A First Plywood Project...

Just an update...

This week was a little busy so I didn't get a chance to update or do much work on the system. I got almost all of the painting done in the viewing and hallway area. I am now working on the trim for the tank. There will be moulding around the drywall opening for the tank and the stand will be skinned with 3/4" Birch plywood that has had the door holes cut out. I plan on using some euro hinges with doors that are inset and flush with the front of the stand. There will also be a 6 or 7" drink ledge that goes on between the tank and stand. I bought these decorative tile strips that are 3"x12" and are made up of 1x2" pieces of tumbled slate and 1x1" pieces of frosted glass. They use these for feature strips in decorative tile jobs. I've decided to make the ledge out of 2 pieces of wood with the tile inbetween. I hope to be able to joint all 3 strips of material with clear epoxy so that I can backlight the tiles with rope light or small led lights.

At first I thought this may be too complex but then I thought about how cool it would be to light up the pieces of glass in the tile just to give it that extra attention. The idea may be a total FLOP but I'm giving it a shot anyway. I'm just waiting on my plywood face to be ready. I hope to cut it out tonight.

Well I decided to add some life to the system. I ordered a few fish... a Clown Fairy Wrasse, Copperband Butterfly, Racoon Butterfly and a Powder Blue Tang. Also some corals... a Blastomussa merleti, Lobophylia corymbosa and an Acropora sp? They are all doing great! I had a lot of Aiptasia from the rock from my previous tank but the Racoon (in the fuge tank) and the Copperband (in the frag tank) have them pretty much licked! The Powder Blue is in the main display and doing VERY well. A friend has had good luck keeping his alive by adding it as the first fish so it can establish itself well. So far he seems to be doing great! I hope to get hold of a Crosshatch Trigger maybe sometime next week. I need to get some more fish in there before the Powder gets TOO dominant. Also hoping to get some more Acros but I'm not sure if it will be this week or next.

Oh well... Take care everyone...

LATER!
 
Hey Guys...

20 20 : Yeah I'm hated I know! Those stinking fish move WAY too fast! HAHA I have some ORA stuff coming tomorrow so I'll post pics of livestock then.

Aquaduck : As deep as that tank is to the bottom I wouldn't be salvaging that baby! I forgot how "fun" it is to work in a 30" deep tank :-(

blfuller123 : Before the outer walls were skinned with the drywall I could see a little bowing on the back of the tank. Not where the overflow trough is but below it where the closed loop drain lines were mounted. I think the sides puffed out a bit like an old school television. The front of the tank shows NO bowing at all. There is a little bowing to the glass in the center of the tank but none at the top nor the bottom. That threaded rod thing seemed to work out GREAT!

Take care guys... I'm trying to finish the face trim and then more pics!

LATER!
 
Helo Sean,
Question on your linear overflow: How noisy is it and does it empty straight into the two inch bulkheads?

Thanks,
Romeo.
 
Romeo,

I assume you mean the continuous overflow on the back of the tank. It is very quiet. The water just gently eases over the overflow. I didn't route the plywood to make it half round on that when I built it but as I built up the layers of epoxy I made sure that it was really smooth. I tell you from the front of the tank, before there was ANY form of walls or cabinetry the tank was pretty much silent. There is a low noise from the Sequence Hammerhead but that pump is surprisingly quiet for a 6000 gph pump. If you figure that the Blueline 70 (sump return line) is bringing about 1500gph or so to the main tank, that amount of water just cascades down the inside of the overflow. Even when I had the Dart on there wide open it wasn't noisy at all.

As for the piping, yes those are both 2" dursos in the trough. They are just as silent as there design dictates. A fabulous invention those darn Dursos. The only plumbing in the trough is the 2 2" bulkheads both connected together under the tank and running to the sump as one. With the dursos set at the current height the water level is about 7" deep. It is really calm in that trough. Sanjay is designing a tank with a larger trough than mine but he wants to use the trough as an acclimation/hospital area for new or injured fish. I agree that this would definitely work. If I had a blockade around the dursos so fish wouldn't find there way in it then I would do the same thing!

Please let me know if you have any other questions,

LATER!
 
Maybe a little off topic so I'll be brief. Are you happy with the blueline pump? Would you buy one again or go with say in Iwaki? I'm looking at one (actually panworld 50 which I'm told is the same pump) for my closed loop on my 75.
 
I've been lurking on this thread for some time and I can say first hand that I perfer the Panworlds over the Iwakis. Like most of the ads say pump to pump in the line up the Pan-world are quieter. Well built and I think they have a 3 year warrenty. I like mine enough that I am getting a secound one in a month.
 
Excellent info Sean. Exactly what I was looking for!! Congrats to all with these beautiful DIY tanks.

Thanks again,
Romeo.

P.S. I have a DIY plywood (8X3X2) that I made back in May last year. It's for freshwater cichlids and just using hang on filters. My next tank for saltwater :) , I don't know exactly when I will be starting it, will incorporate this linear overflow.

As for the tank I built last May, I believe it's the first of it's kind using the material called Sanitred, a high tech rubber polymer with ultimate flexiblility. It is up and running well. The material is rather expensive, but the overall cost was still alot cheaper than to buy a tank this size. My post can be found here if interested: look for post #28
http://forums.waterwolves.com/index.php?showtopic=78955&hl=plywood&st=20
 
The tank looks great Roliva. Looks like it would be easier than the epoxy. And risk of something leaching into the tank? Sorry Sean didnt mean to hijack the thread. Your tank looks great. Any more pics?
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6961904#post6961904 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by rutledgek
The tank looks great Roliva. Looks like it would be easier than the epoxy. And risk of something leaching into the tank? Sorry Sean didnt mean to hijack the thread. Your tank looks great. Any more pics?
Click to expand...

Thanks. Sanitred is water potable. Here is a recent shot. Simple all black, bare bottom for easy maintenance. I am raising juvenile umbees (~3" TL) so they are small and hiding so you don't see any fish.:(
133495121.jpg
 
Sean,

You could use some egg crate to keep fish from making their way into your durso or into the overflow from the main display (or vice versa). You could probably even paint the eggcrate to match your tank :)

B
 
Hey everyone,

johntbyrne: I am VERY pleased with the Blueline (PanWorld) HD pumps! Is the PW50 the same as the BL55? The people at champion named all the Blueline pumps directly after the Iwaki series (20,30,40,55,70,100 etc.). I will tell you what I have them running on... I have a BL20 that runs my MRC CR6 Dual calcium reactor. This pump is not fan cooled and gets hot but is totally silent! I have a BL55 that runs an MRC MR3 Protein Skimmer, this pump IS fan cooled and in comparison to the GenX PCX 40 is a very quiet pump. Finally I have a BL70 as the return pump on this plywood main display. This (for those who haven't read the entire thread) pump is pushing water up 10' and over about 22' to the chiller and then back over the 22' and down about 5' to the main tank. It is all plumbed with hard pipe except for about 3 ft. on both ends that is SpaFlex. I seems very quiet although the GenX PCX 40's next to it are quite loud and mask the sound of the BL70. Of all the pumps that I have bought and used over the years the Sequence Reeflo series are the most quiet pumps! You can barely tell when a Dart or a Hammerhead is running (not sure about the Barracuda because I never owned one) but these pumps put out a massive amount of water through large plumbing and don't handle head pressure very well at all! So yeah... I like the BL pumps and I will be replacing the GenXs very soon!

Covey : Thanks for the input... I agree 100%!

roliva : That tank looks great! Can you get that Sanitred product in different colors? When it cures, does it have a rubbery feel or is it hard like an epoxy paint? Good luck on your upcoming marine tank and thanks for the reply!

rutledgek : It is probably easier than epoxy/fiberglass because it doesn't look like there is a sanding process. I wonder oe good it takes to tightning bulkheads and stuff like that? I would consider using it in the future if it will work well for us marine guys with a jillion holes drilled in it :D

AggieBrandon : I thought about maybe building an eggcrate cage around the dursos. I didn't want an eggcrate or teeth on the overflow because I LOVE the way it looks with the continuous design! Some people have come to check out the tank and said "You don't have this thing plumbed to a sump?!?" HAHA That is the coolest thing! Thanks for the suggection though!

All the ORA stuff I got in looks great. I got a few clams (Maximas and Croceas) as well as 11 various SPS frags (10 Acro and 1 Poci) and I couldn't resist getting a couple of their False Perc Clowns (a Black one and a COOL Orange with No Stripes) Everything is doing well. The brown algae has stopped growing and all the corals have good polyp extension.

I got most of the trim done and I hope to finish it up today. The drink ledge with the light up tiles worked out pretty well except the rope light that I am using isn't quite bright enough. It looks REALLY cool at night but when the main tank lights are on it doesn't show up that well. I thought about putting a couple of T5's underneath it but then I'd have to change the bulbs out and I'd have to tear down the crown moulding to do that. With the rope light I can just fish it in and pull it out if need be.

I'll try to get some pics today!

LATER!
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6967599#post6967599 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Sean : EbN

roliva : That tank looks great! Can you get that Sanitred product in different colors? When it cures, does it have a rubbery feel or is it hard like an epoxy paint? Good luck on your upcoming marine tank and thanks for the reply!
Click to expand...
Sean, thanks for the compliment. Unfortunately it only comes in black, light tan, and light grey.
 
Sean, when the sanitred cured, it cured into a sort of hard rubber. Seems very durable, it almost feels like if you were to press on a rubber liner, but is a little harder.

I have used an algae scraper on it, no damage. I also use a gravel cleaner, pressing and scraping against the material, and again, no damage.

You can put an epoxy top coat over this. It was recommended using some sort of uv resistant epoxy to protect the sanitred from high output lighting. I didn't do this because I only have low wattage flourescents.
 
Sean, someone brought to my attention using 4 bulkheads vs. 2 for the drainage. This is what he stated and I would like to know what your opinion is on this:

"bulkheads do determine drainage as far as gph, but with 2 bigger bulkheads at say each end, the overflow of the weir is going to be stronger toward the ends than in the middle, essentially creating more of a "draining towards the ends" issue, basically a store bought corner overflow tank, whereas with 4 smaller drains spaced evenly, the overflow will be more consistant across the entire length of the weir.
Maybe not an issue on smaller(shorter tanks), but at 6 feet long, I think the overflow with 2 big drains at the ends, would make for a minimal amout in the center. Water, like electricity, will always choose the path of least resistance."

Thanks,
Romeo.
 
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