ejls2 Posted November 5, 2005 Share Posted November 5, 2005 Three words: Rotating Pico Cylinder Formerly the lightweight contender, tipping the scales at 2.87USG - now a svelte featherweight 2.5USG. Many thanks to Paul at First Class Aquatics who built the tank for me before I'd heard about the competition. It cost me more to have one and a bit inches trimmed off the end than it did for him to build and send me the tank in the first place! Given that I'm a UK entrant and so any prizes wouldn't be of much use to me (not that I'd win anything in a million years) I have decided to give anything I win to a US or Canadian school run tank. I've seen a few of these on various boards and I'm sure their respective teachers deserve the prizes much more than I ever would. More pics soon Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 5, 2005 Author Share Posted November 5, 2005 Are you insulting Churchill College Boat Club? If you are I'll have to set some big Germans on you!!! Things you wish you'd checked before choosing your College: 1) College Colours - Pink and Brown.... DOH Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 6, 2005 Author Share Posted November 6, 2005 Right, I have more LR and the final bits of equipment. Swapping everything over with the system still full is going to be "interesting" but should be possible! Link to comment
fras Posted November 7, 2005 Share Posted November 7, 2005 Hit us with a fts when you're ready! Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 7, 2005 Author Share Posted November 7, 2005 Pft! Tank currently feels like one of those logic puzzles. I'm having to disconnect the plumbing from the tank to attach the swivel base, but I know from a test run that this involves the tank emptying in 36 seconds! I don't want to post any more shots till it vaguely looks like a tank with water and LR in it! Need lots of saltwater on standby Also have Aiptasia all over the nice big bit of LR I just bought The good news is that the swivel is trimmed but it's a bit smaller than I'd have liked so I'm having to build a marine-ply base to sit on top of it. All the rest of the plumbing is sorted so I'm just waiting till tomorrow when I can cut the ply. I'm supposed to be doing a legal research exam but this is so much moer appealing... Anyway, back to the Marriage (Approved Premises) Regulations 1995 Not the most thrilling of bed-time reading materials. Link to comment
Blind Tree Frog Posted November 7, 2005 Share Posted November 7, 2005 How are you doing the plumbing? I can think of two ways I'd do it, but I'm curious as to what your plans are. Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 8, 2005 Author Share Posted November 8, 2005 There are loads of ways I could do it. The one I've settled on isn't the most elegant but I'm hoping it'll be simple and faff free! The original idea which used the rotating union was going to have 2 independent closed loops. One, running a Maxijet 500 was there just for circulation and the other went to the modified canister sump. The idea was that the tank would be free to rotate in any direction as many times as you'd like. The MJ loop was stuck to the bottom of the tank so rotated with it. The power cable for the pump went into a slip ring on the top of the rotating union so it wouldn't get tangled. The drain and return to the canister also went into the top of the union, and then emerged from the base. Again they wouldn't have become tangled during rotation. Unfortunately the cost of the union sky-rocketed and I was concerned about metal poisoning, so I'm going with a less elegant solution. As there is now no longer a restriction in the tubes (The union had 1/8" channels) the second loop isn't required. Instead the tank stands on a rotating pottery base (I believe they're known as whirlers or banding rings) and a surpluss of eheim tubing wraps round the base. This should allow for 1.5-2 complete rotations in either direction from the starting point. The MJ will be in-line with the canister in order to provide some more oomph! Hope this clears things up, Ed Link to comment
Ann Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 Pics please. Best regards Ann Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 8, 2005 Author Share Posted November 8, 2005 Hmmm... Today, I have been mostly, finishing my plumbing: Getting the UGF plate in and sandtight was a bit of a pain (especially with the system already running) but I think it was worth it! Am about to order my 150W MH Before anyone asks, that is not the finished base. Paul (FCA) cut me a nice stylish acrylic base... but I changed the design and it's about half an inch too short (sorry Paul!) I'm about to order a new tank from him so I'll have to ask very nicely for him to send another bit. The plumbing will probably go through the stand while it's here in my house but once I take it to work it'll go through the cable tidy in the desk a la Chad/Fish/Ninjafish. More pics tomorrow, Ed Link to comment
fragman Posted November 8, 2005 Share Posted November 8, 2005 Ed, That looks sweet!!!! Are you only running a closed loop, or is that just the temp. flow? Can't wait to see this thing grow, may be some real technical competition for Tigah!!! Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 9, 2005 Author Share Posted November 9, 2005 Aaah! A hallowed '01 reefer! You have made 38 posts in the last 4 years and one is about my tank Thank you for your kind words! The design changes on a pretty much hourly basis. I was going to be running one short powerful closed loop and one loop down to a canister filter. Now the pump and the canister are inline on the same loop for simplicity's sake. I can't use a normal sump drain and return as I don't want an overflow and the tank takes precisely 36 seconds to drain through one of it's 1/2" holes! There's a bit more info on the various designs and builds here: http://p2.forumforfree.com/ejls-rotating-p...anoreefsuk.html Apologies for the random English humour. All you need to know is that people from Portsmouth are strange! Link to comment
ninjafish Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 Ed, That I a really sweet looking tank! You have got my vote. I'm sorry to hear about the huge costs. Would it be possible to put all of the equipment on the turntable and rotate the entire thing? That way you wouldn't have to worry about the tubing. Looking forward to seeing it with the lights on. - Chad Link to comment
Blind Tree Frog Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 So should I post a pic of how I was thinking that you could of done the plumbing or would you not be interested? (not saying that i don't like how you did it, just if you are interested in then idea i was thinking about) Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 9, 2005 Author Share Posted November 9, 2005 Hi Chad! When it looks half as sweet as your cube I'll be happy! The costs were "okay" until I realised that one part of the union would have to be custom made. Then it became silly! The current system works quite well! You get about 270 degrees movement in each direction before it snags. I was thinking abut rotating it all but it isn't very elegant and won't allow the attachment of an auto topup etc... Thanks once again Chad, Ed ***************** BTF, I'd love to see your design. It probably matches or is close to one of the 18 variants in my file (I change things a lot!) but I'd love to see anything in case it's new! The original design was way cooler but when a £300 union became a £1000 union I changed my mind The current design was chosen by applying 2 tests: 1, what design will my boss allow me to have in the office (i.e. how leak-proof is it) 2, bearing in mind that few of my parts arrived what could I build with what I had before the contest deadline! ********************* P.S. The current arrangement of the looped cabling is extremely temporary. The coils run much more smoothly when encased in the acrylic stand but for the moment it just has to sit there and work Link to comment
Blind Tree Frog Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 I'd love to see your design. It probably matches or is close to one of the 18 variants in my file (I change things a lot!) but I'd love to see anything in case it's new! The original design was way cooler but when a £300 union became a £1000 union I changed my mind You probably thought of this already then Pardon the paint quality sketch. Black box on top is the tank, black box on bottom is a sump. Blue pipe is an overflow pipe drilled into the middle of the tank Green pipe is the return that fits inside of the blue pipe and spits water back into the tank (directed, sprayed, whatever). Pump fitted at the bottom of the green pipe pushing water up. Granted, the trick is letting it rotate around the blue pipe, but there wouldn't be really a concern for leaking because the water would be flowing down the blue pipe. As long as the seal around the pipe's outside is good, you should be fine. Conversly, you could do like a clam tank and let the edge of the tank be the overflow and get rid of the blue pipe entirely. Let the water flow down the edge of the tank into the sump below it and the center pipe being the return. That may be the better answer between these two thoughts actually as you can make the return a spray bar or something. Though the first idea makes the pump easier to put in since the pump won't rotate (nor the joint between the return pipe and the pump. Link to comment
Fishyfan Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 A rotating pico, awsome! btw, lava lamps are awsome Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 9, 2005 Author Share Posted November 9, 2005 BTF, I had a similar idea but yours looks cooler! I decided against it because: a) I wanted the plumbing hidden like in Fish's tank and couldn't be arsed to drill through my LR and Where the tank is eventually going to live, the display can't be directly above the sump as there's a filing cabinet there. That was a real PITA to get around! I might have a go at mocking up a design like this for you to have a look at though. I've got a few UK 12x8x8 tanks around here somewhere.... Fishyfan, thanks! I have to agree with you about the lava lamps Ed Link to comment
Ann Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 I love the look of the cylindrical tank, when the pipes are concealed it will be such a very neat and tidy set-up with no visible equipment at all which is absolutely perfect. Darn it, I wish that I'd thought of something neat and original for my entry now. Best regards Ann Link to comment
Blind Tree Frog Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 Glad to hear that my idea was at least a bit different then the ones you had. Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 9, 2005 Author Share Posted November 9, 2005 Don't worry about it too much! I had been planning this tank for six months! Plus I just really hate overflows!!! Link to comment
fras Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 considering it's just 1 rock it's a nice shape and size for your tank. It's gonna be so sweet once it's done! Keep us up to date with FTS! Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 11, 2005 Author Share Posted November 11, 2005 It's actually 2 rocks! i got a really nice bit of LR, looks like dense tonga but I'm not sure, but it was too big. I broke it into little bits and put the two best in the tank. I really like the effect, I've already worked out where everything can go I'll take another FTS as soon as something happens but nothing much has changed I'm still waiting on my halide... However, I did get into a bit of trouble yesterday. I picked up a mantis a couple of weeks ago but unfortunately the rock he's living in has so much die off on it that it's polluting the tank to toxic levels. I tried everything I could to get him to switch rocks so I could swap him over, unfortunately it didn't work, he really liked his home. Things came to a bit of a head yesterday when I decided to clean out his tank and do a 100% water change. While I did this I put the mantis rock in a plastic bag in the top of the cylinder. I turn away and <whack! whack! RIP!> Oh ****! Mr Mantis makes a bid for freedom into my cylinder having ripped a hole in the seam of the bag Now I have to work out how to get him back into the other tank before I start stocking the cylinder! Link to comment
jmorris Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Those crazy mantises... what will they think of next?! good luck, Jared Link to comment
ejls2 Posted November 11, 2005 Author Share Posted November 11, 2005 Cheers! I personally think they're plotting to take over the world! Starting with one little portion of my flat! Love the avatar by the way! Link to comment
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