drummereef's 180g in-wall build

[drummereef]

OK Alex, I did some testing on the bio pellet reactor... I did a water change so most of the return section of the sump was drained during the change - the section where the reactor is placed. Amazingly, the reactor did not back siphon or drain, not even one drop. The entire reactor held water all the way to the lid. Even the bubbles on the intake screen stayed put. I'm guessing, since it's a closed system plumbed to the manifold, which is higher than the reactor that it was able to hold water without draining. Almost like when you hold your finger on a straw full of water. The effluent also was submerged since it's in the skimmer section that doesn't drain when I'm doing a water change. So no back-siphoning or burping at all.

[Taqpol]

Cool! Do you get good fluidizing with that nozzle as well?

[110galreef]

Originally Posted by drummereef

And finally... Originally I was set on using cinder blocks ............. I though it would be best to build something.
110galreef will surely get a kick out of this one.

Those are some of the smoothest black'st NON cement material cinder bloacks I have ever seen!

Looking good!

[Snakebyt]

just started reading this thread a couple days ago, awesome journey, thanks for sharing.. and im just gonna let you know.. i will be stealing some of your ideas when setting up my new 75 gallon.

[v1...rotate]

Hi Brett,

Great fish room!!! Wish I had something like that.

Two questions,
Have you got any pics of how you made the skimmer stand from egg crate? I might try using that method.

Also, does your skimmer have little rubber legs on it or is the base completely flat? Just wondering how it sits on the egg crate?

Thanks

[canyousee]

looks great, and no one who has followed this thread for more than one day believed you where going to put cinder blocks in that fish room lol. thanks for sharing

[Reefahholic]

Brett, I love the new stock tank! Good looking base too.

I just noticed your Halides are on a rail system. Is it the same on both sides that way you can slide the lights back to get into the tank?

If so, that is sweet!



I seen one thing your missing in that fish room. One lazy boy recliner or a nice comfy computer chair on rollers!

[screename116]

Very nice set up, I like the less is more look with the rock.

[drummereef]

Originally Posted by Taqpol

Cool! Do you get good fluidizing with that nozzle as well?

Yes, actually better than the original design of the reactor. It's very even. Looks pretty much the same as the reef dynamics videos on youtube. If my computer cooperates, I'll upload a quick iPhone vid of the pellets in action.

Originally Posted by 110galreef

Those are some of the smoothest black'st NON cement material cinder bloacks I have ever seen!

Looking good!

Hahahahahahahahahaha!! Thanks 110g.

Originally Posted by Snakebyt

just started reading this thread a couple days ago, awesome journey, thanks for sharing.. and im just gonna let you know.. i will be stealing some of your ideas when setting up my new 75 gallon.

And thank you snakebyt.

Originally Posted by v1...rotate

Hi Brett,

Great fish room!!! Wish I had something like that.

Two questions,
Have you got any pics of how you made the skimmer stand from egg crate? I might try using that method.

Also, does your skimmer have little rubber legs on it or is the base completely flat? Just wondering how it sits on the egg crate?

Thanks

Thanks so much Andrew. Your tank is an inspiration to us all! I don't think I did a tutorial on how to make one but it's really simple. I just took some wire cutters and cut the eggcrate base and legs to size, sanded the rough edges, and used super glue to hold it all together. Very easy. The skimmer stand has a center leg for support as well, otherwise it would probably sag from the excess weight. My skimmer is just flat acrylic on the bottom, no rubber feet, so it sits very flat on the eggcrate. Here's the best pic I have so hopefully you'll get a better idea of what it looks like.

Originally Posted by canyousee

looks great, and no one who has followed this thread for more than one day believed you where going to put cinder blocks in that fish room lol. thanks for sharing

Hahahaha! I swear I was really going to use cinder blocks, really!

Originally Posted by Reefahholic

Brett, I love the new stock tank! Good looking base too.

I just noticed your Halides are on a rail system. Is it the same on both sides that way you can slide the lights back to get into the tank?

If so, that is sweet!



I seen one thing your missing in that fish room. One lazy boy recliner or a nice comfy computer chair on rollers!

Hahahaha. The recliner is on the front side of the tank. Yes, the rail system is the same on both sides so I can slide the whole rack back when I need to have more access to the tank or doing am maintenance on the lights. Here's a pic from a while back so you can see the bigger picture.

Originally Posted by screename116

Very nice set up, I like the less is more look with the rock.

Thanks screename116.

[drummereef]

Here's a quick video of the bio pellet reactor. Sorry for the video quality, just wanted to post something quick and easy so the iPhone was it. The pellets look like they are churning more than real life because the video is blurring them somewhat. It's more of a gentle stirring. But you can see there's a complete tumble from the bottom of the reactor to the top of the pellets.

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


More progress made on the stock tank build out...


Now that the stand was complete, I leveled it up and started to drill some holes in the tank. I used a hole saw to cut the drain bulkheads.




Both drains cut and ready for bulkheads.




2x 1.5" Bulkheads installed. These bulkheads are threaded on the flange side, slip on the back.




Upturned elbows installed.




Next, I needed to enlarge the hole at the bottom of the tank to accommodate a 1.5" bulkhead. I added some blocking to be able to use a hole saw. This way the guide bit has something to drill into while cutting.




Here's the side that will be drilled. You can see the blocking against the tank.




Using the same size hole saw as the drains, I drilled out the new hole and installed the bulkhead.




And finally... These 70 gallon tanks have two ribs on either side of the hole that need to be ground down enough for a bulkhead to seal properly. I used my angle grinder for most of it, followed by some hand sanding with a couple different grits of sandpaper to make the inside surface of the tank smooth.




To be continued...

[drummereef]

Now that the tank was drilled I could move back to the room to complete some necessary details. I installed the FRP panel behind where the tank will sit.




I put the tank back on the stand and did some very careful measuring for the two holes that needed to be drilled.




Holes drilled. I hope this is right!!




So I decided I could use Uniseals where the pipe transitions through the wall to give me a super clean look inside the room.




I was able to grind the I.D. of the Uniseal down just enough for it to slip over the threaded side of the union. As you can see the flange on the Uniseal is slightly larger in diameter than the threads on the union.




Here's a pic of the whole assembly. The threaded side of the union will slide through the wall and the Uniseal will give it a nice finished look.




And the finished product.




On the other side of the wall you can see the nut side of the union and a little rough-in of the fittings I will be using to complete the drain plumbing.

[psteeleb]

great job!

when I first saw those uni-seals on the wall I was thinking; "what the heck are you up to now". After reading it made perfect sense and looks great

[psteeleb]

will you have enough space to slope your lower of the two drain lines?



The lower line looks like it's right up against your horizontal in this picture, or does it only go a couple feet.

[TheFishTeen]

Originally Posted by psteeleb

will you have enough space to slope your lower of the two drain lines?

There already is a slope, created by the two fittings that move the drain out of the way of the one on top. Why would he need to slope the pipe even more? There should be plenty of downforce already present after those two fittings to move the water to the sump.

[Reefahholic]

Looking great Brett!

How much of a slope are you trying to achieve anyway? Shouldn't take much to move the water to the sump. I would guess about 25-35 degree angle.

I think if you had it sloped too much, you would create some water noise (splashing into the sump). I'm assuming you would terminate the pipe right at the waters surface or just below.

[psteeleb]

per piping standards drain lines should slope 1/8 to 1/4" per foot. This slope provides not only a gravatational pull to keep the water moving and keeps it from becoming stagnate, it also acts as a way to allow the air to escape without being pushed down by the water. This second element of air/water seperation is critical to keeping a system quiet. Too much slope and you get turbidity and gurgling.

[aquaph8]

Love it, nice clean work. Im so jealous of your room.

[Reefahholic]

Originally Posted by psteeleb

per piping standards drain lines should slope 1/8 to 1/4" per foot. This slope provides not only a gravatational pull to keep the water moving and keeps it from becoming stagnate, it also acts as a way to allow the air to escape without being pushed down by the water. This second element of air/water seperation is critical to keeping a system quiet. Too much slope and you get turbidity and gurgling.

I did not know that. Thanks for the info.


How would you calculate that slope per foot equation?

[v1...rotate]

Originally Posted by drummereef

Thanks so much Andrew. Your tank is an inspiration to us all! I don't think I did a tutorial on how to make one but it's really simple. I just took some wire cutters and cut the eggcrate base and legs to size, sanded the rough edges, and used super glue to hold it all together. Very easy. The skimmer stand has a center leg for support as well, otherwise it would probably sag from the excess weight. My skimmer is just flat acrylic on the bottom, no rubber feet, so it sits very flat on the eggcrate. Here's the best pic I have so hopefully you'll get a better idea of what it looks like.

Thank you Brett for the info and picture. I will give it a try

[drummereef]

Originally Posted by psteeleb

great job!

when I first saw those uni-seals on the wall I was thinking; "what the heck are you up to now". After reading it made perfect sense and looks great

Originally Posted by psteeleb

will you have enough space to slope your lower of the two drain lines?

The lower line looks like it's right up against your horizontal in this picture, or does it only go a couple feet.

Haha, you know me... Always looking for ways to use Uniseals for what they were never intended to do! I should have taken a better pic originally to show the perspective of the pipe against the wall. The pipes will sit on the outside of the stud wall and run down roughly 6 feet where they will enter back into the sump room. Here's a better shot for perspective.

Originally Posted by Reefahholic

Looking great Brett!

How much of a slope are you trying to achieve anyway? Shouldn't take much to move the water to the sump. I would guess about 25-35 degree angle.

I think if you had it sloped too much, you would create some water noise (splashing into the sump). I'm assuming you would terminate the pipe right at the waters surface or just below.

I roughly estimated, per Pete's recommendation, that the total slope will be roughly 2" from the fittings in the pics to the elbows back into the sump room. I'll obviously be able to regulate the amount of flow through the tank so I'm hoping I can keep turbulence to a minimum.

Originally Posted by psteeleb

per piping standards drain lines should slope 1/8 to 1/4" per foot. This slope provides not only a gravatational pull to keep the water moving and keeps it from becoming stagnate, it also acts as a way to allow the air to escape without being pushed down by the water. This second element of air/water seperation is critical to keeping a system quiet. Too much slope and you get turbidity and gurgling.

Thanks Pete. This is what I roughly estimated. As I stated above, I will have about 2 or 2.5" of drop from the fittings in the pics above to the elbows back to the sump. This is about 6 feet of run plus the 2 feet or so after it elbows back to the sump. Sound about right? There will be another couple inches of drop into the sump where the pipe comes over the edge of the sump but I couldn't avoid it, unless I drill the side of the sump which I really don't want to do.

Originally Posted by aquaph8

Love it, nice clean work. Im so jealous of your room.

Thank you Brett.

Originally Posted by Reefahholic

I did not know that. Thanks for the info.


How would you calculate that slope per foot equation?

The way I did it is 1/4" of drop per foot of run. So 1" of drop per 4 feet of run.

Originally Posted by v1...rotate

Thank you Brett for the info and picture. I will give it a try

You are welcome Andrew.

[Reefahholic]

Ok, thanks...can't wait to see it finished and hear how it's working for ya.

[psteeleb]

Originally Posted by drummereef

Thanks Pete. This is what I roughly estimated. As I stated above, I will have about 2 or 2.5" of drop from the fittings in the pics above to the elbows back to the sump. This is about 6 feet of run plus the 2 feet or so after it elbows back to the sump. Sound about right? There will be another couple inches of drop into the sump where the pipe comes over the edge of the sump but I couldn't avoid it, unless I drill the side of the sump which I really don't want to do.

That sounds good to me. You still may want to put an elbow or tee at the bottom end of the vertical drop right at the water line to help muffle the splash. I put mine where the tee or elbow is half in the water to allow for a transitional horizontal flow to minimize splashing yet still allow for air flow

[drummereef]

Originally Posted by Reefahholic

Ok, thanks...can't wait to see it finished and hear how it's working for ya.

Will do, thanks Reefahholic.

Originally Posted by psteeleb

That sounds good to me. You still may want to put an elbow or tee at the bottom end of the vertical drop right at the water line to help muffle the splash. I put mine where the tee or elbow is half in the water to allow for a transitional horizontal flow to minimize splashing yet still allow for air flow

Awesome, thanks Pete. Yeah, I definitely plan on adding a fitting to the end of the pipe to cut down on any splashing. We'll see how it goes as I'd like to avoid using a sock since it's coming from a "fuge". Hopefully the low flow will help cut down on any splashing or bubbles too.

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


Quick question then some updated pics of the fuge project...

I want to use a 3/4" bulkhead on the stock tank to transition into some Loc-Line. I was considering installing the bulkhead on the side of the tank, which is rounded. When I put the nut up to the side you can see a small gap between the nut and the side of the tank due to the radius of the tank's side. The tank has a little flex to it so I'm on the fence whether the bulkhead will seal up OK. I'd rather use a bulkhead vs a Uniseal just because it seems like a safer option.

What do you think??






Here's some updates on the build-out...

I re-framed the wall where the fuge drains will enter back into the sump room. My luck, there was another stud in the way so I needed to frame around it to accommodate the holes I would need to drill in the drywall. I also moved the electrical that was in the way as well.




I also needed to build a support bracket for the pvc pipe. This will give the pipe a little extra support where it will hang over the side of the sump.




Here's the bracket installed and how the pipe will look once plumbed.




I then used some pipe to mark the wall where the necessary holes will be drilled.




Using a hole saw, I drilled the holes to be able to plumb the pvc through the wall.




And finally, Uniseals provide a clean transition through the drywall. I need to pick up 2 more unions to plumb on the other side of the wall. But with this complete, I feel like I'm on the downhill with the project. Plumbing ahead!!