Restarting an old 280 build
- Thread starter Northside Reef
- Start date
Northside Reef
Premium Member
That's going to be awhile yet. Today was all minutia towards the build. Changing the way the door swings into the laundry room to make room for the new doorway into the fishroom. Rerouting the light switch because the door swings from the opposite side now. finish it and you feel like you've done nothing.
nothing to write home about for sure, but part of the overall process.
TropTrea
New member
Yes it is elaborate compared to what the average person has. However it is not that far what I'm running. Basicly a main 120 gallon upstairs in our sun room, with three 40 gallon propogation tanks down stairs, and a 100 gallon rubbermade refugium. I did this set up about 4 years and now I'm looking at ways of improving it. Your rubbermade covers sound like a fantastic idea.
Northside Reef
Premium Member
I have two spare how far from the Twin Cities are ya?
Northside Reef
Premium Member
You're right. With Christmas over hopefully things will progress a little faster now as well. Looking forward to getting back at it in full swing.
Northside Reef
Premium Member
So finally had some time to work on the fishroom. One of the things holding me up was I needed to replace the old side by side washer and dryer with a pair of stackable units. They arrived Christmas eve so I was joking with my wife that they were her Christmas presents.. She didn't think it was too funny lol..
That let me move the wall out giving me a little more room for the fishroom. As it is the room is only 11'x8' so that extra space was huge.
a couple of more shots but it's pretty tough to get good photos because the space is so small. I will be working on getting all the nailers in place for the ceiling sheetrock this weekend
That let me move the wall out giving me a little more room for the fishroom. As it is the room is only 11'x8' so that extra space was huge.
a couple of more shots but it's pretty tough to get good photos because the space is so small. I will be working on getting all the nailers in place for the ceiling sheetrock this weekend
jimmy frag
New member
hi Northside, hope you dont mind me tagging along. looking really good. can i ask a few questions...what are your plans for ventalation, thats going to be a lot of water movement and evaporation. also what rate will the water drop to the display tank, how do you plan on controling the water crashing. jimmy
Northside Reef
Premium Member
Heya Jimmy thanks for tagging along.
for humidity I am going to use a humidity controlled vent fan. they're about $120.00 but from what I hear they work pretty well. In the winter I could probably just let it vent into the house it gets really dry here in MN. in the summer it will need to be vented outside though.
The shed there really won't be much evaporation pretty much everything is covered. I am going to put a cheap gauge in there though and see. Worst case I will cut a hole in the side of the shed and put another vent fan in there. But mostly it's just going to be over the tank and sump. That will have a vent over the tank that is controlled by the fan.
I only have theories as to how things will work with the water return so until I try it I really don't know how well it will go from how I think it will work and how it actually plays out. But I am confident I will figure it out.
for humidity I am going to use a humidity controlled vent fan. they're about $120.00 but from what I hear they work pretty well. In the winter I could probably just let it vent into the house it gets really dry here in MN. in the summer it will need to be vented outside though.
The shed there really won't be much evaporation pretty much everything is covered. I am going to put a cheap gauge in there though and see. Worst case I will cut a hole in the side of the shed and put another vent fan in there. But mostly it's just going to be over the tank and sump. That will have a vent over the tank that is controlled by the fan.
I only have theories as to how things will work with the water return so until I try it I really don't know how well it will go from how I think it will work and how it actually plays out. But I am confident I will figure it out.
Northside Reef
Premium Member
What type of Styrofoam are you guys using under your acrylic tanks?
Was at HD today and was really not sure what I should get.
Was at HD today and was really not sure what I should get.
jimmy frag
New member
my tanks are all glass and frameless. 4x3 i have 4 of them and they all sit on 1 1/4 styrofoam. the kind with the weather shield. not the really dence pink or blue kind. sits vary well.
Northside Reef
Premium Member
I have some white Styrofoam in the shop but it is in smaller sections would there be a problem if I tapped that up with duct tape into the size I need?
Northside Reef
Premium Member
very cool, if I need a hand I know who to call
Just dropping in to say work has been a bear and weekends have been spent there for the past several weeks.
I have to go out of town (for work) next week and once back I can get back to this build. The fishroom is wired insulated and waiting for sheetrock. The rock is siting in my plant and waiting for me to have to time to install it. So this is NOT on hold, I just have not had the time to work on it.
PS, look for a insane LED build coming to a DYI thread near you soon. The fixtures are sitting in my garage, and the LEDs and dimmers are sitting with the rest of the items I have been collecting.
PPS,
found out HD will cut their sheets to any size you want so it makes it a lot easier to pick up a 30"x72" chunk of Styrofoam than a 4'x8' chunk. So those are sitting in the garage with the plywood. You can bet my wife is tired of looking at it so I do need to get back at this thing when the work schedule slows down a bit.
Northside Reef
Premium Member
I Know it's been awhile since the last update but we're still working on the build.
The fishroom is sheet rocked tapped and painted. All the outlets are wired and working and the tank is ready to be plumbed. I have made the commitment that the whole thing will have water it in it by the end of October so I don't have to deal with the MN winter.
My little mermaid has been put to work cleaning the tank:
The first thing I want to get plumbed in is the Ocean Motion wave maker:
Here is the back wall plumbed for the wave maker
I think I am going to have the wave move across the tank in this pattern
If all goes well I should be leak testing by next weekend. Once the tank passes the leak test it will be time to start work on connecting it to the fish shed.
The fishroom is sheet rocked tapped and painted. All the outlets are wired and working and the tank is ready to be plumbed. I have made the commitment that the whole thing will have water it in it by the end of October so I don't have to deal with the MN winter.
My little mermaid has been put to work cleaning the tank:
The first thing I want to get plumbed in is the Ocean Motion wave maker:
Here is the back wall plumbed for the wave maker
I think I am going to have the wave move across the tank in this pattern
If all goes well I should be leak testing by next weekend. Once the tank passes the leak test it will be time to start work on connecting it to the fish shed.
Northside Reef
Premium Member
Also I decided to plumb in one more tank:
I picked this up from a local reefer. The challenge will be to make this into a seahorse tank but still plumbed into the main system. To do that I will have to figure out a good way to split the return from the main system into a pre-return holding tank to get the water from 78f main tank water temp to 74f for the sea horses.
I picked this up from a local reefer. The challenge will be to make this into a seahorse tank but still plumbed into the main system. To do that I will have to figure out a good way to split the return from the main system into a pre-return holding tank to get the water from 78f main tank water temp to 74f for the sea horses.
Northside Reef
Premium Member
So Finally!!
Water (although it's just tap water) is in the aquarium. One very small leak I will need to fix after I drain it. I kind if knew that one might have been a problem it was a tight squeeze and I did not wait long enough before I tried reconnecting the pump coupler.
Plumbing pics - none of it is too fancy and the room is pretty small so it's tough to get good shots with the tank pulled out into the room.
The back side. Not too pretty but it is going to be against a wall so I was not too worried about looks over function.
The giant 2" hose running through there will eventually connect to the shed right now it is just going straight into the tank. without all of that extra head pressure the pump is far to powerful for the overflow.
And with water:
I had to have that ball valve on the hammerhead turned pretty far or the pump was just slamming the water out of that sump and the overflow could not keep up. I imagine when I add another 12' of head pressure I won't have that issue. But I have been originally thinking I may need a booster pump in the fish shed Now I am not too sure. I will have to plumb a bypass in and see. it would be awesome if I could get by with just one return pump. I am going to let this run for a couple of days and then drain it. Meanwhile It is time to move the project back to the fish shed and get that room plumbed up next.
Water (although it's just tap water) is in the aquarium. One very small leak I will need to fix after I drain it. I kind if knew that one might have been a problem it was a tight squeeze and I did not wait long enough before I tried reconnecting the pump coupler.
Plumbing pics - none of it is too fancy and the room is pretty small so it's tough to get good shots with the tank pulled out into the room.
The back side. Not too pretty but it is going to be against a wall so I was not too worried about looks over function.
The giant 2" hose running through there will eventually connect to the shed right now it is just going straight into the tank. without all of that extra head pressure the pump is far to powerful for the overflow.
And with water:
I had to have that ball valve on the hammerhead turned pretty far or the pump was just slamming the water out of that sump and the overflow could not keep up. I imagine when I add another 12' of head pressure I won't have that issue. But I have been originally thinking I may need a booster pump in the fish shed Now I am not too sure. I will have to plumb a bypass in and see. it would be awesome if I could get by with just one return pump. I am going to let this run for a couple of days and then drain it. Meanwhile It is time to move the project back to the fish shed and get that room plumbed up next.
Last edited:
Northside Reef
Premium Member
It is the same tank... Same pic as well.. Oh and my name is the same on both forums.
I traded a tank I got from 90oct and some cash for this one. I'm surprised I have not seen a for sale thread from Ryan for that tank yet.
I started a build thread way back on TCMAS but as you can see the updates have been pretty sparse so I will probably not update that one until I have some real progress. Like actual salt water in the system lol.
Thanks for tagging along, I think my real reasoning for keeping this old thread alive is the motivation to finish it.
I traded a tank I got from 90oct and some cash for this one. I'm surprised I have not seen a for sale thread from Ryan for that tank yet.
I started a build thread way back on TCMAS but as you can see the updates have been pretty sparse so I will probably not update that one until I have some real progress. Like actual salt water in the system lol.
Thanks for tagging along, I think my real reasoning for keeping this old thread alive is the motivation to finish it.
