Our 375g reef tank build & fish room
- Thread starter edandsandy
- Start date
Creamhorses
New member
Holy crap
Just found out about your crisis! So sorry to hear.
Keep your chin up and take one day @ a time to get back to lovin' what you're doing.
Your LFS did a really nice thing....what goes around, ....
Good luck and keep updating as you re-build your big system.
Best
Dave
Just found out about your crisis! So sorry to hear.
Keep your chin
Your LFS did a really nice thing....what goes around, ....
Good luck and keep updating as you re-build your big system.
Best
Dave
edandsandy
Active member
Thank you every one for all of your kind words.
I just can not seem to get Ed to write up his progress with the plumbing
I will take some pictures of his work and post them later.
Maybe that will inspire him
I just can not seem to get Ed to write up his progress with the plumbing
I will take some pictures of his work and post them later.
Maybe that will inspire him
edandsandy
Active member
:lol:
your wife sounds like a smart lady!
your wife sounds like a smart lady!
edandsandy
Active member
The recession (not that we are participating) has cause me to work twice as hard and long for less; as a result time has been precious! Finally have a few moments to come up for air!
The RO/DI design was inspired by glassreef(Tom). MY goal was to have the capability to do any thing I might ever need or imagine in the design; stir water in either tank (independently), move water from either tank to the other, drain each tank independently, move water to the reef tank from either or both tanks, maintenance the pump without cutting pipes, and lastly an automated RO top-off system. The true-union valves enable every need I could imagine.... They are the bomb - not a single leak!
The cam lever cap (banjo fitting) is on the return line. I added this and built a hose apparatus that we use to pump water (from either or both tanks) during water changes!!! The controller is setup to stir the water (in either tank) the night before a water change.
On the lower right side you see a second banjo cam lever CAP.
We use the cap when not in use. The drain hose uses a banjo lever cam designed to fit on the end of a 1" hose. They will not come loose or leak! The only metal are the levers and they are aluminum and do not come into constant contact with the salt water.....
The same concept was use to drain the tank with regard to the banjo cam fittings. This hose apparatus has three different length pieces of PVC that are used to drain the tank. One for 25gal, one for 60gal, and one for 120gal. This ensures we do not over drain for the amount of salt that is prepared. The pipe is in the tank (under the water) therefore a glued fitting is not necessary. Now we can get distracted (finish that beer) without
having to stand over the tank when draining..........
The ATO was interesting. The first plan was plagued by Isaac Newton. I plumbed the return to the sump. I have a sensor in the supply tank and the sump. Once it started it would not stop!
Then I re-plumbed it to the over flow box! Isaac-1 Ed-1. The advantage (rationalization) of the new and improved design was that the RO/DI water in the overflow box gave the un-salted water more time and distance to dilute with the tank water!
I have always thought is was unnecessary stress on the tank to have to deal with un-salted water. The dynamics of the un-salted water do reverent it from mixing as well as you might think. Hence the recommendation to stir over night.
more to follow........
The RO/DI design was inspired by glassreef(Tom). MY goal was to have the capability to do any thing I might ever need or imagine in the design; stir water in either tank (independently), move water from either tank to the other, drain each tank independently, move water to the reef tank from either or both tanks, maintenance the pump without cutting pipes, and lastly an automated RO top-off system. The true-union valves enable every need I could imagine.... They are the bomb - not a single leak!
The cam lever cap (banjo fitting) is on the return line. I added this and built a hose apparatus that we use to pump water (from either or both tanks) during water changes!!! The controller is setup to stir the water (in either tank) the night before a water change.
On the lower right side you see a second banjo cam lever CAP.
We use the cap when not in use. The drain hose uses a banjo lever cam designed to fit on the end of a 1" hose. They will not come loose or leak! The only metal are the levers and they are aluminum and do not come into constant contact with the salt water.....
The same concept was use to drain the tank with regard to the banjo cam fittings. This hose apparatus has three different length pieces of PVC that are used to drain the tank. One for 25gal, one for 60gal, and one for 120gal. This ensures we do not over drain for the amount of salt that is prepared. The pipe is in the tank (under the water) therefore a glued fitting is not necessary. Now we can get distracted (finish that beer) without
having to stand over the tank when draining..........
The ATO was interesting. The first plan was plagued by Isaac Newton. I plumbed the return to the sump. I have a sensor in the supply tank and the sump. Once it started it would not stop!
Then I re-plumbed it to the over flow box! Isaac-1 Ed-1. The advantage (rationalization) of the new and improved design was that the RO/DI water in the overflow box gave the un-salted water more time and distance to dilute with the tank water!
I have always thought is was unnecessary stress on the tank to have to deal with un-salted water. The dynamics of the un-salted water do reverent it from mixing as well as you might think. Hence the recommendation to stir over night.
more to follow........
edandsandy
Active member
The protein skimmer was a challenge as I wanted it easy to maintain yet out of the way...... I drilled into the side of the stand to get the feed line from the over flow box to the PS. This allowed me to locate it very close to the stand... The fun part was the self cleaning head. We used a solenoid setup in the controller for the cleaning times and activation of the selfcleaning head motor. We use fresh water to flood the cup two times a day. I removed the factory drain apparatus as it was designed to allow the cup to fill then drain. This process became problematic likely due to the fact that their design would not tolerate back pressure. I had originally connected the drain the the same drain I used to drain the tank. This required the line to fall a couple of feet then up hill six inches. The line always had a small amount of water in it thus the back pressure. I simply routed the drain to the same location the RO/DI drains to... This location is approx. 1/2 higher than the bottom of the cup which some what mirrors Deltec's design and allows for better cleaning....
The last thing we did was run the air intake out side. The line goes thru a 1 1/2 inch pipe full of charcoal. The end caps have filter media to prevent dust and contaminants from getting into the system. The goal was to improve the PH with fresh air!
So far so good!
Now all I have to do is clean up the wiring !!!!!!!!
More on the calcium reactor.........
The last thing we did was run the air intake out side. The line goes thru a 1 1/2 inch pipe full of charcoal. The end caps have filter media to prevent dust and contaminants from getting into the system. The goal was to improve the PH with fresh air!
So far so good!
Now all I have to do is clean up the wiring !!!!!!!!
More on the calcium reactor.........
edandsandy
Active member
The calcium reactor was modified using a flow meter (gillmont flow meter - size 13 - glass ball).
We had a direct correlation on the flow and used that as a starting point... The meter was connected using two sizes of tubing down to 1/4 line then using john guest fittings and 1/2'' PVC fittings.... No more measuring the effluent! Much more user friendly!
My original plan was to have the system drip into the overflow box return line. This proved not to be a good idea as the air bubbles creep back into the system.
edandsandy
Active member
Here are a few FTS....
I have a new camera, still having a problem with the white balance...... UGH!
We started with a black background.... That didn't last to long. It made the tank look to dark.
I like the blue back ground the best.
The side panels open on the frame for easy access when cleaning the glass.
We still have not come up with a grand idea to support the top lid.
So right now I just use a PVC pipe to hold the top open...
Maybe someone here has a good idea to support the lid.
I have a new camera, still having a problem with the white balance...... UGH!
We started with a black background.... That didn't last to long. It made the tank look to dark.
I like the blue back ground the best.
The side panels open on the frame for easy access when cleaning the glass.
We still have not come up with a grand idea to support the top lid.
So right now I just use a PVC pipe to hold the top open...
Maybe someone here has a good idea to support the lid.
edandsandy
Active member
Thank you Bax.
It was so difficult to rebuild after the crash.
Some of my corals were 2+ years old.
Starting with frags gives us time to watch the new babies grow.
I defiantly learned a hard and $$$$$$$ lesson.
edandsandy
Active member
Thank you SuperR,
We tried to think of everything possible since we were starting from scratch. Thanks to a lot of reefers here on RC it made the planning easier.
We had a TON of help from GlassReef (Tom)
on the light rack.
When we need to do any maintance on the tank, these lights slide completely out of the way.
Ed Reef was also a GREAT help in the planning the system.
If any one can help plan a system, Ed is the man.
JDieck was a great help in turning our GEO calcium reactor into a well oiled machine.
I found it very difficult tuning it in on this large system.
What an honor it is to have these three helping you in planning your system.
If I haven't said THANK YOU to Tom, Ed & JDieck in a while THANK YOU, because you all were such a great help.
edandsandy
Active member
Thank you porthios,
Ed is very proud of the pluming
He tried to think of everything I needed to do water changes, making water, moving water from one tank to the other, mixing salt water, he even has pumps inside the tanks to make sure the salt is mixing properly and lastly draining both tanks for cleaning...
I have to say it took me a while to figure out all the valves on the water storage tanks.....
If you look really close at the plumbing on the storage tanks, I had to draw small arrow's for the flow directions.
I finally got it... (after I drew the arrows) :lol:
Ed is now proud of me
Last edited:
edandsandy
Active member
Yes, they are 2 sets butted up to each other.
We purchased them from McMaster-Carr:
2 Sets 1223A22
Roller Track Set for Bypassing Door 150-lb Cap, 8' L Track, for 1-3/8"-1-3/4" Thk Doors
We purchased them from McMaster-Carr:
2 Sets 1223A22
Roller Track Set for Bypassing Door 150-lb Cap, 8' L Track, for 1-3/8"-1-3/4" Thk Doors
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