600 gallon Acrylic and Glass Reef Construction.

[pwhitby]

The other side of the wall is the converted garage/fish room.

Here is a shot I posted earlier in the thread, showing how half the garage was divided. Only the studs are shown here:

Now it is finished, sheetrocked and textured- and insulated throughout. The room itself is approximately 13 by 20 feet. A 3 foot wide door is in the middle.

This is the inside corner of the fish room- the tank is the other side of the wall that the holes are in.

The blue tape on the floor was how I originally envisaged the layout of the barrels i will be using as sumps, but that has now changed somewhat.

This is more the way they will be arranged.

Above them will be a shelf (where the blue line is) that runs around the wall. Above the 100g barrel, closest to the front, will be a 3x4 foot frag tank, while across the back wall will run a 6 x 2 foot frag tank.

In addition there will be two more sumps that will be the other side of the door. The door is on a 3 inch pedestal to allow the pipes to run under it as opposed to over.

Finally, the pipework bought through the wall and saddle clipped to two wooden straps to hold in place. The single pipe, not conected, will run to one of the Reeflo 250 Skimmers.

The other three pipes will feed into the sump. I have yet to finish the pipes as I want them to feed into filter socks and havent made the rack for them yet.

And finally..........some of the rock that will be in this system......

P.

 

[magellan007]

very nice work, paul. Don't hesitate to lemme know if you need a hand when it comes to the rocks or transferring livestock! Can't wait for more updates.

 

[TulsaReefer]

Is the Reeflo Barracuda going to be able to supply the pressure needed for penductors? I thought penductors need relatively high pressure (> 10 PSI or approximately 23 feet of head) to really achieve the benefit from them.

 

[pwhitby]

well, when i ran the system they certainly worked just fine, lots of flow.

p.

 

[TulsaReefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13760754#post13760754 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pwhitby
well, when i ran the system they certainly worked just fine, lots of flow.

p.

That's good to know, I'll have to keep that in mind for the future. I guess it just goes to show, some things you hear are probably more based on rumor than fact. When I had asked some time back about penductors/eductors in the equipment forums many of the responses seemed to be advising I'd need some really expensive high pressure pumps. Nice to know they aren't really needed.

 

[pwhitby]

Well...it could be that with more pressure there would be more flow...I dont rteally know....I do know right now that the entire tank was running in a circle faster than you could have run around the tank....

I should have really done the same without the penductors fitted and compared.......but that water is deep and cold. maybe another day.

 

[Chrisrush]

It's true that penductors need a pressure rated pump to be optimal, but they will work on a flow pump.

Nice pipe work Paul. Will those drains be ok going down, horizontal and then back up in the sump room?

 

[pwhitby]

Hi Chris,

The overflows are the same as I had on the last tank. Only 1 of each pair is in use, the other is a backup in case of blockage.

Over the 3 years i had the last tank running, I had no issues.

Tonight I reworked a little of the internal plumbing and the flow is really great. Remove one penductor however and a major drop in flow is seen. All in all.....its progressing nicely.

 

[cjilge]

Paul,

The tank looks great! Very impressive. Can't wait to see it with coral in it instead of you! LOL. Thanks again for the coral everything looks great. One more trip to your house and Celia may end up staying! She wouldn't quit saying good buy as we left the neghborhood. I will say there was a ton of flow, it will be cool to see how it looks once it is on timers, should be really good for the inhabitants. Thanks again, and LMK if you need a hand.

Chris

 

[Chrisrush]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13767609#post13767609 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pwhitby
Hi Chris,

The overflows are the same as I had on the last tank. Only 1 of each pair is in use, the other is a backup in case of blockage.

Over the 3 years i had the last tank running, I had no issues.

Tonight I reworked a little of the internal plumbing and the flow is really great. Remove one penductor however and a major drop in flow is seen. All in all.....its progressing nicely.

Just making sure Paul. I figured you had a well thought out plan.

Now, for those internal closed loops, will you be able to access the plumbing or just the penductors/locline? You said that you were planning on putting sand in. I would imagine that those closed loops will be pretty permanent once the sand/rocks/corals are in, correct?

 

[pwhitby]

Yes, I needed to play with them a little to maximize the flow. I think I now have the layout sorted. The penductors create so much flow that the jets pointing to the left need to be on the far right or the jet hits the tank end and stops the rotation of the water at that point.

Same in the other direction. Now I have seen them working I can do a few mods and glue it all together.

 

[erics3000]

Wow that is a really cool idea for a hybrid tank...I think you might need a bull dozer to move around all your rock.ahahahah

 

[pwhitby]

Hi Eric,

Most of the rock will be in a sump, I want minimal rock-maximal space in the new set up.

P.

 

[tgunn]

Hey Paul,
Awesome job on the reversible gyre with closed loops!
I had the two Tunze streams configured in my tank in a gyre configuration at one point. It worked awesome to keep all the water in motion.

This might not be an issue in your setup, but one thing I ran into with mine was that detritus tended to settle out in the middle of the tank. Maybe your setup won't have this problem though; not sure...

Just figured I'd share that tidbit so you could tweak it away.

Tyler

 

[pwhitby]

Thanks Tyler,

I actually have acouple of nozzles pointed across the bottom middle for that very reason. Kind of diagonal to not break the flow pattern.

Thanks for the comments,

P.

 

[pwhitby]

well,

the time has arrived to get this beast done.
Today I will begin making 900gallons of water. (I already have almost 200 made last week so really only another 700 to make). The rest will be made in 5 50gallon barrels, a 44g rubbermaid, a 100g and 150g stock trough and spare 75g tank i have. Fortunately I have two RoDi units that between them put out 225g/day. Accounting for the colder water, I may lose pressure and only turn out 200 a day.

I also need to replace several ballasts in my Tek lights. The 4 units I have- each has a defective ballast. This does allow me to replace the reflectors in each one as well, so thats a bonus.

Once the water is being made I can turn my attention to the tank itself.

Starting wednesday I will begin the aquascaping. First step is to glue the pipework together for the closed loops. Once thats done I can begin with the base rocks and get them positioned. Then its a case of working a little- then submerging the rock work under water while I break. then drain again and carry on.
It will be a wet job, but I dont want the rock to dry substantially while I am working on it.

I would like to say im excited..,but the task seems quite daunting right now.

P.

 

[magellan007]

please let me know if you need help! Will is off this evening and the rest of the week, so gimme a call if you need to use his man muscles. I'm excited for you!

 

[IBASSFSH]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13759915#post13759915 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pwhitby
The other side of the wall is the converted garage/fish room.

Here is a shot I posted earlier in the thread, showing how half the garage was divided. Only the studs are shown here:

Now it is finished, sheetrocked and textured- and insulated throughout. The room itself is approximately 13 by 20 feet. A 3 foot wide door is in the middle.

This is the inside corner of the fish room- the tank is the other side of the wall that the holes are in.

The blue tape on the floor was how I originally envisaged the layout of the barrels i will be using as sumps, but that has now changed somewhat.

This is more the way they will be arranged.

Above them will be a shelf (where the blue line is) that runs around the wall. Above the 100g barrel, closest to the front, will be a 3x4 foot frag tank, while across the back wall will run a 6 x 2 foot frag tank.

In addition there will be two more sumps that will be the other side of the door. The door is on a 3 inch pedestal to allow the pipes to run under it as opposed to over.

Finally, the pipework bought through the wall and saddle clipped to two wooden straps to hold in place. The single pipe, not conected, will run to one of the Reeflo 250 Skimmers.

The other three pipes will feed into the sump. I have yet to finish the pipes as I want them to feed into filter socks and havent made the rack for them yet.

And finally..........some of the rock that will be in this system......

P.

I wish I could find one piece of the flat rock in the Rubbermaid for a frag rock!! Where did you find it?

 

[jamesdawson]

Wow, big project--can tell its going to be awesome.

I love the alternating gyre cycle!

James

 

[edandsandy]

Glad I found the RIGHT thread!
just read the entire thread!
WOW, this is going to be "another" awesome tank!