stlouisguy
Registered Member
great system and nicely thought out. Makes me feel like I havent planned well enough!!
latazyo's official tank build thread
- Thread starter latazyo
- Start date
chadfarmer
Premium Member
becareful of the oil (shock)
it will leak only a matter of time
it will leak only a matter of time
latazyo
New member
yet another update 9-2-06
yet another update 9-2-06
I have finished the plumbing...will wait until tomorrow for a leak test
here are several shots of the plumbing...all visible pvc will be krylon fusioned
back, the two over the top returns will have 3/4" locline Y's into 4 flare nozzles...you'll also notice on the lower right hand side of the picture that I siliconed on a 97 cent sterilite container to keep the power center dry in the event of an overflow/splashing
water overflows through this 1.25" durso
through the drain where it is split, one line to the skimmer and one to the fuge (still need a skimmer)
mounted a fuge light
here is a shot of the plumbing at the waterchange center....the reason it looks so ridiculous is due to some bad planning and very bad pvc cutting on my part...so it had to be modified with those huge upward loops...oh well, its not like IM sweating it
here is how I mounted the dj power center to control things during water changes
stand update:
my puppy decided that the stand had far too much wood and paint on it and decided to help me remove some by chewing on teh corner...I decided to just leave it since 1) gives it character, 2) its not like it was show quality to begin with, and 3) like Im sweating it
thanks again to everyone for looking, this tank is finally within weeks of rock and water...I'll be looking for some live rock and sand in a few weeks
I also need some base rock, but hirocks.com apparently no longer exists
yet another update 9-2-06
I have finished the plumbing...will wait until tomorrow for a leak test
here are several shots of the plumbing...all visible pvc will be krylon fusioned
back, the two over the top returns will have 3/4" locline Y's into 4 flare nozzles...you'll also notice on the lower right hand side of the picture that I siliconed on a 97 cent sterilite container to keep the power center dry in the event of an overflow/splashing
water overflows through this 1.25" durso
through the drain where it is split, one line to the skimmer and one to the fuge (still need a skimmer)
mounted a fuge light
here is a shot of the plumbing at the waterchange center....the reason it looks so ridiculous is due to some bad planning and very bad pvc cutting on my part...so it had to be modified with those huge upward loops...oh well, its not like IM sweating it
here is how I mounted the dj power center to control things during water changes
stand update:
my puppy decided that the stand had far too much wood and paint on it and decided to help me remove some by chewing on teh corner...I decided to just leave it since 1) gives it character, 2) its not like it was show quality to begin with, and 3) like Im sweating it
thanks again to everyone for looking, this tank is finally within weeks of rock and water...I'll be looking for some live rock and sand in a few weeks
I also need some base rock, but hirocks.com apparently no longer exists
Letmegrow
New member
I am not a fan of Base rock, just buy LR.
Some stores sell "base rock" too for a couple bucks a pound.
2 Comments.
1. Are you going to wait to drill your Druso hole ?
2. With the diameter of the pipe, I do not think you will have enough flow, you might have good turn over but velocity wise I think you will be lacking. I would get a Mag 9 or something comparable.
Some stores sell "base rock" too for a couple bucks a pound.
2 Comments.
1. Are you going to wait to drill your Druso hole ?
2. With the diameter of the pipe, I do not think you will have enough flow, you might have good turn over but velocity wise I think you will be lacking. I would get a Mag 9 or something comparable.
I like the idea with the Sterilite container...that keeps your power center AND your fuge light free from water :thumbsup: Do you have a stocking list or are you just going to play it by ear? What kind of pup do you have?
latazyo
New member
steve, according to marinedepot's website, the mag9.5 pushes less flow than my quietone at 0' of head (950 vs 1017), and pushes 50gph more at 4' of head...I suppose this suggests that the mag is better with pressure on it, however I think that recommendation would have been better about 3 weeks ago 
yeah Im gonna wait until I start running water to drill the durso so I know how big the hole needs to be, etc
yeah I dont have a stocking list at all, I just play it by ear, I try to make the system accomodating to all normal organisms
my puppy is a corgi mix
btw, steve, do you know if the 3.5" locline flares provide any increase in velocity?
I have 4 of them
yeah Im gonna wait until I start running water to drill the durso so I know how big the hole needs to be, etc
yeah I dont have a stocking list at all, I just play it by ear, I try to make the system accomodating to all normal organisms
my puppy is a corgi mix
btw, steve, do you know if the 3.5" locline flares provide any increase in velocity?
I have 4 of them
latazyo
New member
well I finished the jump guard this should remain semi in cognito, I hope, if not I might paint the edges black...not sure yet
I made it by cutting eggcrate to the proper size and then glueing pieces of plexi onto the corners
from the front it isnt so bad...will have to wait and see it with water
I made it by cutting eggcrate to the proper size and then glueing pieces of plexi onto the corners
from the front it isnt so bad...will have to wait and see it with water
latazyo
New member
well, I ran the water test today and there are a few problems
only one leak (loose bulkhead...fixed)
but my lack of knowledge of water dynamics has really gotten me
the drain line is fine and working great, I adjusted my durso and it is silent and perfect
anyways...
on the return line there are problems all around
1. the left side of the cross, used for water changes is just not working right, the 1/2 pipe cuts down the flow so much that it would be faster to just use an mj1200, on top of that, it sounds like closing everything down and running the pump through 1/2 inch is pretty stressful on the pump, so I"ll modify that a little
2. since water (apparently like electricity) follows the path of least resistance, if the ball valve to the right of the cross is open at all, all of the water goes through that, so I have to keep that closed the whole time, rendering it useless
3. after all of the bs the water goes through to get to my tank, the flow is (as steve predicted) dismal
before I go modifying my plumbing or upgrading to a mag12, Im going to wait until my locline comes in from savko (if ever...what a slow company) and see how the flow is with that
so now I have two options
1. closed loop - Im really not comfortable drilling the tank myself and adding yet another pump to the system
2. upgrade pumps - PITA, will have to buy a new pump and find someone to sell this one to...I guess I thought that 600gph would have some force behind it
I also posted this scenario in new to hobby
only one leak (loose bulkhead...fixed)
but my lack of knowledge of water dynamics has really gotten me
the drain line is fine and working great, I adjusted my durso and it is silent and perfect
anyways...
on the return line there are problems all around
1. the left side of the cross, used for water changes is just not working right, the 1/2 pipe cuts down the flow so much that it would be faster to just use an mj1200, on top of that, it sounds like closing everything down and running the pump through 1/2 inch is pretty stressful on the pump, so I"ll modify that a little
2. since water (apparently like electricity) follows the path of least resistance, if the ball valve to the right of the cross is open at all, all of the water goes through that, so I have to keep that closed the whole time, rendering it useless
3. after all of the bs the water goes through to get to my tank, the flow is (as steve predicted) dismal
before I go modifying my plumbing or upgrading to a mag12, Im going to wait until my locline comes in from savko (if ever...what a slow company) and see how the flow is with that
so now I have two options
1. closed loop - Im really not comfortable drilling the tank myself and adding yet another pump to the system
2. upgrade pumps - PITA, will have to buy a new pump and find someone to sell this one to...I guess I thought that 600gph would have some force behind it
I also posted this scenario in new to hobby
latazyo
New member
well, here's my story...I ordered some stuff from them, making a point to get the order in before noon to get same day shipping, I did....nothing...waited until monday and called them...dude on the phone said one item (6" locline segments) were out of stock...so I said ok, ship the rest of it and send the locline when it comes in...he says ok, it'll be in weds or thurs and I'll send it out...as of today my order has not been filled....I got the rest of the stuff, but not the locline yet...still waiting...ordered friday aug 25
latazyo
New member
well as you may notice my last post was 9-5-06 and school started on 9-7-06, so that should be an explanation to my progress speed
anyways, I decided that I needed to go to the world series, so I budgeted a couple hundred bucks for tickets, then decided "wait, Im a braves fan, not a cards fan, why would I pay 400 bucks to go to a cardinals game even if it is the world series?"
so I decided to spend that money on everything else I needed to get my tank going
so I ordered my RODI (will be here tues), picked up some salt and sand, got some live rock (have it in a holding tank) and picked up a great skimmer (ER RS5-3)
here are some updated pics
thanks for looking, and this is one of the slowest moving tank builds EVER
anyways, I decided that I needed to go to the world series, so I budgeted a couple hundred bucks for tickets, then decided "wait, Im a braves fan, not a cards fan, why would I pay 400 bucks to go to a cardinals game even if it is the world series?"
so I decided to spend that money on everything else I needed to get my tank going
so I ordered my RODI (will be here tues), picked up some salt and sand, got some live rock (have it in a holding tank) and picked up a great skimmer (ER RS5-3)
here are some updated pics
thanks for looking, and this is one of the slowest moving tank builds EVER
latazyo
New member
well progress is finally being made...I am now ready to rock and in the cycling process...all of the snails that came with my rock died in the holding bin, so I am extrapolating that there will be a lot of die off within the rock itself, hopefully this is not the case, water tests will confirm or deny it, I suppose
I would like to start off with some of the minor installs I did in preparation for the addition of live rock
I installed a ground probe (about 2-3" are underwater)...I did not have a probe in my last tank and noticed a very tiny tingling sensation when my arms were in the tank and I made contact with my lighting unit...for this tank I decided to get a grounding probe
I also picked up a delux ATO unit from aquahub.com...its a pretty solid unit so far and I like the dual switch back up...the instructions are very easy and installation was easy
switches
and the output
and here is a shot of the sump loaded full of crap...it now has some live rock rubble in it, but I am in need of more for the fuge portion...it is doubling as a live rock area as well, since I dont want that much rock in my display
here are the views of the rockwork...
front:
right:
left:
at this time I would like to aknowledge a few mistakes that I made so that others will not do the same
1. the auto top off freshwater outlet needs to be higher than your reservoir....I learned this the hard way the first time it ran and a siphon continued to put water into the tank...I wanted to put the new water into the sump, but that is too low, and a siphon formed...for this reason the fresh water now enters the system into the overflow box
2. when drilling a hole in your return line to prevent siphon in the event of a power outage, the hole (obviously) needs to be underwater...I drilled mine (without thinking first) above the water and it sucked air in like a venturi and put bubbles in the tank....boo
3. if you split your return line, make sure the total cross sectional area of pipe is SMALLER than your main return line, or you will not get any flow...I learned the hard way by splitting 1" line into 2 x 3/4"...I am not having to ghetto rig it into 2 x 1/2" ...if you want to do the math to verify, the area of a circle is pi x radius ^ 2...the area of a 1" pipe is about .785 sq in, dual 3/4's is .88 and dual 1/2's is .39....switching to dual 1/2s should give me significant pressure increases
I would like to start off with some of the minor installs I did in preparation for the addition of live rock
I installed a ground probe (about 2-3" are underwater)...I did not have a probe in my last tank and noticed a very tiny tingling sensation when my arms were in the tank and I made contact with my lighting unit...for this tank I decided to get a grounding probe
I also picked up a delux ATO unit from aquahub.com...its a pretty solid unit so far and I like the dual switch back up...the instructions are very easy and installation was easy
switches
and the output
and here is a shot of the sump loaded full of crap...it now has some live rock rubble in it, but I am in need of more for the fuge portion...it is doubling as a live rock area as well, since I dont want that much rock in my display
here are the views of the rockwork...
front:
right:
left:
at this time I would like to aknowledge a few mistakes that I made so that others will not do the same
1. the auto top off freshwater outlet needs to be higher than your reservoir....I learned this the hard way the first time it ran and a siphon continued to put water into the tank...I wanted to put the new water into the sump, but that is too low, and a siphon formed...for this reason the fresh water now enters the system into the overflow box
2. when drilling a hole in your return line to prevent siphon in the event of a power outage, the hole (obviously) needs to be underwater...I drilled mine (without thinking first) above the water and it sucked air in like a venturi and put bubbles in the tank....boo
3. if you split your return line, make sure the total cross sectional area of pipe is SMALLER than your main return line, or you will not get any flow...I learned the hard way by splitting 1" line into 2 x 3/4"...I am not having to ghetto rig it into 2 x 1/2" ...if you want to do the math to verify, the area of a circle is pi x radius ^ 2...the area of a 1" pipe is about .785 sq in, dual 3/4's is .88 and dual 1/2's is .39....switching to dual 1/2s should give me significant pressure increases
latazyo
New member
another update...I have now added a few frags to the tank and trying to think of what fish I want to keep in here
so far so good...Ive got some hair algae in my display tank, so I tuned up the flow to my fuge to see if that helps any...I also have a water change scheduled this week
anyways...on with the pics
here is a pic of the fuge with a large lump of chaeto in there...not really doing its job according to my hair algae...maybe I need more lighting on it??
and the candy cane, which is doing great and will hopefully start splitting soon
orange monti cap...you can actually see how much its grown in the month that Ive had it
pocillopora w/ bubble algae (came free with orders over $10)
and misc zoo pic
sorry no FTS, my camera is 4 years old or so and sucks at pics w/o flash
thanks for looking
special thanks to Roy and Clark for their livestock contributions
so far so good...Ive got some hair algae in my display tank, so I tuned up the flow to my fuge to see if that helps any...I also have a water change scheduled this week
anyways...on with the pics
here is a pic of the fuge with a large lump of chaeto in there...not really doing its job according to my hair algae...maybe I need more lighting on it??
and the candy cane, which is doing great and will hopefully start splitting soon
orange monti cap...you can actually see how much its grown in the month that Ive had it
pocillopora w/ bubble algae (came free with orders over $10)
and misc zoo pic
sorry no FTS, my camera is 4 years old or so and sucks at pics w/o flash
thanks for looking
special thanks to Roy and Clark for their livestock contributions
