Shawn's 180 Wall Divider Build

[reefraider]

what about a closed loop

what about a closed loop

What about using one of the pumps as a closed loop CL?
I have a Dart running the CL on the current 180 Acrylic.
Planning on one in the 400 with a 8 way or 4 way Ocean Motion?
I saw somewhere on here in the large tanks

So I will tag along...great investment to have the expert come out and say do that, or this or NO PROBLEM. or NO!

Hope its not to much. I had my post and pillar checked by the dude and ended up storing the 400 in the garage and ordered the 180 as a tank instead of it being the sump. But now the 400 can go right there in the garage! Good luck

 

[adova]

Yea - I was at least thinking about plumbing for a CL even if I do not use it right away. As it will be viewed from 3 sides, the CL ports would be in each of the four bottom corners, I would suspect.

The CL return line was a pain, if I remember my last attempt at it. Finding a position for the intake that would not suck in a variety of debris, snails, or other critters was the main issue. Any suggestions?

 

[adova]

Survey Complete

Survey Complete

My daughter was nice enough to share her debilitating cold with me so I worked from home today.

But - the engineer was free so he just finished and I got great news. It is likely that the current system will support the load without modification (he will need to check the manufacturer joist specs in detail).

But even if it does not, we identified a way to transfer the load to an existing floating wall that is already exposed in the old tank room. Maybe $30 in material and I will be good to go without doing any more demolition.

May the ordering begin!!

 

[Vinny Kreyling]

One thing to change I see--
If you constantly top off from your RO you will have troubles down the road.
RO units increase in performance ( up to a point) as they run by decreasing TDS creep therefore keeping the membrane in good shape.
Work out a schedule where you can do @ least 20 Gallons all @ once, more if you can.

 

[adova]

Yea - I used to have a high / low ATO switch, but it got stuck once and, well, you can guess the rest. I will re-investigate it. Maybe a second set of switches for redundancy.

 

[bpcardona]

Love it so far. I wish I had a place for a Peninsula style tank.

 

[adova]

Demo complete (some)

Demo complete (some)

I got some energy up after being sick for 2 days to demo the area where the tank will go. Only 1h 9m from hammer to mop :bum:

 

[adova]

New Tank Version

New Tank Version

I mocked up the living room a couple of days ago and came to the conclusion that 24" wide was going to push out too much into the living room. I adjusted the size to 72 x 20 x 30(h). Then, someone on another forum reminded me how much of a pain it is to get your hands down 30" to the bottom. So, again adjusted to a final 72 x 20 x 24(h).

This placed some huge constraints on the sump, water tanks and skimmer. With many hours of adjustment, I came up with the following:

The main changes here are the water tanks. I was killing myself to figure out how to get one on top of the other to dump from the fresh into the salt when it needed to be mixed. Then it hit me - why bother?

I am now just going to T off the RO/DI feed with a valve to a water tank separated by a baffle. The right side will have the salt for automatic water changes. The left will be a reservoir of RO/DI fresh that will be maintained with a high / low ATO switch controlled by the Apex. When the salt water supply runs out (notified by another switch and the Apex), I will manually turn on the RO/DI for that side and then mix salt in when full. RO/DI level on that side can be regulated with a standard float valve.

The only down side so far with this idea is that I am left with a minimal 3" of room about the water tank. This gives no clearance to put the salt in. But, I have an idea for a custom funnel that should do the trick and look pretty nifty .

 

[adova]

Purchases

Purchases

I went shopping and got some initial needs (well, my needs). This came today from BRS:

Some Eheim 300w heaters

Apex Gold System - somehow ended up with 2 auto leak modules (my mistake) so,...

Some RO/DI stuff and bulkheads

A pair of drip systems for acclimating

Tongs

Salt to get the cycle started

Live sand...

 

[adova]

There have been some major changes to the tank, stand and underneath arrangement as I started to work everything out.

Bottom line is that I need to reduce the stand height because i think it will just look odd. I am going 6 down inches. May not seem like a lot but I think it will help.

 

[adova]

I decided to remove the external Orco skimmer from the build and went with a smaller skimmer in pump. It is a DC skimmer which should reduce noise. I also went with a Jabeo 12000 DC return line versus the Barracuda for the same reason. (shush - I haven't told the other pumps yet...)

New skimmer is a Reef Octopus Elite 150INT. Should work well...

 

[adova]

I ordered all of the acrylic today. I will have the shop cut an run the edges through a joiner for all pieces to give me:

75 x 21.5 x 24 (Display Tank)
48 x 20 x 16 (sump)
20 x 20 x 24 (salt water - automated water change)
20 x 20 x 10 (fresh water - ATO)

all 1/2". Total price is about $1100.

 

[worm5406]

Good shopping trip!

Things are moving along. Glad to see that.

Started having dreams about how it will look at night yet?

What are you filling the old wall location with on the floor?

 

[Poriferan]

Are you sure the 3 2x4's post you removed was not load bearing?

 

[worm5406]

I got an engineer coming on Friday for $85 / hr with a 3 hr cost. Probably the best $255 I can spend on this project. Assuming that any needed fix is relatively minor

But - the engineer was free so he just finished and I got great news. It is likely that the current system will support the load without modification (he will need to check the manufacturer joist specs in detail).

Are you sure the 3 2x4's post you removed was not load bearing?

Since he got the engineer prior to demo, and showed him where, as they also looked at the floor joists, hopefully he took that into affect.

Also if you look at one of the demo pics up in that area, it looks like just a decorative soffit.

 

[adova]

Started having dreams about how it will look at night yet?

Hehe - so far just dreams of welding and grinding and the such.

What are you filling the old wall location with on the floor?

Not sure what you mean by the "filling the old wall location with". The tank and stand will be where the old wall partition was. The fish tank will continue 6' back and then I will build up a new wall the rest of the way.

Sump and stuff go under the tank and all of the electronics will be behind the tank inside of the new wall.

 

[adova]

Since he got the engineer prior to demo, and showed him where, as they also looked at the floor joists, hopefully he took that into affect.

Also if you look at one of the demo pics up in that area, it looks like just a decorative soffit.

Correct - that was all taken into consideration.

 

[adova]

New Skimmer

New Skimmer

I got the new skimmer in today. I needed something smaller so this really seemed to fit the bill. Reef Octopus 150INT Elite. Pretty much one of the first to hit the market.

 

[reelredfish]

Looking good...would have liked to done my new 180 in wall as a divider but did not have a place to do that so just happy with going from a stand alone unit to in wall.

 

[adova]

DC Return Pump

DC Return Pump

One more toy arrive via UPS at 7pm tonight. I went with the in-sump DC Jebao 12000 to see about reducing noise, power consumption and space saving.