Poriferan's 350

[Poriferan]

Brief intro to this build.
My previous 225 (Sac-town 225) developed a seam leak a few months ago.

I freaked out and moved the entire contents to a 250 gallon plastic pond container. Set up circulation, a skimmer, and the lights. I lost several fish and most of my SPS and LPS. The softies lived and spread like mad in their new garage tank.

So of course I took this as a sign to go bigger. :lolspin:

The new tank is about 95x35x24.

I have decided to plumb this through the wall and put all the sump and related filtration in the garage.

The stand is steel and powdercoated. Anyone looking for a steel stand for a great price let me know and I will Pm the details.

I moved the contents of the outdoor tank back into the house today and will proceed to plumb it over the next few days so stay tuned for this.

Pictures show how 1 person can succesfully get a 350 gallon glass tank out of my garage and onto the stand ALONE:eek1:

 

[Poriferan]

A few pics for the stand.

Last photo shows how I decided to deal with the uneven floor. Composite shims.

 

[Poriferan]

Upgraded the RO/DI to 150gpd and waited for the new tank to fill. (Leak tested it with water hose first). Mixed in the salt and added some heaters for a couple days. Then I moved all the base rock over. The following day I brought the rest of the rocks and whatever corals were still alive.

I built a temporary wood frame to hold the lights and hooked them all up.

I will eventually get better pics than my phone but this is the tank today.

 

[chillwill007]

Very nice

 

[saf1]

Engine hoist? Smart.

Good job.

 

[Poriferan]

Very nice

Engine hoist? Smart.

Good job.

Thanks! I must admit I was nervous using the engine hoists but they worked perfectly.

 

[Poriferan]

I will be using a DC pump for the return. I plan to split the return into two outlets. The largest size for the outlet is 1 1/2".

Should this size be maintained all the way into the tank, or can/should the pipe size be reduced after the split?

I feel like keeping the size would reduce flow loss but if the gain is negligible I would rather not have that size pipe inside the tank.

 

[worm5406]

Very nice setup. I too like the use of the engine hoists.

Some people say leave it the same size plumbing until you get right to the end, then size it down. This way you reduce any un-need backpressure by reducing it early. So reduce it right before you go into the tank will help, plus since it is going down, hopefully it will use gravity to pull it out of the pipe reducing the backpressure a smidgen.

What size DC pump?

 

[Poriferan]

I have 2 Jebao 12000's. I will try it using just one and see if I get enough turn over. There will be a couple more tanks tied in for a refugium and a frag tank but they will use a different pump.

 

[hans24hrs]

run a manifold. run the pipe at the size it comes off the pump until you get close to the returns. As mention earlier it will reduce some back pressure on the pump.

Looks good by the way

 

[Vlad91]

Wow thats a sick tank you got there.

 

[worm5406]

Agree on the manifold. I have two dc-12000 running into a manifold on my 180/120 feed.

 

[Poriferan]

run a manifold. run the pipe at the size it comes off the pump until you get close to the returns. As mention earlier it will reduce some back pressure on the pump.

Looks good by the way

Thank You. I decided to try and run 1.5 inch pipe all the way into the tank and see how that flows. It will be run from the dc-12000 exclusively.

I will run the second pump to a manifold, as suggested to the support tanks and related equipment.

 

[Poriferan]

Wow thats a sick tank you got there.

Thanks! I cant wait to get it dialed in and start adding some more corals and restocking the fish.

 

[Poriferan]

I started the overflow today and need advice.

I could not run the pump at max as the tank level would get too high. I was able to run it one setting from max.

Inside the overflow I have 1.5" drains. One is running full siphon and had to be slowed down to stop the air from entering. The second one is the back up emergency drain but I still get some water going through it due to the water height inside the overflow.

I want to lower the water height inside the overflow but even at its current height it sounds like a waterfall in my living room.

Here is what I am working with.



This is with the emergency drain removed and turned off. The sound was tolerable but I would never get any sleep without an emergency pipe...





The exits and return.


Sump side




Please excuse the mess as I am striving for function before aesthetic beauty just to get the tank up and running and save as much of my livestock as possible.

 

[Poriferan]

Are the teeth on this overflow causing too much restriction? I feel like the overflow is really too small for a tank this size, but I was not specific on the size when I ordered the tank...


If the teeth are the issue can I just remove them and likely solve my problems?

 

[worm5406]

OK, it might just be me but, can you take some different pictures?

I am having a hard time seeing the level of the overflow.

A video would be good too.

You need to adjust that syphon, while and after it has purged it self of air, to get that level down. If the overflow/tank is raising too high then YES the siphon needs to be adjusted slightly.

Take you pump, work it up in speed to where the overflow can not take care of it quickly, DO NOT LET IT OVER FLOW, and adjust your siphon slightly. A siphon on 1.5 should be good enough to handle it.

OR

Is the overflow going dry?

 

[Jason G]

That's one nice looking tank. Great idea using that engine hoist.

 

[Poriferan]

OK, it might just be me but, can you take some different pictures?

I am having a hard time seeing the level of the overflow.

A video would be good too.

You need to adjust that syphon, while and after it has purged it self of air, to get that level down. If the overflow/tank is raising too high then YES the siphon needs to be adjusted slightly.

Take you pump, work it up in speed to where the overflow can not take care of it quickly, DO NOT LET IT OVER FLOW, and adjust your siphon slightly. A siphon on 1.5 should be good enough to handle it.

OR

Is the overflow going dry?

I will get better pictures tonight. To clarify, with the return pump at max the tank will overflow. The overflow cannot handle that volume of water.

I turn down the flow from the return pump a little and am running at the maximum the teeth can handle. The water rushing through the teeth makes a lot of noise. I can slow the exit of water through the full siphon to raise the level in the overflow (this reduces the noise) but that causes water to flow through the emergency drain. I am thinking I may have to change the emergency to a straight siphon so I can raise it above the water level (it is currently (beananimal style?) similar to this with an added airline at the top and no pipe extending down to the bottom of the overflow.


My other thought is to dremel off all the teeth. I think that would allow for around 50% more flow into the overflow box, lower the tank water level around 1/2 an inch, and give more leeway for emergency pipe height selection. Problem is the tank is running and this would have to be done by lowering the water level a bit inside the tank.:headwalls:

 

[Poriferan]

That's one nice looking tank. Great idea using that engine hoist.

Thanks. It made putting the tank on the stand (twice) fairly easy. Only hard part was getting the tank to sit on the foam at the exact location I needed and getting the straps off.:eek1: