380 Starfire SPS in a closet
- Thread starter Avast Marine
- Start date
Avast Marine
.Registered Member
Not much room behind tank at all. This is one of the main reasons behind going with in tank circulation rather than a closed loop.
For the support for the blocks, I dug out about 14" deep and a 4' long trench thew some cut in half axles in the bottom for "rebar" and filled with 1000# of 5000psi concrete. There will be 3 of them plus a 4th that is already there (house foundation). Here is the first one completed:
two more to go......
For the support for the blocks, I dug out about 14" deep and a 4' long trench thew some cut in half axles in the bottom for "rebar" and filled with 1000# of 5000psi concrete. There will be 3 of them plus a 4th that is already there (house foundation). Here is the first one completed:
two more to go......
Avast Marine
.Registered Member
Thanks guys 
Bob, your welcome to stop by anytime I'm considering doing the cabinet work myself but I'm kind of on a tight time line here.....expecting first child around the first of the year and the wife say I gotta be done (she means it this time I think) in 4 months. I don't get the tank for another 6 weeks so.......16 doors is a kinda big project to do on the fly. Don't worry though this build will have plenty of fun projects that should keep it interesting 
Bob, your welcome to stop by anytime
I'm considering doing the cabinet work myself but I'm kind of on a tight time line here.....expecting first child around the first of the year and the wife say I gotta be done (she means it this time I think) in 4 months. I don't get the tank for another 6 weeks so.......16 doors is a kinda big project to do on the fly. Don't worry though this build will have plenty of fun projects that should keep it interesting
Avast Marine
.Registered Member
BTW, footings are all done. Will start laying block and building my beams next week......
Avast Marine
.Registered Member
Not much done this week, somehow I caught a cold in the middle of July which slowed me down a little. I did however find the time to figure out my electrical plan, source a sump and figure out the generator option.
The electrical panel should be fun project and will be working on that after I get back from vacation the week after next. For this I will be building a power center. The idea is to have a sub panel put in and then run 5 circuits to the tank closet. Where those terminate there will be a "rack" system holding all electrical goodies. This rack will be a acrylic box similar in size to a musicians electrical rack system. I ordered 5ea 8 switch dj panels for the main controls. There will be 40 outlets in the top of the box. These will be wired to the back of the dj panels. From the 3 of the dj panels I will run individual break out cords that terminate at 3 DC8 neptune control boxes. Basically the switches will light when a component is turned on by the controller and I will have a switch that can over ride the neptune controls without going through any menus. The front panel will also have my ACIII and Tunze multi controller. To make it fun (or tacky, we'll have to wait and see), I also ordered 4ea 80mm red led case fans with modder metal shrouds and 4ea blue 12" cold cathode tubes and a heavy duty lazy suzan to mount to the bottom. hahaha
The electrical panel should be fun project and will be working on that after I get back from vacation the week after next. For this I will be building a power center. The idea is to have a sub panel put in and then run 5 circuits to the tank closet. Where those terminate there will be a "rack" system holding all electrical goodies. This rack will be a acrylic box similar in size to a musicians electrical rack system. I ordered 5ea 8 switch dj panels for the main controls. There will be 40 outlets in the top of the box. These will be wired to the back of the dj panels. From the 3 of the dj panels I will run individual break out cords that terminate at 3 DC8 neptune control boxes. Basically the switches will light when a component is turned on by the controller and I will have a switch that can over ride the neptune controls without going through any menus. The front panel will also have my ACIII and Tunze multi controller. To make it fun (or tacky, we'll have to wait and see), I also ordered 4ea 80mm red led case fans with modder metal shrouds and 4ea blue 12" cold cathode tubes and a heavy duty lazy suzan to mount to the bottom. hahaha
Avast Marine
.Registered Member
Here is the sump:
This is the one that will go outside in a storage shed. It will be made from fiberglass with a 2" foam core to minimize the effects of net temperature change based on outdoor weather conditions (thanks Justin!).
All of the equipment will be under the stand along with another equipment sump. The idea is to have all the water splashing and the return pump noise not in my living room
This is the one that will go outside in a storage shed. It will be made from fiberglass with a 2" foam core to minimize the effects of net temperature change based on outdoor weather conditions (thanks Justin!).
All of the equipment will be under the stand along with another equipment sump. The idea is to have all the water splashing and the return pump noise not in my living room
Avast Marine
.Registered Member
I will be building the acrylic sumps that will go under the tank. I ordered the fiberglass one from someone who actually knows what they are doing 
Avast Marine
.Registered Member
Thanks gooli.
Eric, I do part time plastic fab so I get my acrylic from the local Piedmont Plastics branch.
Eric, I do part time plastic fab so I get my acrylic from the local Piedmont Plastics branch.
Avast Marine
.Registered Member
Zoozilla, glad your aboard
Well I got some time to start the power center since I am still a little sick and didn't feel like going under the house and laying cinder block.....
The black outlets will be just switch controlled by the dj panels. The Grey ones will be wired to the dj panels firs and then to the 3ea DC8's:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58279226@N00/921913193/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1340/921913193_af7636cdfb.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSCN0381" /></a>
Every outlet had the connector pin removed so the duplex is actually 2 differant switched outlets. Here is the 40 cords with plugs that will go to the dj panels:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58279226@N00/921913229/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1400/921913229_a8083ff073.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSCN0382" /></a>
The 24 plugs that will go from the dj panels to the DC8's with nylon cord grips installed.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58279226@N00/921913271/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1008/921913271_da968819d2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSCN0383" /></a>
I ordered my dj switches and DC's on Monday and still no word on either one so it looks like I will be back under the house tomorrow.....
Well I got some time to start the power center since I am still a little sick and didn't feel like going under the house and laying cinder block.....
The black outlets will be just switch controlled by the dj panels. The Grey ones will be wired to the dj panels firs and then to the 3ea DC8's:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58279226@N00/921913193/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1340/921913193_af7636cdfb.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSCN0381" /></a>
Every outlet had the connector pin removed so the duplex is actually 2 differant switched outlets. Here is the 40 cords with plugs that will go to the dj panels:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58279226@N00/921913229/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1400/921913229_a8083ff073.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSCN0382" /></a>
The 24 plugs that will go from the dj panels to the DC8's with nylon cord grips installed.
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/58279226@N00/921913271/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1008/921913271_da968819d2.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="DSCN0383" /></a>
I ordered my dj switches and DC's on Monday and still no word on either one so it looks like I will be back under the house tomorrow.....
dtaylor123
New member
Great thread so far. Designing and building the whole set-up is a lot of fun. I am getting my new tank next week from Miracles in Glass, Derek was real easy to work with, can't wait to get the tank. It is much smaller than yours 36"x24"x24" with an external overflow and it is trim-less brace-less (it will be open topped with pendant lighting). I have a Neptune as well, I wish I was as good as you are with electricity, mine will be much more vanilla. Good luck with your build and I hope we are both very happy with a MIG tank.
