Starting a log

[Sango-chu]

That sound like a great idea. I will bring my son and the containers. Let me know by today if you want to use the Kent Marine Salt or if you'd like to just get it all from ACO. I will take my van and my containers, and of course, my son. Need to start him early

 

[jeffb3t]

Thanks for all the help yesterday with hauling the water and helping with the fill. I figured it was a nice day today so I pulled the rock from my 55 and went to stocking the office tank with it. I also went ahead and fired up all the pumps and skimmer. No leaks so that makes me happy. The water is still a little cloudy but that is to be expected since I stirred up the sand more when I put in the rock. I even found a few rics on rock I put in. Hope they don't decide to like the tank and take over in the future. I also broke down the RO I got from you to strip the metal plate since it had a lot of rust on it. I finished the last coat of new white paint this morning and it's now back together. One thing that confused me on it is that is was plumbed for the water to go through the carbon block, then the 5 micron next the RO membrane and last the 1 micron. It should have gone through all stages and the final product out the RO membrane so I re plumbed it to do that. Also, what color is the waste hose on that? The red or the blue?

 

[Sango-chu]

Sigh, with you telling me that you might as well pick a color...LOL!

Your guess will be BETTER than mine right now with all the outstanding work you've done on it. ALso, its good that we didn't bringanymore water; never calculated the displaced water the rocks would be shifting...your sump should be right on time now huh?

 

[Sango-chu]

:eek1:
Wow, it has been a month that I post anything other than words.

:bounce3:Well, here's an update of what's been happing. Haven't been posting too many pics but definitely been busy.
:hmm2:
First, I brought the prepped the floor and then measured out the tile pieces. Then I brought the stand in to MAKE SURE that it was going to fit and that the tiles would fall into place as expected.

 

[Sango-chu]

This is what it looked like in the finished corner
:dance:

But I had a part that was not leveled so I tried several options. Finally got on that worked. This took about a week and a half with work and all. :sad:

 

[Sango-chu]

O.K.so what's THIS!

Its Okinawa weld-on 4. Its what I've been using in the patches for the big tank and the sump...
Ah, did I say sump...???

Just put the baffles in. It will be looking like TRegs sump pictured here. Thanks TReg for the use of your picture and sump idea.

Here's the return side (on its side of course) setting after applying the Oki-Weld.

Here it is weighted down

Here's a look at the incoming side...all the water will be coming in here...

 

[Sango-chu]

Here is the tank on its head. I turned the tank over and drilled the four holes in the bottom for the one-inch bulkheads and then the holes in the back for two 2-inch bulkheads for the closed looped.

Here's one of the 2-inchers drilled thru already

Here's the second hole started and drilled thru yet

Here's me completing the cut thru the acrylic for the second hole

Here it is cut all the way thru.

...And the last one for today being the two cut pieces for the 2-inch bulkheads in the foreground of all the tools resting on the tank stand top...

Sigh, I really hope it doesn't take me another month to post pics again. I will try to be better at taking and posting more pics.

 

[jeffb3t]

Looking great though! This is gonna be one bad tank!

I suppose with the RO I have to make an educated guess since I don't havea TDS meter yet. Need to buy one real soon I suppose. The easiest way I guess is to turn it on and fill 2 containers of equal size. The one with the least amount of water should be the good water as a normal RO unitcan waste up to 3 gallons out of every 4 made.

 

[Sango-chu]

I got a TDS hand held meter...you can borrow it when ready to do a test.

 

[Sango-chu]

Just sneaking in to make a quick entry. Here is the shot of the overflows from the outisde of the tank.

 

[Sango-chu]

Here's a shot of the corner bulkheads for the OM 4 way.

 

[Sango-chu]

here's the best I could do at the moment when trying to get things done and then remember that you are updating a log as well. I get so involved in the project that I remember to take the pics AFTER I am done with that portion. Getting better though.

 

[Lionel]

That's a very impressive setup you're working on. That sump looks great!

 

[Sango-chu]

Thanks Lionel. I had to put the sump on hold...because I was trying to work around the plenium-hold that was originally bonded into it, I ran into more trouble than its worth. I seriously thought about going to the Acrylic Man and having him make me one but then I remembered the prices...sigh. Some patience and REST has let me think through it though and I will get back to work on it.

Just a heads up casue I don't want to write about it before I post the pics for it, bnut the main reason was that I had recurring leaks in the tank ~ nothing major but I ant NO leaks ion the darn thing. I might even replace the bulkheads to the hevy duty schedule 80 of might glue the current ones in place. Which will be a bear to remove in the future. BUT better safe than sorry

Finally got it all leak-less about 3 days ago and it has been going a water-leak test since then...all is good so far. But when I drain it...I will probably glue the bulkheads in with the pvc glue. Not sure yet because I would have to glue the side that has the gasket on it. I think that gasket is needed for bumps and knocks lst the whole thing gets bumped and then shatters...OH MY GOD!!! EEK:

 

[Lionel]

if you already posted this i missed it, but where did you get that sump? was it built locally? I'm stuck between buying a glass tank and adding baffles, or if I can get one cheap enough, buying the acrylic or having one made out of acrylic. I built a small tank, about 8-10 gallons, out of some acrylic I got at makeman, just to practice. wasnt as hard as I thought, but I didnt have to cut any of the acrylic, I just scored it along the edge and snapped it in half for the sides.

 

[Sango-chu]

I got the sump as part of the package deal when I got the stand and the tank together. I have also used the thin walled acrylic pieces from makeman and the like but I just used it for the overflow box portion inside the tank, realizing that it wasn't going to be under alot of pressure.

Sump however, are a different story. You're gonna need it to be pretty thick, 5~10 mm thick. I know of a store were you can get acrylic but its expensive. If you have a glass tank then you can add baffles to it. That cost me about $15 bucks.

Alex is selling his sump and if you need a larger one, you can take mine for a steal...I was using it on my 130 gallon AGA. It needs some work but it is already plumbed for a double return from the tank into it; one to the sump and one to the fuge portion of the 55 gal sump.

If you decide to go acrylic, I cut mine at the hobby shop at Courtney and I think Alex had made mention that the Acrylic Man et him use his shop to cut the pieces. He then took them home and bonded them together.

I have a glass syringe and some bonding stuff. I got a tube of silicone from the Shima Glassman off of hwy 58 that fits the chaulking guns which makes easy work of a lot of siliconing. I used another tube from Marunaka's before but haven't gotten one of theose in a while.

Let me know if I can help.

 

[Lionel]

Can you email me a couple pics of the sump you are selling? Also the dimensions of the sump would be great.
menacecoe@gmail.com

 

[Sango-chu]

Sure, I'll get on it tonight...can't access shutterfly from this location.

 

[Sango-chu]

WOW !!!! June 4th was my last post...sigh....well OK gents...I moved from out in town back on base; had to teach sumer school, get my family boat fixed; finish advance open water certification and sign up for a masters program. JUST got done putting the closed loop together so I will be posting pics soon.

 

[Sango-chu]

OK OK OK...sigh....been working really hard on this thing whenever I get a chance. Had to send in my Barracuda reeflo because it started screeching in the middle of the night 3 weeks ago and scraed us to death. Was still under warranty so Chris asked to ship it back. had to move the Orca 250 to the side of the tank bacause I just couldn't get around the tank to work in the back of the tank. Also, just got done completing the overflow portion of the sump. I had forgotten to plumb it during the last water check and water got all over the place. Thank God the floor is concrete. Pics will follow soon...