Joe's Wet Dream, A 550 Gallon Work In Progress

[veralteaquatics]

Joe, did you get your homework finished up? I hope so... Still a few more lines to run...See you next week...

Eric

 

[Jobiwan]

I dunno Eric, you guys made a lot of progress, I think the end is in sight plumbing wise, the tide is coming in...see ya next week

 

[Bricky]

You know Joe, if I had been there doing quality control you would have water right now.

 

[Jobiwan]

You were missed Matt, good quality control is hard to find. Your help was much appreciated last week, talk about some major hurdles you guys got over... Jason would have had the water going but he ran out of the 1" Kanaflex (flex PVC spa hose) since he only brought along a measley 250 feet. The water changing setup and the circulation to the RBTA Fuge sucked up a bit of plumbing, it is looking sweeeet, the Hammerheads and 4 way's are all setup, can't wait to check out the flow...

 

[NC2WA]

Joe/Matt,

I thought quality control was something wives do.

(oops, was that out loud) LOL..

 

[reefman069]

JOE. sorry i was not able to be there to see your tank go up. i have been working alot. well i cant wait to come and check it out. have a good one and talk to ya soon. chad

 

[Scooterman]

Hey Joe, your getting us all excited to see this thing going, we will require tons of pics & video also, you can't have all that flow to yourself

 

[Damsel13]

No....Wife supervises quality control and brings drinks and snacks hehehehe.

 

[brady816]

any new pics??????? I cant wait to see this tank..

 

[Snowboarda42]

You should start filling this thing up now, Joe! That way by the time everything's plumbed you'll be ready to add salt

BTW, do you have any pics of your pumps in your crawlspace? I'd love to see that...

 

[hexman]

nice joe nice sorry i couldn't make it but ......wow man

 

[Jobiwan]

It's got water!!!

Friday, October 26, 2007. The date that my system became operational, with water flowing and live rock rocking, I think I'm gonna have an organism.... Eric Dustin, the senior technician at VERALTE AQUATICS, Jason and LaDonna spent a long day here to make the system operate. Thanks guys, you are the best, I really appreciate all your efforts creating my living work of art. The water change system is in place and works great, turns out an Iwaki 100 can move 100 gallons of water in a fairly short amount of time, I'll be doing 5 minute water changes, it won't be the same without water splashed all over the floor, I guess I'm a traditionalist. Jason designed a link to our sewer line to dump water for the water changes and to flush out the mixing tank, and he did so many other things that I lost count. Eric from VERALTE AQUATICS did my aquascaping, although I did help, I handed the rock to him, this is an important part of the process, if no rock were delivered to the tank there would be no aquascaping, but that's just common sense. His experience at VERALTE AQUATICS has really honed his skills, the initial rockwork is just incredible, multiple caves, all kinds of habitant for the fish to enjoy, great spots for SPS placement, photos to follow. LaDonna contributed the most important part of this operation, she totally cleaned the place so my wife could come home to a spotless house, I really wanted to take credit for it, but even I have limits... My insomia is starting to fade, so I'll just post a few pictures of the equipment in the crawl space, more photos soon....
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This is the right side of the pump area, that's the Iwaki 70 main return pump between the two hammerheads.
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Left side, the Iwaki 55 chiller return pump is next to the hammerhead, the Iwaki 40 on the end will be the return for the anemone tank.
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Overall view of the pumps and their plumbing:
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Icecap ballasts for the MH.
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Dedicated top off RO unit, note the faucet installed just for it, how special....
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Now it's off to sleep, TTYL all...

 

[krisfal]

Oh come on now, don't just tease us and go to bed. Let's see some pictures, tank with water and awesome aquascaping, we have waited a long time for this moment!

 

[NC2WA]

Joe,

You must have a deep crawlspace as it appears there is plenty of room to walk/work in there. It took my system 3 days to fill with water with my spectra pure 90gpd membrane. I see that Jason installed a SpectraPure unit for you. You will not be disappointed. Now that there is water in your tank, the next time I drop my kids off at their grandparents house on the island, I just may swing by and take a look at this work of art.

Keep the pics coming.....
Kirk

 

[Jobiwan]

Now now now, if I put out everything last night would you still respect me today??? Of course not, but I shall try to get a few pictures of the tank with water posted later today, it never occurred to me that anyone would be interested in rocks and water when they could be looking at miles of PVC. I'll put a few of the final tweaks pre-water here, just to clean up a few loose ends. I do like the Spectra Pure Kirk, Jason got one for me 6 months ago, I've made thousands of gallons with it, including the 650 gallons of water I had stored in my garage so I could fill the system in one day. Rather than having it do double duty for top offs and water changes with all the addional complications, I got an additional one just for top offs, the first one will be dedicated to water changes only. Look me up when you come over to the Rock, and anyone interested in checking out my system is welcome. Here are a few more photos:
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Here it is yesterday morning as we prepare for the final assault:
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Jason and Eric Dustin (of VERALTE AQUATICS) move the sump back in place for the last time:
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Eric making the final plumbing connections as he enjoys the spacious comfort of my sump:
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We filled the sump first to check everthing out before filling the tank. Here we have the Bubble King fired up for the first time:
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Here is a Pic of the return and drain line for the RBTA fuge:
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And lastly here is a photo of the manifold system installed to allow water to drain directly into our septic when doing water changes on one side, the other side is connected to the mixing vat to allow periodic flushing to remove precipitated sediment, the elaborate shape provides traps to prevent sewer gases from backing up, Jason also installed check valves on each side for additional protection. Kirk, you should think about getting one of these. Next posting: Creation of the Aquascape!
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[edwing206]

That looks awesome! That some crazy plumbing!

 

[NC2WA]

Joe,

I already have one installed. Jason's dad did the same thing to my system when they installed my tank. I have an Iwaki 40 pump that moves the water from my sump to the drainage system. I do not lift a bucket, nor spill any water. It is great !!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7329275@N05/513506020/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7329275@N05/521371508/

this should give you an idea of the setup I have for water changes. All automated.

 

[brady816]

ohhhh baby all i can say is great great planning cant wait to see some more pics...So do you know what kinds of fish you will have in there????

 

[Jobiwan]

If there was any good planning that went on the credit goes to Jason and to Eric Dustin of VERALTE AQUATICS, one thing that has contributed greatly to the planning process is just taking the amount of time I have taken from initial phase to where we are now, 10 months gives you a lot of time for research and altering the system along the way, although I sometimes think I should have my head examined when I think of how many months all my little tweaks have cost time wise, but then I think "Hey, I don't want a divorce, therefore this will be the last major tank I ever do, so what the ####, let's get just what we want", hopefully this may avoid the "Why are you spending $2000.00 to upgrade something after all you spent already just 6 months ago???" question.... I'm just going through my tank photo's , I'll post some good ones soon, In the mean time here are some photo's of my water change system so Kirk and I can compare size.....
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Here is a photo of the Iwaki 100 that will power my water change system. The three valves allow 1) tranfer of mixing vat water to the reef system, 2) Closed loop setup for the 105 gal mixing tank for mega fast salt dissolution and 3) pumping water directly from vat into sewer line to flush residual sediment from mixing tank. I could have used an Iwaki 40, but due to some deep seated psychological overcompensation issues I am compelled to get the biggest pump available, damn that high school P.E.!!!!! However, this will position me to win the coveted "Fastest Water Changes On Whidbey Island" title, If I win this I will try to attain world peace, since I do realize that there is no chance for world peas.
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Here's a view of my 105 gal mixing tank perched on it's flimsy stand that is only rated to hold 20,000 pounds:
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The last component is this magical little valve that will dump a whole bunch of salt water right into my septic system, based on the knowledge I gained in 8th grade biology I am confident that this will pose no threat to the operation of my septic tank...
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[Jobiwan]

As far as fish I just have some general idea, with a few specifics, fish I have now that I have promised will be living in the mega tank include 1) a Naso Tang 2) a Vlamingi Tang 3) a Purple Tang 4) Your basic Foxface ; all four of these are in the 4 to 7" range. I also have 5) a Golden Angel 6) a Coral Beauty Angel; I'd like to add several other centropyges, kinda the theory used when you throw a whole bunch of Malawi's in the tank all at once, but I'll give that some thought. I also have 7) a long nose butterfly that is getting really neurotic in a forty, needs some room and I may also throw 8 & 9) a pair of maroons in there with no anemone, but I need to find if they can adapt to that after aways having an anemone... Anyway, that is what I will start with. On my wish list of larger fish is a Magnificent\Metallic Foxface, a Hepatus Tang, an Achilles Tang, and an Azfur Angel. Most likely anything else I get will be in the 2 - 4" range, I'm thinking about large groups of a few things, like a dozen Fire Shrimp and/or 10 - 20 clown gobies, green yellow mix and/or a school of Anthias/Chromis/Yellow or Blue Assessors/Barred Gobies/a harem of Flasher Wrasses, but I've got lots of months to think this out. I need to set up a quarantine tank again, until I have that well established there will be no new fish, I'll focus on my corals I have at present when I get all the fish I have established, slow is good.....