sixpackgarage
reef mechanic
interesting design on the tank..nice overall project! subscribing for more 
My 400G Through-wall "deceptively deep" tank
- Thread starter Spaced Cowboy
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sfsuphysics
Active member
Congrats for being the poster child about why you should wear a helmet when riding a bike!
Spaced Cowboy
South Bay Reefer
interesting design on the tank..nice overall project! subscribing for more
Thanks guys
Welcome to the build thread Cheers
Simon
Spaced Cowboy
South Bay Reefer
Thanks, both, and welcome to the thread Shaggss
The nice doctor in ER told me they'd had a spate of a dozen or so cyclists hit in the last week. The young woman they'd had in the ICU the day before was wearing a mountain-climbing helmet. She didn't make it.
I work for Apple, and they have a "campus bike" program because we're so spread out around Cupertino, so there's bikes everywhere, and you just hop on one and go, once you've been through a basic bike-safety 20-minute briefing. They give out helmets and I was wearing their helmet when I hit the car.
They phoned to find out how I was, I sent the picture of the car after it hit me, and the guy on the other end of the phone told me they'd been getting a bit worried about how many people weren't wearing the helmet for short trips. They'd been talking about it, but the picture was graphic enough to harden resolve in their group, and they'll be making a concerted effort to try and make sure more people wear their helmet.
So yeah, it looks like I have become the poster-child
Well, if it had to happen, I'm very happy I was wearing a good helmet. Simon.
Spaced Cowboy
South Bay Reefer
Dragging this back to the subject - here's the latest progress on the tank front. Most of the interior finish is now done, although we've still got the RAMboard down protecting the floor... Here's what it looks like now...
... and from a slightly different angle...
... and looking across the tank...
I think they did an excellent job framing the tank, and wrapping the steel in wood along the bottom of it. Once it's properly lit with fish in the foreground and the LCD screens providing "depth" in the background, I think it'll look amazing.
I really like the clean look all around it - the empty space means there's nothing to distract the eye from the tank and its contents across the entire wall.
Simon.
... and from a slightly different angle...
... and looking across the tank...
I think they did an excellent job framing the tank, and wrapping the steel in wood along the bottom of it. Once it's properly lit with fish in the foreground and the LCD screens providing "depth" in the background, I think it'll look amazing.
I really like the clean look all around it - the empty space means there's nothing to distract the eye from the tank and its contents across the entire wall.
Simon.
tgunn
Active member
So we've made a bit more progress on the tank front - the paint is done and they're starting on fixtures and wood staining...
However things on a personal front have come to a screaming stop. Literally. If you look closely you can see I have my (broken) arm in a sling. It's a bit blurry because you're seeing reflections off the back and front glass, but the sling is there. That's due to this car:
My head made the lower indentation on the windscreen, but the Apple-issued bike helmet did its job perfectly. No damage to the old cranium at all. My elbow made the upper indentation, and I broke the radius bone right at the joint. That hurts. My knee made the indentation on the side of the car. My knee isn't even sore. I wish they made elbows like they make knees...
I was doing about 25mph on the bike, going along my cycle-lane when a lady decided to turn right across my path. I had no chance - could just see it all unfolding, knew I was going to hit, and couldn't do a thing about it.
Cue police, ambulance ride to hospital, various questions about who I am etc... I'm looking on the bright side, a broken elbow and bruising in places I didn't know I had places is nothing compared to what the outcome would have been if she had turned a half-second later; I would have been under the car instead of bouncing off the side/front, and that wouldn't have ended well for me at all.
On a different note, ER doctors have no sense of humour - when I was asked "Are you allergic to anything?" and I answered "cars, apparently", I got a 5 minute lecture on how I was wasting his time. I was stoic.
Being an ageing physicist with a slightly morbid sense of humour, I worked out what the impact energy was: about 9050 Joules. For reference, a .22 bullet carries ~450 Joules of energy, and the punch of a super-heavyweight boxer comes in at ~2000 joules. Of course, pressure is what makes a bullet lethal (pressure = force/area and a bullet has a very small cross-sectional area), but still...
Anyway, this is a lot to type with only one arm working, so I'll end here.
Simon.
Yikes! Glad you made it out alright! I had a similar incident last December riding home from work; a pickup turned right across the bike lane I was driving in. A few months later I ended up in the ER as a segment of a disc in my spine broke free and pinched a nerve in my leg.
iced98lx
New member
Excellent. You've created a view very similar to what I have (I bumped my 180 out of the wall a few inches) but gained the VERY cool "look down" element. Love it.
Spaced Cowboy
South Bay Reefer
Back in the saddle
Back in the saddle
Ok guys, sorry for the lack of updates, had another trip to ER on monday due to accumulated blood loss. They patched me up and I'm on R&R at home again, but today is the first day my head's been clear...
Willster, Noah 123, anbosu, tgunn, iced98lx, Lubeck - welcome all to the thread and thanks for the kind words
Not too much to add to the progress recently, most of the work has been to the house rather than tank-related. The NSW and NFW water tanks are installed (with a further NSW tank to go, since they delivered a broken one first time around), and are plumbed into the stand-pipes in the fish-room. We've also added a third stand-pipe for drain purposes, and a shower grid drain on the floor.
Final inspection on the renovation is tomorrow, but I think I'll be holding off a bit until my arm works properly before I start on the tank plumbing etc. I just don't have the leverage in that arm yet, although I expect it to make a full recovery in time.
Cheers
Simon.
Back in the saddle
Ok guys, sorry for the lack of updates, had another trip to ER on monday due to accumulated blood loss. They patched me up and I'm on R&R at home again, but today is the first day my head's been clear...
Willster, Noah 123, anbosu, tgunn, iced98lx, Lubeck - welcome all to the thread and thanks for the kind words
Not too much to add to the progress recently, most of the work has been to the house rather than tank-related. The NSW and NFW water tanks are installed (with a further NSW tank to go, since they delivered a broken one first time around), and are plumbed into the stand-pipes in the fish-room. We've also added a third stand-pipe for drain purposes, and a shower grid drain on the floor.
Final inspection on the renovation is tomorrow, but I think I'll be holding off a bit until my arm works properly before I start on the tank plumbing etc. I just don't have the leverage in that arm yet, although I expect it to make a full recovery in time.
Cheers
Simon.
skanderson
New member
sorry to hear about the accident. good thing you were wearing a helmet. I tore my acl right after getting my 700 installed. it ended up delaying the project for almost 3 years. I am hoping you make a much quicker recovery so I can continue to watch this interesting build progress.
Spaced Cowboy
South Bay Reefer
Thanks for the good wishes and welcome to the thread
The elbow is still sore, but I'm out of the sling now, the physio is happy with the progress of the recovery, and having it in a sling would actually do more harm than good now. It still hurts quite a bit, but the idea is to start using it normally, and it will slowly get back to normal. They reckon another 5 weeks or so before it's fully healed.Still, if it's a choice between skull or elbow to break, I'm going with the elbow every single time
Cheers
Simon
Spaced Cowboy
South Bay Reefer
So, over the weekend, I started to get the water-storage set up. If you remember, I have a very small fish room; there's just no space for water-storage tanks inside, so I moved them to the other end of the house, and ran pipes in the crawlspace, leading to stand-pipes inside the fish-room that provide me with "virtual" water tanks...
So, at the other end of the house, I used to have a 225G NSW tank, I ordered another 325G one, but it came broken. I fixed that by plastic welding over the break (which was caused by a fork-lift truck prong)...
It doesn't look like there's a lot of new HDPE plastic there, but there is. it goes all the way through the plastic tank, which is about 0.25" thick. Hopefully it'll be sufficient in the long term.
Once fixed, the tank was painted black to help prevent any algae formation in water that's stored outside, in the direct glare of sunlight. I will probably also build a shelter with 80/20 to go over the tanks at some point and use blue/black pool-cover plastic sheet to further reduce the sunlight hitting the tanks...
... and I added a bulkhead (which was missing, even though I'd specced one to be added) ...
I couldn't really get the bulkhead tight given the broken elbow, but I asked the plumber who was doing the house reno to help and he was happy to
And then it was just a matter of installing the tank at the side of the house...
Now, I still have the old 225 gallon tank, and now I have this 325 gallon tank, and in fact there's another 325 gallon tank sitting waiting for paint/install (the replacement that plastic-mart sent after I reported the broken tank). All told, I'll have 875 gallons of NSW available. That means I'll be able to do full water-changes basically whenever I want. I'm only planning on running through ~160 gallons/month of NSW, but this way I'll have the capacity to spare if there's an emergency...
All of the tanks are connected to the NSW standpipe in the fish-room, but in case any of them suffer any damage (or the "repaired" one, suddenly isn't) I have all of the tanks on separate ball-valves to the standpipe. I didn't take a snapshot of that, but will do when the last tank is installed.
On top of all that, we also still have the NFW tank (which I'm leaving the same as before at 50G - because I'm getting NSW straight from the ocean, I only need the NSW for top-off due to evaporation. The NSW is tied directly into the RO/DI system and keeps itself at 50G, which ought to be plenty. Again, this tank goes via a ball-valve to a stand-pipe in the fish-room.
I'm also going to have to get the hedge at the side trimmed (the hedge has been allowed to grow out, so there's about 18" of it which, if removed, would make the line of the hedge straight again). Every time you do something it seems there's a bunch of things that therefore also need to be done
Still, progress is being made. Slowly but surely...
Simon.
So, at the other end of the house, I used to have a 225G NSW tank, I ordered another 325G one, but it came broken. I fixed that by plastic welding over the break (which was caused by a fork-lift truck prong)...
It doesn't look like there's a lot of new HDPE plastic there, but there is. it goes all the way through the plastic tank, which is about 0.25" thick. Hopefully it'll be sufficient in the long term.
Once fixed, the tank was painted black to help prevent any algae formation in water that's stored outside, in the direct glare of sunlight. I will probably also build a shelter with 80/20 to go over the tanks at some point and use blue/black pool-cover plastic sheet to further reduce the sunlight hitting the tanks...
... and I added a bulkhead (which was missing, even though I'd specced one to be added) ...
I couldn't really get the bulkhead tight given the broken elbow, but I asked the plumber who was doing the house reno to help and he was happy to
And then it was just a matter of installing the tank at the side of the house...
Now, I still have the old 225 gallon tank, and now I have this 325 gallon tank, and in fact there's another 325 gallon tank sitting waiting for paint/install (the replacement that plastic-mart sent after I reported the broken tank). All told, I'll have 875 gallons of NSW available. That means I'll be able to do full water-changes basically whenever I want. I'm only planning on running through ~160 gallons/month of NSW, but this way I'll have the capacity to spare if there's an emergency...
All of the tanks are connected to the NSW standpipe in the fish-room, but in case any of them suffer any damage (or the "repaired" one, suddenly isn't) I have all of the tanks on separate ball-valves to the standpipe. I didn't take a snapshot of that, but will do when the last tank is installed.
On top of all that, we also still have the NFW tank (which I'm leaving the same as before at 50G - because I'm getting NSW straight from the ocean, I only need the NSW for top-off due to evaporation. The NSW is tied directly into the RO/DI system and keeps itself at 50G, which ought to be plenty. Again, this tank goes via a ball-valve to a stand-pipe in the fish-room.
I'm also going to have to get the hedge at the side trimmed (the hedge has been allowed to grow out, so there's about 18" of it which, if removed, would make the line of the hedge straight again). Every time you do something it seems there's a bunch of things that therefore also need to be done
Still, progress is being made. Slowly but surely...
Simon.
Swope2bc
New member
Looking awesome Simon! Good news on the arm! Question, how will you transfer water from your stand pipes to the tank? Are you plumbing directly to the sump or??? Love the build, and the detail going in to every part of it! I cannot wait to see how you set up the LED deep view screens and the look they provide. I've really enjoyed following along.
[emoji3]
Brett
[emoji3]
Brett
sfsuphysics
Active member
Gotta ask... how did you get the bulkhead on? Given that it's not exactly arms length from the opening, is the opening large enough for someone to climb in? Or did they get clever with wire/string from the hole to the opening and then fished it through?
