Blueworld Posted August 24, 2012 Author Share Posted August 24, 2012 So I decided to drill the holes for my overflow and put together the plumbing for it, after some thinking and some cutting to make it all work in a small space, this is what i have so far Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 24, 2012 Author Share Posted August 24, 2012 Today I got quite a bit of stuff done, I got the glass for the overflow cut and put together, I picked up a peice of black acrylic to put inside the tank as a background to cover everyything up and i got the plumbing all together for the backside of the tank More to come as it all goes together tonight Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 25, 2012 Author Share Posted August 25, 2012 Can you spot the snooper?? Link to comment
chachew Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Really sweet setup so far man! Following this Link to comment
aaron1987 Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 With that beautiful overflow and wave box it seems a shame to hide them with black acrylic! I was scared enough to drill my tank for bulkheads... Don't know how you got the courage for that weir! I'm thoroughly impressed Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 25, 2012 Author Share Posted August 25, 2012 Really sweet setup so far man! Following this Thanks a lot! I have some pretty big ideas rolling around in my head that I need to get out! With that beautiful overflow and wave box it seems a shame to hide them with black acrylic! I was scared enough to drill my tank for bulkheads... Don't know how you got the courage for that weir! I'm thoroughly impressed I know, but I didn't want to be able to see anything on the inside of the tank besides the reef, no pumps to heaters or anything Sweet tank so far! Thanks very much! Sweet tank so far! Ps. I followed your build, I love that tank! there was a lot of problem solving that went into that one. I was also curious to know where you got the bulkhead covers from and if they made them in 1.5" for my wave box Link to comment
Scorched Posted August 25, 2012 Share Posted August 25, 2012 Ps. I followed your build, I love that tank! there was a lot of problem solving that went into that one. I was also curious to know where you got the bulkhead covers from and if they made them in 1.5" for my wave box Ya it turned out that in the end my calculations were correct if you were following along with my build. At first my pump at full blast seemed to overflow my display and I was at a loss at so why my dual 1" drains couldnt keep up. Fast forward about 4-5 months and now I have the pump running at 100% power and the water level equalizes about 1" from the rim and I get tons of water movement. The 1" bulkhead screens I bought off amazon. They are JT Bulkhead Screens I dont think I found them in any size besides 1" though. Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 Ya it turned out that in the end my calculations were correct if you were following along with my build. At first my pump at full blast seemed to overflow my display and I was at a loss at so why my dual 1" drains couldnt keep up. Fast forward about 4-5 months and now I have the pump running at 100% power and the water level equalizes about 1" from the rim and I get tons of water movement. The 1" bulkhead screens I bought off amazon. They are JT Bulkhead Screens I dont think I found them in any size besides 1" though. Yeah I followed the whole build, I was kinda stumped by the flow problems you had too! Thanks for the covers but they dont make then in my size so i retrofitted the old one off the wavebox and this how it ended up So i couldnt wait any longer and the minute i had finished my overflow I get it all wet to see how it would work and let me tell you, it went just swimmingly!! take a look and last but not least...VIDEO THAT IS REALLY HAPPENED Link to comment
JR! Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 the only word that i can come up with is wow. Link to comment
Hexadron Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 This is awesome. Hello fellow Albertan. Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 the only word that i can come up with is wow. I just sat there and watched after i got it all going, the overflow is stupidly easy to get set, the wave on the other hand took some time, but yeah after i sat back thats about all i could think of to say too haha kinda surprised myself Link to comment
divy Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 the tank is coming along nicely! i love the amount of detail you put into the DIY parts keep us updated oh could i suggest something? is there a way to paint the white plastic that is around that awsome wave maker black? i just think personally it would hide it better since a clean no equipment look is what you are doing its just a suggestion though Link to comment
Boomsnapp Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Hey! I love the ingenuity that you took to make your tank so awesome! I have one concern though, and its just something you might want to think about going forward. I noticed that your wavemaker is making waves that reach about an inch from the top of your tank. So far that doesnt seem to be a problem, however once you start adding rock, sand, etc to the tank the amount of water that gets displaced from it all might be enough to make your tank overflow since the water level will be higher. So you might want to tune your wavemaker so it doesnt flow so strong to compensate for anything you add to the tank in the future. Again, I think your tank is awesome so far and I just hope you take what I said into consideration. Im no expert by any means so I might be totally wrong though! Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 the tank is coming along nicely! i love the amount of detail you put into the DIY parts keep us updated oh could i suggest something? is there a way to paint the white plastic that is around that awsome wave maker black? i just think personally it would hide it better since a clean no equipment look is what you are doing its just a suggestion though Thanks Divy! actually funny you mention that I was going to do that tomorrow haha I have a tube of "orca" black glue that i used to hold my frags down with my last tank I was going to give it a nice once over with it to make it not stick out. ill post the pictures as they come Hey! I love the ingenuity that you took to make your tank so awesome! I have one concern though, and its just something you might want to think about going forward. I noticed that your wavemaker is making waves that reach about an inch from the top of your tank. So far that doesnt seem to be a problem, however once you start adding rock, sand, etc to the tank the amount of water that gets displaced from it all might be enough to make your tank overflow since the water level will be higher. So you might want to tune your wavemaker so it doesnt flow so strong to compensate for anything you add to the tank in the future. Again, I think your tank is awesome so far and I just hope you take what I said into consideration. Im no expert by any means so I might be totally wrong though! I was thinking the same thing actually, thats why i went with the beananimal overflow because it ends up being self levelling and self adjusting. If im adding things to the tank i dont have to worry about it overflowing because I set the height of the open air tub on the overflow to just above the normal water line, so when the water rises it causes the normally open channel pipe to pull a full syphon and quickly deals with the extra water, and once it has gone done the syphon is broken and everything is all good again..ingenious really! Thanks for the input to everyone! I love hearing feed back, both good and bad! Id rather take the time and sort out all the kinks now then once i have fish in there haha Link to comment
aaron1987 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 You really have one of the most innovative foundations that I've seen in awhile. I cannot wait to see this thing fully set up and teeming with life! Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 28, 2012 Author Share Posted August 28, 2012 You really have one of the most innovative foundations that I've seen in awhile. I cannot wait to see this thing fully set up and teeming with life! Wow, thank you very much for that! Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 28, 2012 Author Share Posted August 28, 2012 Update! ok so today was pretty good all around however I had a hickup and its set me back some cash and some time but id rather have it happen now then later. It was my own fault I wasnt quite thinking and I went to put the pluming together with the bulkhead tightened up and on the last joint of the last drain this happened But after a long moment of staring with a blank look of derision and disappointment at my stupidity, i pulled it off the tank and and started to do something I couldnt break haha I covered the white tube inside my wavebox with some black ORCA marine glue, I used it because that stuff is like tar it sticks to everything in one coat, i put some on my finger and began to smear it around, then i covered the white impeller of the pump too! everything is black now! Then after I had gotten over my newly found irrational fear of plumbing and armed with me new found knowledge of tightened bulkhead is finished up my return line Link to comment
bdevillier19 Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 your tank is amazing! the amount of work and the attention to detail are top notch. you have taken Mr. Aqua DIY to a new level. most people are afraid of drilling their tanks, let alone going crazy with the dremel and cutting big pieces out of their brand new tank. when i saw the pics of the broken overflow my heart skipped a beat till i figured out what i was looking at. thought i was looking at the tank for a moment. keep it up, looking awesome. Link to comment
DRLOVEtoreef Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Amazing build so far ... could you share where you find out the information on the wavebox .. was it trial and error on the dimensions or did you find it in another forum? I am building a new setup and I would really like to incorporate that ... thanks for sharing. Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 28, 2012 Author Share Posted August 28, 2012 your tank is amazing! the amount of work and the attention to detail are top notch. you have taken Mr. Aqua DIY to a new level. most people are afraid of drilling their tanks, let alone going crazy with the dremel and cutting big pieces out of their brand new tank. when i saw the pics of the broken overflow my heart skipped a beat till i figured out what i was looking at. thought i was looking at the tank for a moment. keep it up, looking awesome. Oh i know right! haha my heart dropped too but sometimes you just have to give the people something shockng to see to keep then interested hahah but ive managed to save most of the plumbing but I kinda lucked out on that one, I managed to dremel the bulkheads off the ball valves and now all i need is a new peice of glass and three new bulkheads Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 28, 2012 Author Share Posted August 28, 2012 Amazing build so far ... could you share where you find out the information on the wavebox .. was it trial and error on the dimensions or did you find it in another forum? I am building a new setup and I would really like to incorporate that ... thanks for sharing. Hey there! I didnt find plans for the wavebox anywhere I just went and cut my own trail in external wave box design i suppose haha. I played around with the functioning tunze wavebox to see what would work and what wouldnt, as far as placement, orientation, and the depth at which the wave started. i also looked into how the wave would suffer from turning a 90 degree corner and found that the only real way to make it functional was to strip the existing wavebox down to just the pump then build a glass box on the back, that would be comparable in water volume to the original plastic wavebox. The box i have now has about 25% more water in it because I have the pump sitting higher respectively inside the box because of the bulkhead. However the pump is at the same height inside the tank that it would have been if the pump was still the original tunze casing. I started by identifying where my hole would have to go and then determined the size of bulkhead needed to act as the pump shroud to direct the flow into the tank, once that was established i knew the volume of the box would be heigher then the original because I set the depth of the hole to the depth of the original when it was fully submerged in the water. After that it was just about finding a way to mount the pump with the original tunze magnet and setting the length of the box to accommodate that. Link to comment
imadams Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 WORK OF ART SIR...WORK OF ART, KEEP US POSTED BRO Link to comment
DRLOVEtoreef Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 Hey there! I didnt find plans for the wavebox anywhere I just went and cut my own trail in external wave box design i suppose haha. I played around with the functioning tunze wavebox to see what would work and what wouldnt, as far as placement, orientation, and the depth at which the wave started. i also looked into how the wave would suffer from turning a 90 degree corner and found that the only real way to make it functional was to strip the existing wavebox down to just the pump then build a glass box on the back, that would be comparable in water volume to the original plastic wavebox. The box i have now has about 25% more water in it because I have the pump sitting higher respectively inside the box because of the bulkhead. However the pump is at the same height inside the tank that it would have been if the pump was still the original tunze casing. I started by identifying where my hole would have to go and then determined the size of bulkhead needed to act as the pump shroud to direct the flow into the tank, once that was established i knew the volume of the box would be heigher then the original because I set the depth of the hole to the depth of the original when it was fully submerged in the water. After that it was just about finding a way to mount the pump with the original tunze magnet and setting the length of the box to accommodate that. Thank you ... an amazing job and I look forward to seeing this progress Link to comment
Blueworld Posted August 28, 2012 Author Share Posted August 28, 2012 Thank you ... an amazing job and I look forward to seeing this progress I posted a video that might help explain things a little better take a look! Link to comment
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