Chasman's Build Thread

[Chasman]

Well I went and did it over the weekend. Went and bought a couple of tanks. Was at a LFS that I don't go to that often and of course a big tank sale. This isn't a huge upgrade size-wise but it was just what I wanted. The DT will be a 50gal (36X18X19) and the sump is a 30gal breeder tank. (30X18X12). My 29 has been up and running well for 14 months and I have learned a ton in that time. Almost hate the idea of taking the thing down but there are a few issues with it that are newbie things that you just learn on the first go around. The 30" width is a big one. Thirty inch lighing choices just aren't very good. Thirty six on the other hand opens up a whole new ball game. Plus my skimmer is all but non existant. Some redone CPR thing built into the HOB fuge. It does work as my water quality and critters are proof. Just too much crap and hardware going on in the DT.

I will drill this tank and keep it void of as much hardware as possible. This is going to take some time as I need to build the stand and everything. But at least I can make it the way I want it. We'll see how it goes.

Chasman

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

Nice Chasman! I'm looking forward to the build.

[metalhead]

Groovy!

[Flyboy450r]

Let me know how the drilling goes id love to get a 70 gallon and drill it.

[Chasman]

Everybody says it's quite easy if you take your time. We shall see. I figure a few adult beverages, some careful planning, and a new diamond hole saw should do the trick. I need to get the cabinet worked out first. Actually I have a lot of stuff to figure out before I start drilling glass. But I will drill it.

[Chasman]

Well the UPS truck arrived with some new toys. Wont bore you too much as these are pretty standard products. The skimmer is typical of Octopus. Solid acrylic casting, great fit and finish, surprise gate valve (expected the down pipe version) and a chinese pump. (OTP 2000) Should work well for what I think will be 75 gal of total water. I work with a lot of manufacturing companies through my work and you can just tell the chinese products. The quality is fine, they just have this different look. Hard to describe. BTW the instructions are laughable, but easy enough to figure out.

The Eheim pump on the other hand feels like pulling an Audi out of the box. Very solid, typical of German stuff. I bought two 1262's which I think is a mistake. May return one of them for a 1260. I plan on running a closed loop which I will use the 1262 for, but I think the sump and so on could be done with a 1260. Don't know yet.

Ordered a specially built stand today. I figure a month before that shows up. Gives me time to build up the courage to drill my DT. Lol.

[Chasman]

Started mocking up the sump today. At this point I cut acrylic baffles as getting them made from glass was turning out to be a real pain. What do you guys think? Everything in the pictures is just loosely sitting in there. I'm just trying to get a feel for how things will be laid out. The blue is just the protective coating on the acrylic. Nothing carved in stone yet. I have one more place to look for the glass baffles to be made. At the moment the baffles are 3/16 acrylic. I have a pretty open budget on this project as I want to do it right and hopefully only once.

The layout is the center section is the return area. This will house two Eheim 1262 pumps. One for the return to the tank and a tee to provide flow to the refugium on the right side, and run two little fishes reactors. (Hence the big pump) The fuge on this layout holds 5.5 gals. I could raise the baffle and inch and get 6 gals. I just don't want to sell myself short on the back siphon when the pumps are off. What do you think?

Pump number two (same kind, 1262) will power a closed loop for additional flow. Between the two pumps I'm thinking I will get about 800 gph from the CL system and about 500 gph from the return pump. That should give me 26 times turnover. (DT is 50 gal)

So for now I'm at the stare at it and think mode.

So stare at it and let me know what you think.

Chasman

[metalhead]

Started mocking up the sump today. At this point I cut acrylic baffles as getting them made from glass was turning out to be a real pain. What do you guys think? Everything in the pictures is just loosely sitting in there. I'm just trying to get a feel for how things will be laid out. The blue is just the protective coating on the acrylic. Nothing carved in stone yet. I have one more place to look for the glass baffles to be made. At the moment the baffles are 3/16 acrylic. I have a pretty open budget on this project as I want to do it right and hopefully only once.

The layout is the center section is the return area. This will house two Eheim 1262 pumps. One for the return to the tank and a tee to provide flow to the refugium on the right side, and run two little fishes reactors. (Hence the big pump) The fuge on this layout holds 5.5 gals. I could raise the baffle and inch and get 6 gals. I just don't want to sell myself short on the back siphon when the pumps are off. What do you think?

Pump number two (same kind, 1262) will power a closed loop for additional flow. Between the two pumps I'm thinking I will get about 800 gph from the CL system and about 500 gph from the return pump. That should give me 26 times turnover. (DT is 50 gal)

So for now I'm at the stare at it and think mode.

So stare at it and let me know what you think.

Chasman

Looks good Chas, just one question... Why don't you put the return pumps on the right and eliminate the tee on the return line? Seems to me you would lose too much pressure with that tee so close to the return pump. If you want to keep the pumps in the middle you could always run a third pump for flow to the fuge. Or you could simply split the return line coming back from the tank between both ends of the sump. Just something to consider... Either way it looks like you're on track, good work!

[Chasman]

Thanks for the input Metal

I've been researching sumps for a couple of months now and as you could imagine, I've seen all kinds of stuff. But I keep seeing this setup as the most efficient (at least I think so) one for what I want to do. I'm going to run a rather unique drain system (you will see this down the road) that doesn't lend itself to teeing off a portion of it. I bought a big enough pump to be able to adjust the fuge on the right to exactly the flow I want and still have plenty of flow for the return. My return pump is 900gph with no head loss. If I calculate the head loss straight through the system I end up with about 750gph. I think that would be too much to put the fuge in the center. I'm hoping I can tee off the fuge area and get the flow through the skimmer and back to the return at about 500gph and have commplete control over the flow rate in the fuge.

But if that is not the case I like your idea of using like a maxijet to run the fuge flow. It would be a fairly easy job to untangle the tee section and run the system straight through. My plan is to assemble this maddness in the basement, throughly fresh water test it, then take it all apart and move it to it's final resting place.

Right now I have just over 6 gallons of return siphon room. I think that should be enough. The DT is only 50 gal. Lets hope!!

Chasman

[Chasman]

Been tinkering around with the new tank today. Didn't get much done. Mainly trying to lay thins out. Siliconed a couple of baffles into the sump and started laying out the drain side of the system. Got to get this right before I start drilling holes in the tank. The key will be the delivery of the stand to get all this plumbing in the right spot. The return side will be the trick with the stand. Couple of pics. Time for New Years.

[Chasman]

Did a wet/dry run on the sump. All looks good so far.

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

Nice work there Chasman!

[Chasman]

Praticing the art of acrylic welding. There IS a bit of an art to it. The solvent (glue) is thinner than water and you have to move fast. The pics are just pieces to learn how to do it. I've been using my miter saw table as a jig and it works pretty well. Each piece got a little better. Probably not the best way to do it, but that's where forums come in to save the day. Any advice, let me know.

Chasman

[Chasman]

Doing a little tinkering tonight. I got the stand. The view in the picture is the back. You can see I had to alter it a little to get the sump in. It has a 4" overhang in the back so the pieces I had to cut really don't bare the weight of the tank. The four inches extra is room for all that crazy plumbing to go through. I also ordered two doors for the front because you can see the front door is very small. Going to enlarge the front opening for the new doors. I'm not too happy with this stand, but I can make it work. I keep dry fitting pieces for the drain, return lines, and the closed loop. Not so happy with this layout as it is, but I will finally get it. If you use your imagination, you will see I will need eight holes drilled in the back of this tank. I've seen it done, so we'll see.

[Chasman]

Drilled a couple of holes in the tank tonight. Easier that I thought. About 2 min per hole once you get setup.

The first pic is using a template to strat the bit straight.
Second pic is the score from using the template.
Third pic is the water well made with plumbers putty. That creates a watter well to keep the bit cool. You are basically grinding a disc out of the glass.

[Chasman]

The first pic is the finished hole. Bad pic but glass is hard to photograph.
Second pic is the new bulkhead in the hole. I was surprised how easy it was to do this.
The last pic is my overflow box. What a PITA to make. Learned a ton about acrylics though.

Hope this isn't too boring. At least I have pics!!

[FoMoCo Master Tech]

Not boring at all chasman. Nice work!

[Original Fin]

I did a little drilling on my two 10g sump tanks. Actually, I broke the second one I attempted. The third and final one later developed a crack, which has so far stayed dry with the application of some silicone. Lucky there is not much pressure in a 10, otherwise I wouldn't be getting away with that. Later I realized that 10's aren't the best candidates for drilling as they are so thin.

Where did you get your hole saw? I got an el cheapo from Ebay, and that may have been part of my issue.

[Chasman]

I purchased my hole saws from Glass-Holes.com. I didn't try it but from what I experienced the thin glass of a ten would be harder to do. The saw from Glass-Holes don't look to be super high quality, but that could be deceiving. The one I used buzzed right through without much effort. Doesn't put hardley any strain on the drill either. I have six more to go, but I'm not nervous about doing it now.

[Chasman]

I think I've got it. This plumbing is driving me nuts. Also kind of fun. So far this is the best layout I've come up with. Everything fits and the spacing is pretty good. The balance could be better, but there is a lot of crap to cram into a rather small space. If I stick with this, it will determine where the rest of the holes will be drilled.

For those who are wondering what is going on, this is a "Bean Animal" drain system, which requires three drains that work together from a common (24" wide) internal overflow box. That was the acrylic piece (box) I made. That will be drilled after the glass is drilled for perfect alignment.

The lower horizontal plumbing is for a closed loop flow pump. The hope is to eliminate any internal powerheads.

You can go to "beananimal.com" to get an explanation of this drain/overflow method. Or google "bean animal" and find out all kinds of info on it.