OINK! I'm a Pig. 200g Reef Savvy, Bashsea, Royal Exclusiv -Direct sunlight- In wall w/ IKEA fishroom basement sump build

lefkonj

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First off, love the picture of the giant box of Milano cookies (so good made me hungry)

Second, love the build.

Last the generator. After owning a generac 20KW for the last 6 years make sure to always have two maintenance kits on hand. If it runs for more than 200 hours you are supposed to perform a maintenance. That includes enough oil to do 2 oil changes. With Hurricane Sandy we were without power for 14 days, that required 1 maintenance kit and the required oil.
 

mrpizzaface

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Ok more catch up today.

While I have a picture of the sump to refer to, I will point out another major mistake and show another picture-

Mistake- Mounting the electrical outlets at typical switch height. As you can see from the photo above, and the photo below, the sump height comes right up to the electrical switches, and once I install the outdoor outlet covers to protect from splashes (which by the way is an idea I suggest everyone follows, cheap and easy and protects your outlets) I can't flip them up to open them since they come down a little too low. In retrospect, I should have mounted them even higher or made the sump stand shorter. I suppose I still have the option of taking two inches off the stand legs but I would have to dig out the screws from under the enamel (not sure thats possible?), then recut the legs, make sure they are perfectly level again, and possibly have to repaint. Huge pain in the rear...

This would be to fix the issue I am having right now, which is that I need to keep the sump 5 inches off the wall to make it all work. Is it worth going through all that in order to get a couple more inches in the room ?? Not sure I need the extra space in the room and the sump would need to be about 2" off the wall anyway for routing piping and electrical cords down behind and underneath it ?? Not sure.. what would you guys do? Shorten the stand or just live with it, since it would only save 3" of room space.

IMG_4136.JPG
I would just open the wall and move the boxes up.
build looks great. I will be installing a Reef Savvy before the year ends... I hope
 
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drtechno

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First off, love the picture of the giant box of Milano cookies (so good made me hungry)

Second, love the build.

Last the generator. After owning a generac 20KW for the last 6 years make sure to always have two maintenance kits on hand. If it runs for more than 200 hours you are supposed to perform a maintenance. That includes enough oil to do 2 oil changes. With Hurricane Sandy we were without power for 14 days, that required 1 maintenance kit and the required oil.

Fantastic advice, thanks

In regards to the frag tank, yes I should have room on the other side, opposite the cabinets and to the left of the water station.
 

Grill

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As far as plumbing mistakes.. LOL..
You see anything wrong with this picture?

IMG_4055.JPG

... Yes, I forgot to put the screw on couplings that attach both sides of the T to the Cepex valves.. Unbelievable!! I was being so careful too. So I ordered the new slip couplings, and made sure I plumbed them correctly when they arrived, then I proceeded to plumb the rest of the mixing station. I was, of course very careful not to repeat the same mistake again.
BUT--

IMG_4057.JPG

You have GOT to be kidding me.. Yes.. I did it AGAIN. Immediately after fixing the exact same mistake below! I cannot even begin to comprehend how I repeated the mistake. And to make matters worse, there was a second place above this where I had likewise messed up. I ended up just cutting these pieces and making the stub shorter, scavenging couplings from a couple new Cepex valves I had, and fixing the mistakes.

What epic fails.
I just plumped a 210 and did the exact same thing, luckily I caught it right away pulling it apart and adding the coupling.
 
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drtechno

drtechno

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Starting to aquascape while I wait for other stuff to arrive. Much harder than it looks online. Whatever size pieces you think you need, you probably should halve them and reglue together to make them more interesting.
With real life in the way, I’m assuming I’ll be aquascaping for at least several weekends :/
83A09147-D2BC-47AB-A044-656985F76496.jpeg

D9B2C54F-A8A0-4827-9426-E50509F046A6.jpeg
 

mrpizzaface

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Starting to aquascape while I wait for other stuff to arrive. Much harder than it looks online. Whatever size pieces you think you need, you probably should halve them and reglue together to make them more interesting.
With real life in the way, I’m assuming I’ll be aquascaping for at least several weekends :/
83A09147-D2BC-47AB-A044-656985F76496.jpeg

D9B2C54F-A8A0-4827-9426-E50509F046A6.jpeg
ORIFICE!
 
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drtechno

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Just a quick update: while the aquascaping slowly progresses in the background, a bunch of plumbing supplies arrived. Now I have to figure out how to plumb those two bazookas vertically beside my sump, where space is at a premium. I originally wanted to plumb in T’s with two ball valves so I could shut down then drain the UVs if I ever needed to dismount them but the amount of space I would need for that is too much. Oh well. Anyway, I might do some dry fitting over the weekend to see what configuration I could run them in.
DEC437F7-40A8-4E60-9B90-AA3B16C56C32.jpeg
 

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Nice build. I have a 180 in wall, that is viewable from the living room and my wife’s office. Two tanks in one. Basement fishroom 12x9) contains sump, frag and cryptic refugium tank, and pod/ algae cultures, while an external area (14x12) holds my water station and two areas for QT. I ran 3x20 amps to the fishroom, but put 2 of them terminate at a single outlet each that I plug 2 apex eb8’s into. The third line is ‘contingency/extra) and I ran them literally 8” above regular switch height. I see you’ve figured out that one a touch too late.

kicker is- I’m building a new house that’ll be ready in a year or so and I’ll be upgrading to a 400. But I spent so long planning this space that I’m literally not changing a thing- it’s pretty much ideal. I see a couple cool ideas in yiur build - like the pvc pipe tuning conduit, - that I might borrow next time.

looking forward to seeing the rest of the build

Oh- I wouldn’t sweat the natural light. I mean- what can you do, right? But there are a few nice tanks here that have sunlight exposure. I think one even has purposefully aligned solar tubes hitting the tank with a lot of daylight. Running an algae scrubber can help mitigate algae growth due to the extra par/spectrum, and you already have that planned.

cool stuff
 
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drtechno

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I ran 3x20 amps to the fishroom, but put 2 of them terminate at a single outlet each that I plug 2 apex eb8’s into. The third line is ‘contingency/extra) and I ran them literally 8” above regular switch height. I see you’ve figured out that one a touch too late.

Thx for the kind words. Ya, what you did above is fantastic and the best way to do it. That I also thought of too late :)I’m referring to wiring two separate 20-amp circuits into the same electrical box and splitting the outlets between the two circuits. Makes connections so much easier. Luckily I ended up with both my circuits relatively close together so it won’t be an issue having two APEX power bars mounted together but run to different circuits.

Haha. Where were you when I was planning my outlet heights ;) ?!
 

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Thx for the kind words. Ya, what you did above is fantastic and the best way to do it. That I also thought of too late :)I’m referring to wiring two separate 20-amp circuits into the same electrical box and splitting the outlets between the two circuits. Makes connections so much easier. Luckily I ended up with both my circuits relatively close together so it won’t be an issue having two APEX power bars mounted together but run to different circuits.

Haha. Where were you when I was planning my outlet heights ;) ?!
I’m sorry I missed it, I could have saved you some trouble.

could you move the sump forward to allow clearance?
 
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drtechno

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I’m sorry I missed it, I could have saved you some trouble.

could you move the sump forward to allow clearance?

haha. Just teasing :). Me and my father-in-law did the framing and electrical like a year ago as I was planning all this. I hadn’t bothered to post anything at that time because finishing the basement was moving so slowly. I also put in switches outlets, only to now realize the Apex is all the switching I will need. But that can easily be required in the box if I need the outlet back.

Yes. So currently I am just pulling the sump off the wall 6 inches to clear the outlet covers. If I had mounted them higher I would be able to scoot the sump in so that it was only 2 inches off the wall. So I’m losing 4 inches which is irrelevant I suppose in the grand scheme of things.
 
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drtechno

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Sweet build man! How long did it take RS to actually respond to your quote? Following along for some great ideas for the future.

Sorry. Missed this post before.
Honestly? I had to call them. I gave them a week to respond to the email/quote form but after not hearing from them I just gave them a call and had it shortly thereafter.
 

t5Nitro

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Sorry. Missed this post before.
Honestly? I had to call them. I gave them a week to respond to the email/quote form but after not hearing from them I just gave them a call and had it shortly thereafter.
Ironically I just heard back from them after quite a while by email. :D
It's either these guys or Miracles out of Canada, so I'm really looking forward to following your build. If I order 1 year from now I'd likely get it in time for the date I'd want it. Really digging your initial aquascape btw.
 
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drtechno

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I love your build so far. I love the colors of the sump, It's really nice.

Thanks
Maybe all the plastics guys are using the same color plastic sourcing since the orange PVC from BRS matches the sump exactly. Had toyed with the idea of yellow piping but the wife convinced me to match the sump.. Working on aquascaping today so I'll update the thread in a bit
 

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