Scott's 270g aka Project Mayhem

Scythanith

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Hi All, my buddy Colby was talking about r2r and I remembered I had an account here. I will try and copy/paste my build that started last year here. Please feel free to ask anything! I hope to learn much more about SPS and automation here.

Cheers,
Scott
 
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Scythanith

Scythanith

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We bought a new home 5 years ago and the plan was always to develop the basement into a comfortable living space that accommodates our love for animals. My wife Wendy has ~10-15 snakes at any given time depending on if any one is breeding, a tarantula, Aussie Frilled Dragon, Plated Lizard. I just took down my 85 gal and moved the inhabitants to a 40 gal on rollers to make the development a little easier. I have had a 10 gal nano, 20 gal mantis tank, 85 gal mixed reef. We also have a red eared slider and an awesome pound dog named Jasper.


6 snake tanks are incorporated into one of the walls and mounted on 200lb sliders to make pulling them out of the shelf unit for maintenance easier. They will have pocket doors over the fronts of the tanks that are finished in an Espresso coloured wood veneer. Just think Petland or something like that.


On to the good stuff! Before I get too far into I want to that Steve (sphelps), Colby with Bayside Corals and Denny at Concept Aquariums, I could not have done this without them. I tsarted a thread way back when but it fell to the wayside. You can find it here (360 gal display!! Stoked! - Reef Central Online Community). I asked Wendy what we should called the build thread and she said Project Mayhem, so I present to you Project Mayhem!


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It is a 270 gal (72"w x 36"d x 24"t) with an external overflow on the left hand side. It's all 1/2" glass with the front and right side viewing panels being made out of starfire glass. It has a 1/2" plywood base glued to the bottom pane. The euro bracing is drilled for the returns.


The sumps are in a stacked configuration. The water from the overflow is fed into the sumps with 2 x 2" returns. The first chamber is a frag tank, the second is the return pumps. There is an overflow to the lower sump which will feed the skimmer, reactors, filter bags, and refugium. It's also has a water change chamber and an emergency overflow. I know this goes against the conventional thinking that the dirtiest water should hit the skimmer first, but I am going to utilize the energy from the overflow feeding into the sump for frags. The skimmed/reactor/refugium water will be fed back into the pump chamber and returned to the display tank.


I traditionally have used overdriven T5's for my reef tanks but and switching over to LED's. I have purchased 3 Mitras fixtures so hopefully that should cover the coral's lighting needs. The returns and reactor pump with likely be DC Wavelines. In-tank circulation will be handled by four Vortech MP40w's. One underneath the overflow and three along the back wall. I will put one on the right viewing pane if need be but I want to keep the pane clean. I will likely wrap the pack pane in black vinyl.


I am not sure about my skimmer yet. I have a BK Mini 180 and I like the quality, but I also use a Euro-Reef RC-1000 and it's been great aside from cooking a pump once. I am thinking a BK supermarin 200, but hate to overpay if there is something equivalent in quality/performance for less.


OK, so that should sum up what I am thinking of. Now for the good stuff!


Design phase:


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Building the stand, preparing the fish room and getting the basement ready:


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Scythanith

Scythanith

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The fishroom is wired with 2 20 amp breakers. The first powers the 4 receptacle on the left hand side of the room. The second runs 6 receptacles along the back wall, with the final two on GFCI. I know it's overkill, but I'd rather that than kick a breaker after a power outage. I know the LED's and DC pumps should really soften startup but a little overkill isn't a bad thing. The sink will be a stainless scullery sink that can easily fit 5 gal pails. There is some cabinet and cupboard space, as well as wall space for the RO/DI. The salt and fresh reservoirs will be set in another room most likely, but I will fit them by the sumps if possible.


I plan on using either a profilux or a neptune controller. I haven't really decided either way yet.
 
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Scythanith

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Delivery day came and went! There was a great old storm coming through but the tank was unloaded and not a chip or crack in it.


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I hired one company that brought it into the house but then looked at the stairwell and said no way. So I built a 2x2 frame of the exact tank dimensions (minus the overflow) and made a dry run through the stairwell and it fit, just like my measurements suggested it would, sans overflow.


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After trying to cut the overflow off for over five hours (razor blade, 20g wire, etc.) and with the movers coming in a couple hours I made the hard decision and broke the smallest pane on the overflow and peeled the rest off. It came off easy once I had the once pane off. Made me cry inside a little but oh well, better the tank is downstairs and I have to repair one little pane of glass.


So the movers showed up and looked at the route and weren't too stoked. But they didn't complain, just got their equipment together and got to work, The laid the tank, starfire up, on the piano dolly, then lashed a wheeled dolly onto the overflow side. After some swearing and back breaking work, they had it down safe and sound! I paid them, am tipped them well to boot!


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Here it is in place!


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Scythanith

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My friend Steve and my Dad have helped me over the last couple days to get some more drywall put up. The fish room is really near complete in that regard. The drywall in the fish room is Certainteed M2Tech Moisture & Mold resistant so that should help our HVAC fight the higher than usual humidity.


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Scythanith

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Man developing the basement is taking forever! I finally had time to put in the floor drain, build the sump stand, and silicone the overflow back on. I won't likely get a chance to plumb it before I go back to work but we shall see what happens on monday!


Rigging to hold over flow in place while silicone dried.
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General arrangement. The floor drain will have the water change valve and emergency overflow plumbed directly to it.
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I will try to describe the flow of water through the sumps. You can see the primary frag chamber top left, return pump chamber top middle, and overflow top right. The skimmer chamber is bottom right, filter basket chamber bottom middle, return pump chamber bottom left, refugium bottom far left.


The refugium will be fed off a manifold powered by the lower sumps return pump. The manifold will also feed a couple reactors for bio pellets and GFO.


Slowly but surely it's coming together.
 
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Scythanith

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Grouting is done, lights are rudimentarily up. I plan on cleaning up the wiring and probably raising the lights up to the main support beam to give me a little more head room when I raise the lights to the roof for maintenance. All I have to do is tighten up the aircraft cable between the lights and the beam.


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Scythanith

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Some progress has been made! You can see the scullery sink we had made up sitting in place. It will sit "on top" of the countertop once it's in. I think we will buy some back splash tiles from HD or Rona and do a back splash as well. Above the back splash will be some peg board or something like that to hang tools.


You can see the opening on the left for the mini freezer.


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Scythanith

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The cabinetry is close to done. There are some big corrections that need to be made but you can get the overall idea. The gap in the doors on both the snake tanks and aquarium top need to be backed so there is no light leak. The lower brace on the aquarium top needs to be altered so I don't lean on it when I get into the tank from the front. Countertops need to be installed. Blah blah blah. Carpets were to be installed on wednesday but they double booked and bounced us to next week.


On a side note, I am tired of dealing with contractors that don't seem to care.


Enjoy!


Snake wall
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Scythanith

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Some tank shots. Carpet's in, baseboards are on!


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Fish room.


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The Snake wall. Still needs some backing, tanks cleaned, a little light sealing, bla bla bla.


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Fireplace, cabinetry, carpets, tile... nearly done!


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I still need some ducting work, and a light fixture or two. Then all the work on the tank :)


Cheers,
Scott
 
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Scythanith

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I pulled the trigger and ordered a Profilux 3.1N eX Ultimate set, a second 6D-PAB powerbar, mitras controller, vortech controller, some optical level sensors, and a humidity/temperature sensor and card, slave doser.


I decided to go with GHL since I have 3 Mitras already, and the programming support is there if you look for it, and the programability is endless. I want the Mitras and doser to be controlled, ATO & AWC operational, email alerts and monitoring/controllability away from the system. I want to be able to ***** the system for Wendy when I am away from work!


It won't all be in until the start of October, which is ok since that's when the RD3 80w is supposed to be released. If the pumps aren't ready then I have decided to buy the Abyzz pumps, which are available now.
 
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Scythanith

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Say hello to sleepy plugs little friend! Big shout out to Jean-francois at Marinetech Innovations Inc., Michael at AquaDigital and Colby at Bayside Corals for bringing it all together!


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And some more goodies showed up today!


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There is a crap load of sensors and wiring to do now! I am fighting with one little hiccup. One of my overflow return pipes is ~11/32" too low and ~1/8" too short. I can't just move the sump closer since the second line is in a perfect location already. I will either: a) cut out the 45 elbow and move it back ~1/2" to gain the 11/32" in height, then add the 11/32" PLUS the 1/8" I am already short OR b) cut out a couple inch section along the middle and use a soft silicone hose to join the two, hoping the hose will allow for the variation.


Any suggestions?


Cheers!
 
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Scythanith

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Here is the plumbing and miscellaneous work I had completed before leaving for work.


I envision the Mitras ballast top left, the Vortech controllers and battery backup mid-left, and have room to spare centre and right side.


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The stacked sumps. You can see the returns from the overflow going into the sump top left. I hand tightened them and still had a couple leaks. My LFS told me to use a wrench and give them all quarter turn and low and behold they are all good! You can see the abyzz A200 in the primary return chamber.


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The lower sump's return manifold is done. The three bulkheads on the bottom sump are for draining the chambers and one is an open emergency drain (far left).


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You may be able to just make out the lower drain plumbing. The centre and right bulkheads are on ball valves while the left is a safety to prevent overflowing in a worst case scenario.


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I need to clean the 1/2" plywood up a bit more, a little white caulking, etc., but the plywood is in place to allow me to affix electronics, powerhead controls, wiring looms, power bars, really anything I want to... to the wall. The space on the right is for the reactor shelf, dosing containers, profilux, etc.


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Scythanith

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Let there be updates!


It has begun! **** is my RODI slow! I have the 100psi booster on there and it's still painfully slow.


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Return plumbing is 90% done. I just have to paint the 90's black and glue them in!


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Scythanith

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Looks cramped but it's not that bad, lens makes it a little distorted haahaa!


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Electrics and controls, reactors, wiring, etc. The bottom reactor rack is just temporary. There will be some organization, a drip tray, and the ozone system will be purring when I am done. Also the Tunze ATO will be replaced with the Profilux system once I have time to program it. There will be a custom ~25g ATO reservoir where the 5g pail is sitting as well.




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Top Sump. I am getting a frag rack built for it and a removable grate where the old glass baffle was. The heater will be moved to a cleaner location as well. I installed a GF check valve on the bottom sump return (locline) so that I didn't siphon out the top sump if the lower pump shuts off. There is also a float valve that will tell the profilux if the top sump isn't draining to the lower sump for some reason (snail in the herbie, etc.). The profilux in turn will shut off the lower sump return pump and send out and alarm.


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Bottom Sump. The ATO wiring is a mess but will cleaned up next time I get back from work. A gate valve is on order to convert the overflow to a herbie to get the noise and bubbles down. I am still waiting for the Abyzz pump for the lower sump but installed an old quite ones just to get the system flowing. **** it's a loud pump. The left chamber still may be a refugium, but I am also thinking it will make a great water change chamber as well. I haven't decided yet. Small ~5-10g water changes every week sound good to me.


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Close up on the pump controllers. So far I have nothing but praise for the Abyzz A200. It's SILENT. It's a powerhouse. The controller is simple but has a lot of options. So far so good. The RD3 Speedy is doing its thing as well, making lots of bubbles and skimmate.


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Just another view. You can see the VorTech module, Profilux Touch module, humidity/temp probe hanging between the profilux and doser. I am going to put another shelf right about where the touch screen is so I can set the dosing liquids right under the doser. The touch screen will get relocated to the display side of the tank, on the upper right bulkhead.


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Regrets so far are not enough regular receptacles. Some things don't need to plug into a profilux, like the Mitras, VorTech's. That's 7 plugs right there. I may add another gang box by the lights/vortechs just to feed them on their own. Free up the profilux sockets.
 
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Scythanith

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Not the greatest shots but you can get the idea from them :)


There is a valley through the middle of the tank and two dominant structures to either side. The left has a large cave under it and the right has a high arch and a bit of a cove feature. The water will flow in a counter clockwise direction when looking at the tank from the front. High energy from the lower left and top right (moving left). The lower energy will be the lower right hand side of the tank and the sand. I really wanted to add more rock to "join" the structures a little more but I keep telling myself "no, the corals will do that in time!"


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Left
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Right
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From the right viewing pane
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Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

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