New Aquarium for St Jude Children's Hospital (800+G)
- Thread starter bshumake
- Start date
ReefingBuddha
New member
another wow... very impressive setup. And this is for a hospital? That's awesome.
How long before the room is ready so this thing can completly come together?
How long before the room is ready so this thing can completly come together?
scarletknight06
New member
This is awesome. You should all be commended for donating your time and effort to such a great cause. I'm sure it will be much appreciated by the kids.
nattydread
Member
Great work. St. Jude is a very worthy cause. Hats off to all of you!!
bshumake
New member
Thanks everyone for the comments. Scott's really putting himself into this full tilt. The Room should be sealed off today or tomorrow so we can get it all cleaned up back there and keep noses out of it. The new Chili's Center isn't slated to open till November so there's time still for cycling. I have the lab set up for holding the sand, rock, fish, and corals. Thats where everything will live until I can actually move in and get the tank up. The water test went great! I might throw my kids in there for a great shot!
Doug and John are walking around the hospital like proud Poppa's now. John in particular has had a Cheshire grin on his face for the past two weeks.
Scott's working on filling his schedule back up now that this install is winding down. I know a couple of our local club members are going to try and get him to make them a tank and some equipment. After getting a look at the Volcano Skimmer I'm itching to move into a 500G aquarium myself!
Doug and John are walking around the hospital like proud Poppa's now. John in particular has had a Cheshire grin on his face for the past two weeks.
Scott's working on filling his schedule back up now that this install is winding down. I know a couple of our local club members are going to try and get him to make them a tank and some equipment. After getting a look at the Volcano Skimmer I'm itching to move into a 500G aquarium myself!
coralreeffarm
New member
Scott...Nice and clean. Great Project
-Jeff
-Jeff
spazz
New member
sorry guys i forgot the camera at st judes. i went back to get it but the gate was locked. we took some new pics and some videos of the testing on the tidal surge tanks. it was an awesome test. i cant wait to see how barrott attaches the rocks together so the surge tanks dont blast the rocks around in the tank. lol the other neat idea that we came up with is the real live rock walls for the rear and partial side of the tank. doug and john wanted more than a black or blue backing on the tank. so we were really chalanged to come up with a design that would not break the bank and yet would look awesome when its finished. the end result goes something like this. barrott and the memphis reef club are going to be building a real live rock back wall. the pannels will be 1/2" black cast acrylic sheets that are 21" wide and 43" tall. that dementions are because of the hole sizes in the top of the tank wont allow a bigger pannel. these sheets will be bevel cut at 45 deg angles so they will slightly overlap each other and not let any light through. then the big job will be to attach real live rock specialy chosen from the 800 lbs of rock that barrott ordered that can be drilled in such a way that plastic zip ties can be run through holes in the rock and through holes in the sheets. then they can use plumbers putty and great stuff foam and some sand to make the acrylic pannels into live rock pannels. these will be zip tied to the overflow teeth in the back of the tank. the other thing they could do is drill holes into the acrylic and use acrylic pegs that can be glued into the sheets and then drill holes into the rock so the rocks are pinned into place and then zip tied for security. this has never been attempted before that i know of. it should make for a very interesting design and a great place to put cap corals and large stag horn corals so when they grow out it will be a forest of corals in the background.
i hope this description makes sence. if it dont check back in a couple of weeks for that update from the club.
i hope this description makes sence. if it dont check back in a couple of weeks for that update from the club.
spazz
New member
this was a real big concern of mine. we solved that issue with some help from doug tran. first there is a very large a/c vent comming intothe room. you can see it in some of the pictures hanging right behind the tank. then there is a bigger exaust fan that will put the whole room in a slight under pressure to the rest of the hospital. all humidity will be sucked out of the room as fast as it is made. second there will be no fans anywhre in the room. so there will be less humidity from evaporation. n ext the tank is cooled down with 42 deg water and a titanium heat exchanger. this will be controlled by the computer system. i have not installed the computer that was donated but it is there and will be installed on sat.
Glad to see everything going so well. Spazz is truly meticulous about his work and I knew he would treat this job the same. He goes above and beyond and it shows. What a great attention to detail. By the way I donated that UV light to the tank but I forgot to include all the brand new bulbs I have for it. I also plan on donating a bunch of corals so when that happens then I can try and get the bulbs to you as well. Otherwise if spazz heads down again then maybe he can bring the bulbs to you.
invincible569
New member
Wow, I am impressed. You can tell the difference in commercial builds like this when someone is an active RC member. They know the inside's and out's and have more advanced tricks/styles. Keep up the good work and the more pics, the better!
Congratulations Scott. To show you what a great guy Scott is, he drove across town after work to do some MINOR acrylic work on my tank, shot the breeze and hit the road. If he was willing to put three hours work and drive into a local club member's tank for nothin', I'm sure he's doing top-notch stuff out there.
wow again, great cause as well, nice job!
Scott: you mentioned that the tank is cooled down with 42 deg water and a titanium heat exchanger, can you elaborate? Chiller? Do you anticipate a cooling effect from the surge action? Also wondering how you calculated how much volume would be needed for the surge and height of the surge tanks.
Scott: you mentioned that the tank is cooled down with 42 deg water and a titanium heat exchanger, can you elaborate? Chiller? Do you anticipate a cooling effect from the surge action? Also wondering how you calculated how much volume would be needed for the surge and height of the surge tanks.
bshumake
New member
We tapped into the cooling tower for the MRI units next door. Since the chiller feed was already planned we got the Design and Construction crew to work it into the plans and presto-chango, we're rolling in cold water. This floor will have some never-before-seen designs with MRI and CT equipment so it was one of those "sure, lets try it" type things.
reeftanktime
New member
That is an awesome setup for a great cause. Kudos to you Spazz!!
bshumake
New member
Scott has gone above and beyond on this build much farther than any of the Design and Construction crew ever thought someone from outside the institution ever would. He has been here for 2 weeks overseeing every aspect to make sure that everything is absolutely perfect. He has continued to impress all of us with his knowledge, ingenuity and enthusiasm. Sure, there were a few concerns and doubt among a few. But once Scott got going he left no question as to his professionalism and expertise. Scott hasn't built a tank, he's built a legacy for all of us here to see and marvel at.
