Shallow Office Reef - "Great things are not done by impulse..."

[--chris--]

Durr!  I forgot about the glass shops.  There are two within ten minutes, I have called them before.  

 

No excuses, I've had plenty of coffee today.  

[--chris--]

Tanks in place.  

[--chris--]

I ordered up a bulkhead since it was going to be quicker than me running to the glass store.  It however, is not the correct size, the hole drilled is smaller than a 1/2" bulkhead.  I have no idea what size it is, but its tiny.  

 

So back to getting some scrap glass and aquarium safe silicone.  

 

Honestly, I do have a 50 breeder that would work just as well...no holes drilled in that lol.  

[JBM]

Your going to enjoy the 48x24 footprint. Loads of potential 

[--chris--]

I am really looking forward to the 'creative' side of this build once I get there.  If this new job works out, I might treat myself to some giant shelf rock in middle (like a bommie or island).  No sand, its too hard to get good flow in a shallow tank with sand.  

[mitten_reef]

1 hour ago, --chris-- said:

I am really looking forward to the 'creative' side of this build once I get there.  If this new job works out, I might treat myself to some giant shelf rock in middle (like a bommie or island).  No sand, its too hard to get good flow in a shallow tank with sand.  

ooh, I like that idea!  and good luck. 

[--chris--]

Patched the hole and put the sump divider in.  

[--chris--]

Thinking (I know....dangerous) out loud here....

 

The decision to go with 1/8" for the patch was kind of a no brainier, its a good fit for such a small application.  

 

The decision to go with 1/8" for the divider gave me some pause...but ultimately, since a failure of this piece would only cause the pump/ATO section to flood (worst case) I am ok with it.  Besides, it will have 8" of water on one side and 10" of water on the other side.  Very little stress on it.  

 

I am mounting the power strip to the wall today, have some plumbing parts for the return ordered (deliver ETA is this week) and have the PVC parts to complete the drain side.  I need to find some rock, thinking of going with marco rocks.  

 

The ATO will be magnet mounted (need to do).  

[JBM]

1 hour ago, --chris-- said:

since a failure of this piece would only cause the pump/ATO section to flood (worst case) I am ok with it.  Besides, it will have 8" of water on one side and 10" of water on the other side.  Very little stress on it. 

 

Since your building everything new. Why not just go for 3/16 or 1/4? Its what? $3 more?

Having several gallons of fresh ro dumped into your return section isnt good. Then having to take the sump offline, dry everything, and redo a baffle.

[--chris--]

Availability of thicker glass is the primary reason.  The local glass shop was not interested in a small order like mine.  I ping'd a few locals to see if they had any broken tanks (I can cut glass up to 1/4"), but nothing panned out.  

 

If this fails, the ATO would not kick on because the water level would rise in the ATO/return pump section (not drop).  I wasn't even going to add a baffle, but I don't like having to evap a lot of water for the ATO to kick on.  Adding a small baffle gives me a small section for the return pump to sit in, allowing the ATO to kick on more frequently.  

 

Make sense?  

[asting]

On 3/20/2019 at 1:28 PM, --chris-- said:

Availability of thicker glass is the primary reason.  The local glass shop was not interested in a small order like mine.  I ping'd a few locals to see if they had any broken tanks (I can cut glass up to 1/4"), but nothing panned out.  

 

If this fails, the ATO would not kick on because the water level would rise in the ATO/return pump section (not drop).  I wasn't even going to add a baffle, but I don't like having to evap a lot of water for the ATO to kick on.  Adding a small baffle gives me a small section for the return pump to sit in, allowing the ATO to kick on more frequently.  

 

Make sense?  

If the divider fails, it would mix both ways so it would drop your salinity.

 

It's interesting you are having such trouble. I usually have done acrylic for AIO baffles, but I have had small glass pieces made without too much fuss.

[JBM]

32 minutes ago, asting said:

If the divider fails, it would mix both ways so it would drop your salinity.

 

Thats what i said. $3 worth of extra glass is cheap insurance 

[--chris--]

 

On 3/22/2019 at 11:46 AM, asting said:

If the divider fails, it would mix both ways so it would drop your salinity.

 

It's interesting you are having such trouble. I usually have done acrylic for AIO baffles, but I have had small glass pieces made without too much fuss.

 

On 3/22/2019 at 12:19 PM, JBM said:

 

Thats what i said. $3 worth of extra glass is cheap insurance 

 

I believe there is a miscommunication here. The water in the baffled section (aka return section) is tank water.  IF the baffle fails, it would mix tank water with tank water.  See below for the "big picture", maybe it makes sense now?  Excuse the random parts laying around, its a work in progress still.............

 

Build update: I might have a line on some  dry rock locally, we are going back and forth but should know this week if we have a deal.  

 

[asting]

47 minutes ago, --chris-- said:

 

 

 

I believe there is a miscommunication here. The water in the baffled section (aka return section) is tank water.  IF the baffle fails, it would mix tank water with tank water.  See below for the "big picture", maybe it makes sense now?  Excuse the random parts laying around, its a work in progress still.............

 

Build update: I might have a line on some  dry rock locally, we are going back and forth but should know this week if we have a deal.  

 

Ah I see the float switch. It's the chamber your ato feeds into, not where the freshwater is stored.

[JBM]

I understand now. Carry on good sir.

 

Nice open sump. Will make things easy

[--chris--]

On 3/27/2019 at 11:55 AM, JBM said:

I understand now. Carry on good sir.

 

Nice open sump. Will make things easy

I already have a nano and the scrapes and frustration that comes with confined spaces!   If im going to have a sump, its going to be wide-open-spaces 😋.

 

Got 10 lbs of rock from my dad “for the cause” (he gets me).  Need another 50 lbs or so....

[JBM]

26 minutes ago, --chris-- said:

Got 10 lbs of rock from my dad “for the cause” (he gets me).  Need another 50 lbs or so....

 

That will be me in 15-20 years. 

 

Check out chewy dot com they have very reasonable prices on base rock.

[--chris--]

10 lbs received from my dad, 50 lbs of rock should be here by next Friday. Two bags of IO salt on the way....

 

I am water testing it right now, so far so good!  Had a few minor issues, but nothing an extra turn on the bulkhead nut or shove on the fittings didn't fix.  Still have a minor leak on the return plumbing somewhere, but all in due time.

 

Speaking of return plumbing, wow I love this Jebao DC pump!  It ramps up slowly, its super quiet. Easily the quietest pump I have ever run. Plenty of flow at max speed, I dialed it back 4 spots during testing and it seemed perfect. 

[--chris--]

I have the tank running wet now as a test.  The return is a bit louder than I want, I may drain the top 5-6" of water into the sump and remove the piece of glass covering the 3 holes in the back wall of the top tank to setup 2 more drains and use a modified bean overflow with a valve, suction and e-pipe.  Ill see if a proper durso will quiet down the single drain and go from there.

 

The return pump made a few 'grindy' noises during the first 10 minutes of operation, but the past 3 hours its been dead silent again.  I had to check it a few times to see if it was running.  Hopefully the weird noise up front was a one time event.  

 

If no leaks pop up Ill start mixing salt tomorrow, then by the end of this week I should have a salty tank with 60+ lbs of rock in it.  That sounds like a start!  

[--chris--]

I spent about 30 minutes cutting excess sealant, wedging spudgers, pushing thin razors, etc...in an attempt to try and remove the piece of glass covering the three holes I want to use as a drain but no luck.  It feels like I would need to try and break the glass from the other side and pick it apart from there...which sounds risky as hell and it is.  

 

I have the return pump dialed all the way down to 30% right now which is probably ~250 gph and its still noisy.  

 

I need to figure a way out of this.  

[asting]

On 4/12/2019 at 11:13 AM, --chris-- said:

10 lbs received from my dad, 50 lbs of rock should be here by next Friday. Two bags of IO salt on the way....

 

I am water testing it right now, so far so good!  Had a few minor issues, but nothing an extra turn on the bulkhead nut or shove on the fittings didn't fix.  Still have a minor leak on the return plumbing somewhere, but all in due time.

 

Speaking of return plumbing, wow I love this Jebao DC pump!  It ramps up slowly, its super quiet. Easily the quietest pump I have ever run. Plenty of flow at max speed, I dialed it back 4 spots during testing and it seemed perfect. 

Good luck with your plumbing! There was a big salt sale at live aquaria if you aren't picky. i picked 3 buckets up at $30 a pop.

[--chris--]

I have started breaking off little pieces of the glass covering the holes.  Its slow going, but its less risky than jamming piece of metal into it.  Ill need to dump the remaining water in the top of the tank (~20 gallons) and refill, get some more plumbing parts...but I think this will quiet things down and provide some redundancy.  

[--chris--]

Well I did a thing.....I honestly did not expect that to work! 

 

Two hours of hammer, chisel, spike and razor blade and I have 3 more drains to pick from!  Or 1 additional 1.5" drain and 2 3/4" returns for a closed loop.  

 

[--chris--]

Also, rock.   It’s ok rock, not terrible but not like @johnmaloney rock.

 

$70 for 50 lbs shipped I won’t complain.  It will work well in the sump.

[johnmaloney]

I don't mean to cause you alarm, but that is straight from the ground. It hasn't been processed in any way, and it appears to be top soil rock. I wouldn't disparage another vendor, but this notification popped up in my mentions from you so I thought I should say something. You may want to try to clean it up a bit.