Gofor's 60"L X 30"W X 24"T LeeMar Upgrade

[gofor100]

Then the first layer of sand went in (I actually used the sugar-size grain for the first 1/2-inch because I wanted a nice fine layer covering the bottom along with filling in the eggcrate).

The rest of the sand is the CaribSea Special Grade Reef Sand (total sandbed will be approximately 2 1/2 to 3 inches) and was filled in after the rocks were placed in the tank.

 

[gofor100]

Then the rock went in... first the left side.

 

[gofor100]

Then the right side...

 

[gofor100]

Now the full tank shots... difficult to capture all of the swim-throughs, caves, and what-not, but I'm pretty happy with how it came out.

Also, I ended up using the Marco-Rocks mortar and it worked great. I was able to create a lot of the overhangs you see with it and secure any other rocks I didn't want tumbling in a strong earthquake.

 

[gofor100]

I hope to begin/finish the plumbing over the next several days (I hope by the weekend), so I'll post some pics when I have it all finished. I can't explain how happy I am to be posting pics of an actual tank this time around!

Thanks,

Chad

 

[maxxII]

Why the egg crate?

Nick

 

[Rotknee]

Nice work Chad!

Nice work Chad!

Congrats on the tank. It looks awesome! Thirty inches wide is a beautiful thing!:thumbsup: You will really like the Herbie drains. They are almost too quiet.

I'm glad to see LeeMar stand behind their work. My greatest fear was getting a scratched tank. Overall I am very happy with the quality of the product they produced. Was the center bracing a requirement of a 30" wide tank?

I'm looking forward to watching your plumbing progress. I just re-plumbed mine and it pays (in both time and money) to do it right the first time.

Gotta say I like John's new overflow as well. I have the older design. I might have to hit em' up for a new one.

Subscribed!

Rodney

 

[gofor100]

Why the egg crate?

Nick

Good question... it's been my experience that with the eggcrate laid down where the rock will be, there is a much lower chance that any shifting will take place and result in a potential rock-slide. And, since I get earthquakes occasionally where I live (Southern California), I want to take every precaution against shifting as possible (which is why I also used mortar for every stacked rock except 2 extremely secure pieces).

Another reason I've heard floating around is that it helps in evenly distributing the rocks' weight throughout the bottom pane of glass (instead of having just a few parts of the rock touching the glass and creating pressure points that might lead to stress fractures and what-not).

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for following,

Chad

 

[gofor100]

Congrats on the tank. It looks awesome! Thirty inches wide is a beautiful thing!:thumbsup: You will really like the Herbie drains. They are almost too quiet.

I'm glad to see LeeMar stand behind their work. My greatest fear was getting a scratched tank. Overall I am very happy with the quality of the product they produced. Was the center bracing a requirement of a 30" wide tank?

I'm looking forward to watching your plumbing progress. I just re-plumbed mine and it pays (in both time and money) to do it right the first time.

Gotta say I like John's new overflow as well. I have the older design. I might have to hit em' up for a new one.

Subscribed!

Rodney

Hey Rodney!

Thanks for following along! LeeMar did end up coming through (although it took a while ). In fact the tank is so incredibly polished I can barely get a photo without a reflection of some sort (that and my photo skills suck).

I'm not too certain why exactly they required the center bracing to be honest. I suspect it was a combination of the 30"W and having two overflows (which didn't allow for a continuous brace along the back). So, if I were to re-design the tank, I think that would be the only change. Not a huge deal to me though, I'm extremely happy with the end-result and wanted very effecient surface skimming.

Yeah, John out-did himself with the new ATO. I found out he actually got the design from one of the reefers down here and has been using it (with a few slight modifications) ever since.

I am pretty excited to get started on the plumbing. I've never used the Herbie method before (read a lot about it), so if you have any pointers, feel free to pass them along. :wavehand:

Thanks again,

Chad

 

[Rotknee]

If I could add anything I would strongly suggest you use a gate valve on your returns AND pipe thread sealant on your plumbing threads. IMO the RectorSeal is safe for use on potable water systems and used by many others here on RC. I got the idea here as I was looking for something more reliable and consistent than plumbers tape. It is a little messy but it is reef safe and gets the job done.


Using gate valves on your returns will allow you to easily (with an emphasis on easy) make adjustments to the water level in your weir. While you can use ball valves for a third of the cost, they are the least effective solution with respect to making fine adjustments.


Here are a couple of pics of my return and drain plumbing.


Oh...one other thing. I didn't find a lot of discussion on plumbing the emergency drians when doing my research on the Herbie method so I'll share what I did. My emergency drain pipe plumbing is plumbed about 3/4" of an inch from the top of my overflow teeth. In other words, the overflow teeth are 1.5" long and my emergency drain pipe sits at .75" from the top. Hopefully that makes sense? It's easy to make adjustments to your e-drain height should you want it to be taller or shorter.


I hoped that helped. :beer:

 

[maxxII]

Good question... it's been my experience that with the eggcrate laid down where the rock will be, there is a much lower chance that any shifting will take place and result in a potential rock-slide. And, since I get earthquakes occasionally where I live (Southern California), I want to take every precaution against shifting as possible (which is why I also used mortar for every stacked rock except 2 extremely secure pieces).

Another reason I've heard floating around is that it helps in evenly distributing the rocks' weight throughout the bottom pane of glass (instead of having just a few parts of the rock touching the glass and creating pressure points that might lead to stress fractures and what-not).

Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for following,

Chad

Forgot about the earthquake thing....I used to live in SoCal so its not like I'm ignorant of it....just wasnt thinking about it since I hadnt lived there in over a decade.

I'd probably be more concerned about seam failure in the event of an earthquake as opposed to a rock slide....but I realize tremblors are more common that honest to God earthquakes, so it makes sense.

I generally dont worry about the pressure points on the bottom pane of glass, due to the rock being bouyed somewhat by the water and all the rocks I'm using are not super dense stuff that I cant lift by myself. Nothing I would drop into an empty tank mind you, but still...
Again, I dont live in an earthquake zone, like you guys do, although we do get them out here too..

Nick

 

[The Codfather]

Nice looking tank and set up. Rock work looks good.

 

[Ensiferum23]

Wow, that is a great looking setup! Very nice

 

[gofor100]

If I could add anything I would strongly suggest you use a gate valve on your returns AND pipe thread sealant on your plumbing threads. IMO the RectorSeal is safe for use on potable water systems and used by many others here on RC. I got the idea here as I was looking for something more reliable and consistent than plumbers tape. It is a little messy but it is reef safe and gets the job done.


Using gate valves on your returns will allow you to easily (with an emphasis on easy) make adjustments to the water level in your weir. While you can use ball valves for a third of the cost, they are the least effective solution with respect to making fine adjustments.


Here are a couple of pics of my return and drain plumbing.


Oh...one other thing. I didn't find a lot of discussion on plumbing the emergency drians when doing my research on the Herbie method so I'll share what I did. My emergency drain pipe plumbing is plumbed about 3/4" of an inch from the top of my overflow teeth. In other words, the overflow teeth are 1.5" long and my emergency drain pipe sits at .75" from the top. Hopefully that makes sense? It's easy to make adjustments to your e-drain height should you want it to be taller or shorter.


I hoped that helped. :beer:

Thanks for the input! Luckily a lot of the things you'd mentioned I was planning to incorporate (as you'll see shortly).

Thanks,

Chad

 

[gofor100]

Forgot about the earthquake thing....I used to live in SoCal so its not like I'm ignorant of it....just wasnt thinking about it since I hadnt lived there in over a decade.

I'd probably be more concerned about seam failure in the event of an earthquake as opposed to a rock slide....but I realize tremblors are more common that honest to God earthquakes, so it makes sense.

I generally dont worry about the pressure points on the bottom pane of glass, due to the rock being bouyed somewhat by the water and all the rocks I'm using are not super dense stuff that I cant lift by myself. Nothing I would drop into an empty tank mind you, but still...
Again, I dont live in an earthquake zone, like you guys do, although we do get them out here too..

Nick

All great points, but I figure that I'll control what I can and hopefully I don't have to worry about "The Big One" coming along and wiping out my tank. :rollface:

Thanks,

Chad

 

[gofor100]

Nice looking tank and set up. Rock work looks good.

Wow, that is a great looking setup! Very nice

Thanks guys!

Alright... now time for another update. Unfortunately, I'm not as far along as I wanted to be to start the new year, since, thanks to my event planner (aka, my wife), a lot of my vacation days were not dedicated to setting up the tank.

Luckily, I was still able to start my plumbing. I'll be using the Herbie Method for the overflows and cut the drain pipes accordingly.

 

[gofor100]

I laid out all of the plumbing parts, and mocked up roughly what I was planning to do. Then I cut and fit the pieces together without glue to make sure everything went where I wanted it.

 

[gofor100]

Then I took the plumbing apart and laid it out in the garage so I could spray paint (with Krylon Fusion black spray paint) the pieces to make it a cleaner look.

 

[gofor100]

And here's the finished product... I'm pretty pleased with it (especially considering that this is my first time plumbing a tank of this magnitude).

 

[gofor100]

Then the re-filling began to test my plumbing... looks like the time I took to clean the sand and rock paid off (the water was surprisingly clear after filling it up).