Greybeard's Wide, Shallow Peninsula

[Greybeard]

Got a guy coming in today to run the RO/DI line under the house, place a couple of 4x4 posts under the tank for a little additional support, and hang my light. I don't do crawlspaces or ladders anymore

I cut the holes in my external overflow box last night, test fit it in the sump closet behind the tank. Guy I had build the black acrylic overflow box did a 1/2" bottom in it... I thought it was all 1/4", until I started drilling

Triton design sump a friend and I made from a 55g tank will be here today, I hope.

I'd be happy to do a little review of the coralbox doser, but it's likely to be a month or so before I get to that point.

No rush. Slow and steady.

 

[Greybeard]

Obligatory kid in the tank photo... Staring my grandson Parker

 

[Greybeard]

Let there be light

 

[Janci]

Let there be light

Neat look. I like it.

 

[Greybeard]

Test fit plumbing

 

[Clayton Jessup]

This looks like it's going to be a great build can't wait [emoji4]!!

 

[Greybeard]

Long way to go yet, but now that I have the glass in place, well, at least I can keep moving forward. I'd been at a standstill for a while waiting on the tank.

I'm mocking up the interior wall, it'll end up being 1/2" ply with several layers of white epoxy, covering most of that ugly hole in the wall. I need to be able to reach in there to move magnetic pump holders around, but I'll make it as clean as I can. I'll be mounting most of my electronics above the sump. Get the sump stand painted... and the sump itself reconfigured. Gotta move one baffle in the sump, and remove some silicone from a baffle I pulled out. Triton method, they have a specific sump design, and I want to follow it as close as possible.

Still haven't made up my mind on rock and substrate. I'm going to try bare bottom... never done it before. My wife hates the idea, and I'm not so sure myself... we'll see. Bottom of stand is a nice bright white, so I may not use the starboard I was considering, just leave it bare glass. That'll make it easier if I decide to add some course grade sand in the future. Need some dry base rock, likely reefcleaners. I've got 40lbs or so from my old cube that will go in here eventually, well established. It's from reefcleaners originally, so buying there again will at least keep it consistent. They've got about the best pricing on clean base rock, as well. Need enough rubble to cover the bottom of the 12x24" refugeum section, as well. I was going to use marinepure blocks, but with all the talk about aluminum leaching out of them, well... rock rubble seems safer.

Haven't purchased wave pumps yet. Either Current USA's Eflux or Sicce Voyager line is most likely. Sicce is know for quiet, and I like quiet. The CurrentUSA pumps are relatively inexpensive, and their loop system would tie in with my return pump. Not sure what good that would do me, but it's something to think about. I'm going to stick my old gyre 130 in there as well, short term, at least.

I hope to have the sump area woodwork painted this week, maybe even get the plumbing glued up... My daughter is coming next weekend to paint the surround. Maybe I can get that framed out and epoxy coated next week.

 

[Greybeard]

Decorative paint on the surround is complete. Big thanks to my daughter Kaitlyn, I have no artistic ability. Looks great. Some red oak trim, and a couple gallons of pour on epoxy, and the surround will be complete.

Plumbing is ready, but I've still got to put a coat of white epoxy on the stand under my 55g sump. Once that is done, glue everything up, and I can get it full of tap water for a leak test and evaluate flow and noise levels.

May be ready for salt in a few weeks.

 

[Greybeard]

55g Triton style sump complete, sump stand has been painted, I _think_ I'm ready to glue up the plumbing and start freshwater testing.

A bit of trim, and I hope to 'pour on' the bartop surface this weekend.

 

[tj w]

Man, that top looks awesome. Can you get some close ups when you get time? Looks great!

 

[Janci]

Nice detailing. Will look terrific.

 

[Greybeard]

Kind of difficult to get close ups... it's an odd shape, long and narrow. I was going to wait until the edging and bar top epoxy was in place to try and document it, but since you asked The artwork is sort of abstract. That's the artist that painted it's preferred style. The artist would be my daughter Kaitlyn, and she spent about 4 hours on this. She's a muralist in St. Louis... I'd be happy to give out contact info for anyone that might be interested in having something done.

The last image is the outside corner. I asked for a queen angelfish. Love them, and can't have one in the tank... so...

 

[Greybeard]

Test fit outside oak trim, got plumbing all glued up, filling with tap water for a leak test

 

[Clayton Jessup]

looks good can't wait to see it filled ..

 

[Greybeard]

Managed to get the tank full of tap water by about midnight last night.

NO LEAKS!!!!

'Siphon Stopper' return lines are sucking air. Can't tell for certain, but it appears to be at the top of the device. Causes some noise, and, if I allowed it to continue, the salt creep would be ridiculous. I'll be contacting CustomAquarium.com about this today. I _may_ be able to run a bead of silicone around the top edge of the device and seal it up... or pull the darned things out and replace them with a few bits of PVC. They really don't do much, and they're rather large.



'H2Overflows' by the same company... now these, I like. With my return pump at max (~1900gph), there is virtually zero noise from these. With the outside box and it's BeAnAnimal style drain, it's _very_ quiet. I learned my lessons on noise reduction through pain and persistence... this system is going to be quiet. On the tank side, I'm pretty darned close to silent now.

On the sump side, I've got a 5" waterfall from one sump compartment to the next. I knew this was going to be an issue, but I want the water height in my refugeum. I've got a couple of options... 1) drill a few 1/4" holes below the waterline in the lower compartment... so that some (most?) of the water doesn't go over, but through the divider. 2) silicone a bit of acrylic sheet in so that it guides the waterfall down at an angle. What, 15 degrees or so? Either, or both, might do the trick.

With this sump design, as specified by Triton, one of the safety factors I normally build into a system is missing. The divider between the skimmer and return areas is a bottom opening only, so, if the overflow system were to totally plug, it would pump out both the return and skimmer compartment before the pump runs dry... about 10 gallons, which is more than enough to overflow the display tank. Normally, I wouldn't do this, but with the BeAnAnimal 3 pipe drain, well, I do have a dry emergency pipe... I suppose it's pretty safe. Still bugs me, though. I may put another divider in, so that the pump compartment is isolated.

Well, this is why we water test, right?

Oh, did I mention... NO LEAKS!!!

 

[justingraham]

Hey since I recomend the coral box for u can I recomend something you do with it as well I would set up and calibrate it where u are going to out it. I would then hook it up with water in ur dosing containers and have the return going into a cup (so u can measure it at a later date) have it dose 10ml a day And measure it to make sure it is dosing correctly for you.

I only say this because I didn't do it and where I set up the doseing pump and containers there was a problem with it going full syphon. It was my fault not the doser pumps. And I had to rearrange it in a not so nice place to do maintance on it where if I knew I couldn't put the doser where I wanted I could have put it in a better place rather then hurrying and making more mistakes. This way before u start everything is set up correctly with no surprises with the doser and u know how to use it properly.

Since I fixed the problem I made with the doser going full syphon this thing has been set it and forget it. Every week or so I look at the dosing containers to make sure it's dosing all four the same. Other then that easy use great customer service and easy adjustments on the fly.

Also so u know with the triton one ml of triton elements raises the dkh in the tank .1 dkh for every 50 gallons. So if u have a hundred gallon tank and u need to raise ur dkh by .2 u will need to dose .4 ml of all four elements

 

[Greybeard]

Thanks for the input... I've used dosing pumps in the past. Container below sump, end of dosing tube above water level, and calibration is absolutely necessary. In fact, I'll run the calibration routine several times, on each pump head.

Still probably be a couple of months before I start dosing anything. I'll keep the freshwater testing going for a few days. Try and solve the bubbling problem with the returns, and 'fix' the waterfall noise in the sump. I've still got some cabinetry to do... I'm probably going to pour the bar top epoxy this weekend, I'm dreading that one, the risk of generating a huge mess in my living room is much higher than I like.

 

[Greybeard]

Oak 'Picture Frame' complete. Eventually, I'll be pouring bar top epoxy into the trough created by this frame. Not an activity I'm looking forward to... mixing and pouring 2 gallons of 2 part epoxy. Oh well, do the best I can.

 

[Greybeard]

And... started on electrical installation. Open, easy access, and clean, are my goals. Not trying for a showplace, this is all in a closet that, hopefully, very few will ever see

Oh, overflow box you see there, with the Planet Aquariums sticker on it, was made for me by a local guy... Ozarks Reef https://www.facebook.com/ORAquaria/

 

[3mm3]

Looking really good! The build looks to be going along really well