600 gallon Acrylic Reef

[Untamed12]

Gate valve mod on the G6?

[pwhitby]

i have one mod'd for now....but bought the extra uniseals. Ill see how it does with one....then 2..then 3.....

Ill feed with a mag 5.

P.

[pwhitby]

im doing the gate valve mod myself

[Untamed12]

You'll certainly have your's well tested before I get to fire mine up. I'll watch your thread for your experiences.

I suppose you won't use the Mag 5 feed until you've mod'd all three Sedras?

[pwhitby]

thats right....till then ill feed with the sedras

[Russ Braaten]

Gous, I have about 20 of the kits with the hoses for the IV drips. You can set the number of drops pretty easily. I may even have a bag of saline also.

If you want to change the color of your PVC plumbing, The best thing to use is Krylon Fusion paint. You don't need to prepare the plastic with sanding or primer or even thinner. It actually bonds to the PVC like a solvent glue does. It now comes in a lot of colors and sheens and the spray tip has a fan spray so you can lay it on like a professional.

[Bishop]

Would it be possible to see that BK in action sometime?

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by Bishop
Would it be possible to see that BK in action sometime?

Very soon I hope... I am working on my aquascaping now and as soon as I get my RO booster pump (hopefully today) I will start filling the tank with in the next day or two... Once I get the system full and make sure all my plumbing is up to par I will adding salt and once that is all mixed I will give life to the BK...

[Bishop]

I was thinking you were in OKC area, now I see you're in Ohio :-/

I want to actually see one running in person so I can gauge the performance, the one I saw at Macna was eh, but that may have just been the tank it was installed on.

[asnatlas]

Originally posted by Bishop
I was thinking you were in OKC area, now I see you're in Ohio :-/

I want to actually see one running in person so I can gauge the performance, the one I saw at Macna was eh, but that may have just been the tank it was installed on.

Once I get it setup and running I had planned on video taping it in action…

[Gwalker]

Okay, so you moved your tank in and put it up on the stand last night. Where are all the pics!!??? Are you laid up in bed with a sore back or something??

[pwhitby]

here ya go...

I want to thank all of our friends that cam by and helped yesterday. Big thanks go to Wayne and Amanda, Ray, Ben and his wife, Ryan, Russel and Stephanie, and of course Lynn (who operated the camera)

Here are a few pics:

The tank was turned onto its face, and laid on a piece of ply wood. The ply was strapped to the tank, then the tank was lifted, two furniture dollies placed underneath and these were strapped to the tank. Once that was done it was a case of pushing it from garage to my door and thru.....

this pic the tank is going into the living room...having come thru the door.



heres the tank rolling thru my house:



Once in front of the stand we removed the dollies and laid the tank on its back. In this pic you can see the protective sheet of wood.



then it was lifted up onto the stand...



and finally the wood removed.

I asked lynn to stand in front of this for perspective. The tank base 34 inches from the ground, the top is 64.


last job...remove the protective film....but that can wait a while.

Once again, thanks all.
I really appreciated the help. You made a big task very easy.

P, and Lynn.

[ZC]

Wow man it looks awesome, can't wait to see some water in there

[pwhitby]

Well......if you didnt hear...I just let ouit a long sigh of relief. I drilled the tank and fitted the bulkheads. I have to admit I was a little worried about doing so...but it went reasonably well.

I finally went with 4 holes in the bottom and 4 in the back panel for my returns. Tomorrow I will fit the plumbing for my closed loop and get the tank filled to do a water test of the fittings. Once thats done.....Ill get the sump finished and Im all set.
Pictures to follow.

[Untamed12]

That wasn't your original plan, was it? I assumed you would have ordered it with the holes predrilled. Is there a reason that you chose to drill it yourself?

[captbunzo]

I'd guess because:

1. drilling acrylic is REALLY easy
2. and drilling yourself allows you to make up your mind with the tank physically in front of you...

[pwhitby]

thats absolutely right.

At the time of building I really didnt know where I wanted the holes. It was easy enough...just a little nerve racking.

P.

[captbunzo]

I can promise you that it is order of magnitudes less nerve racking then drilling a glass tank.

[pwhitby]

nope.

I totally disagree. Look at it from this perspective.....


1) I had to be inside the tank to drill it.
2) I have drilled many glas tanks
3) You wouldnt try and drill 1 inch thick glass
4) sheer expense of a screw up.

It was enough to make me not want to do it.

[captbunzo]

Yeah - and with a custom glass tank, you'd have probably had it predrilled.

[pwhitby]

absolutely. Almost crazy not to.

[Travis L. Stevens]

Originally posted by pwhitby
nope.

I totally disagree. Look at it from this perspective.....


1) I had to be inside the tank to drill it.
2) I have drilled many glas tanks
3) You wouldnt try and drill 1 inch thick glass
4) sheer expense of a screw up.

It was enough to make me not want to do it.

I see your point, and it's a good one, but in hind sight wouldn't have been easier to look at it this way? I guess it's a half full, half empty way of looking at it. (If you can't tell, besides #1, I pretty much pulled the rest out of thin air)

1) get under the tank in the stand than actually in the tank?
2) It just lets you have more experience
3) But someone has to do it?
4) Would a little weld-on fix it?

[pwhitby]

Travis. To cut a hole with no imperections thru thick material, you cut from both sides using a hole saw mounted in a drill press.

Experience is fine

I wouldnt trust anyone else to do it, but it doesnt mean to say I enjoyed the experience.

and no. Weldon would not be the ideal way to fix a scratched tank from which water leaked....out of the bottom.


It would have been much easier to have had the tank drilled at manufacture, but like most things, doing it myself allows for alterations in plans. I had intended to drill the sides only, but after a long chat with Paul at Oceans motions I decided on a different approach. Instead of having the OM creating opposing pulses (note I dont say "wave") that cancel each other out, I am going to create sequential pulses which complement and cause a rolling water motion in the tank.

To clarify this a little.....

There are four returns from the OM. Each is split into two feeds into my tank.

OM cycles thru outlets 1 and 3 together then 2 and 4 together.

Feed 1. bottom of the tank, RHS . Slpits to two, each comes up thru the middle of tank, pipe travels across tank towards front and points UP.

Feed 2. Back of tank, near bottom. Feed splits to two and enters tank, blows straight forward about 5 inches above bottom.

Feed 3, same as 1, but on LHS

Feed 4 same as 2 but on LHS

Returns to pump, midway up and across back wall.

heres what happens.....water enters tank behind the rockwork from feeds 2 and 4, this pushes water out the front of the rock, near the tank bottom, towards where feeds 1 and 3 are. 1 and 3 cycle on and blow the water UP towards the tank top. The suction created by the pump returns pulls water backwards across the top. This is helped by the overflows on the back and by the sump return blowing straight down the back of the tank.

The reslut is a rolling of the water in the tank.

This has a couple advantages....it remains non laminar since it is pulsed, it pulls dirt up from the sand into the water column and helps keep zooplankton suspended. Its not wastefull of the pumps energy since the pulses are not in opposition.

Make sense?

P.

[captbunzo]

Way cool.

[pwhitby]

Heres a wee pic I threw together....



the rock (brown area) sits on PVC racks making a void space where the water comes in from returns 1 and 3.

The red arrows show the flow from the pumps, the blue shows what results from the pulses.

P.