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Jon and Maureen’s 350g Tank: The Reef Awakens


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Ok, time for an update.  The UPS guy delivered two more essential pieces of equipment this week.  

 

First is a Reef Breeders fixture for the 40g basement frag tank.  My plan is to start acquiring especially interesting frags and corals as I come across them. Originally I was going to reuse my old Apollo LEDs for the frag tank.  But it makes more sense to use the same type of lights over the frag tank and the display tank.  That way there's more stability when I move something between tanks.  I'm planning on using Reef Breeders v2 fixtures on the display, so that's what I'll use on the frag tank too.  

 

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We've never liked having to waste 4 gallons for every 1 gallon we make with regular RODI units.  In our previous house I collected the waste water and used it for laundry.  That won't work in this house.  So we decided on a high-efficiency RODI from Spectrapure.  The system advertises a 2:1 waste:product ratio, but that's only if your tap water hardness is below 180 mg/L.  For hardness above that, you only get 3:1.  I tested our tap water at 120, so we're good at 2:1.  Fairfax Water lists their test results on their website so I also checked the results over time, and it's usually well under 120.  Fairfax water lists other relevant parameters, like TDS, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, chlorine, and various metals.  Their website also states they use chloramine at different times throughout the year.

 

You can get the month-by-month data here: https://www.fcwa.org/water/imar.htm.  This data is much more detailed than their annual water report.

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Lots of progress over the past few weeks, so it's time for an update.

 

The hard part of the display tank plumbing is done!  I've got three runs of 1.5" EZ-flex PVC, and one of 1" for a beananimal drain setup and the return pump discharge.  The main horizontal run is 9' of rigid pipe, and there's EZ-flex PVC at both ends.  I used these little gray snap clips to hold the pipe in place firmly at both ends for two reasons.  First, I wanted the pipes to slope down from the tank to the sump.  This should help the beananimal drain purge air from the pipe during startup so that the siphon starts correctly.  Second, the clamps will help reduce movement in the return pump discharge pipe whenever I turn on the main pump and water surges through it.  This will reduce the strain on the pipe glue points.

 

The plumbing was a lot of work.  I had to feed the rigid pipe from the tank room, into the space between the joists.  The rigid pipes didn't want to fit and enjoyed getting stuck over and over.  The EZ-flex PVC was difficult to wrestle with in tight quarters.  The hole I cut in our hardwood floor was 4.5" x 10.5", the size of a standard floor vent.  But that's not much room for four sets of pipes and two hands when I had to reach in to prime and glue the rigid and flex PVC together.  It would have been much easier if I had used 90 ells rather than sweeping curves, but I wanted to achieve the best possible flow characteristics.  I'm still glad I did it this way, but I hope I don't ever have to do it again.

 

20170410_174653_zpsprvohbwa.jpg

 

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This is the downslope bracket that holds the three beananimal drain pipes.  I'm still dry fitting pipe at this point, so nothing is primed.  I later cut these pipes about 6" shorter so the gray clamps would grip the flex PVC, not the rigid PVC.  This was to reduce strain on the coupling between rigid and flex pipes.  The return pump pipe is also partly visible in the bottom right.

 

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I used a heat gun on the three drain pipes to take out the tendency to coil.  I'll do the same thing on the return pump line (far right) once I decide how to run the pipe.  I made the white horizontal brackets out of PVC trim from Home Depot.  It's a little bit more expensive than wood, but it's waterproof, machines well, and doesn't need to be painted.  I ran it through the router table to smooth over the edges, countersunk holes, and was done.

 

I still have to make my final plumbing connections at both ends: the display tank external overflow box, and the sump.  But the tough part is done.

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I've also run the plumbing and electrical for my water making station, and it's operational.  

 

20170410_175738_zpsya4mgnet.jpg

 

The top barrel is for RODI.  I've got an Avast barrel tender that I still need to install, but I want to make a modification to it first.  Normally the BT senses when the barrel is nearly empty, and automatically fills the barrel up in one go.  I want to add a switch that tricks the BT into starting the fill cycle when I want it to, even if it isn't low.  Some people do this by lifting the lid and exposing the low level sensor.  I can't do that because the top of my barrel is out of reach.  

 

The top barrel has a gravity overflow into the sink as a final backup to the barrel tender and automatic shutoff valve.  As another safety precaution, I anchored a heavy duty tiedown bracket into the corner and put a blue ratcheting strap around the barrel.  The strap won't hold the weight of the barrel when it's full, but it will keep it from tipping over and squashing me if there's an earthquake or something.

 

Fresh RODI gravity drains through loc-line into the bottom barrel where I add salt and mix it.  I ran a separate, switched outlet for a circulation powerhead and heater.  I like that better than plugging and unplugging things to turn them on and off.  There's a larger Pan World 50PX-X plumbed in for mixing batches of saltwater, or pumping saltwater where needed.  The Pan World pump is controlled by the gray, waterproof switch box between the two barrels.  When I'm done mixing, I turn a valve and the same pump pushes water either through rigid PVC for water changes, or I can turn a different valve and use a food-safe RV hose to run water wherever I need.  I wanted an easy way to do big water changes if needed, even though I plan to use a Liter Meter rig to do continuous, automatic water changes.  Too many scenarios call for big water changes.   The Liter Meter will pull new salt water from this barrel.  There's also a valve and locline near the bottom of the barrel for when I need just a little bit of saltwater.  I built the water station stand high enough that I can fit a 5gal bucket under this valve.  

 

I used the same gray snap clips to hold the water station plumbing and valves firmly in place.  I used Cepex ball valves because they turn so much more smoothly than the Home Depot ball valves.  The barrels were $5 each through a WAMAS group buy about 10 years ago.

 

The RODI is also fully operational.  I added a booster pump to improve water production and the RODI turns the pump on and off as needed.  I've got the stuff to add two more DI stages so I can eke out the best performance from each cartridge before discarding, so that's on the to-do list somewhere.  I'll also tame all the extra RODI tubing, but I want to wait until other things are finished in case I need to make changes.

 

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Sump upgrades.

 

So I bought this sump a few years ago because I knew I wanted something 48" long with filter socks and no refugium.  This seemed to fit the bill.

 

20170408_115214_zpsgvrhfooq.jpg

 

However, as my planning proceeded for this new build I realized this sump wouldn't work very well.  For one thing, the beananimal drain pipes need to be submerged an inch or so below the water line to function.  But this sump was configured with an odd filter sock platform that interferes with a beananimal drain setup.  Also, this sump was set up for 4" filter socks, but I wanted to use 7" filter socks.  I want to minimize maintenance chores, and the larger filter socks have way more surface area than 4" socks do.  Meaning I have to wash them less frequently.  I also want to preserve the option of installing a Theiling rollermat once their design is proven.

 

So I removed the filter sock platform, sanded the old glue joints, and polished the walls so I could see into the thing.  I also routered a relief curve into the top brace.  Then worked on mockups for the new filter sock platform.

 

I copied the design from Geo's Reef.  I've looked at a lot of different sump designs lately, and I like his design the best for our application.  I ordered a couple 7" filter socks from different manufacturers at BRS, and made different sized holes with the circle cutting jig until I found one hole that fit all.  That way I could buy any of these filter socks, and they'll all work.  I've got plenty of plywood, but not much acrylic; so I cut up a few pieces of plywood to make a model I could look at.  (The piece of acrylic on the right will have a large cutout for water to pass through, per Geo's design.)

 

Here's what I wound up with.  I think I'm going to lower the platform an inch so it's at normal the water line.  Otherwise I think there'll be splashing.

 

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I also want to add other Geo features, like the heater holders, probe and additive line holders, and maybe cable cutouts.  There will be three bulkheads on the top left for the display tank drains.  There will be six small bulkheads on the top back for the drains from the basement tanks (frag tanks, refugium, etc.)  I'll add a layer of acrylic to reinforce the top eurobracing where I have these bulkheads.

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Jon, where did you get the stand for your water barrels?  I need to pick your brain about how to do water for my setup.  Will definitely be interested in the barrel tender.  New basement doesn't have a drain so definitely have to figure out a solution for the floods I've had previously.

 

The setup looks very clean and well organized!  Can't wait to see it in person.  Obviously a lot of thought went into everything.  

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It is so very exciting to see this build coming together with such  thorough thoughtfulness and planning IN MY HOUSE!  It takes more hours (and many weekends) than Jon's posts reflect.   We've shared this dream for a long time, but 99.9% of the work is done by my amazing husband.  I'm mostly the cheerleader, sandwich maker, and frag buying influencer.  Its taking a while to get this tank wet, but it is going to be spectacular when its done!  Thanks for coming a long for the ride! 

 

Proud Fishwife,

 

Maureen

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This is looking awesome!  I remember those white barrels  :happy:!  

 

What are all the pipes being used for?  a 1" and a 1.5" for constant drains, one 1.5" for emergency drain, and the last 1.5" for return?

 

Also love your filter sock holder design, it's my favorite that I've worked with.  I actually like having the top of the socks .5"-1" above water level in the rest of the sump.  It helps ensure you won't get any back flow or junk residing in the left side of the sump, and a .5" drop in water level inside the filter socks shouldn't create much of a splash/bubbles.  

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Maureen, you're way more then that but it is pretty impressive what you both have accomplished :)  Looking forward to seeing it get wet soon.  Let me know if I can help. 

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Jon, where did you get the stand for your water barrels?  I need to pick your brain about how to do water for my setup.

 

Roni, the water barrel stand is made from 2x4s and plywood with pocket screws to hold it together.  Three of the four posts are attached to the wall studs with lag screws.  The stand is very sturdy, and putting it in the corner makes it doubly so.  I think I still have my sketch of the stand with dimensions if you're interested.

 

I've seen lots of people do two barrels next to each other, but not many do stacked barrels.  I think it's easier to do the side-by-side configuration if you've got the space. I didn't want to use my limited floor space that way. 

 

One drawback of my configuration is I can't pump RODI water from the top barrel to other places in the room.  I can only gravity drain into the bottom mixing barrel.  I didn't think I needed to be able to pump RODI water everywhere.  If I find that's a problem, I'll modify the plumbing.

 

 

Will definitely be interested in the barrel tender.  New basement doesn't have a drain so definitely have to figure out a solution for the floods I've had previously.

 

As far as the barrel tender goes, I have the standalone version but there's also a version for Apex .  It's not clear to me what the difference is in the Apex version.  My guess is the BT has extra wires that plug into Apex switch inputs, and tells you what the BT is doing.  That might be another DIY project for me!

 

 

The setup looks very clean and well organized!  Can't wait to see it in person.  Obviously a lot of thought went into everything.  

 

Thanks!  We're happy to have you and the gang over to inspect!

 

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This is looking awesome!  I remember those white barrels  :happy:!  

 

What are all the pipes being used for?  a 1" and a 1.5" for constant drains, one 1.5" for emergency drain, and the last 1.5" for return?

 

Thanks Sam!  I had forgotten about the blue/white barrel swap.

 

You guessed correctly on the pipes.  The main siphon is the 1", and the two other drains are 1.5".  The 1" pipe should be plenty large enough to handle the overflow siphon drain. The return line from the basement pump is 1.5" as well.  I would have liked to have used 2" for the pump return, but it's just too large and awkward.  

 

 

Also love your filter sock holder design, it's my favorite that I've worked with.  I actually like having the top of the socks .5"-1" above water level in the rest of the sump.  It helps ensure you won't get any back flow or junk residing in the left side of the sump, and a .5" drop in water level inside the filter socks shouldn't create much of a splash/bubbles.  

 

Thanks for the feedback, and I'm going to tweak the design based on your input.

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Maureen, you're way more then that but it is pretty impressive what you both have accomplished :)

 

She sure is!  It's awesome to have a wife who is so enthusiastic about my reefing hobby.  And while I design all the boring nuts and bolts stuff, Maureen is the one who visualizes the arrangement of colors, textures, and shapes to make the tank a thing of beauty.  It's a perfect combination of science and art.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks Roni and Jon for the very kind words!  

 

I know setting up a tank and maintaining the tank is a heck of a lot of work for all of you, but the results are amazing.  We lost a couple of weekends due to vacation, but right now Jon is in the garage working on the sump reconfiguration so I'm sure there will be further updates on our progress soon.  I'm enjoying looking at everyone else's tank build threads a lot.  So anxious to get the tank on the stand and wet!

 

Maureen

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I spent this weekend working on the the sump, and finished the major modifications.  This included fabricating and installing the filter sock holder, and building stiffeners for all the bulkheads.  These were the last major mods to the sump, so that's another big step towards getting this thing wet.

 

Here's the finished product:

 

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I added the black stiffeners to help prevent failure down the road.  Bulkheads create stress because they involve a big hole, and also because they transmit stress from pipe movement or vibration.  I don't want to turn a valve or bump a pipe and have it crack the sump.  This is more of a concern in my case because the sump's eurobrace rim wasn't wide to start with, and also wasn't very thick.  So I laminated two more layers of acrylic around the bulkhead areas.

 

The three bulkheads at the end are for the beananimal overflow.  The six bulkheads on the side are for the four support tanks that will sit above the sump.  Each of the four tanks will have a herbie style overflow with a siphon and an open channel pipe.  Normally this would require four pipes for siphons and another four pipes for the open channels.  I plan to combine the two pairs of open channels drains into two open channels pipes.  That's why there's six bulkheads instead of eight.

 

I still want to make a few minor mods to the sump, like adding a heater holder and cable cutouts.  But for now the sump is going back down into the basement.  My next step is to figure out how to mount the Hammerhead return pump to eliminate vibration and how to orient the pump, and I need the sump in the basement to do that.

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I just saw this thread after posting a question on another thread that Jon was so nice to answer. AWESOME build! Definitely following along! Waiting for the next update! Thanks for all the great information that will help me with my future build!

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One of my to-dos has been to set up a dosing pump on the basement frag tank.  I pulled an old Bubble Magus BM-T01 out of a box, replaced the tubing and cleaned and lubricated the roller wheels, and the pump was ready to go.  But the thing I've always hated about the BM-T01 dosing pump is the way the controller buttons worked.  I had to push really hard to get them to work, they tended to register multiple pushes, and I found them a PITA to use.   

 

So I decided to take the controller apart and see if I could retrofit some better push buttons.

 

I opened the controller and found the unit has a small circuit panel with four switches attached.  I unscrewed and removed that circuit panel, and cut away the blue plastic film over the four holes with a razor blade.  (The plastic film is what your finger touches when you push the switch.)  I put a panel mount push button switch in each hole.  I used 7mm diameter switches, which fit in the existing hole without any drilling.

 

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Re-wiring was straightforward.  The factory wiring was a 5-wire bundle.  One wire is common for all four switches.  The other four wires go to each of the four switches.  I did a little trial and error to figure out the wires.  Here's what I came up with:

 

Pink: common for all switches

Yellow: Up button

Orange: Down button

White: Enter button

Blue: ESC button

 

I took some spare wires and soldered them to the main circuit board.  I soldered the other ends of the spare wires to the new switches.  (In hindsight it would have been easier to use the factory wires by cutting off the end connector.)  I used a piece of heat shrink tubing for strain relief.  I connected all the remaining switch terminals to each other, and soldered the pink wire to that. 

 

 

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Before and after:

 

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I'm MUCH happier with this new switch setup.  The pump I modified was long out of warranty, but my second pump is brand new.  I'm not going to modify the new pump anytime soon because I don't want to void the warranty, but I'm sure I'll modify it eventually.

 

 

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Thats pretty awesome.

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Awesome work! 

 

I just saw this thread after posting a question on another thread that Jon was so nice to answer. AWESOME build! Definitely following along! Waiting for the next update! Thanks for all the great information that will help me with my future build!

 

Want to follow along.  Very organized. 

 

Thats pretty awesome.

 

Thanks everyone!

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Finally!  The plumbing preparations for the display tank are complete.  I made the final connections from the tank overflow pipes to the sump, and also installed the return pump and it's plumbing.

 

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The return pump is a Reeflo Hammerhead/Barracuda Gold hybrid, which I plan to run with the smaller Hammerhead impeller.  With losses from height and plumbing friction, I should have at least 1500 gpm of flow, which I think will be plenty for the return pump.  I'll create additional in-tank flow with two closed loop Vectra L-1 pumps.

 

 

 

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One of my concerns with the Reeflo return pump was how to best mount the pump to minimize sound and vibration.  I want the tank room to be relatively quiet and not sound like a machinery room.  And I definitely don't want noise and vibration making it upstairs to our living spaces.  I've seen all sorts of rigs that other reefers have built, like mounting the pump to rubber isolation mounts.  But these were all starting pictures...there was no feedback on how well they actually worked over time.  I even went back and forth with Reeflo a few times for their recommendations, but I didn't get anything useful from them.  In the end I glued together four of the standard EVA anti-vibration pads to make a pad large enough for the Hammerhead to sit on securely.

 

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Throughout the project I used pipe hangers from teksupply, and wherever possible I positioned the hangers to hold flexible pipe, not rigid pipe.  My goal is to dampen out any vibrations that might otherwise be transmitted through the pipes and into the walls of the house.  

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I also finished the plumbing under the display tank stand.  I built the white pipe brackets from plywood and painted them, then attached them to the stand with 80/20 adjustable slot fasteners.  My intent here is for all the stress and vibration to be controlled by the brackets and the pipe hangers, rather than by the connections to the external overflow box.  From left to right the pipes are: emergency drain, full siphon, open channel, and sump return.

 

 

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This also means we're ready to give select WAMAS members a special, pre-opening, behind the scenes, exclusive sneak peek at our amazing reef extravaganza.  That's right!  At a date to be announced soon, we'll allow you to check out our reef system while you help lift this 750# beast up onto the stand.  Stay tuned for a special invitational post with more details!

 

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I'm ready and willing :)  Now you just need another 8 people....  fantastic progress since the last time I saw everything

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  • 3 weeks later...
(edited)

Phew!  We managed to get the tank up onto the stand, but even with nine guys it was very, very hard.  Getting it up off the ground wasn't too bad, but lifting it high enough to get onto the stand took more than one try.  Maureen says we're not moving it again, and the tank will have to convey when we sell the house someday.  She says that means we'll just have to buy a new tank when that day comes.  Best wife ever!

 

A huge thank you to mpitzer for putting us over the hump!  I don't think we could have done it without you.  Let me know when your system is ready for acans and acros and I'll have some nice frags for you.  Thanks too to Origami for making time to get the suction cups to me, despite everything else he has going on.

 

Now it's time to assemble the closed loops and connect the overflow plumbing.  We're getting closer!

 

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DSC_5531d_zpscg9slxlb.jpg

Edited by Jon Lazar
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Wow, looking awesome!  Congrats on getting it in place today, that's always a milestone for sure!  :clap:

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Had a great time moving the tank, eating pizza, and learning how patience and planning come together in such a great design.  I had no idea an empty tank could weigh so much. 

 

I'll let you know when I tank the plunge into SPS.....I am assuming that Acans and Acros are SPS but I still don't know at this point.  I have a long way to go.

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