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Daplatapus's upgrade
Well, I bit the bullet and bought Taionereefer's 210 gallon. So I went out to Van yesterday hoping to make the 12:45 ferry. FYI, don't think you can get on a ferry in the summer, on a Friday by getting there only an hour before it's supposed to sail.:(
Anyway, after being the 3rd to last vehicle to make it on the 3:10, we finally made it, met Taionereefer and family, loaded the tank up and ate a couple of their ice cream sandwiches. :D. Thanks again! And what's a trip to the mainland without popping into J&L. Just bought a couple bulkheads and drooled over some Mp40's, but I thought I've pushed my wife's buttons enough this month so left with just the bulkheads in hand. Missed the 7:30 ferry, Du'oh! But got on the 9:30 after a nice pizza and beer in horseshoe bay. Got home at 1:00 am, crashed, and got back up at 6:00 am to drive to Saltspring Island to help out a friend where I'm writing this. And guess where... waiting once again for the ferry because they're running 40min behind. Gotta love BC Ferries. Anyway this will not be a quick switch over, but hopefully be fun. Pics to come :) |
following along congrats on the upgrade
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Congrats on the new box of water. With all that coin you are dropping at BC Ferries no wonder you left without the MP40. :lol:
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Congrats on convincing her. One of the nicer tanks I have seen on here...so jealous. What a steal.... trust me when I say I am pouting. :wink:
Can't wait to see this come together for you. |
Well, I was able to get some help and bring the tank into the basement where I'll work on it.
Preclean: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...s/P8132924.jpg Post cleaning: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...s/P8132930.jpg |
The tank originally comes with the 2 internal overflows. The drains are 1" durso's and 3/4" returns. I want to go with the herbie design though.
On my existing system I was stuck with existing holes and am actually running a 1 1/4" full siphon but at the bulkhead it reduces down to 3/4". I had originally run the 3/4" all the way but it couldn't keep up to the flow demand. That's when I used bushings to increase it to 1 1/4" on both sides of the bulkhead and it ended up being a bit overkill. My gate valve is probably only about 25% open. So on this tank I'm thinking of using the 3/4" holes for my siphon but increased to 1" on either side of the bulkhead and use the 1" holes for my safety drains increased to either 1 1/4" or 1 1/2". I really don't like the over the rim returns on my existing tank so I'm thinking of drilling 3 or 4 - 3/4" returns in the back of the tank. I did this with my cube and really like the results - it looks nice and clean. I've been able to drill the MIP-Locline adapter and have no issues with back siphoning when the power goes out. But it is only a 20 gallon cube, not a whole lot of pressure. If I drill the 3/4" holes as high as I can get them (which is roughly 1/2" down from the black plastic rim on the top of the tank) I'll be about 2 1/2" down from the top of the glass to the edge of the hole. And I was originally thinking 4 holes, 1 on either side of both overflow boxes. But I suppose I could get away with only 2 holes on the right side of the left overflow and the left side of the right overflow. The factory returns come with a splitter on them so in essence there is 4 returns anyway. Anybody see any issues with drilling that many holes? Or should I just go with the 2? |
The other question I had (it just came back to me) is for those running dual siphon's. Is it hard to balance? Should I be tying them together and controlling with one gate valve? I know if I do it that way all the piping has to be exactly the same length, but it seems better to have redundancy with 2 separate drains. Just not sure how hard it will be to balance. What think you?
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Any thoughts as to structural integrity of drilling 2 - 3/4" holes on the back pane 2 1/2" down from the rim?
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drill slowly and carefully very little pressure and go with 4 return holes thi way you can adjust flow to dead areas your powerheads arent covering. try to design your return manifold insuch a way that yuo can have a syphon break to reuduce amount of back flow to sumpinpowerr failure
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I would use the still use the larger hole for the main overflow and the smaller return hole for emergency. Depending on what you want keep, you can always dial it back if it's too much. This way you can fine tune it once it's all set.
As for the 2 in 1, I think you are better off doing a dual using a gate valve for better control. |
I will just use few pvc 90 and build that return, over the rim of the tank, and back into the water. and drill a small hole on the pvc at water line which will act as your siphon break.
way less work than drilling holes on the back pane and have to worry about too much water drain into the sump during power outage. |
Wowza, that's a big tank, I NEED to come see it in person!:biggrin:
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Yup, you do :)
I need some stocking advice for my tank. Right now I have in my 77gal: 1 Yellow eye Kole Tang 1 Flame angel 2 Occelaris clowns 2 Schooling banner fish 1 Starry blenny 1 purple fire fish 1 Two spot goby 1 Green mandarin 2 skunk cleaner shrimp 2 peppermint shrimp misc assorted hermits and snails 1 sand sifting star fish 1 tiger brittle star 1 electric flame scallop 1 Crocea clam 1 frog spawn 1 torch coral 1 duncan tons of pulsing Xenia a few acropora a few montipora zoa's GSP 1 birds nest 1 poccillapora and probably a few other corals I've forgotten The banner fish, clam, mandarin and two spot goby are likely just visiting, helping out a friend after a move crash. What I'd like to add to the list when I stock my 210 is another tang or 2. Because of my battle with Dichtyota, and the fact I like their looks, I was thinking a Naso tang and possibly a yellow tang (not sure if it'll get along with the kole tang though) I'd also really like to get a shoal of fish. I was originally thinking 5 Bartlett's Anthias. Has anyone had any experience with these? I'd also like to add some kind of wrasse if it's compatible. My new aquascaping will probably be a small wall on one side of the tank with a couple islands. I really like negative space on the sand and want to use the islands to create that effect. Right now I'm running 2- 250W MH's with some VHO T-5 actinics. I'll eventually be building an LED rig for the 210 as well but that's probably a year down the road. I obviously like the look of a full mixed reef, SPS, LPS, softies etc. so lighting will be everything from very well lit to darker areas. Any recommendations of fish you've absolutely loved? Any thoughts to when I should introduce each fish is also going to be of great help. Especially when I should be introducing the yellow eye kole tang and the Naso. I won't be tearing down the 77 DT until the 210 is fully operational, so introductions can be made slowly. |
yellow tang is almost a must in any reef system. and a tang from Acanthurus family or more if you can introduce them at the same time.
Kole can go in first, acanthurus, yellow, then naso. Probably lot easier if everything goes in the same time. School of yellow tangs is actually quite cool. I have 3 right now, thinking and planning on 2 more of them. |
Houston.... we have a bit of progress.
Well, after a long last couple weeks I've finally been able to get some work done on the sump I plan on using for this system. It's a 110 gallon I helped liberate out of Brad's back yard. Thanks again Brad! :D I got 'er all cleaned up and removed all the old baffles and with the help of Greg, Sphelps and a couple others I came up with a design I think will do what I want it to. Thanks guys! Greg: I really like the way you mounted your heaters and I think I'll be doing something similar in the very first chamber where my drains dump into the sump. Here's a pic I took tonight while doing a water test on the sections. The first section is going to be where the drains empty into. The water will fill this chamber and overflow into my filter socks. Thanks to Greg, I raised the end baffle in this area an extra inch or so, so water wouldn't overflow and skip the socks as easy if they plug up just a bit. The next chamber is going to be my skimmer section. The skimmer will be held at the correct depth by sitting on egg crate that rest on 4 - 4" diameter ABS pipe cut the correct height for my SRO skimmer. There will be as many 2" holes as I can cut into the sides of those 4" pipes to allow for water flow in and around them. In my existing sump, I've actually even filled them with LR rubble and will no doubt get as much rubble in this section as possible too. The next section is where I plan to set up a DIY turf scrubber and more LR. And finally, the last section is the return chamber. I've yet to decide where I'm going to drill the bulk head for the external pump. I'm tempted to drill the bottom and put some LR in here as well. Brad: If you're reading this, do you know if the bottom is tempered? The plan is to have a remote refugium. Anyway, here's the pics: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...s/newsump4.jpg http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...s/newsump2.jpg I also finally got my calcium reactor on line tonight. What a pain bleeding the air out of that first section. Little air bubbles constantly keep getting caught in the plastic media in there. Is there a trick to getting all that air out so the pump isn't sucking air into it for an hour and a half? Hmmmm, may have to do more reading on that me thinks. Anyway, we have a bit of progress. If work ever slacks off, maybe I'll find time to build my stand for the sump and the one for the tank. |
Lookin' awesome so far :smile:
I gather you mean me when you talk about Greg and the heaters and sock overflow ... I drilled my sump for a return pump and an accessory pump The first time I hooked them up I had a small disaster Long story short, I siliconed the holes shut and now run my return and acces pumps internal Nothing like having flexibility when the tank is not drilled :wink: Plus, the less holes in the glass the better :razz: I like where you are putting your heaters as they will not be bypassed like mine can - potentially Are those sock holes 7" ? Keep the pics coming |
Ya, I did mean you. :) (it is Greg isn't it?) lol
I liked what you did with your sump and your use of limited space. I'm running a Reeflo Barracuda for a pump and I don't have much of a choice but run external with the amount of flow I need. Half the problem is 12' of head I need to push against. I drilled my existing sump on the side and it works really well, but because of it a do lose a bit of space on that side as I also tied in my dump valves for my water changes there too. And it's really the only side I have access to for working on it. So if I had drilled the bottom, I wouldn't have to step around a bit of plumbing, as all that piping would be under the sump. I have 4 - 7" filter socks already so I figured I might as well make my sock holder for them. It looks like it's going to work really well and I can't wait to get it plumbed in. |
Ya, it is Greg, but I'm not the only one on here :wink:
You're going to like having 7" socks I only went with 4" to save space Maybe my next sump ... |
Well, like I posted in my 77 gal build thread my new sump is up and running. You're right Greg, LOVE the 7" socks and the new filter holder I built for them. Way easier to change now. Something is a bit weird with the sump but not sure what it is. Here's a pic:
http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...s/IMAG0391.jpg The return chamber on the right for some reason gets a bit of a pressure wave across it and it's really screwing with my Tunze ATO. The wave, which gets to be about 2"-3" high, makes the infrared eye bob in and out of the water and messes it up and it overfills the return chamber. I don't know what causes it. The other bit of progress we have is I finally got to finishing re-sealing the 210. A pic my wife felt she had to take and post on here :) http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...s/IMAG0046.jpg |
How high were you at the end of the re-seal inside the tank haha... I'm betting either of these 3.
1: As high as the clouds 2: Virtually unaffected 3: Cut my head off, its going to explode. Looks good now its time to put water in the tank ;) |
LOL, I didn't actually do the siliconing while in there, just cutting out the old stuff :D
I read in a thread somewhere Grizz mentioning a doohickey from home hardware that goes on the end of a silicone gun to make perfect corners. I found it and tried it out. I ran a couple strips of painters tape 1/4" or so on each side of the corner and ran a bead with the doohickey, and WOW! It works awesome! Perfectly straight runs, nice and clean. Thanks Grizz! |
Well after staring at this tank all winter and talking to a few people (including Denny at Concept) about a side external overflow I'm biting the bullet and going to see if I can cut the side of this tank. I just got back from a weeks camping and had a bit of time to kill tonight so I cut out the internal overflows. Anyone want them?
http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...pse70671b7.jpg http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psc546dd4f.jpg I've also re-thought of the location of the tank when I get it installed and it'll end up being in my front entry way, but very visible from my couch. I'll have to post some pics of the interior of my place to show, but that's another day.... I've also now got a firm idea of how I'm going to build the stand and custom cabinetry and my lights are coming along nicely. I just picked up my final piece of pocket door track for hanging it all. Stay tuned on the Jarduino build thread for that one. |
Looking good.... How much you want for the overflows? :)
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Well, finished up early on the job for today so worked on the tank this aft. Did a water change on the 77 at the same time. Here's the previous overflow locations cleaned up a bit:
http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...pscb1758f4.jpg Any thoughts on glass thickness for patching the holes in the bottom??? I was thinking of cutting plugs for the holes and siliconing them in place, then adding a piece of glass on top and underneath with 100% coverage of silicone on them. Maybe wipe the silicone on them with a drywall trowel or something so there's no air what-so-ever in there. Any thoughts??? So here is where the tank was going to go: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...pse0b32a24.jpg I was going to remove the 20 gal cube and the 210 would sit right up against that white moulding. The distance from that moulding to the right wall is about 98" so there would have been a 24" cabinet on the right side of the tank to house my right side overflow, the MP40 drivers and my Jarduino controller. Part of my problem with that scenario is my wife thought the dining room would look too cluttered and she'd have difficulty finding a place for that china cabinet that her parents got when they first got married. That and downstairs there is a finished bedroom with only 6' 8" ceilings that I'd have to tear down to add more floor joists. And in that bedroom there's a window the tank would have spanned over that doesn't have a header over it (house was built in the 30's). I had planned on flush cutting the floor joists and adding a header in it, but that was a lot of work. By the way I am a renovation contractor and I had an engineer on board that looked at everything and was giving me direction. Do not do this at home kids :) By the way, I did all the upgrades of this house my self. Everything got stripped to the studs, reframed the roof from the inside out and vaulted my ceilings, custom fabricated all the window trim and crown moulding, updated everything. This house was a bit of a dump when we got it, but then again that's why we got it so I could do all this. :D So, aaaannnyyy wwaaayyyy..... Here's the next best place, my entry way: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps13721c7b.jpg http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps18ad5849.jpg The spot is just a couple inches narrower. The ceiling isn't finished downstairs so joists are easily added, and there's no window to span. My floor throughout the whole house is actually 3" of solid wood on top of the floor joists. 3/4" diagonal shiplap, 3/4" old hardwood that I couldn't save, 3/4" tongue and groove plywood glued and screwed, then the final 3/4" finished hardwood you see there. Even if I don't add any floor joists, my engineered said I'm good, but I'm erring on the side of caution with a 3000 lbs tank. So now instead of having a right side overflow I'll be going left side and there will be a slightly narrower cabinet on the left to house everything. Added bonus of this location is that it almost never gets direct sunlight whereas the first location got about an hour or so every eve in the summer. The only draw back of this new location is that armoire has to go and it'll probably end up in my office :( The coat and shoe racks will go where the armoire is now. |
12mm glass will be good to block the old holes , you dont need to fill in the hole at all just the square piece of glass laminated over the hole. make the glass squares a fair bit larger then the hole (if hole is 2 1/4" use a 6" square etc.)and use construction grade silicone to adhere the glass, lots of silicone and trim what drys and squeezes out after with a razor blade
looking good dom lots of progress if you need any more help just pm me and i will be glad to help any way i can:) cheers denny |
Well, sometimes old houses have some issues :) Worked through supper to get my stand done for the 210... WOOHOOO!! Progress!
Built the bottom frame and set it on the floor. Had to shim the front left corner almost 1/2" to get it level. So I scribed the whole frame and planed 'er down: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps60c68913.jpg http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps513d8aa2.jpg An hour later and a half a garbage bag of shavings and sawdust later this is 100% contact on the floor and a 6' level :D http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps5bdd3150.jpg Then goes the legs and top deck and Houston, we have touch down! http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps8d5db81c.jpg http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7c7fca28.jpg The plan is to do a single sheet of plywood on the front from the left wall to the corner of the stand with 3 squares cut out of it. 2 will match the holes in the stand the 3rd will make another cabinet door between the stand and the wall. This left side of the cabinet will go 18" higher than the tank. Then make 2 cabinet cubes that will slide into the holes in the frame. Skin the side with another sheet and trim out the one corner and have the matching base board wrap around the bottom to make it look totally built in. I'll also carry matching crown mould across the top and matching window sill around the bottom of the tank. That is, if everything goes according to plan.... Stay tuned... |
Looking great and that bit of sun that will shine in at certain times of the year will be cool if it shoots through the tank.Well doing ( not done yet)
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wow that's one heck of a level you've got there! makes my 4 footer look like a child's toy lol.
are you notching the tank for an external overflow? looks good so far and keep the detailed updates coming i love the diy stuff. |
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I will be notching the left side of the tank, kinda like mseepman has on his tank. I've phoned around everywhere local to get some 12mm glass to build the overflow box but seems like no here has anything that thick so still waiting on some prices to bring it in. Going to phone a couple places in Nanaimo today to see if my luck is a bit better. |
If you can't find any I can cut and send some out to you:)
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hey Dap the reason for the wave action and the ATO messing around is simple. Just look at the filter socks that is what is causing it. The more crap that fills in the filter socks causes a suction on the other end. so the water is sucking from the right side cause its not flowing freely through your sock.
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Well got a bit more done. Came home tonight and thought I'd bite the bullet and start on my over flow before I chickened out and sat there looking at it for another week or two.
I really wanted to keep as much of the ABS frame as I could for strength purposes so I took a 2" hole saw and cut the plastic a bit further back then where I'll be cutting the glass. The took a Dremel with saw attachment and cut along the top of the glass from hole to hole. http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps2bfa2c08.jpg http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps14d1e25b.jpg So I'm really hoping that what remains of the top bracing will be enough for structural integrity. If anyone thinks I should add something to that side, speak up. Here's what's left: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps1421cc4d.jpg http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psd8044a41.jpg The red lines represent the edge of the holes that I'll be cutting in the glass. The holes will be 1 1/2" and I'll cut a line that just touched the bottom of those 2 holes. I know that I will not want any over cut so is there something anyone can recommend that I can throw on my Dremel or something that I can finish grind that little bit of break that I'll have in the corner? |
Angle grinder with a diamond blade will chew it away nicely
When I did my 180 I did this to my euro brace 1/2" glass http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/a...k/104_0001.jpg And cut the straight line freehand slowly with the angle grinder to get this http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/a...k/104_0002.jpg Now I won't lie their can be a bit of chipping but you can smother it a bit with a belt sander and water carefully Another option is to use this on a router and set a straight edge again with slow careful motion I used this when I built my 50 http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/a...5_XB-LF1_3.jpg And got this result http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/a...e/100_6467.jpg I never worried about the rough edges as I covered that side with black acrylic to make overflow teeth. If you have question don't hesitate to ask |
Well probably the biggest concern in this tank is DONE!!!! Some of it went well, and other.... well you'll see.
A couple months ago I was asked to do a job with these sheets of marble to do a tub surround. The sheets came 24" X 84". Well to do a 5' tub wall one of those sheets had to get cut in half and look like a factory cut. So I got me one of these: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0f7dafa2.jpg Cut that stuff like butter, so I thought, "hey, I wonder if this would cut glass?" Does it ever :D So to start I cut 2 - 1 3/8 holes. I was told to cut 1 1/2" but I didn't have one and figured an 1/8" ain't gonna make a difference. So 2 holes on either end with the wife pouring water on the bit while I drilled and presto, hole on the left: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7fd3ec5b.jpg and hole on the right: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psa94f0f3a.jpg That was the easy part. So in part to procrastinate a bit more, I prepped the side panel so the base of the saw wouldn't scratch the glass: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psc4ea5579.jpg At this point the wife couldn't watch so she went back upstairs and turned the TV really loud. Not sure if that was to drown out the noise of the saw or so she didn't hear my screams if I screwed this up :lalala: 10 min later and 30 gallons of water spray later: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psd1e9e5b7.jpg And the tank: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psd55f1dd6.jpg |
From there, a few cuts here, and a few cuts there, and we have a piece of glass:
http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...psfa769835.jpg http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...pse4670d5c.jpg The start of the cut and end were a bit rougher than I liked so I just took a regular 1/2" drum sanding thingy for my Dremel and watered the glass down a bit and sanded the tiny rough bits off. This was the result: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps6d4f62fa.jpg http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...pscaaf6723.jpg But here is where things started to go awry :( Just when I was feeling all proud of myself for making it this far and not have to go buy a bunch of glass to re-build the tank, I grabbed a bunch of rags to sop all the water up from inside the tank and wipe the glass down. Guess what? Did you know that when there no glass to support that trim it's really brittle :frusty: So needless to say you really shouldn't lean on it. Argh. Yup, SNAP! Du'oh!!!!! http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps113def0d.jpg http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps75e32c26.jpg Not sure what I should do now. Build a brace that goes over on this side? Glue an ABS sheet 24" long 2"-3" wide right on top? Pull all the bracing off and Eurobrace with glass? For some reason this option scares me a bit. I don't know. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Anyway when you stand back and look at it, it looks good :redface: http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/...ps0cd1ba36.jpg |
that cut turned out great. i'm pretty sure they say one piece trims offer some strength while the frames that are 4 pieces glued together offer none. but i highly doubt that trim did much of anything before. you should be fine but maybe smarter people can chime in.
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I haven't crunched the numbers to prove it but a decade and half of engineering tells me that ABS did a whole lotta dimp for structure other than hiding someone doing a sloppy job in finishing the edges of the glass and cleaning up excess silicone. My vote would have been to remove the trim anyways. Go modern, go rimless.
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