The Fish Room 500 Redux

[pch90265]

A reason for Thanks...

A reason for Thanks...

Well,

Among numerous of reasons to give thanks this Thanksgiving Weekend, I got to add the ordering of my new display tank!!! The dimensions are final, and my wife is stoked about size of the tank for the space we are putting it in. Once again we ordered from James at Envision Acrylics, and I am delighted to enter the serious construction phase to prepare for the tank arriving in late-January or early-February.

The final verdict -- 82" long x 32" wide x 28" tall with a 6" wide x 14" tall external overflow. According to the "tank size calculator" that's 280G of internal capacity. Running capacity should be a smidgen under that, around 270G.

Here are the room that the display tank will be living in, and the 3/4" ply base that the stand will sit on top of soon:

Over the next week I'm going to spend the evenings working on the stand. I was contemplating having a welded steel frame under this tank, but I don't think I have the patience to wait for a welding shop to finish this job if they aren't done before the tank arrives...

This past week we also got the sump and fuge up and running, and received #205 of LR from Marine Depot Live and Reefer Madness. I bought a box each of Fiji Show, "Lalo," and "Buna Branch." The score of the load was an oblong table piece in the Lalo box that is approx 24" x 20", about 4" thick in the core, and has three oblong 6" x 8" protrusions that stand 2-3" off of the top of the plate. It's pretty clear that this is the remains a table-top colony of some sort. It should be an awesome center-piece for the display tank, and will make a great home for a table-top acro or two when the tank is ready for SPS.

Hope everyone out there on the Large Tank Forum had a fantastic -- and tank-emergency free -- Holiday Weekend.

--Sean--

 

[mmd]

looking good

 

[mmd]

were is the link to your old thread? sounds interesting

 

[edgerat]

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=318473

 

[pch90265]

edgerat,

Thanks for the bump on my old thread...

Michael, a number of the pictures that were less important than not to the documentary have been pulled out of my gallery. So, apologies in advance for the broken links! I had to make room for the pics of my new tank . . .

--SM--

 

[Chaotic Reefer4u]

nice startup.

 

[pch90265]

Gaskets...

Gaskets...

Being on the road, I can't take any pictures of this week's progress... because there is none. This shot is of the underside of the gaskets I have built to cover the sump and refugium.

This is one of two covers over the sump. The MRC quad-becket skimmer sits on top of this one, with the drain from the skimmer plumbed to the 1 1/5" blukhead you see in the center of the picture. I have the RO/DI directly connected to a speed-fitting above the 1" blukhead you see at the top of the shot, and I have a neoprene cover on the inside and outside of the hole that has no bulkhead. The submersible heater gets inserted through that 4 1/4" hole, and the neoprene has been cut to provide a very tight seal around the cord that runs back to the controller for the unit. I also run all of my probes (pH, temp, etc) through that seal, so I don't need fifty holes through this cover.

Eric Borneman's recent articles on oxygen in our aquaria have me thinking about disolved O2 saturation in my (mostly) sealed tanks. I'm probably going to add an O2 probe to my lineup, even though I'd rather spend the $250 on LR . . . Given his comments that skimmers do a good job on providing O2 saturation in "small aquaria," I'm still of the opinion that my skimmer -- sized for a 3000G system -- can provide sufficent O2 for the sealed sump and fuge. When I pipe in the display tank, BTW, it's surface area will be uncovered.

So far I have seen tremendous benefits from the covers. I am losing very little water daily (which is a minor miracle in CO with our extremely dry air) and the two humidty monitors I've placed in the utility room are registering 12-15% humidity -- identical to outside air right now. Obviously the real test of this system will come when summer arives and air temps go up, but with our 30% avg humidity at our 7500' elevation I'm pretty upbeat.

Without turning this into a humidity control thread, I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on this approach.

--SM--

 

[pch90265]

One more thing... the cover is made from 3/4" ply. The white material is polystyrene, and the red material is 1/8" neoprene. The dark lines behind the white material, and the tan you see around the neoprene is a marine-grade, non-toxic polyurethane adhesive.

 

[NexDog]

I make your new tank 318 gallons. 82x32x228/213=318g.

 

[DerekW]

Re: Gaskets...

Re: Gaskets...

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6243665#post6243665 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pch90265
So far I have seen tremendous benefits from the covers. I am losing very little water daily (which is a minor miracle in CO with our extremely dry air) and the two humidty monitors I've placed in the utility room are registering 12-15% humidity -- identical to outside air right now. Obviously the real test of this system will come when summer arives and air temps go up, but with our 30% avg humidity at our 7500' elevation I'm pretty upbeat.

Without turning this into a humidity control thread, I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts on this approach.

--SM--

Wow, that humidity is way low..Is it that low in your whole house? if it is, low humidity can cause health issues, if it is, I'd use the utility room to vent air into the house.

 

[pch90265]

NexDog -- I used the internal volume to calculate the volume... 3/4" acrylic gives net dimensions of 80.5 l x 30.5 d x 26.5 h /230.9 = 281.7G... but, running volume would be 1/4" to 1" lower than the inside surface of the top bracing, or 271-279G, depending on flow.

Derek -- I agree that those humidity levels are miserable... but, when there is that little moisture temps like -5 to -15 F are tollerable! The top floor of the house is 25-35% percent humidity (we run a humidifier on the furnace fan.) The basement is in the 10-15% range. We run portable humidifiers in the kids' rooms to minimize health problems. Those spaces get up to 40-45% in there with those.

I'm strongly considering a "chimeny" between a bulkhead in the covers over the sump and the furnace inlet. A little extra H2O in the air would be nice... the basement should also be helped out greatly by the display once it's up.

--SM--

 

[pch90265]

Sketches of the Quarantine Tank that will drop in to the sump...

The pictures read like this. 1a and 1b are top down views of the right half of my sump. 1a is a view of the side walls of the QT (without the bracing/flange) with the solid blue area depicting the bracing of the sump. 1b is the QT bracing/flange by itself.

Drawing 2 is a section view of the sump and QT, head on as you would see it squatting in front of the sump. You can see clearly who the QT will sit inside the sump's top opening. The tan/red area indicates the cover for the other half of the sump. The solid lines under the body of the QT are "fins" made from scraps of 3/4" acrylic. They are meant to help support the weight of the QT should there be a mismatch between the sump's running level and the QT's running level -- don't want all of the weight resting on the top flange!

Drawing 3 is another section view, this time from the narrow (right) end of the sump.

I know many of you are engineers, builders, etc so please forgive the sloppy reference lines and the imperfect shading of the section views... these drawings are meant simply to convey the theme. For those who don't read plans regularly, the funny triangle and circle with a number in it on drawings 1 & 2 are meant to indicate the relative view of the other drawing numbers from the perspective of the drawing they appear on . . .

I'll post another drawing later depicting the cover, skimmer, pump, foot valve, lighting, etc.

 

[DerekW]

That is just a fantastic idea, a removeable quarantine. If I read it right, Looks like the dimensions will be approx 24Hx22Lx10W...gives you about a 20 gallon quarantine.

 

[H20ENG]

Do you worry about getting some QT water in your system, due to splashes, etc?
It will be stable, just be careful

 

[pch90265]

Hi Chris, nice to hear from you. I'm not too concerned about splashes, since the other half of the sump is also covered, and there will be a neoprene gasket between the flange of the QT and the top of the sump.

I'll post another diagram that shows the pump/skimmer/lighting for the QT when I get a chance. I'm trying my best to make it a "turn of a ball valve" to get water in/out. I will plumb a 1/2" return line from the skimmer pump on the main tank to a union in the cover of the QT, and a 1/2" drain line from the skimmer on the QT to the floor drain in the room. That should make the only risk of splashing during the removal of QT livestock, and during removal of the QT itself.

Derek, yep, I'm shooting for approx 20G. I figure that lets me quarantine just about everything that is appropriately sized for adding to my reef tank. I'm not a big fan of adding full-size adult fish/invert specimens, so short of a 36" wide table top acro, I think I can get just about anything in there that is reasonable.

--SM--

 

[cityofangels]

TOTM in the making! Can't wait to see more pics!

 

[pch90265]

Tank Specs

Tank Specs

Here is the drawing for the display tank. Later this week I'll either post another version with the stand shown, or post pics of the stand, depending on how ambitious I get the next couple of evening..

Click on the image for a larger version of the file...

<A HREF="http://www.inverttanks.com/images/Print_Specs.jpg" border="0"><IMG SRC="http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/508/17595Print_Specs_low.jpg"></A>

 

[pch90265]

Oh, forgot to mention above... the hole locations are tentative, based on where the final beams/trusses/joists/etc end up on the stand when it gets built. The drain locations might vary just a bit too, based on where the studs are in the wall that they will be passing through. I'm planning to get the stand done ASAP so that I can get those spots finalized...

Where ever they end up, there are going to be six holes. Two that will be hooked to a pair of spray bars along the back edge of the tank (behind the rock work) that will run 24/7, and four that will be connected to an OceansMotions four-way (the 8-way seems like overkill on this tank volume...)

I plan to get additional water motion via 2 or 3 of those spiffy new IceCap/EcoTech powerheads coming this Spring.

--Sean--

 

[pch90265]

Stand Progress

Stand Progress

The stand is coming along slowly, but surely. Here are some pics of the skeleton.

The first picture shows the bottom frame, 82" l x 32" w. It consists of (2) 2x6 studs per side, laminated together with 2 1/2" nails that I drove with the nail gun. In the second picture you can see the way I have cut the lengths and ends to form a butt joint. Sorry for all the wood in the background, I didn't realize it obscured the picture so badly.

The posts in each corner will rest on the bottom frame, and the top frame will rest top of the posts in turn. I'll be using braces to guarantee squareness and level. The posts in the middle were cut before being laminated together to form a notch on top and bottom (shown before nailing in the third picture.) They will rest on top of the bottom frame in part, but will also make contact with the ground directly. The top frame (identical to the bottom frame, BTW) will rest in the nothces so that the plywood top of the stand will rest on the post and the top frame.

I'm counting on getting this done this weekend, but I've said that before and had to eat my words... We'll see!!! With the QT done (pics later) and the display coming soon, I'm feeling the pressure to finish this project. Being a "works best under deadlines" kinda guy, those impending arrivals should help motivate me this weekend.

Comments and critique of the stand design are appreciated!

--SM--

 

[pch90265]

Stand

Stand

Well, I've finally gotten the stand finished.

Here are two pics:

What look like gaps at the top of the two outside corner posts in the bottom picture are spots filled with a high-tensile joint compound. They are SOLID, and the entire stand is dead level.

Can't wait to throw a tank on top of it!!!

--SM--