10gal Split

[Mr. Fosi]

I am thinking of splitting one of my surplus 10gal into a 6/4 diaplay/'fuge. I want to split it long, rather than short.

 

(1) I would use 1/8" plexi to make the divider and the baffles.

(2) I would hard-plumb it with 1/2" CPVC.

(3) The spraybars would be plumbed through the divider (duh).

 

I am thinking of using a spare powerhead as a pump (I know it isn't the best choice for a mission-critical component).

 

Questions:

(1) What kind of gph would be good?

(2) Do you think 1/8" with baffles will hold the water?

(3) Is 1/2" pipe good enough or would 3/4" be better?

(4) Would my two 13W 50/50 PCs be good enough for a FOWLR setup in this tank?

 

[neanderthalman]

1/8 acrylic will be fine - you'll have water on both sides of the false wall, so very little pressure will be exerted. You might want to brace it at the top, in the middle, below the spraybar - just to be safe. I'd go with 3/4" plumbing for the 350gph you indicated in your diagram, personally. You could go with a smaller pump if you wanted to...I'd shoot for at least 100gph though (10x). The lighting would be fine for FOWLR, you might even get away with mushrooms.

[Mr. Fosi]

Props to you neanderthalman; you are a DIY guru. A brace may be in order...

 

What about the rest of you? You all have so many opinions, I thought I'd get a landslide of input...

[NanoGal13]

DUDE! LMAO! i need one of those shirts!

[Mr. Fosi]

I changed my mind and did this instead.

 

 

 

I remembered that I had a 10gal long sitting around. I have a 4th baffle that will act as a false wall and overflow, but it isn't siliconed in yet (have to cut teeth in it to keep out snails and such).

 

I am still going to hard plumb it, probably with a penguin 550 or 660 as the powerplant. I am still unsure on the pipe diameter.... can I push 145-160gph through fewer than 20 1/8" holes or will I have reduced flow?

 

Does anyone out there know if spraypaint will last under salt water? I don't want to leave my false wall clear, and I already told me wife that I wouldn't spend any more $$ so black acrylic is out of the question... I also want to paint the CPVC pipe black so it doesn't stand out as much.

[neanderthalman]

Not sure on the number of holes you'd need, I have no experience with spraybars. A number of people have used Krylon Fusion to paint plumbing and bulkheads, and I have heard of no ill effects as of yet. If you paint it with anything, use that stuff.

[Mr. Fosi]

Rock on neanderthalman!

 

If I am only going to get input from one guy, I'd rather have it be you.

 

I've seen that fusion stuff at WalMart, I'm gonna go check the price (maybe I can sneak it through...).

[RP Beesh]

if you want to go cheap i bought a black plastic office tray to do my false wall on my 10g.

here is my thread

http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/index.php?...opic=73897&st=0

i think it is on the second page

[Mr. Fosi]

if you want to go cheap i bought a black plastic office tray to do my false wall on my 10g.

 

Cool. I checked it out and it looks like it'll work really well.

 

I ended up going with the fusion paint b/c I wanted a blue background. I think the blue really makes the tank seem a lot brighter.

 

I painted the background today, but I don't have a camera to take any pics right now. It took about 4 coats to make the wall completely opaque. I think I will paint the CPVC tomorrow; it should take a lot fewer coats.

 

On a side note, that Krylon Fusion stuff is really awsome ($4.12/can at WalMart). I suck at spraypainting b/c I always coat too heavy, but this stuff is really forgiving. When I first put a coat on, it looked like total poo. Once it had dried for about an hour it was smooth, shiny, and my runs magically disappeared.

[Mr. Fosi]

Update time.

 

I have most everything put together, now I am waiting for the paint to fully dry. Fusion is an oil-based paint, so it takes a long time to be done.

 

When I am done writing this post, I am going to water test it with FW.

 

This is a shot of the tank w/the baffles fully installed.

 

A closeup of the painted false wall overflow.

 

A shot of the CPVC and the powerhead (AC 420). The spray bars are the capped short pipes.

 

What it will look like sans the PH.

 

Questions:

 

(1) Do you like the Dr. Seuss look of the blue pipes w/red shutoffs?

(2) Will the 1/2" CPVC spraybars handle the full output of the AC 402 well?

(3) Am I missing something critical in the design?

(4) How do you guys put pics into your posts without the "click to enlarge" crap?

[neanderthalman]

I can't see anything out of place, nor do I know the flow of an AC 402. The Dr. Seuss look. YEAH.. Loving that.

 

For the images, use a free third party image host. I use www.photobucket.com to store all of my images. From their site, I can copy and paste the IMG tags into my posts. Pics show up full size, and Nano-Reef doesn't have to pony up the bandwidth for my pictures (do I get a sticker mods? )

[Mr. Fosi]

Because I couldn't help it, I have started my PC back up to share my exitement with all of you. Well, here goes...

 

Here you can see that it is running and overflowing in a predictable manner.

 

Here you can see what it will look like when you look into the display area from the front.

 

The max flow out of an Aqua Clear 402 is 250gph. I drilled about 6-7 3/16" or 1/4" holes in each of the spraybars. The flow is respectable, but not blasting.

 

I plan to run one at a time, unless I need to blow crap out from behind the rocks.

 

Just now, I noticed a spashing sound coming from the livingroom. The false wall seems to have come loose from its moorings. I guess I'll drain the tank down, let it dry overnight and resilicone it tomorrow... The paint needs a couple more days anyway...

 

I think that this is going to work, but maybe I should brace that wall....

 

P.S. I tried using putting an <IMG SRC=""> tag in the post, but it didn't link it, it just printed the tag.

 

EDIT: Fixed the coding error to display the pics.

[neanderthalman]

sucks about your silicon not holding up, fortunately it's not catastrophic. Looks like a slick system.

 

As for the images, try it like this

 

[imgG]http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/u/0/u0y/nanoreef/1-31-6%20-7.jpg[/imgG]

 

But replace IMGG with IMG, and it'll do this.

 

[Mr. Fosi]

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Here are the braces that I siliconed in last night. They are the triangle pieces behind the baffles. A guy at work suggested that I use Gorilla Glue to tack the false wall in b/f I siliconed it, since he was SURE that the glue would bond to the fusion paint. I rejected that idea, since I don't have any GG and I am not going to pay the $$ for it. Silicone just doesn't bond to fusion paint very well, so we'll see how it goes this time.

 

 

 

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Here is what they look like if you look at the tank from the side.

 

 

 

The tank doesn't look any different from the front.

 

 

 

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I also changed the anti-snail grate on the top of the false wall/overflow. It just wasn't draining fast enough and all the water was exiting out of the corners. I think this might be part of the reason that the side wall broke loose. I guess I should have known the slits wouldn't drain fast enough, but this project is a learning experience. The grating is 1/4".

 

 

 

I am going to water test it again tonite and see how it goes. If it runs for an hour or so with no problems, I may let it go all night and check it in the morning.

 

 

 

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One thing I also forgot to mention is that I didn't glue all the CPVC together. In this pic, the yellow circled joints are glued and the purple ones are not. I left some joints unglued to allow for easy installation/removal of the plumbing. It also has the added benefits of: allowing adjustment of the spraybar angle/position (vertical/horizontal), and easy cleaning, should I ever desire to do so. I tried to choose joints that would not be under a lot of pressure, which is why the shutoffs are glued on the pressure side.

[Mr. Fosi]

Well, I did another water test last night and this time the false wall held, but the bottom of the rear-most baffle broke loose.

 

I don't know what I am going to do. If this projet fails during tests that only last 1-2 hrs, how can I trust it to work for any length of time?

 

On top of that, I can't figure out why the silicone doesn't want to bond securely to the acrylic. I have been bonding 1/8" acrylic with silicone for years! Why is it failing now?

 

I don't know if the temperature of water has an effect. I have been filling it up with water out of the cold tap which is about 44-46F. I wonder if the cold could cause the water to bond less tightly, thereby leading to failure. I also know that people generally use 1/4" rather than 1/8" b/c 1/4" bows less under pressure.

 

The real drag is that I can't spend any $$ right now, so I can't just go out and buy a sheet of 1/4" from HD. I know, "its only a couple bucks", but I just got my paycheck for this week and when I combine that with my entire check from last week, it is still not enough to pay for our rent ($300) and gas bill ($246), not to mention the phone bill ($60), electric bill ($35), and our CC bill ($215). How can I go to my wife and justify buying stuff for the tank when I'm struggling to pay our basic bills? Its a good thing we saved a little during the summer...

 

Maybe I'm just going to have to do the best I can in the 5.5g until April or May when our bills go down; but by then we will be only a month or two away from moving.

 

I am going to go home tonight and try to shore up the bottom of the baffles with several more plexi braces, but I'm afraid that they won't make much of a difference...

[neanderthalman]

It looks like you made your silicone joints very neat, using a minimal amount of silicone. Try using more, like adding a bead along each edge like you were sealing a window. It won't look as nice, but i'll be a lot stronger. Think of it like silicone bracing.

[NUGIO]

I had that prob when i setup my fuge .acrylic ,silicone, and glass dont bond very well.Youll have to brace everything or do what i did switch to glass baffles.

 

By the way i like your idea of having a mini display/sump in one tank.very cool

[Mr. Fosi]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

 

I decided to try and glue the baffle back in. I really gooped it up with solicone and I'd throw a pic online, but I left the USB cable for the camera at work...

 

Tomorrow, I will do yet another water test and see if the friggin thing will hold.

[Mr. Fosi]

Well, here's a pic of the new silicone job.

 

And here is a pic of the silicone I have been using.

 

I haven't done the water test yet b/c its only been 12 or 14 hrs. I'll do the test a little later; at least 24hrs after I applied it.

[Mr. Fosi]

Well the water test went well.

 

I ran it with water close to the temp that it will actually be running. I also ran it for about 3 hrs, or twice as long as previous tests. I would have run it longer by my wife insisted I move it out of the living room...

 

Everything held and nothing leaked (first time since I set it up).

 

I also figured out why the flow seemed so low... I thought I had the 402 running full-on, but I took it apart and realized that I was actually running it at its lowest setting.

 

I think I am ready to declare it fit for service. If nothing untoward happens I will have everything rolled over into it my tomorrow night.

[neanderthalman]

Awesome! Be sure to post pics of the tank all filled and stocked.

[Mr. Fosi]

Well, its the end of the week and no roll over.

 

We had a fairly nasty lake effect snow storm on sunday and my wife wouldn't let me drive to Walmart to pick up the RO water.

 

Since then, I have purchased the RO and mixed up 5g of sea water (as of last night). I am not going to attempt the move until I have most of a day to do it, so I am going to wait for this coming weekend.

 

Since I have been forced to look at this unfinished project all week, I have had some ideas rolling around in my head. Tell me what you all think:

 

I was recently given a magnum 330 (not 350) by my brother-in-law. It is in good working order; has all the parts and plumbing accesories. What do you think of using that as the powerplant? I could put the intake in the rear chamber of the overflow and just hook the output to the hard plumbing I already have.

 

Overkill? Too much work to maintain? Or killer idea just waiting to be implemented?

[neanderthalman]

not familiar with the magnum 330 - what gph is it?

 

If you're getting great flow with the existing pump, why use a different one? External pumps tend to be noiser as well.

[Mr. Fosi]

not familiar with the magnum 330...

 

Yeah, me either. It looks like he bought it some time in the 80's. I don't have the box in front of me, but it is somewhere between 300 and 350 gph. I can post a solid # when I get home.

 

If you're getting great flow with the existing pump, why use a different one?

 

Well, I'm getting a lot of vibration noise b/c the current PH is sitting against the back wall on the bottom of the tank. Not only am I getting noise, I am also getting surface agitation from the force of the vibration. I am not sure of the best way to cushion the PH, and if I were to use something outside the tank, I wouldn't have to take the pumbing apart when it comes time to clean out the impeller and such.

 

PS: You know something about lighting and such... How much do you know about PCs?

[J86]

nice!