ajmckay Posted January 6, 2011 Author Share Posted January 6, 2011 Gutter, I'm still not 100% sure what I'll be doing with the display sump. First, I think I'm going to load it up with 30lbs of oolitic aragonite tonight. Here are the ideas I'm considering: 1) Predator tank. Maybe a dwarf lion, angler/frog/scorpion fish, larger mantis shrimp, etc... 2) Planted tank w/sea grasses, a mangrove, various macros, plants, and sponges with maybe some driftwood. 3) ? Whatever it is I want it to be clean and fairly simple because depending on what's in there I might or might not be able to have much of a CUC. Seabass & AM, thanks for the comments. I know you'll finish your tank really soon! It's not easy that's for sure. I tried my hardest to avoid the temptation to just throw up a tank and I think it's paid off now that I have something that I can truly be proud of. Well, as soon as I fix the leaky bulkhead and attach the doors that is. Link to comment
animalmaster6 Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 I like 2 a lot. 3 could be an NPS reef Link to comment
bitts Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 no no no no no no.... #3 is an ultra peaceful low waste population, with mad sps. I know I keep saying this but think of a tank where a helfrich would be top dog. well you could through in a jawfish & still have it be pretty peaceful. but it would still be things like mandarins, green banded goby's, cards, yasha, theres a ton of options in the category but with it being very peaceful the bioload is small. so long as you don't go overboard on the stocking. remember a system with a carrying a capacity of 1 100gram fish cant handle 10 10gram fish. but this smaller population would allow for a larger fauna load to remain due to lower predation rates. which intern would increase said carrying capacity. providing the tank with cleaner water to support the sps. see I'm right. # is a low population peaceful sps tank. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 Hmmm.. Bitts I think you may be on to something. I've contemplated something similar to this before, however I've had 2 major drawbacks. First, I haven't been able to light it. Next, its difficult to get some of the small gobies and such locally. It would be truly a long-term effort collecting a few different species. The good news? I've overcome my first restriction. I stopped by crappy lowes on the way home and they were out of silicone grease. So the leak remains, although I think it's gotten better slightly. The sham-wow I stuck in there was essentially dry when I came home. So instead I decided to put together my light fixture. I bought some 3/4" wood dowels and I shoved them through the copper piping to minimize any flex. I did notice a difference in stiffness. So I think it was a good call. I'm just using simple metal screws to hold it together in-case I ever have to take it off. Now on to the good stuff: PFO 250w HQI with a hamilton 14K bulb. Still haven't decided how I want to arrange the rock work. Tomorrow I'll get another 30lb bag of fine sand for the sump. Link to comment
nebthet Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Very nice.. approximately how many pounds of LR is that in there? Link to comment
bitts Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 one note of concern, well it's not running yet but still, the siphon brake line needs to be above the water line to brake the siphon. looks like it goes pretty deep into the display just hanging there. which will be bad. long term, do you plan to have it feed to the overflow or into the back up drain. or did you come up with a better option that I'm not thinking of. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 neb, I think there's about 30lbs of LR in there... It all came directly from my 29g (link in sig). Bitts, yeah I still have to work out exactly how I'm going to do the anti-siphon system. Right now there's not even any water flowing through the tube. I'm guessing that it's because the tube is so long there's too much back-pressure. Eventually I think it would be nice to set it up with hard airline tubing, but in the meantime I'll probably just cut the tube, and make an acrylic bracket to hold the end of it just barely under the water level. I'll have to test it going over to the overflow. On a side note the leak has pretty much stopped itself. I'll still get some grease tonight though since I still need to install an overflow. Link to comment
gutterguy Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 Wow AJ, im amazed at how good that looks just with the MH going. Are you going to add any other lighting? If it looks that good in person I dont think I would. Link to comment
SpringFever Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 The end of the tube should be in mid-air. If the end of the siphon tube is under water, than air won't be drawn back into the tube upon shut-off, and the siphon won't break. Or did you mean a bracket inside the weir that suspends the tube just above the waterline in the box, but just below the waterline of the display tank? Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 7, 2011 Author Share Posted January 7, 2011 Gutter: Nope, I don't think it needs any more lighting. 205w for a 17" tall tank is pretty good IMO. The light is 12" above the tank. I really really like the look of this MH. From looking at the picture you can see how much brighter the MH is compared to the 2 bulb T5HO that was there (now underneath)? Spring, I'm thinking of having it work like the picture below. Do you think that it will work how I'm planning it? I've thought about running it through to the overflow/backup drain, but I'm wondering if it would be too long and have a tough time sucking in air/water. The tube would need to be like 34 inches or so. If anyone has a better idea could you explain it, or post a link? Finally, I think I might have another thing to try with regard to the leaky bulkhead. I painted the entire back of the tank. It's spray painted pretty smoothly, but I'm wondering if that's not providing an ideal seal. I might take a razor and scrape off the paint 3/4" around the holes so that the gasket is seated right against the glass. What do you think about that? Link to comment
seabass Posted January 7, 2011 Share Posted January 7, 2011 I painted the entire back of the tank. It's spray painted pretty smoothly, but I'm wondering if that's not providing an ideal seal. I might take a razor and scrape off the paint 3/4" around the holes so that the gasket is seated right against the glass. What do you think about that?What side of the tank is the gasket on? With the back painted, I'd put the gasket on the inside. Without paint, I don't think it really matters what side of the tank the gasket is on (inside or outside). Is it a threaded bulkhead? If so, I assume that you are using teflon tape. Link to comment
bitts Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Gasket should always go on the inside of the tank, then if the treaded side of the bulkhead is inside the tank. like when using a glass holes type setup. the use of Teflon tape should be added. As to the antisiphon AJ. Would you like a Photo of my setup. Its not quite the same, yours has some improvements that I keep meaning to make, but it may help. since its running. if you could set it to a point that is below the water line, but above the weir than that would be ideal. Preventing aspiration, while not affecting backflow to the sump. still the cost benefit on this seems to be off since it would be very difficult to get just right. When there would be other ways taking much less work. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 8, 2011 Author Share Posted January 8, 2011 Bitts, I would be interested in seeing a photo of your siphon break setup. You may have a point though with the cost/benefit ratio of trying to precisely place the anti-siphon tube. I would probably be better off just sticking it into the backup drain or something. We'll see what I can come up with. If I can find some rigid tubing that's of a sufficient diameter then I think it would be much easier to set up accurately. I'm using the glass-holes style of bulkhead setup, that is, the bulkhead is backwards, oriented like the paint schematic attached. It's also of note that the bulkheads are slip/slip and the pipe coming out the back of the tank (or front of the bulkhead) is cemented. The elbow on the inside of the overflow, however, is not. So really I think I've got my gasket situation covered. The gasket that came with the bulkhead is on the outside, and I bought some gaskets at HD that were similar size and thickness, both rubber. As of now the leak has stopped itself. All that's left is a little salt trail. I probably wouldn't mess with it but I still need to install the overflow. I don't like having the setup like I do, in-case a fish or something gets too curious. Tomorrow I'll take a stab at re-making my overflow box. I'm going to drill it though before I put it together! Then I'll clean all surfaces carefully (in-case some sawdust or something has accumulated on the rubber seals) and use a dab of silicone grease on everything. I may also scrape a little paint of the back. I don't think it'll really matter much though. Today I ran the MH for 4 hours. Link to comment
bitts Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 oh 3 gaskets mmm... overkill. good job & nicely done. whats that saying. if its not over engineered, your divorced. Link to comment
bitts Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 AJ sorry this is the only one I have. I'll take another when the lights come on. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 8, 2011 Author Share Posted January 8, 2011 Oooh fancy. Those valves are like $6! I was having trouble trying to add that type of fitting to my PVC. I couldn't really find one with a 1/2" male threaded end. I would like to find one that also is a right angle. Link to comment
bitts Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 you need the 1/2" to 1/4" coupling adaptor thingy ma jig. 30 cent part kinda buried in with the rest of the pvc. then the 90* ro ballvalve's should screw right in. Link to comment
seabass Posted January 8, 2011 Share Posted January 8, 2011 Sounds like you got the leak figured out, but do make sure that you use teflon tape on all your threaded fittings. I'm doing my plumbing later today. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 9, 2011 Author Share Posted January 9, 2011 So today I finally tore down the old 29g. may it R.I.P. I decided to rinse out the sand and keep it for now (not in the new tank though). Stupid me decided to use my hands to scoop out the last bit and to stir it up in the bucket while rinsing. Bristle worms definitely got their revenge on me. Fortunately I have a lot of duct tape. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 13, 2011 Author Share Posted January 13, 2011 So I finally re-made my overflow box. Exact same dimensions and this time I drilled it before I put it together and I was a little more careful. I also used some silicone grease on the bulkhead gaskets and it turned out fine. No leaks! I spent a little while tuning it, and I think I've got it pretty silent. There's still a little bit of "flushing", but it doesn't happen very often. I've learned something very important... That when it comes to tuning your overflow, gate valve > ball valve. The ball is difficult to adjust. So here are the pictures. The new overflow looks better than the crappy white pipes, no? I still need to install some sort of fish guard... I almost had one chase some food into it tonight... Finally, I probably would have finished this whole thing sooner, but this took up a bit of my time recently... Merry Christmas to me! This replaced our 27" tube tv... I'll take a better pic once I've painted the shelves and arranged the wires. Link to comment
gutterguy Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 A mans got to have HD!! And the tank looks good too. Link to comment
ajmckay Posted January 13, 2011 Author Share Posted January 13, 2011 The only thing that sucks... We also got an x-box kinect, and within days of hooking it up, my x-box displays the red ring of death (RROD). So now it's useless and my 3yr warranty expired last month. There has recently been speculation that the kinect has caused older generation x-boxes to die... I'm calling MS tomorrow to see what they'll do. Link to comment
bitts Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 first show off. second LAME!!!!! third call ms forth murder death kill!!! Link to comment
seabass Posted January 13, 2011 Share Posted January 13, 2011 The overflow looks nice. Wow, water really improves these things...I might have to try that. Link to comment
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