I hope I remember how to do this

[cmaxwell39]

Well it has been a fairly productive day. Got the shelf built for the

My oldest son helped me put it all together.

Tied the backside in to the studs in the wall. I will probably build a shelf underneath to tie the legs on the front together and to maximize storage/organization in the room.

All the framing done.

And top on. Will coat the plywood with a poly finish to make it water resistant. I think it came out pretty well.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Also got the sump pump replaced. The pump has been inop since we bought the house, so I knew I needed to replace it, just finally got around to it. I will eventually run a drain line from the fishroom over to this sump pump.

Didn’t get many pics of this part of the process. Here is what I have.

I was hoping to be able to get a 1.5” pipe run along the wall from the fishroom across the wall in this mechanical room and sump it into this sump pit, but that didn’t happen today.

While I was working on all of that, my family worked on painting the back and bottom of the QT tanks black. It will take a couple of more coats, but it is a good start.

That is about it for the day. I should clean up some tools and put stuff away, but I think I am going to pour myself a drink and catch up on some threads here on R2R.

 

[count krunk]

i think you should leaves the holes, pop in bulkheads and for now have a down pipe that has a valve (of your choice) turned to off for now. Leaves it open for future uses while you think thru the possibilities.

Looking great so far.

 

[cmaxwell39]

i think you should leaves the holes, pop in bulkheads and for now have a down pipe that has a valve (of your choice) turned to off for now. Leaves it open for future uses while you think thru the possibilities.

Looking great so far.

Thanks. I am thinking that i am going to leave the holes. I will probably plumb one set of holes up for water changes. I may plumb the other up to drain tank water to a bucket for doing water changes on the QT's. Still not totally decided yet, but I appreciate the input.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Some updates from this week. First of all, my wife put a poly coat on top of the plywood on the QT shelf while I was at work earlier this week. 3 coats were put on.

Another coat of paint was also applied to the back and bottom of the QT tanks.

That was it for the week until today.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Today some headway was made. I had a rare day off of work, but I couldn’t devote totally to the tank project. Today my bride and I celebrated 21 years of marriage. We spent some time together, and since we have been so busy lately we got most of Christmas shopping done.

I was allowed to spend some time on the tank project and got a few things done. First I anchored the legs of the QT shelf so that they are stable until I can find time to get the shelf built.

On each leg I put one of these L brackets that I anchored into the concrete floor and then attached the leg to it. Will probably end up doing a second bracket on each leg, butone is good enough for now...

Next, we ran to the LFS an hour away and picked up the RO system that they had ordered in for me. This is the LFS that I will be purchasing most of the equipment and the tank through for this build. It is nice to have a knowledgeable, down to earth, and fair place to deal with. Being new to the area I feel very lucky to have found this place.

Came home and got the RO system plumbed in. First I cut a 1/4 turn valve and Tee into my plumbing so that I had a hookup for the RO.

Next the RO system was mounted.

The supply and waste water were run. The waste water was just pulled over and dumped into the sump pit for now, i will come back and run it to a proper drain when I get some more time. At this point I flushed the new filters.

while the filters were flushing I ran a 1/4” line from my RO to my fishroom and over to where the 29 gallon eventual coral QT will sit. Placed the 29 gallon in its place and put the rock in it so that I can begin cycling it.

Once Rick was inI started the RO filling. Should be full by morning.

Numbers after running for about 45 min.

Before DI

After DI

And as a final update, my overflow arrived from EMS today.

That’s all for today. Hopefully tomorrow I will saltwater in the house for the first time in over 2 years!!!!

 

[cmaxwell39]

Been busy with the holidays, but I have gotten a little bit done here and there.

The rock is in the 29 gal that will eventually be the coral/invert QT. I have added a bacteria starter and ammonia and the ammonia cycle is well under way. Test results from tonight:

I also was digging through some old aquarium stuff and found some old “lava” rock that I ran in my very first ever saltwater tank 15+ years ago. Decided it would work well in the fish QT and cleaned it up a little bit and stuck it in there. Found a couple of old power heads and an old HOB and have started filling the fish QT.

I am also working on finalizing the design of my sump. My last tank I had a basement sump that c was a 125 as well, and on that tank I used half of it as a frag tank. I did not run a refugium on that tank since I carbon dosed from day 1. I am still undecided on whether or not I want to run a refugium on this tank, but I think a very similar setup to my old sump would be adequate either way I go. Would love some input into sump ideas. I will draw up some sketches and post them over the next couple of days.

As far as other updates go I don’t have much. Need to get a door on the fishroom and build my water mixing station/RO storage, but haven’t had time. Hopefully before the new year.

Hope everyone has a merry Christmas.

 

[MrWheelock]

Merry Christmas! Keep plugging along things are coming together nicely

 

[cmaxwell39]

Merry Christmas! Keep plugging along things are coming together nicely

Thanks. I am not as far along as I hoped I would be, but the tank is not here yet either so I have some time. Merry Christmas to you and yours as well.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Some sketches of what I am thinking for a sump layout. Does anyone see any issues? Also, I will be building the sump myself (including cutting the glass). I was thinking about getting a piece of plexi to make my filter sock holder out of. Does anyone see an issue with that? And what size holes to drill for 4” filter socks?

 

[cmaxwell39]

Well, I have had the last two days off and planned to get a bunch done on the build, but I had a couple of issues pop up.

First the sump pump line started bubbling up beside the house.

So, I dug it up and found that the 1.5” discharge line off of the pump was simply stubbed into a 4” line. This was allowing the water to back up out of the pipe and bubble up out of the ground. To fix this I used some reducers to seal everything off.

Sorry, didn’t take many pictures, but this was important as this is the sump pit that the fishroom is going to drain into. t the end though, everything was draining properly.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Next on the project list was an oil change and an O2 sensor on my truck. Oil change went fine, but after fighting to get the O2 sensor out for a few hours I finally discovered that when I had the cat replaced on it last year, the shop had tacked the O2 sensor in when they welded the new cat in. Have an appointment to take it in next week to get a new nipple welded in so that hopefully it will be fixed. That was a waste of time.

 

[cmaxwell39]

After giving up on the truck I did finally get some work done on the tank build.

First I got the water mixing station built.

Built a stand to stack the 2 55 gal barrels.

Next plumbed up a transfer/mixing pump.

Finally stubbed a line over for moving water during water changes. I will also come off the top valve and plumb it over to the shelf for water changes on the QTs.

All cleaned up (for now) and RODI flowing into the storage barrel.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Next my wife and kids and I moved the sump and stand to the basement. Had been debating whether to use this stand or build a custom one for the sump. I decided to use the factory stand and build some platforms around it to hold reactors/other reefing gear.

At first I was planning on building a 12” wide platform behind the sump and then also building a platform at the end that would come out as wide as the sump.

After placing the stand in this position I decided it would be too difficult to access anything placed behind the sump in this area so I am going to move it back closer to the wall, leaving enough room for the plumbing to run behind it, and then just build a platform between thestand and the wall to place CaRX, etc on. May even extend it out a little further. Plan on putting a sink in there as well, so have to make sure to leave room for that.

With that decided it was time to start running the drain for the fishroom.

Need to get a few more fittings to complete, but this is where it sits right now. The first tee that you see there will run over to the sink that will eventually go in. The line will continue and tie into at least one of the 1” bulkheads coming out of the bottom of the sump. The other bulkhead will be setup so that I can easily take water out and use display tank water in the QTs for final acclimation of fish and corals. One of the 3/4” bulkheads will be plumbed to the mixing station for transfer of new saltwater into the system during water changes. Hopefully this will all work the way it does in my head right now.

That’s all for now. We are supposed to go to the in-laws for a couple of days tomorrow, but my oldest has an infected salivary gland, so that may affect the trip. Might not be any progress made for a few days though.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Well, it seems the well at this house has high CO2. Something I have never had to deal with before. Burned through a canister of mixed bed DI I. Just over 100 gal of RO water.

So I did a little research and I am going to degas the RO before the DI. Didn’t want to do a tower, so bought a 44 gal Brute and an air pump/air stones. Need to get a float valve for the Brute, but for now I will manually fill it up. Will have to source a maxi jet 600 or 900 to pump out of the Brute through the DI. I will probably eventually automate all of this via the ghl, but for now it will just be manual.

 

[cmaxwell39]

We ended up not going out to the in-laws over the weekend as my oldest son was not up to traveling. Tested the fish QT yesterday morning after adding ammonia to it the night before. Here are the results.

So, this happened.

My youngest two and I made our way to the LFS and came home with these. Figured I could start QT and by the time the tank is here and ready, they will be ready as well.

I will probably get a group of chromis or a couple other small fish to QT with them, but the LFS did not have anything else available yesterday. So excited to have fish in the house again, and I think my kids are almost as excited as I am.

 

[cmaxwell39]

I also got the plumbing that will go behind the sump plumbed in. Didn’t get a lot of pics, but here is the finished product with the stand in place.

Tomorrow is going to be sump build and maybe rough tank plumbing day.

 

[cmaxwell39]

Well, today was a busy day.

Here is what happened.

Got the sump built. Started by cutting apart an old 50 breeder that the back was cracked on. I needed the glass to make baffles. I didn’t get any pictures of this part of the process, but here is a picture of most of the glass harvested/used.

The glass was then cut to size for the baffles and they were siliconed in place one at a time. Started with the 6”x6” area for the drains.

That wasn’t a whole lot of fun, but I am happy with how it came out. Continued gluing in baffles, it got easier from here, just time consuming.

I will post some finished shots of the sump in a bit, as well as describing the plan for the flow through the sump. There are a couple of interesting features that I hope will work out well.

 

[cmaxwell39]

So here is the plan for flow through the sump.

Drains from the tank will empty into the ~6x6 chamber and overflow into the area beside it. This will house filter socks (still need to get a piece of acrylic or plexi to make a filter sock holder out of)

After flowing out the bottom of the filter sock Chamber the water will enter the Fuge or frag area. I am thinking I am going to run a Fuge on this tank, but if I decide to carbon dose like I did on my last setup, this ~30x18 area will make a great area for frags.

The skimmer section can also be seen in the picture above. It is approximately 16.5”x18” and the baffle will set this section at 12” deep. I still need to cut the top brace out of there so it is not in the way. With all the baffles and not running near full it should be just fine without it.

After that are the baffles that separate the skimmer section from the return section. Ic you remember, this tank that I am using for a sump was a reef ready 125, so it was drilled for two overflows. One set of holes is in the Fuge/frag tank section, and I will get to them in a minute. The other set of holes I made sure my baffles separated so that I could use them for water changes on the system. The 1” bulkhead for the drain is located in the middle of the baffles do that I can drain the water after the skimmer, but before it gets to the return section.

You will notice that the first baffle section is much wider than normal. I did this so that I can service the bulkhead if I ever need to. I had the real estate with the 6’ sump, so why not make it accessible.

The other hole for this former overflow is in the return section. The hope is that I will be able to open the drain valve on the 1” bulkhead that will be tied into the1.5” plumbing I ran from the sump pump, and turn the transfer pump from my mixing station on and pump fresh water back into the return chamber. If it works like I hope it will, I won’t have to shut my return pump off to do a water change.

And here is the sump in place in the fishroom.

That’s all for now. Time for a drink.

 

[cmaxwell39]

So it has been a bit since I updated, and I have gotten a little more done so....

Tuesday was spent chasing down my old Lifereef skimmer and a few other parts and a pump to push water through the DI from my RO degassing station. I will do a full review and layout once I get that dialed in, but I am still tweaking it for now. Didn't get much actually done on the tank. Played with pumps to try to get one to work for the DI, but had very little success. More on that in a future update.

Wed. I started plumbing up the drains that were in the sump. If you remember, the 125 I had gotten for a sump tank was originally a reef ready tank, so it had 4 holes in the bottom of it. Here is what I did with them.

On the refugium end, I am going to get an adapter for this drain to go to a flexible hose. I also need to support this pipe some, but I want to be able to pull water out of this end of the sump and easily go into buckets so that I can do water changes on the QT's with tank water during the last half of the QT period to acclimate everything to tank parameters.

On the other end where I split the drain and return bulkheads with the baffles, the drain in plumbed into the 1.5" drain line running from the fish room to the sump pump in the mechanical room next to it.

Both of the returns are tied together and are run to the mixing station so that I can push water back into the sump from the mixing station. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, my hope is that I can drain old water from the sump and replace it with new water from the mixing station and not have to shut the return pump off to do it.