Matt's 5000ltr Display

[coralreefdoc]

Hahaha ... Nice one, Dave

Its coming along nicely, Matt ! Nevermind those who live vicariously through you, as their timeframe expectations certainly dont come with successful guarantees. Take your time. Seek perfection (like your amazing render skills) and you will achieve glory !

Appreciate your PM response a few days back ... I will keep in touch . Please feel free to run anything by me if you would like an extra opinion, etc. Anything, really. I live for Reef

*No offense to you, Dave, completely understand its all in good fun

 

[dave.m]

None taken. :thumbsup:

There is no real equivalent to vivre - wishing life to - in English. We can wish success, completion, happiness, enjoyment, but to make a wish of life in English literally suggests the only alternative is death - not what is meant figuratively with "vivre" en Français.

Dave.M

 

[d3hree]

Ha Ha Dave..very good!

Dlteck2000...your English is better than my French..thanks!

Thanks coralreefdoc!

A few more pics of recent progress. I havent done that much due to work commitments but I have done the closed loop manifold and the feeds to the 4 cls pumps.

The manifold comes away from the tank at 75mm pipe.This pic also shows the gravity feed for the skimmer, 63mm reduced down to 32mm and flexi into the skimmer. The skimmer needs 6000lph so the ballvalve will restrict the flow to that limit.

The 75mm manifold is reduced down to 40mm and into the feeds of the pumps. Each inlet and outlet has a 40mm double union ballvalve for maintenance.

2 of the cls go up one side, 2 the other side. They will be reduced down to 25mm and then through the ceiling of the sump room across and over to the tank.

This pic also shows the 50mm ball valve that will allow maintenance to the surge pipework and actuated ballvalve.

The cls pumps sit on their own shelf with foam supports

With 4 pumps and 40mm inlets and outlets and ballvalves it all got a little tight! My main goal was to keep everything reasonably accessible and in doing that I had to introduce a few bends...more than I would have liked to have done.

 

[Chrisrush]

Better get out the label maker Matt. That is confusing.

 

[d3hree]

yes I need to label everything up!

 

[dave.m]

I had to introduce a few bends...more than I would have liked to have done.

Looks like you had a lot of fun.

Dave.M

 

[ABBS]

Hi Matt

The pipe work is mad mate ( in a good way ) you def need labels lol.
All the work is looking great though well done for keeping us informed of your progress. I like the detail of the black paint on the pipe work in the main tank, its going to look stunning.

On another subject, im looking to make an algae bed for filtration, full of calerpa. Would you think a plywood box fiberglassed out would work ? Im thinking white finish to maxamize light. What type of fiberglass and pigments are reef safe ?

Cheers Martin

 

[rgreene]

wow is all i can say looks good

 

[jjablonski]

Hi d3hree,
Remember that you have to have possibility to remove or replace pumps in case of damage or for maintenance
I’m afraid that if one of the pumps will have the problem, you will spend several days for removing it.

 

[tahiriqbal]

Hi d3hree,
Remember that you have to have possibility to remove or replace pumps in case of damage or for maintenance
I'm afraid that if one of the pumps will have the problem, you will spend several days for removing it.

I am sure he got union ballvalve on everything so replacing any broken or damaged pump shouldn't take more than five minutes...

Tahir

 

[zoney]

I am sure he got union ballvalve on everything so replacing any broken or damaged pump shouldn't take more than five minutes...

Tahir

This is MAtt we are talking about Right ? lets face it even though there maybe a few dozen ball valves and union joints it will still take him several hours to replace a pump if needed after all its taken nearly 4 years to get this far!!!!!!. lol

BTW
Great work Matt the tanks starting to take shape and the plumbing looks great

 

[flakey]

man, just spent all day reading this build, i wish i had the time, $$$, space and skill to be able to put something like this together !! I'm particularly impressed with your carpentery skills.
You should have had this done by now. I was expecting a tank full of fishes when i got to this page !!! Guess i 'll have to eagery wait to see the final results.

 

[LamboAM]

Great looking pipework!!

Does the pipework restrict access to your power boards or is it an optical illusion from the photos?

 

[arshad98]

Greetings from Dubai... I too spent the entire afternoon reading every post and it's now 12:45am... you are a remarkable man to take on such a feat. This work is simply stunning, my hats of to you Sir. I wish you all the best. Looking forward to the rest of the setup.

Cheers... Arshad

 

[d3hree]

Sorry for the delay with the replies. I have been out of the country for a couple of weeks. Back to dreary ole England now.

Hi Matt

The pipe work is mad mate ( in a good way ) you def need labels lol.
All the work is looking great though well done for keeping us informed of your progress. I like the detail of the black paint on the pipe work in the main tank, its going to look stunning.

On another subject, im looking to make an algae bed for filtration, full of calerpa. Would you think a plywood box fiberglassed out would work ? Im thinking white finish to maxamize light. What type of fiberglass and pigments are reef safe ?

Cheers Martin

Hi Martin...I hope you're well.
Depending on the size of the algae bed I would look into the plastic containers first. Fibreglassing is great...as is just epoxy resin but it only works out economical if the tank is big. The plastic pallet boxes I have used for my sump were £105 each for 600 litres. With an extra £35 for the lids. The small 200litre box I have used for my mangrove tank was only £25. IIRC there is a rough rule of thumb whereby over 300 gallons works out cheaper...if its less than that I would opt for another material.

I like caulerpa but it can be a PITA. If you are going to have sand in the tank will it be a RDSB too? I ask because caulerpa will root down and will suck nutrients from the sand bed risking it starving. The roots also restrict flow. Also make sure it is lit atleast 18 hours and that there are little to no temp swings that would induce it going sexual.

Why caulerpa over the more reliable chaeto?

wow is all i can say looks good

Thanks rgreene

Hi d3hree,
Remember that you have to have possibility to remove or replace pumps in case of damage or for maintenance
I'm afraid that if one of the pumps will have the problem, you will spend several days for removing it.

Hi jjablonski. Each CLS has a true union ball valve on both the inlet and outlet for maintenance. This was one of the issues as the 40mm ball valves are pretty bulky so fitting 8 in in such a tight space whilst maintaining access was problematic.

I am sure he got union ballvalve on everything so replacing any broken or damaged pump shouldn't take more than five minutes...

Hi Tahir..yep...thems the ones. We still need to get together at some stage.

BTW
Great work Matt the tanks starting to take shape and the plumbing looks great

Ha Ha Ash. Thanks. I will ignore the other rubbish :fun4:

man, just spent all day reading this build, i wish i had the time, $$$, space and skill to be able to put something like this together !! I'm particularly impressed with your carpentery skills.
You should have had this done by now. I was expecting a tank full of fishes when i got to this page !!! Guess i 'll have to eagery wait to see the final results.

Thanks Flakey. Not too long to wait hopefully. Glass is due to be ordered this week.

Great looking pipework!!

Does the pipework restrict access to your power boards or is it an optical illusion from the photos?

Hi Lambo
Its just an illusion, there is room for the plugs and timers that are needed.

Greetings from Dubai... I too spent the entire afternoon reading every post and it's now 12:45am... you are a remarkable man to take on such a feat. This work is simply stunning, my hats of to you Sir. I wish you all the best. Looking forward to the rest of the setup.

Cheers... Arshad

Thanks arshad98

 

[flakey]

As promised, a time lapse video of the tank being fibreglassed.

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only 1 tea break ??? You're working him too hard !!! lol...

 

[ABBS]

Hi Matt
Thanks for the info about the fiberglass. Im thinking perhaps the pallet box idea would work out better ? Could you give me size for the 200 lt box length ,width, height ? My sump room is filling up and im having to fit things into gaps, im sure this happens to everyone no matter how much room you have lol. Im looking at growing calerpa in a shallow type tray with just enough sand in the bottom so it can anchor its self down. im building a DSB already in a seperate tank.

Cheers Martin

 

[d3hree]

Hi Martin

Off the top of my head it is 800x600x400...about 200 litres-ish

 

[d3hree]

A little more progress

More plumbing!

The white pipe is ( or will be) connected to the ro system in the garage and will just be used for the first fill. I may have need for Ro water tank side in the future so it may come in handy.

One of the probe holders puttied in place

90 bends added to the outlets in the weir. The bottom mouth of the bend will be submerged to avoid gurgling.

yet more plumbing!

I installed a couple of bulkhead lights for when I need to do stuff when the tank lights are off.

I installed the extractors in their final place

More plumbing. Most of the CLS plumbing was only dry fitted. Most of today was spent solvent welding 50% of it together

I added 3 enductors to one of the CLS

 

[d3hree]

Lastly..I added one of the moonlights