Kensn
Well-known member
Great documentation Joey. This will be a great thread to reference folks to. Keep up the great work!!
“Ina’s Reef†Acrylic 150gal(60â€x24â€x24â€) Work in Progress, Guidance Needed. !!!
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Scooterman
Well-known member
Now that is what I'm talking about, great work Joey, keep it going.
Kensn said:
Here, here. I am bookmarking this thread even as we speak. My new 180 will be home this weekend. It's acrylic also, so I think this will be a great reference. Keep us updated with your progress, I'm liking this more and more.
Thanks guys!Just trying to make it clear for all the DIY enthusiasts out there.I would be more than happy if it helps somehow.
Charlie I like this "Rome wasn't built in a day----Neither is a reef tank" I'll send this to my wife so she'll stop asking when am I gonna finish the tank.
Joey
Charlie I like this "Rome wasn't built in a day----Neither is a reef tank" I'll send this to my wife so she'll stop asking when am I gonna finish the tank.
Joey
Krish
RF STAFF
Looking nice Joey...You look like a pro! Wanna try drill my glass tank for me (LOL)
Charlie I hope you create a thread on Members showcase for this tank...I always wanted a 180!
Wayupnorth
Well-known member
Okay Joey now that you are a pro how about you come to Fort St. John and drill and plumb my tank and I'll go to Honk Kong and...........SHOP.
Ruth
Ruth
Krish no problem send me a ticket to Bahamas and I'll be there!
Ruth! Why not!!! :lol: :lol: If only we were neighbors I could do the drilling for you so you could get that tank up an running. I can't wait to see you equipment working.
I did not have time to dowload pics from my camera last night so no update yet.I'll probably do it tonight. As I go along I'm discovering that I still need a few fittings to complete the job so I'm buying them in the afternoon.
I'll keep you posted.
Joey
Ruth! Why not!!! :lol: :lol: If only we were neighbors I could do the drilling for you so you could get that tank up an running. I can't wait to see you equipment working.
I did not have time to dowload pics from my camera last night so no update yet.I'll probably do it tonight. As I go along I'm discovering that I still need a few fittings to complete the job so I'm buying them in the afternoon.
I'll keep you posted.
Joey
Here comes the fun part! Building manifolds! It's a bit tricky due to inexperience but hey this is what learning is all about. A bit of trial and error as I don't have experience in plumbing. So here goes Starting From:
1. My cutting equipment. A grinder with adaptor for cutting very convenient but very noisy. Specially when your cutting at 2am in the morning.
2.The roughly fitted manifolds. From here I will be doing a lot of adjustments on the length of the connecting pipes making sure the they will be sturdy and leak free(hopefully). Notice the incomplete Durso drain pipe more on this later.
3. This is what the CL input going to the tank looks like as a separate unit.
4. CL including the Drain pipe going to the motor.
5. The mess I created in the living room.
1. My cutting equipment. A grinder with adaptor for cutting very convenient but very noisy. Specially when your cutting at 2am in the morning.
2.The roughly fitted manifolds. From here I will be doing a lot of adjustments on the length of the connecting pipes making sure the they will be sturdy and leak free(hopefully). Notice the incomplete Durso drain pipe more on this later.
3. This is what the CL input going to the tank looks like as a separate unit.
4. CL including the Drain pipe going to the motor.
5. The mess I created in the living room.
Next!Time to flip over the tank and do the overflow drilling!
1. I have a slightly small CS to drill my BH holes so I need to widen it to fit with a Dremel with Drum sander attachment. Patience is needed to do this to keep the circle edges smooth and well rounded. A couple of time when I runout of patience I apply pressure on the drill which resulted in a slightly oblong shape holes so be careful.
2.Fitting the BH and reducers.There supposed to go inside but for convenience I had them out.
3. Durso Drain pipe assembly.I would suggest to visit Durso's homepage for this has a very clear instruction that is easy to follow.
http://www.dursostandpipes.com/
I have to idea on the performance of this yet but I'll evaluate later when its up and running.
1. I have a slightly small CS to drill my BH holes so I need to widen it to fit with a Dremel with Drum sander attachment. Patience is needed to do this to keep the circle edges smooth and well rounded. A couple of time when I runout of patience I apply pressure on the drill which resulted in a slightly oblong shape holes so be careful.
2.Fitting the BH and reducers.There supposed to go inside but for convenience I had them out.
3. Durso Drain pipe assembly.I would suggest to visit Durso's homepage for this has a very clear instruction that is easy to follow.
http://www.dursostandpipes.com/
I have to idea on the performance of this yet but I'll evaluate later when its up and running.
Tonight I'll apply silicone on the BH as well as teflon tapes on the fitting.Hopefully all will dryout tomorrow so I could do the water test.Saturday/Sunday will be drilling holes on the base and positioning the pump to its final location. I was inform by UPS that my RO/DI unit will arrive on tuesday so I will have time to the aquascaping on Monday.
I'm also looking at the possibilty of adding an SCWD between my overflow return and spray bar. This seems to be a helpful addtion in terms of the stagnant detritus.I need to come up with the design fast.I'll leave some provision for this for improvement if I won't be able to do it now.
Joey
I'm also looking at the possibilty of adding an SCWD between my overflow return and spray bar. This seems to be a helpful addtion in terms of the stagnant detritus.I need to come up with the design fast.I'll leave some provision for this for improvement if I won't be able to do it now.
Joey
Scooterman
Well-known member
Looking nice there Joey, thanks fo rthe pics & details this is great information, I just can't wait to drill my next tank.
Heyy Scoot!I envy you guys in the US you have lots of space to build workshop. Now I'm starting to worry where to hide all the equipments I bought for this projects! And hey its a pleasure posting on this site where I have learn a lot.Have a good day!
And hey its a pleasure posting on this site where I have learn a lot.Have a good day!
I love progress!! Can't wait to see the finished product!!
Hello Everyone quick question.What should be the ideal height of your drain pipe with respect to the height of the water level in your tank.Or do you measure it from the height of the slots in your overflow.Your input will help me tune my Durso Stand Pipe.Thanks
Joey
Joey
Scooterman
Well-known member
I made mine as tall as I could, shorter fall from the overflow.
Krish
RF STAFF
Still looking good Joey...I like how you are enjoying showing off what you can do with an acrylic to those of us who have glass (LOL)
Scooterman said:
Thanks!Scooterman I was thinking of the something like this just enough to hide the pipe from view. I just don't know if it has an implication on the performance except higher water will be maintain if somthing goes wrong.
What do you think of a spraybar on a SCWD with the overflow tank input.
I know there are limitation on the volume that can be handled by SCWD so I'm not sure if it can handle bottom pressure.This will be nice right its like having a sweeper every few sec or min. :idea:
krish75 said:
Krish! This is why I wanted an acrylic in the first place.All this manifolds and tank drilling. It makes it somehow different like an engine running, it can be modified. :lol: :lol:Time for some updates! It took a while to permanently glue my plumbing. It proves to be quite a challenge.
Good thing Monday is a holiday here in HK (Mooncake Festival) so I had quite a long vacation plus my leave last Friday.
It was a good decision to take a day-off from work, as plumbing is not that easy to do. At least for me who’s doing this the first time and the dummy in me did not know that the PVC glue would actually melt the plastic and let that pipe slip all the way to the stopper. Good thing I tested it first with my durso pipe otherwise I was already contemplating on sanding the pipes and reducer for the manifold. Sometimes the Chinese label in the glue does not help to remind you that this is a solvent.
Ok! I made some grinding on the pipe ends to smoothen the flow of water and increase its velocity.I think this is the priciple of the the so called “Port and Polish thing in the intake manifold when you do some engine modification. I made used of Dremel same tool in widening the BH holes. This is done by thinning out the edges till it is level with the T stopper. This way nothing will impede the flow of water. I have no idea on what implication would be in the turbulence which we are supposed to create but this seem to be a good idea for velocity increased.
I did cut and fit everytime, to make sure that when I glue them together it is a perfect fit. Make sure you plan the sequence when gluing them together. Do a practice run. You could no longer recover when you insert the manifold with a glue and the one I’m using dries fast. The paranoid in me place silicone in all possible water leaking points on joints. I have space limitation as you could see, a leak that will come up later when frag are stablished would be disastrous.
Good thing Monday is a holiday here in HK (Mooncake Festival) so I had quite a long vacation plus my leave last Friday.
It was a good decision to take a day-off from work, as plumbing is not that easy to do. At least for me who’s doing this the first time and the dummy in me did not know that the PVC glue would actually melt the plastic and let that pipe slip all the way to the stopper. Good thing I tested it first with my durso pipe otherwise I was already contemplating on sanding the pipes and reducer for the manifold. Sometimes the Chinese label in the glue does not help to remind you that this is a solvent.
Ok! I made some grinding on the pipe ends to smoothen the flow of water and increase its velocity.I think this is the priciple of the the so called “Port and Polish thing in the intake manifold when you do some engine modification. I made used of Dremel same tool in widening the BH holes. This is done by thinning out the edges till it is level with the T stopper. This way nothing will impede the flow of water. I have no idea on what implication would be in the turbulence which we are supposed to create but this seem to be a good idea for velocity increased.
I did cut and fit everytime, to make sure that when I glue them together it is a perfect fit. Make sure you plan the sequence when gluing them together. Do a practice run. You could no longer recover when you insert the manifold with a glue and the one I’m using dries fast. The paranoid in me place silicone in all possible water leaking points on joints. I have space limitation as you could see, a leak that will come up later when frag are stablished would be disastrous.
Finally the water test. I only tested my CL as the overflow has not been done yet.Beside if you have notice I made the test with all the plumbing in front .With overflow I cannot do this because of bottom plumbing.
Except for a leak in one BH which I broke due to overtightening there are no other leak on the permanently glued fittings.The pipe that goes to the pump is another story.
As you can see with the pump running you can see the flow.However there are bubbles that are coming out of the CL.This maybe due to the temporary plumbing that could suck air and if you know of other reason please let me know.
With this test the integrity of the tank joints have proven to be ok! The pumps which is more than 5000gph is just enough for the flow although I wish I had an MBV to create a stronger current on each side.The ESPA pump is an industrial pump that creates industrial noise so I’m gonna have to order an ampmaster ASAP.
I have yet to bore a hole in my wall going to the toilet where my pump would be place.My RO/DI have arrived a day than expected and I will be setting it up this week.
Except for a leak in one BH which I broke due to overtightening there are no other leak on the permanently glued fittings.The pipe that goes to the pump is another story.
As you can see with the pump running you can see the flow.However there are bubbles that are coming out of the CL.This maybe due to the temporary plumbing that could suck air and if you know of other reason please let me know.
With this test the integrity of the tank joints have proven to be ok! The pumps which is more than 5000gph is just enough for the flow although I wish I had an MBV to create a stronger current on each side.The ESPA pump is an industrial pump that creates industrial noise so I’m gonna have to order an ampmaster ASAP.
I have yet to bore a hole in my wall going to the toilet where my pump would be place.My RO/DI have arrived a day than expected and I will be setting it up this week.
Kensn
Well-known member
Joey it looks just great!! Maybe the air bubbles were from having the water level low for the test. The trubulence of the surface could of created bubbles and then they got sucked into the pump, then shot back into tank. Just an idea, but I do see a lot of surface aggitation. Like I said well done, and I love the attention to detail on honing the pipes.
Ken
Ken
