Bloke's 180g - It was bound to happen...

[Bloke]

I finally got the remainder of the holes drilled. That's 12 holes! Four holes 2-3/8" and eight holes 1-3/4". I will put the bulkheads in place and take a look on Monday. I have four 1-1/2" heavy duty bulkheads for the lower four intakes and 8 light duty 1" bulkheads for the return lines.

Taping this thing off for Krylon seemed to take hours. I had to cover each hole and then make certain that paint did not get on the front panel of glass. Notice how I painted both side panels as well. I do not plan to scrape or clean the side panels of glass as most people do. I've seen others with in wall setups let the sides and back go and I thought after a while it gave it a nice look. Further, I needed to cover some plumbing that will undoubtedly be seen should the side panels not have been painted.

 

[Scooterman]

How thick is that glass?
& is there limits on the amount of holes or spacing of them?

 

[Bloke]

the glass is 1/2"

 

[Bloke]

If you'll notice, anywhere there were two holes on the same vertical plane, I wanted support. The four holes outside the overflow boxes would be supportred by the box itself, the outer glass pane, and naturally the frame. The holes in the middle align with the center bracing and in closer proximity to the overflow boxes for additional support. I have read that you always want to leave at least the width of a hole between the next. So If I was drilling to 1" holes I would make sure to have at least 1" between the holes. I've got that more than covered.

As far as a limit to number, I cannot find anywhere where AGA puts a limit on the number of holes, but with 1/2" glass and having the holes spaced out as far as I do and within closer proximity to support functions of the tank, I believe it to be alright.

Do you have any reasons for concern?

 

[Scooterman]

No concerns, just wanted to see If you had information on hole spacing & supporting as you mentioned, If I ever do another tank I will go to glass most probably & want to drill out a good bit myself, It isn't something you see as often on glass.

 

[Bloke]

Well, most people in doing a closed loop on a tank this expensive will more than likely come ofer the back to preserve the tank for futre resell would be my guess. I do not plan on taking this tank down unless we sell this house and when that time comes... perhaps a new tank.

I knew going into this that I wanted to run a closed loop. I wanted to avoid any equipment inside the tank therefore a closed loop running over the back seemed like a compromise. Black bulkheads across a black background is the closest I think I could get to having nothing more than sand, rock, coral, and fish in the tank. Nothing foreign other than the overflows... no way around that.

 

[Bloke]

Well, I got the back and side panels completely coated with Krylon Fusion. Four cans is what I used to get it nice and even.

The majority of the bulkheads arrived today. Because I will make the Durso for these overflows I had to include bulkheads for those holes too. Therefore, here you see eight 1" bulkheads for the return lines on the CLS. I have two more 1" bulkheads and two 3/4" bulkheads awaiting the Durso standpipes. The four heavy duty 1-1/2" bulkheads are on their way. These will be the CLS intakes and be covered by bulkhead screens about 4 inches above the substrate.

 

[Scooterman]

Nice Paint job!

 

[Bloke]

YEE HAW! The drywall is completed! The walls are still a little wet, but this Saturday I will get to painting! Here are some shots of the completed rooms from similar angles to previous shots:

 

[bbehring]

Looking super! Like all the CL bulkheads through the back! You'll be happy with the CL vs, PH's in tank.

 

[Bloke]

I HATE painting! Seriously - and I don't use the word "hate."

I got the rooms primed and ready for painting this Saturday.

My plan is to get the tank in place this Sunday and then start the plumbing. I have both closed loop pumps (Dart & Snapper), the OM-4way and the return pump (Blueline 100HD).

All bulkheads are here and in place. When I buy the PVC to do the plumbing I will buy the required parts for the overflow kits as well and I have a 15g long for my refugium. Sounds like I have everything I need right? Nope... So what are my needs? Well, here is a list of things I need to collect before too long. I'll try to put them in the order I need them:

100g Rubbermaid Sump
POWER STRIPS!
3 Lumenarc (Lumenbright) Mini Reflectors
Aluminum angle iron for light rack
Exhaust fan & Dehumidistat
Gen X PCX 40 pump (or equivalent) for skimmer

 

[Bloke]

Well, with the exception of a few touch-ups, the rooms are painted!

The tank is offically in place! Of course I have to trim it out, but I never thought I would get this far this quick!

As you can see I chose not to put plywood under the tank allowing for complete access to plumbing, etc. Also, as you can see in this photo, I ran joists under the center bracing for the tank for added support before putting the tank in place.

 

[Bloke]

Well, I grabbed some extra PVC from the garage and started to make some pillars/towers for the rock. I first saw this when I went to visit with Paul Whitby out of OKC. His tank was the October 2007 TOTM on Reef Central: http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2007-10/totm/index.php

I REALLY liked his aquascaping and asked him how he managed to get such height out of his rock. The logic was extremely simple. He drilled holes in his rock then slid each rock randomly onto 3/4" PVC and made towers.

At first, I was unsure of what this might look like unless you had LOTS of rock and LARGE pieces. So, I been trying to collect larger pieces of base rock to add to my existing live rock. I have a ton of holes to drill, but I managed to get through about 5 rocks before I had to replace the bit.

Here is an idea of what I will be doing. I will buy some more PVC and make more towers, but for now I had enough to make four.

 

[Bloke]

Alright, let's see if I can explain this. I am going to run the two center inputs to the Reeflo Dart and return them through the Oceans Motions 4-way which will run through the two 1" side returns and the 1" bulkheads directly above the original inputs. This will force the water current to be constantly shifting from one side of the tank to the other.

The two outer inputs will feed a Reeflo Snapper which will return through the two 1" bulkheads at the top of the tank in the corners and the two 1" returns drilled in the center of the back. Each of the four returns from the Snapper should be pushing around 600gph.

 

[apollothesun]

saaaaaaaaaaweeeet. looking awesome. did you put ventilation in the fishroom?

 

[Bloke]

Well, I worked for a few hours on the plumbing this evening. I managed to get the majority of the intake lines for the closed loops ran as well as elbows on the 1" bulkheads. I did buy 8 ball valves for these return lines, but I think they'll be wide open for the most part.

Naturally, adding elbows to bulkheads was not my major accomplishment. My pride for the evening was to get the Dart and OM4 plumbed into the system. The pump will pull from the two outer 1-1/2" bulkheads and return water to alternating sides via the OM4.

As you can see, I used two true union ball valves for the pump. The same will be done for the Snapper. I plan to use flex PVC for these lines. Lowe's charges about $2.10 per foot of the stuff and I bought 25'. That should be enough to run the four lines for the OM4 as well as use a little bit for the Durso drain lines.

 

[matts125]

looking good Brother!

Cant wait to see this one done!!!

matt

 

[Bloke]

Thanks Matt - I can't either!

OK - today was a looooooooooooonnnnnnnnnnnnnnng day! I woke up about 8:30 and got to work on the tank. There were several stops during the day, but for the most part, I worked on this tank until about 9:00 pm.

First thing I had to do was get the thing plumbed. I thought for a few seconds about whether or not to install 8 ball valves, but I decided to go ahead and fix them in. I did decide against unions on each of the return lines. Being that there are 4 true-union ball vales on the pumps, additional unions would only up the cost of plumbing by about $60 and can easily be installed later if need be. I have unions on the other tanks and NEVER have used them.

Before adding water, I also had to get the second CL pump plumbed in. This required another trip to Lowe's. I think I am on first name basis with the guy in plumbing now. But they are both plumbed in and together these bad boys will be pushing a little over 6000gph. As you can see I used hard plumbing except for under the tank where I used 1" flex PVC. Works like a charm!

Now there is more to this picture than initially meets the eye. This is 70lbs of base rock drilled and installed on 5 PVC pillars (one is hiding over there on the far right). Drilling each of these rocks takes more time than you might think. Dry base rock is tough to drill through - live rock is MUCH easier and softer! Plus, some of these rocks are wider than the drill bit so they had to be drilled from both sides. YUCK!

 

[Bloke]

Oh yeah! Time for water!

<...looking for leaks...>

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bQBUvjY16o

 

[Bloke]

The first job this morning was to get the return pump plumbed in. I placed it under the tank with enough room for the Gen-X PCX-55 to sit next to it which will run the MR-2 Skimmer.

OK - here is the tangled mess of heaven. This is the completed plumbing job. Both closed loops, the return lines and the drain line all plumbed in. Tightening the bulkheads at the bottom of the tank was a b*&^th!

The clouds have subsided - not bad after 125lbs of substrate. The tank is still filling wil RO/DI water. I put in a bucket of Reef Crystals (160g) and am allowing the pumps to get this thing mixed up. I'll get the rest of the water params in check after I get the sump running.

As for aquascaping - I will drill the majority of the larger pieces of rock that I have and stack them on each pillar. I will have some melon sized pices of rock that I will lay on the substrate at the base of each tower. It'll all come together and then I am going to take a loooooooonnnnng nap.