Dez' Tank Journal

[Dez]

More progress. I put foam on my tank a yesterday and then my family wanted to lie down on the tank stand . My daughter joined in later. I almost took a snooze on it.



Then with the help on my 2 neighbours I lifted the tank into place. At first I grabbed one neighbour and he tried but didn't trust himself to lift it, so later we grabbed another neighbour and we got her in. My neighbour then proceeded to lift up one corner of my mini since he was in the "lifting" mood. He got the car up about an inch in one corner....yikes.

Here's a picture looking from the living room.


Here's a picture from the den side, my tolerances were tight. I have about an eighth of an inch on either side of the tank and my overflow is about an eighth of an inch away from the wall. I'm so glad it fit:


The external overflow - the 2" bulkhead in the bottom of my tank is the intake for my closed loop.


Tonight I decided to make my first piece of aragocrete. The idea is to make a piece of rock around a 2" plumbing "Y" to use as an intake for my closed loop. I hate the idea of the strainer and trying to hide it with rocks, so I'm making a strainer rock.

Here is the Y with a ton of holes drilled. I've kept the shavings to add to my aragocrete mix to make it more porous.



Here's another couple of pictures with straws inserted so that there will be holes to suck water in from. The balloons are to prevent my aragocrete mix from going into the fitting.





And finally, my artwork. Hopefully the backside turns out alright. I think I'll put the backside toward the overflow side cause it's going to be rather "flat". The reason I'm using a Y is to try to create more surface area for the suction to create less "suction" points. I don't know if that makes sense. Not to great with words. Hopefully you're enjoying this slow tank build.

[subman]

what a great idea can't wait to see more!

[Dez]

Thanks Subman. I forgot to mention that after the aragocrete cures, hopefully I'll be able to pull all those straws out. *cross my fingers*, worse case scenario, I'll cut 'em flush and they'll be eventually covered in coraline algae anyway.

[golf nut]

You might want to do some math, you need about 165 drinking straws to handle a 2 inch feed, likely twice that much considering the friction loss, starving a pump is going to cause nothing but grief.unless your plan is to leave the ends of the wye open as well.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by Mr OM

You might want to do some math, you need about 165 drinking straws to handle a 2 inch feed, likely twice that much considering the friction loss, starving a pump is going to cause nothing but grief.

Ahhhh.....you wonder why I have balloons covering all parts of the Y....it's because I took your advice and I'm just going to use eggcrate to cover the two 2" holes at the Y. The straws are just "extra" to spread it out even more. I really did take all of your advice to heart and am planning it the way you suggested. Instead, I didn't use a T, cause a Y takes up less space. You wanted me to draw water from top down, so that's what I'm doing.

Thanks for the advice.

[golf nut]

That's why my edit is earlier than your post

[lastlight]

some very crafty ideas here! Can't wait to see more. Your rate of progress is just fine =) I'm a fellow slow-builder and sympathize entirely. I'm also a dad of two now and I'm scared to set my tank up now until they're older. I do bedtime diaper changes sitting on the floor because I'm too tired to do it any other way!

I'm still intrigued by the rock you let sit for 4 years...that's insane! With the topoff and salt creep I'll bet your salinity is so low it's more like a long freshwater bath for the rocks...

[BlueAbyss]

Hmm, that's a slick idea Dez. Nicely done, hope it works out well... I'm sure you'll have no problems getting most of those straws out, though the ones with the 'crinkle' on them might stick pretty good.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by lastlight

some very crafty ideas here! Can't wait to see more. Your rate of progress is just fine =) I'm a fellow slow-builder and sympathize entirely. I'm also a dad of two now and I'm scared to set my tank up now until they're older. I do bedtime diaper changes sitting on the floor because I'm too tired to do it any other way!

I'm still intrigued by the rock you let sit for 4 years...that's insane! With the topoff and salt creep I'll bet your salinity is so low it's more like a long freshwater bath for the rocks...

Brett.....ha ha. It is kind of sad isn't it. I should have taken the rock out, dried it out and seeded it when the tank was set up if I knew it was going to be 4 years. The funny thing is once in a while I'd push the salt creep back in . I still don't own a hydrometer. I just ordered a refractometer from J&L along with a bunch of bulkheads and stuff. I will be placing an oceans motions order soon because I can't seem to find one used. Man this hobby is expensive. My wife and kids are the ones getting after me now to get the tank set up, but I try to do it after the kids go to sleep cause I can't let these years go by working on a tank when I could be playing with my children. At least a lot of the things they can help with. I have very much appreciated your tank build. It is immaculate. Maybe one day we'll meet. I used to go down to Calgary lots just for reef stuff