Project 58!! (Image intense)

[Maxx]

Okay here is a close up of the rear....

Now I'm not real thrilled w/ this part here, but when using multiple pieces of wood to fill in these gaps like did on pages 3 and 4 of this thread.....sometimes things dont line up the right way. In this case, the right rear portion of my light box wasnt flush after adding those extra pieces to fill the gap. So improvising again, I cut the trim into two pieces, and sanded the smaller of the two until it mated up as seamlessly as possible. Then I stained it, and mounted it, and the larger piece to finish the trim on the box. Its far from ideal, but I consoled myself w/ the fact that its going to be hidden from every day view because its on the rear of the light box. Still , I wish I could have found a way to do this better. Any of you wood working guru's have any advice for future projects?

Nick

 

[Maxx]

Here is the mostly finished lightbox sitting on top of the tank in my basement. It will NOT be sitting on top of tank when the tank is set up. It will be suspended. I just needed a place to put the lightbox to keep it off the floor, and the tank was just asking for it....
One thing I noticed, in building this lightbox large enough to allow me to be very flexible in lighting arrangements is that it overhangs the tank by about an inch on all sides. That was by design, but I think it looks a lil funny.
Also, The over flow box in the tank for this shot is not the one I wound up using. That is a 6x7x20 inch overflow box made by Innovative Aquarium Products , (IAP), the same guys that built Mike's, (Mojoreef here) 650 gallon L shaped tank. They also made my sump and skimmer.

you can clearly see the over hang here.

Nick

 

[wrightme43]

That is very nice Nick. You have something to be proud of. Good job. STEVE

 

[All4funwfish]

I thought you said you werent very crafty? thats way involved compared to a lot of people...and it looks good to boot! im interested in the final product.....

 

[Maxx]

Thanks guys. Is it still being crafty if you're just trying to figure out better ways to hide the mistakes? :razz:
This has been an ongoing project for a while now. I just recently got into law enforcement as a career, which has taken alot of free time from me. And working nights didnt help out much. This project was kinda put on hold for about a month just recently. Fortunately, I've been able to get back into the swing of things.

 

[Maxx]

The tank was moved into the garage for plumbing and wet testing of the plumbing. I have never done anything w/ plumbing before, and expect to have a leak or two. I would rather have a leak in my garage where all it does is wet my motorcycle tires as opposed to flooding my house.
Playing with the plumbing has been an experiance. I've decided that when I upgrade I will just set up the next tank in aisle 6 (plumbing) of the nearest Lowes. I figure paying rent there will be cheaper than countless trips back and forth in my fuel swilling truck. I feel like I live there lately.
Whats funny is that I'm learning all sorts of things during this project. I've figured out 60 different things I will do differently on the next stand/canopy that I build. I'd never stained or sealed wood before, now its nothing I'm afraid of doing if I wind up finding a nice piece of unstained/unfinished furniture. I've never done plumbing before, so this is new. I'm definately learning to be patient, which has long been a challenge for me. And I'm learning to be philisophical about the set backs I've had making this.
Overall its a been a great experiance

 

[Maxx]

Now the philisophical part sounds kinda new age hokie.......but I was pretty frustrated a week ago. Iwas feeling pretty annoyed because things werent working out quite right, I was on night shift, and wasnt able to go to the store for necessary parts....etc. Just an unhappy camper for awhile.
The closed loop will be creating randomized flow via an Oceans Motions Heavy Duty 4 way wavewmaker. GolfNut here, is the manufacturer, and I honestly cant say enough good things about the guy. Customer service is top notch, the product is incredibly well built, he's very happy to talk to the customer personally and explain what his product does, and how it does it. Paul is just a smart, neat guy.
Anyway, back to the story.....
I had originally plumbed the OM unit w/ Spa flex all the way around, in order to cut down on 90 degree angles. Good concept, bad execution.

This is a diagram of the flow pattern for this tank. MojoReef helped immensely with this design. I owe him a huge thank you.......Thanks Mike, really.

The blue lines in the overhead view indicate flow patterns for the upper portion of the closed loop returns. The red lines indicate flow patterns for the lower portions of the closed loop return which is fitted inside the overflow box. I really dislike having a bunch of crap squirreled away in the tank for flow. So much that I had a 10 inch wide overflow made in order to house the plumbing that would otherwise have gone inside the tank, and been visible.

So there I was w/ all this spa flex sticking out allover the place and it was too long. This kept things from fitting properly and caused me quite a bit of frustration.

 

[Maxx]

Got alot accomplished on the tank yesterday which is good. I was really getting unhappy and discouraged about the plumbing like I said. Things just werent quite right, and every time I adjusted something to compensate, it threw something else outta whack. Felt like I couldnt win for losing, and after coming all this way on playing with this stuff, I was really feeling annoyed. So I took some time off from it, and came back at it with a different perspective.........
I'm a former United States Infantry Marine, and I WILL NOT BE BEATEN BY AN INANIMATE OBJECT!!!!!
So I won......
Moral of the story for those who might follow along......don't quit when your frustrated. Take a break, relax (something this hobby is sposed to be good for......riiiiight....), and try a different approach.

The source of all this frustration was Spa-Flex. Curt had come over to help me out and we had managed to stuff pieces, (??? What the heck is the plural of spa-flex???) into the new 10 inch overflow that IAP made for me.

 

[Maxx]

However things have changed slightly from the initial plan. Because Spa-flex is more flexible than PVC, it is also called...uh...flexible PVC....
However its really not that wildly flexible so it was fun trying to get that to work the way I wanted to.
Fortunately, CurtSwearing was able to help out and get me pointed in the right direction. Man, It seems like that guy is always saving somebody!!! First Nikki, (who really is beyond help.... , (JK Nikki)
then me...
Who says superhero's don't exist?
Anyway.....
Curt and I managed to stuff the spa flex into my new 10 inch wide overflow. It required alot effort, alot of thought, some foul language, and boiling water. The boiling water was to heat up and soften the Spa flex so it would more easily accept the threaded barbs which are connected to the OM HD 4way wavemaker.

Worked like a charm.

Whats interesting is that the spa flex didnt allow for much room for the standpipe. Since the tank had been drilled more or less centered along the back wall....I was now having issues getting my oveflow centered like I had originally planned. Curt being the wild and crazy guy that he is suggested that I just adapt and move the overflow more to right of the aquarium. This placed it offset more to the right, and it looked kinda funky I thought, and I said so. Curt being the super genius that he is, pointed out that I didnt have much choice, unless I felt like redoing everything.....
Suddenly, I found myself enjoying the non traditional offset overflow box.

 

[Maxx]

The problem with the plumbing was that the Spa flex was too long. This pushed the OM unit out from the tank too far. I have built all of this with the idea of the stand being flush up against the wall of the house to keep the dogs out. But the Spa-flex pushed the OM unit out past the back of the stand by several inches.
Being a former Marine, I attempted to force it. This resulted in ALOT of stress down the closed loop rigid PVC plumbiing that connects the pump with the OM unit. It also put alot of stress against the overflow. Eventually it would have either popped the overflow free of the silicone bindings, (Bad), or would have cracked the closed loop plumbing, (VERY Bad).
I really didnt want to have to cut this stuff, cause it would have meant more boiling water at the very least, and there was the potential to cut it too short necessitating redoing all of that crap again. I didn't want to cut it because I didnt think I would be able to lure Curt back over hear again.
He's getting suspicious since every time he comes over he winds up working on my tank. I may have to bribe himn with some of Rocio's world fameous Chocolate Chip Cookies.....Whaddya say Curt?????
Anyway,
I tried Plan C which involved forcing the Spa flex to submit to my will and loop it up and then down to the OM unit. The problem with this was that would have interferred with the canopy.....Grrrr....

 

[Maxx]

So I broke down and cut it shorter.
I measured it 6 bajillion times and decided that it needed to lose approximately 7 inches from the ends. So I cut it shorter, and brought the tank inside for the boiling water ritual.
Rocio wasnt really thrilled about being pressed into tank moving service, (Cookies Curt!! Rich Chocolaty, Gooey Cookies!!! Cant ya just taste em Curt????), but was a good sport about it. She was also a good sport about helping with the boiling water.
Since the offending Spa-flex was connected to the tank overflow, (which was connected to the tank...), I had to bring the boiling water to the Spa-flex. Naturally this is a two person type job. (Helloooooooo Curt! Anyone seen Curt?)
Rocio held the Pot 'o Boiling Water, and I stuffed the ends of the Spa-flex into the water and tried not to get burned......much.
Once the Spa-flex was warm and pliable, I just stuffed the Threaded/Barbed adapters in. That easy. The threaded part of the adapters was screwed into the OM unit, and teflon taped to get a good seal. The barbed part of the adapters went into the Spa-flex.

Here is a pic of the tank sitting on my kitchen counter waiting for the water to boil.........

Close up.......

Nick

 

[Maxx]

Here it is after the hot water treatment. Special thanks to my fiance for helping out in so many ways.....she also works well as a hand model.

Thes pics kinda give you a sense of how large the OM unit is. I dont think its too big at all, but its definately built industrial grade strong. I'm impressed with it and I havent even been able to plug it in yet!

And another closeup.....

Nick

 

[Maxx]

I've decided to go with the rigid PVC for the rear ports on the OM unit. Just works out easier for me. I was relly humming along with the plumbing too......until I ran out of parts. I need to go back to Lowes...again. I'm hoping I can do that either tomorrow of Monday, cause when I finally get everything, it'll be time to start gluing the plumbing up.
Nick

 

[Curtswearing]

LOL bud....I've missed some of this thread.

Ya got my number when some two-person jobs are in order (actually for anything).

BTW...Lookin' great!!! I don't need any cookies either. However, do you have any spare hair follicles?

 

[DisturbedReefer]

Your plumbing going from the OM to the tank looks to be all one size, is it all just 3/4 or is it 1" reduced down to 3/4 at the tank? Asking 'cause I'm getting ready for something simular but don't know exactly how to go about plumbing it. The OM units come as 1" out, did you just special order 3/4?

 

[Maxx]

The plumbing is reduced to 3/4 of an inch at the tank. I did order the OM unit with a 3/4 inch outlets from Paul originally and intentionally.....I'm glad he sent it the way he did though.
The OM unit had threaded ports that were 1 inch and he inserted (and included), 3/4 inch adapters that were both Male Pipe thread and Female Pipe thread. I goofed and had my pump outlet sizes confused with the skimmer pump outlets....Like I said, I'm glad he sent it the way he did. The largest Loc-Line is only 3/4 of an inch.....so I had to reduce it down anyway....but by using Y's at the 3/4 inch ports, I feel I reduce some of the back pressure....
I have more pics to update this with....I will post them up later on tonight. Still need to make a run to Lowes for some more stuff....
Nick

 

[Maxx]

I should have included this in my previous reply...
Paul can make just about anything in terms of outlet/inlet size. The bottom, (inlet) to the OM unit is 2 1/2 inches in diameter...I asked him for a reducer as well since I was having trouble finding one that size here in STL. I cant imagine why he couldnt get the outlets sized the same as well on the 4 way...
I do have this hooked up and fully plumbed. Its currently sitting in my garage doing the Wet-Test thing...(rather find leaks in the garage than inside my house)....the current generated by the OM unit hooked up to an Iwaki MD-55RLT is insane! By my unscientific calculations, I'm only turning over the tank's volume about 17 times an hour.....(this is geared for SPS primarily) and it looks like alot more than that to me....I have ablsolutely no hesitation reccomending this product to anyone else looking for a good wavemaker. The only potential downside is plumbing....and I was surprised at how easy that was.
Nick

 

[DisturbedReefer]

I want to use an 8-way going to my 135 cube. I too will use loc-line in the tank, I did find some 1" to 3/4" fittings at HD today so I guess that's what I'm going with. Nick these units come standard with 1" outputs if I am reading right? I just don't want to get it all planned out with the true union ball valves ($$) and find out I have the wrong sizes.

 

[Maxx]

When you order them, the website will let you choose, (or it did when I ordered it...I doubt he would have changed it.) what outlets you want. I ordered the 4 way...the 8 may be different. Is there any reason you want the 8 over the 4? Cause you can split the returns into 8 ways.....saves money...(I split mine at the tank...Loc line Y's but you can do it any number of ways.....) Just a thought........
Nick

 

[DisturbedReefer]

I'm planning on running a sequence and I want the effect that I will get with version 3. I'm also going to split at the tank with Y's.

See here: http://www.oceansmotions.com/paul/Gallery/8way-version3.gif