Upgrade to 120Gs: Quiet is Key

any updates on this tank build???

 

Update

Oh man, what a headache. I hope to add salt water, sand, and rock this weekend, but here's what happened:

[BTW, I have way to much work and family obligations so I get very little time to work on the tank. I took off a couple of days from work, but that did not help since I had to re-do everything.]

Fill #1

I had the tank all plumped and running with tap water as shown in the video above. After a week, however, the water got cloudy.

Re-plumb #1, Fill #2

I drained the tank and filled it again with tap water. After another week it was still cloudy.

Re-plump #2, Fill #3

I figured I used too much joint compound, so I re-plumbed the whole tank, but I was very curious to how well the tank worked with 1" instead of 1.5" plumbing, so I re-plumped it with 1" drains. I did not use joint compound, only teflon tape.

It did not leak, but it was too loud. It was probaly the Sched 40 pipe as it is very tinny and reverberates every little trickle.

Re-plump #3

I re-plumbed it again with 1.5" but no joint compound. An expert in the trade told me that 1.5" would leak without some joint compound, but I did not want to have it go cloudy again, so I just used telfon. Well, sure enough it leaked.

Re-plump #4

I took the whole think apart and re-plumbed with 1.5" and used tape and a thin sheet of joint compound on top of the tape. This held fine, did not leak, and did not go cloudy.

Re-plump #5, Fill #4

I drained the tank and filled with RO/DI water which took a couple of days. Then I added salt. But I must have added it too quick because the water never cleared after a few days. Looks like all of the calcium and ALK precipitated out of solution.

Fill #5

Now I need to drain the tank, clean it very well and remove all of the CaCO3 precipitate, and fill again with RO/DI and add another 130gallons worth of salt. I hope this goes well.

 

lol...dude, that's a lot of re-plumbing. You're sure it's going cloudy as a result of joint compound? What kind of compound are you using?

 

wow that sounds like a headache from helldizzy::rolleyes3

 

Looks like there are slots drilled in the baffles so the water won't flow underneath, instead through. Should be able to see it in these pictures.

This is different, would be curious to know if you came up with this and if so, your logic.

 

Yes, it was the compound. I was too liberal with the application. The tank had a pasty residue after I emptied it. It was definately the same as the joint compound. I used Oatey Great White Joint Compound.

 

This is not fully my design. I worked with Brett at ZeroEdge. He has been designing and building sumps for years. I designed and built my previous sump with advice from Jeff at LifeReef who has also been designing and building sumps for years. Neither of them think that the traditional bubble trap is necessary in a good sump design. But this is a heated topic in DIY forums, so I don't want to start that debate here.

The reality is that I don't plan on using my refugium space as a refugium [I have it in case I decide to add one in the future; but it is designed for a thin miracle mud layer rather than a DSB], so the water flow is under-over-under-over after the skimmer. The first under is not all the way under, but it is very low, and the the second under is through the grating, but still well below the water level. I won't know how well this will work until I have the skimmer in there making bubbles. But for now, it is completely bubble-less as long as the water level stays above the designed operating level in the return section.

 

Update: Cycling!

Finally. The tank is cycling. I am doing a dry rock, dry sand, fishless cycle using Dr. Tim's One-and-Only starter bacteria. This should take about 2 weeks according to their instructions.

I am one week into it, but I did not follow the instructions (did not see them) until yesterday. I was dosing 120 drop of Ammonia Chloride every day which was keeping the concentration fairly constant. I am going to go a few days without dosing and I hope to see the Ammonia concentration decrease.

I am using the API test kits, so I am guessing at the numbers between the color scales based on whether the color is lighter or darker than the sheet. This is obviously not very accurate.



Here are some updated shot of the tank. I have my temporary Metal Halide light as I only built one of my LED fixtures. I am seriously considering two EchoTech Marine Radions instead, but I don't have the authorization from the warden to spend the money at the moment.

 

breath takeing. love it!

 

wow super clean does someone have a slight case of OCD? lmao haha jk