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

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Thanks guys, It's a CS-180 Mark, I bought it from Marine Depot on FEB '06, it looks like it may have been superceded now by the CS "RC" 180 (Recirculating), I bet it is easier to tune than mine, it has a ball/gate valve or something, the only real adjustment on mine is raising and lowering the standpipe, I leave the air valve wide open, wouldn't want to cut down the air with that valve I wouldn't think...
 
Hey folks, the tank and sump are basically finished, Jason has polished them to perfection and mocked up all the plumbing. The steel stand has been Line-X'd, that's something I would really recommend, that stand will outlive me and be corrosion/rust free, here's a photo of it being loaded, the extended steel tube is a reciever for the arm that will extend up 12 feet for the winch system to raise the hood when necessary. We delivered it to Kessler Construction so they could build the skin with a perfect fit, hopefully they will be able to get to fabricating it and the hood in the not too distant future, they do have a few jobs ahead of mine.

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I once built a tank THISSSSS BIG!!!!:

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Joe,
Where can I get a stand like that built? That one looks sweet! It don't get better than that, my friend!

Jason
 
Joe,

You know you are in trouble when a forklift has to move the stand.

So how many men (and cases of beer or your favorite beverage) do you think it will take to move and position this stand???

:):):)
 
It's an incredible stand, I may decide that 3 feet is not deep enough for my tank, with this stand I can go 12 feet deep with no problem.. We're bringing in the corn fed boys to move this one, Jason keeps them locked in his basement and tosses them a side of beef every few days... As for the amount of beer, it's measured in kegs, not cases....
 
That is quite the engineering project Jason has put together. I can't wait to see the canopy in action and the beauty of all that stainless surrounding it.
 
I gotta give Jason the credit for the stainless idea, I started out wanting to do it in 3/16" aluminum, just one of the many times he's steered me away from a less desirable choice during this project....I wish I had pictures of this being installed today, waiting for the stainless fabrication is agony...
 
Hi Joe,

I have been on the sidelines lately watching the progress of your tank. I was over at Jason's yesterday and saw the sump loaded and much of the plumbing. We did something trick to your display tank that I will let Jason show off to you! It now is sporting aerospace hardware. Good luck and keep posting.
 
Hello Mark,
You were a great help several months ago when you took the time to discuss design options on my system. I can't thank you enough for that. Now Jason has hinted that you have contributed something that tricks my system to a unique level (he invoked NASA and the space shuttle, he loves toying with my little mind, I'll so make him pay for this....). I can only hope that I can somehow get even with you down the road, I sincerely appreciate your contribution, maybe I could give you a start of this beautiful mini anemone I've been cultivating, it's called Majano, it multiplies easily and will eliminate all that pesky SPS that seems to plague so many tanks....


As far as my postings, I haven't done much other than mundane things as we wait for the stainless fabricator to finish his previous obligations so he can get our stand skin done. I had my plumber install a faucet in the crawl space directly under the tank site, we will have the top off RO unit there. I cut two 1 3/4" holes in the garage into the crawl space to set up the water change system, there will be a second RO unit there dedicated to water changes. I've given up my futile hope that I can get by without a chiller, I talked to my electrician today, he will install a dedicated 230 v circuit/outlet in the equipment area under the tank sometime in the next week, I'l be getting something in the 1.5 to 2.0 hp range. I've bought 21 extension cords to hook all the equipment up to the main control panel with the American DJ's, they are single outlet 15 amp appliance cords. So far I have stored up 450 gallons of RO water, I'll try to figure out another 100 gallons or so of storage (come on honey, you can go without a bath for a week or two...) I will mix that with my Seachem Reef salt soon, once Eric dry fits and places the live rock we will fill the tank and fire up the closed loops so we can play with the OM 4 ways and tweak those. I just had 240 pounds of Seachem Meridian (Oolitic sand) delivered for the DSB section of the Fuge, I'll mix that up with a 12 pound bucket of Walt Smith Fiji refugium mud (gotta have a little snake oil). I'll suck out all the detritus I can from my other tanks and mix that in as well, I'm thinking that will load up the DSB with lots of nutrients to facilitate it's ability to support seagrass, we shall see how that works... I'm gonna get brave with my Rotozip diamond blade and chop a bit more out of our tile floor for more access to the equipment area below the tank. I've spent the last couple of days cleaning up junk in the basement/crawl space so Jason and the crew will have unfettered access for all the plumbing work etc. In case you haven't figured it out after all my rambling I'm basically trying to figure out anything I can do related to this project so I can hang on to whatever is left of my sanity while I'm waiting for Ken to finish the stainless work so we can get this installed before I go postal... About all I've got left to do now is to go and gaze lovingly at my vat of live rock, Hasta la pasta, Joe
 
Joe how much RO/Di are you making a day? Did you see the dual 75's I have set-up? Ask Charlie who just upgraded to it, makes over 7 gallons per hour or 168 gallons a day:D, we can thank DonW to that, you don't waste nearly as much as you use the waste to make the second RO supply.
Don't rush it man, the build can be as much fun as the reef itself! Well to me anyways, I love tinkering with things! I can't wait to see what happens with the OM's, I'm thinking that I will use one controlled with my PLC as well.
 
Hi Scooty, your system is coming along nicely, the green water tank is a great idea to minimize algae growth, mine is translucent, I hope that doesn't lead to that problem..

I've got a spectrapure 100 gpd unit, this time of year the cold water is warm enough that I get full production, in the winter the water temp drops and my production drops substantially. Your dual set up sounds like a great idea, sounds better than the pressure pump concept, I imagine the second RO unit costs less than a pump, and you are not adding an extra mechanical device to your system, simpler is always the way to go if you get the same results, isn't it...

Presently all my reject water is used in our gardens, typically we get little rain in the summer months. Different story the rest of the year here, the Seattle area is not know for it's winter droughts, most of the reject will go down the drain, very wasteful, especially with the volumes I'll be dealing with....

I recently decided to use two separate RO units, the run from the garage where the mixing vat is to the aquarium site would be quite long and would affect the efficiency of the RO production if I used it for tank top off, and using this same unit for water changes would add another level of complexity, etc. one way or another, things will be cleaner and simpler to have 2 units, one close to the tank for topping, another in the garage for the water changes.

Taking nine months to design and plan my system has worked out well, I have enjoyed this part of the process, in the past I have always just "gone for it", and then spent the next couple of years fixing/improving things, money and time could have been saved with better planning and execution. I'm with you, tinkering is great fun, I'm to the point where I'm burnt out on planning, I want to get my hands on everything and start playing with it, it's like when I was a kid, the closer we got to Xmas the more time slowed down, help me, I'm caught in a time warp....

I'm really excited about the OM's and CL setup, I have ideas about what I want to accomplish with the flow within my tank, It is gonna be fascinating to see where that goes when variables like the live rock are introduced, a tweaking we will go....
 
If you have water pressure issues you will need a booster pump, you can take your two set-up & take the waste out of one & use it for the inlet of the other but you have to change your restrictor.
 
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