600 gal display/900+ gal build thread in the Chicago 'burbs.

[wmilas]

More tank room shots. Again excuse the mess. I'm playing with ideas before I make things more permanent and install the AC3 Pro.

What you see walking in the door:

The fuge is just one giant heat pump right now. 3 250 watters. I know they aren't sexy titanium. But I'm nostalgic and I've used these giant jagers since I started years ago

BTW the room is now a steady 74-75 with no lights completely enclosed with 100% humidity. That's not too bad. all that water moving around at 81F.

Frag tank hosing 70ish pounds of live rock atm:

 

[kingsland]

Awesome build. I love the cabinetry around the tank!

 

[wmilas]

RO/DI tank with all the float bulkheads, product and flush bulkheads in:

Check out my 'leet RO/DI plumbing skills I'll clean that mess up later

Even better check out my siphon break! Wants to make sure it actually works before I secure it to the wall

And lastly 24 (soon to be installed) bulbs of t5 lighting. I hope I don't burn everything in the tank to bits

 

[H20ENG]

"Wants to make sure it actually works before I secure it to the wall "

Looks like its secured to the wall to me :hammer: :lol:

Which fixture is that again?


Looking good!

 

[wmilas]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13965814#post13965814 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by H20ENG
"Wants to make sure it actually works before I secure it to the wall "

Looks like its secured to the wall to me :hammer: :lol:

Which fixture is that again?


Looking good!

2 x Sfiligoi Stealths. I got the 4 foot ones... I have exactly 10' 4" to work with and the 5' ones would have been really tight. I talked to a few owners and all told me its better to go a bit smaller.. some of their corals need to be placed at the edges as the light output is so high that burning becomes an issue.

 

[SaraB]

The Guardian's are nice. I installed a 16kW NG unit for my systems back-up power and have used it a few times in the past year and a half.

 

[EnglishRebel]

Great to see that you've started aquascaping - that will be my least favorite part (as I don't have any experience). Plumbing I can do (except I seem to need lots of couplings to fix my mistakes).
Are you supporting those rock piles on something? I've been told that I should use acrylic dowels to avoid trapping sand under the rock and creating anaerobic areas.

 

[wmilas]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13967959#post13967959 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EnglishRebel
Great to see that you've started aquascaping - that will be my least favorite part (as I don't have any experience). Plumbing I can do (except I seem to need lots of couplings to fix my mistakes).
Are you supporting those rock piles on something? I've been told that I should use acrylic dowels to avoid trapping sand under the rock and creating anaerobic areas.

I'm currently not supporting them with anything. If I get married to a layout and its not stable I'll drill and peg a few rocks.

I don't believe the hogwash about the sand under the rock. In fact I've always made sure I've HAD a nice sandbed under the rock. I push the rock into the sand and the sand cements around it and strengthens the whole structure. I added about 3" of sand which will dune up in places to 5" At that depth you have anaerobic pockets no mater what you do. anaerobic isn't bad. The reason live rocks work as well as they do is because of the anaerobic bacteria deep inside of them.

The danger arises when Hydrogen sulfide is built up in large pockets then bubbles in one shot to the surface. If you have critters in your sand bed this won't happen

 

[46bfinGA]

Your setup is looking great!!! I love the fish room,the skimmer. the lights....drool... Great idea with the generator, I am planning on installing one on my house as well.


I would like to note that detritus accumulation is why I was thinking about elevating the rock above my sandbed a bit. I am planning on using acrylic dowels to "lift" my rock structures above the sandbed maybe two inches, but only if I think it will be safe and strong enough once finished.

 

[salty55]

I think I have commented on this build once allready, but I have to do it again. I love you wood work, design, and the whole room. it's very beautiful. If I had the money and skills to do something like that, yours be the exact plan that I would use. Kudos to you!

 

[wmilas]

I just got the AC Pro up and running along with the temp, Ph, and ORP probes. I now have to start work on the electrical... which I'm NOT thrilled about. Hate running all those fiddly little wires

 

[wmilas]

Oh and I have 1 leaky bulkhead that's driving me insane. No mater what I do I get one drip every 30 minutes. I just lost it and went a little nuts with the caulk gun with silicone. Oops.

 

[PaulieWalnuts]

lol i know that feeling!

 

[wmilas]

Connected the first DC8. Now I get to figure out how to program this thing

 

[46bfinGA]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13973440#post13973440 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wmilas
Connected the first DC8. Now I get to figure out how to program this thing

I am still dreading getting my AC3 hooked up. I have a hard enough time posting pictures online. The instructions are quite intimidating for someone like me. Good Luck!

 

[Chrisrush]

Nice couple of updates.

That skimmer is huge. I didn't realize how big the XL was until I saw it in your sump.

Do you have your fresh water RO/DI being pulled directly from your large freshwater container? Are you concerned about the possibility of having the whole container flow into the sump?

What are you going to do for ALK/Ca replenishment?

I really like the lights. You did a good job with the size as well. I have full T5 coverage on my lights and I had to cut the hours down significantly if I want to keep any LPS on the bottom. SPS love it, but the LPS like the shade a bit.

 

[wmilas]

The RO/DI top off is interesting. The problem I have is the container is higher than both my tank and my sump. I "cheaped" out to try an idea I had at first. I installed 3 maxijets with rather large tubing. I then cut large siphon break holds above the max water line in the ro-di tank. When the pumps kick on they eject water out of the holes, but since its in the tank, who cares. They also generate enough head to still move the water so thats fine.

Ca replacement is going to be done with a Calcium reactor. I'm still 90% sure I'm going to set up a Kalk stirrer on a shelf above the sump, but I'm not sure how I'm going to feed it. I can use the same setup I have now with a reducer going into the stirrer but I'm afraid of having too much pressure, or not enough.

I can get around this, maybe, by using an aqualifter but the aqualifter will siphon. I have no idea how to build a siphon break in that would actually work. any ideas?

 

[wmilas]

Something interesting. Ive been fiddling around in the sump room for a few days as my Ro/DI unit chugs away making water to fill the tank. As expected the room has stabilized at what amounts to 100% humidity. This is OK since I designed the room this way.

What I never took into account though is that the water coming into, and going through the Ro/DI is COLD. It so cold the whole RO/DI casing, and tubing is condensing water now since its been running for so long. I go in this morning and find a puddle on the floor and I'm feverishly looking for a leak, when I get splatted on the head by water. I'm like "***?" I look up and the RO/DI hits me again with condensate.

Hopefully when I'm not making water for weeks straight this will go away. Right now its pretty annoying. I can turn on the blowers and exhaust the humidity but then I'm using extra energy. As it is I'm evaporating very little water, the room has stabilized at 74.5F, and the heaters barely kick on. If I turn the blowers on I'll lose all that humidity, the heat, ect.

 

[wmilas]

Tank is halfway full of water. My TDS is so feak'n bad (I'm consistently reading 800-1000 TDS on input now and you can't belive what the first pre-filter looks like. Its DISGUSTING) I've gone through 2 DI cartridges (because I the first one I waited too long and it exhausted the high grade second one).

I ordered 2 more sets from Spectrapure and am using the first new set now. The first DI is already reading 2 TDS which means its going to have to be replaced in 2-3 more TDS.

The first DI is a Max Cap DI-MC-10. Looking at the cylinder it looks like the bottom 1/3rd is actually silica buster stuff? (its different color brown) and the top 2/3rds is nuclear grade (15 meg/ohm) (white) resin. The weird part is that the description doesn't say it has silica remover in it, but the color for the first 1/3rd looks like it is based on the pictures I can dig up.

The second DI is the DI-SB-10 which is the silica buster Mixed bed Semiconductor grade resin (18 meg/ohm). Again the first 1/3rd is silica buster based on color and teh second 2/3rds is the black resin.

The price for these filters from Spectrapure is pretty high. I'm wondering:

1) If I actually need the silica buster. I suppose I should test for silica in my tap water. On the other hand a reef tank actually needs trace amounts of silica and stripping it all out seems a bit odd.

2) If I should buy the two different grade resins and pack the carts myself. It would save me literally 2/3rds the price and without the silica buster in the carts each one would last 1/3rd longer.

3) The first DI is supposed to be replaced when it reaches 50% of the output of the membrane TDS wise. The second when the TDS becomes readable (IE goes from 0 to 1). In the instances when the first and second coincide and are both to be replaced, wonder if I should reuse the second and move it over to the first slot since its still got "life" to it. Ie the first DI is really just a sacrificial for the second.

Any input from anyone that has a high end RO/DI like this? If my TDS wasn't so bad it wouldn't matter much. But mines so high and I'm using so much water right now this just seems kind of silly. Maybe when I go back to my normal weekly cycle where I use just 75 gallons a week this wont matter so much.

 

[46bfinGA]

Good Lord Man you have some high TDS over in Illinois. My incoming is 35 ppm,lol. Spectrapure is going to love you every few months.