Triple-S Fish Ranch - 1700gal 164†x 48†x 56†SPS peninsula build
- Thread starter pmrogers
- Start date
biodegraded
New member
Have not seen level switch like this before. Could you post the source?
wow, very clean, I love this build, looks like a pharmaceutical laboratory
Thanks so much Elliott. I hope my running system turns out even half as nicely as yours has!
For additional biological filtration I may add a fluidized sand filter if the skimmer and daily water changes can't keep up. There is about a 2' gap between the end of the reactor counter and the saltwater reservoir where a fluidized sand filter would fit nicely. The 600 lbs of rock in the display is it for now. I considered making the reactor base cabinet a stand rather than a cabinet and putting a 7' cryptic rock and DSB tank under the reactors; may yet do this if I feel like I really need more rock for biological filtration purposes. No nitrate-specific filtration plans at this time-- don't plan on running any higher fish density than I did in the 750 and that tank didn't require a denitrator (as long as I kept up with water changes).
Thank you, vair! The gray boxes are junction boxes where the electricians condensed the 12 power and 12 dimmer leads from the LED drivers into 4 power and 2 dimmer connections. Thanks for the pipe support suggestion. See below for my solution...
Thanks for the suggestion, Dave.M. What I had in mind was supposed to be even simpler than a tray. In the first photo you can see where I attached the riser clamps right where the pipes come out of the ceiling. I then put mending plates under the clamps, screwed directly into the ceiling. This seemingly great plan hit a bit of a snag when I discovered that the carpenters only finished out the drywall part of the ceiling so close to the pipes; the plywood backing is a much looser cut. When I started screwing in the mending plates, half of the screws hit only drywall, no plywood behind.
Suspending a tray from the ceiling was going to be tough with all of the stuff going on up there, so I decided to tackle the problem from the top side. I had been trying to avoid this as the area under the display tank overflow box is an absolute jumble of piping, electrical and hvac with limited access due to the cabinetry and bass trap raised floor, exhibit B:
Then my partner took a closer look and pointed out that I didn't have to try to attach the clamps at the subfloor, that I could instead just run beams across the raised floor. From that point, it was nice and straightforward:
For the eagle-eyed among you, yes, one of the pipes is missing a clamp; part is on order.
Thank you, EllisJuan!
I got the switches from USPlastics.com: Horizontal Polypropylene Liquid Level Switch
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Supporting the pipe from above is a good solution for the weight of the pipe for sure.
The hanging PVC flex and it's full water weight 'pulling' on the joint at the union is what I think you'd want to look at supporting? Not that I know of any joints pulling apart in such situations. I know on my PVC flex connection I tried to support the hanging flex. Not trying to make you worry and it may not even be a concern.
The hanging PVC flex and it's full water weight 'pulling' on the joint at the union is what I think you'd want to look at supporting? Not that I know of any joints pulling apart in such situations. I know on my PVC flex connection I tried to support the hanging flex. Not trying to make you worry and it may not even be a concern.
"Just because you have a humongus tank doesn't mean you won't have to get in tight and/or awkward positions, just that sometimes you'll be sitting on top of your overflow when you do!" :lol:
Here's Paul plugging in some of the secondary circulation pumps and programing his Apex for them on an i-pad.
Here's Paul plugging in some of the secondary circulation pumps and programing his Apex for them on an i-pad.
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mwilliams62
New member
Nice Build here.... Any updates yet? When will you start stocking this beast????
Wet!
Wet!
Finished the plumbing between display and sump this weekend and did a freshwater leak and noise test. 4 leaks in total, all minor, even where I forgot to glue one of the 2" drain line elbows.
And to my great relief, the soundproofing is working. At 80gpm the tank is inaudible in the living area, and at 150gpm only audible if you get close and make a point of listening for it. Flow is also perfectly acceptable through the 1.5" side outlet 90s on the Sea Swirls, with a good amount of surface chop across the entire tank.
Still have a few problems to troubleshoot, the most worrisome being that the return flow won't reliably restart. This is a big deal because, though we have a whole house gas generator, it doesn't kick in until after the power has been out for a few minutes. When restarting, the pump tends to start cavitating severely and I don't understand why. It is primed, with the leaf trap full of water and the intake below the water level of the sump. There are no visible vortexes forming near the intake, and the leaf trap appears to remain full of water, but what happens is that about 5 seconds after starting up at 1800rpm it ramps up to max 3450rpm and stops flowing water. The first several times the issue happened I could clear the problem by removing the downward facing elbow inside the sump, then putting it back in place once the flow was stabilized. But this may have just been coincidence since on another occasion it exhibited the same cavitation problem even after removing the elbow.
On to the pictures. . .
Powerheads
4 Tunze 6255s and one 6305 on a custom bracket by Timfish. Received but did not install the Hydro Wizard ECM63 as I'm still waiting on its mounting adapter ring to arrive.
Size Comparison
Top to bottom: Tunze 6255, Tunze 6305, Hydro Wizard ECM63.
Tunze Streams in the tank
I think they look reasonably discrete in the scale of the tank. Not as discrete as the single ECM63 will look, though. Will start with the Tunzes along the front glass, ECM63 along the back, running 20 minute rotations on each to allow for a gyre to form in each direction, followed by 20 minutes of both running for chaotic flow. If the ECM63 keeps up with the wall of Tunzes then I will probably swap out the column for a second Hydro Wizard the first time that the Tunzes need service.
Next up: setting up the quarantine tanks, skimmer, dosing, auto water change and top off, and reactors. The display tank is now drained and will remain so until the QT systems have been running for about a month.
Wet!
Finished the plumbing between display and sump this weekend and did a freshwater leak and noise test. 4 leaks in total, all minor, even where I forgot to glue one of the 2" drain line elbows.
And to my great relief, the soundproofing is working. At 80gpm the tank is inaudible in the living area, and at 150gpm only audible if you get close and make a point of listening for it. Flow is also perfectly acceptable through the 1.5" side outlet 90s on the Sea Swirls, with a good amount of surface chop across the entire tank.
Still have a few problems to troubleshoot, the most worrisome being that the return flow won't reliably restart. This is a big deal because, though we have a whole house gas generator, it doesn't kick in until after the power has been out for a few minutes. When restarting, the pump tends to start cavitating severely and I don't understand why. It is primed, with the leaf trap full of water and the intake below the water level of the sump. There are no visible vortexes forming near the intake, and the leaf trap appears to remain full of water, but what happens is that about 5 seconds after starting up at 1800rpm it ramps up to max 3450rpm and stops flowing water. The first several times the issue happened I could clear the problem by removing the downward facing elbow inside the sump, then putting it back in place once the flow was stabilized. But this may have just been coincidence since on another occasion it exhibited the same cavitation problem even after removing the elbow.
On to the pictures. . .
Powerheads
4 Tunze 6255s and one 6305 on a custom bracket by Timfish. Received but did not install the Hydro Wizard ECM63 as I'm still waiting on its mounting adapter ring to arrive.
Size Comparison
Top to bottom: Tunze 6255, Tunze 6305, Hydro Wizard ECM63.
Tunze Streams in the tank
I think they look reasonably discrete in the scale of the tank. Not as discrete as the single ECM63 will look, though. Will start with the Tunzes along the front glass, ECM63 along the back, running 20 minute rotations on each to allow for a gyre to form in each direction, followed by 20 minutes of both running for chaotic flow. If the ECM63 keeps up with the wall of Tunzes then I will probably swap out the column for a second Hydro Wizard the first time that the Tunzes need service.
Next up: setting up the quarantine tanks, skimmer, dosing, auto water change and top off, and reactors. The display tank is now drained and will remain so until the QT systems have been running for about a month.
Are you using a vs, or vf model pump? Have you tried to disable the priming mode? You are below it so it isn't nessassary to have it enabled.
Newbie Aquarist
Reefing is my middle name
What version is the Hydro Wizard. It looks smaller than the medium version I seen in the videos. You have a great build going.
Centralreefs
New member
wow, this build is insane. great job
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