Upgrade Time... 210 gallon Build

[krzyphsygy]

Great looking tank Eddie, I like the rock work! How's the Herbie Method working for you? Can you give some more details on how you made it? When you first filled the tank, did you wait till the water in the overflow went above the main drain then started to adjust?

 

[PincheGonzo]

Been watching your build. Top notch, love the patience. would also like to know more about your aproach to the herbie method. How many holes did you drill through your floor? Auto top off? RODI/saltmix storage? And whats up with the plastic on the walls. Cant wait to see a lid on this thing. Im sure it will be top notch like everything else

 

[EddieJ]

Great looking tank Eddie, I like the rock work! How's the Herbie Method working for you? Can you give some more details on how you made it? When you first filled the tank, did you wait till the water in the overflow went above the main drain then started to adjust?

Thanks!

I am pretty happy with the Herbie method for the most part. Here are my observations for the first few weeks of running it.

1. The gate valves are noisy. I opted to put them right before the floor so I could adjust it easily, but with basement sump it creates a kind of vortex thru the valve which makes some noise.
2. Yes, balancing dual overflows can be problematic. I have not acheived the perfect balance as usually one will have some running down the emergency overflow as well. Not a real big deal to me so I don't drive myself nuts trying to get each overflow level to match the other.
3. The system can handle TONS of flow at 1 inch with a 11 foot drop. The gate valves are barely open.

As for the start up, I just had the valves open and fired up the return pump. It will start draining down the full siphon but with LOTS of noise as it's pulling air as well. Then I just started closing the valve till the level in the overflow started rising. My full siphon is about 6 inches below my emergency. Just set the level where you want it and no air (vortex) is being pulled thru the siphon.

 

[EddieJ]

Been watching your build. Top notch, love the patience. would also like to know more about your aproach to the herbie method. How many holes did you drill through your floor? Auto top off? RODI/saltmix storage? And whats up with the plastic on the walls. Cant wait to see a lid on this thing. Im sure it will be top notch like everything else

See the above post for some observations regarding my Herbie system. I drilled 6 1 1/4 holes in the floor. 4 are for the drains, 1 for the return and the other is for the electrical. Right now I don't have my ATO setup but I will be building a breakout box for my Apex to control the ATO for me. I do all my RODI / Saltmix the old fashioned way. 2 32 gallon brute cans, heater and pump. I do have plans to build a more automated station but they are farther down the line. I do prefer to have daily tasks as you are more in tune with your system that way. Not a big fan of fully automated tanks as you can lose touch with your system and get lazy on things. I guess the balance I look for is automation with the human touch. The plastic you see on the walls is insulation for the wall that is above grade. It's code so that is the way the house was built. I did remove it from another section of my basement and yes, it keeps more heat in.

And yes, the only thing that happens quickly in this hobby is failure....

 

[bagz727]

Nice looking tank!

 

[PincheGonzo]

Since i will be plumbing my system in a similar fashion, do you like the valve above the floor? Also do you think tying together each overflow into one before going through the floor would cause added noise. (hate to have to drill alot of holes in my nice hard wood floors) just want to keep everything as quiet as possible and still be realistic. Love this build, plans for coarl, future fish? More pics please.

 

[samm]

nice work setting up this system , i have the same setup just about except for the overflows . you should think about going to 44 gal. brute bins in place of those 32's , and elevate them above your sump so you can just turn a valve and gravity feed them to sump for water changes and top off. that way you can do the water changes by draining the sump and refilling while the system is running and the display tank never gets disturbed. i love my basement setup i can change out 40 gallons of water within 4 minutes.

 

[EddieJ]

Nice looking tank!

Thanks Bagz!

 

[EddieJ]

Since i will be plumbing my system in a similar fashion, do you like the valve above the floor? Also do you think tying together each overflow into one before going through the floor would cause added noise. (hate to have to drill alot of holes in my nice hard wood floors) just want to keep everything as quiet as possible and still be realistic. Love this build, plans for coarl, future fish? More pics please.

I am actually thinking of relocating the valves to the basement just above the sump. I placed them under the stand thinking I didn't want to run up and down the steps to adjust. But in reality, it's really not a big deal. When in the basement you see the amount of water running down the emergency drain, so you just open the valve a touch more till it stops. I would keep them both independent but I have read where people have combined them and they work good. I think every tank is going to have differences in what works best. If you want quiet, put them in the basement. With the drop to the basement the siphon is very powerful and capable of handling 2000+ GPH down that 1 inch pipe. So what happens is you have the valve barely open which creates a rushing noise. Now it is not really loud, but you can hear it.

As for future fish, the list looks something like this:

Naso Tang
Powder Blue Tang
Midas Blenny
School of Anthias
some more Green/Blue Chromis

Coral wise it will be SPS heavy with a couple LPS mixed in here and there. I am not looking to add TONS of corals, but rather find a good mix and grow larger colonies.

 

[EddieJ]

nice work setting up this system , i have the same setup just about except for the overflows . you should think about going to 44 gal. brute bins in place of those 32's , and elevate them above your sump so you can just turn a valve and gravity feed them to sump for water changes and top off. that way you can do the water changes by draining the sump and refilling while the system is running and the display tank never gets disturbed. i love my basement setup i can change out 40 gallons of water within 4 minutes.

Thanks!

That is basically how I envisioned my upgraded saltmix station. I would never have a ATO run with that volume of water. I always keep my ATO small enough to cover 2-3 days max of evaporation. This way any kind of float/pump/valve failure does not drop my salinity enough to harm the tank.

And yes, fish room/basement sumps are definitely the way to go if you can. I also say the easier you make maintenance, the more likely you are to keep up with it.

 

[PincheGonzo]

How do you like your panworld 200? I have the 50 ps for saltwater mixing/ filling, and was thinking about the 150px for return. 120 gallon with about 13ft vertical head

 

[PincheGonzo]

Sorry got ps/ px switched

 

[EddieJ]

How do you like your panworld 200? I have the 50 ps for saltwater mixing/ filling, and was thinking about the 150px for return. 120 gallon with about 13ft vertical head

It has been excellent so far!! I do have it throttled back a bit as the overflows becomes a bit noisy with the pump running wide open. I would get the 200PS if you can swing it, you can always throttle it back to get the exact flow you are looking for. But I am sure the 150PS would fit the bill as well.

 

[vietcu]

Eddie now that you have this up and running, could you kindly answer a few questions for me. As I too am about to start a build very similiar to yours. This has been asked and answered somewhat but would like to go into more details. I am going to go with bean style over flow so it isn't exactly like yours but similar enough. You got got the return on a 1" pipe? What is the exact length of the return from your tank to wherever you have it end(sump or frag tank). How much do you have that valve open/close or full open on the return? And when you say you have your 200ps throttled back, how much do you have it throttled back. And what is the distance of the piping you have it going to your tank from your 200ps. Sorry for all the questions, but I want to make sure everything is how I imagine it as I don't want to screw anything up on my build. Thanks ahead of time.

 

[EddieJ]

Yes, everything is run in 1 inch pipe. A 1 inch pipe at full siphon on a 13 ft drop can handle like 4000 GPH +. So the gate valves are just about closed on the drain lines. As for the return, it is running about 14 ft up from the 200PS. I would say I have the ball valve maybe closed a quarter to throttle is back a bit. The output on the 200PS is 1 inch so it is best to stay that size.

 

[PincheGonzo]

Thanks for the imput! I dont want TOO.. Much flow going down to the tank. I dont think my bubble king sm200 can handle what a panworld 200 could give.

 

[PincheGonzo]

I will be running my tank for 9 months without any preditors (ie. Coral, fish) want to establish a nice zooplankton. Love your build, as it is just what i was thinking for my build as well. Cant wait to see more!!!

 

[vietcu]

Yes, everything is run in 1 inch pipe. A 1 inch pipe at full siphon on a 13 ft drop can handle like 4000 GPH +. So the gate valves are just about closed on the drain lines. As for the return, it is running about 14 ft up from the 200PS. I would say I have the ball valve maybe closed a quarter to throttle is back a bit. The output on the 200PS is 1 inch so it is best to stay that size.

This is what I was afraid of, I figured the 1" drain would still be a tad on the big side. I just hate to have it almost closed to try to compensate for the pump. My personal preferance is to try to not restrict the drain line as much as possible. You said that it is a bit loud in the overflow if you have the 200ps on full. Would it not be loud then if you have the gate valve open a bit more to handle more flow? Thanks for answering my question Eddie.

 

[EddieJ]

When the pump is wide open, it's hard to get the right level in the overflow. With the level down the added flow makes the waterfall noise much more pronounced. Also with the higher flow the waterfall tends to extend out more from the inside of the overflow and drains right into the emergency drain. If that makes any sense. I really haven't played much with the overflows and the higher pump setting much, so there is room to experiment there. I guess at the end of the day, I am sort of running a modified BeanAnimal drain. As the normal balance is one overflow is running a full siphon and dry emergency, while the other is running a full siphon and the open channel drain and there is usually some amount of water draining down that drain.

 

[david00061]

looking good