i have the same problem with my mag 5! i really want to try an eheim, they are top notch and apparently dead silent....but they are expensive
Oh, also, please give me suggestions on quite return pumps. I had been thinking that I would just go with the Mag 9.5, but I really don't like the low frequency hum coming off of the smaller Mag 7 I have in there right now. Thanks guys!
In the first video I say that the tank is not level front to back. since then I have discovered that this is not true. It's actually due to the fact that the water is running down into the overflow, the tank is level though and I am not going to try to level water that is running down hill. When the pumps are off it reads perfectly level. That's great news for me since I really didn't want to fiddle with making more shims today.
Originally Posted by baker.shawn The tank looks great, what’s the display size? if your bulkhead isn’t leaking anymore i wouldn’t worry about it, the rubber gasket has probably swelled a little now that it’s been there for a bit stopping the leak. adding silicone is only going to make a mess….if it begins to leak down the road, the way you have it setup allows you to easily address the problem if need be. I’ll be part of the group of people watch them and make suggestions and add input i really only see a couple minor problems...which aren’t really problems, just things i would do different. -First being your sump baffles are they glass or acrylic? If they are acrylic you may want to raise up you water level in your pump section to avoid them bending over time. if they are glass you still may want to add more water but NBD -The second being that thermometer, i wouldn’t rely on it for any accurate temps, I’d go digital but for now i suppose its fine seeing that there is nothing in the tank yet. -The last thing is the bioballs and filter floss under them? I’d just pull those out if i were you, they are going to be more of a pain in the *** than anything. Other than that everything looks great! Thanks Shawn! I'll go through your comments one by one. To start off, the tank is a 75 gallon display and the sump is a 40 gallon breeder I bought (total real water volume of about 95-100 gallons). Also thanks for your input on the leaking gasket. I'll hold off on any replacement or corrective actions provided that it doesn't present itself as a major problem. Now on to your bulletized questions: -First one: my baffles are 1/4" glass spaced one inch apart. I actually had this sump set up as a tank awhile back and had it running for several months. However, since then I tore it apart and reinstalled the baffles using Momentive 100 Series silicone instead of GEII window and door (which I talked about in other blogs... what a disaster the GEII was...). The new stuff has a tensile stress rating of 400 psi so (I'll probably regret saying this) I think the baffles should hold fine. -Second one: I don't like my present arrangement either, the little stick on thermometers are more for reference than anything else. Other than that it's just the thermostats on my heaters, but inevitably that means one will work harder than another. Also, since they're in the sump they will read a slightly cooler temperature than in the main display tank so... You suggest digital. Do you mean a full on aquarium controller or are there some other good options out there with some kind of simple thermistor setups or something? -Third one: The bioballs are an option that I kind of want to try. I have heard a lot of people say that they go south, get dirty, foul things up, etc. However, I've never noticed that myself (I'm a noob though so I'm probably wrong...) and thought that maybe if I elevated them off of the bottom of the sump (using that plastic lattice material that goes over top of industrial flourescent lights) that they wouldn't become a detrius wasteland. If that proves to be untrue I will either replace them with live rock rubble or just use the space to stow my heaters. Thanks again!
Sweet, I just uploaded the last of my videos. I also just completed a full cycle of my UPS and managed to get 1:25:32.1 of run time on the UPS. However, that was just running the return pump and the protein skimmer. I imagine that when I get my 300W heater in there the amount of time I'll loose will be significant. I'm thinking that I'll only have about 45 mins of run time in the event of a power outage when the power goes out - especially if it occurs at night during the winter when my house gets down to about 50 degrees. Basically what that means to me is that I'll need to invest in a backup generator at some point.
The tank looks great, what’s the display size? if your bulkhead isn’t leaking anymore i wouldn’t worry about it, the rubber gasket has probably swelled a little now that it’s been there for a bit stopping the leak. adding silicone is only going to make a mess….if it begins to leak down the road, the way you have it setup allows you to easily address the problem if need be. I’ll be part of the group of people watch them and make suggestions and add input i really only see a couple minor problems...which aren’t really problems, just things i would do different. -First being your sump baffles are they glass or acrylic? If they are acrylic you may want to raise up you water level in your pump section to avoid them bending over time. if they are glass you still may want to add more water but NBD -The second being that thermometer, i wouldn’t rely on it for any accurate temps, I’d go digital but for now i suppose its fine seeing that there is nothing in the tank yet. -The last thing is the bioballs and filter floss under them? I’d just pull those out if i were you, they are going to be more of a pain in the *** than anything. Other than that everything looks great!
Well, although it looks like nobody's been on here in a few days, here are two more videos with one more to come. I left for my meeting and when I got back the forth video was unbelievably still uploading. Anyway, I hope somebody watches these and enjoys them. I also hope another group of people watch them and make suggestions and add input - especially on the topics I specifically bring up on the videos. Oh, I should add that the minor leak I had around the 3/4" bulk head seems to have subsided! I still think I might add some silicone... what do you guys think?
DJ, Hey, I talked to Matt Goldberg today. He mentioned that you shop at Streetside Pets! He also mentioned that you were thinking about having your first meeting this coming Thursday. Depending on the time and when my fiancé decides to leave, I am planning to attend. Looking forward to it!! Jeremy
Thanks DJ! And thanks for offering the use of your tools just in case I couldn't get the CNC to work!
Looks great Jeremy
Midnight. Thanks, I had fun designing the overflow and later today I might try your suggestion to use Picassa (afterall, who doesn't like Picassa clowns ). And yeah, the tank was already drilled (it has a tempered bottom which is why the holes had to be in the back wall instead of the tank bottom). I will be getting rid of all the metal clamps ASAP, but until I can get plastic ones ordered I decided to just use metal ones. This tank build has been a slow process and has been taking place for a little over a year. Everything from the stand to the sump and even the interior silicone of the tank as well as the work you see here, it's all stuff I've done. So for now the metal clamps will let me water test and run simulations and lots of different failure scenarios. But by the time I get fish in the tank they will be plastic.
When you run them through picassa (free photo editor) or photo shop you can rotate during editing and then save it that way. I like the way your teeth are done. you really need to loose the metal clamps on the back side. They will rust in time. Did you drill the tank or was it already drilled?
Marc, I can't figure out how to rotate my images once they're imported. If you could give me instructions (or use your magic moderator powers to do it for me) I would appreciate it. I hope you like the photos, they were taken with an iPhone 4 so that's why they aren't as high resolution as I might have liked... anyway guys, enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions/suggestions.
I would make the overflow out of 1/4" material. It'll hold up fine without a glass liner. Glad you got it level. I spent many hours trying to get the 400g level, and then once it was finally full of water and sand, I had to re-level it 1/8" on the left end. Here's that day, just about a year ago: http://www.reefaddicts.com/entry.php...Saturday-Feb-5
if the cnc falls through let me know I got all the tool and bits you'd need. I let you know when I have a firm date
DJ, Thanks, and if you get a firm date locked in I would love to try and fit it in my schedule. Oh, this weekend I'm planning to get the glass portion of my overflow installed. However, I'm waiting on the acrylic portion since my aunt and uncle just gave me permission to use their CNC routers! I figure that will be WAY better than trying to machine it out my self!!
Looking good Jeremy. We are going to try and have a club meeting at the end of the month if your interested will be in fairmont or morgantown havent set a place yet. We may just crash a public place till can find something permanent.
Lol, yeah, I've thought about repainting the whole thing black. I originally painted it green because I wanted to have good light flow inside the stand without painting it white - which would look dirty in no time. Since then for everything from algae growth to aesthetics, I've decided that black would be better. On another note. The tank is totally level now and I have begun the process of plumbing everything up. I'll give more details in a post later this weekend, but suffice it to say, plumbing primer eats bulkheads alive. I really hope I don't have leaks on my bulkheads...
My only input is that I like the color of the inside of the stand. Lol.
Thanks for the input! Today after school I made a bunch of aluminum shims and wedged my stand up so that the tank and the water in it were totally level. Midnight, thanks for mentioning to shim the stand and not the tank. I was going to do it that (my original post notwithstanding) but the added reminder was good since others might have read my initial post and gotten the wrong idea. Matt, you think I should use 3/8" thick glass? The tank itself only has 1/4" thick glass - that's standard for 75 gallon tanks. Is there a reason you suggested that other than the perennial overkill which we're all guilty of? Any more/different input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again everyone!
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