archway reef build

[easttexas]

Info Assimilated Dave. ya, none of the head loss calculators have the DC pumps in them, so I used several with similar flows to take an "educated Guess" with the 9 outlets I've planned. I have the DC6000 on the temp tank feeding 3 reactors and the makeshift fuge and I still had to choke it back on the return because it outflowed the 3/4" straight shot full siphon I've got set up in it (they say a 3/4 full siphon should flow about 600GPH) (using the existing 1" as the emergency back up, Herbie style)

I didn't really think about it until you brought it up. I'm only going to have around 111 GPH at each port, not real noticeable.

as an update:

got all the white painted and almost done with the black stain. going to finish after dinner

 

[easttexas]

well, it's black.

and its white.

I made the floor removable. remember the picture with hundreds of shims under the tank, I am going to shim the whole thing with the shims all touching, then install the base board trim to cover it up. The concrete was not even close where the stand is going, but didn't require more than the 2 shims to level, more wavy than sloping.

I don't know why my camera always makes the paint booth lights look yellow?

I didn't know how the ebony stain would come out, but I'm very happy. I wanted it very black, not grey, and with a little of the grain showing thru. that's what I got

now to clear it, sand it, clear it again, check if I need to sand it again, and add a third coat of clear.

 

[easttexas]

well, I've been really, really busy so I haven't been able to get much done, but here is an update:

got lots of plumbing parts

got the overflow finished and started under the tank

sorry about the fuzzy pictures.

 

[easttexas]

On a side note, in my temp tank I am battling an algae that I can't identify:
It is best described as a medium brown colored felt, it covers all the rock, but never gets long, and is much more dense than diatoms. the snails and hermits clean it but can't get ahead of it.

parameters: average

salt: 35
amm, trate, trite: all immeasurable with my kits
Phos: just barely tinted test, pretty much 0
calc: 430
KH: 10.5
Mg: 1240
PH: 8.2

I run biopellets, carbon and GFO reactors with reduced media in them

I don't know what's causing it, but my leathers have not been happy in this tank, I have a 10" cap brown toadstool that used fluff up great in the old tanks, but hardly opens in the temp tank?
the rest of the softies including my zoanthids are looking fine. shrooms and zenia multiplying

the biopellets are new to the temp tank when I set it up, I did not have it on the old tank, and was using heavy GFO as the old tanks had ridicules Phosphates and a bad DSB. I shut off the GFO last week to see if I had stripped too much Phos out of the system for the softies. I do a 10 gall water change a week

 

[dave.m]

Possibly a flow issue - not enough, too much? Or lighting - do you have a PAR meter?

Dave.M

 

[easttexas]

wish I had a par meter , but no. I've got a Chinese 4x48" T5 fixture over a 36" tank (temp) and yes It's a POS! but should be plenty for softies (and they were fine under that light in the 75g) I have a korillia on wine side a jeboa WP40 running 16 volts on the other, and about 600GPH thru the return

 

[ntrlsur]

Great looking setup so far.. How are you planning on mounting the electronics?

 

[efrainz28]

well, it's black.

and its white.

I made the floor removable. remember the picture with hundreds of shims under the tank, I am going to shim the whole thing with the shims all touching, then install the base board trim to cover it up. The concrete was not even close where the stand is going, but didn't require more than the 2 shims to level, more wavy than sloping.

I don't know why my camera always makes the paint booth lights look yellow?

I didn't know how the ebony stain would come out, but I'm very happy. I wanted it very black, not grey, and with a little of the grain showing thru. that's what I got

now to clear it, sand it, clear it again, check if I need to sand it again, and add a third coat of clear.

What kind of finish did you use? (Oil or water based)Type a clear?

 

[easttexas]

thanx for checking in guys;

ntrlsur: I plan on mounting the apex controller to the long skinny door opposite the sump and have the Apex control the wavermakers and the closed loop and mount the speed controllers for the 3 remaining DC pumps under it same place.

efrainz: I used an oil based liquid (not gel) stain and Cabot's spar varnish. The paint store guys told me it was the best for use outside or in marine environments, but I would not recommend it after using it. is stays soft, is very, very yellow, and didn't shoot worth a darn so the second and third coat went on with a brush. I put the stain on by brush very thick and did not wipe it down like you normally would. I wanted it BLACK with some grain showing. If I did it again I would just use normal old polyurethane clear.

 

[Newbie Aquarist]

You have great attention to detail with your build and its well organized. I wish I had done that with my build. You have a great build going so far.

As for the algae problem, other than the flow issue mentioned are the bulbs old or maybe on longer than normal and the spectrum change could be causing the issue?

 

[easttexas]

Thanx newbie! I read your whole thread, and sonics's. I had a roommate while I was posted @ Ft. Stewart GA that was from Tampa, so we went down to Clearwater almost every free weekend we got off. Got many, many memories of the Tampa area. Most we can't talk about here .

Reading your post with sonic last week about Jeeps, I built my forth jeep last year. I've now built a CJ, flipped for a YJ, drove for 3 years then sold for a good profit to get a TJ, spent a year rebuilding and putting a mustang cobra R motor in it, flipped it for nearly a 10k profit and paid cash for my current JKU. I put a 4 1/2" lift, 5.13 gears, front and back winch bumpers, 37x13.50 toyo's on it. I'll have to upload some pics of it. If either of you has jeep questions let me know, there's not many bolts I haven't turned on any model jeep.

Back to the reef stuff now. I'm about half way thru plumbing, I'll post up pics in a couple days. Works been hell the last week.

 

[easttexas]

well, been too busy to post along the way, had a server crash at the store that took a whole week to restore, and life got in the way. I did get to work on the build here and there, and am pretty much done now, so I took a bunch of pictures today to document what I've done:

remember it was supposed to look like this

and turned out like this

 

[easttexas]

front side

My Reef radiance light finally came in, it took 9 weeks to get them! I really like the lights, but in hind site, I would have ordered them with more 12Ks in place of the most of the red LEDs, the white channel looks really red to me. the fish really pop though. they floress because each fixture has 6 UV LEDS. I just through a quick 60 minute cycle lighting program into them. I have to seriously rework it now that I can see how much light they put out. The moon lights even on 1% are too bright, and the moon lights get used in the daytime programming I figure. I have the white/ color channel at only 10% in this picture, and the blue at 35% and moons at 50%

 

[easttexas]

the lights

I made a paper template of the top of the light fixture and used it to drill for the stock mounting points, the cord holes, and used a 3" hole saw fore each of the fans (which suck in BTW) and used some M8x30 bolts to mount it straight to the top of the canopy

 

[easttexas]

picture from the entryway to the sunken family room (10'7" ceiling height) the post on the left is boomerang shaped and is majorly load bearing. I built the tank to fit between the load bearing post on each side of the archways. that made it 71 1/2" outside with just a small margin for the crooked framing. the tank is inserted about 1 1/2" into the opening

you can see the old 75 back in its old place on a now lengthened stand. I have 40" on the left for a quarantine tank, and plumbed a valve off the 75's return to fill the QT tank. I build the overflow and drilled the side (bottom was tempered) for a herby drain. I have the left over rock and no sand in the 75. I used my old rio 1700 (500gph no head) as a spray bar under the egg crate, used my 3 Korillias and my old Jebao wp40 in it. the flow is insane! It has the same 32" Reef radiance Lumintek 240 light fixture over it. I have around 500 GPH returning to this frag tank and it is dead silent. the only thing your hear from the 75 is the very slight hum of the WP40 as it ramps up and down. the main tank, that's a different story as I'll explain below

 

[easttexas]

with the blue lights, and black stand it is real hard to see the details of the woodwork. it is also hard to see, but the drains are red, the returns are blue, and the closed loop is dark grey. the 75 didn't get painted as I had to build it in place, and just got in a hurry, maybe I'll paint it someday.

 

[easttexas]

I learned several things about my sump now:

1) as above picture shows, too much flow for the bubble trap, this is with the DC12000 only running at 4 of 6 speed. traps are 1" spaced, 1" off bottom, and 16" wide

2) I had built an input box that was 3X the surface area of the 2 full siphon drains, the water would shoot clean out of the sump ! I ended up having to move the full siphons to the filter socks, and use the box for the durso and 75's emergency drains, the 180's emergency drain is up high over the sock tray to make lots of noise on purpose

3) My pumps chamber was too small for 3 DC pumps. it handles the overflow from a power outage fine, but getting the plumbing to fit was TIGHT! I put the CL DC12000 in the return chamber as its technically not external rated, for heat dissipation is my guess.

4) while my Chaeto tumbler works great (2 spray bars, one high one low to force a circular current) I wish I had just made the pump chamber bigger, and remote'd the Fuge, could have made it bigger that was as well.

 

[easttexas]

I knew I would need a bigger reactor for my bio pellets, after looking at a bunch of options, I desided to order a TLF 550 and mod it from day one. The reason they won't work is because the input plumbing fitting inside the unit is like a 1/8" tub fitting. I removed the whole down tube and all. I used a 1/2" CPVC male tread, and a John Geist female fitting, and just some plumbers joint compound and it didn't leak (I tried O rings first and it leaked, KISS) I then used both the original (3/8" ish) fittings to drain. I still think the original fittings are a choke point, so I plan on making a new 1/2" return as well like the input, but it works as is for now, tumbles very nicely

 

[easttexas]

view from my TV

View from my Kitchen

and from my dinning room chair

 

[easttexas]

got most of the pump controls centrally located. I plan to have an APEX control them all before its done though

for cooling I have 3 sets of cooler guys dual 120 fan kits going. the canopy I have a set on each side doing push pull, and just one set pulling thru the sump cabinet. they seem to be doing the job so far, as long as I keep the fan in the family room going. There are 2 AC vents right above the tanks I did have to turn the AC down, my wife had it set to 78 during the day, 76 from 5-9. then 82 at night! I had to fix that