Mike's 300 Double-D

[dahenley]

I remember when you put the filter on your CA reactor, but you never really said or went into detail as to why you run a filter.

Do you mind going into detail?
Thanks

 

[AJT]

I sure as heck would not run a gasoline filter in my tank. Paper ones would probably have chemicals on them & do you know what type of metal is in the latest one?

I do not think you need to filter the water going thru the reactor, if you feel that strongly about it I would get a phosban reactor or something like that & just put floss in it.

 

[prop-frags]

The new filter is the same type of filter that comes with Deltec calcium reactors. There are no metal parts. We actually pulled the one off of our old Deltec reactor and moved it to the GEO while we waited for the new filters to be shipped.

If you google Deltec inline micro filter you will see several sites that sell them.

 

[AJT]

OK, out of curiousity why a filter, i am not that familair with the deltec calcium reactor.

I'm wondering because I just bought a used one & did not see it on the reactor when I bought it.

Looks like a PF601S but rated for 1000 gal.

my apology, thought you were nuts.

Thanks for your help

 

[prop-frags]

It basically keeps detritus and crud out of the chamber. I'll admit the paper filter wasn't such a good idea, LOL.

 

[dahenley]

what particulates do you think would enter, and what would they do?
(just trying to learn)

 

[drummereef]

Sorry to hear about the Lineatus, such a beautiful fish. Hopefully it will take a turn for the better!

 

[prop-frags]

what particulates do you think would enter, and what would they do?
(just trying to learn)

David, the general detritus that is in the water column will collect in the reactor, since 1) it is a low-flow system, and 2) it is full of crushed coral that traps it. Once the detritus starts to build up in there, then it will fuel algae growth. Hard to believe that even in the very low pH, very high alk/ca environment within the reactor, that algae grows! But another problem is that these reactors are low-flow and then the effluent lines can become clogged up as well, then it gets hard to maintain the right amount of alk/ca in the system if we can't maintain a consistent effluent flow rate. Hope that helps! How is your system going? I just love those DIY reflectors you did...marvelous work.

Sorry to hear about the Lineatus, such a beautiful fish. Hopefully it will take a turn for the better!

Thanks Brett. At first, we were really struggling with the decision we made to pull the Lineatus out. He was going downhill and the risk of added stress of putting him into the hospital tank may have killed him. It turns out to look like the absolute right decision... the fish is looking better today. We'll keep him out there and finish the week of maracyn plus, and hopefully let him fatten up, and regain his confidence before returning him to the DT. Don't want a weak fish going in there, the other wrasses, angels, and the sailfin can be brutal. :uhoh2:

 

[prop-frags]

The New Sump

The New Sump

Another busy weekend for the big ol' 300DD system!

Now we know that you all thought we have just been putting off the sump room upgrade. Admittedly it will be a lot of work to do the upgrade, but we will wind up with a cleaner, more organized sump room, with more water volume in our system. The maintenance will become easier, and our overall system design will be improved too.

We've been putting a lot of thought into how we're going to do this. As we wrote about before, the main idea is to replace the existing 125g sump with two separate sumps; one shallow sump that will house the skimmers, probes, and reactors, and a second larger stock vat on the floor that will house extra live rock and more water and space to contain drain-down volume in the case of a power fail and when we shut down the main pump for maintenance and water changes.

Here's the revised drawing for the sump room layout:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5972381462/" title="sump room 1 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6147/5972381462_a86a802f97_z.jpg" width="640" height="481" alt="sump room 1"></a>

We have been working with a friend from our local reef club to help design and fabricate the new shallow sump. A few weeks ago, we had a party, um, sump planning session that is - he helped us with our initial layout and sump design. Over the past couple of weeks, we've been refining the sump design and finally we got it all set and ordered the materials. The new sump is going to be made of 0.75" acrylic, with dimensions of 47x24x15 (roughly 70 gallons). We got the good news earlier this week that the routing work had been completed, and so on Saturday we assembled our new shallow skimmer sump.

We started off by removing all of the protective paper and giving the acrylic a good cleaning with R/O water and a microfiber cloth:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5970046135/" title="nt 1263 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6023/5970046135_6a23b5e3bd_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1263"></a>

Next up, was a dry fit / sanity check of the parts out in the garage:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5970058601/" title="nt 1254 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6133/5970058601_668e64309e_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1254"></a>

We found that the hobby table out in the garage wasn't sturdy enough for this beast, and so we needed to move everything into the dining room, where the table was stronger and much more level. What is absolutely critical in assembly of acrylic is that your working surface is as close to perfectly level as you can get it:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5970060531/" title="nt 1255 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6139/5970060531_0dd4f08401_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1255"></a>

Truing everything up sometimes needs a little help with some clamps:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5970621794/" title="nt 1257 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6139/5970621794_88315225fb_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1257"></a>

Whitebread demonstrating his craft; we used weld-on #4 to bond all the seams:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5970068057/" title="nt 1259 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6025/5970068057_abf72b9a7c_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1259"></a>

And he was gracious to allow me to be his apprentice:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5970628426/" title="nt 1261 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6150/5970628426_ccbefd4018_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1261"></a>

This is definitely a mix of art and science! Here's the finished product right after completion:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5970073165/" title="nt 1262 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6020/5970073165_fdf8b36a2e_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1262"></a>

Here's a closeup shot of one of the nice details we designed in, and the CNC flatbed router executed with amazing precision and finish; this is one of our cable management cut-outs:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5970800190/" title="nt 1265 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6018/5970800190_d1eae09abd_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1265"></a>

Big thanks go out to Whitebread for sharing his expertise with us and helping to add a new skill to our list! Next time, we'll update on the construction of the new stand, and the leak test for our new sump...

 

[Taqpol]

Wow! The only part I found hard about working with acrylic was making the router cuts, that CNC machine looks like it did an amazing job!

I assume you guys are going to route the overhang off? Your also not supposed to flame polish any glued joints, but I would absolutely use a quarter round bit to take the edge off any exposed edges. I did not do that with my sump and if I'm not careful it will cut me its so sharp.

 

[drummereef]

Sump looks robust! Especially with it being 3/4" thick. Love the cable management cut-out too. Nice work.

 

[prop-frags]

Wow! The only part I found hard about working with acrylic was making the router cuts, that CNC machine looks like it did an amazing job!

I assume you guys are going to route the overhang off? Your also not supposed to flame polish any glued joints, but I would absolutely use a quarter round bit to take the edge off any exposed edges. I did not do that with my sump and if I'm not careful it will cut me its so sharp.

Thanks for the tip, Alex. We will have to do that. Will a sander work as well, or do you have to use a router?

Sump looks robust! Especially with it being 3/4" thick. Love the cable management cut-out too. Nice work.

We had a feeling you would appreciate the handiness of that, Brett! It's great to finally have a fairly big acrylic job behind us...more confidence now to do some other work. We have a couple of other surprises to show you guys on the sump when we get the time to finish off the work.


We need some help!
Remember the new stock vat that we are planning to install:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5765692561/" title="P1000034 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5101/5765692561_687ef66bea_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="P1000034"></a>

We've been trying to figure out how to cover it up... to reduce splashes, contamination, and evaporation. One design idea was to mimic these center-fold jacuzzi covers:

Or another way could be to fashion some kind of rigid frame and stretch some kind of inert plastic or vinyl (like maybe a heavy-duty shower curtain or perhaps tub liner).

Does anyone out there have a solution that they've used to cover their rubbermaid stock vat?

 

[curlykid]

looks great! how's that lineatus?

 

[Taqpol]

I would imagine a sander should be fine. Just use really fine grit.

 

[dahenley]

I wouldn't do a plastic top because you want the o2-co2 exchange.
Since your a master of acrylic now, think of making a 2 piece top or multi piece. On the side with pipes, cur around them close to prevent splash creep, and on a different one, cut vent groves for air exchange. With these smaller ones, you can take them and splash water on them to clean the salt off and put it back.

 

[prop-frags]

looks great! how's that lineatus?

Thanks, Nick. The lineatus didn't make it. He had been showing very encouraging signs of recovering, then took a turn for the worse. Even with all the careful observation, we still were unable to determine what was really ailing the fish. But earlier this week, it was showing those same symptoms of being unable to control his swimming, and was tumbling in the water. He continued to eat well up to the very end. We looked him over well after he died, and still saw nothing apparent. We are sad by the loss.

I would imagine a sander should be fine. Just use really fine grit.

Alex, we are going to try that. I think we'll experiment on a scrap first to see how that works, but absolutely agree that the edges should be rounded off some.

I wouldn't do a plastic top because you want the o2-co2 exchange. Since your a master of acrylic now, think of making a 2 piece top or multi piece. On the side with pipes, cur around them close to prevent splash creep, and on a different one, cut vent groves for air exchange. With these smaller ones, you can take them and splash water on them to clean the salt off and put it back.

You're too funny David. We can barely spell acrylic at this point ha!
With the big skimmers we're running, and the shallow sump being open, we're not worried about the air exchange, but something to prevent the splashing and salt creep as you mentioned is a prime concern. Any other ideas?

________________________________

How about an update on the sump?
While we let the sump fully cure, we needed to get busy on the stand. Again, the first step was to draw up some plans and make sure we have all the right dimensions for stuff to fit together in the fish room properly. We needed the drain pipe coming out of the new sump to be around 26" from the floor. So we designed the stand with that as a starting point. Since we are building an acrylic sump stand, we wanted there to be a nice table top that would extend out a bit further than the tank itself (to help guard against accidental hitting of the sump, and as handy rim to set things.

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5994996940/" title="sump stand by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6002/5994996940_9c0e68a948_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="sump stand"></a>

We used the Rocket Engineer Stand Template for the stand plans, and of course way overbuilt the stand, but the rationale is that the the sump takes a lot of abuse with frequent cleaning, leaning on the tank and the stand, etc. It came together pretty well. Here's Q&A Supervisor Mr. Frodo Raggins inspecting our work after two coats of primer:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5994428187/" title="nt 1269 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6144/5994428187_e1f9e7e0e9_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1269"></a>

For the topcoat, we wanted something very rugged that will hold up to the constant splashing, drips, and general abuse of the fish room. We also need the same material to apply to our canopy (which is wearing terribly due to the constant exposure to salt water and scrapes from reaching into the display tank on a daily basis. After checking around, the material that was recommended by several experts was this water-based 2-part epoxy enamel:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5994428133/" title="nt 1268 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6011/5994428133_69b006094a_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1268"></a>

We took one of the cabinet doors from our display down to the paint store and had them match the color and finish. They did a fantastic job, and since the minimum purchase was 1 gallon, we decided to use this on the sump stand as well. It's kinda pricey, but it creates one heckuva strong finish!

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5994428301/" title="nt 1270 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6130/5994428301_8f3050d8f7_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1270"></a>

Here are a few shots of the finished product, and some details of the stand and sump:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5994987388/" title="nt 1271 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6018/5994987388_c69f5bcabf_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1271"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5994428435/" title="nt 1272 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6028/5994428435_1fec4c61e8_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1272"></a>

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5994987490/" title="nt 1273 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6121/5994987490_4de8c7a585_z.jpg" width="425" height="640" alt="nt 1273"></a>

The CNC router accepts a computer design drawing, so we were able to minimize scrap, and have the router cut out some useful parts. We cut three of these discs that can be used for projects, or to elevate the skimmer to just the right height:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5979550833/" title="nt 1266 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6132/5979550833_f0f3e2e014_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1266"></a>

We also had a few of these nifty probe holders cut out as well:

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/terryl93/5980109494/" title="nt 1267 by terryl93, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6017/5980109494_3f2a460fbe_z.jpg" width="640" height="425" alt="nt 1267"></a>

So things are coming together! Next we need to plan the cutover from the old sump to the new ones. :reading:

 

[dahenley]

i couldnt find the thread...... but someone used some 4" pipe and a "Y" to stop splashing and bubbles in his Rubbermaid

he cut teeth in the pipe, placed it on the bottom of the sump. then had his incoming water come in the side portion of the "Y" and exted the top portion a few inches.
this stopped his bubble problem, becuase they could pop in the pipe and no spray salt everywhere... they were a little big though.


just curious.... where is your water coming in, and where is it going out.

and, is the sump first, or rubbermaid? this will make a difference in what is required.

 

[aquaph8]

WOW!!!! that sump looks amazing, nice job. Those cable management cutouts were a great idea. Sorry to hear about the wrasse, it sounded like he was gonna pull through for you.

 

[110galreef]

Maybe late to this...but like 120-180 grit on a hand sander works great for rounding edges. Worked great rounding edges on my frag tank build!

I think if you get too fine, you clog the paper.

 

[launchnukes]

That's one nice sump stand! Oh, and the sump is nice too