RockRash's 75 gallon build

[Red_Beard]

Looking good!

 

[RockRash]

I got the plumbing for the overflow done tonight. I'm pretty happy with it although I did make a stupid mistake that forced me to cut the emergency pipe and add a coupling. It's one of those things that really doesn't matter but it bugs you because it was a really stupid mistake lol. Tomorrow hopefully I'll have the return done I'm playing around with different areas to mount the UV sterilizer.

 

[RockRash]

Made quite a bit of progress today. I got the uv mounted and most of my return plumbed in. I made a small manifold with 2 ball valves so I run same thing in the future. I tried to make as easy as possible to service everything and I'm pretty happy with it all however there's a few changes I would make but for my first time plumbing a tank I think I didn't do too bad.

Sadly I ran out of 45s so I'll have to finish up tomorrow but everything hard is done. This is where I left it tonight.

 

[RockRash]

I was really excited and wanted to show my wife the progress I made, so I called her to come take a look. The first thing out of her mouth " you spent all that money a purple and gray pvc to look nice and you left the dang price stickers on" . I hadn't even noticed. So I guess now I get to spend a few hours with rubbing alcohol try to get the dang stickers off.

 

[RockRash]

Ok, so plumbing is done. Took me way longer than I expected lol.

 

[RockRash]

I'll be testing it later tonight for leaks using tap water if everything goes good hopefully I'll start filling trash cans full or rodi and mixing some salt soon. :cool:

 

[RockRash]

Good news. No leaks! I filled it up tonight and ran it for a hour and not a single drop anywhere out side the tank.

All filled up and running.

I turned off the return and let the desplay drain back down. The sump didn't over flow and I still had a few inches left to go.

Now for the bad news. I need a bigger pump not right away but I'll definitely need to upgrade. I've been buying my parts slowly starting back April trying to buy things as they went on sale. That's when I bought the 2 mp 40s and the vectra s2 originally I just intended the pump to go straight from the sump to the return bulkheads. Well a few months later I decided to a uv sterilizer and as I started buying my pvc fittings I decided I would add a manifold so I can run some accessories down the line. Anyway now with all that I'm only getting 400gph at 100%. I got to excited adding more things I completely forgot to check the pump curve. It's not a huge deal I actually intended on running the system at 400gph just not at 100% I wanted it around 40-50% and it would have done it had I not added everything else.

I intended on building a mixing station so I'll run the s2 until the mixing station is built and upgraded then. Sending the s2 to mixing duty.

 

[RockRash]

So I'm planning on setting up my RODI unit tomorrow to start filling my trashcans so I can mix my salt. I haven't bought any bacteria yet and was planning on using fritz turbo start 900. If I can't find it locally would it be ok to put my rocks and sand in ( I'm using caribsea select grade) fill it with salt water and wait for it to ship from algae barn. Will the bacteria in the sand be affected? Or should I wait to fill until I have the turbo start 900?

 

[Red_Beard]

So I'm planning on setting up my RODI unit tomorrow to start filling my trashcans so I can mix my salt. I haven't bought any bacteria yet and was planning on using fritz turbo start 900. If I can't find it locally would it be ok to put my rocks and sand in ( I'm using caribsea select grade) fill it with salt water and wait for it to ship from algae barn. Will the bacteria in the sand be affected? Or should I wait to fill until I have the turbo start 900?

Absolutely. Get it wet as soon as you can. Throw in a piece of shrimp or pinch of fishfood to start getting stuff going. Bacteria will find their way in and start colonizing all on their own. Turbo start your turbo start.

 

[RockRash]

Absolutely. Get it wet as soon as you can. Throw in a piece of shrimp or pinch of fishfood to start getting stuff going. Bacteria will find their way in and start colonizing all on their own. Turbo start your turbo start.

Awesome, that's what I figured. Just wanted to make sure.

 

[RockRash]

So I didn't get as far as I wanted. We found some water damage in the corner of our ceiling from a faulty AC drain we had a few years ago so I had to patch that. I didn't want old drywall falling into the tank. So after a small repair and some fresh paint the tank is finally in its spot.

Now for my question the slab under our flooring is a bit higher towards the wall. Its sits about a 1/8 to a 1/4 inch lower in the front and about the same on the right side. I anticipated having to shim it but how many shims should I use? I bought a pack of composit shims at Lowe's I assume the more I use the better the weight distribution is. Is there a reccomend shim per inch or an I over thinking it and should just get it level. If it matters the stand measures 49x25.

Picture of the tank against the wall.

 

[fishguy242]

So I didn't get as far as I wanted. We found some water damage in the corner of our ceiling from a faulty AC drain we had a few years ago so I had to patch that. I didn't want old drywall falling into the tank. So after a small repair and some fresh paint the tank is finally in its spot.

Now for my question the slab under our flooring is a bit higher towards the wall. Its sits about a 1/8 to a 1/4 inch lower in the front and about the same on the right side. I anticipated having to shim it but how many shims should I use? I bought a pack of composit shims at Lowe's I assume the more I use the better the weight distribution is. Is there a reccomend shim per inch or an I over thinking it and should just get it level. If it matters the stand measures 49x25.

Picture of the tank against the wall.

Yes , just get it level.

 

[RockRash]

Yes , just get it level.

Thanks again! How have you been feeling following your surgery? Hope all is well!

 

[fishguy242]

Ok, lil sore, but the outcome was worth it... ;) :)

 

[LaloJ]

Purple is my favorite color, I had never seen a system configuration where the stand was also purple along with the wood panels, I loved the plumbing work.

 

[mch1984]

I got the plumbing for the overflow done tonight. I'm pretty happy with it although I did make a stupid mistake that forced me to cut the emergency pipe and add a coupling. It's one of those things that really doesn't matter but it bugs you because it was a really stupid mistake lol. Tomorrow hopefully I'll have the return done I'm playing around with different areas to mount the UV sterilizer.

I did the same thing when plumbing my 40-gallon. Now I have a random union on my plumbing, which bugs me. I guess I'll use it as an excuse to redo the plumbing one day and make it prettier. The tank is looking great. For some reason, I've always liked purple plumbing. I'm with your wife on that one. As far as shimming, don't overthink it; just level it and go.

 

[RockRash]

Ok, lil sore, but the outcome was worth it... ;) :)

Excellent, so glad it all went well. You and yours are still in are prayers hopefully soon it will be back to business as usual. :)

 

[RockRash]

Purple is my favorite color, I had never seen a system configuration where the stand was also purple along with the wood panels, I loved the plumbing work.

Thanks! My wife loves purple so when I proposed building a new tank I used that to my advantage :beaming-face-with-smiling-eyes:. Actually its been really fun mixing paint and having Lowe's mix up purple wood stain trying to get things to match.

 

[RockRash]

I did the same thing when plumbing my 40-gallon. Now I have a random union on my plumbing, which bugs me. I guess I'll use it as an excuse to redo the plumbing one day and make it prettier. The tank is looking great. For some reason, I've always liked purple plumbing. I'm with your wife on that one. As far as shimming, don't overthink it; just level it and go.

Thank you! The funny thing is mistakes like that only bother us. Anyone looking at it won't see the flaws and thinks it looks great. But I'm with you I'll definitely be fixing it one day.

 

[RockRash]

Got it all level, well almost perfectly level but you have to look dang hard to tell the bubble favours towards one side. I couldn't help myself I had to put my rocks in an some lights on so I could get an idea of what it will look like.

However the best news is that 20 minutes ago we finally started making water! I set up the RODI temporarily on the bar. Eventually it will have a permanent spot in the pool house but for now this just made it easier for filling the tank.