Swimboy123 July 8, 2011 Author July 8, 2011 As I am trying to create a lot of flow in this tank, I decided to incorporate two WAV Makers made by Bbyatvv. Basically these are rotating directional tubes that force water in one of two directions and powered by a 12V powered by a motor. I have them on either side of the tank and my plans are to synchronize them to provide maximum amount of omni and contradictory flow. As my tank is not drilled I want to somehow move water from the front of the display to the top rear portion as well. Utilizing the WAV, I dropped down two pipes that ran underneath my sand bed to the front left and front right corner of the tank and put a flow accelerator on both as well. My thinking is to create something of a sideways figure eight (think the infinity sign) of flow to keep my corals healthy as well as provide circulation.
Swimboy123 July 8, 2011 Author July 8, 2011 The next step was to construct framing that will become part of the finished wall. I will be attaching the drywall to the bottom right to the stand and the pics below are of the top portion of the wall. The frame is not resting directly on the tank as I think this would give way to much weight to the front of the display tank. It's set about 1/8" above and I put a couple coats of waterproofing on it just in case.
jason the filter freak July 8, 2011 July 8, 2011 what and or reason for the two ball valves on the input side of the wav?
Swimboy123 July 8, 2011 Author July 8, 2011 (edited) There is a union there so I can take off the WAV and outflow pipes to clean. Also, I designed this whole system to be completely modular. When I move in a few years I will be able to take everything apart and put it right back together provided I have an acceptable space. No need to re-plumb anything. Just move into place and plug and play. Edited July 8, 2011 by Swimboy123
GraffitiSpotCorals July 8, 2011 July 8, 2011 Coming along good looks like, I am still quite jelous of the space and setup you have... Let me know when you have time to drywall.
jason the filter freak July 8, 2011 July 8, 2011 I get the union, I'm a big fan of unions, I use a lot of true union ball valves in my set up. My question was regarding having ball valve, union, and then another ball valve seemingly on the same circut.
Swimboy123 July 9, 2011 Author July 9, 2011 I did the unions that way so I could take off one side of the plumbing and keep the other side going. I'll probably never utilize it, but I still wanted it. @surf&turf Thanks!
Swimboy123 July 11, 2011 Author July 11, 2011 At this point I decided to start filling the tank. All of my live rock had been cycling in tubs for a few months with the exception of one box of base rock. I wasn't really too worried about aquascaping at this point as I just wanted to get the tank going. This has been a fairly long and drawn out project and I seem to be increasing my speed as I get closer to the finish line.
Swimboy123 July 11, 2011 Author July 11, 2011 (edited) I went ahead and put my anthias in from my quarantine tank. 8 anthias in a little thirty gallon tank was a bit too much. The definitely appreciated a bit more room as well. Edited July 11, 2011 by Swimboy123
Swimboy123 July 11, 2011 Author July 11, 2011 As for lighting, my original plan was to build a frame to hold my new LED lights. I ended up going with the SWC LED light from TBaquatics. I did a lot of research on lights and even utilized a spreadsheet to compare values. The SWC has 20 3W Cree LEDs (10 white, 10 blue) and is completely dimmable. I originally purchased three units (60 LEDs, 180W total) but I think that another fixture is may be needed. I want to make sure that there is enough light for SPS and my clam, and hopefully no shadows in the tank. I wanted to have a pulley system rigged so I could raise and lower the lights as I saw fight. After making the frame and installing the pulley I tested it out, but then had serious questions if that was the right way to go. First of all, the single point of the pulley made the balance of he frame very hard to attain. One little touch and it would swing back and forth. The other thing I hadn't considered was the weight of the lights and the frame. I bought rope that purported to hold 200 lbs, as well as a heavy duty pulley and tiedown. But once I had the lights up I decided that I didn't want a little piece of steel holding up $1400 worth of lights. One mistake or problem and my lights would be toast. I ended up changing to 4 anchors with chains hanging down. It's not as easy to raise or lower the lights, but at the end of the day I feel much more comfortable with this setup. Once I found my center point, I screwed in a 2x6 to the bottom of my main floors joist and used self-tapping screws. My tank is already up at this point so once I had placed my mounts correctly I wanted to be able to fix them quickly. Leaning over a big tank and hitting your head on air ducts don't make for fun times while drilling something into the ceiling.
Swimboy123 July 11, 2011 Author July 11, 2011 It was at this point that something very bad happened. It was a saturday night/sunday morning at about 2 am. I'm a bit of a night owl so the majority of the work has been completed in the dead of night. I have two sets shelving brackets in my fish room but I had only installed (and screwed down) one shelf that was more for storage than anything else. As I was quite excited to finally have my lights up, I put the othe shelf on top of the brackets and placed my LED drivers on top. As I was getting down off of my step-stool, my elbow hit the shelf and sent two drivers into my sump and the other into the display tank. (with me yelling "S*%T" as it happens in slow-motion before my eyes). I immediately ran them upstairs to the kitchen and started pouring every bit of rice we had on top of them. The next day I phoned my bro-in-law who is an electrical engineer and he then proceeded to tell me to open them up and stick them underneath a faucet for 5 minutes or so. I don't know what is worse, accidently dropping $1400 dollars of electronics into water or doing it on purpose. After drying off the units as best as I could I stuck them in front of a fan for 36 hours or so. Luckily there was no current going through the units when they were dunked. Having said that, I was pretty sure that they were toast anyways.
jason the filter freak July 12, 2011 July 12, 2011 So you have or haven't tested them yet? Also I would have rinsed them with RODI not tap. At any rate best of luck
Swimboy123 July 12, 2011 Author July 12, 2011 @jason, I have tested them and thankfully they still work. I may still have to worry about corrosion a bit but I will cross that bridge when I get to it. The lights are up and the corals have been moved over. Right now everything is still in the "settling in" period but some of my acros have already started to get some growth margin. Currently having three sets of lights does leave a bit to be desired as far as light coverage so I am going to purchase another SWC fixture to help round out the lighting in the tank. I love the LEDs though! No heat and beautiful, controllable light.
Chad July 12, 2011 July 12, 2011 It is coming together nicely! I agree on rinsing with RODI water. As long as all capacitors as discharged, any batteries disconnected, nothing is plugged in, and everything is completely dry prior to plugging it back in, it is safe to do. Are you going to put a background on the tank?
Swimboy123 July 12, 2011 Author July 12, 2011 No, I don't think so on the background. Sooner or later coralline should cover it up I'm hoping.
Swimboy123 July 13, 2011 Author July 13, 2011 Ok, now that the tank itself is done it is time to start drywalling. Thanks to Piper27 for helping out!
Swimboy123 July 14, 2011 Author July 14, 2011 Thanks for the compliments. I'll give you ideas for free, labor is extra!
Reefoholic July 14, 2011 July 14, 2011 Awesome dude! A slice of ocean framed. I can't wait to own my place to build a huge reef tank of my own. Keep up the good work! You are an inspiration!
roni July 14, 2011 July 14, 2011 Really nice documentation of everything you've done to date. This is going to look awesome when done. I still think my favorite picture is of you and the look of sheer delight at getting that big clam
jason the filter freak July 14, 2011 July 14, 2011 Are you going to take the framing back down before you paint or just mask off?
jason the filter freak July 14, 2011 July 14, 2011 Also how did the driver mess work out? I can't seem to get my post to edit
Swimboy123 July 14, 2011 Author July 14, 2011 @jason: I'm going to just tape off the trim and paint around it. My beautiful and ever understanding wife is getting a bit frayed at the mounds of drywall, 2x4's, trim, saws, etc. cluttering up the basement family room. As of right now there is only painting and a bit of trim left to do. As far as the drivers go, they are all currently working and seem to have had no adverse affects. However, corrosion could be a big problem later but I will cross that bridge when I get to it.
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