DCartier's 560G Blue Window

[dartier]

Dennis,
Very nice. Huge, in fact. What is that existing lip / brace made of? Glass, acrylic or poly-carbonate?

Also, what will the braces you are adding be made of?

Regarding the dry rock. I would go with dry Pukani. I would swear that it is half the weight for the same physical volume of rock. You should verify that but it feels much lighter and at only $1.20 a pound more, would probably cover at least the same volume, dollar for dollar.

Aaron,

Thanks. The euro bracing is made of 12 mm glass (1/2"). The new cross braces will be made of the same material.

For the rock, I went with BRS Reef Saver as it was the only rock that the BRS site indicates can be imported into Canada without stiff tariffs. Pukani does not fall into this category unfortunately. I ended up driving it across the border myself anyway, and Customs Services did not even look at the order, but I did not want to take the chance of having a bunch of rock that was stuck on the wrong side of the border. The 400 pounds of Reef Saver that I bought probably will not even make a dent in the space I need to fill now that I have had a chance to see the tank up close. So I expect I will need to supplement the Reef Saver with locally sourced rock.

Dennis

 

[OzIA]

Hmmm. Wonder what the deal is with a"formerly live" rock and Canada?

 

[dartier]

Hmmm. Wonder what the deal is with a"formerly live" rock and Canada?

I suspect it is because the Reef Saver rock is from terrestrial sources whereas the Pukani is harvested from the ocean. That is the only reason I can think that dry rock would have import duties. We have the same issue with calcium reactor media that is coral fragments (in Canada). The one exception is the TLF Reborn media which does not seem to fall under this clause (thankfully).

Dennis

 

[cesarjimen]

Any updates on the build? Receive the tank yet?

I have a 450 gal on order from Miracles

 

[dartier]

Any updates on the build? Receive the tank yet?

I have a 450 gal on order from Miracles

I have been lax in updating this thread (though not much has happened after the tank delivery, although that is about to change). Without further ado, here is the tank being delivered by Derrick and the Miracles crew.

They constructed a sled to "slide" the tank down a moderate hill into my back yard (this is Canada after all!). I was pretty skeptical, but it worked great. At least until they got to flat ground. Then not so much.

The stand alone was hundreds of pounds, so it got the first use of the sled.

Now for the unloading of the tank. I was holding my breath at this point because I had visions of this thing hitting the pavement and ending up in a million pieces. But they knew what they were doing

(continued in next post)

 

[dartier]

They are now at the base of the hill and the sled is no longer practical.

The last stage is to get it into place and on the stand.

(continued in next post)

 

[dartier]

The final result with the tank in place on its stand.

My next project for this (which is underway) is a sliding work platform and light racks. Then the facade will need to be added. I am planning on using magnetic attachments so that much of the facade can be removed incase I need to access the front from the top or bottom.

Dennis

 

[McPuff]

Impressive tank. Looking forward to seeing how you close it in.

 

[crimsonblue]

Where do you plan on putting the powerbeads? 5 across the back or large gyres on the sides?

 

[ssgss gogeta]

560G! And I was getting a headache over my 260 build. Gonna be following along


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[dartier]

Where do you plan on putting the powerbeads? 5 across the back or large gyres on the sides?

I wanted the pumps to blend into the tank, but did not want to drill the panes (for closed loop, etc.). So I will be using 4 XF280 gyres, 3 on the (black) end with the overflow, and 1 on the far end of the tank. On the end with 3, 2 will be mounted vertically and 1 horizontal. Each pair of gyres will be on a maxspect controller. This should give me pretty random flow as they ramp up and down randomly with the 2 end units and the direction of rotation changing on the vertical units.

I have not used the new controllers yet, but they are supposed to be much better than the 1st gen ones. I guess I will see. I also bought a spare XF280 so that I can have a spare to swap in for cleaning.

Hopefully the 280's are not too powerful for this tank.

Dennis

 

[BZOFIQ]

Weird, links look fine.

Dennis

Off topic, the tile laying system you'er using, what is it called and where did you pick it up. How is it working for you?

 

[dartier]

Off topic, the tile laying system you'er using, what is it called and where did you pick it up. How is it working for you?

I am not sure what brand of clips the tilers were using. I have seen the same ones at HomeDepot (or very similar). Lowes will have them as well. The wedges are applied with a tool that looks like a set of pliers. The decoupling membrane was supposed to be Schluter Ditra, but the tilers ended up using a different brand out of Germany, Ardex Flexbone I believe.

If I had to do it over again, I would not go with Marble, but instead would go with a porcelain tile as they are pretty much indestructible. With the marble, we had a lot of broken tiles as the force from the wedges could easily apply enough pressure to crack a tile. With porcelain you can pinch them down much harder and get a perfect level plane.

Oh, and if you go with a decoupling membrane, you need to use a polymer modified adhesive to stick the membrane down, then a normal thinset on top. By using the polymer adhesive under the membrane it allows it to move enough to provide the decoupling from expansion. In my case my floor has embedded heating pipes in the slab with hot water circulating through them. This will cause some expansion.

Dennis

 

[dartier]

I finally started on the framework that will support the tank facade, as well as a sliding work platform, so I can lay on my stomach and reach down into the tank. I still will not be able to reach the bottom, but should be good for reaching the rock work.

This structure will also have vertical rails on each end for my light platform to ride up and down on. that way I can retract it up behind the bulkhead and give me 20" of clearance (minimum). The ends will also be attached to 2 joists in the ceiling.

The first order of the day was building a jig so that I could figure out where the mounts for the threaded rod were going to land on the 2x4 pads.

Then I constructed the front supports, that "hang" off the top rail attached with the threaded rod. The bottom beam is a C-Beam (profile is like a C on its back), and the inner rail will be used for the 2 small carriages that will be the front side of the work platform. In the photo it looks lower in the middle, it is not, it's just because their is no foam there so it looks that way in the photo. As each end is a 1.5M extrusion, joined in the middle, I used a total of 9 connectors to keep the 2 pieces from deflecting. When I put my weight on the center joint, it does not deflect at all. Most of the support will come from the end members that will be attached to ceiling joists anyway.

Tomorrow will be the back rail and starting on the uprights that support the back down to the floor.

Dennis

 

[dave.m]

No images. I hope you haven't got caught in the Photobucket trap.

Dave.M

 

[dartier]

Thanks for pointing out the photo issue Dave. Not directly Photobucket related, but it seems like Google has made it more difficult to do 3rd party linking through photos.google.com. So maybe indirectly related to Photobucket.

I will have more progress to post later. Today being a holiday and all.

Dennis

 

[whyamisofly]

First photo isn't loading, but the second one (tank, stand, and canopy) is showing.

 

[dartier]

Gah, this really should not be this hard! There, fixed (I think). It is showing up in a private session on a browser not logged into my Google account.

Just to add insult to injury, here is the photo of today's progress.

I added the back rail and rear support. I was planning to get the rear supports cut and mounted butted under the back support, but then I noticed the distance to the floor was different by 7 mm end to end. So that got me to thinking i had better wait till I have at least filled the tank with fresh water as the levelling legs may need some more adjustments. I don't want to have supports cut to fit dimensions that were modified.

That is enough for today.

Dennis

 

[whyamisofly]

Gah, this really should not be this hard! There, fixed (I think). It is showing up in a private session on a browser not logged into my Google account.

Just to add insult to injury, here is the photo of today's progress.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/H...FaKdfuP4SxQac6PjovTQ5v3CXQEQ3_a=w1328-h747-no

I added the back rail and rear support. I was planning to get the rear supports cut and mounted butted under the back support, but then I noticed the distance to the floor was different by 7 mm end to end. So that got me to thinking i had better wait till I have at least filled the tank with fresh water as the levelling legs may need some more adjustments. I don't want to have supports cut to fit dimensions that were modified.

That is enough for today.

Dennis

First and second photo are now showing in the previous thread.....but the picture above is not showing.

 

[dartier]

Ok, I am getting the feeling that Google must make recently uploaded, shared photos, available under a transient URL And then move it to a permanent one later. I have fixed the above picture. Let's see if it stays fixed.

Dennis