A Miracles in Roanoke - My New Tank Build
- Thread starter eengmd
- Start date
Plumbing is coming to place as well. Here are the beananimal drains in place. His thread has been extremely helpful. Check it out if you are building or planning. The parts include 1.5 inch schedule 40 PVC, sanitary tee, 90 elbow, and a slip cap. The open channel has a 1/4 tube by 3/8 NPT John Guest on top. The line has not yet been placed.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1310585
From back to front, full siphon, emergency, open channel with JG fitting on top
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1310585
From back to front, full siphon, emergency, open channel with JG fitting on top
are you sure about the Height of the durso? I think is going to be a little bit noisy your O/FPlumbing is coming to place as well. Here are the beananimal drains in place. His thread has been extremely helpful. Check it out if you are building or planning. The parts include 1.5 inch schedule 40 PVC, sanitary tee, 90 elbow, and a slip cap. The open channel has a 1/4 tube by 3/8 NPT John Guest on top. The line has not yet been placed.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1310585
From back to front, full siphon, emergency, open channel with JG fitting on top
Thanks for your input. I am not sure if these will be too short. I have another version made where the height of the cap is 2 inches taller. I remade the pipes because my overflow box has a lid I would like to use. Also, I am not sure how important the height of the beananimal cap is in the design as air entry is controlled by my ball valve which will be located closer to the sump. Two of the drains do not have holes in the end unlike a durso. I guess I will see soon! I do appreciate your input as this is one of the main purposes of this thread, to glean advice from more experience reefers.
ThurlowR
Member
My hope is to get it looking at least 1/3 as nice as your picture.
I could live with that
Thanks, Eugene!
Man that 150 has traveled :hmm5: looking good Eugene.
I'm continuing to plumb. It is very time consuming. By the way, if anyone needs flex PVC here I have way more than I need as I bought a 25 foot roll of 1.5 inch and 50 foot roll of 1 inch. I ended up using a miter saw to cut all the plumbing and it has worked great. I am using 10 different true union ball valves in this set up. I have using NPT fittings into the valves. I have teflon taped everything as much as I could.
I have made 5 trips to lowes just for plumbing pieces after my initial internet order of parts. You know you are a reefer when you walk into a hardware store and the following scenario plays out.
Lowes: Can I help you?
Me: Yes, I am looking for a schedule 80 reducer bushing from 1-1/2 inch and a 1.5 inch nipple.
Lowes: I'm sorry, I don't know what you are talking about but here are our plumbing fittings.
Hopefully, I got everything good and tight!
I have made 5 trips to lowes just for plumbing pieces after my initial internet order of parts. You know you are a reefer when you walk into a hardware store and the following scenario plays out.
Lowes: Can I help you?
Me: Yes, I am looking for a schedule 80 reducer bushing from 1-1/2 inch and a 1.5 inch nipple.
Lowes: I'm sorry, I don't know what you are talking about but here are our plumbing fittings.
Hopefully, I got everything good and tight!
I have also started to put together the lighting. I decided to use two long rail kits for the 4 sets of LEDs. The rail kit with 2 LEDs attached measure 19.5 inches. I will leave 11 inches from the corner of the tank to the edge of the first LED. Then the second set will be placed 11 inches from the edge of the second LED.
11 inches from the edge of the tank
19.5 inches 1st fixture
11 middle gap
19.5 inches 2nd fixture
11 inches from the other edge
72 Total
The ecotech rail kits are very nice and easy to use. Overall, very sturdy product.
Assembled
11 inches from the edge of the tank
19.5 inches 1st fixture
11 middle gap
19.5 inches 2nd fixture
11 inches from the other edge
72 Total
The ecotech rail kits are very nice and easy to use. Overall, very sturdy product.
Assembled
Sorry no updates, weekend was busy, very busy!. I took a bunch of pics. I will detail everything out. Tank is running. Micro leak at one threaded bulkhead/NPT union on return! Powder blue got really stressed out today. One of my radions is not working quite right. Otherwise, so far so good. I did lose a couple of anthias during the break down of the old tank along with my fromia starfish. I cannot figure out where all my zoas are but other than that, the tank looks good so far.
Finally loaded the pictures of my SLR to photobucket. I will try to outline the following in some detail. The build threads here have so very helpful hopefully this can add to the RC knowledge base. Hopefully over the next week, I can detail the following whirlwind steps I took.
Moving the Tank & Setting It
Plumbing
Bean Animal Drain (slightly modified) - Still very nice!
Obligatory Kid Shot
Filling Tank
Aquascaping
Transferring Livestock & the Mistakes I Made
Sump Set Up
Ecotech Lighting with Par Measurements
Electronic Board (still in progress)
Moving the Tank & Setting It
Plumbing
Bean Animal Drain (slightly modified) - Still very nice!
Obligatory Kid Shot
Filling Tank
Aquascaping
Transferring Livestock & the Mistakes I Made
Sump Set Up
Ecotech Lighting with Par Measurements
Electronic Board (still in progress)
Moving the Tank
Since I was setting the tank in the same location as the 150, I had to drain the tank and start setting up the new one. Thanks to Adam for loaning me a 55 that housed my zoas and fish while I broke down the tank. I began the break down process on Aug 26. I was taking my sweet time, when I realized if I do not get moving this would take all night. I started picking each piece of live rock and cleaning them, carefully trying to preserve every single zoanthid. Four rocks and one hour later, I realized this was not going to work. I called some buddies for help and thank goodness I did. I got a call around 8:30 that someone in Martinsville got his bb gun stuck and so he decided to "see" what was happening. You got it, he hit a bull's eye. By 10:30 my evening would be over after he was transferred. Thank goodness for good friends. We broke down the tank, moved it out of the way and set the new tank in place so I could get to the hospital before the patient's arrival.
The tank was placed on a plywood board that I waterproofed all the way around. Miracles also requires the tank be set on styrofoam that they included with the tank. You can see the board the foam in this pic. By the way, this is not the official obligatory kid in tank shot. They did not like the idea of getting into the tank!
Thanks again to my friends who bailed me out that Sunday night.
Here is the plywood board that I primed and sealed prior to the tank set up.
Since I was setting the tank in the same location as the 150, I had to drain the tank and start setting up the new one. Thanks to Adam for loaning me a 55 that housed my zoas and fish while I broke down the tank. I began the break down process on Aug 26. I was taking my sweet time, when I realized if I do not get moving this would take all night. I started picking each piece of live rock and cleaning them, carefully trying to preserve every single zoanthid. Four rocks and one hour later, I realized this was not going to work. I called some buddies for help and thank goodness I did. I got a call around 8:30 that someone in Martinsville got his bb gun stuck and so he decided to "see" what was happening. You got it, he hit a bull's eye. By 10:30 my evening would be over after he was transferred. Thank goodness for good friends. We broke down the tank, moved it out of the way and set the new tank in place so I could get to the hospital before the patient's arrival.
The tank was placed on a plywood board that I waterproofed all the way around. Miracles also requires the tank be set on styrofoam that they included with the tank. You can see the board the foam in this pic. By the way, this is not the official obligatory kid in tank shot. They did not like the idea of getting into the tank!
Thanks again to my friends who bailed me out that Sunday night.
Here is the plywood board that I primed and sealed prior to the tank set up.
Miracles did a very nice job with this tank. I was super impressed by the stand. Very nicely build and level. The only defect was the vinyl was messed up where the likely used braces in two spots on each corner. They were prompt to help me find a solution. The low iron glass is amazingly clear. The hardest part outside of the plumbing has been the cutting this board to fit perfectly. Let's just say I made a lot of cuts and spent a good amount of time sanding. Although I am very happy with the final outcome.
Metal stand
Stand floor after the second coat with poly
Metal stand
Stand floor after the second coat with poly
Time to get wet - August 31st
I will spend more time detailing the plumbing. Being a plumbing idiot, it took me forever to figure out what pieces I needed and multiple savco, flex pvc and US plastics orders. Hopefully the next several posts will help.
Between the 26 - 31, I worked feverishly on the plumbing. The end result....
It took me 36 hours to make the water required to fill this tank, not included what I already had. My 4 brute force cans were my friend.
I will spend more time detailing the plumbing. Being a plumbing idiot, it took me forever to figure out what pieces I needed and multiple savco, flex pvc and US plastics orders. Hopefully the next several posts will help.
Between the 26 - 31, I worked feverishly on the plumbing. The end result....
It took me 36 hours to make the water required to fill this tank, not included what I already had. My 4 brute force cans were my friend.
Similar threads
