Project Valinor - 84x30x25" Reef Tank

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yman182

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Looks great, I like the wood skin. Very elegant appearance.

How wide is the lip around the stand top? What is the height of the stand to bottom of the tank? I like the look and wanna make sure I'm on the right track with my stand
Thank you!

The stand is 36” high and the tank sits about 1.5” below the lip to hide the bottom brace.

The lip is 3.75”. It is dual purpose. To look nice and also place my beer when working on the tank :). So far it works great for both!
 

Jminasalli

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Scape looks nice but if you plan for sps maybe make it a bit shorter to allow for growth.
 

Vwluv10338

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@yman182
Can you give me more details on your whole RO setup? I’m on well water with high iron as well. I have a softener to remove iron and it feeds into my RO at about 350 tds which isn’t as bad as yours but it’s going through DI. My last setup the TDS out of my sink was 15 so I was spoiled. I just have a normal 4 stage RO that feeds a pressure tank with an auto valve. I but have a few extra canisters and was going to make a DI saver but I’m curious about your degasser.
 
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yman182

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@yman182
Can you give me more details on your whole RO setup? I’m on well water with high iron as well. I have a softener to remove iron and it feeds into my RO at about 350 tds which isn’t as bad as yours but it’s going through DI. My last setup the TDS out of my sink was 15 so I was spoiled. I just have a normal 4 stage RO that feeds a pressure tank with an auto valve. I but have a few extra canisters and was going to make a DI saver but I’m curious about your degasser.

the degasser is saving me tons of DI. I knew my well water was bad, but coming out of my RO filter I am getting around 14TDS, given my input water is in the high 900, I’ll take it! Even with the 14TDS coming out I was only getting maybe 55 gallons on 1 anion DI canister. After testing my CO2 in the water it was off the charts which is why I made the degasser.

my degasser is just a 65 gallon brute trash can with a degassing tower.
The tower is what the RO system fills up and then it just dumps it into the Brute trash can using RO tubing to Backup float valve.

the blue RO tube that loops up goes to the float valve, the one that hangs to the bottom is the feed to the DI stage.

AD4AF95B-CCA7-48D6-8AB8-F0D6B82DFE00.jpeg

423F0E0E-417E-4F2A-866C-87DA7A77506F.jpeg

In the tower are two airstones powered by a cheap air pump. That is on 24/7 just because it used so little power I don’t care that it is on.

Inside the brute trash can I also have two giant airstones (pictured above). Those are powered by a huge pump I bought on Amazon.

33CCAD16-ABB9-4BEC-81A9-B9CE33E33D04.jpeg

That one only runs for an hour in the middle of the night because it does use more power and is loud enough to hear when not near it. I am not sure if I actually need that, but I figured more air can’t hurt.

After all of that is done my CO2 in the water is either 5ppm coming out of the degassing tower or undetectable if I let it sit overnight and let the large airstones run once.

The RO system on/off is controlled by my Apex. I have a solinoid and a low/high optical sensor. So that I do not have TDS creep, it only turns on when the low sensor is dry and turns off when the high sensor is . The float valve is my backup in case the solinoid fails.

To get the water from the degasser through the DI resin and to my holding tank, I use a delivery/demand pump.

9904259D-5572-46A2-95D5-CC35D4E1E62B.jpeg

I use the smallest/slowest one they make.

This then pumps the degassed water from the brute through my PRO DI resin and into my storage tanks.

4C849CDE-B913-419F-AECD-221B6EC0825C.jpeg

Those are about 25ft from my DI resin which is about 10ft from the degasser.

the demand pump has a pressure switch similar to the ones used for booster pumps. I have a similar high/low setup in my RO storage container that is attached to a solenoid. When the solenoid closes, it causes pressure to build in the DI containers and the demand pump turns off.

After all of this my DI resin now lasts me about 250 gallons.

Before the RO system I have a dedicated iron filter because my well is very high in iron, after that I have a softener followed by a bubble removing chamber (this is just so the water isn’t bubbly coming out of the tap, it serves no cleaning purpose.)

After all of that I have water that will hopefully support my reef hobby!

I hope I answered your question :).
 

Jminasalli

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I was thinking the same thing after looking at it for a while. I think I’m going to lower the main arch.
I just got mine all setup and I kept it roughly half way for height my plan is sps dominant.
 

Vwluv10338

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the degasser is saving me tons of DI. I knew my well water was bad, but coming out of my RO filter I am getting around 14TDS, given my input water is in the high 900, I’ll take it! Even with the 14TDS coming out I was only getting maybe 55 gallons on 1 anion DI canister. After testing my CO2 in the water it was off the charts which is why I made the degasser.

my degasser is just a 65 gallon brute trash can with a degassing tower.
The tower is what the RO system fills up and then it just dumps it into the Brute trash can using RO tubing to Backup float valve.

the blue RO tube that loops up goes to the float valve, the one that hangs to the bottom is the feed to the DI stage.

In the tower are two airstones powered by a cheap air pump. That is on 24/7 just because it used so little power I don’t care that it is on.

Inside the brute trash can I also have two giant airstones (pictured above). Those are powered by a huge pump I bought on Amazon.

That one only runs for an hour in the middle of the night because it does use more power and is loud enough to hear when not near it. I am not sure if I actually need that, but I figured more air can’t hurt.

After all of that is done my CO2 in the water is either 5ppm coming out of the degassing tower or undetectable if I let it sit overnight and let the large airstones run once.

The RO system on/off is controlled by my Apex. I have a solinoid and a low/high optical sensor. So that I do not have TDS creep, it only turns on when the low sensor is dry and turns off when the high sensor is . The float valve is my backup in case the solinoid fails.

To get the water from the degasser through the DI resin and to my holding tank, I use a delivery/demand pump.

I use the smallest/slowest one they make.

This then pumps the degassed water from the brute through my PRO DI resin and into my storage tanks.

Those are about 25ft from my DI resin which is about 10ft from the degasser.

the demand pump has a pressure switch similar to the ones used for booster pumps. I have a similar high/low setup in my RO storage container that is attached to a solenoid. When the solenoid closes, it causes pressure to build in the DI containers and the demand pump turns off.

After all of this my DI resin now lasts me about 250 gallons.

Before the RO system I have a dedicated iron filter because my well is very high in iron, after that I have a softener followed by a bubble removing chamber (this is just so the water isn’t bubbly coming out of the tap, it serves no cleaning purpose.)

After all of that I have water that will hopefully support my reef hobby!

I hope I answered your question :).


This seems like exactly what I need to do. I was looking at what I need and I was planning on buying a booster pump anyway but this all seems complicated with my auto shutoff and pressure storage tank. I’m thinking of using an old iron remover tank that I removed when I moved in (none of the filtration system in the house was working when we moved in. It was a short sale. We removed it all and installed a new softener designed to remove high iron). I’m thinking of using that tank since it’s about 5’ tall and just fill it with softened water with an air stone and then have a booster pump draw from that to the RO? Seems reasonable right? I would just have to manually fill it but my booster pump would automatically kick on as normal.
 
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yman182

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This seems like exactly what I need to do. I was looking at what I need and I was planning on buying a booster pump anyway but this all seems complicated with my auto shutoff and pressure storage tank. I’m thinking of using an old iron remover tank that I removed when I moved in (none of the filtration system in the house was working when we moved in. It was a short sale. We removed it all and installed a new softener designed to remove high iron). I’m thinking of using that tank since it’s about 5’ tall and just fill it with softened water with an air stone and then have a booster pump draw from that to the RO? Seems reasonable right? I would just have to manually fill it but my booster pump would automatically kick on as normal.

the booster for the RO system should not impact your pressurized well storage tank. I have one myself.

I see no reason you cannot use the tank for water storage, just make sure it is fully cleaned of the softener and sterilized. I would also make sure it is not metal on the inside.

I would put it after the RO system, the reason for that is that the booster pumps usually need a minimum pressure to operate properly and the storage tank will provide none.
 
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yman182

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I am in the process of plumbing my overflow. I was planning on doing a bean animal style overflow. Since my overflow is internal, I do not have a ton of room in there.

For the primary siphon drain, I was able to put two 90s together. For the secondary drain I don’t think I can fit a T and a 90 to make a true Durso, would one of the Maggie mufflers that came with my tank plumbing work. I think it will accomplish the same thing as it has two air holes at the top.

picture below



10853BAF-66AB-4024-88A2-9027117577C4.jpeg



Maggie muffler

B7B2A8CC-314A-45B9-88FD-25A6DD390644.jpeg


The third emergency drain would go in the middle, I just have not cut it yet.
 
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yman182

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Working on my controller board mounting. Thoughts on the layout?

on the top shelf of the left one will be the dos for the AWC. On the right shelf I plan to put the trident and possibly the kaemor for the calcium reactor.
BA20F8F2-3682-4209-8CEF-D3875F8A406C.jpeg
 
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yman182

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Started mounting the electronics.

79E68C9B-E117-4CA3-A486-9FA9D9CFFAA8.jpeg

Still need to clean up the cabling coming from under the tank and through the wall, but I finally feel like progress is being made. If only this dang sump would arrive.
 
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yman182

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Good progress last night and tonight.

Last night I got my lights all wired up. Still waiting for some cable organizers to arrive, but they are all connected to the apex now. The Radions just for power and the reefbrites are controlled by a VDM module.

64CB05E8-07A2-4AA6-AB74-AE6A9588B8C8.jpeg
Today I started hanging all the controller equipment. My wife helped me make labels using her Cricut! Still needs some cable management, but it is coming along.

67D41A2F-9B47-4751-A3AD-B119847C96F1.jpeg


Also, big step today. I added Dr. Tim’s one and only. The Cycle begins!

Question for people. Once I finish the cycle, if I do not add fish, do I still need to keep adding ammonia so the bacteria don’t die off?
 
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yman182

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Major updates coming soon, but in the meantime I am working on my fish stocking list.

I already have the following in QT:

Powder brown tang
Yellow tang
Red Sea Sailfin tang
2 clownfish

Want
Achilles Tang
Blue Hippo
Blonde Naso
Gem Tang
Morish Idol - Reef safe?
Foxface
Long Nose Butterfly - Reef safe?
Copperband Butterfly - Reef Safe?
Regal Angel
Emperor Angel - Reef safe?
Long-nose Hawkfish
Flame Hawkfish
Green Mandarin
2x Bangi Cardinal
3x borbonius anthias
Firefish
Wrasse of some sort
Blue spot Puffer
3x Pyramid butterfly

I’m guessing that is way to many tangs and way to many fish. Anyone have thoughts on if this would be an overstocked tank with this list? I do have some major filtration in there to help with the nutrient export.
 
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yman182

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It’s been a while, but big news!! The permanent sump is done and should have it next week!

also arriving will be the CaRX and cryptic reactor.
BB97ECAC-FBBE-4992-8796-E448DF51E328.jpeg
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Major picture heavy update coming after the sump is installed.
 

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Hazmat312

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Loving the build so far! I just picked up a 84”24”25” planet aquarium. I have the tank but waiting on the stand, I went with there 42” metal stand. Do you have the mp60s turned up pretty high or you think I could get away with my mp40s?
 
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yman182

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I currently have them at about 30% and the wavs also at 30%z. I think you can get away with MP40s. I was having the same debate on what to get. I think two mp60s and two MP40s would be perfect for the tank in the end as corals corals crow in.
 
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