It's TIME! Sethjamto's 300g!

Well, took this entire week off from wet sanding and polishing the tank due to work. Got back to it a little earlier, but my mind isn't in the right mode as I got a phone call right before I started that a good friend died this morning in a motorcycle accident. (RIP Nick!)

I'm hoping to have all the wet sanding and polishing done by tomorrow afternoon. Pics to follow.
 
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Dave.M
 
Don't know why they aren't showing....I posted them from the Tapatalk forum app on my iPhone. They've always showed in the past!

Well I finished wet sanding today and then ran the polisher. After polishing I see where I got all the scratched out that were there, but I left some sanding marks behind....looks like I'm headed back to wet sanding more and will concentrate more with the 2000 and 3000 grit before buffing again.

Thats fine as I'm MONTHS away from seeing water in this thing. It'll keep me busy with a project I guess!! LOL
 
Been playing all day in Google Sketchup...never used it before and I figure that seeing as though I have many months before this tank sees water, maybe I'll play around with designing it out so I get it right the first time. Don't laugh, as it took me HOURS just to get to this point! LOL

here is the tank and metal stand to scale. Tank is 96x24x30 high. The stand is 40" tall. Now that I figured out this part, I'll start playing with CL plumbing and the sump and return plumbing, etc.

 
I quit with Google Sketchup (for now.....). I found where I can download PVC fittings to do the plumbing, but placing them and sizing them properly is mind-numbing! I'll mess with it another day and time.

So far is tank, stand, and 4ft 75g sump. I still gotta finish the baffles in the sump. Then add external skimmer, return pump, plumbing, manifold, CL plumbing and pump, ATO tank, etc, etc, etc.
 
I played more with Google Sketchup. It's time consuming until you learn it, then it goes fairly well after that. I like that I can fully plan stuff out to scale and then will know exactly what plumbing I'll need to buy!

The skimmer shown is not the exact model MRC I'm running, but close enough for Google Sketchup for now. The return is a Reeflo Dart, and I'll use another Dart for the CL system (I haven't drawn that part up yet).

Here is it so far.... I also need to finish the sump as far as baffles, etc.




The red "y" coming off the return will split to a manifold also that I still need to draw in. The return is over the back split at top and runs to both ends of the tank. I already have this pipe from the previous owner...its the flex PVC with a nice Y vice the T fitting shown in my drawing for smoother water flow.

 
Did some more in Sketchup tonight. Here's my thoughts for the manifold. It's probably bigger than anything I'd ever need for the number of valves, but I'd rather build too many and not use then versus not have enough. So...the Durso and emergency drains are in, the return is plumbed, skimmer in, and manifold in. Tomorrow I'll try to come up with my closed loop plumbing ideas.

What are ya'lls thoughts so far? Recommendations? I'm doing it this way as its easy to change based on recommendations....if I trial and error on the actual tank, that'll get frustrating and expensive after a while of redoing everything over and over until I like it!



 
Looking for some advice....

I'm trying to figure everything I'll want to run on this tank (ie: calcium reactor/kalk stirrer/GFO/etc/etc....)

If you were setting up a 300g display with a 75-100g sump (I'm still figuring that part out right now), what would YOU want to do? I'm NOT unlimited on budget, so it will be piece by piece as I go. That's why I want to build the manifold off the return pump when I first start so I can keep adding reactors/etc as I progress.

What would you get, and in what order would you recommend them?

I'm hoping to pick up the skimmer and pumps next week followed by the sump and then start playing with the plumbing.
 
Got another question on plumbing for you pro's here.

The tank has two corner overflows and was previous rigged with dual durso's. I'm liking the herbie idea, but know that its a pain in the a$$ to tune two of them on the same tank. I read somewhere where another member talked about doing a herbie in one overflow, and the other corner overflow is two more emergency drains. Basically the entire tank would be siphoning though one overflow only, and there would be three emergencies (one next to the siphon, and the other two at the other end of the tank).

Is this doable and recommended? I'll be using a reeflo dart for my return with about 6ft of head that is also going to run a few reactors, so flow shouldn't be too crazy through the return that goes up and over the back.

Thoughts? I'd appreciate some feedback.
 
I would start off with the skimmer as you have done plus one reactor each for GAC and GFO. As the tank matures you can re-use the GFO reactor for bio pellets. You probably won't need to add a calcium reactor for at least 6 months so that could help you put off at least one expense.

Can't answer your drain question - never tried that.

Dave.M
 
They are all pretty close. Go to your favourite LFS and see what they have so you can put your hands on them and see what the quality is like. For instance, and these are only my opinions, I found the ones by Two Little Fishies to be junk. I found that many of the ones like Skimz have too many screws in the top - I don't like that style of top. I liked Vertex except you cannot position the outputs so they can only be put in one row, etc. etc. You cannot tell stuff like this just by reading specs or looking at pictures on-line. You have to go and see them and handle them and imagine trying to fit them into your own set-up.

Dave.M
 
I scored (4) 30g plastic drums yesterday that I will be using for my SW mixing station. I'm going to gravity feed from the top RO tank to the botton SW mixing tank, and have an external pump plumbed into the bottom tank for circulation and pumping water out of the garage to the tank inside.

Here is the stand. I have to be some uniseals and the plumbing now along with the pump.

The can on the right is my current RO storage that I've been using for the past 1.5 years for my 90g. I'll probably take that down and do the other two drums identical to these side by side for a total of 120g's volume.

 
This is going to be a great build with all your planning ahead! That tank looks great with all the sanding effort! The "acrylic police" are still looking for that previous owner who scratched that 300. All joking aside, nice work!
 
Well it's been entirely too long since I've gotten anything or did anything with the tank! ....so....I got some more equipment and did the final buffing with Novus on the tank!

Picked up from the previous owner (gjk on here) the following:
MRC 48" High-flow reef sump
MRC MR4 dual beckett skimmer
(3) Reeflo Darts
PanWorld 150
various mag drive pumps
Litermeter III with extra pump head

So now I'm starting to lay it all out and decide how I want the under tank to look and be plumbed. Of course, I put the sump in and skimmer being the two biggest things and realized that 8ft of space disappears quickly! ha ha ha!!! Seeing as though I'm rigging it up for auto water changes and the ATO tank will be in the garage, that saves me room underneath where I don't need an ATO storage taking up valuable space.

I'm thinking of welding in a shelf that the CL pump will sit on up higher. This will not only give me more floor space, but will reduce the head pressure by 40 plus inches (the stand is 42" tall) and give me more flow in the CL system.

I'm sure I'll move everything around a dozen times or more, as I want to keep it simple and not cluttered.

Here's a few pics. Hopefully things start moving along now!

Some of the pumps:


Skimmer:


Litermeter III for auto water changes:


My first initial thought on the layout. The shelf for the CL pump will be tight and hopefully I can make it work so I don't have to run the pump on the floor with the others.


 
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I'll have to get some updated pics with all the plumbing done. Sunday I'll be moving the whole tank into the house!! FINALLY! It sucks working like I do, because it made it tough to finish this project!

A couple of weeks ago my Reefbreeder Photon 48's and Jebao WP60's came in, so I'm ready with the exception of wrapping the stand in wood and trimming it out. I'll do that once its in place in the house and filling with water!

Pics to follow on Sunday of it in the house and all the plumbing set up!

Heck....I just went back and read my posts above! I've made a few changes since then. I sealed off the holes for the closed loop and am going with the WP-60's for flow instead. That really cleaned up the underside of the tank.
 
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