ChukeeR's 266G Reef Savvy + Synergy Reef Build / Upgrade

[FireEMT]

AND.....................The tank has been moved into place!! Oh, and I started to do some of the plumbing as well!

I have a question in regards to your bean animal setup. I am in the process of setting up my internal overflow with bean animal and don't know where to set the heights of the drains. My thought is the main siphon lowest with the secondary or backup siphon a little higher and then the emergency drain set the highest. How far down from the weir did you set you main siphon and so on and so forth. Also what is the adapter that you have on your emergency drain to make it looked belled out? Any help would be much appreciated.

Attached is what I was thinking, sorry for high jacking your thread for something like this.

 

[HiddenUser]

What you have should work. I think my main siphon drain was 1.5" below the water line and about 3/4" shorter than the secondary drain and then the emergency drain was about as tall as the weir. This is my first time plumbing a bean animal so I'm hoping that my heights drain heights aren't an issue.

The part that is "belled out" is a 2" to 1.5" reducing coupler. Not really necessary but I thought it'd make it look nice.

I also need to drill a little hole on top of the secondary drain at some point too.

 

[HiddenUser]

Few updates - I'll try to get some pictures tonight.

- Lots and lots of goodies should be arriving today from BRS!
- Picked up a Marineland 125G tank over the weekend to essentially be an overflow reservoir for my tank and my sump. (My tank will drain into the sump in the basement, and the sump will then drain into the 125G tank.)
- Finished up almost all of the drain and return plumbing in the basement. Just need to connect up the return lines to the tank and plumb the returns inside the overflow box.


Lots to do yet and some of it I can't necessarily do yet until this tank is cycled (like moving over my Apex from my other tank)...Hopefully be able to at least get some water into the tank by the weekend though.

 

[HiddenUser]

Couple updates...BRS Santa came yesterday. I was excited that they started their Black Friday Sale last week. Picked up my 125G 'water reservoir' tank as well. This should be plenty large to hold extra water that would drain down from the tank / sump during a power outage. Now I don't need to rely on anti-siphon holes, check valves, etc. Still debating on installing a baffle or not so that I can use a section of it for growing macro.

Started cycling my QT tank. Using my Nuvo that I tore down for the QT and have the overflow filled with rubble rock. I figure once the main display is cycled, current fish get transferred over, we'll probably start picking up some new fish / coral to add.

At this point I'm just waiting for a hole saw that I ordered from Amazon to show up (couldn't find a 2 7/8" bit anywhere which is what BRS recommended for the hole size. Not sure if a 3" hole would have been fine, but didn't want to risk drilling to large of a hole into my sump.) Once that shows up I can plumb the 2" drain from my sump down to the 125.

Also waiting to see if Ecotech's Radion hanging kit, RMS rail, and slide mounts go on sale on Friday. I want to at least get the hanging kit hung up before I fill the tank with water. Much easier to stand inside the tank to hang the lights versus getting a ladder and having to reach. Figured that since I have 2 Radions over my 90G might as well use them over the new tank. I'd been on the fence for a long time between keeping them or switching them out for a T5/LED Hybrid option.

Almost time to fill this thing!! I'm just praying that I don't have any leaks in my plumbing.

 

[booth2010]

Looking good, its always fun when BRS Santa comes lol. I have all my packages delivered to my work now and everyone knows when ive gone on a supply shopping spree.

 

[HiddenUser]

Looking good, its always fun when BRS Santa comes lol. I have all my packages delivered to my work now and everyone knows when ive gone on a supply shopping spree.

Yeah - I wonder if the UPS guy hates us because of the amount of stuff we order at once. Seems like when we order from BRS we always have a half a dozen boxes, LOL.

BTW - Congrats to you!

 

[pelphrey]

Read the entire thread just now. Reef Savvy sure does make some beautiful tanks! I'm not even close to your water volume, I just started my first reef tank and the sump I was using (5.5 gallon) left me little room for error. Initially it was a lot cheaper, but for piece of mind I upgraded my sump for better security!

You mentioned being on the fence about the radion's and thought about a T5/LED hybrid. Would the Kessil AP700 give you enough spread with a 72" tank?

Looking forward to seeing the final results!

 

[HiddenUser]

Read the entire thread just now. Reef Savvy sure does make some beautiful tanks! I'm not even close to your water volume, I just started my first reef tank and the sump I was using (5.5 gallon) left me little room for error. Initially it was a lot cheaper, but for piece of mind I upgraded my sump for better security!

You mentioned being on the fence about the radion's and thought about a T5/LED hybrid. Would the Kessil AP700 give you enough spread with a 72" tank?

Looking forward to seeing the final results!

I think I'd probably have to get 2 AP700's at a minimum...Not sure if that would be good enough even then if I started being more SPS dominant. I love my Kessil A360W and I would have no problem trading the Radions for Kessils. I honestly think the Kessils are a superior light in my experience. My corals seemed to be happier and more colorful under a Kessil. Maybe I just don't have the Radions tuned well enough??? I've seen some pictures of people who have awesome looking tanks under Radions...So I guess I'm just biased off the plug-in-play factor versus the Radions needing some adjusting.

Problem with the Kessils is the aesthetics when they're hanging over the tank. We don't have a canopy and I'm not the biggest fan of seeing a bunch of hanging kits drilled into a ceiling and no really clean way of hiding the wires.

If everything works to plan I should be able to hide the power wires in the Radion RMS rail and then just have a clump of wires hanging off the side (which is kind of blocked by some curtains)...Obviously I could do that with Kessils too, but it'd be more of a DIY project.

 

[HiddenUser]

There's water!!!! Not sure what's taking longer...the turkey on the smoker or the RODI filter filling this thing...

 

[rboutin111]

Happy Thanksgiving. Great build.

 

[HiddenUser]

End of day 2....My RODI filter must hate life right now I figure I have about another 80-90 gallons (filling the sump) to go before I can start running this thing.

 

[HiddenUser]

UGH!!! I am beyond frustrated with this thing...I finally got enough water made, started running the return pump then I spent about 4 hours yesterday trying to figure out why my overflow kept sounding like a toilet flushing...Got that figured out (main siphon was air locked) and had it running dead silent - Awesome!!...Then I started checking all the fittings for leaks...found one leak fixed it, no big deal.

I let a few more hours go by and re-checked all the fittings and found a single drop of water on the emergency overflow bulkhead. I tightened it, but it seemed to make it worse...I then drained the overflow, loosened the bulkhead completely, then re-tightened it, refilled the overflow, fired up the return...and then literally stared at the bulkhead for half an hour...Yup, still leaking. It was about 1AM at this time so I just decided to drain the overflow again and went to bed.

This morning I loosened and tightened the bulkhead again, put about 2 gallons of water into the overflow and let it sit...I gave it about an hour and it looked good so I filled the overflow again, started the return and kept an eye on things....a few hours of running and I noticed a small amount of water starting to build up in the bulkhead threads. I wiped the water, tightened the bulkhead a tad and let it sit again...3 hours later a single drop of water in the threads...So frustrating!!!

Now I've decided to remove the bulkhead so I drain the overflow yet again...unscrew the bulkhead and try to pull it out of the overflow...Well now I can't get the bulkhead / pipe out of the overflow box because the other drains are in the way and the center brace is preventing me from just pulling it straight out.

Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come with this tank!

/end rant.

 

[HiddenUser]

Well I loosened one of the other drains and I was able to get the bulkhead / pipe out...I found a chunk of the rubber gasket missing...doesn't seem like its big enough to prevent a good seal...but its the only thing I could find and my tank has 4 other bulkheads that weren't leaking at all.

 

[FireEMT]

UGH!!! I am beyond frustrated with this thing...I finally got enough water made, started running the return pump then I spent about 4 hours yesterday trying to figure out why my overflow kept sounding like a toilet flushing...Got that figured out and had it running dead silent - Awesome!!...Then I started checking all the fittings for leaks...found one leak fixed it, no big deal.

I let a few more hours go by and re-checked all the fittings and found a single drop of water on the emergency overflow bulkhead. I tightened it, but it seemed to make it worse...I then drained the overflow, loosened the bulkhead completely, then re-tightened it, refilled the overflow, fired up the return...and then literally stared at the bulkhead for half an hour...Yup, still leaking. It was about 1AM at this time so I just decided to drain the overflow again and went to bed.

This morning I loosened and tightened the bulkhead again, put about 2 gallons of water into the overflow and let it sit...I gave it about an hour and it looked good so I filled the overflow again, started the return and kept an eye on things....a few hours of running and I noticed a small amount of water starting to build up in the bulkhead threads. I wiped the water, tightened the bulkhead a tad and let it sit again...3 hours later a single drop of water in the threads...So frustrating!!!

Now I've decided to remove the bulkhead so I drain the overflow yet again...unscrew the bulkhead and try to pull it out of the overflow...Well now I can't get the bulkhead / pipe out of the overflow box because the other drains are in the way and the center brace is preventing me from just pulling it straight out.

Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come with this tank!

/end rant.

I hope you get everything figured out soon. I was doing the same thing last night in the garage. I havent started my thread yet because I'm just testing everything out in the garage before moving everything in the house. I'm curious, how did you fix the toilet sound out of your drain. I am running into the same problem with the secondary standpipe or the "open channel". Even the smallest amount of water creates noise, the full siphon is dead silent. Right now I have raised the open channel so that no water enters during normal operation but want to know why the open channel is so loud. Maybe I'm being picky since the rest of the equipment is dead silent. I also have it set up right now with the water level about mid way up the weir so that I get a full tank. Any help would be appreciated and hope that you got all the leaks fixed.

 

[FireEMT]

Well I loosened one of the other drains and I was able to get the bulkhead / pipe out...I found a chunk of the rubber gasket missing...doesn't seem like its big enough to prevent a good seal...but its the only thing I could find and my tank has 4 other bulkheads that weren't leaking at all.

I have also run into issues with bulkheads leaking when the glass surface is not completely clean. I cleaned the glass with a microfiber cloth and alcohol before installing this time and they all sealed up great with it hand tight.

 

[HiddenUser]

I hope you get everything figured out soon. I was doing the same thing last night in the garage. I havent started my thread yet because I'm just testing everything out in the garage before moving everything in the house. I'm curious, how did you fix the toilet sound out of your drain. I am running into the same problem with the secondary standpipe or the "open channel". Even the smallest amount of water creates noise, the full siphon is dead silent. Right now I have raised the open channel so that no water enters during normal operation but want to know why the open channel is so loud. Maybe I'm being picky since the rest of the equipment is dead silent. I also have it set up right now with the water level about mid way up the weir so that I get a full tank. Any help would be appreciated and hope that you got all the leaks fixed.

For me I figured out that my main siphon wasn't kicking in because the air wasnt being purged. The main and partial siphon lines running into my sump had pipes which extended their ends to be few inches under water. I did this because I thought it would cut down on the noise. I figured this out because I completely closed the gate valve and it didn't do anything different. With my sump in the basement there's a lot of air in the lines that needs to be purged. I got rid of the pipe and now I get about 2 'flushing' iterations and then the full siphon kicks in.

If the partial siphon is super loud it may be that you need to open the gate valve on the main siphon a little. I've found that if I restrict the main siphon too much the partial siphon will make a lot of noise. Don't forget to drill a hole on top of the partial siphon pipe. Otherwise it was lots of small adjustments on the gate valve for me to find the happy medium.

I ordered some bulkheads as the LFS would have been closed by time I got there today...I figure I'll try again next weekend so that I have time to keep an eye on it throughout the the day.

 

[FireEMT]

For me I figured out that my main siphon wasn't kicking in because the air wasnt being purged. The main and partial siphon lines running into my sump had pipes which extended their ends to be few inches under water. I did this because I thought it would cut down on the noise. I figured this out because I completely closed the gate valve and it didn't do anything different. With my sump in the basement there's a lot of air in the lines that needs to be purged. I got rid of the pipe and now I get about 2 'flushing' iterations and then the full siphon kicks in.

If the partial siphon is super loud it may be that you need to open the gate valve on the main siphon a little. I've found that if I restrict the main siphon too much the partial siphon will make a lot of noise. Don't forget to drill a hole on top of the partial siphon pipe. Otherwise it was lots of small adjustments on the gate valve for me to find the happy medium.

I ordered some bulkheads as the LFS would have been closed by time I got there today...I figure I'll try again next weekend so that I have time to keep an eye on it throughout the the day.

Thanks for the info, I have the open channel drilled with a RO line glued into place. Is your open channel down turned or is it up-turned to surface skim? The noise I'm hearing comes from the pipe under the tank headed down to the sump. Even with with the main siphon taking most if not all the water. I guess I will have to play with it some more. I just didn't expect to hear a little gurgle coming from the open channel when the water travels down the pipe attached to the walls. I don't have any 90's in the plumbing just 45's. Good luck with the leaks.

 

[HiddenUser]

Thanks for the info, I have the open channel drilled with a RO line glued into place. Is your open channel down turned or is it up-turned to surface skim? The noise I'm hearing comes from the pipe under the tank headed down to the sump. Even with with the main siphon taking most if not all the water. I guess I will have to play with it some more. I just didn't expect to hear a little gurgle coming from the open channel when the water travels down the pipe attached to the walls. I don't have any 90's in the plumbing just 45's. Good luck with the leaks.

Yep, both my main and partial siphons and turned downward. Once you get it dialed in its pretty crazy how quiet it is.

 

[mixer911]

Chuck we have also found that drilling a small 1/4" hole in the top of both the full and partial siphon drain pipes (90s) allows that air lock to be broken. Eliminates the initial startup getting stuck in an air lock also.

 

[FireEMT]

Chuck we have also found that drilling a small 1/4" hole in the top of both the full and partial siphon drain pipes (90s) allows that air lock to be broken. Eliminates the initial startup getting stuck in an air lock also.

Where do you find the best place to set the open channel in regards to the water level. I have my water level in the middle of the weir, so does that mean I need to set the open channel above the water line so that it barely has any water traveling through it at normal operation. I have an internal overflow just like ChukkerR.