So it begins...

[sixpackgarage]

75 and sunny here in PHX...bwhahhahhaaaahhahahhahhahahah

sorry, had to, I'm from Michigan originally. Love doing that when people talk about snow.

 

[alexkharden]

Sir, you suck.

 

[alexkharden]

The "blizzard" actually started at like 6 a.m., but the worst is south of us. We got mostly wind and only about 2 inches. I've been keeping the walks clear and only one guy has cancelled on me. Looks like everyone else is still down to ride, so we might just get this thing done anyway. Screw you weather!

 

[rickztahone]

The "blizzard" actually started at like 6 a.m., but the worst is south of us. We got mostly wind and only about 2 inches. I've been keeping the walks clear and only one guy has cancelled on me. Looks like everyone else is still down to ride, so we might just get this thing done anyway. Screw you weather!

Uh oh, you don't want to temp mother nature now do you you?

 

[alexkharden]

I scoff at your blizzard! Scoff, scoff, scoff!

 

[alexkharden]

Have you ever seen anything more wonderful? Ok, well, maybe you have. But after the waiting I've done for this moment it's pretty damn wonderful to me.

So now all is said and done, I see what I hath wroth.

The good. The stand size is perfect, the stand lines up perfectly square along the base of the tank, the tank fits perfectly into the opening with about 1/2" play on either end and 1/8" play across the top, the tank appears to be perfectly level all around with no gaps anywhere along the base, and the overflow opening lines up perfectly with the hole in the stand top.

Now the bad. There really is only one thing that went wrong somewhere along the way. I'm not sure at what point I messed up, but luckily it's only aesthetic and not functional.

I lay bare my sins:

See how the bottom lines up perfectly along the stand top?



Well, take a look at how the top of the tank lines up with the bottom of the top of the opening.



Yes, that happened. The dining room side is a little off, maybe 1/8"at the corner point tapering to 0" at the wall side, but this is probably closer to 5/8"at the corner point - tapering off to 0" on the wall side.

Perfection would have been lovely, but I guess I'll just have to settle for wondrous. I guess I'll have to fix it the best I can with trim and caulk and a little TLC, lol.

 

[rickztahone]

Did you opt for the weather dry wall? Are you concerned with mold on your walls being that close to the tank opening?

Good job getting that in. I'm sure you had a nice blizzard party right after!

 

[alexkharden]

I used poly wall on the inside of the actual opening itself, with composite trim on the inside wall, caulked seams between them. I also installed the humidistat and ceiling fan to control the humidity in the room.

 

[alexkharden]

So now I'm closing in on the finish line. Tank's in and trimmed. Built the scaffold, as well as a hinged landing down the side of the tank, bought some eggcrate, painted some of the polywall blue for use as the tank backing, built trim for that to slide in, cleaned the skimmer, cut a baffle and am waiting for 3 more, , siliconed the overflow cover into place, and painted the sides and back of one of the qt's.







Still need to clean the tank really well, assemble the sump and put it into place, and plumb the whole thing. The main thing holding me up there is waiting on those baffles. I'm also working on figuring out the Apex wiring and how best to mount it.

Maybe another week or two, and then it'll be time for water! We're heading to Florida on the weekend of the 20th in February to get the live LR/LS, so I'll definitely be ready before then.

Can you feel the excitement building!?

 

[rickztahone]

So now I'm closing in on the finish line. Tank's in and trimmed. Built the scaffold, as well as a hinged landing down the side of the tank, bought some eggcrate, painted some of the polywall blue for use as the tank backing, built trim for that to slide in, cleaned the skimmer, cut a baffle and am waiting for 3 more, , siliconed the overflow cover into place, and painted the sides and back of one of the qt's.

View attachment 340364

View attachment 340365

View attachment 340366

Still need to clean the tank really well, assemble the sump and put it into place, and plumb the whole thing. The main thing holding me up there is waiting on those baffles. I'm also working on figuring out the Apex wiring and how best to mount it.

Maybe another week or two, and then it'll be time for water! We're heading to Florida on the weekend of the 20th in February to get the live LR/LS, so I'll definitely be ready before then.

Can you feel the excitement building!?

Excitement indeed. I really like how the trimming came out. Way to go.

 

[alexkharden]

Update time!

Holy crap is it a tight fit under there. Today I ran the plumbing for the return and the drains. I wanted to use 45's for the drains, but I didn't have enough height for them so I ended up having to use 90's. I was able to use 45's for the return. It was almost directly underneath the bulkhead, so it almost completely ended up being a stack of fittings with very little actual pipe. I also got me apex mounted and connected to Fusion. I still have no clue what I'm looking at on my laptop screen though. I'll be learning that soon enough. The return into the tank is almost invisible in the pics. I used glossy black Krylon Fusion to match the acrylic overflow cover, and boy did it work. I'm going to let it sit for a week now to let the silicone, pvc cement, and spray paint cure and outgas or whatever it does before I put water in, so hopefully by the end of next weekend there will be water flowing and salt mixing! Anyway, here are some pics.











I gotta couple more pics I'll put into the next post.

 

[alexkharden]

Here's the building and then completion of the sump.





Here's the return line with the T and ball valve to control the flow to the fuge. Also shows the fuge light.



Here's the bulkheads. Like I said, ridiculously tight fit. That's what I get for using a 75 for my sump/fuge, lol. I hated to do it, but I ended up having to silicone the bulkheads in place. I tried 6 different times to get them to seal. Pull them off, clean everything, try again. No matter what I did they kept leaking. (I poured a solo cup of water into the bottom of the overflow each time - just enough to be above the level of the gasket, but not enough to actually start running out of the overflow hole.)

 

[rickztahone]

Very nice. Very tight fit indeed but it will work

 

[edward1096]

wow very impressive build

 

[alexkharden]

Thank you

 

[alexkharden]

Wow, so mistake number one. Dumping a bag of sand into a full tank of water. The damn system isn't even done filling yet in the sump, so I can't turn on the return pump to start clearing this out. If this is how my decision making process is going to be in this hobby then I might as well jump in the tank with the sand. Seriously though, is a 40# bag of sand like 50% dust??? Sigh.

 

[rickztahone]

Wow, so mistake number one. Dumping a bag of sand into a full tank of water. The damn system isn't even done filling yet in the sump, so I can't turn on the return pump to start clearing this out. If this is how my decision making process is going to be in this hobby then I might as well jump in the tank with the sand. Seriously though, is a 40# bag of sand like 50% dust??? Sigh.

lol, you learn from mistakes right? Do you happen to have an HOB laying around? If so, stick some filter floss in there and keep refilling it with new filter floss until the sand starts going down. Make sure you are careful with your tank glass as you can easily scratch it with so much sand floating about.

 

[alexkharden]

I've got a filter sock hanging on my main drain. Another hour I should be able to turn on my return. No filter floss handy. I turned on my skimmer, but it doesn't appear to have much in the way of bio load, just lots and lots of dust.

 

[alexkharden]

Wow, that was fun. My water line in the sump got significantly higher than my return pump, so I decided to turn it on. I figured I could see how much that 3/4" fuge feeder line put out while still pumping to the tank. Turns out, all of it. So the fuge filled up in like 20 seconds and I had nothing going to the dt. Lesson 1, put a ball valve on the fuge feeder line. So I turn the pump off. At that point I'm reminded of the hundred or so postings that spoke of drilling a small hole under the return line. I'm also taught what a back siphon looks like in a fast and furious kind of way. Luckily I put a ball valve on the return line, so I shut that before I find out what a flood looks like. Also luckily, I used threaded return lines in the overflow, so I was able to twist them up to drill the necessary siphon break holes. Again luckily, I had a 3/4" ball valve that was previously destined for my ato barrel. I draped a sheet under the fuge feeder line and gently cut it off with a hacksaw, then placed that ball valve in line. Now I can control the flow to the fuge, and shut of my return pump before bad biblical things happen. It's just a night of lessons for me, yippee!

 

[alexkharden]

Oh ya, I almost forgot. My return line bulkhead? The one I fought with over and over because it leaked? The same one I ended up siliconing to stop it from leaking? Ya, it leaks.