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Coral Vue Hydros

RollaJase's Trip Off the Deep End - Custom Rimless 55G


RollaJase

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Great work on the plumbing. Very clean and well thought out.

Equipment - Plumbing:

Time for a run down on the plumbing side of things. I spent a lot of time looking into this with dad and I think we came up with a pretty good design, particularly on the return side of things.

 

Both drains are set up to be 20mm pipe running through 25mm bulkheads (3/4 pipe through 1" bulkheads). The return is all 15mm pipe through a 20mm bulkhead (think that is 5/8 pipe through 3/4 bulkhead). Only reason It worked out this way was because I told the builder I wanted to run 20mm drains and 15mm return. I could always scale up the pipe at a later date it I wanted to but this diameter should move ample water.

 

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I started off by mounting some pine pieces to the rear of the stand. There is a piece of 5mm thick foam between the pieces of wood and where they mount to the stand to absorb some vibration.

 

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Here you can see how to return manifold mounts to these wood pieces. I used some saddle clamps and placed some more of the 5mm foam between the manifold and where it mounts to these wood pieces.

 

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The return manifold has been set up to be able to feed 3 reactors if ever needed. Initially I only need 2 of these feeds for my current reactors so the 3rd has been capped off for the time being. The fitting going into each 'T' piece is threaded to make things easier to remove if I ever have to.

 

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The pipe between the pump and manifold is 19mm in internal diameter, slightly larger then the hard line. I did this because the ID of the smallest fitting that came with the return pump was way too small.

 

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The completed return manifold all plumbed up to the bulkhead.

 

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And the drain side of things completed also.

 

 

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For plumbing internal of the overflow box I started by breaking a few of the overflow teeth off and filling the surface down a little.

 

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The rest of the piping went in next. I painted the top portion of each pipe with some black paint so they would blend in with the overflow box and the rear of the tank. The return is glued to the bulkhead but the two drain pipes are just pressed into their slip fittings. I'm uncertain if I should glue them or allow them to seal over a few days as the slime coat builds up around the join. Not gluing them will make it much easier to service the drains.

 

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Made a small grill for the emergency drain.

 

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And lastly mounted the return nozzle. I believe this particular nozzle is a replacement from one of the Red Sea systems.

 

And there you have it :), plumbing completed.

Now she is ready for water :D.

New page sorry lol!

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Great work on the plumbing. Very clean and well thought out.

 

New page sorry lol!

I am really happy with how it all turned out. Nice, neat and effective :). Thanks!

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how much to fly you over here and build us stands and sumps and plumbing?? so much thought went into this, very impressive.

Believe me, I would love that. If I could do anything tank related and make a decent living out of it I would be all over it. I appreciate the kind words :).

 

Looking really good man. :) Wet this beast. :lol:

Only 2 more days Shaun! The changeover is happening Saturday this week, that is a definite.

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Just a small update for you all. Tank is in and running, looks like junk though as in an attempt to get it in I just threw in all the rock and corals so it just looks like a mound of rubble right now. I got the old tank torn down and the new tank in on Saturday and was able to fill the tank and move corals and fish over also. Sunday was spent moving equipment over and getting the sump filled. At this stage all the equipment is installed besides the ATO and Reactors. I'm having issues with getting the drain silent which is annoying me, lots of gurgling and wooshing and is it flushes the overflow. I managed to get it silent but the flow through the sump isn't what I would like. At the moment the DC3000 return is only running on the second speed which I think is too low. As I tidy things up and get it presentable I'll snap some pictures and make sure to do a big update. Unfortunately I don't really have any pics of the move.

 

I'm so happy to finally get this tank wet!

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Looking forward to seeing this jase!

I'm looking forward to posting the pics :D.

 

How do you make all these difficult installation things so easy! It would take me years to get it right.

Believe me Kat, the whole endeavor was far from easy haha. The whole of last week I had a knot in my stomach in anticipation for Saturday to roll around. Friday night I could barely sleep. I was just lucky that I was able to piece everything together with the system dry before moving it all in. I've always been pretty handy though, as is my dad so that really helped. His experience in irrigation and plumbing was invaluable when trying to get this all plumbed up.

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I'm looking forward to posting them :D.

 

Believe me Kat, the whole endeavor was far from easy haha. The whole of last week I had a knot in my stomach in anticipation for Saturday to roll around. Friday night I could barely sleep. I was just lucky that I was able to piece everything together with the system dry before moving it all in. I've always been pretty handy though, as is my dad so that really helped. His experience in irrigation and plumbing was invaluable when trying to get this all plumbed up.

Well good,we're all on the same page then! :D
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So I think I just found out why my drains are louder then they should be.

http://www.dursostandpipes.com/make-your-own-durso-standpipe

According to the above, I think I undersized my standpipes. As I mentioned previously my drain bulkheads are 1" (25mm) and I'm using 3/4" (20mm) piping either side of the bulkhead. I'm wondering it re-making the standpipe out of 25-30mm pipe will help me with my issues. Effectively my bulkhead is acting as 3/4" (20mm) due to my installed reducers and the directions in the link I should be using at least a 1 1/4" standpipe for it to work effectively.

 

What are your thoughts on this? If I had actually bothered to read this link (that I had bookmarked) before making the standpipes I wouldn't have installed a reducer in the threaded fitting and could have gone straight from 25mm to 30mm. I might have to remove the bulkheads and pull the threaded adapters out as well.

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jedimasterben

Yes, you need to oversize the plumbing in the overflow box itself, and then run 1" from the bulkhead to the exit in the sump, and don't use any angle fittings if possible. FlexPVC is amazing for this.

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Yes, you need to oversize the plumbing in the overflow box itself, and then run 1" from the bulkhead to the exit in the sump, and don't use any angle fittings if possible. FlexPVC is amazing for this.

Ben, can you please take a look at the pictures of the plumbing above? In terms of running 1" from the bulkhead I don't really have the room for it without using elbows, the 3/4" was a tight enough squeeze, especially when trying to fit a valve on the primary. I should be able to get 600GPH through a 3/4" bulkhead so I think that should be fine with two RW-4's up top. Do you think if I replaced the 3/4" piping in the overflow with 30mm (1.2") that it would be fine? or should I go larger? I could potentially get 40mm in there but I think 1.5" would be too large.

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jedimasterben

Ok, went back and looked at the photos. Under the tank looks fine since it isn't 90 elbows. The overflow box, though, you don't need the Durso. You want the primary drain to basically be an open channel, using the ball valve to tune it so that it is full siphon with just the tiniest trickle of water going through the second drain, which you want to have the Durso installed on instead just being a straight pipe :)

 

The primary drain you can use what you have now (without the durso bits), and the secondary drain use 30mm that converts to 25mm right at the bulkhead and use the Durso on that pipe. :)

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Ok, went back and looked at the photos. Under the tank looks fine since it isn't 90 elbows. The overflow box, though, you don't need the Durso. You want the primary drain to basically be an open channel, using the ball valve to tune it so that it is full siphon with just the tiniest trickle of water going through the second drain, which you want to have the Durso installed on instead just being a straight pipe :)

 

The primary drain you can use what you have now (without the durso bits), and the secondary drain use 30mm that converts to 25mm right at the bulkhead and use the Durso on that pipe. :)

Thanks Ben!

 

Ok, just to get it straight. Keep primary the same diameter but remove the durso head. Secondary drain enlarge to 30mm pipe and have a slight trickle running through it. I guess I'll need to fiddle around with the heights of the pipes to get everything running smoothly. I'm guessing the inlet on the durso needs to be roughly 1" higher in the overflow box to the primary? I may be able to get the primary sorted tonight then and make a trip to the hardware store to get the rest of the durso bits later this week. It won't be perfect until then but it will be better then what it is.

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jedimasterben

Thanks Ben!

 

Ok, just to get it straight. Keep primary the same diameter but remove the durso head. Secondary drain enlarge to 30mm pipe and have a slight trickle running through it. I guess I'll need to fiddle around with the heights of the pipes to get everything running smoothly. I'm guessing the inlet on the durso needs to be roughly 1" higher in the overflow box to the primary? I may be able to get the primary sorted tonight then and make a trip to the hardware store to get the rest of the durso bits later this week. It won't be perfect until then but it will be better then what it is.

Yes to pretty much everything there. Make sure that there is at least a 6" difference in height between the two drains (so that there can be enough pressure to force a full siphon) and then from there play with the Durso standpipe height so that it minimizes the noise of water falling into the overflow. :)

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Yes to pretty much everything there. Make sure that there is at least a 6" difference in height between the two drains (so that there can be enough pressure to force a full siphon) and then from there play with the Durso standpipe height so that it minimizes the noise of water falling into the overflow. :)

Thanks again Ben! Last question, would I have the Durso exiting below the surface of the water in the sump or just splashing down? My primary at the moment exits roughly 1" under the water line in the drain chamber.

 

So my overflow from the base of the teeth to bottom glass is about 16" tall. If I make the primary drain roughly 8" tall and then make the durso so it draws in at a few inches below the base of the overflow teeth then I should be fine. I'll fiddle around with the primary tonight to get it full siphon and then can mess around with the Durso later in the week. I have plenty of 3/4" / 20mm PVC laying around so I can afford to mess up a few times as I experiment with the primary.

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jedimasterben

Thanks again Ben! Last question, would I have the Durso exiting below the surface of the water in the sump or just splashing down? My primary at the moment exits roughly 1" under the water line in the drain chamber.

 

So my overflow from the base of the teeth to bottom glass is about 16" tall. If I make the primary drain roughly 8" tall and then make the durso so it draws in at a few inches below the base of the overflow teeth then I should be fine. I'll fiddle around with the primary tonight to get it full siphon and then can mess around with the Durso later in the week. I have plenty of 3/4" / 20mm PVC laying around so I can afford to mess up a few times as I experiment with the primary.

How you have it entering the sump is good, you want there to be a little bit of backpressure on it.

 

In my 80, I had to raise the Durso standpipe to where it was basically even with the overflow teeth, so that the water only 'fell' like 1/2" or so, that was the only way it would be quiet.

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How you have it entering the sump is good, you want there to be a little bit of backpressure on it.

 

In my 80, I had to raise the Durso standpipe to where it was basically even with the overflow teeth, so that the water only 'fell' like 1/2" or so, that was the only way it would be quiet.

Ok cool, I'll leave the in stand plumbing as it is then and just play with the stuff in the overflow. Thanks again Ben, you have been a big help :). My next project is the light, I'm sure I'll have some more questions for you there haha.

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You have some mad plumbing skills. Absolutely my least favorite part of the hobby is plumbing. You make it look easy..

Haha thank you. Plumbing is always something I try to take the time to do right but it does take a lot of time. The above plumbing took me about 3 solid days of work to finish. I made a mistake which ended up costing me a day or so. It's also not a cheap exercise to do right, so far I spent roughly $230AUD on various PVC bits (taking into account my $40 stuff up). My new skimmer wont even cost me that much lol.

 

Now if only I can scape and stock this tank to your expert level ;).

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Went to the hardware store last night to purchase the additional PVC bits I needed to rectify the overflow issues as per Ben's advice. Of course they had every 32mm piece I needed besides a 32mm to 25mm reducer <_< . Now I have to wait until the weekend and run around trying to find this piece.

 

In other news, while I was at the hardware store I picked up the remaining materials that I needed to make the screen top for the tank so I postponed gym and I got that finished in a little over an hour. I also managed to get the ATO installed and further tidied up some cables in the stand.

 

The last 4 components to go in is the second RW-4 (which I am fairly sure is faulty still), my two reactors and the dosing pump. The doser needs a serious service as the heads have started squeaking while metering. I need to pull the dust covers off each head, give them a clean and lubricate the rollers. At this stage I'm not testing any levels (Alk, Cal and Mag) and I doubt I will experience any serious fluctuations with the corals that remain so I'm not in any serious rush to get the doser installed.

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Half scaped the tank last night and I'm pretty happy with it. Not quite what I envisaged but it provides me with lots of open swimming space, an open sand bed and some prime real estate for my SPS/LPS plans. Got held up with family stuff last night so unfortunately no update and I won't get to it tonight either I'm afraid. There will definitely be a picture update over the weekend as I want to fiddle with the scape more and add some more sand before I'll be happy to show it off :).

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Equipment - Lighting:

For the light I opted for a custom build using NanoBox V3 arrays, 6 in total powered by am O2Surplus driver board and controlled by a BlueFish mini controller. I wanted a strong light with spectral control and this fit the build. At the time of building Dave hadn't released the Quad Wide yet, if it had been available I would probably have gone this route for a slightly sleeker design.

 

The body of the light is pretty much solid aluminium. 6 x extruded aluminium fin pieces make up the bulk of the heat sink assembly which is mounted to a 3mm piece of aluminium sheet as a base. There are pieces of 0.5mm thick thermal pad sandwiched between the base plate and the heatsink pieces. The entire heatsink is cooled by two 140mm, 2000rpm PWM computer fans which are controlled by the driver board inside.

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The upper casing of the light is built out of aluminium angle pieces and acrylic to make a rectangular box. This was covered with automotive body filler and smoothed before being painted gloss white. The driver board sits in the middle and all of the LDD and SCW meanwell drivers get active cooling as a byproduct of the fan placement.

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From an LED perspective the fixture has two rows of 3 arrays. These are a mix of 4x V3 arrays and 2x V3.1 arrays. I ended up breaking a few diodes on a couple of arrays and had to replace them when the V3 was already discontinued. A frosted splash guard of 4mm acrylic helps diffuse the light a nd protects the exposed diodes from any splashing.

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Some beauty shots of the fixture fired up.

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Equipment - Final Install Pictures:

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Tank looking good finally in it's new home. The old tank was in exactly the same position and while this one is almost double the water volume the footprint between the two is almost exactly the same.

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A quick tour of the installed sump shows that with even the best planning things still look cluttered lol. I have tried to utilize as much space inside the stand as I could while keeping things tidy so I'm not constantly banging into things while doing maintenance. I utilised some of the space directly under the tank to store some not frequently used items like cleaning brushes and frag racks.

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From an electrical stand point I am really happy with how everything turned out. All cables are neat, tidy and out of the way of hands and water. I used screw in eyelets to run a power extension cable across the top of the stand to power the skimmer, this saved me having to route a cable along the bottom of the stand taking up valuable space. At the moment I am still using my old UPS for battery backup. It will give me roughly 1 hour of up-time in the event of a power outage. I plan on making a second UPS purely to run my return and circulation pumps off of.

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