Time for that next build...
- Thread starter RokleM
- Start date
RokleM
Premium Member
Days like today are dangerous... let's start with that :lol:
Great meeting, come home, grab a bite to eat with the wife/twins, run the twins around and tire them out, and all the sudden everyone is in bed early except me. Nothing is on TV, I'm currently bored of crushing newbs in BBC2... and before you know it all the sudden I'm standing in about 15 lbs of acrylic dust and shavings after an hour with only designs in my head
These are the types of things that give GEO and Hollback, precision engineers with CAD layouts prior to cutting... nightmares. Actually seriously although I don't have anything on paper, I've gone through easily hundreds of revisions/measurements/specs in my head on this new sump. So, I whipped a good clunk of it out tonight real quick. Tons of work still to do, lots of goodies to build and go inside, and some things I'm not 100% sure on as of yet.
But here it is pre-glued as I continue to think about a few things. Roughly 24x23x14. Back left is the drain/baffle/rubble section. George has a couple new goodies we'll be testing. I need to add probe/temp/ATO/float holders. The front left thing will actually be a 8-12" square box when I'm done. I'm going to try something a little crazy that I haven't seen before. An adjustable height, removable, in-sump, mini cryptic fuge fed by a fraction of the drain water. Back right is a placeholder for a new skimmer. Front right will be some pumps (might end up switching the skimmer/pumps).
Great meeting, come home, grab a bite to eat with the wife/twins, run the twins around and tire them out, and all the sudden everyone is in bed early except me. Nothing is on TV, I'm currently bored of crushing newbs in BBC2... and before you know it all the sudden I'm standing in about 15 lbs of acrylic dust and shavings after an hour with only designs in my head
These are the types of things that give GEO and Hollback, precision engineers with CAD layouts prior to cutting... nightmares. Actually seriously although I don't have anything on paper, I've gone through easily hundreds of revisions/measurements/specs in my head on this new sump. So, I whipped a good clunk of it out tonight real quick. Tons of work still to do, lots of goodies to build and go inside, and some things I'm not 100% sure on as of yet.
But here it is pre-glued as I continue to think about a few things. Roughly 24x23x14. Back left is the drain/baffle/rubble section. George has a couple new goodies we'll be testing. I need to add probe/temp/ATO/float holders. The front left thing will actually be a 8-12" square box when I'm done. I'm going to try something a little crazy that I haven't seen before. An adjustable height, removable, in-sump, mini cryptic fuge fed by a fraction of the drain water. Back right is a placeholder for a new skimmer. Front right will be some pumps (might end up switching the skimmer/pumps).
Last edited:
RokleM
Premium Member
eric looks good!! i wish i had your skills as id love to play around and build me a sump and what not then graduate into a tank.......maybe?!
Practice practice practice
Not everything has turned out well, luckily all my bigger projects have. Plenty of stress when you get ready to do that last part of the build and you realize that the success of this bead will determine if you just wasted countless hours and dollars in acrylic :hammer: Plenty of times I've stopped the table saw right before the acrylic hit it and double checked things. About a year ago I built a few internal overflow boxes for my frag tank, only to have it drained and realize.... hmrrm... might have been a good idea to make it big enough to fully fit the bulkhead inside :lol:Good and bad alike, when/if I ever had a display tank, I think it would only come with a sticker that says GEO on the side. That's too much stress and extreme precision for me.
RokleM
Premium Member
So I put George to work, heh. I had some ideas in my head, but they key one is the fact I want near everything packed into my stand, I don't have a huge tank/stand planned (100g-ish is small I guess in comparison now), and quite frankly.... I'm an equipment junkie. That's a serious amount of work considering I have 1/4 of my basement dedicated. Some things will stay down there still (breeding clownfish maybe in my off time?), but most of the reef itself I want right here in the stand. So I gave him some ideas, my specifications, and left him free to do his GEO thing and innovate. Needless to say (big surprise), he didn't disappoint.
Here we go. This is actually pretty close to the smallest GEO beckett made at this point. It fits inside a 12x12x24 footprint and will take up less than 1/4" of my sump. Yes, I said beckett instead of needelwheel (and I hear Joe, Bill, Jason, and everyone else start ranting and raving ). I've never had one, so I figured it was time to give it a try, plus the space savings is a bonus. The waste container is roughly a 6x12 footprint, but may end up remote in the basement as I have a feeling this is going to be pootastic.
The next few items are pretty cool. The one on the left you will recognize as GEO's new cool twist lock media chamber. 4x7" space or so roughly for carbon will be my use. The really cool one is a prototype on the right of a new possible "in sump" media chamber. Not one that hangs and gets in the way, puts pressure on the walls, or leaks external like many of the "hang on" filters. This one is set to sit right inside the sump on the bottom, a ledge, or whatever gets it at the right height. Like many recently designed skimmers, this has a pump that will attach to the bottom of the media reactor with a variable output. Water can leave via a hose, or just flow over the lid and back into the sump (probably how I'll have it since it's almost perfect height). Less than 4x5x10 footprint. I'll use this for phosphate material. The bottom left are sump braces and a probe holder, but I have a cool idea for that as well.
So the last big honkin piece of GEO equipment I have running right now is my monster 618 fully loaded reactor. With 70g total water right now in that poly temp tank, my LPS are still pulling about 1-1.5 dKH a day. That being said, it doesn't even touch a faction of what the 618 can handle. So guess what the next job is if he's up to the task? That will probably be a new design as we brainstormed a bit today. Many will ask why stick with a calcium reactor on the "smaller" tank? Easy. IMO Calcium reactors rule and there is nothing that will keep a tank stable like them. Kalk might not be able to keep up, and I don't want to have to fill it frequently. I don't like manually dosing two part, and the pumps cost more than just getting a good calc system (especially when I have more than sufficient parts already other than a smaller reactor). Stay tuned
Here we go. This is actually pretty close to the smallest GEO beckett made at this point. It fits inside a 12x12x24 footprint and will take up less than 1/4" of my sump. Yes, I said beckett instead of needelwheel (and I hear Joe, Bill, Jason, and everyone else start ranting and raving
). I've never had one, so I figured it was time to give it a try, plus the space savings is a bonus. The waste container is roughly a 6x12 footprint, but may end up remote in the basement as I have a feeling this is going to be pootastic.
The next few items are pretty cool. The one on the left you will recognize as GEO's new cool twist lock media chamber. 4x7" space or so roughly for carbon will be my use. The really cool one is a prototype on the right of a new possible "in sump" media chamber. Not one that hangs and gets in the way, puts pressure on the walls, or leaks external like many of the "hang on" filters. This one is set to sit right inside the sump on the bottom, a ledge, or whatever gets it at the right height. Like many recently designed skimmers, this has a pump that will attach to the bottom of the media reactor with a variable output. Water can leave via a hose, or just flow over the lid and back into the sump (probably how I'll have it since it's almost perfect height). Less than 4x5x10 footprint. I'll use this for phosphate material. The bottom left are sump braces and a probe holder, but I have a cool idea for that as well.
So the last big honkin piece of GEO equipment I have running right now is my monster 618 fully loaded reactor. With 70g total water right now in that poly temp tank, my LPS are still pulling about 1-1.5 dKH a day. That being said, it doesn't even touch a faction of what the 618 can handle. So guess what the next job is if he's up to the task?
That will probably be a new design as we brainstormed a bit today. Many will ask why stick with a calcium reactor on the "smaller" tank? Easy. IMO Calcium reactors rule and there is nothing that will keep a tank stable like them. Kalk might not be able to keep up, and I don't want to have to fill it frequently. I don't like manually dosing two part, and the pumps cost more than just getting a good calc system (especially when I have more than sufficient parts already other than a smaller reactor). Stay tuned 
Shark Keeper
Member
sweeeeeeeeet!
RokleM
Premium Member
OH MYYYYY !!! SUNDAYSUNDAYSUNDAY !!!
In a fight to the death, two warriors will battle it out to see who's full of more crap! :lol:
We have the current champion (since I sold my big GEO) from that squad of loonies in dayton, masters of Askoll/Sicce moding, the MSX/SWC 160! Contender from the EAST SIEEED, from the acrylic pimp, GEO beckett!
Ok so seriously, if there was ever a definition of overskimming, this would probably be it. Both are running on my combined total of maybe 70g stock holding tank with my LPS and half dozen fish.
Both are actually on risers, the GEO being maybe 2-3 inch higher riser.
Current stats:
MSX/SWC 160 - 35 SCFH (need to check water amount processed)
GEO Beckett - 65 SCFH (need to check water amount processed)
I don't honestly care about these guys going toe to toe, but I figured it would be fun to throw them both in there to see what happens. I know the beckett will take a bit to break in, so no reason to take the other one offline during that process.
I'm actually kinda silly right now skimming wise. AquaC on the ~60 rock cooking poly:
And I picked this up last week. It actually works REALLY well for it's size. I'm pretty impressed. My black clowns and GBTA are in my fragswap tank, with this running as filtration. It's only ~10" tall, and sticks on the wall in the tank or hangs on inside. Aquatic Life 115 skimmer. Perfect for small frag tanks, nano's, or possibly QT.
Sump is coming along too. The series of chambers is my drain section. Trying something different I haven't really seen before, so let's hope it works.
In a fight to the death, two warriors will battle it out to see who's full of more crap! :lol:
We have the current champion (since I sold my big GEO) from that squad of loonies in dayton, masters of Askoll/Sicce moding, the MSX/SWC 160! Contender from the EAST SIEEED, from the acrylic pimp, GEO beckett!
Ok so seriously, if there was ever a definition of overskimming, this would probably be it. Both are running on my combined total of maybe 70g stock holding tank with my LPS and half dozen fish.
Both are actually on risers, the GEO being maybe 2-3 inch higher riser.
Current stats:
MSX/SWC 160 - 35 SCFH (need to check water amount processed)
GEO Beckett - 65 SCFH (need to check water amount processed)
I don't honestly care about these guys going toe to toe, but I figured it would be fun to throw them both in there to see what happens. I know the beckett will take a bit to break in, so no reason to take the other one offline during that process.
I'm actually kinda silly right now skimming wise. AquaC on the ~60 rock cooking poly:
And I picked this up last week. It actually works REALLY well for it's size. I'm pretty impressed. My black clowns and GBTA are in my fragswap tank, with this running as filtration. It's only ~10" tall, and sticks on the wall in the tank or hangs on inside. Aquatic Life 115 skimmer. Perfect for small frag tanks, nano's, or possibly QT.
Sump is coming along too. The series of chambers is my drain section. Trying something different I haven't really seen before, so let's hope it works.
RokleM
Premium Member
I put the PX-100 on it right now, becuase I had time to get it running but didn't want to have to empty the 50g saltwater container my px40 is on. That's a pressure rated at 790GPH. My PX-X-50 is 1110, but flow rated. I'll probably try it as well.
Amazingly enough, I had to dial it back this morning becuase the chaos in the chamber and neck was already starting to subside.
Weld-on 4 for sure (or 3 if you're quicker). 16 is bad to use for most applications as it evaporates and shrinks horribly. 40 is ok for many patching and places you'd put a seal kind of like a silicone bead. Thickness depends completely on two factors, 1) the size and layout of the sump and 2) how good you think your seams will be
Prep for the material is key.
RokleM
Premium Member
HA, 7 days to break in! How about less than 24 hours At 24 it was starting a head, and 36 hours I have a bunch of gunk in the neck already. Ignore the water in the cup, as I had it purposely overflowing for a while to get a good rinse on the skimmer. I haven't even hooked up the drain and collection container because everyone told me it would probably take a least a week to break in.
For the first and probably last time ever...jh2pizza was not only right, he might be brilliant :lol: I have pressure PX-100 (790gph) and he said the PX-50 (590gph) was his guess. I have the PX-100 throttled back about a 1/4-1/3, so he might be right on. Disturbing, no?
~70 gallons, with the MSX/SWC 160 sized for 125-250 gallons PLUS the GEO beckett (which I didn't get an estimate from him but he built it for heavy skimming on ~125).
At 24 it was starting a head, and 36 hours I have a bunch of gunk in the neck already. Ignore the water in the cup, as I had it purposely overflowing for a while to get a good rinse on the skimmer. I haven't even hooked up the drain and collection container because everyone told me it would probably take a least a week to break in.For the first and probably last time ever...jh2pizza was not only right, he might be brilliant :lol: I have pressure PX-100 (790gph) and he said the PX-50 (590gph) was his guess. I have the PX-100 throttled back about a 1/4-1/3, so he might be right on. Disturbing, no?
~70 gallons, with the MSX/SWC 160 sized for 125-250 gallons PLUS the GEO beckett (which I didn't get an estimate from him but he built it for heavy skimming on ~125).
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