am interested on getting one. on mine i had placed ball valve with union making it simply to removed. since your CL is under your display, IMO bleeder valve can also be added so that you can empty any remaining water. i know the spa flex makes the job so much easier, no need for perfect cuts.
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Bart ********************* a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle (red house for 600gal) |
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#68
08/17/2007, 09:48 AM
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Sweet .Glad your Back. Looking good.
I guess I am going to use ball valves too. What about disconnects or unions? Yeah Bart you need to get the self clean skimmer. I'll take yours off your hands for you. hahahahah
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Eric (Red House for my 425 system) |
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#69
08/17/2007, 11:33 AM
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Yeah, union ball valves would be ideal. I used SUBVs on the pumps. There will be DUBVs on the chiller too.
I expect the SCH to work well, it is very well designed and built. The old version used a motor driven by pressured saltwater, requiring serial booster pumps. Lots of potential problems with that... now the brushes are turned by an electric motor so only a wall wort is required. The collection cup still auto-siphons itself once filled, but a solenoid is no longer included to cycle filling. To keep things simple, I may use a peristaltic pump of a Spectrapure Litermeter III for this, drawing either RO/DI product water from the reservoir or RO/DI waste water from a tiny holding tank. I'm going to discuss options with Doug (Deltec) when he returns from reefapooloza. |
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#71
08/17/2007, 05:38 PM
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Elovalsky,
Great setup (Looks familiar). Unless you do not want light to escape from the sides of the tank there is no need to paint them. When viewing from the front the total angle of reflection (Snell's Law) causes the sides of the aquarium to appear as a mirror. Are you planning to add any additional support to the total drain tank?? |
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#72
08/17/2007, 06:26 PM
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Quote:
The total drain tank sits on a 5/8" MDF sheet. Obviously this wasn't close to sufficient to hold its weight with 20-30G of water, so 2x4 supports were added beneath the shelf close to the center where the bulkhead is and where all the weight is concentrated. Some of these are anchored into framing elements behind the cabinets so they can support plenty of weight. If you look carefully in the photo of the equipment closet, you can see one of the 2x4s protruding past the face frame above the sump area. Thanks for the refresher on Snell's law. no need to keep the light from escaping as the sides will be covered by the millwork. That will save me some grief! There are ugly HD ball valves below the overflow past the right side panel and I definitely don't want to see them! Still not sure if I will add a float level controller to the tank, or just use the valve on the RO inlet to drop the pressure enough so that the production rate approximately the use rate. I'm going to use a Litermeter III with its water change module as a top off system. There will also be a pump that will cycle on and off to flush the skimmer head, but I may try to utilize the RO/DI waste water for that since it will be going down the drain anyway. |
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#73
08/17/2007, 07:15 PM
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One thing that concerns me about the total drain tank is it appears the bottom of the tank is resting on the MDF. On the US plastics website most of their tanks that do not have a flat bottom are supported on the rim of the tank.
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/cat...e=20726&Page=1 I choose to support my tank by making a box were support is applied to the rim of the tank. The bottom of the tank does not touch the self.  I was going to valve down the R.O. unit however, Spectra Pure advised me the unit was not meant to operate in that manner. Not a big deal since I only need to make water once every two-weeks. Again nice looking system
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#74
08/19/2007, 09:50 PM
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I am building a 295 gal 72 x 30 x 31.5 and wondered where you got this tank.
__________________
90 gallon bowfront for a year then upgraded to a 140 gallon in April 2005. |
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#75
08/19/2007, 11:46 PM
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Quote:
The "total drain design" with tapering bottom (which comes fitted with a 1" threaded bulkhead) allows it to be a RO/DI reservoir as well as a salt water mixing tank. Great space saver for setups like mine with limited space for equipment. I'm going to build a box like bcordill out of 10" x 5/8" melamine shelving to support the perimeter, rather than have all the weight focused around the bulkhead. This will float the bottom just above the shelf. It definitely will better distribute the weight/stress as you mentioned. Since cutting the pressure of the RO/DI unit to reduce production is not recommended, I will try to fit a float controller into the tank with a cut off. This will be a nice backup in case I forget to turn off the angle stop supplying the unit when the reservoir is full Looks like I need to spend some time calibrating the Maxcap RO/DI unit. Spectrapure recommends running the unit and measuring the product versus waste water, and adjusting the flow restrictor if the ratio is off. After leak testing with fresh water, I intend to fill the tank with RO/DI water which will take several days... afraid that mass purchased saltwater will have excess silicates or other badness. |
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Linear Mode
