240 gallon acrylic reef build

[h2so4hurts]

Brian,
Great thread I will be following; you have entirely too much free time; does your wife know you are doing this project; how big will her new tank be? Jeff

Thanks Jeff! I did spend 5 hours on Sunday putting the lights together BUT everything else has been an hour or two here and there That's probably going to change though once crunch time hits. I have a bunch of cabinet doors to start making this and next weekend.

The tank is in our bedroom, so yeah, she knows :debi:

She doesn't want to keep her tank if I'm not in town so it's either going to go into my office, my apartment, or I'll put her fish in the new tank once its moved.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Parallel circuit #2 complete

I busted out the multimeter. The white/blue strings run 890-910mA and the blue strings vary 850-880mA. I could probably spend hours moving LEDs around trying to balance these out but as long as they're within 5% of one another, I'm happy

 

[h2so4hurts]

Got a little more done this weekend. I'll get an explainer up for the parallel LEDs soon. I didn't have time to do it this weekend.

I made the light rack, cleaned up the wires, and got the power supplies and parallel circuits all arranged on an aluminum sheet.

My wife helped me put the bottom on the tank. Of course this seam was nearly perfect...

We'll put the top on Tuesday or Wednesday and then I can start working on the plumbing and making cabinet doors.

 

[fote03]

Its coming together well! Keep the updates coming!

 

[h2so4hurts]

Thanks fote! Here's a few more!

Got a little more done tonight. I cut the access holes in the top.

Finished up the stand. I needed this a table to attach the top to the tank so it was kind of a priority

I also picked up a 150 gallon rubbermaid stock tank from tractor supply to start planning transporting my fish and rocks north

 

[nc35]

Nice progress, your led lights are bright! Can't wait to see the final product. How much of a savings are you getting making your own led versus buying a radion/ai/ecoxotic?

Thanks again for your help on the acrylic edge prepping, I did a test run on some small acrylic pieces and no bubbles. So, after you flush trim the edges(glueing residue), how do you polish the edges?

 

[h2so4hurts]

The light fixture cost me $2,200 to build.

Ecotech(34 LEDs) - $750 a piece. I'd need 7 to get the same power = $4800
AI (24 LEDs) - $400 a piece. I'd need 9 to get the same power = $3600

To do the edge finishing on the edges you didn't weld, you should get a brazing torch and flame polish them. Look for tutorials on youtube! Glad your test welds worked so well.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Tank is done!

Finally got the new wetsides for the MP60's and they work great. I was worried for a bit with that eBay purchase!

 

[doosiec]

That's a very creative way to construct a skimmer!
It has that cone at the top which aids the operation.

Effective and inexpensive skimmer, great work!

 

[h2so4hurts]

@doosiec, Thanks! Glad you liked it!

Ran into a problem last night. I wanted to work on the sump plumbing and tried to put the 40 breeders under the tank but they wouldn't fit. I made the legs 18" wide because the dimensions on the front of the 40 breeder said 18". Of course, that doesn't include the 1/4" for the stupid plastic brace! I'm an idiot for not measuring the tank. Looks like I'll be sanding 1/8" off of each leg...

 

[h2so4hurts]

Made some cabinet doors tonight for the stand and the canopy (dry fit). I'm going to build the bones of the canopy tomorrow and also start gluing the doors together. I might start working on the plumbing if I have some time.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

Things are coming along very well.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Started gluing the doors, built the bones of the canopy, and painted the light rack/canopy bones. I'll probably start painting the doors in a few days once the glue dries. The plan for the rest of the week is to get the plumbing done (drill the breeders, run the overflow lines, run the return lines, plumb the return pump). I'm hoping to have everything done by the end of the week so I can move it all into the garage, fill it with water and then leak test it for a few weeks before I move it north for the install.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Did a little more work last night. Had to notch the inside legs by 1/4" to slide the breeders in.

 

[h2so4hurts]

I worked on the overflow plumbing tonight. Everything is dry fit for now. I'll glue it all this weekend.

Tomorrow I'll drill the 40 breeders and get the return plumbing set up.

 

[CaliO]

Update please

Update please

Please keep this going... I am about to do the same build in Nov. But with 100g refuge and 30g sump..

 

[h2so4hurts]

Well, since you asked...I've been pretty busy fixing up the sump and painting the stand. Just waiting for the Gorilla PVC glue to come in so I can finish the plumbing and water test the setup in my garage. Here are some pics

Glued the lenses on the LEDs. This was a huge pain in the a$%^. Not just because there were 216 of them, but the lenses from RapidLED "fit" on just over half of the LEDs so for many of them I had to babysit them until the epoxy dried.

I decided to go with movable baffles. They're just 1/4" extruded acrylic with EPDM window gasket on the edges. All you have to do is cut the acrylic 1/4" shorter than the width of the tank, slap on the gasket, and then push it into the position you want. It helps to wet the gasket so it slides. They're very tight. I put a 10 lb weight on them and they didn't move so I'm not worried about them moving on their own. They'll probably never see more than 1-2 PSI anyway.

Filter tank baffles:

Fuge baffles

Love the flat black on the cabinet doors.

 

[fote03]

Tank is coming together well! Keep the updates coming!

Questions abt the drain pipes and sump setup. Why not have the skimmer tank on the other side of the stand so you dont have to run 4 8' pvc through the stand? Whats the plan for the return line or lines? You might need some hangers for the pipes once water is flowing through them they might move around and bang on the sump or skimmer or whatever they can hit.

 

[h2so4hurts]

Yes, there will be pipe hangers. I bought them a few days ago, I just didn't see a point in installing them for the dry fit. I have the returns and skimmer run to the far side for two reasons. The return pump will be on the right side and I wanted to keep all of the plumbing lines hidden behind a small door on the right hand side of the tank. The return lines are going to run over the top of the tank and drop down through the top tank brace. It will all become clear once I get an FTS of the setup during the water test. I have the skimmer way on the far left of the sump and the return pump on the far right just to give the skimmer microbubbles as much time as possible to work their way out through the bubble traps.

 

[h2so4hurts]

It's ALLLLIIIIVVVVEEEEEEE.

You may notice there are no baffles in the sump... They all blew out. I'm going to see if I can get some thicker window gasket, otherwise I'm going to have to order glass baffles and silicone them in.

The other big issue last night was that the Reeflo Dart/Snapper pump leaked the second I turned it on. It set me back a bit trying to figure out what was wrong. I opened it up and found that the Dart impeller had a huge crack in it. I swapped it out for the "Snapper" impeller which pumps at a lower GPH and everything worked great. Hopefully I can get them to replace the Dart Impeller. I want the higher GPH.

No leaks other than the pump