Randy's 180G Reef-Photo Journal

[rdmpe]

I got the second coat of that elastomeric paint on everything, and the other day I painted the exposed plumbing black. It looks a lot better now that it's black. And I replumbed the sump return without the motorized ball valve

Here's a picture of the beast that comes off my sump return pump.

It's 1.5" coming off the pump. The first tee going downward is to feed my refugium. The rest of the water goes up to the 1.5" double wye and splits. After the split it reduces from 1.5" down to two 1" branches that go into the tank. I used a screw on cap on the straight branch of the wye in case I ever want to put something else there. However, if I bleed any more water off the returns, I'm going to have to get a bigger pump. This Tarpon is pressure rated but I think it only is giving me around 1000 gph, some of which has to go to the fuge...

So how can I test how much I'm really getting out of this thing? I don't think there is really any way to do it with all of the plumbing in place...

Here are a couple of shots of the tank with the plumbing painted black. Still nothing alive in there though!

 

[rjwilson37]

Looking sweet, I can't wait to see this up and running.

 

[mcdonaldtj]

Tank is looking awesome, cant wait to see it full.

V/Tim

 

[Stile2]

Hey rdmpe

Just read your whole thread. Great Job!!

Keith

 

[specsirl]

rdmpe...I sent you a pm. If you still have that motorized valve setup laying around, I'd be more than happy to take it off of your hands. I too am in the process of setting up a 180 tank and my flow system is designed off of a mbv closed loop.
BTW..very inspiring thread!

 

[mr9iron]

That is a great looking tank!:eek1: It's always fun to watch a work of art in progress. Seeing this really makes me want to get back into reefing and set up a huge tank. I'm gonna have to wait until the wifey finishes school though.

 

[rdmpe]

Thanks very much for the encouragement! I sure am having a good time putting it all together. I was standing there looking at it this morning and trying to imagine what I'll be doing with the rocks. That is going to be a real challenge I think. I want to have PVC support the rock for the most part so that I can have a very loose look to the structures. To do that I may have to add a little more support in addition to the "towers" that are part of the CL. Also, I'll have to make the towers taller I think. They aren't glued yet since I figured I'd have to mess with them. I'm thinking I may not glue them at all since the pressure is not enough to push them apart, and leaks are not an issue.

I could put just a small drop of glue on the outside of the joint after they are slipped together, that would hold them but should still allow me to break them apart if I need to reconfigure... I think I'll do a test joint like this and see how hard it is to pop it loose after a few days.

I finally picked up the bulkheads I need to tie the sump and fuge tubs together. I found a great source for hard to find items like large bulkhead fittings - waterpond suppliers. Here in FL koi ponds and such are pretty popular and the places that supply that stuff tend to have bulkheads, spaflex, valves, etc. etc.

I kicked around the idea of going with a couple of acrylic tanks to replace the tubs, but found that acrylic sheet is just too expensive and I don't need the additional DIY project right now. I got a quote from glasscages.com of about $215 shipped for two tanks 23x18x17high, more than I want to spend right now. Possible future upgrade though...

So now that I can put the sump/fuge back together and the white roof coating stuff is nice and dry, I can put everything back together and get some water in it again... Will probably do another tap water test of the final plumbing, then start thinking about rockscapes some more.

 

[EnglishRebel]

RDMPE
I have just read through this thread - great set up. You obviously have put a great deal of thought and preparation into this project before starting. I am in my tenth month of planning - you must be an engineer like me.
One thing to note (and for you it's probably too late but may help others) is that it's a bad idea to have an elbow right before the inlet of a pump. To achieve good flow without cavitation it's best to have at least 3 x the pipe diameter straight section before the inlet.
Just a thought.

 

[tgunn]

Randy,

I wouldn't use any glue on the closed loop pipes. After running for almost a month now I had a helk of a time removing the bushings from my closed loop. Little bits of silt and sand pretty much cemented them on. I ended up cracking one of the fittings in the process of changing out the bushing.

I think friction fitting will do just fine.

Might as well start with the rubbermaid sumps; you've got 'em already. Worse case they don't work out and you have to replace them down the road. I only went with a glass sump because I got it used for a good price.

Tyler

 

[rdmpe]

RDMPE
I have just read through this thread - great set up. You obviously have put a great deal of thought and preparation into this project before starting. I am in my tenth month of planning - you must be an engineer like me.

Is it that obvious?

One thing to note (and for you it's probably too late but may help others) is that it's a bad idea to have an elbow right before the inlet of a pump. To achieve good flow without cavitation it's best to have at least 3 x the pipe diameter straight section before the inlet.
Just a thought.

I agree, I did come across this after I had things set up. I am considering adding a little bit to the length. However, the way I have it set up, I can't extend that length much or it shoves the back end of my pump up against the back wall of my stand. I'm going to look at my options in that regard though.

...I wouldn't use any glue on the closed loop pipes. After running for almost a month now I had a helk of a time removing the bushings from my closed loop. Little bits of silt and sand pretty much cemented them on. I ended up cracking one of the fittings in the process of changing out the bushing.

Good to know - I will leave it alone then and just shove them together with no glue...

Might as well start with the rubbermaid sumps; you've got 'em already. Worse case they don't work out and you have to replace them down the road. I only went with a glass sump because I got it used for a good price.

Tyler

Not to mention the room you have to work with! <green with envy> If my stand was 6" higher, a standard 55G tank would have been perfect. If I had a separate room, well, let's just say I had an old scratched up 180G sitting in my garage for 6 months that would have made a GREAT sump

Hopefully I have a productive long weekend coming up...

 

[rdmpe]

rdmpe...I sent you a pm. If you still have that motorized valve setup laying around, I'd be more than happy to take it off of your hands. I too am in the process of setting up a 180 tank and my flow system is designed off of a mbv closed loop.
BTW..very inspiring thread!

Did I mention that I'm dissappointed that I can't use that thing on my tank? Anyway, I'm going to be replumbing my swimming pool some time soon, and I'm going to hang on to the Jandy actuator to use with a solar heating system. I keep telling myself I'll start that project while my live rock is curing... (yeah right)

 

[tgunn]

I agree, I did come across this after I had things set up. I am considering adding a little bit to the length. However, the way I have it set up, I can't extend that length much or it shoves the back end of my pump up against the back wall of my stand. I'm going to look at my options in that regard though.

Good to know - I will leave it alone then and just shove them together with no glue...
Not to mention the room you have to work with! <green with envy> If my stand was 6" higher, a standard 55G tank would have been perfect. If I had a separate room, well, let's just say I had an old scratched up 180G sitting in my garage for 6 months that would have made a GREAT sump

Hopefully I have a productive long weekend coming up...

Randy,
Your elbow right before the intake of the pump is 1.5" and the pump itself uses 1" or 3/4" plumbing, correct?

My Sequence 1000 5000Seq22 closed loop pump has a 1.5" intake. I used 2" plumbing right up to the pump. The piping basically does a 180 into the pump suction; no problems at all...

I would try it out and see how it works; I suspect you won't have a problem since you've got larger diameter plumbing so the water won't be rushing through the pipes quite as fast as it would with 1"...

Hey, I'd love to have a 180G tank for the extra length now that I've got things up and running. So we're even, okay? :lol:

Tyler

 

[rdmpe]

The pump connections are 1.5" FPT intake and 3/4" FPT output. So I am using 1.5" right into the pump housing. However, I haven't had any noise or cavitation issues that I could notice. I think the fact that it is a long sweep elbow helps a lot also. Much better than a tight sch40 elbow. Matter of fact, I tried to use those long sweep elbows everywhere I could.

 

[tgunn]

The pump connections are 1.5" FPT intake and 3/4" FPT output. So I am using 1.5" right into the pump housing. However, I haven't had any noise or cavitation issues that I could notice. I think the fact that it is a long sweep elbow helps a lot also. Much better than a tight sch40 elbow. Matter of fact, I tried to use those long sweep elbows everywhere I could.

They sure made a large intake to the pump compared to the output. Interesting.

I was very much afraid of 90s at Tees at first, but now that I'm up and running, I realized they're not all that bad if you use them sparingly. Some spots in my setup I just couldn't avoid it..

Tyler

 

[rdmpe]

Some updates...

The big problem that was holding me up was getting the sump and fuge put back together and checking for leaks. I wanted to put the bulkhead through both tub walls and then crank them tightly down with something like a rubber O-ring between them. That would basically make both of them act as one single wall. Otherwise, water would leake from the "nut side" through the threads and then out between the two tub walls. Having a sealing ring between the walls means that water can get in along the threads of the bulkhead, but then the water can't get out between the two tub walls due to the o-ring. Hopefully that isn't TOO confusing... Anway, I bought some large thick rubber rings from Lowes that are made to go between a toilet tank and the bottom part of the toilet. They are the correct diameter to go over the sch 80 bulkhead and they are about 5/8" thick. I thought this would be good since it might provide some flexibility as I'm moving the tubs around etc. without leaking. I found that there are some of these that are made from some type of open cell foam rubber that actually can absorb water like a sponge (and leak) but I managed to find some that seemed to be a solid rubber material. I also bought some "standard" style rubber O-rings from a swimming pool store. BTW they were twice as expensive at Pinch-a-Wallet as the same size O-rings at Ace hardware, but Ace happened to only have ONE of the size I needed, and I had to have two... And then I didn't end up using them anyway. The big rubber rings ended up working well. I let the tubs sit for several hours full to the top and they never leaked a drop.

I also am using two stainless steel machine screws with large washers and wing nuts to attach the tubs at the top edge. Another thing I did was trimmed away the rolled over edge where the two tubs are in contact. The edges were forcing the tub walls to be so far apart that it was difficult to connect them at the bulkheads. So here are some pictures of the rubbermaid sump / refugium.

In this first picture below you can see the two bulkheads on the right that connect the tubs together. You can see the stainless screws at the top that also hold the tubs together. And on the lower left you can see the intake screen for the sump return pump. This was before I trimmed the top rim of the tubs where they meet...

In this picture below you can't really see the bulkheads very well through the water, but you can see the screws (way too long for this setup - I'm going to get shorter screws) and you can see the section of plumbing that connects to the sump return pump. I also have trimmed the top rims of the tubs now, which allows them to be connected with less deformation of the walls at the bulkheads...

 

[Stile2]

Looks good!

 

[rdmpe]

Some more things I got done...

I think I mentioned earlier that I bought a slightly used Digital Aquatics Reefkeeper for $175. I started looking into dual stage temperature controllers and digital light timers and I quickly realized that it would end up costing me approx. the same as buying this thing. I have used the inexpensive analog timers as well as digital timers on other tanks, and I have to say I like the digital timers better. So comparing apples to apples I felt it was going to be cheaper to go with this reefkeeper.

Of course, I had already made this big electrical contraption to give me a Bunch 'O Outlets. So I modified it a bit and added the reefkeeper outlet box to it. So here is my new outlet panel that will get mounted inside the stand.

I also made some modifications to the drain line that comes out of the bottom of my stand. I was tired of stringing hoses through the house to drain the tank. So I added a garden hose fitting to my drain so that I can now drain water right out of the house with very little hassle. I also had to stick a ball valve between the hose connection and the stand so that I didn't back water up into the stand. I also bought a "water safe" garden hose at home depot for about $12 and cut it down into two smaller lengths...

Of course, the first time I used the hose connection to drain the tank, I forgot to close the ball valve and ended up starting to back water up into my stand !!!

Luckily I have several of those "water alarms" strategically placed inside the stand and one of those started screetching right away so I really didn't get much water in the stand at all. So here's an outdated picture of the new drain. After taking this picture, I made a better one with the TEE sideways relative to the ball valve.

You know, I can't figure out what my wife is complaining about. "What mess?" I ask her...

 

[rdmpe]

Looks good!

Thanks Stile2, I wanted to get a lot more done this weekend, but the Project Manager had other plans for me. However, I have the tank all back together now and have tested all the plumbing, and drained the tap water back out of it. So now I have to start thinking of what to do next.

I guess the next thing to do is get some saltwater in the tank, get it up to temperature, and start working on rock. I have some base rock, but not all that much, so I'm thinking I'll play with it a little bit to see how I can attach it to the pvc, etc. Once I have saltwater at the right temperature I could get some LR I guess. I'm probably going to be adding smaller amounts of LR at a time rather than one huge batch. Mostly because I'm a cheapskate, so I'm going to be looking for LR being sold by local reefers and maybe an occasional LFS piece...

I'm going to cure/cycle it right in the tank I think since I feel like it will help me to break the system in, etc. I'm not planning to add the DSB until after the rock is pretty much all set and not shedding "crud".

I also need to deal with hanging my light, which means getting up in the attic (a stretch to call this horrible little space an attic) to put some wood in place that I can hang the lights from. Not looking forward to crawling around in the fiberglass...

 

[Stile2]

I understand about the crawling around part. I have to install two extra outlets near the tank and plumb RO water to that wall as well. My crawl space under the house has about 9" between the ground and the drain plumbing. That's going to be fun!!

 

[rdmpe]

Well, hopefully I'm filling the tank with RODI for the "final" time and it will actually get salt in it now. My plan is to get saltwater in it and get the temperature up and start adding live rock from local reefers along with a little bit of base rock that I have. Once I have the rock set up and I know it's not going to shed crud all over the place, I'll add the sand. Maybe if I find that the rock is not that big of a mess I'll add the sand sooner. It feels a little wierd thinking of filling the tank with saltwater before I have anything in it. But I keep seeing all of this LR for sale and I keep thinking if only I were ready...