Jonas 3.13, 150G of Miracles fun

[ojonas81]

Yes, I am not too worried about the stand collapsing. Way overbuilt but was easier to use 2x4 than anything else.

Before I started to add the stuff under the tank I thought I had more than enough room. Now it looks like it will be a tight fit for the last pieces. Will probably not have room for both a large top off container and a chiller. Hope to be able to do without the chiller though.

 

[ojonas81]

Tank will be delivered this Friday! Shipping company called and confirmed. Now my flight from Toronto need to be on time.

 

[ojonas81]

Well Friday came and went with no tank. Got a call Thursday afternoon where they said that the tank would not make it to Jacksonville until late Friday and that they would not be able to deliver until Monday. Bummer but at least it is in town now.

What did show up on Friday was my return pump. A Waveline DC-6000 pump. Unboxed it and put it in the return section. It is much bigger than I anticipated (not a bad thing). Hopefully by next weekend I will be able to fire it all up with freshwater for a leak test. Getting close now.

 

[myst]

Nice build so far, I'm waiting for my tank from Miracles as well, hope to get it in a couple of weeks. Question for you, where did you the wiring duct from and what size is it?

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

[ojonas81]

Thanks!

I got the cable duct from my work. We use them in electrical panels etc. They are 40mm wide. One size bigger would not have hurt but this will work well I think as long as I don't have to have a lot of cables going back and forth at the same spot.

 

[Craigdillman]

Nice looking good love this build so clean, i want to copy the fuge sump idea in my new build. How is the water getting to the fuge? drain from display then gravity to the sump or pumped from sump by return pump

 

[ojonas81]

How is the water getting to the fuge? drain from display then gravity to the sump or pumped from sump by return pump

The plan is to have it feed off my return. I hope that will work out as intended.

 

[ojonas81]

It is here!!!!

The tank finally got delivered yesterday afternoon. It is still sitting in the box outside my front door but at least it is here. Need to scramble together a couple of guys to carry it inside it later this week. Hope to start the main plumbing by the weekend.

 

[ojonas81]

The tank has not officially been placed at its final resting spot. Had a couple of friends come over to carry the tank from the pallet to the stand. Have gone over the tank quickly and have not seen any flaws this time. Big cudos to Miracles for doing the right thing. I am very pleased in how they handled this.

I also started the plumbing over the weekend. Was harder and more time consuming than I expected and I had to redo some things a couple of times. Had not thought about how much space the pipes actually takes up. Please review the plumbing below and let me know if anything looks weird or that need to be changed. I have not glued anything yet. Planning to do that next weekend along with tap water leak test.

 

[Animadverto]

Everything looks fantastic! Have you gotten your skimmer yet by the way? Also, it looks like the DC 6000 pump comes with different size fittings/adaptors. Are they 3/4", 1/2", and 1" on the pump itself?

 

[ojonas81]

Everything looks fantastic! Have you gotten your skimmer yet by the way? Also, it looks like the DC 6000 pump comes with different size fittings/adaptors. Are they 3/4", 1/2", and 1" on the pump itself?

Thanks! Have still not gotten the skimmer. Think I will cancel to order because I cannot wait much longer. Have looked into the Skimz skimmers. Probably try one of those out instead. Seems to get get reviews.

The DC-6000 comes with two fittings, 1" barb for the output and 1.5" barb connection for the intake. I am not sure what to use for the intake. Would like some sort of protection.

Plumbing took longer than expected. Have almost everything glued together now so hope to be able to finish up the remaining today. Made some minor modifications to the plumbing. Below is a picture of the "final version" before I started to glue.

I am lucky to have a very understanding wife. The guest bedroom have been a construction zone since this build started. Gluing PVC is a messy job.

 

[ojonas81]

Everything glued outside the tank. Just the threaded connections left to seal and install it all back in the tank again.

 

[ojonas81]

So the plumbing is done!

Took longer than expected (also did not help that I got distacted by other things throughout the weekend) but at least it is done. Only had one small drip leak from a threaded connection in my return line. Everything else is working very good. Have not fine tunes the Bean drains yet but it is fairly silent already and only a few bubbles in the OC. Pictures and a video below.

Plumbing done before freshwater test.

And we have water!

Feed into the remote fuge.

Drains coming into the sump. The emergency line is discharging directly to the skimmer section.

Finally a short video showing the sump with water running through it (use the link if the embed does not work).

http://youtu.be/0TVYD1IRJTA

<iframe width="960" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/0TVYD1IRJTA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[ojonas81]

The tank has been running leak-free now for two days with fresh water. If that is true tonight after I come home from work I will drain it and start getting ready for the aquascape. Will also have to start making saltwater since it will take some time to make ~200 gallons from my RO/DI unit.

I also need to come up with a canopy design fairly soon.

Finally the fun parts begin.

 

[xrayjeeper83]

Beautiful build. I see your in Jax, have you ever checked out Jaxreef forum? We'd love to see this build over there.

Can't wait to see this thing stocked

 

[ojonas81]

Beautiful build. I see your in Jax, have you ever checked out Jaxreef forum? We'd love to see this build over there.

Can't wait to see this thing stocked

Thanks!

I do live in Jax but don't think I have checked out the local forum yet. Will give it a peak later.

Drained the system yesterday. Took a long long time. Guess I should have figured that when I used a MaxiJet 1200 for the job. Manages to get most of the water out but there are still some left. Hopefully evaporation and some manual drying with sponges will resolve that today. Then the aquascape will start (although I will be out of town this weekend so it may be pushed to next week).

 

[xrayjeeper83]

Come check us out.

We are having a frag swap in Dec at the Shriners auditorium. Should be a good show, lots off vendors and speakers.

 

[A.G]

amazing build.

How do you like the wave line DC pump ? is it strong enough ?

 

[ojonas81]

Not sure if the DC-6000 will be strong enough in the long rung. It worked fine for the freshwater test but I also did not run any reactors at that point. It may be too weak if I want to run everything off it. Depending on how it goes I may use it for a chiller later if I ever get one should it turn out not to hold up.

 

[ojonas81]

Got some time yesterday to work on the final aquascape inside the tank. Even though it was very hard to replicate any of the versions I made earlier I had good use of the knowledge gained. After some (a lot) of adjustments, checks, re-stacking checking, tweaking, checking etc.

Below is the "final" result that I think I will stick with. Feeling fairly happy with it, a lot of interesting caves, overhangs etc. but also plenty of open space for the fish to swim in and for the sand dwellers to move around on/in. Please let me know what you think. Some rocks have already been secured with mortar but there are still time for adjustments.

I also started to mix the saltwater yesterday. Man that will take time. Managed to get 30 gallons made up yesterday afternoon. Just another 100 plus gallons to go.