Thanks for the encouragement! I have some updates that I hope to post shortly.
600 Gallon Surger Reef Build
- Thread starter mdreef1
- Start date
Thanks for the encouragement! I have some updates that I hope to post shortly.
Welcome aboard. Glad to have you following.
The bottom is actually both.. 2 full sheets sandwiched together plus a perimeter brace. The overflow is internal. It's a 10" H x 8" W coast to coast box. The sides are all 3/4" with lots of extra bracing. The only starfire piece is the front pane. None of it is tempered. I was told that there's 1400 lbs. of glass in it.
I've made some good progress on the 1st tier of the deck.
The top is pretty much completed. I had some leftover plasticized cement used for filling in joints in hardwood underlayment, and I used that to make the gaps between the deck boards (3/4" sandeboard) disappear. While I was at it, I put a skim coat over the whole thing to make it a bit more water resistent. I then used the same epoxy floor paint as before, and put a couple of coats over the top. That should be quite durable and easy to keep clean.
The uprights are future supports for the railing. I just remembered that I forgot to prime the joists before I put this whole thing together. That'll be 10x harder to do it now.. doh!
I also finished up the trim around the tank. It's no longer as much of an eye sore from inside the house. The trim is 4" x 3/4" made from some extra shelving I had laying around with some nice ogee moulding laid inside of it. The bottom had to be a lot wider to cover all the stuff that makes up the stand and all the glass. Plus, I'm going to have ~4" of sand, and I wanted to cover a bit of that space as well. In this case, I used the full shelf width of 11 3/4", and topped it with a bit of leftover window sill. Under that is simple crown moulding with returns on the ends. The crown moulding hides the angle irons and lag bolts that hold this thing together. It's strong enough for the kids to stand on without worry.
The tank walls have all been scrubbed down (from all the algae that accumulated), and the tank is drying out so I can start working inside it.
The top is pretty much completed. I had some leftover plasticized cement used for filling in joints in hardwood underlayment, and I used that to make the gaps between the deck boards (3/4" sandeboard) disappear. While I was at it, I put a skim coat over the whole thing to make it a bit more water resistent. I then used the same epoxy floor paint as before, and put a couple of coats over the top. That should be quite durable and easy to keep clean.
The uprights are future supports for the railing. I just remembered that I forgot to prime the joists before I put this whole thing together. That'll be 10x harder to do it now.. doh!
I also finished up the trim around the tank. It's no longer as much of an eye sore from inside the house. The trim is 4" x 3/4" made from some extra shelving I had laying around with some nice ogee moulding laid inside of it. The bottom had to be a lot wider to cover all the stuff that makes up the stand and all the glass. Plus, I'm going to have ~4" of sand, and I wanted to cover a bit of that space as well. In this case, I used the full shelf width of 11 3/4", and topped it with a bit of leftover window sill. Under that is simple crown moulding with returns on the ends. The crown moulding hides the angle irons and lag bolts that hold this thing together. It's strong enough for the kids to stand on without worry.
The tank walls have all been scrubbed down (from all the algae that accumulated), and the tank is drying out so I can start working inside it.
Welcome!
I wanted twice as many bulkheads as absolutely necessary to keep the tank from overflowing due to a surge - even in worst case scenario of clogs and such.
What do you mean by frosting?
I ran the mockup tank for about 3 years, and the CSDs in it were completely trouble free, though small and underwhelming. I can't wait to see what the big boys can do! No real way to test them ahead of time.
Thanks! I'm almost ready to start curing concrete in the tank. I'll post some updates shortly.
Here's the PVC support structure for the concrete slabs
This pyramid will be part of the closed loop, and is plumbed as such. There are 3/4" threaded sockets in the back that I can use to attach lockline and penductors. They are capped at the moment.
Each half of the pyramid is connected to a pipe that runs around the perimeter of the tank with regularly spaced 3/4" threaded ports. Additionally, the two halves are independant, and while I plan to use a single hammerhead to drive both halves, at least I can valve them differently.
This pyramid will be part of the closed loop, and is plumbed as such. There are 3/4" threaded sockets in the back that I can use to attach lockline and penductors. They are capped at the moment.
Each half of the pyramid is connected to a pipe that runs around the perimeter of the tank with regularly spaced 3/4" threaded ports. Additionally, the two halves are independant, and while I plan to use a single hammerhead to drive both halves, at least I can valve them differently.
BigOldReef
New member
I'm very curious to see how your surge turns out. I run a 26g surge tank which is one story up using 2" pipe. I created some vents so I got rid of the belching and big bubbles. But it still creates a lot of bubbles.
My surge cycles about every 90 seconds.
Can't wait to see how yours turns out.
My surge cycles about every 90 seconds.
Can't wait to see how yours turns out.
That sounds awesome. I bet you get a ton of velocity to your surges. How did you do your vents?
I have no doubt that 10 @ 2" will be more than addaquate to drain what ever surge you could possibly supply!,
By "frosting" I meant a concept like frosted glass, so you could not see the plumbing from the main viewing/vantage point. With being 4' away it may be a non issue (e.g. not an eyesore) but it seemed to pull my eyes to it...I know it is too late to use frosted glass, but I didn't know what you were planning for the back drop and if you planned to match that with the overflow somehow. (I have an external C2C overflow on one tank that I used a window tint on the back of the tank to disguise it, but it still shows the plumbing, which I didn't care for. I have considered putting a thin skim coat of black silicone over the inside of the overflow to hide all my plumbing) and was wondering what your plans were in that regard.
Do you have any pics of the mock up you made? I am still trying to wrap my head around how you are going to go from the surge device (ten drains) into the refuge (via 10 bulkheads) to the tank? Is there only one exit from the refuge which will drop onto the wave breaks in the DT? or how will that part work? (if I missed the explanation, please just reference the post # and I will review it again.)
I love the idea about the softner salt as the disolvable base for what I think is a great looking piece, well done! Just a thought but if you were worried about your rock being too fragile and not as porus as you'd like, you could opt to use a couple hundred lbs dry rock under your concrete pieces to provide some dense areas for denitrification and bacteria growth. (I do like the appearance of what you created though, I may steal the idea myself
Long post right back at you, sorry.
Keep up the documentation, I am enjoying this one. I imagine the rest of the house is worthy of some very interesting discussion as well. Its good to have smart friends!
BigOldReef
New member
MDReef,
On the 2" bulkhead outlet I put a 2" length of 2" pipe that I serratted so that it breaks the big bubbles up.
My downpipe comes through the wall at the back of the tank, and then the pipe comes to the front of the tank to the bulkhead that returns the water.
In the final elbow that leads to below the tank waterline (on the exterior of the tank), I drilled the elbow and then slid a piece of 1/2 vinyl tubing that goes to just above the tank water surface level. When the water starts coming down and needs to push the air out of the pipe, this releases the air without pushing all the air out the outlet into the tank.
My friend is going to come shoot some decent video of the surge when I finish the work project I have going. Most impressive is that my surge is pretty much silent. I watch TV in the next room and you only know the surge is running when the room gets brighter from all the bubbles in the tank.
Now outside where I have the surge 'bucket' when it finishes it's siphon cycle it sounds like a wave crashing on a beach. I haven't found a solution to silence it.
The system has worked flawlessly for about 6 years now. The only problem I had was when I rat knocked the top off the surge tank (3/4" slab of acrylic) - fell in and then clogged the pipe. But gravity and no moving parts make for a pretty foolproof (excluding rodents) design.
On the 2" bulkhead outlet I put a 2" length of 2" pipe that I serratted so that it breaks the big bubbles up.
My downpipe comes through the wall at the back of the tank, and then the pipe comes to the front of the tank to the bulkhead that returns the water.
In the final elbow that leads to below the tank waterline (on the exterior of the tank), I drilled the elbow and then slid a piece of 1/2 vinyl tubing that goes to just above the tank water surface level. When the water starts coming down and needs to push the air out of the pipe, this releases the air without pushing all the air out the outlet into the tank.
My friend is going to come shoot some decent video of the surge when I finish the work project I have going. Most impressive is that my surge is pretty much silent. I watch TV in the next room and you only know the surge is running when the room gets brighter from all the bubbles in the tank.
Now outside where I have the surge 'bucket' when it finishes it's siphon cycle it sounds like a wave crashing on a beach. I haven't found a solution to silence it.
The system has worked flawlessly for about 6 years now. The only problem I had was when I rat knocked the top off the surge tank (3/4" slab of acrylic) - fell in and then clogged the pipe. But gravity and no moving parts make for a pretty foolproof (excluding rodents) design.
I have no doubt that 10 @ 2" will be more than addaquate to drain what ever surge you could possibly supply!,
By "frosting" I meant a concept like frosted glass, so you could not see the plumbing from the main viewing/vantage point. With being 4' away it may be a non issue (e.g. not an eyesore) but it seemed to pull my eyes to it...I know it is too late to use frosted glass, but I didn't know what you were planning for the back drop and if you planned to match that with the overflow somehow. (I have an external C2C overflow on one tank that I used a window tint on the back of the tank to disguise it, but it still shows the plumbing, which I didn't care for. I have considered putting a thin skim coat of black silicone over the inside of the overflow to hide all my plumbing) and was wondering what your plans were in that regard.
Do you have any pics of the mock up you made? I am still trying to wrap my head around how you are going to go from the surge device (ten drains) into the refuge (via 10 bulkheads) to the tank? Is there only one exit from the refuge which will drop onto the wave breaks in the DT? or how will that part work? (if I missed the explanation, please just reference the post # and I will review it again.)
I love the idea about the softner salt as the disolvable base for what I think is a great looking piece, well done! Just a thought but if you were worried about your rock being too fragile and not as porus as you'd like, you could opt to use a couple hundred lbs dry rock under your concrete pieces to provide some dense areas for denitrification and bacteria growth. (I do like the appearance of what you created though, I may steal the idea myself
Long post right back at you, sorry.
Keep up the documentation, I am enjoying this one. I imagine the rest of the house is worthy of some very interesting discussion as well. Its good to have smart friends!
Well, if all 10 2" surgers kick off at the same time, which I'm sure will happen every so often, then 10 2" drains might just be enough. I do have 34 gallons of head room between the overflow and the absolute top of the tank.
As for frosting.. well.. if only I had thought of that ahead of time.. it's a great idea, but as you pointed out, too late now. Instead I have a 1/4" sheet of black acrylic that I plan to cover the front pane of the overflow with to hide the bulkheads. I plan to make a jig for my router that let's me accurately carve teeth in to the top to use as a weir. No paint on that piece as it'll be in the water, but I plan to cover the back of the tank with the rest of the sheet painted light blue/green at the top fading to deep blue at the bottom.
The surge to 'fuge setup is like another CSD setup - just x10. The surges will have to travel the full 8' length of the 'fuge, and then there's a 36" wide slot to which I'll connect a shoot down to the display. I'm worried I'll loose all the energy of the surge after 8' so the shoot idea is to reintroduce some speed to the flow, and also to widen the flow to make it more like a wave hitting the reef. It's really hard to get good pictures of clear acrylic, but hopefully once it's all in position it'll photograph better.
BTW, the inspiration for the concrete live rock came from GARF - I can't take any credit for it. I did get a bunch (~120 lbs) of "South Seas Lace Rock", but it's sooo dense I'm not sure how much use it'll be. I need a good middle road there...
You must live in a nice climate to be able to keep your surger outside. I wish I could expand beyond the walls. When I designed the fish room it seemed enormous, but it keeps getting smaller and smaller. :rollface: Now I wonder if I'll be able to cram in everything I'm planning on, and still leave it servicable.
I think I get most of your desciption, but I'm having a hard time with the serrated 2" pipe. I can't picture it. Do you mean just before the pipe leaves the surger, there are holes, or slices through to let bubbles out? I must be getting that wrong because I can't think of how the syphon could get started then...
Here are some updates:
I took these concrete slabs (with attached lace rock):
And stuck them to this PVC framework:
To make this structure:
All the pieces are suspended on the PVC, and don't touch the bottom glass.
It's all held together with black plastic zip ties. The bigger pieces are 50+ lbs. and barely fit through the openings in the top. It made for a nerve [back] wracking experience to move these things in to position without bumping any glass. Remeber that game 'Operation' with the red light-up buzzer nose guy.. it was like that.
I took these concrete slabs (with attached lace rock):
And stuck them to this PVC framework:
To make this structure:
All the pieces are suspended on the PVC, and don't touch the bottom glass.
It's all held together with black plastic zip ties. The bigger pieces are 50+ lbs. and barely fit through the openings in the top. It made for a nerve [back] wracking experience to move these things in to position without bumping any glass. Remeber that game 'Operation' with the red light-up buzzer nose guy.. it was like that.
