Our 375 Gallon project

[Haab]

[sidewinder770]

AcroSteve & cseeton- Thanks for all the advise and help with this. Looks like I do have a little adjusting to make but I'll wait till I have saltwater flowing and all the other tanks are ready to go before making final adjustments. I did have a question- on the TXV- I noticed when I turn the adjustment screw clockwise (I'm assuming I'm closing it) The temperature of the line going to the chiller drops- then I adjust the water flow to raise the temp a bit. I assume this is because on a normal A/C system you would be adjusting the TXV based on airflow since It's probably something that isn't very adjustable with a normal evaporator. With water, the temp can be adjusted based on water flow so I would probably want to close the adjustment screw most of the way to allow more water flow correct? Hope that makes sense.

As for the rest of the tank I still have a few small details and things to do on it before it's ready to go but I am mainly waiting on the skimmer at this point and that should be in the next few weeks. I'll post some more pics when I have more updates. Once I know the skimmer is shipping I will probably start the RO/DI since it will take about 5-7 days to get it filled so it should be filled and ready when the skimmer arrives.

Thanks again for all the great information and tips- I really appreciate it.

[gobygoby]

Scott,
did you have to do anything special to the actuator to get it working??

I just got mine tonight and it came with the Taiwan male plug-in so I called the guys at parts express and they said it was fine to attatch the U.S. plug. When I press the buttons on the control the red LED lights up but no noise or movement in the actuator. I noticed a small screw on the actuator motor that can be adjusted, I assume this is for limiting? do you have to have the batteries hooked in to make this work? anyway, I didnt know if there is a secret to get it working. so far my doesnt do anything!

PS. mine didnt come with any instructions either.

Thanks
Goby

[sidewinder770]

Goby- I didn't have to do anything to get it to work. It came with a standard 3 prong plug for 110v. I haven't put any batteries in mine and it seems to be working just fine without them. I'd have to look at mine again but I don't think it had an LED of any sort on the remote( I could be wrong about this but I'd have to look), not sure if mine came with instructions or not but I didn't need them since it was a plug it in and it worked kind of deal. Sounds like you may have gotten a different actuator than we did. Does your look like the picture I posted a few pages back in this thread? I would tell them they sent you the wrong item as it sounds like you got some type of 'non-US' model.

[matt & pam]

Goby,
Assuming you have the same linear actuator, the remote goes into the middle connection of the power box, and the actuator motor plugs into the left connection when the connections are oriented towards the top. Mine is the same as Scott and I do not have any LEDs.
Matt

[TheCoralReef731]

Any progress on the display tank. Please show pics.

[gobygoby]

Yes, its the exact same. I ordered it from parts express. there is a little red light between the buttons on the controller.

I talked to parts express yesterday and they said that lately a bunch of these the motors arent working. So I am going to return it for another one. hopefully that works.

Actuator

Thanks
Goby

[petedoc]

Scott, thanks for directing me to your thread for stand building ideas. This is a great documentary of your reef system. I may borrow a few of your inventive ideas. Thanks again, Dave

[gobygoby]

just an update on my actuator. I did return it to parts express. there whole batch was defective and because it was a buyout item, they are not getting any more in Anyone else know where to get the same actuator from? The ebay people dont have the complete unit, only the actuator, not the controller.

Thanks
Goby

[sidewinder770]

As far as the actuator- I finally got around to hooking mine up this weekend and I did notice that it had a LED- looks like it comes on while raising or lowering it. I don't have any pics of the completed actuator setup just yet (and it's only 90% complete anyway) but it does work great. I'm not sure where to get one from if parts express doesn't have any more- maybe Ebay?

petedoc- Feel free to borrow any ideas you like- that's what it's here for

And for the good news- We got all the RO/DI water in the tank( it took 1 week to fill the tank and sump room). We got Salt in the tank Saturday night and based on the amount of salt we have a total system volume of 520 gallons- that matches perfectly with our RO/DI fill time as well at 75gpd. We still have 1 50g tank in the sump room to fill yet but that should be pretty close to the LR displacement.

We got some LR yesterday from a local reefer (thanks again Dave) and hope to add some more this week.

So far everything seems to be working great and the DIy chiller is outstanding- with 520 gallons of water it pulls down the temp from 81.0 to 80.1 in less than 30 minutes.

We finally got a tracking # on the skimmer and hopefully that will be here this Friday so we can get that hooked up this coming weekend and begin transferring LR and fish from the old 50g tank.

I haven't had much time to take pics but I'll try and get some posted this week.

[JustOneMoreTank]

Looking forward to the pictures. Wow that is a long time filling the tank with the RODI.

[TheCoralReef731]

Sounds like that reverse osmosis has been busy. Glad to hear some progress has been made. How far away are you from adding livestock?

[TheLivingSeas]

Originally posted by sidewinder770

Her's another view of the plumbing where you can see most of the valves and unions-

I must say that this is a very clean job on the plumbing. I am looking forward to more pictures and to see the aquascaping.

[gobygoby]

Update: Linear Actuators

Parts express returned the defecive actuator and said that thier whole batch was bad. Took some time but finally got my refund.

I contacted the company directly who distributes them
Venture Mfg.
and they had a bunch in stock and was actually cheaper then parts express. I recieved the new actuator in 2 days and works perfectly.

Just thought I would share incase anyone wants to try this DIY.
The actutor seris ID is FD and the one they have has a stroke of 9 3/4". comes with actuator, converter & remote.

Goby

[sidewinder770]

TheLivingSeas- thanks for the compliment on the plumbing- it was a lot of work but so far everything seems to be working as planned.

gobygoby- Glad to hear you got the correct unit- I think that is where I got mine from as well but couldn't remember the name when you were looking for a replacement. I did get the top of the canopy done last week and the actuator works just as planned- I still have a few things to tinker with on it but so far its working great.

TheCoralReef731- We actually added 2 fish to the tank last week and so far they are doing fine. 1 was a lawnmower blenny- who is eating like a pig with some of our recently aquired rock (thanks again Dave) and the other was a possom wrasse which we moved from our current tanks sump as that has been his home for the last few weeks since he was getting harrassed in the current 50gallon tank

Well the RO/Di finished it's workout and the tank had saltwater last week. We got our first 100 lbs of rock in on Friday and the skimmer we have been waiting 6 months for finally arrived and was hooked up on Friday as well. I know, I know- I still need to post some pics and I'll try to get some up tonight or tomorrow.

[sidewinder770]

I know I need to keep the picture gods happy so here are a few. The first is of the tank while the RO/DI water was filling. You can see the foam covered ‘rock structures’ pretty well and this is also what the OM 4 way is connected to. There are 4 ‘rock structures’ – one for each port of the 4 way- and each one has locline fittings as well as ¼� holes drilled in various spots to help create a very random flow. It’s basically a PVC structure covered in the same foam as the back of the tank.



This is of the still under construction sump room about 10 minutes after hooking up the new Barr Aquatics SK5220 skimmer. So far the skimmer seems to function well- I’ll hold off on a “full� review of the skimmer till it’s broken in and we get a few ‘kinks’ worked out. As you can tell we also have some microbubbles to contend with in the sump but that shouldn’t be a problem. We still need to fill and hook-up the calcium reactor as well as 2 phosban/activated carbor reactors as well as do some clenup and finishing touches but so far so good.



We have also added about 60 lbs of rock from OceanPro and will hopefully have another 40 or 50 to add this week on top of the 50lbs from a local reefer and about 50lbs from the existing 50g so we should end up with about 200lbs total consisting of Fiji premium, Buna branch, Marshall Island, and Fiji Sulva premium rock. I’ll post some pics of the tank once the cloudyness and sandstorm die down a little. We are also having an issue with some ‘clear slime’ after we put the rock in. It’s kind of hard to describe and we have done several searches on RC and other site trying to find out what it is but haven’t come up with anything yet. The best way to describe it is snot or egg white looking slime- it seems to have that consistency to it- if it was snot we must have an elephant around here cause it’s a lot of snot!

[bigben]

looking good! the slime is likely some bacteria, but you shouldn't have to worry about it. it should take care of itself.

[melev]

Love every update. More, please.

[Fliger]

Yeah Scott - you're stingy with the photos. Give these guys some candy!

Seriously, I was just over there and the system is incredible. The black structure holds the rock up and you don't even realize it's there. The skimmer is a monster - I think each Beckett was drawing close to 2,000LPH. The light lifter thingy is fantastic. This system is truly in the SteveWeast category as far as being well thought out and executed, I'm lucky to be able to see it in person.

Then Reefmaiden will make purty corals.

[sidewinder770]

bigben- Hopefully you're right- this slime is nasty looking. It looks like it's starting to go away a little but at least it doesn't seem to be causeing any stress to the fish or any weird ammonia spikes or anything.

Fliger- Thanks for the compliments. I don't think I'm in Steve Weist territory- it's not that good. The skimmer is a monster though and seems to be working pretty well- still need to 'tweak' it a bit but so far I'm pretty happy with it.

And just to please the masses- here's a pic of the Fiji Sulva Premium rock that just came in today. It's pretty cool rock- definately different and has great colors and life. It's not a rock they have carried before and I have never heard of it but I like it so far. Not sure what adding this rock will do to the slime issue but hopefully it won't make it worse.

[tang_man_montreal]

Scott,
Nice rock! How bad did it smell out of the box?

[JustOneMoreTank]

Wow... that is some colorful rock with great shape. I am very impressed. That was from Ocean Pro or not?
More pictures please if you get a chance.

[wimplefish]

that is one very nice tank and setup makes me wish I could win the lottery. im so jelous

[RedEyeReef]

sidewinder770,

Very nice. What kind of foam did you use?

[Jimsmowen]

Wasnt this setup ages ago?? Is this all thats happened ?? Did something happen??