my upgrade journal/journey

[smitten with ocean life]

thanks guys. im going to go take it all apart again and see what i can find. thanks so much for your help. i really do appreciate it! now i hope i can get the dumb things loose! lol

 

[Üter]

my guess would be this ring is not sealed.

 

[UncommonSense]

thanks guys. im going to go take it all apart again and see what i can find. thanks so much for your help. i really do appreciate it! now i hope i can get the dumb things loose! lol

Remember the oil filter wrench trick!

 

[tharbin]

Holy cow, you are going to need a lot of help. Family, neighbors or members of your church? A Hail Mary offer the offensive and defensive line of your local high school football team promising bear and pizza. Just for the record I don’t condone underage drinking. We need to get this bad boy going!

Pretty hard core Kev, shooting a bear for bear steak, or maybe bear stew, to feed a football team.

 

[Imrahilwjz]

something that is going to be new for me on this build is a control panel. i guess thats to make everything neat and tidy? not sure how ill tackle that but will give it a shot! im definitely excited at the thought of having things tidier under the cabinet! what i have now is a disaster

I know how this feels. My cords are a disaster

 

[Imrahilwjz]

oh boy. methinks im in way over my head . finally got this beast into the house! and now i dont have any friends left. lol. this sump is huge!!

That's what I thought at first

 

[UncommonSense]

I know how this feels. My cords are a disaster

Same tank as prior plumbing photo:

I used braided nylon split cable sheathing initially intended for automotive wire loom applications to hide 30-ish cables!

 

[Imrahilwjz]

oh boy. methinks im in way over my head . finally got this beast into the house! and now i dont have any friends left. lol. this sump is huge!!

I'm jealous of your red plumbing

 

[Imrahilwjz]

oh boy. i knew i am way over my head! haha. he has 2 return pumps for some reason...

My six foot tank had two return pumps when I got it. Each one plumbed to a separate return in the DT. After all my copper issues I drilled the end of the sump to add a 2" bulkhead and went to an external pump feeding a homebuilt pvc manifold. That has it's own fun issues though. A leaky submersible pump fitting reduces efficiency, but the water goes back into the sump. A leaking external pump...

 

[Imrahilwjz]

Oof! Get a pair of handheld ratcheting plastic pipe cutters! (Basically like garden pruners on steroids)

A power saw is not a fun way to cut PVC pipe under 2”!

100% agree. I finally bought ratcheting 2" pipe cutter. After using it I kicked myself for not buying it sooner and immediately bought a smaller one as well

 

[UncommonSense]

100% agree. I finally bought ratcheting 2" pipe cutter. After using it I kicked myself for not buying it sooner and immediately bought a smaller one as well

I recently discovered that even these have their limitations!

— particularly for clear material, wether it be PVC, or polycarbonate, they seem to shatter the pipe/fitting on every cut attempt!

I recently used up some undersized/out-of-round clear 1” sch.40 PVC pipe, making legs for a skimmer stand… — I ended up having to use a circular saw to cut the pipe without shattering it!

(3/8” acrylic top, friction fit legs so height can be changed on the fly!)

 

[fishface NJ]

The tape roll of perforated sheet metal strapping material can technically work, but isn’t a very elegant solution for such a nice plumbing job! (And is just generally a pain to work with/doesn’t do much besides hang the pipe)

Here’s a screenshot of the style of pipe supports I’m imagining; this is just a placeholder I pulled up for example purposes, not a specific brand recommendation…

something that mounts to a surface (like the stand), and securely clamps around the plumbing! — the adjustable stem seems nice given that plumbing is rarely a fixed distance from a surface!

These won’t be strictly necessary for test running the tank… but, some form of (removable/serviceable) plumbing support should be installed before the tank is running with salt water, in your home!

Thank you @UncommonSense for posting this! This is exactly what I was looking for in Lowes and could not find it. Amazon has everything.

@smitten with ocean life I built my AlbFab extrusion stand and my tank is now sitting on it for 2 week now. I have no motivation to do the plumbing. I'll just vicariously live through you for now LOL.

 

[Elphirwjz]

its battery powered. it was actually fun once i figured out how to hold it! its just not made for leftys thats for sure! a lot of stuff isnt and ive just learned to figure it out

I know the feeling. I'm a lefty too. Either nothing is made for us or it is double the price for a lefty one

 

[smitten with ocean life]

you got it! at least they make tacos and burgers for us though, right?;)

 

[smitten with ocean life]

you guys are the best! thank you again everyone! ill tackle it again tomorrow!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

alright. ive got it all torn apart AGAIN! lol. all the rubber seals looks good on both sides of the overflow. everything seems fine and clean. so where do i start?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

 

[UncommonSense]

Oh!! You’re reusing old gaskets! — they have some pretty ugly casting marks left in their faces too…

Best bet here before going any further would be to get new gaskets!

— your local ace hardware may have some intended for shower drains/etc which actually work really well! Though it may be an online order…

I suppose you could also try silicone grease/lubricant, but I suspect that any seal you get from this won’t last forever!

 

[smitten with ocean life]

ok. think a plumbing store would be a better pick?

 

[smitten with ocean life]

im wondering if i should take a razor blade to where those go thru the tank and scrape this stupid paint they used off?