Custom 210 gal. in-wall build with steel stand and DIY rock walls

rickztahone said:
Is it the angle of the pic in one of these last pictures that makes it seem like the water line is too visible? If so, have you considered lowering the molding to cover up the water line a bit?



Great job all around. Thanks for the update.
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Thanks! You are 100% correct. In a haste I put the molding up before the water was in and I didn't even think about the water level. I just had to get it up before family arrived for Thanksgiving. I put it up with liquid nail, so instead of ripping it off and possibly massing up the wall etc. I'm planning to add another border of trim on the inside diameter. 1.5" will probably cover it nicely without taking away from the tank, and I can easily blend the two together.

Thanks again for following! It's been fun (interesting) lol...
 
ReefWhatYouSow said:
Thanks! You are 100% correct. In a haste I put the molding up before the water was in and I didn't even think about the water level. I just had to get it up before family arrived for Thanksgiving. I put it up with liquid nail, so instead of ripping it off and possibly massing up the wall etc. I'm planning to add another border of trim on the inside diameter. 1.5" will probably cover it nicely without taking away from the tank, and I can easily blend the two together.

Thanks again for following! It's been fun (interesting) lol...
Click to expand...

I'm sure it will look great. Can't wait to see it.
 
If you put your closed loop pump beside the tank a little lower then the water level and include a T with a ball valve sticking up and open, instead of an elbow above the pump you can then open the ball valve and poor water in to prime the pump. then it should work reasonably well for the small size piping your using. I hope that makes sense.


ReefWhatYouSow said:
You all might remember that I was going to do a closed loop system through the rockwork that surrounds the overflow. Well, it was a better idea than anything. Being that I am not an engineer and new to the hobby I expected more out of the pump than it could handle. First it wasn’t possible to suck the water up into the pump, and then the size of the pipes didn’t make it feasible to push the water throughout the ½” pipes. On top of that… I was using the Jebao DC9000 because I wanted the variable speeds, but I had to reduce the size of input and outputs to ½’” which was just too much. I also tried some other pumps on it and the closest to flow that I got was a little water pushing out of a few holes when using a MaxiJet 1200. Not what I wanted at all, so now I will be using it as a haven for pods. I’ll buy a bunch and feed them down the pipe in top and they can come out all of the holes at their will lol…

This was my second go around after moving the pump from the floor to the shelving that I put up:
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laverda said:
If you put your closed loop pump beside the tank a little lower then the water level and include a T with a ball valve sticking up and open, instead of an elbow above the pump you can then open the ball valve and poor water in to prime the pump. then it should work reasonably well for the small size piping your using. I hope that makes sense.
Click to expand...


It kid of does... But, do you have any idea why it didn't work when the pump was in the water?
 
Reef- What kind of prep did you have to do on the stand for paint? Sandpaper grit? Etching primer? etc. My stand is being built now(1.5" square 14 gauge tube) 73"x25"x38" I am awaiting estimates for powder coating. Metal fabricator said should be around $200 for powder but looking at all options.
 
Cbsailor11 said:
Reef- What kind of prep did you have to do on the stand for paint? Sandpaper grit? Etching primer? etc. My stand is being built now(1.5" square 14 gauge tube) 73"x25"x38" I am awaiting estimates for powder coating. Metal fabricator said should be around $200 for powder but looking at all options.
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Hey Cbsailor...

The sandpaper I used was 220 grit. I believe it said wet/dry on the package. The item number for it at Home Depot is 051141395234 3M PGP 7x9 6 pack $3.97.

I then used tack cloth to wipe down the stand after sanding. It picks up all the metal dust and oils. 070826020339 3PK Tack Cloth $2.68.

Then I used aerosol primer and red spray paint.

The primer that I used is time number 020066758288 Rust-oleum grey primer 15oz $5.27/ea.

020066756482 Rust-oleum Professional Safety Red HG spray 15oz $5.27/ea.

I was also going to powder coat the stand but after reading others experiences it didn't seem a necessary expense and with my budget coming to an end I was looking to save money in some places to spend it in others. Good luck with the stand and post pics when you finish it!
 
Reef-Wow, you keep great records. Thanks, seems a lot cheaper to just paint it myself. I'll post some pics, may have to start my own build thread.
 
Cbsailor11 said:
Reef-Wow, you keep great records. Thanks, seems a lot cheaper to just paint it myself. I'll post some pics, may have to start my own build thread.
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Trying to... But you also got lucky cause I had the receipt in the bag with the extra spray paint. Not a ton of work and definitely worth the price. Good luck on your build, and definitely make a build thread. I'll follow!
 
Thought I would share this newb moment to give everyone a little chuckle. I'm working on some stuff in the sump and smell some funk out of the hole in my skimmer. I decide to open the canister lid to see how it's looking/working... And "POP" I got some bubble splatter in my mouth. Not even enough to taste but after smelling it... Lol...
 
ReefWhatYouSow said:
It kid of does... But, do you have any idea why it didn't work when the pump was in the water?
Click to expand...

From looking at your photo it look like too much head loss. Your tubing is too small, too long, too high and too many bends. Each 90 degree elbow is equal to 4' of tubing. Each fitting, Union and ball valve adds more restriction. The combination is just too much for your pump. 6 feet of vertical tubing without any bends will reduce the flow 505 or more to less then 1200 GPH on your Jebao DC9000, assuming their flow charts are accurate. It will be much less with the small tubing your using. I would guess you have at least 12' of head with your plumbing as I see it.
http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=69310 Flow chart is at the bottom of the page.
 
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laverda said:
From looking at your photo it look like too much head loss. Your tubing is too small, too long, too high and too many bends. Each 90 degree elbow is equal to 4' of tubing. Each fitting, Union and ball valve adds more restriction. The combination is just too much for your pump. 6 feet of vertical tubing without any bends will reduce the flow 505 or more to less then 1200 GPH on your Jebao DC9000, assuming their flow charts are accurate. It will be much less with the small tubing your using. I would guess you have at least 12' of head with your plumbing as I see it.
http://www.championlighting.com/product.php?productid=69310 Flow chart is at the bottom of the page.
Click to expand...

Yeah. It seemed like it was doomed from the 5th 90 degree turn lol...
 
Behind again on my update but hopefully I will be catching up this week with a lot of pictures.

I left off with my shadow box for the Apex modules. Well here it is up on the wall. I still need to clean up the wires, but I'm glad with how it turned out.

http://i1371.photobucket.com/albums/ag286/nathanandrewwilsonreefwhatyousow/DSC_0671_zpsgishcpzd.jpg[/IMG]



Here is the water change station thus far. I had a few different ideas on how this would be done, but decided to go with this one. It forces me to be more hands on with the water change, which while it creates more effort for myself it also ensures that I'm paying attention to what I do with my tank. I am planning on tapping into my hot water heater (cold side) and adding a solenoid. This setup will be connected to my sprinkler system as one of the zones, so that I can set the RO/DI to turn off after being on for so long. This is to ensure that there isn't a mess to clean if I forget to manually turn it off. I'll also add a float valve for redundancy.









The pump is plugged into the orange electrical cord which runs through the ceiling into the fish room. It will be connected to the Apex once I work on a switch that I can use to flip the pump on and off. For now I plug the electrical cord into the wall and pull it out when the water fills up. This is both to fill up the ATO barrel and the saltwater for the water change.


Below is more of my manual labor. For now I throw a Mag12 into the tank at the level that I want to change at and then run a hose into the toilet. I'll probably make a clip to hold the hose into the toilet, but for not the seat works (until someone needs to "œgo").





Here's where the saltwater enters the tank for the water change. The pipe will back siphon, so for now I have been closing the valve after the change to stop this from happening but I might just add a hole in the pipe above the water level.

 
Now for the excitement that we all wait for…

On February 23rd I took these guys out of quarantine and added them to the Frag Tank. They’re pretty happy there, especially now that I added coral, but once I get through some of my lineup in the DT I will be moving them there.



And then my order from Diver’s Den showed up on February 23, 2015! These guys will be sitting in quarantine until April sometime.







These guys already made it to the tank.





I’m looking forward to adding more of these types of pics soon!
 
lol flood that doesn't sound good.. This looks like you put a ton of time and effort into this build and it looks great. Hope it wasn't a major setback. :worried:
 
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