CyclistMT's 300 Gal Plywood and Glass Build

[CyclistMT]

Its been 17 months since this build was started...are there any inhabitants yet?

I know right??!!! Actually it's been more like 31 months since the first plywood cut was made in March of 2010. But who's counting....Oh right, apparently NewMariner is.


Unfortunately there are no inhabitants yet. But this is somewhat of a self induced prohibition for these reasons:

• Installed ceramic tile in kitchen a couple of weeks ago so no time for tank
• Need to spend money on finishing stand skinning before purchasing livestock or will never finish skinning stand
• Partially subscribe to Borneman Theory on The Building of a Reef Tank
• Other miscellaneous items

I knew the kitchen project was coming so didn't want to have to worry about livestock as I knew the tank would be ignored. I have some finish work to do but overall the kitchen is complete which means I can begin work on skinning the stand.

I will begin work on skinning the stand very soon and once it's done I will feel like the "build" portion of the tank is complete and I can better enjoy the process of building the ecosystem and watching it mature. And I know me, if I don't do this first it will be years before I get it done.

Google Borneman The Building of a Reef Tank if you don't know what I'm talking about here to get some background. Basically he states that when you start a new tank with live rock you have a ton of die off happening that actually creates several months of mini cycles which makes it problematic for livestock introduced too early. Of course I didn't use live rock but I have experienced some things that make me glad I didn't jump in with both feet. Bottom line, going sllllloooooowwwwww. I had a pretty massive bacterial bloom once I got saltwater in the tank. I suspect from excess organics in the chicken calcium I used. That has come and gone and I do have some algae showing up so it's definitely time for a basic clean up crew and I may get that soon. Also I'm still a bit worried about bound phosphates but I haven't gotten the 10 micron sock yet that I need to do my LC dosing. Will probably get going on that too before I go gung ho on livestock. Trust me though, I've got the itch. I'm out on Live Aquaria just about every day.

As for the miscellaneous, it's about dialing in some of the aspects of the flow, both in the tank and through the sump, and the temperature holding capability of the tank. As I've stated before, because of my surge I could not get the BeanAnimal drain system working as expected. I did find a solution I can live with but that means I do get bubbles in the sump so I had to find a way to minimize salt spray so that I didn't have to clean it off the sides every day. Without a heater in the tank temp is holding about 72-74 degrees but that's with everything fully open too. Once the stand is skinned the heat holding capability of the tank may go up enough to avoid having to put a heater in at all (this would be my preference). But it is finally starting to get cold enough here to start having the house heater come on during the night. That means a change in our house temp as during the summer we keep it about 74 with the AC but in the winter it's around 69 degrees on average. So between that and stand skin I don't know what the impact will be on the tank temp. If I do have to run a heater I want to keep it as small as possible to reduce energy costs and minimize risk (I do plan on using a Ranco controller though).

So that's what has kept me from adding any livestock yet. Bet you didn't think it would be that complicated of an answer huh? I thought it best to provide a comprehensive answer since I'll be bumping this up on people's subscriptions and I don't have any new pictures to share. Didn't want you all to be too disappointed.


Until next time, salute'! :beer:





Current music selection: Metallica - Wherever I May Roam

 

[PL-Reef]

And.................................................... Why you leaving us hanging?

 

[dca22anderson]

Hope all is well with your tank and build. I would also love to see an update! :bounce3:

 

[CyclistMT]

Oh man... I was really, really, really hoping no one would be looking for an update yet. Because....I don't really have much of one. But since PL-Reef asked and dca22anderson added fuel to the fire, here we go.

It's taken me a couple of days to respond because some of you have asked for a video of the surge so I took some time to put that together. I had to figure out a way to show it since there are no bubbles to see the effect and not much life in the tank to see it that way either. I decided to use some ribbon and to my pleasant surprise I found this is a great way to visualize flow patterns in the tank. You'll see a couple of leather corals in the video. They came out of my bio cube and even though the 300 gal is running at 72 degrees, I figured it was still a better environment than what was going on in the bio cube (I hate dealing with small tanks and it's been quite neglected for a while).

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/sBO-rLht7RA?feature=player_detailpage" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>



I have been continuing to deal with bacteria blooms and a weird bubble algae outbreak. They're clusters of brown bubbles. I've never seen this before but I did have some red bubble algae imported on a couple of pieces of rock from my bio cube so it could be that but different under this lighting. I don't know. It's been fairly easy to manage by scrubbing off the rock and doing water changes. It doesn't seem to come back very quickly. I also have some cyano going on in my fuge. Clearly I have a nutrient problem as confirmed by a 0.35 phosphate reading on my Hanna Checker. I finally got my 10 micron socks so I'll be starting lanthanum chloride dosing this week.

And finally, I have been working on skinning the stand but it's slow going. Here is an in progress shot. This is not the finished color for the door panels (they will be mahogany like the rest of the trim).

That's it for now so I hope that will suffice. Sorry I don't have much life in the tank yet but I don't want to add anything until I can get these nutrient issues under control. I'd rather fight it now without much life in the tank.

 

[Osteoclast]

Love the mahogany. I have my library/study done in it and it frames my in wall tank. Keep up the good efforts! Slow, steady, and stable is the mantra with coral especially SPS.

 

[muttley000]

Coming along nicely! Did you say how you are controlling the waterblaster and sicce pumps for the alternation (is that a word?) every 6 hours? Great production on the video by the way

 

[CyclistMT]

Love the mahogany. I have my library/study done in it and it frames my in wall tank. Keep up the good efforts! Slow, steady, and stable is the mantra with coral especially SPS.

Thanks Osteoclast. I bet your library/study is awesome all done in mahogany. It's such a deep, rich color. I plan to build a new computer desk eventually to match the stand. I also want to get one of those cool European style leather chairs and surround it with mahogany bookcases (I'll probably build those too). It would be so cool to chill in front of the tank reading a good book and sipping a drink.

Coming along nicely! Did you say how you are controlling the waterblaster and sicce pumps for the alternation (is that a word?) every 6 hours? Great production on the video by the way

Muttley, I did not. It's nothing fancy right now. Just a couple of cheap digital timers from Harbor Freight. Unfortunately they are not the most accurate time pieces out there so they tend to drift and get the pumps out of sync a bit. I've considered one of the reef controlers as I know they would do a fine job with this but I just can't convince myself to get one for a couple of reasons.

1. I worry about putting "all my eggs in one basket" so to speak. I feel there is an advantage in having all of my controlable items on seperate "systems" I have half my lights and half my pumps on different electric circuits in case a GFCI trips I'll still have half the tank running until I can check it out. As reliable as the controllers might be, it is still one point of failure if I have everything connected to it for control (lights, pumps, heater, pH, top off, etc.). Having all these things on seperate timers/controlers might end up costing just as much as an "all in one" but the safety in the seperation of duties is worth the cost. I would still like to have continuous data logging of pH, temp, and ORP so I may still end up with something.

2. I'm being lazy and don't want the learning curve of a new tech/programming.


To solve my problem of drifting timers I might see if Blue Planet Waterworks (the company that put together my surge valve and control) can make me timer/relay circuit to suit my needs.


Thanks for the kind words on the video. Since there's not much to look at in the tank I wanted to try and make it somewhat interesting.





Current tunes: Sixx A.M. - Life Is Beautiful

 

[tgunn]

Great job on the tank so far! Glad to see the progress.

Your surge is AMAZING -- my favorite surge so far. No bubbles at all, just a big 'ol dump of water. How does your overflow keep up with the surge? Is it really loud during the surge?

Also good job on hiding all the piping and powerheads. You've got a tonne of flow in there and it's not clear where it's all coming from; ideal in my mind.

I don't think that's bubble algae; looks like the some other kind of algae. I had something similar in my 10g nano at work while it was cycling -- thankfully I haven't had true valonia so far.

Your tank makes me wish I had a big tank again. The 10g tank at work just doesn't compare to what you're starting up!

 

[CyclistMT]

Great job on the tank so far! Glad to see the progress.

Your surge is AMAZING -- my favorite surge so far. No bubbles at all, just a big 'ol dump of water. How does your overflow keep up with the surge? Is it really loud during the surge?

Also good job on hiding all the piping and powerheads. You've got a tonne of flow in there and it's not clear where it's all coming from; ideal in my mind.

I don't think that's bubble algae; looks like the some other kind of algae. I had something similar in my 10g nano at work while it was cycling -- thankfully I haven't had true valonia so far.

Your tank makes me wish I had a big tank again. The 10g tank at work just doesn't compare to what you're starting up!

Thanks tgunn! The overflow keeps up with the surge just fine without spilling into the emergency drain. I couldn't keep it as a traditional Beananimal becuase I belive there is too much variation from normal flow to surge flow. If I set it properly for surge flow, it would drain the overflow during normal flow because of how effcient it was. If I set it for normal flow the surge flow would get the channels flowing so good it would literally flush the overflow and cause a bunch of noise. So I resorted to using basically two open channels for normal operation. It's a little noisier and creates bubbles in the sump but I've dealt with that. I'm hoping once I close my stand up it will be quiet enough for me. Honestly the return pumps are more annoying noise wise than the overflow at this point.

Well, the bubble algae I've had in my other tanks was not valonia but the dreaded red bubble algae. I know I introduced it but I'm hoping I've shocked the crap out of it and can eliminate it through nutrient control. I wish I had Valonia, would be much easier to deal with. My only hope is the brown algae is not some wierd variant of the red bubble that got introduced becuase that would be bad, very bad.

I hear you on the small tanks. I've had a 29gal bio cube running to keep a couple of specimans and fish alive during this build and I hate it. It's very neglected. I through some food in there daily and that's about it besides top off. Small tanks are nearly as much work as a big tank so why bother is my opinion.

 

[tgunn]

Thanks tgunn! The overflow keeps up with the surge just fine without spilling into the emergency drain. I couldn't keep it as a traditional Beananimal becuase I belive there is too much variation from normal flow to surge flow. If I set it properly for surge flow, it would drain the overflow during normal flow because of how effcient it was. If I set it for normal flow the surge flow would get the channels flowing so good it would literally flush the overflow and cause a bunch of noise. So I resorted to using basically two open channels for normal operation. It's a little noisier and creates bubbles in the sump but I've dealt with that. I'm hoping once I close my stand up it will be quiet enough for me. Honestly the return pumps are more annoying noise wise than the overflow at this point.
[\QUOTE]

When you say two open channels, just two open pipes? No durso standpipes or otherwise on there?

From the looks of things on the video, the surge ends up being a really wide, dispersed blast of water. Is that correct? Looks like a great supplement to the overall flow though. I imagine it'll look great when you've got fish and corals in there responding to it.

How loud is the actuated ball valve? How long do you think it'll last, and can you replace the seals?

I hear you on the pumps. My gen-x knockoff and big Sequence 1000 pumps were by far the loudest parts of my old 140g. No matter what I did I couldn't isolate them enough to be silent.

Well, the bubble algae I've had in my other tanks was not valonia but the dreaded red bubble algae. I know I introduced it but I'm hoping I've shocked the crap out of it and can eliminate it through nutrient control. I wish I had Valonia, would be much easier to deal with. My only hope is the brown algae is not some wierd variant of the red bubble that got introduced becuase that would be bad, very bad.

I hear you on the small tanks. I've had a 29gal bio cube running to keep a couple of specimans and fish alive during this build and I hate it. It's very neglected. I through some food in there daily and that's about it besides top off. Small tanks are nearly as much work as a big tank so why bother is my opinion.

I dunno, valonia was a horrible battle for me in my old 140g. It caused the tank to overflow once due to it building up around the open channels in my overflow, raising the tank water level over time. Not fun. When I do my next big tank Ill make sure to keep it easily accessible for maintenance so I can keep on top of things.

Hahah, yeah my 10g at work is such a pain. I'm always basting the rocks, running the power filter and changing water. All for a single clown and tiny coral.

Tyler

 

[CyclistMT]

When you say two open channels, just two open pipes? No durso standpipes or otherwise on there?

From the looks of things on the video, the surge ends up being a really wide, dispersed blast of water. Is that correct? Looks like a great supplement to the overall flow though. I imagine it'll look great when you've got fish and corals in there responding to it.

How loud is the actuated ball valve? How long do you think it'll last, and can you replace the seals?

I hear you on the pumps. My gen-x knockoff and big Sequence 1000 pumps were by far the loudest parts of my old 140g. No matter what I did I couldn't isolate them enough to be silent.



I dunno, valonia was a horrible battle for me in my old 140g. It caused the tank to overflow once due to it building up around the open channels in my overflow, raising the tank water level over time. Not fun. When I do my next big tank Ill make sure to keep it easily accessible for maintenance so I can keep on top of things.

Hahah, yeah my 10g at work is such a pain. I'm always basting the rocks, running the power filter and changing water. All for a single clown and tiny coral.

Tyler

Open channels as in the BeanAnimal design without the airline. In this render from Bean, the one on the far right. I started with the full on Bean but just couldn't make it work so I'm using two open channels (each pipe is capped but with a hole drilled in the top and the valve is fully open) and an emergency.

The surge is fairly wide as it's coming out of a 1.5" pipe. It's actually 2" but I stepped it down to get more velocity. I would say most of the flow is in the middle 1/3 of the tank but because of how fast it comes out it moves the entire volume of water to some extent. And I've only got about 2.5' from top of surge tank to the pipe exit. If it was higher it would be even more powerful.


The valve is probably a little louder than the friggen Water Blasters but it only takes 5 seconds to acuate so it doesn't bother me nearly as much. I'm hoping it won't seem as loud once the stand is all enclosed. It's probably not something that would be very favorable in a dead silent living room system. My tank is in my "play room" with my computer which can get pretty loud at times (due to video card and system fan noise). I just put my headphones on a tune it all out. I hope it will last a good long time but if I get five years out of it I will be happy. Although I honestly don't know what to expect for longevity. I could certainly be undershooting that. I don't believe it has replaceable seals.

Yeah, I don't exactly wish to have Valonia but if you've never had the red bubble algae (Botryocladia is what I'm talking about here) you don't know how bad bubble algae can be. It's unsightly and it's pratically impossible to remove without rupturing. And when it does it's full of snot like slime that I'm sure is all spores. The little bit I did import in seems to have gotten shocked by the high par lighting and seems to be on the decline. I'm hopeful.

 

[DIZZER]

Relatively new to RC. Loving the build. I fancy myself as somewhat of a handyman with woodworking but this!!! There is no way my wife would trust me to build my own tank (yet). I can already see it leaking and I'm not even attemting it!. I do have to say it is something I would love to try down the road. Its hard to beat being able create your own tank to the exact dimensions of your liking. No limititations of standard tanks! Could you point out a good link or two to read up on building a plywood tank? Thanks for all the info and pics so far

 

[CyclistMT]

Relatively new to RC. Loving the build. I fancy myself as somewhat of a handyman with woodworking but this!!! There is no way my wife would trust me to build my own tank (yet). I can already see it leaking and I'm not even attemting it!. I do have to say it is something I would love to try down the road. Its hard to beat being able create your own tank to the exact dimensions of your liking. No limititations of standard tanks! Could you point out a good link or two to read up on building a plywood tank? Thanks for all the info and pics so far

Welcome to the thread Dizzer! I know building a tank out of plywood that will hold a ton (literally) of water or more is a bit intimidating at first. But really, if you can build a plywood box in square you can do this. For me the most nerve racking part is siliconing the glass in. It's a bit different than building a glass tank becuase you're using the silicone as a gasket more than as a structural bond. If you follow in the footsteps of others (as I have done) carefully and take things slow, there really is very little risk in this method over other tank building methods. And ultimately you will end up with a stronger tank than all glass or acrylic in my opinion.

Garf.org has some basic plywood tank building plans on thier site but the construction techniques have evolved beyond that. I did use these basic principles to build my first plywood tank (150 gal). I see thier site is even more convoluted than it used to be so here is a direct link.

http://www.garf.org/140.gallon.html


From there I would go to fingerlakesreef.com and review thier plywood section in detail. That will give you a good foundation for the technique that I used on this build.

In addition to that I included links to several builds in the first and second posts of this thread and a link to my 150 build which has even more links to other plywood tank bulids.

That should be enough to keep you busy for a while.

 

[tgunn]

Open channels as in the BeanAnimal design without the airline. In this render from Bean, the one on the far right. I started with the full on Bean but just couldn't make it work so I'm using two open channels (each pipe is capped but with a hole drilled in the top and the valve is fully open) and an emergency.

The surge is fairly wide as it's coming out of a 1.5" pipe. It's actually 2" but I stepped it down to get more velocity. I would say most of the flow is in the middle 1/3 of the tank but because of how fast it comes out it moves the entire volume of water to some extent. And I've only got about 2.5' from top of surge tank to the pipe exit. If it was higher it would be even more powerful.


The valve is probably a little louder than the friggen Water Blasters but it only takes 5 seconds to acuate so it doesn't bother me nearly as much. I'm hoping it won't seem as loud once the stand is all enclosed. It's probably not something that would be very favorable in a dead silent living room system. My tank is in my "play room" with my computer which can get pretty loud at times (due to video card and system fan noise). I just put my headphones on a tune it all out. I hope it will last a good long time but if I get five years out of it I will be happy. Although I honestly don't know what to expect for longevity. I could certainly be undershooting that. I don't believe it has replaceable seals.

Yeah, I don't exactly wish to have Valonia but if you've never had the red bubble algae (Botryocladia is what I'm talking about here) you don't know how bad bubble algae can be. It's unsightly and it's pratically impossible to remove without rupturing. And when it does it's full of snot like slime that I'm sure is all spores. The little bit I did import in seems to have gotten shocked by the high par lighting and seems to be on the decline. I'm hopeful.

Okay, that makes sense for the overflow drains. Do you get any gurgling with them wide open? On my old 140g I had tried to do a valved down full sipon pipe (kinda a 1/2 bean if I look back) and it was a constant battle to get it to run stable. I found stuff always got stuck in the valves; cerith snails, bubble algae, etc would always plug up the closed valve and cause a surge into the open "emergency drain" which would be quite loud.

I'll keep watching how your ball valve goes then. Looks like a pretty solid design for a surge, and the results are pretty impressive.

Tyler

 

[CyclistMT]

Okay, that makes sense for the overflow drains. Do you get any gurgling with them wide open? On my old 140g I had tried to do a valved down full sipon pipe (kinda a 1/2 bean if I look back) and it was a constant battle to get it to run stable. I found stuff always got stuck in the valves; cerith snails, bubble algae, etc would always plug up the closed valve and cause a surge into the open "emergency drain" which would be quite loud.

I'll keep watching how your ball valve goes then. Looks like a pretty solid design for a surge, and the results are pretty impressive.

Tyler

Sorry for the delayed reply Tyler.

I wouldn't say I have any gurgling. It's more of a waterfall sound that gets louder when the surge fires and then there is even more noise as the water and air rush into the sump. But this is also with a nearly fully exposed stand. No, the stand is not finished yet, only one side is. Stupid work travel and honeydos keep getting in the way.

The slight trickle under non surge conditions probably wouldn't be too bad and somewhat soothing if that was the only thing I heard. But these damn Waterblaster pumps...have I mentioned how loud they are yet? Once the new RLSS DC pumps hit the market I might seriously consider switching them out since they now have a size that will work for me.

 

[tgunn]

Sorry for the delayed reply Tyler.

I wouldn't say I have any gurgling. It's more of a waterfall sound that gets louder when the surge fires and then there is even more noise as the water and air rush into the sump. But this is also with a nearly fully exposed stand. No, the stand is not finished yet, only one side is. Stupid work travel and honeydos keep getting in the way.

The slight trickle under non surge conditions probably wouldn't be too bad and somewhat soothing if that was the only thing I heard. But these damn Waterblaster pumps...have I mentioned how loud they are yet? Once the new RLSS DC pumps hit the market I might seriously consider switching them out since they now have a size that will work for me.

Makes sense. I had a real hard time quieting the overflow on my old 140g, but mainly because the water dropped so far in the box. I was also pushing way too much flow through it too.

It sounds like the price for the surge is the occasional gurgle or increase in noise. Guess I will have to experiment when the time comes for another big tank.

The do pumps sound pretty nice from everything I've read so far. But Sooo pricey. I guess I shouldn't complain though as the stuff I've spent more on is usually far superior to the cheapo stuff.

Looking forward to seeing how things progress.

 

[CyclistMT]

Hmm, what do we have here?

Let's open it and find out.

Oooo, what's this, a new skimmer!!!!????

Here's an obligatory size comparison shot. As you can see Bailey is not nearly as impressed with my new toy as I am.

And finally, after a vinegar bath it's in the sump breaking in.

Sorry, that's the only update I have for now. I've made some progress on the stand but it's been slow as I haven't been able to do any staining and sealing with it being so cold in the garage. That should be changing soon though so I hope I can make a final push in the next few weeks. I'm really happy to have gotten my skimmer now though as that was another item I wanted before I went too hog wild in stocking the tank.

I do have some other goodies coming this week so stay tuned!






Current tunes: Chevelle - Well Enough Alone

 

[biecacka]

Bailey looks like, " what??? You been waiting all day for the box and that's what was in it?!!"
:lol:
Nice looking skimmer tho
Corey

 

[worm5406]

Espc since mail does not run on SUNDAYS....

 

[CyclistMT]

Espc since mail does not run on SUNDAYS....

HA! That's my life, fun stuff comes in on Friday and I don't get a chance to play with it and talk about it until Sunday evening. And then Monday comes so I can pay for this stuff....






Current Tunes: Tatric - Kick Back