Finally, my new tank is coming together!

[Drewcipher]

I couldn't wait any longer to start this thread. We designed our custom tank almost 4 years ago. It was built specifically for our home in Marina Del Rey, CA. Our first problem came when Advance Aqua and I miscommunicated on the dimensions. I gave them internal, and they made it external. It was supposed to be 225 gallons, but ended up at slightly more than 180 gallons. Oh well. Here are some pictures as it came into our home in Marina Del Rey.

You can see that the tank was placed in the living room and that the dining room was a split level above it. You can see the back of another tank up there. We were going to make that small tank into a sea horse tank and have it drain into the big tank below. The part of the stand on the right was going to house the chiller, the light ballasts, and several dj centers to control power.

Unfortunately, the best laid plans...We ended up moving to Mammoth Lakes, CA and having to put most of our stuff, including the tank, into storage. We were there for near a year, then we bought a house in Colorado. Once we bought the house, we decided to build a fish room in the basement to house the filtration. This was a large, expensive project, and plans kept changing.

As of now, about 3+ years after receiving the tank, it finally has water in it. I made one plumbing error, and will need to rectify that, but we are close to adding salt, and rock.

These pictures are in the old Marina Del Rey house.

 

[BigTuna321]

Congrats on starting the tank :thumbsup:

I would make sure that the system is as silent as i could make it seeing as it is in your living room. Maybe a bean overflow or something like that.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1310585

 

[Drewcipher]

Here are some pictures of the equipement we are using.

 

[Drewcipher]

 

[Drewcipher]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14977758#post14977758 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by BigTuna321
Congrats on starting the tank :thumbsup:

I would make sure that the system is as silent as i could make it seeing as it is in your living room. Maybe a bean overflow or something like that.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1310585

The overflows each have 2 drains in them. Each has what I call a main drain, which has a Durso standpipe in it, and each has what we planned as an emergency overflow. The emergency drains have a slightly taller open pipe. If the durso in either overflow clogs, the water level will rise to the level of the emergency. Since it is just a straight pipe, we will hear the water draining and know we need to perform maintenance.

 

[Drewcipher]

And here are some plumbing shots.

The first 2 pictures are me having to dremmel some of the drilled holes as they were 2 small for the bulkheads.

 

[Drewcipher]

 

[Drewcipher]

Oh, you can see in the equipement pictures, the box that says "Fragile(Really)". That contained the sump. The next picture shows a crack in the sump. This was the second sump that was delivered. We got the sump from Marc Levenson (melev). The first one came so shattered, I can't even describe it, but insurance covered it and Marc tried again. This time he wrote crazy things all over the box, telling UPS to be more careful. I really wish I had saved the box, but alas, I didn't.

Anyway, the second one came cracked, but it was small enough that I was able to use Weldon and a small piece of acrylic I had, so no problem.

I want to thank Marc for helping design the sump and then building it and dealing with the UPS folk. Anyone wanting a nice custom sump, call Marc.

As it turns out, now, with my new room, I didn't really need the sump to be quite so interesting, but I still like it, and it holds water, so what the heck.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Any reason you got that little side cabinet on there? It looks like a design for a 3 side viewable peninsula tank, but the blue back obviously not so much.

I personally would have been royally peed-off if I wanted a 225 and got a 180.

 

[Drewcipher]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14979048#post14979048 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sfsuphysics
Any reason you got that little side cabinet on there? It looks like a design for a 3 side viewable peninsula tank, but the blue back obviously not so much.

I personally would have been royally peed-off if I wanted a 225 and got a 180.

The piece on the right was for storing the chiller, ballasts, and power centers. This tank was designed for a place where we were going to plumb most things to the stand, now after buying a house, we plumbed to the basement.

I might have been angry, except that because of the moves and everything that has changed for us in the last 3 years. Remember that we have had this tank for over 3 years, and we just filled it with water for the first time. I am just excited that we are now started.

 

[fote03]

Great build! I thought i had a ton of aquarium stuff but you win!!!

 

[EnderG60]

The finish on that stand is amazing!

what are the dimensions of the tank?

 

[cayenne]

Nice tank, and I love that stand. I really like your storage / equipment room as well.

I am currently in the process of a large build as well, feel free to check it out, you can click on my little red house.

One question related to your plumbing... I am really struggling with how I am going to plumb my drains, and my thought was to do it exactly like your and combine on the first floor with a single 1.5" drain to my basement. My biggest concern was the issue of only using a single combined drain and it becoming clogged.

Even though the possibility of 1.5" plumbing becoming clogged is low, did you have any concerns?

 

[Drewcipher]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15004414#post15004414 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EnderG60
The finish on that stand is amazing!

what are the dimensions of the tank?

Thanks. we really like it. The external dimensions of the tank are 72" long, 24" tall, and 30" deep. We made the overflows external, so we would have the whole 30" all the way across the tank.

When we ordered the tank we asked for those to be the internal dimensions, but they messed up. Oh well, I am still happy with it.

 

[Drewcipher]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15004721#post15004721 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cayenne
Nice tank, and I love that stand. I really like your storage / equipment room as well.

I am currently in the process of a large build as well, feel free to check it out, you can click on my little red house.

One question related to your plumbing... I am really struggling with how I am going to plumb my drains, and my thought was to do it exactly like your and combine on the first floor with a single 1.5" drain to my basement. My biggest concern was the issue of only using a single combined drain and it becoming clogged.

Even though the possibility of 1.5" plumbing becoming clogged is low, did you have any concerns?

I always have concern with clogging. If it clogs and overflows the tank, the water will go through the floor and land on my 73" HDTV and entertainment system. I just changed my plumbing for 2 reasons.

First, we have 2 drains in each overflow. Originally we combined all four drains and put one line to the basement. We have a Durso standpipe in the main drains. What we call the emergency drains each have a standpipe that is just above the bottom of the overflow teeth. Today we ran another pipe down to the basement and connected that. We now have 1 drain in each overflow connect together upstairs and run down to the basement. These have the Dursos. The other drains in each overflow connect together under the stand, and run through the new pipe to the basement. I feel that this will be safer because if the main drains fail anywhere, we have the emergency drains as an entirely separate system. Furthermore, putting just a straight pvc tube up in the emergency drain, the noise level will rise significantly if the durso becomes clogged.

The second reason was my stupidity. By putting a tee on the 2 drains in the overflow, there was a lot of noise coming back out the emergency standpipe, as the water flowed down the pipe to the basement.

I must say that I highly doubt that a 1.5" pipe running down a whole floor will ever clog, but since we designed the tank with the emergency drains, I just decided that it would let me sleep better, especially when we are out of town, that I have 2 separate drain systems.

 

[robot2222]

REALLY NICE BUILD. TAGGING ALONG

 

[cayenne]

I like your thought process with the emergency stand pipe and redoing the drains.

Do you have any pictures of how you redid the plumbing? What size did you end up going with once you split the drains?

 

[Drewcipher]

Well, the main drains are 2 inch bulkheads while the emergencies are 1.5 inch. I made them both 1.5 inch going down, mostly because getting 2 inch pipe down through the wall was a pain, as when I removed the drywall, I found a header in that wall. I got 2 inch pipe through for the closed loop, but I was sick of forcing it. Our return pump is very slow too. I might need a different one, the jury is still out. I am using a Gen-X now. 1190 gph and 22 foot shutoff. I have about a 12 foot rise from pump to tank. But for what I am running now, I think any one of the 4 1.5 inch drains could handle the load.

I haven't taken new pictures yet. I will get to it though.