Nathan's 210g Reef Tank Build

[n8n]

FWIW, gate valves are a much better option for adjusting flow/drain, plus they don't generate any torque on the surrounding pipes especially near bulkheads.

 

Ok sorry for double post but did some research on your suggestion.

 

Looking at the bean animal website: http://www.beananimal.com/projects/silent-and-fail-safe-aquarium-overflow-system.aspx

Bean Animal specifically calls out ball valves (not gate valves), even in the rendering of the images.

 

I did looked into the documentation I followed when I built my herbie drain: http://gmacreef.com/herbie-overflow-reef-tank-plumbing-method-basics/

 

It actually mentions gate valves, (and true union ball valves), and it basically states cheap regular ball valves should not be used because they can be difficult to adjust, where a true union ball valve (the more expensive ones) and gate valves are easier to do fine tune adjustments.

 

I've got true union ball valves, not the regular ball valves that are really hard to adjust.  I played around with them before I installed them to make sure I could make small adjustments and they seem about the same as the schedule 80 sperry true unions on my other tank.

 

Additionally gmacreef calls out using unions along with gate valves so i think that kinda negates weight on the bulk head concerns.  I mean haven't gone and weighted all the valves down to the ounce or whatever, but it seems to me a gate and a union or two should be about the same weight as a single true union ball valve. 

 

Anyways, i'm always up for advice, is there any other reasons to avoid them other than what i've found so far?

 

Thank You

 

-Nathan

[n8n]

Tonight I worked on the stand. I went to Home Depot and had purchased some wood and built new doors. The new doors no longer are plastic and cheap. Plus they are no longer semi transparent. The original doors were hung with magnets and if you bumped one it would jump off. Didn't feel very kitten safe. The new doors are heavier and use gravity to stay on. I built 45 degree triangles that fit into each other and you have to lift the door about an inch vertical and then it can be removed. ( see pic if your curious) .

 

Even with work light on inside the you can't see light coming out of doors.

 

The plan is tomorrow morning stain the stand, then go to MACNA whole house airs out some and stain dries. Once base wood is stained I will add crown molding and hopefully have stand completed this holiday weekend.

 

I'll be building a canopy that matches in a few weeks once I get water in the tank to make sure up its exactly how I want it.

 

 

 

[n8n]

I stained the doors, stand and part of trim this morning. Breakfast then MACNA. Hopefully get doors back on and then work crown molding.

 

 

 

[n8n]

FWIW, gate valves are a much better option for adjusting flow/drain, plus they don't generate any torque on the surrounding pipes especially near bulkheads.

Ok I've decided to add a schedule 80 gate in the drain after a ton of reading of problems people had on reef central.

[n8n]

Back from MACNA, and got my circulation pumps from Neptune Booth / Quantum Reefs. Also got the stand back together. We now are reviewing crown molding options and hopefully can call the stand done after this holiday weekend.

 

 

[John Ford]

This is coming together nice!

[n8n]

This is coming together nice!

Thank you, tonight I added latches to the side doors on the inside, so I can secure 2 out of three doors when not needed. Planning out sump and will most likely get one made custom.

[n8n]

Today we stained the trim. Hopefully the trim will all be installed before end of holiday weekend.

 

 

 

 

The crown molding is for the stand and the canopy. We purchased and stained it all in one batch.

[n8n]

I got the trim on the stand, still want to put another layer of stain down in a few places but other then that, the stand is basically done. I also have the Neptune Wave in the tank, most likely they will moved based on aqua scaping,

 

Tomorrow I'm going try to make a decision on sumps and get one ordered. Lots of sales going on. Hope everyone made it home safely from MACNA.

 

Oh and yes if you look closely we switched trim. Originally we were planning to trim stand and leave doors plain, but after getting doors on we decided to trim doors instead with slightly smaller trim and squares.

 

[n8n]

Shopping for a sump. Boxes are about size of emerald 39 trigger systems. Still not sure on sump.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2015 by n8n

[n8n]

I decided to put a tub liner down in stand to be extra careful. Stand should for sure be able to hold 3" of water. The extra liner ( it was huge ) I used to cover the back of the stand as a splash guard.

 

I also purchased a sump, and a small refugium light. Should be large enough to hold almost any model skimmer I desire. 12 x 15.5 x 36 is area for skimmer. I plumbed one of the three drains tonight. Waiting on parts before I can plumb them all. Once I get drains done I plan to get refugium online with some pods.

 

[n8n]

Last night I got the emergency drain plumbed. I also moved the electrical in the stand to the side without the sump. I used an outside style 4 way surge suppressor with rubber covers that flip over the outlets. I ordered my sand while it was On sale and hopefully the last few plumbing parts. Once the schedule 80 gate arrives I can plumb the last drain and get the sump wet. I'll move a live rock over and a chromis to skimmer compartment and start growing pods in refugium. Hopefully refugium will be wet by Friday, and all the return and water change plumbing will be done by the end of the next weekend.

 

Edited September 8, 2015 by n8n

[n8n]

I got the drains connected to the sump tonight. I decided to redo the first one to move the sump a little bit.

 

here the drains are setup

 

I have since filled the sump with water from old tank, put a seasoned marine pure block and pods in the fug, heater in sump and gfo/carbon reactor. In the short term I've routed the sump in a loop to let the pods start growing down there. The filter pads under the fug ar there to prevent a fish from escaping but I couldn't catch one of my blue chromis lol. Anyways I want to get a fish down there to help get the whole thing going the block should be seasoned enough to support a lot of fish.

 

Going to do massive cleanup on wires and stuff.

[n8n]

Today I got the plumbing behind the tank done. Returns are around 45 degrees with no horizontal spans for air to get trapped. They are black. The red/ yellow / green are the drains. Also have a schedule 80 gate on the main return for fine tune adjustments.

 

The 5 true union balls in back most likely will never be adjusted unless I need to turn off a line or want to simulate a pipe blocked.

 

The 2 inch pipe with rubber cap goes to mixing station and will have soft tubing go through it for ATO and water changes.

 

The black soft tubing is temporary to move water around sump since tank is still dry.

 

 

[n8n]

The hose to the saltwater mixing station is setup. Omg this is so much easier than buckets!

 

 

Yup I got some new rock. I'll be adding this to the existing rock from old tank to make shelves.

 

This is where I stopped for the night. Didn't want to deplete my saltwater, I've got another batch mixing.

 

I also got my pumps online to circulate water in tank.

[n8n]

The plumbing is completed, some rock is in the tank, water, and two chromis. The Fiji is from old tank, the shelf is new.

 

The red / yellow / green is from bean animal. The black is return and manifold. The return is also feeding manifold with carbon/gfo mix.

 

The 3/4 coiled hose is so I can pump directly to a bucket. The 1/2 coiled black hose in center is directly to saltwater mixing station. The folded up tub liner I lay out on hardwood floor when moving rock and such.

 

Skimmer is on order. Decided to go old school with lifereef.

 

 

 

Work in progress to chromis are in there somewhere.

[ezeke1]

I'm looking forward to seeing how the aquascape turns out when the sandstorm settles.

[n8n]

So we couldn't move all the rock. Some of it has corals attached and others had anemones on it. There is no light on 210g. Now that I know where water line is I can build canopy to match stand so we can mount lights in it. Even so we also know we don't have enough rock so we have to measure to figure out how many of what size and then go find them. We're building multiple tiers of shelves in kinda a semicircle shape.

 

Thx

 

Nathan

[n8n]

Can you post some better pics of your bean animal? I have the same system on my tank, but I am not sure I did it correctly. Once I turn on back the pumps, the air bubbles never stop. I have to take the tubing out of the water for a seconds, then submerge it again. Is that how it is supposed to work?

 

thanks

Here are pics of bean animal before filling with water. I taped them up so I could post them on reef central for verification. There is a little bid of "perspective" in pic, they are all below the back of tank.

 

The overflow box has since had the air hose tied above the waterline. The water line is about 1/2 way up the left white pipe. Just above the weir. A few people commented about how the waterline should be below the weir.

 

Here is where they come into sump.

 

Why the second pic? This apparently is a common problem on bean animal. The pipes are adjusted in sump for herbie, and are too deep for bean animal. Basically they are so deep the air cannot escape the full siphone pipe to allow a full siphone to occur. RC suggests to cut pipes so they barely go into water. ( basically at bulkhead in sump )

 

What I did instead, is remove the center bean animal pipe all together ( straight pipe ) and replaced it with a strainer. The air escapes immediately and I get full siphone in like 2 seconds. My concern was what happens if I block the main? So I did just that, and somehow the second pipe was able to get to full syphon quickly. My guess is the air hose let it get half way and the. That was enough to jump start it.

 

Either way I have silent with redundancy.

 

What I'm debating about is replacing the left drain with a straight pipe too ( still taller than center drain ), which would turn it into almost a double herbie drain. That is still silent. The main benefit would be shorter plumbing in the overflow and I can put a screen over the overflow also to prevent anything from trying to jump or escape.

[n8n]

Last night I started canopy. Made a run to home depot for wood to frame canopy.

 

I cut the wood up and used painters tape verify I had the necessary cuts and fit.

 

The final product should match the stand. Same color, wood, doors, trim etc. the only difference is the canopy will be two small doors on the front instead of one large.

 

Here is where I ended for the night. If it's not obvious I'm doing a flip top canopy where the front half of top and front panel either flips or is removable for access, with also four doors, one each short side and two on the front. The roof of the canopy will actually be screening to allow ventilation for ph, and heat reduction. The aquascaping is not completed, need more rock. The work light is temporary until I get a second led light. The bulb does not really get hot and I zip tied the back and there is a screen between it so it won't fall in. There are three small fish in the 210.

 

Also the jumbo heater and wire mess is short term. Once we get the rock work done I'll work at tucking it away. It's only about 2/3s the way full with sand. Large areas in back around the rocks is bare tank.

 

Hopefully I can finish the frame tonight and get the rest of the canopy done this weekend.

 

As you can see in last picture the overflow is clear but the black bean animal PVC on black background really conceals plumbing for drain.

[n8n]

Tonight I worked on canopy,

Here it is framed.

 

This is the 1x4 that will go on top of the frame to build the same look as the stand.

 

My hopes is to have most of aquascaping ( rocks and sand only) and canopy done this weekend.

Edited September 18, 2015 by n8n

[n8n]

I got the rest of the base trim cut of the canopy and fit it together with tape. I now need to get it secured together. I also got my second light and mounting kit. The light was a breeze to get on the apex synchronized with first light.

Aquascaping is work in progress probably run down and buy some more to get exactly what we want.

[n8n]

The canopy is ready for stain tomorrow. The big openings are for doors.

 

 

 

There are 4 latches that hold it together and the front half can be removed for more access.

 

 

The top will be screened for ventilation and the lights will hang in the canopy. I'm not completely sure on the back.

[n8n]

Can you post some better pics of your bean animal? I have the same system on my tank, but I am not sure I did it correctly. Once I turn on back the pumps, the air bubbles never stop. I have to take the tubing out of the water for a seconds, then submerge it again. Is that how it is supposed to work?

 

thanks

Here is more shots of my modified bean animal, it should not require any interaction to get started. Nor should it require interaction if a pipe is blocked. This is not the original bean animal design, this is with updates after about 7 years.

 

If you are using the original bean animal ( all the pipes are lined up ) make sure the piping going into sump isn't very deep. Like no more than 1/2 inch into water. Also you might have to lower the main drain or put some holes in one of the pipes to help it start. Go read thread on reef central. I'm not one for drilling holes so I did the different heights,,.., hence modified.

 

Mine would not start full siphon with the three levels because my pipes are too deep. Instead I made main drain a straight pipe ( strainer sitting in bulkhead ). It now starts every time in a few seconds and is noise free.

 

The rest is the same the hose is zip tied directly above the waterline. The waterline is set below the weir ( overflow ). The waterline appears to optimally be half way up the second drain where the pipe is horizontal. So the height of the middle height/ second drain dictates water line. My third drain/ tallest is slightly taller than where hose is zip tied.

 

Oh and never mind the cool heater and cords lol still setting up. Hopefully this weekend we get all the cords and aquascaping figured out.

 

 

 

[n8n]

Staining the canopy, hopefully I can get second coat / other side this afternoon and get it on the tank tomorrow.