3 Foot Office Nano

[revhtree]

Any updates?

 

[eschulist]

Picked up a new RODI on Black Friday and found a 35g tank on craigslist.

Finally got a day off between Christmas and New Years while day care was open so I had some free time to hook up the RODI and build a stand for the water reservoir. I originally bought a saddle valve to attach the filter to my main water supply but after seeing some youtube videos and hearing horror stories of those leaking and failing I went with a more sturdy solution.

The tank's brass garden hose valve was already attached. Since this photo it has been upgraded to a true union ball valve and downspout to go directly into my water jugs.

 

[eschulist]

On the updated 3 Foot 2.0 build I've made a little progress as well.

The new build is coming along very slowly I know.

After waiting forever for the Neptune Cor I decided to get a Jabeo DCP pump to at least get all the plumbing in place and run some water tests. The pump should be here by next week sometime. In the interim I made myself a little jig to bend some pvc pipe. Decided to buy some crap pipe to test it on before I use the fancy formufit stuff.

And my messy space downstairs while I fiddle with things. I don't know if I posted about the LED light I installed but this has been a much needed upgrade compared to my current stand. Its so much easier to see while doing maintenance, and it'll show off the nice interior.

 

[eschulist]

The chaos continues!!

First on the list was to do the exterior black plumbing after I tested it with the crappy white pvc.

It was kind of a tricky beast as the bulkhead first had to be tightened to the glass. Then the threaded fittings needed teflon paste applied and they were tightened (The final angle didnt matter as long as they were tight) The bulkheads were then loosened to rotate the fitting into place. Once vertical the bulkhead was tightened back up. The black pipe was all bent to the same 90 curve with excess on all ends. After figuring out the best height there were all cut to length and glued into place. Now the tank better not leak as these steps can't be reversed in order.

Made sure to remember to include the union nut on the pipe.

Next on the list was the internal plumbing. The return line and reactor plumbing was pretty easy. Just a lot of fittings stacked on top of one another. The only critical part was getting the total height correct so that it met the return line union. The drains were the worst part so they were left until last. These bends had to be more precise and they required exact height and length to match both unions at the same time.

So I start to put it all together and.... ####!! This is with me even putting a lot of pressure on the pipe to even get it this close.

Luckily the pipe could actually be extended by increasing the radius of the bend while keeping the height and length of the assembly the same. A 3" arc turned into a 5" arc. Success!!

I was getting really close to putting every single piece together but caused too much noise after 10pm and the wife got a little ticked. So the build will continue in the morning.

Fully assembled.

Today I also worked on an electronics board. Then I realized its right below the unions and probably the worst place to have a power strip..... So options include making a small "roof" on top of the board to shield against any possible drips. Or mount everything to the back wall and show all the cords. I can get some tiny raceways or cable ties but its not quite the same.

If I decide to go with this placement the final board will either be painted black or recreated using walnut to match the stand.

 

[MaddyP]

Wow! This build is turning out really good! Makes me want to setup a smaller tank...

 

[justingraham]

Wow that's awesome
Truly nice job sir

 

[Jimbo662]

What an amazing job!

 

[Jimbo662]

What light are you going to be using on the new build?

 

[jsker]

Great job on the build. I like the time laps video, nice touch

 

[tupes]

Really an outstanding build.

 

[eschulist]

Wow that's awesome
Truly nice job sir

Thank you!

What an amazing job!
What light are you going to be using on the new build?

Thanks. A custom Nanobox Quad.

Great job on the build. I like the time laps video, nice touch

I haven't done a gif in awhile but thought that would be an interesting way to show the pipes and use of the unions to assemble the tank together.

Really an outstanding build.

Thanks. I hope it works as well as it looks.

 

[eschulist]

New plumbing fixed... in the noise department. Its a little crazy and dangerous so please read along and copy at your own risk. For a benchmark here is the duo durso setup. Now this is very similar to my current tank so I have no idea why the noise is 20X louder than at work. If I had this tank at work I would seriously tick a lot of people off and it would drive me insane just as fast. I tried altering the down spouts and amount of flow coming from the pump. This setup used slotted spouts to help release air bubbles and I had the pump dialed back to 60-70%.


Tons of noise and overall, unusable in my eyes. So a change needed to happen using what I already had. I decided to turn it into a Herbie with a few customizations. Due to both drains being at the same height and drawing water equally into the bulkhead I hard to start with the strainers. I needed one to draw from the bottom to be used for the siphon side and the other needed to have just the top open to take in the trickle.

The first attempt at using moldable plastics didn't go so well.

The next attempts used tape on the backside and very slowly filling one row at a time until it was completely filled and then reheating the entire bulkhead again in hot water to smooth it out as best as possible.

Siphon Side

Trickle Side

1" valve added to control siphon side. There were also some modifications done to the bulkheads as the enter the sump by making them super short like the ones used on my display tank. This allows for an air gap to happen on a slotted down spout and is easier to make adjustments.

While adding the valve I had to remember to put TWO union couplings on the tiny pipe that connects the valve to the sump unions. One for the union and one for the valve facing in opposite directions. When gluing the fittings together the I only put on ONE!! Shoooot! To fix this and reclaim my valve union I had to cut the pipe apart, put the fitting underneath a drill press with a 1" bit and drilled out the now crappy piece of pipe. It took a lot of clamps and fine adjustments to make sure I only removed the pipe and didn't compromise the fitting. Once it was cleaned up I redid this section with the union couplings back in place. I created some fancy easter basket plastic orange shredding in the process

Here is the Herbie setup installed and running. This video has not been muted as you will be able to hear my wife's cat a few times during the video and proves how quiet the setup now is. Any slight trickle will be muffled even more with the sock cover in place and the doors closed.


There is no emergency in this setup and I understand the risks. I will go the main safeguard I've impliemted already and others I could do in the future. The main is power failure. When the power goes out the water will drain until it hits the siphon drain holes. This causes the tube to be filled with air. When the power is restored this drain can not form a siphon fast enough to prevent the display tank from overflowing. To stop such events from occuring the Apex has a virtual switch created called

POWER_OUTAGE
Set OFF
If Power Apex Off 720 Then ON

The return pump has this code

RETURN_PUMP
Fallback OFF
Set ON
If Output POWER_OUTAGE = ON Then OFF
If FeedD 720 Then ON

What this does is when power is off nothing runs like usual. When power comes back on POWER_OUTAGE turns on and stays on for 12 hours. This causes the return pump outlet to also go OFF for 12 hours. In that time I have to manually restart the siphon or turn the pump outlet off manually from Apex Fusion until I can get into work. I will be alerted when the power goes off and comes back and have time to respond. The Feed D option allows me to restart the siphon within the 12 hour window after power failure and not have POWER_OUTAGE override my change for 12 hours.

A future tank upgrade might be to have an optical sensor at the rim of the tank that will decrease flow or shut off the pump if the water level rises too high during running operation. The trickle drain though has been tested to take on 10-15% more power above the quietest running level. As it climbs higher above the slats on the emergency it causes increased noise and will let me know if I need to make adjustments.

 

[revhtree]

This is so awesome already! LOL!

 

[BMMMW]

Amazing! Your current tank is my inspiration, I am sure this one will not disappoint.

 

[renato120]

Beautiful setup!

 

[sundog101]

Really like the photos. Well done!

Also what overflow is that?

 

[Dan I]

This setup is so well done. Loving that stand a lot!

 

[Jstn]

Wow, very nice details with the plumbing!

 

[eschulist]

Really like the photos. Well done!

Also what overflow is that?

A modified Scorched Overflow Made popular by that user on Nano-Reef (For those that don't know, thats the username I use on that forum)

 

[eschulist]

This setup is so well done. Loving that stand a lot!

Thank you. You should also thank @jlanger for building it. I did the rough layout in 3D and told him my overall dimensions. He turned it into some amazing.