An unforseen fork in the road
- Thread starter Putawaywet
- Start date
Thanks - appreciate the offer. If things get much worse I might just take you up on that. If a 40-ish looking guy with a bunch of airline tubing hanging out of his mouth and two large ice chests in his hands rings your doorbell, it might just be me 
What's killing me is the tiered pricing system they use.
$228.00 of that bill was for usage at 100% over baseline. Which was priced at like .22 per kwh.
And lets not forget the $22.00 for the city utility tax
And $9.00 for a bond measure
And....
Brett
What's killing me is the tiered pricing system they use.
$228.00 of that bill was for usage at 100% over baseline. Which was priced at like .22 per kwh.
And lets not forget the $22.00 for the city utility tax
And $9.00 for a bond measure
And....
Brett
You're right Ken, .31935 it is. It must have been wishful thinking on my part.
200%, geez... that's one record I'm not anxious to break anytime soon.
With the reprieve in temps I've only had to run the AC for a few days this week. And only from noon until around 8pm or so. Window fans have been a life saver.
Not that I expect to see a huge difference, but I've already begun to replace some of my 60w & 75w socket bulbs with those 15 flourescents. Next up are timers for the bathroom fans, and motion switches for the bathroom, laundry room and garage lights.
Also, I'm due for new MH's on the tank so I should be able to cut those down by a good hour or so as well.
Brett
200%, geez... that's one record I'm not anxious to break anytime soon.
With the reprieve in temps I've only had to run the AC for a few days this week. And only from noon until around 8pm or so. Window fans have been a life saver.
Not that I expect to see a huge difference, but I've already begun to replace some of my 60w & 75w socket bulbs with those 15 flourescents. Next up are timers for the bathroom fans, and motion switches for the bathroom, laundry room and garage lights.
Also, I'm due for new MH's on the tank so I should be able to cut those down by a good hour or so as well.
Brett
Sent ya a PM
I’m about finished with the rockwork. I expanded one of the pieces making a second seperate island complete with a pass thru tunnel that picks up where the first one leaves of. My hope is that with the strong flow I have planned to shoot down both sides of the tank, I'll get a nice return flow coming back up the middle.
I still have about 1/3 of the base rock left and I might add a bit more a little later if I have any room left. I need to save some space for the existing pieces that I'll be moving out of my current tank
Plumbing is coming along nicely, I have most of the drain lines fabricated and in place. The returns are temporarily mocked up with some 1†pipe, but since I have yet to make a final decision on a return pump so I have no idea if that is something that will be changing in the future. Right now it’s a tossup between a ReefFlo Snapper or a pair of Ehein 1262’s. I really want a Tunze Master Electronic, but the smallest one they make comes with this really annoying habbit of turning itself on/off/on until it detects the impellar is rotating in the correct direction. Moving up to the next size gets me a controller that eliminates the problem, but at the expense of unneeded wattage, and a whole bunch of extra water.
One of the things I saw when I stopped in at SoCal Creations was a drain line that connected directly to the tank a few inches below the waterline. I liked the idea so much I'm going to incorporate one into this system. (the 3/4†line running down the middle of all the pipes). This will allow the tank to drain to a pre-set level with little more effort than connecting a drain hose, and opening up a ballvalve. I'm getting too friggin old to be hauling 5 gal buckets every couple weeks.
Here is where I plumbed the ballvalve for the drain line.
The horizontal line with the pair of ballvalves is the mocked up 1†lines on the off chance I go with the ReefFlo Snapper. Swiching it over to 3/4†if need be will be a relatively easy fix.
I’m hoping to get going on the top for the stand sometime in the next few weeks. Granite, Formica, Tile....
Only time will tell.
I still have about 1/3 of the base rock left and I might add a bit more a little later if I have any room left. I need to save some space for the existing pieces that I'll be moving out of my current tank
Plumbing is coming along nicely, I have most of the drain lines fabricated and in place. The returns are temporarily mocked up with some 1†pipe, but since I have yet to make a final decision on a return pump so I have no idea if that is something that will be changing in the future. Right now it’s a tossup between a ReefFlo Snapper or a pair of Ehein 1262’s. I really want a Tunze Master Electronic, but the smallest one they make comes with this really annoying habbit of turning itself on/off/on until it detects the impellar is rotating in the correct direction. Moving up to the next size gets me a controller that eliminates the problem, but at the expense of unneeded wattage, and a whole bunch of extra water.
One of the things I saw when I stopped in at SoCal Creations was a drain line that connected directly to the tank a few inches below the waterline. I liked the idea so much I'm going to incorporate one into this system. (the 3/4†line running down the middle of all the pipes). This will allow the tank to drain to a pre-set level with little more effort than connecting a drain hose, and opening up a ballvalve. I'm getting too friggin old to be hauling 5 gal buckets every couple weeks.
Here is where I plumbed the ballvalve for the drain line.
The horizontal line with the pair of ballvalves is the mocked up 1†lines on the off chance I go with the ReefFlo Snapper. Swiching it over to 3/4†if need be will be a relatively easy fix.
I’m hoping to get going on the top for the stand sometime in the next few weeks. Granite, Formica, Tile....
Only time will tell.
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Brett,
Great progress! You can blame your power bill on the fiance and her hair dryer
I consistently hit the 300% of baseline every month, which gets you into the $0.33/kwh bracket. Bastards.
But thats with a relatively small tank, an old inefficient 2000 ft2 house, and 3 daughters that make sure all the lights are on all day and the windows open while the AC is on.
The last one included the 11 day stretch over 100 degrees, topping 116 twice. Where am I in Vegas?
Sweet rockwork, buddy!
Great progress! You can blame your power bill on the fiance and her hair dryer
I consistently hit the 300% of baseline every month, which gets you into the $0.33/kwh bracket. Bastards.
But thats with a relatively small tank, an old inefficient 2000 ft2 house, and 3 daughters that make sure all the lights are on all day and the windows open while the AC is on.
The last one included the 11 day stretch over 100 degrees, topping 116 twice. Where am I in Vegas?
Sweet rockwork, buddy!
invincible569
New member
WOW!! Very nice!!!
I love the sump! That is exactly what I was looking for. I was going to order one with a complete setup, but now see that it can be custom made. Would you mind passing along the contact person who built your sump? thank you!!
I love the sump! That is exactly what I was looking for. I was going to order one with a complete setup, but now see that it can be custom made. Would you mind passing along the contact person who built your sump? thank you!!
The gray spaflex came from: http://flexpvc.com/
The labels came from: www.aquaticeco.com
Just a heads up, but my laptop is down with a bad video chip. Will probaby be a few weeks before I can get around to sending it in. In the mean time I'm bumming the other half's PC so more than likely no pics and somewhat limited posting for a while. Apparently, even MAC's aren't immune to factory defects. Time for some serious sucking up with a customer service rep up in Cuppertino
Cheers
Brett
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Invincible569 - That's one amazing tank you have there. If mine looks even half that nice I'll consider myself lucky.
As for my sump, Steve over at www.socalcreations.com made it for me. IMO, his work is pretty much on par with Jason at Invision. For those within reasonable driving distance you might even be able to sweet talk him or Randy into delivering it for a nominal charge.
Brett
The Gray piping and fittings are from USPlastics. It's actually sch40 pipe and they will cut it down to 5' lengths so it can be shipped UPS. Ballvalves and bulkheads are a mix of Savko and Marine Depot.
Also, some may have already noticed that I used single union over tru-union valves. Reason being is with the exception of the pumps I've never really found a need to dissassemble much of my plumbing. I figured I would save a few bucks on the valves and cut the number of potential leak locations in half at the same time. I've already dropped in a few spin couplers here and there so between the valves and the couplers I can take almost everything apart if need be. Worst case scenario I find myself moving the tank someday down the road it's going to be empty anyways so ballvalves will be a moot point. The single unions should allow for dissassembly just fine.
If not, I have power tools and I'm not afraid to use them
Brett
Also, some may have already noticed that I used single union over tru-union valves. Reason being is with the exception of the pumps I've never really found a need to dissassemble much of my plumbing. I figured I would save a few bucks on the valves and cut the number of potential leak locations in half at the same time. I've already dropped in a few spin couplers here and there so between the valves and the couplers I can take almost everything apart if need be. Worst case scenario I find myself moving the tank someday down the road it's going to be empty anyways so ballvalves will be a moot point. The single unions should allow for dissassembly just fine.
If not, I have power tools and I'm not afraid to use them
Brett
sleevasteve
New member
Very cool!!!
Yes, the minimum order was 50' of each.
I figured I'd use at least half, and just hang on to the rest, but I have actually wound up using very little as I am hard plumbing pretty much everything except the pumps.
I'm not sure if there is anyone out there selling gray PVC by the foot beyond the people I got my stuff from. I just checked their site and most of the stuff by the foot is all white. They have some 1/2" gray and 1/2" black by the foot if anyone is interested, but the 1" and 1.5" is all priced per roll.
Beyond that, no real tank progress to report as I've been kinda bouncing from project to project around the house. And whatever time and money I had beyond that has pretty much been eaten up getting the kids ready to go back to school. Geez! I thought I was ready for this step dad thing but man are they proving to be EXPENSIVE!
Who woulda thunk? You should have seen the supply list that the school's mailed out... you could outfit a small business with the number of items they had on the list. And of course the oldest wants to play violin so we had to pick one of those up. And then there were material fees for the middle one's art class after school. And lunch cards, and bus fees, and (didn't see this one coming) Dr. visits to make sure their shots are all up to date and they are healthy and physically fit. And just when you think you're done, they come home with yet another list that they are given on the first day of school.
And of course this being this is my first year wrangling kids I have absolutely no clue as to what I'm doing. So I'm doing my best to fake it. Lucky for me, my better half just tells me when and where I need to be and I roll with it.
Otherwise, I have managed to just about finish the rest of the tile in the living room, so at least I can start moving my furniture back into place. That has opened up some space and cleaned things up considerably. I also had some electrical work done so I now have new outlets in the garage for the 2nd fridge/frrezer that my s/o tells me is mandatory equipment for a family of five.
I still haven't done a darn thing with the top for the stand, which I really need to get moving on, as that's the next step. I just can't seem to make up my mind whether it's going to be a solid slab of granite, some flashy laminate, or individual tile.
I'm also still kicking around my lighting choices, but no real progress there either. SLS is coming out with what looks to be a really promising new Maristar variant. However, they have just confirmed that it will only come in black :mad2: So they have been abruptly crossed off the list. IceCap is looking good with their new overdriven T5 hood, but they are only offering it in a 4 foot model to start off. I need a 3 footer. ELOS has a sweet setup (although not overdriven) but they want an additional $250 per unit for custom colors. A lot of the German stuff looks nice, especially the one that is modular and you can mix and match pieces to suit your needs. But info is somewhat limited as they are mostly a custom order here in the U.S.
My lighting requirements are: a trio of 3 foot fixtures running across the tank. Preferably, with all overdriven T5 - although I'm not ruling out having a few 150w DE MH mixed in. The final selling point is they have to be stylish as this is going to be an open top tank. None of those industry standard, clunky, black powder coated boxes hanging over this tank. No siree!
Regardless, anyway I slice this one I'm looking at between 3k & 4k in lighting when all things are said and done.
Brett
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stlouisguy
Registered Member
If you are set on T5 then this wont help, but I had the same problem, it needed to be stylish since it was in a front room and still provide the light I needed This is what I went with and couldnt have been happier
It is 6ft long and has 3 250 DE HQI and 2 175 DE HQI. It has a remote ballast that I put in a cabinet on the side of the tank (cut out the back). It hangs from two silver cables that you can adjust up or down as you need to get into the tank.
<img src=http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/73723MVC-009F.JPG>
If you want any more info on it just pm me
It is 6ft long and has 3 250 DE HQI and 2 175 DE HQI. It has a remote ballast that I put in a cabinet on the side of the tank (cut out the back). It hangs from two silver cables that you can adjust up or down as you need to get into the tank.
<img src=http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/73723MVC-009F.JPG>
If you want any more info on it just pm me
stlouisguy - appreciate the thought, but that's a bit more MH than I am looking to go with. Sure looks like it puts out a good deal of light though.
One of my wants right now is to do a big tank lit with T5. (preferably overdriven) In lieu of that, something like a quad T5 / single 150w MH type of fixture.
Brett
One of my wants right now is to do a big tank lit with T5. (preferably overdriven) In lieu of that, something like a quad T5 / single 150w MH type of fixture.
Brett
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