Addiction wins, 450 gallon system begins

[jnarowe]

Around here the only people I can think of working 7/12's besides Doc's are sub-mariners, firemen, fishermen & fish processors, and tanker crews. Since you are in CO I could easily rule out some of those! I seem to remember the term "Yard Monster" applying to those giant quarry machines...

What's the difference between the blue and red valves? Is it just size?--J

 

[Hop]

ROFL... Actually yard monsters refer to my kids

Yeah the difference in colors on the ball valves is just that. The local hardware store only had 2 1" valves, so I decided that the impact of this particular design would be minimal, I went ahead and used 1 3/4" ball valve. I won't be doing any of that corner cutting with the system!

 

[jnarowe]

I thought so...local hardware stores can be a real pain. Since I cannot drive yet, I do a lot of ordering in, and there is much info. about suppliers on RC. In particular, snailman has listed on his DIY pages exact suppliers and model numbers for many plumbing items needed. His section on skimmers is one good example. You can check out his stuff at http://www.hawkfish.org/snailman/snailmandiy.htm and it may give you ideas on sourcing items for your system.--J

 

[traip93]

tagging along. Thanks for the BAse Rock info, that stuff looks amazing

 

[Hop]

jnarowe,

Thanks for the link. I already have most of the hard to find plumbing parts that I ordered from some online vendors. I have all the bulkheads and couplings and all the 1 1/2" and 2" ball valves and such. Usually the local hardware store has 1" stuff, but tis the season for irrigation supplies I got to tell you I'm really starting to want to work less and get the tank here! The OM 4 way shipped today and I have a few other things that are inbound.

traip93,

Thanks and no problem! I like to spread the word on quality vendors!

 

[WarEagleNR88]

Yay for Rubbermaid Brutes Those things just make me smile everytime I see them. Especially when they have bulkheads sticking out of them.

Top ten things aquarists HAVE to own, one of them is a rubbermaid Brute.

 

[Hop]

Thanks WarEagleNR88! I agree with you 100%.

OK as I said before I have to work 7 12's this week and today was the hump day. So I have completed zilch...zero... nada...

But I have got a few little items from the friendly men and women in brown! Thought I would share some of the parts!!!

Yipee a years supply of salt. I just couldn;t pass up the free shipping offer at Dr. Fosters

And yes I had to pay for the agramax sand because non-silica based sand is more expensive here than this stuff...

A small grouping of some of the plumbing...

Ok finally... On to the fun stuff. Here is the OM 4-way with drum version 3 and the new 1" flexible nozzles. Four are for the 4 way and two are for the sump return.

And last: the RO float valve, tubing and parts for the auto top off

Sorry that the update is not much for excitment, but this will be the highlight until next week

Thanks Again!!!!

 

[AcroSteve]

What's the deal with free shipping? Did you have a special offer?

 

[Hop]

What's the deal with free shipping? Did you have a special offer?

Nope, I think it's still going on for a few days, but I'm not certain. If you go to their site it's on the specials list. I get their e-news letter and that how I found out about it!

 

[Hop]

Well the past week even though I've been working too dag-on much, I completed a bit of an experiment with the wetroom. The temps here have been soaring to about 104 during the day and the wetroom has maintained it's temp from 69-76 degrees with out the ventilation I have planned. Today the wife left the garage open and let it heat up to about 100 inside and the room stayed cool. So that's a huge load off my mind as to some of the cooling issues I had thought about. We'll continued to monitor things as pumps and lights are added to the room. Not much of an update, but it sure eases some questions that I had during the planning stages of the system!

 

[NexDog]

What ventilation have you done or are you planning? I'm planning a small fishroom and worried about the heat too. Do you think one air conditioning unit will be enough or do you also have exhaust fans?

 

[jnarowe]

I think that once you add lights that situation will change. My fish room has no windows and is below ground level. It's the coolest room in the house, but once any halides are on in there, it gets hot. You might ask how I vent it without windows: There is a utility sink and below that is a cleanout for the toilet venting system. I just attached some dryer vent hose to a thermastat controlled fan, and push the air out the vent above the roof. Works great and virtually no cost. Nyuk, Nyuk, Nyuk!

 

[Hop]

My goal is to use a small three inch fan on the inside of the room with a duct running into the house, on a thermostat to keep the room at a similar temp as the house. If the calculations are right, this should be pretty easy to do and will aid in both heating and cooling. Then I'm looking at running a seperate fan on a humidistat vented outside to keep the humiduty down. I'm hoping that this will be enough with out HVAC air exchange and such. A room air conditioner will be the last resort in the room, but as hot as it was this week, along with the temprate consistency in the room, I don't think it will be necessary.

And the space above the tank is going to be sealed off from the air space in the room as much as possible and vented outside. Still doing some work on this one. But I have the 125 in the wall now and with very similar lighting and I have no trouble keeping the temp at 78.9-79.6.

But even with this, I'm hoping for the best and planning for the worst

 

[jnarowe]

PS. NexDog

Trying to air condition a room that is producing heat is extremely inefficient. You have to spend so much energy it's not worth it. Like a restaurant owner near my store who put AC in the kitchen, but it can't do the job and costs too much.

The best thing to do is evacuate the hot air. You devise a simple system to remove the air, while allowing the supply side to draw from and air conditioned house. You are already using the AC, and just pulling some of that air to replace the hot air that is leaving the fish room.

 

[NexDog]

I don't think a 3" fan is going to be that effective for me. It was 38 degrees celsius here yesterday and my tank hit 32 degrees with just strip lights on. I do have a big fan on it 24/7. With 400w MH bulbs cooking things up and around 5 external pumps, it's going to get HOT in there. I'm thinking that if I have the air con on I can't have any venting because I'll be venting cool air out too. Hmmm....more issues to solve....

 

[NexDog]

PS. NexDog

Trying to air condition a room that is producing heat is extremely inefficient. You have to spend so much energy it's not worth it. Like a restaurant owner near my store who put AC in the kitchen, but it can't do the job and costs too much.

The best thing to do is evacuate the hot air. You devise a simple system to remove the air, while allowing the supply side to draw from and air conditioned house. You are already using the AC, and just pulling some of that air to replace the hot air that is leaving the fish room.

That makes sense! In my plan, I have about six slits in the wall above the tank near the ceiling. It was my intention to use an air conditioner to chill the tank room and the office with the unit in the fish room. But if I put the unit in my office and put some exhaust fans in the fish room, the cooler air will be pulled in from the office via the wall slits/vents. Problem solved!

 

[Hop]

Good point NexDog... Two tanks and two differant situations. My planning was all done in my head and with a calculator (and to think I hated school, particualry math). Not sure if it's going to work yet, but in theory I think it's going to work out pretty well. I think the wet room temp is going to be a breeze, but it's the tank that's got my mind spinning. Trying to figure out, if I'm going to seal the headspace over tank off as much as possible from the room, and vent the air outside, where am I going to access, fresh, cool air. More drawing board stuff I guess

 

[NexDog]

Just make sure you have a chiller and have it outside and that tank temp shouldn't be an issue. I just didn't want to be frying whilst working in that room.

 

[jnarowe]

Not exactly...if your are using a high cfm fan and duct operated by a thermostat, with say a 5 degree range, it will turn off when the room gets cool enough, so your AC air will only be vented out as warm air. You put the fan/duct up high, and allow the cool air in from down low. Have it go on at around 75F and off at 68-70F. That will keep the room within the range of the house wthout venting too much cool air. It works, but a 3" fan will not do the trick. A linline duct fan like what is used to vent bilges on a yacht would work well. There are many of them available.

 

[WarEagleNR88]

Yes, vent to the outside as high as possible. The ceiling of the room would be your best bet. If you have a vaulted ceiling in the room, it will work even better as you'll get an even larger pressure difference in the room and a more natural updraft.

And if roof asthetics are not too important, you could probably have a vent fan put on the roof to help draw out the hot air without wasting ANY electricity. The wind will naturally pull the hot air out to help cool your fish room even more than just a hole in the roof or wall. Contact a homebuilding contractor if this option sounds like something you would like to put in as I'm sure a little bit up front construction cost would heavily outweigh the electricity costs of any fans over the years of use.

Keep us posted!
- WarEagle