MattB's new 125g

[EBR]

I have to admit I was a bit confused when I saw the first part of the last post and was wondering how the stand went from being so awesome to so... blah. Then I saw that that was just the other tank.

Well, that was just a test to see if everyone was paying attention ;-) Seriously, having gone back and re-reading the post, I see what you mean -- sorry for taking a leap on ya.

 

Fantastic work, can't wait to see what the inside looks like with how great the outside looks!

Thanks -- you guys are too kind. And me too -- I can't wait either :-)

[EBR]

Made a bit of progress this past week, and made the canopy and got the tank in the house! Whoo Hoo! The canopy still needs to be sanded, stained, and finished, but the basic structure with moldings is all done. I'll posted pics soon. And let me tell you, the combination of the stand, tank, and canopy creates a rather imposing piece of furniture. I knew the whole thing would be 7 feet tall, but darn -- that's big.

 

Anyway, I'm getting ready to level the stand, and am debating with myself how picky I need to be. From left to right, the height difference is about 1/4" (over a six foot span), and should be pretty straight-forward to level out.

 

But from front to back, the difference is a little less than 1/8", and being that the low side is against the wall, the shims won't be as easy to get at. Do-able, but just a PITA. ==> Will this little bit of a difference pose that much of a risk?

 

Thanks.

Matt

Edited August 19, 2007 by EBR

[Almon]

My 220g is on the basement floor without shims and has about a 1/2" difference over 6', maybe 3/4". In over 8 years, that has never come into play for any reason as far as I can tell.

[davelin315]

Where you run the risk is not when the tank itself is not level, but when the stand is not level. What I mean by this is if one side of the tank is not resting on the stand but the other side is. Basically, if the tank can rock back and forth, then you should level. If the stand rocks back and forth, it could warp to the shape of the floor and you should level. If it's simply tilting in one direction but still in good contact with the floor, it's up to you whether this really affects you. One caution is that you will get more salt creep in areas where your tank is lower as the water will rise higher there. Also, your overflow my not draw water out as well as you would like. I suppose, as well, that the tank could fall off the stand, but the chances of this happening are pretty slim and if the conditions were right, such as your house getting hit by a semi and an earthquake at the same time, I guess it could shake it off the stand, but if those things happened, you'd be in trouble anyway!

 

Personally, I would do your best to level it. It's a solid stand, but why take the risk. You have a planer I'm assuming since you seem to have the other tools, just use that to trim down a couple of thin boards with a tilt on them (remove the smooth bottom of the planer that the wood sits on and put a folded piece of paper there the appropriate size and then put the bottom back on). You can then slide them back underneath the tank in the appropriate places.

[Grav]

This is a great thread.

 

I wouldn't worry too much about getting the stand perfectly level. I'm not saying: dont level it... just dont feel like it has to be perfect. Even with steel reinforced joists, I'd expect a LITTLE settling, especally if the house and subfloor are older. You may want to fill it in place with tapwater measure again and then drain & level it.

[EBR]

Sounds good, thanks. I went ahead and leveled it, and it turned out to not be as big a chore as I feared -- it's amazing how well a simple 2x4 does as a lever ;-) The stand sat flat to the floor, and the tank is flat to the stand -- it's just that the floor tilted a bit -- a whopping .29 degrees. Not much at all, but enough to throw off the flow rate through the two drains. Anyway, I think it's spot-on now :-)

 

Thanks for the help -- I'll post pictures soon.

 

Matt

[EBR]

My wife got home yesterday with the camera, so here is the result of last week's work, which entailed:

1) getting the tank in the house and on the stand

2) finishing the plumbing for the overflow, drain and returns

3) building the canopy

 

To wit:

 

 

Some close ups of the canopy. Obviously, it's not finished -- in fact, I still need to plug the screw holes, sand, stain, and finish, but I wanted to fit it to the tank and get the plumbing run (and any access holes drilled) beforehand. I'm pretty happy with it, although I may beef up the top rail a bit -- it just doesn't have the same visual heft:

 

 

 

The lid will flip up from the back (T5 lights), and will rest along the internal rail around the edge

 

Inside supports:

 

And the plumbing. Eheim 1262, ASM G4, and NAGA original sump that I won on a raffle:

 

 

 

Turns out the overflow drain (made with 1 1/2" PVC) sounds like a bucket of water crashing into a hollow pit, so I'm going to re-plumb it with 1.25" PVC to try and quiet it down. Of course, the tank is now too close to wall to unscrew the pipe -- but that's OK. I need to drain the tank (it's just got garden hose water) and move it out a bit for some other things I want to do (like add a support onto the stand for a future closed loop pump).

 

And I am really (no, I mean it -- REALLY happy) with the direct-to-drain connection from the sump. Water changes are gonna be sweet :-)

 

Matt

[jason the filter freak]

I really did your though wall set up, and your tank is a master work. I cant wait to see it all done!

[EBR]

I cant wait to see it all done!

Yeah, me, too! And thanks for the kind words.

 

Last night I re-plumbed the drain into the basement, as the trap underneath had a small leak (so annoying). Next, I need to give the inside of the tank a good cleaning (still has a bit of schmutz from the previous set up), drain it, and start filling it with RO/DI.

 

There was another thread here about plumbing sizes, and I think I'm convinced to change the return to 1" rather than the 3/4" I have now. The return flow is good, but this is going to be the last time I'll be able to move the tank away from the wall.

 

Matt

Edited August 24, 2007 by EBR

[EBR]

Good news: I followed the advice of the thread I mentioned, and replumbed the return with 1" all around, and am MUCH happier with the flow -- many thanks to dchild for posting a most compelling argument :-)

 

Bad news: after re-plumbing the drain from 1 1/2" to 1 1/4", it still sounds awful. I got the gurgling and air-sucking to stop with a ball valve to recirculate back into the sump (effectively cutting the flow back to the tank), but the crashing water is still much too loud, compared to others' tank I've seen on tank tours.

 

So what else could I do? The drain is straight PVC with two 45 degree elbows before reaching the sump, and it is positioned at an angle so that it is not a vertical drop. The return is powered by an Eheim 1262, which at 5' of head should be putting out about 600 gph.

 

Thanks.

Matt

[YBeNormal]

If the gurgling/crashing sound is coming from the drain pipe:

 

Stick a piece or rigid (preferred) or flexible airline tubing or CPVC down the drain pipe. Adjust the tubing in or out until the gurgling sound

 

If the sound is coming from the sump where the water enters:

 

Use a 45 degree elbow and a section of straight pipe cut so the bottom of the pipe is barely submerged. Add a "T" to the end of the straight pipe with one end of the "T" in the water and the other end sticking up out of the water. You may also need to cap the upper part of the "T" and drill one or more small holes in the cap to release the air.

[EBR]

If the gurgling/crashing sound is coming from the drain pipe:

 

Stick a piece or rigid (preferred) or flexible airline tubing or CPVC down the drain pipe. Adjust the tubing in or out until the gurgling sound

 

If the sound is coming from the sump where the water enters:

 

Use a 45 degree elbow and a section of straight pipe cut so the bottom of the pipe is barely submerged. Add a "T" to the end of the straight pipe with one end of the "T" in the water and the other end sticking up out of the water. You may also need to cap the upper part of the "T" and drill one or more small holes in the cap to release the air.

 

darn, physics is cool! Having just stuck in a 1/2" PVC into the T behind the drain, I feel kinda silly for not thinking of it myself, only because it makes so much sense. Basically, this moves the point at which the air gets sucked in further down the line instead of at the opening. Beautiful -- thanks! Now just gotta figure out a neat way to attach it in place :-)

 

And there is some noise where the water enters the sump, but I need another trip to the hardware store for the right sized T. Confidence is high, however -- it, too, makes a lot of sense -- give it a source of air where YOU want it, not where IT wants it :-)

 

Again, many thanks.

Whoo Hoo!

Matt

Edited August 27, 2007 by EBR

[YBeNormal]

I'm happy to hear that it helped. I drilled a hole in a cap and inserted a stick of 1/2" CPVC. The hole is tight enough to hold the tubing wherever I place it but loose enough that I can make adjustments if needed.

[EBR]

After several nights of trial and error, and drilling out the wrong parts with the wrong sized holes, and then going BACK to True Value for more of the same parts (uh, twice) I think the drain noise is almost gone. The crashing sound in the sump is all but gone, thanks to a suggestion from YBeNormal:

 

The gurgling/slurping behind the tank where the drain exits the bulkhead has also stopped (again, thanks YBeNormal). Amazing what a little piece of CPVC can do -- I haven't cut the pipe to length yet here:

 

All that's left is the noise from the drain itself at the water surface. Basically, it simply just the sound of water rushing through a hollow tube (imagine that?) -- no gurgles, no splashes:

 

And here's a video/sound that I hope gives you a good idea of what I'm talking about. The crashing sound at the end is my daughter dropping her princess tea set (ugh):

 

Any ideas how to silence this a bit more?

Thanks.

Matt

[yauger]

dude this is a awesome build you are truly a master of carpentry (well more so than me...)

The sound is hardly noticeable to me in the video good job on the plumbing...

[Charlie97L]

dude this is a awesome build you are truly a master of carpentry (well more so than me...)

The sound is hardly noticeable to me in the video good job on the plumbing...

 

Wow! That's awesome!

 

Great work on the woodwork!

 

Don't forget to put some kind of *secure* netting/screen/grate on that pvc elbow overflow drain, otherwise your fish might go exploring and really mess things up. one guy here had a regal tang go down a pipe that size. not good.

 

keep up the excellent work!

[jamesbuf]

I've seen alot of people use the netting that comes with those nori clips to keep fish out of their drains.

[EBR]

Thanks, Guys -- I'm glad you like it.

 

A little update -- The return from the sump is split in two, and this is the one on the far end furthest from the drain -- just a way to get all of the surface scum to the drain:

 

And I think I finally got the drain noise under control. Funny thing is, this is nothing new, as I've seen it on other tanks before -- this was the first time, though, that I put together why it works. Looking at the unmodified drain here:

 

You see how the funnel effect takes advantage of the wide pipe, thus the length of the funnel itself can reach quite far into the elbow itself, creating a cavernous echo as the water passes down its gullet. So I thought that if the surface area of the whirpool were somehow constrained (thus the length of the resulting funnel is reduced), it might make less noise. So then there is this, a simple scrap of egg crate to fit inside the lip of the elbow:

 

As an added bonus, it prevents the little critters from taking a short ride to the sump (thanks for the reminder, Charlie).

 

Each hole of the egg crate effectively creates a bunch of smaller whirlpools instead of one huge one. The result (compare with the previous video):

 

Finally, I needed a way to keep the power cords out of the way inside the tank, and came up with this. Just a spare section of 1" PVC with a bunch of 1/2" holes drilled all over it -- basically, just a lot of places to zip-tie anything up and out of the way:

 

Now that the water noise is managed, I'm hoping to start filling it with SW this weekend :-)

 

Matt

[Guest alex wlazlak]

thats really an imprezzive piece of work you got there man. that stand is AMAZING. way to much to compliment you on. i built my own stand and its just out of 2x4's and plybead.. its great to see people who DIY. all of your plumbing is really impressive as well. i only hope to have dreams that look as nice as that setup. great job, it truely is a work of art.

[EBR]

Thanks for the kind words, Alex -- very nice of you -- although there are a lot people involved, directly and indirectly to get it this far. I'm just trying to keep the momentum going and get the doors made and the canopy finished. After all, it's only been two years in the making (ugh). More updates soon...

[Charlie97L]

Thanks for the kind words, Alex -- very nice of you -- although there are a lot people involved, directly and indirectly to get it this far. I'm just trying to keep the momentum going and get the doors made and the canopy finished. After all, it's only been two years in the making (ugh). More updates soon...

 

great addition! if you could drain the tank enough to glue that piece of grating in there, i think it would be a good idea... larger fish could dislodge that easily.

 

ahahhahawesome!

[EBR]

larger fish could dislodge that easily.

Hmmmm. Hadn't really considered that, as the piece is really jammed in there -- but nothing a spot of glue wouldn't hurt. Thanks.

Matt

[Charlie97L]

Hmmmm. Hadn't really considered that, as the piece is really jammed in there -- but nothing a spot of glue wouldn't hurt. Thanks.

Matt

 

sure, cbashaw lost a beautiful regal tang to this very occurrence... i know it's a long shot, but hey, never hurts to be too careful!

[EBR]

One problem with taking two years to gather the pieces and parts for this tank has been the occasional time when I forget what I already have. Case in point: I somehow now have two automatic top off systems. Funny thing is, I got them both from the same person!

 

The first is the Tunze Osmolator that I got with a bunch of other stuff:

 

The second is the Tsunami AT1, which I got about a year before the Tunze when the same person upgraded to the Tunze:

 

I guess I'll try them both out while I still have the garden-hose water in the tank, although I think I'll stay with the Tunze for the overflow protection. But it does seem to be missing a couple of mounting clamps (now, just where IS that scrap piece of acrylic I saw a month ago??).

 

Matt

Edited September 1, 2007 by EBR

[Almon]

I have the Tsunami AT1. I like it, it works great.