Day Five - 700g in wall, L shaped, drop-off tank

Soren

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Here’s some pics with the doors on.

6EA669B5-51BE-41DC-A24D-08636290D4B4.png
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This looks like it will be an amazing aquarium! Though the models are excellent and look nice, I am really looking forward to the actual build.
 
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This looks like it will be an amazing aquarium! Though the models are excellent and look nice, I am really looking forward to the actual build.
Oh man, you and me both.

I just picked up a bucket of sand from a fellow local reefer today. Just one small step closer to the finish line.
 

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Coming from someone with a build that is about the same size, I find your input very valuable. I’ve never been one to push 10x turnover rate through the sump. I’ve typically thought a range of 2x to 5x is a good range to shoot for (a little more than your 1x to 3x recommendation but still pretty close). I came to the 3000 gph rate (6x turnover) since the recommendation from the UV manufacturer was between 2700-3600 gph for algae control. My original plan was to use two return pumps and two UV sterilizers, like you recommend, but decided I’ll have to be fine with one of each based on cost and available space (those UV units are huge).

I do plan on having tangs; I’ve had them in the past and never run UV before without issue.

Now to go read your whole build thread. ;)

And may you never have issues with tangs in the future either!!

I definitely had to get creative on spacing with the big 120W UVs. They are beasts but I thought to myself if I had a velvet/ich breakout, there would be no way to catch the fish in a 500+ Gallon tank and I would just watch them suffer/die. I tried to put a monetary value on what I would pay (in that hypothetical situation) to erase the problem, and I came up with a dollar amount that was near the cost of the second UV unit :) It's like ongoing insurance.

With protozoa control, you are just interrupting the lifecycle. With algae, you are just slowing down its reproductive rate with turnover, but you can also control algae via other methods so the 2x turnover that I have has worked out pretty well.

Another reason to have two return lines is for redundancy, but if you are okay buying an identical pump as a backup to swap in, that works too. You can also cut down the cost of the pump if you aren't trying to push so much through one of them.

All things I'm sure you have considered 100x in your head already. If there is anything I can do to help from the perspective of a similar size build, let me know! Yours is looking great so far!
 

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Great looking build. That is going to be a great set up.
 
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For my overflow, I’m planning on having a notch cut out of the top edge of the glass and then have a plastic weir that fits inside of the notch.

730BEA6B-B347-42E9-84A5-3727CB9CEB75.png


I know this isn’t the “normal” way this is done but I don’t have a problem trying things differently if it makes sense.

For the overflow box I’m planning to use glass. I like the idea of being able to see what’s going on in it. I know over time it will likely get algae and other such things growing in it but it will look good to begin with. I’ll be doing a bean animal with 2” plumbing. I had originally planned for 1-1/2” and may go back to that for the siphon and trickle drains but will most likely keep the 2” for the emergency drain. If you guys have any input on this I’d like to hear it. My last tank had a durso so this will be my first bean animal so if something doesn’t look right, let me know.

84F10576-0E4A-409D-B95A-B6BEF4898FC7.png


The grey box on the siphon drain is a gate valve.

989DE876-C400-44E2-A38F-15D80EB09A12.png


There is a door that will cover this area and part of the glass will be painted black so that when it’s closed all of it will be concealed. What I haven’t quite figured out yet is the best way to paint it. If there was no overflow then I could paint it black with nearly any kind of black paint and call it a day but since the water will be flowing down into the overflow box and be in contact with it I need to do something. What I think I’ll do is silicone the glass overflow box to the glass wall with black silicone first so that it will have the best bond. Then I’ll paint it with whatever black paint best matches the silicone and then coat over the paint on the inside with epoxy so that the water doesn’t come in direct contact with the paint. I hope this makes sense. If someone has a better idea for how to accomplish this I welcome it.
 

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Piling on from a place of having a large tank in my living room, I also went with a lower 1-3x sump turnover rate. Water in the overflows and pipes makes a lot of noise (I do not have Bean animal drains), and all that flow through my rollermat etc is just a challenge. With in-tank circulation, the sump turnover rate is less critical. Need enough to couple any probes / heaters to the main tank, and enough to keep the skimmer fed with tank water, but that doesn't take much.
 
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I think I’m going to have to break down and get a third eb832. Here’s what I’ve got so far. With two eb833’s that leaves me with only one available outlet and it’s on the eb832 that is already pushing the maximum wattage/amperage for the unit.

Power
Outlet 1 (1726w 14a)
EB832
(1) Heater - 500
(2) Heater - 200
(3) Abyzz a200 - 200
(4) MarsHydro - 300
(5) CaRx - 52
(6)
(7) AP700 - 185
(8) AP700 - 185
1 Link
Wav x2 (35x2 = 70)
24v
Pmup x2 (17x2 = 34)

Outlet 2 (1391w 12a)
EB832
(1) Heater - 500
(2) Heater - 200
(3) UV -80
(4) Skimmer - 26
(5) DOS - 30
(6) AP700/a500 - 185
(7) AP700 - 185
(8) AP700 - 185
1 Link
24v
In stand LED lights

Outlet 3 (356w)
Hydros WaveEngine
(1) Gyre 350 - 52
(2) Gyre 350 - 52
(3) Gyre 350 - 52
(4)
(0-10v)
(0-10v)

I have two dedicated 20 amp breakers that I ran to the tank’s location. I was able to get them run before I finished the basement. There’s also a 15 amp breaker in the vicinity but it’s shared with my office (I think it’s just got my computer and lights on it).
 

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1. You don't really need to have the AP700s on an EB832. They will be controlled separately so it's just wasting an on/off outlet.
2. Same thing on the DOS - why do you need that connected to a power outlet on the EB832? You could use a 1Link cable and save the power outlet.
3. You can put all the Gyres on one outlet if you want -- unless you really want to be able to control the *power* of them independently - but again - you may not need these plugged into an EB832.

Keeping the overall wattage amount is helpful, but I'd only plug in things that you need smart control over. You want to be able to shut down the Calcium Reactor automatically, you'll want to have heaters turn off if the tank gets too hot, etc. etc. -- but some of the others just need power.
 
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For my overflow, I’m planning on having a notch cut out of the top edge of the glass and then have a plastic weir that fits inside of the notch.

730BEA6B-B347-42E9-84A5-3727CB9CEB75.png


I know this isn’t the “normal” way this is done but I don’t have a problem trying things differently if it makes sense.

For the overflow box I’m planning to use glass. I like the idea of being able to see what’s going on in it. I know over time it will likely get algae and other such things growing in it but it will look good to begin with. I’ll be doing a bean animal with 2” plumbing. I had originally planned for 1-1/2” and may go back to that for the siphon and trickle drains but will most likely keep the 2” for the emergency drain. If you guys have any input on this I’d like to hear it. My last tank had a durso so this will be my first bean animal so if something doesn’t look right, let me know.

84F10576-0E4A-409D-B95A-B6BEF4898FC7.png


The grey box on the siphon drain is a gate valve.

989DE876-C400-44E2-A38F-15D80EB09A12.png


There is a door that will cover this area and part of the glass will be painted black so that when it’s closed all of it will be concealed. What I haven’t quite figured out yet is the best way to paint it. If there was no overflow then I could paint it black with nearly any kind of black paint and call it a day but since the water will be flowing down into the overflow box and be in contact with it I need to do something. What I think I’ll do is silicone the glass overflow box to the glass wall with black silicone first so that it will have the best bond. Then I’ll paint it with whatever black paint best matches the silicone and then coat over the paint on the inside with epoxy so that the water doesn’t come in direct contact with the paint. I hope this makes sense. If someone has a better idea for how to accomplish this I welcome it.

If I'm understanding this right, you're trying to conceal the overflow box and plumbing to not be viewable through the aquarium end?

If so, why not use black glass instead of clear for that end of the tank? Will save you painting the glass and prevent chemicals in the paint leaching into the water in the overflow box.

Nice build plan! Looking forward to your build.
 
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1. You don't really need to have the AP700s on an EB832. They will be controlled separately so it's just wasting an on/off outlet.
2. Same thing on the DOS - why do you need that connected to a power outlet on the EB832? You could use a 1Link cable and save the power outlet.
3. You can put all the Gyres on one outlet if you want -- unless you really want to be able to control the *power* of them independently - but again - you may not need these plugged into an EB832.

Keeping the overall wattage amount is helpful, but I'd only plug in things that you need smart control over. You want to be able to shut down the Calcium Reactor automatically, you'll want to have heaters turn off if the tank gets too hot, etc. etc. -- but some of the others just need power.
1) You’re right, the ap700’s definitely can be on a “regular” power strip. I do like the the eb832 functionality of monitoring the wattage used by each device even if I’m not using the apex to turn on/off.
2) You’re right again, the DOS can be hooked up to the 1link but there is a maximum of 100 watts for the 1link and the 24v ports on the eb832. If I move one of the WAVs to the other eb832 and put the DOS in its place then I can do that. I was actually over the limit how I had it so I’m glad you brought that up.
3) All the gyres are on the Hydros WaveEngine and not on either of the eb832’s.
 
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If I'm understanding this right, you're trying to conceal the overflow box and plumbing to not be viewable through the aquarium end?

If so, why not use black glass instead of clear for that end of the tank? Will save you painting the glass and prevent chemicals in the paint leaching into the water in the overflow box.

Nice build plan! Looking forward to your build.
That’s correct, I’m trying to block the view of the plumbing and overflow box from the DT. Most of the time the back of the tank is just painted black (for the same reason) but in my case the overflow box is attached directly to the glass of the tank so the water in the overflow box will be in direct contact with black paint. That’s why I think it would be best to coat the paint with epoxy.

Do you have a source for black glass?My glass manufacturer (OldCastle) doesn’t have opaque black glass. They have a dark tinted black but it’s not opaque. I had looked into this as a possible option but couldn’t source it and I would prefer to be able to keep the small section along the side clear still since it’s not the full pane that I need black.

781AD502-1AA2-427A-8903-9F9D23C5AFE4.png

D61B9005-8FBD-4C92-B7E0-CD6029EA5A87.png
 

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Yes, I was thinking of the dark tinted black glass. I'm in Australia, so any suppliers I know are going to be cost prohibitive with shipping for you.

Another option for you, if you only want to black out the overflow box and not the whole end panel, would be to silicone in a piece of black acrylic or polycarbonate in the overflow box.
 
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With the current planned footprint, every inch of height is 17.6623 gallons. Right now all the drawings show the top of the tank at 24” making it 424 gallons. I’ve thought about going up to 28-1/2” tall so that it would put it just over 500 gallons. Obviously it’s not actually 500 gallons since we use the exterior dimensions to calculate and it’s never filled all the way to the top of the tank.

I’d never go above 30” tall because of how difficult maintenance will be but what is your opinion about any height between 24” and 30”. My last tank was only 19” tall. Do you think 24” is limiting in any way?
 
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I’ve got some changes I’ve made. I had been reading some threads and a number of people expressed their preference for tanks that are at least 36” deep (front to back). I have the extra room in that direction so I bumped it out to 36” (it was previously 30”). I also made it 28” tall instead of 24”. This extra size puts it at just under 600 gallons for the DT. The sump will likely have another 100 gallons depending on the water level of each compartment.

43BF86E1-07B3-4B2B-9407-133FDBFDA142.png


With the extra size comes extra weight. Saltwater weighs approximately 8.6 pounds per gallon plus the weight of the glass, rocks, sand, steel stand…. I just round it to 10 lbs. per gallon. That estimation puts it at 7000 lbs.

Now I’ve been playing around with a load calculator to check that the steel supports I put under it will hold but I’m not entirely sure I’m entering it correctly. Does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing? Ideally I could take my drawing and put it in the computer and have it spit out calculations. I know there’s programs like Inventor that does stress calculations but I don’t have it.
 
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I don’t know if you noticed it in the pictures but I also incorporated a closed loop system. It is mostly to have a better way of plumbing the UV but it also offers a solution for getting better flow along the long front of the tank.

It starts out with two 1-1/2” low profile strainers that get plumbed together. I did two so that if one got covered, it would be unlikely that both would get covered. Then it continues to a ball valve, and then opens up from 1-1/2” to 2” plumbing and goes through an apex flow rate monitor and finally into the 120w lifegard pro-max UV sterilizer.

The recommended flow rate for algae for this UV is like 3800 gph so I switched my Abyzz a200 from being the return pump to the closed loop. From the pump it will go to a T where I can direct it to a drain (if I ever need to drain it) or to two 1” lines that go back to the tank with RFG’s. I’ll be covering the in tank plumbing with rock work to hide it as best as possible.

AEE60B6B-8050-4160-A4AE-2E8696967751.jpeg
 
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So, I have a vertex alpha 170 skimmer that I used on my previous 120 gallon tank. It got to the point that my refugium was doing a better job of nutrient export than my skimmer. So I tapered back it’s run time and kept an eye on the po4 and no3 as well as the pH and couldn’t see a difference. So I took it out completely and things ran great without it.

As I plan for this system, it’s about 6 times the volume but I’m planning on using that same skimmer and seeing if it can keep up. Just like the last system, I don’t plan on doing water changes and I plan on having a good sized refugium. Filtration-wise, the only thing I’m planning on doing differently is to add the UV.
 

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So, I have a vertex alpha 170 skimmer that I used on my previous 120 gallon tank. It got to the point that my refugium was doing a better job of nutrient export than my skimmer. So I tapered back it’s run time and kept an eye on the po4 and no3 as well as the pH and couldn’t see a difference. So I took it out completely and things ran great without it.

As I plan for this system, it’s about 6 times the volume but I’m planning on using that same skimmer and seeing if it can keep up. Just like the last system, I don’t plan on doing water changes and I plan on having a good sized refugium. Filtration-wise, the only thing I’m planning on doing differently is to add the UV.
Hows the tank coming along? Are you doing your own cabinetry?
I think your going to want to use the skimmer since the Phosphates your test kits measure are organic or inorganic, (can't rem which one), and the ones the protein skimmer removes is the ones you cant test for. Can't hurt to use it all its natural and hard to mess up.
 
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Hows the tank coming along? Are you doing your own cabinetry?
I think your going to want to use the skimmer since the Phosphates your test kits measure are organic or inorganic, (can't rem which one), and the ones the protein skimmer removes is the ones you cant test for. Can't hurt to use it all its natural and hard to mess up.
Ugh, I wish it was going faster. The next steps are ones where there’s no going back. Up to this point if I decided not to move forward I’d just be out some cash. I need to cut open the wall where this is going to verify that there’s nothing unpredicted. Worst case is that the wall is load bearing. I don’t see how it could be but stranger things have happened.

Next major task will be either making the steel stand or building the sump. Both of which take up a lot of room once built and I can’t just stick them somewhere while I continue with the rest of the build.
 

Mastering the art of locking and unlocking water pathways: What type of valves do you have on your aquarium plumbing?

  • Ball valves.

    Votes: 38 52.1%
  • Gate valves.

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  • Check valves.

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  • None.

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  • Other.

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