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Author Topic: Miles' 150gal build  (Read 36858 times)

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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #25 on: February 04, 2014, 20:20:15 »
Back to the 150gal build....

So I've been looking at the Reef Savvy Ghost Overflow.... seems awesome, but you can't actually buy one. Apparently they are in the process of a redesign which will change the manufacturing process in order to increase their profit margins (or something along those lines).  So I thought about it a little bit and decided that I could probably build my own and save some money.

Here is the current design. 24" of surface skimming. I'm thinking about possibly making two internal overflows at 24" long and then making a larger external box in order to get  more surface skimming, thoughts?
 


Offline JayMc

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #26 on: February 04, 2014, 22:06:17 »
If your drilling and fabricating your tank/overflow...have you looked into a coast to coast overflow?  Would achieve your goal of a lot of surface skimming but would be easier to do in my opinion

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #27 on: February 04, 2014, 22:11:26 »
I have a coast to coast on my 75. The thing I don't like about it is that is is so big, pretty obtrusive. I guess I could do a coast to coast with an external box, but that would require a lot of glass.


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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #28 on: February 12, 2014, 21:04:36 »
Picked up the third Radion that I'm going to need for the 150.



Set it up over the frag tank temporarily. Conveniently, the frag tank's location in the basement is very close to the Display tank upstairs allowing me to be able to connect the Radion to the WXM on the Apex.


Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #29 on: March 05, 2014, 21:59:25 »
Now back to the 150...

I've been working on getting all the equipment I need for this build. The main items that I have picked up are the Jebao WP-40s and the Iwaki return pump. I picked up the tubing and connectors that I need for the return. I also gave in and just bought a brand new 150 gallon, had John at Marine Solutions order me one, and then picked up a couple boxes of Reef Crystals when I was out there (and a few peppermint shrimp to try and tackle the aiptasia problem in my 75gal). I ordered 5 bags of dry sand from Premium Aquatics to add to the ~40lbs that I already had hanging around in my basement.

I also finally received my Apex Automatic Feeder, that I order back before Thanksgiving and was back ordered.

Here are some pics....




In other news....
Good News: I ordered the CS3 Cone Skimmer from Avast Marine (http://www.avastmarine.com/ssc/do/product/youbuilt/CS3-Cone-Skimmer-Kit) along with a Swabbie for it and another Swabbie for my ReefOctopus on the 75gal.
Bad News: The shipment disappeared before it ever reached FedEx. Avast created a shipping label, last Thursday with an estimated delivery date of March 1st. March 1st has come and gone, no package. I got in contact with Avast today and they said that they had a few packages disappear that day, they think that the new USPS guy picked them up by mistake. As odd as this situation is, they have had it happen before, in the past USPS somehow USPS got the packages to FedEx and the problem worked itself out. So we are going to give it a couple more days before any action is taken....



Now I'm working on coming up with an overflow solution. I stated before that I really like the ReefSavvy Ghost Overflow... ideally I'd like to buy one but ReefSavvy seems to have a much higher demand than they can meet. I contacted Synegy Reef about making one (they are the ones that actually manufacture them, but ReefSavvy sells them), I was told that Synergy Reef does indeed make them, but they won't sell them to anyone but ReefSavvy and suggested that I contact ReefSavvy. I shot ReefSavvy an email today, I don't really expect to hear back.... So I may just make one myself.

To Do List:
-Build Stand
-Add 2 additional circuits in the basement for sump
-Purchase Stock Tank
-Purchase new light for frag tank  (to replace Radion)
- Wire WP40s to work with Apex

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #30 on: March 13, 2014, 11:21:41 »
I received my Avast Marine order the other day. Took me two days to build the skimmer, still need to test it.

Anyone else have a skimmer with 4 electrical plugs? :)



I also started culturing phytoplankton, Tigger-Pods, and brine shrimp.


Offline Twizted1

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #31 on: March 13, 2014, 17:16:46 »
Wow. What a skimmer!

Offline Bucknutz

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #32 on: March 13, 2014, 17:25:39 »
Why does it have four electrical plugs?

Offline Boonjob

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #33 on: March 13, 2014, 17:55:32 »
Harvesting phyto, pods, and bs is a great project but I found it very labor intensive and hard to make sure the different strains of phyto didnt cross contaminate.  I eventually stopped but it was fun,  and fascinating... I dont think id do it again though


Skimmer looks awesome!
God is great, Beer is good, and People are crazy...

Life is a beach, I'm just playing in the sand.


http://www.ustream.tv/channel/boonjob-s-reef-tank

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #34 on: March 13, 2014, 20:05:10 »
Why does it have four electrical plugs?

1feed pump (not in pic)
2 recirculation pumps
1 swabbie (auto neck cleaner)


We'll see how how the phytoplankton goes, im really interested in using it to feed pods, but I read an article in CORAL magazine from a few years back that author had these same pods and only fed them flake fish food...so we'll see.

The skimmer was a DIY deal, so hopefully it works. I'm planning on setting it up in a big Rubbermaid container this weekend and letting it run. Hopefully it doesn't leak.

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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #35 on: April 15, 2014, 17:04:21 »
Finally figured out this overflow situation. I was just about to order the stuff to make my own Ghost clone, but decided to take a look on eBay and see if anyone was getting rid of one. While looking on eBay, I found a company in Texas that is making them for about the same price as ReefSavvy. I promptly ordered one. It came today, looks pretty good, the only real difference between this one and the ReffSavvy one is that it doesn't have a cover for the internal box.









My phyto cultures have taken off. If anyone is in need of phyto, let me know, I can probably make you a deal on more than you need.  :matrix-smiley-007:


And in other news, I busted out my old dry rock and set it up to cure in a 100gal stock tank I picked up from Rural King with my new skimmer and the WP40s.

« Last Edit: April 18, 2014, 15:10:38 by mil3sdavis »

Offline Westeri

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #36 on: April 18, 2014, 14:49:37 »
What type of phytoplankton are you culturing?

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #37 on: April 18, 2014, 15:09:56 »
I started my cultures with Phyto Feast (http://reefnutrition.com/phyto_feast.php) which is a blend of Pavlova, Isochrysis, Thalassiosira, Tetraselmis, Nannochlorpsis, and Synechococcus.

Offline delta1190

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #38 on: April 19, 2014, 08:06:39 »
do you feed your Mandarin the pods or just your corals ????

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #39 on: April 19, 2014, 08:12:16 »
The idea was to feed the pods to the mandarin, but I don't have a large enough pod population yet to start doing that.

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Offline delta1190

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #40 on: April 19, 2014, 08:25:28 »
what do you want for some phyto i need some tell me a price and how many oz it is also i have some phyto fertilizer i bought and did not use it is Gillian .

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #41 on: April 21, 2014, 20:13:26 »
Good news! My clowns which haven't laid eggs in 2 years just laid today!!






Offline bbtm64

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #42 on: April 21, 2014, 22:41:17 »
this is an awesome build!
Brent McCloskey

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #43 on: April 22, 2014, 21:11:06 »
this is an awesome build!

Thanks! Hopefully it will get much more exciting soon....

Offline Twizted1

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #44 on: April 22, 2014, 22:33:13 »
Sweet congrats.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #45 on: August 17, 2014, 14:42:48 »
After a long while of not working on this I've finally buckled down and started getting to work.

Last weekend I  built a stand. Right now its just bare and ugly...but functional. Some time in the future I'm going to make a nice skin to put on it.


This weekend, I drilled the tank and have started to dry fit some of the plumbing.







I bought some black paint for the back panel, hopefully I'll get that done tonight.

I'm going to put this in the wall behind the tank. The Apex is goign to be in the basement with the sump, so the USB port will be connected by a 15ft cable. The Ethernet Jacks will be for variable speed ports to run the Jebao powerheads.


Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #46 on: August 17, 2014, 21:12:59 »
Looks like a quality build in progress. Good looking so far.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #47 on: August 24, 2014, 20:27:45 »
Made a lot of progress this weekend on the build.

Back painted
Electrical circuit added
Support beam in place
Cat5/USB outlet installed
Tank Moved into place
Upstairs plumbing dry fitted and passed through the floor (I realized that I needed a few more connectors, so I ordered them online, so now I'm waiting for them to proceed)

I'm hoping to get water in the tank by Labor Day, so we'll see how that goes. I expect to have to end up ordering something else I forgot, so we'll see.


I almost made a disterious mistake with mounting the overflow box. I drilled the holes high on the tank so that the waterline will be as close to or above the rim line as possible. This worked fine for the inner box, but when I when to put on the external box, I realized that the box overlapped the rim creating an uneven surface making it impossible to seal. I solved this problem by buying a piece of quarter inch acrylic and puting two 3" holes in it to use as a spacer. You can see the spacer in this picture between the box and the glass.




I still need to add a gate valve on one for the drain lines so that I can silence it, but I realized that I didn't have the right connectors to get the job one. I can't find anywhere local that carries Schedule 80 PVC, so I had to order the pieces online. Hopefully I can get water in here by the weekend. 






Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #48 on: September 07, 2014, 16:28:03 »
I was hoping to get water in and start cycling the tank over Labor Day weekend. I almost made it, but have been fighting with this overflow box. I realized that even with the spacer, the rim was still slightly too wide, so I had to add another spacer. The outside box now sticks out past the rim which is good but I'm still having problems with it leaking. I know it is leaking from the outside box and then dripping down the back glass because it doesn't leak until water starts going over the overflow. If it was a leak from between the inside box and the tank, it would start leaking before the water level gets high enough to enter the box.

I made a gasket to go between the outside box and the glass out of some rubber sheeting I had laying around, which seems to have made a big difference. I also drained the tank and moved it about an inch because i realized the outside box was getting torqued by the plumbing a little. Now after moving it and filling it back up, I have a minor leak. I am losing about a drop every minute or two. This is really starting to drive me nuts. I think I'm goign to tray new gaskets in the outside box, and if that doesn't fix it, I'm going to go crazy and follow some terrible internet advice and silicone the gaskets and the nuts in.

Anyone have any other ideas before I do anything drastic?

 

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #49 on: September 15, 2014, 19:34:23 »
UP AND RUNNING!!!!

I ordered new seals for the overflow box, but that still didn't fix the problem. The outside box is now siliconed to the back of the tank and it has been up and running for a day and a half with no leaks. I ordered a couple goodies for the tank when I got the seals. I purchased the PM2 (Probe Module 2) and ALD (Auto Leak Detection) modules for the Apex. The PM2 is the Salinity module, I'm not sure if I'll actually use it for that, I actually got it for the extra temp probe. I'm planning on running 2-500W Finnex Titanium Heaters on the tank, one  in the sump and one in the main tank. With an extra temp probe, I am able to control the heaters independently of one another, allowing for better temp regulation. I ordered one probe for the ALD, but will probably end up getting a couple more later down the road. I also ordered the Dual Control Module for the Jebao pumps. After seeing the Neptune WAV, I've decided that that is probably the way to go, plus I've noticed that my Jebao pumps are really loud. So the Dual Control Module is a temporary solution to run the pumps instead of buy the ReefAngel cables and modifying them and ultimately not using them (the module is also cheaper than the cables).

Here's some pics....




 

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