My 900 gallon "dream" is coming to life!!

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It was a major added expense yet the real damage was delaying the build, and causing a second cycle...
how high will it be? it is a tall skimmer and taking the oversized skimmer cup standing on a ladder might not be as easy as you want.
I would definitely have a bucket to drain skimmate before taking the cup out for cleaning as well.
one other factor to consider is some sound isolation as its not what I would call a quiet skimmer. gravity should have no effect as the gate valve will set the water level inside the skimmer anyway.
Tank is looking great !

I was planning to skim a little wet and run the drain line from the cup directly into the house drain. That plus having the neck cleaner running I am hoping will mean I won't have to remove the cup for cleaning quite as often. Thanks for the heads up on the noise level. I can insulate the closet walls if it becomes and issue. Appreciate your help!!!
 

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I was planning to skim a little wet and run the drain line from the cup directly into the house drain. That plus having the neck cleaner running I am hoping will mean I won't have to remove the cup for cleaning quite as often. Thanks for the heads up on the noise level. I can insulate the closet walls if it becomes and issue. Appreciate your help!!!
Would advise against an open drain on a skimmer. I only had a couple of overflow incidents, one was handled by the skimmer anti overflow design, the second was unfortunately with an open drain and caused a significant flood, and nearly caused the return pumps to run dry...
 
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Would advise against an open drain on a skimmer. I only had a couple of overflow incidents, one was handled by the skimmer anti overflow design, the second was unfortunately with an open drain and caused a significant flood, and nearly caused the return pumps to run dry...


Interesting, I would like to hear more about those situations. There is the cup drain for the skimmate that drains to an external container/drain and a second cup drain higher up to handle an overflow that drains back into the bowl. What went wrong and what did you do to prevent future issues?

I do see the risk with an open drain that could significantly drain a large portion of water before it was detected (without a monitoring device in place to shut things down). And that same water ends up on the floor without some detection monitor in place as well. I was also thinking about putting the skimmer in a shallow pan with a drain in the bottom in case the overflow design fails and spills over the top of the skimmer and down the sides. I plan to use floats and leak detectors with my Apex to "water proof" my home as much as possible. I have seen a lot of creative ideas.
 

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I love how your returns are low. How does that siphon break work, does it have a check valve? Very interesting!
 
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I love how your returns are low. How does that siphon break work, does it have a check valve? Very interesting!

Thanks. No, no check valve. The siphon break has a small tube coming out of the end of that pvc pipe. It is pointing down to just above the surface of the water level in the overflow box. When the pumps are running there will be a small jet of water coming out of that tube and into the overflow box. When the pumps stop and the water starts to siphon backwards, the overflow box drains out and that tube starts to suck air until the suction is broken in the return pipes. The sump will have enough capacity to hold all the water that siphons back from the return pipes and everything in the overflow box. Not sure yet if I will turn off pumps during feeding but if not I will test the siphon break once a week to make sure everything is working correctly.
 

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Cool idea, I have never seen that before. Love how the break is in a clean place.

It is a near and dear topic to me personally lately. Had an 8' frag tank drain to 1" deep because I (dumb, dumb, dumb!) forgot to put the siphon break in.

It was alarming to say the least. It is an interesting read of sorts, if interested check it out here:

http://www.pnwmas.org/topic/35377-i...-3-am-why-drill-anti-siphon-holes-in-returns/
 
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Cool idea, I have never seen that before. Love how the break is in a clean place.

It is a near and dear topic to me personally lately. Had an 8' frag tank drain to 1" deep because I (dumb, dumb, dumb!) forgot to put the siphon break in.

It was alarming to say the least. It is an interesting read of sorts, if interested check it out here:

http://www.pnwmas.org/topic/35377-i...-3-am-why-drill-anti-siphon-holes-in-returns/

Yep, it can happen in an instant. I try to slow down and draw my ideas on paper first. Wait a day or so. Then pick up it up and think about other ways to do it and draw those out. Then think about it some more. Then think about pros/cons and what could go wrong. Then run it by others. And most of the time I end up with something much different that that first drawing.

...it was the middle of the night and in a groggy haze I wake up to the words "Honey, what is that sound?"

How many of us have at least one of those stories to tell? And why is it that it always seems to be the wife that hears it first? And if it is a wifey talent then why the heck don't they wake up sooner!! ;)
 

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Yes, the tank is looking good. Seems like an overwhelming amount of work but, what a wonderful tank this will be when its done.!!!!
I just started my tank cycling. I know what a PITA it can be to get it there.
My stand and canopy look almost identical to the one you have, take a look, and Good luck on yours!!!!!!!!!
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/gasmans-bob-110-rebuild.206085/page-3#post-2424671

Great build thread. I will go back and check out some of your extensive plumbing work again.

And your cabinetry work, wowza that is absolutely amazing!!
 
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Big day yesterday. Tank was delivered!!

Loading up at the shop...

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Arrived just before a huge thunderstorm...

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Hydraulic lift tables worked great

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We managed to get it off the truck and into the house minutes before the skies opened up in typical south FL fashion. Also delivered a large tank to mix SW for the initial fill.

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I decided to leave the wall opened up for access to electrical and plumbing just in case. I will slide in a sheet of green board drywall latger on once things are all hooked up. Can never be too careful

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Tank rolled in nicely on the lift beds. Everything went smoothly... well except for when they ran one of them off the edge of the front walk and almost dumped the whole thing onto my driveway.... yeah, but other than that it was smooth.

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The stand is 2" stainless steel box tubing. The cutouts are for the two closed loop systems through the bottom

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We finished up all the plumbing that runs being the tank before sliding it up close to the wall.

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This little guy is Gilberto. He is probably all of 90 lbs soaking wet. He is actually kneeling on the cross brace on top of the tank. No way I could get away with that!!

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More pics later today....
 

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Following along on this one...great looking project and congratulations.
 

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Great progress! I hope you get it all set up before the storm this weekend! Looks great!
 
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Great progress! I hope you get it all set up before the storm this weekend! Looks great!

Thanks. We moved here 3 years ago from CT so we are used to these storms (Irene, Sandy, etc.). Looks like FL is finally in the target zone although they can't seem to decide how bad it will be. Glad I have a generator!!
 

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Yeah, Having a generator is a great thing down here. My first year of living in Florida was in Pensacola when Ivan hit as a category 4. Not fun, but this shouldn't be to bad either way
Hurricane path.jpg
 

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Agreed, it shouldn't be too bad, but the models have been updated. Been in SW Florida for 15 years now, and these things can turn, die down, and strengthen in short order. At the moment, it doesn't look like much, but who knows. Good luck fellow Floridians.

 
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More pics....

As you can see this is a "no frills" sump - no baffles, no chambers, just 3 very large filter socks 7"x32" for mechanical filtration. There will be 12,000 gph flowing through this sump so it is not your typical setup. My fuge is on the mezzanine level away from the strong flow. It will be fed with a gentle flow from a manifold and drain using an overflow. The bulkhead in the back is the output to the external skimmer. The return from the skimmer will go into one of the filter socks along with the 3 overflows from the tank.

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A couple shots of the tank

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Unfortunately there won't be too much more progress for a while because everyone will be heading off to MACNA. Hope to pick up again sometime after labor day.
 

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

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  • None.

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