My 300G Built-in Reef - UPDATE - Tear down thread

[Anonymous]

m-fine wrote:

) What is low iron glass and why should I ask for it when (if) I order a large custom tank?

Low iron clear is much clearer than regular glass. It doesn't have that green tint. It's almost as clear as acrylic. Notice that in some of the pictures the tank is almost invisible.

Why no sand bed? I would LOVE the bio-deversity you could have in a tank that size with a 3-6 inch sand bed, and I would think it would leave you with a more stable self sustaining system in the long run. What am I missing?

That's a whole new debate that I don't want to address in this thread. But in short I will say that: 1) I suspect that a DSB in a junk sponge, 2) with the amount of flow I am going to have in this tank a DSB would get blown all over the place. I think I have my tank turnover figured at around 65 - 70 turnovers per hour.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Well, today is going to suck. It's time to bring the utilites to the fish room.

I decided to dig the ditch first thing in the morning before it gets to stiffling hot. And besides, I want to watch the British Open

I am going to bring a 60 amp service to the fish room. No, the tank is not going to have a 60 amp load, but my electrical panel has a spare 60 amp breaker in it from where the previous owners heated the pool. How convenient .

I am also going to 3/4" pipes from my laundry room for plumbing. One will bring the RO/DI water in for make-up water and the other will come from a 125G water storage vessel that will contain the water for water changes. That vessel will also be connected to my RO unit in the laundry room.

Hope your Saturday is better than mine

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

It must be nice to be able to just dig a shallow trench and lay water pipes from one area of your house to another

They would freeze here

 

[Anonymous]

Bryan wrote:

It must be nice to be able to just dig a shallow trench and lay water pipes from one area of your house to another

They would freeze here

Ah, so now I feel better about dripping 4 gallons of sweat before 9 a.m.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

I have done quite a bit since my last post.

Here are some pics of the utilities coming through the walls.

One of the pics shows the drill that I used to drill a 4" hole through the wall. It's nice to have friends in the rental business

I am going to use that velocity T-4 pump you see in the center picture to drain the sump when I do W/C's. I bought that pump a few years ago but didn't like it because it adds heat to the water. Now I have an application where that won't matter

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

I also mounted the pumps, set the load center, and began the electrical rough-in.

Electrical work is hard work. I am 17 years removed from the field and forgot how hard electrical work actually is. I'll be glad when I am finished.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Here a couple of pics of the Icecap ballast I bought. I built a little shelf of them to sit on between the stand and the wall. I roughed in outlets above them with ample space for the appliance timers to plug in and I think I'll have a good angle to see the time are make adjustments when there are power outages.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Hey Louey, my entire basement and first floor still remains to be rewired, The existing wiring is knob and tube. Wanna come over and rewire it for me?

I can hand you tools :lol:


Looks nice, Can't wait to see water man!

 

[Anonymous]

Nice! Keep the pics coming ...

 

[Anonymous]

Bryan wrote:

Hey Louey, my entire basement and first floor still remains to be rewired, The existing wiring is knob and tube. Wanna come over and rewire it for me?

I can hand you tools

Pass.

If my employees knew how long it is taking me to install this electrical stuff I would have no shot at ever having them work effectively again. :lol: . I think I am averaging about 1.5 hours per outlet box from start to finish including mounting the receptacle and plate. I'd fire an electricain that worked that slow. My work isn't that clean either. Doh! I hope the panel doesn't blow off the wall when I energize it. 8O

 

[Anonymous]

Bryan wrote:

Hey Louey, my entire basement and first floor still remains to be rewired, The existing wiring is knob and tube. Wanna come over and rewire it for me?

I can hand you tools

Pass.

If my employees knew how long it is taking me to install this electrical stuff I would have no shot at ever having them work effectively again. :lol: . I think I am averaging about 1.5 hours per outlet box from start to finish including mounting the receptacle and plate. I'd fire an electricain that worked that slow. My work isn't that clean either. Doh! I hope the panel doesn't blow off the wall when I energize it. 8O

:lol:

 

[MartinE]

Ah the things we do for our hobby. Great work keep the pics coming, I am enjoying watching it come along. (envy of course :twisted: ).

 

[Anonymous]

work faster and post more pix plz

 

[m-fine]

How come there are no pics of the corals yet? What is taking so long?

 

[Anonymous]

Okay, here are some pics of the finished electrical. I finished Sunday, but had to take the family on a little two day vacation on Fort Myers Beach. Glad that's over. Now I can get back to putting this thing together.

Remeber, no water until August 5th. That's when the silicon will be fully cured.

 

[Anonymous]

One more shot of the electical. That little Iwaki will power my skimmer. The appliance timer is the the centifugal duct fan that will blow air through my Lumenarc III's. The outlet up front is just a convenience outlet. I put one of those on each side.

Louey

 

[Anonymous]

Here's a picture showing the plumbing of the bulkheads in the bottom of my sump. The ball valve on the left will connect to the ball valve at the wall with a pump in between. This is how I will pump out 125G's of water for a water change.

Louey

 

[GSchiemer]

I would have used water-resistant boxes and outlets, as well as PVC conduit. All that metal and electricity are awful close to a lot of saltwater, which as you know is a good conductor of electricity. You WILL spill, drip and spray saltwater onto those electrical boxes in the future. I can assure you of that. I assume you have GFCI breakers in the electrical panel, since I didn't see them on the outlets?

 

[Anonymous]

Actually, the first outlet on each circuit is a GFI. Breakers were almost $50 each, compared to $9 for a GFI receptacle. I wired the downstream outlets from the load side of the GFI rececpt so they are all protected.

I'm not worried about the metal outlets. All of the outlets under my 75G tank have been there for over 5 years and show no signs of rust or deteriation at all. You are probably right that I should have done it in PVC. I honestly never even thought about it. And I am a friggin electrician, lol.

Louey

 

[mike90]

wow man! good job! you're bringing the value up on your home! lol.