New Aquarium for St Jude Children's Hospital (800+G)

[gasman059]

Originally posted by nyvp
Gotta love scotts/spazz's work.


I can hear it already


hey what did you do today?......
took the kids to the hospital.....
what...
is everything ok????
ya went to see the fish tank.

yup very impressive thught process.

Similar set of circumstances and tank was setup by one of my friends for a custom shark tank in the islands.

just palin beautifu.

[thor32766]

wow that is so cool!!!

[nattydread]

Great work. St. Jude is a very worthy cause. Hats off to all of you!!

[bshumake]

Thanks everyone for the comments. Scott's really putting himself into this full tilt. The Room should be sealed off today or tomorrow so we can get it all cleaned up back there and keep noses out of it. The new Chili's Center isn't slated to open till November so there's time still for cycling. I have the lab set up for holding the sand, rock, fish, and corals. Thats where everything will live until I can actually move in and get the tank up. The water test went great! I might throw my kids in there for a great shot!
Doug and John are walking around the hospital like proud Poppa's now. John in particular has had a Cheshire grin on his face for the past two weeks.
Scott's working on filling his schedule back up now that this install is winding down. I know a couple of our local club members are going to try and get him to make them a tank and some equipment. After getting a look at the Volcano Skimmer I'm itching to move into a 500G aquarium myself!

[coralreeffarm]

Scott...Nice and clean. Great Project

-Jeff

[spazz]

sorry guys i forgot the camera at st judes. i went back to get it but the gate was locked. we took some new pics and some videos of the testing on the tidal surge tanks. it was an awesome test. i cant wait to see how barrott attaches the rocks together so the surge tanks dont blast the rocks around in the tank. lol the other neat idea that we came up with is the real live rock walls for the rear and partial side of the tank. doug and john wanted more than a black or blue backing on the tank. so we were really chalanged to come up with a design that would not break the bank and yet would look awesome when its finished. the end result goes something like this. barrott and the memphis reef club are going to be building a real live rock back wall. the pannels will be 1/2" black cast acrylic sheets that are 21" wide and 43" tall. that dementions are because of the hole sizes in the top of the tank wont allow a bigger pannel. these sheets will be bevel cut at 45 deg angles so they will slightly overlap each other and not let any light through. then the big job will be to attach real live rock specialy chosen from the 800 lbs of rock that barrott ordered that can be drilled in such a way that plastic zip ties can be run through holes in the rock and through holes in the sheets. then they can use plumbers putty and great stuff foam and some sand to make the acrylic pannels into live rock pannels. these will be zip tied to the overflow teeth in the back of the tank. the other thing they could do is drill holes into the acrylic and use acrylic pegs that can be glued into the sheets and then drill holes into the rock so the rocks are pinned into place and then zip tied for security. this has never been attempted before that i know of. it should make for a very interesting design and a great place to put cap corals and large stag horn corals so when they grow out it will be a forest of corals in the background.
i hope this description makes sence. if it dont check back in a couple of weeks for that update from the club.

[spazz]

Originally posted by kwl1763
Good freaking stuff man! What's the plan for the humidity?

It's a great cause and a great group of guys working on it!

this was a real big concern of mine. we solved that issue with some help from doug tran. first there is a very large a/c vent comming intothe room. you can see it in some of the pictures hanging right behind the tank. then there is a bigger exaust fan that will put the whole room in a slight under pressure to the rest of the hospital. all humidity will be sucked out of the room as fast as it is made. second there will be no fans anywhre in the room. so there will be less humidity from evaporation. n ext the tank is cooled down with 42 deg water and a titanium heat exchanger. this will be controlled by the computer system. i have not installed the computer that was donated but it is there and will be installed on sat.

[Energy]

Glad to see everything going so well. Spazz is truly meticulous about his work and I knew he would treat this job the same. He goes above and beyond and it shows. What a great attention to detail. By the way I donated that UV light to the tank but I forgot to include all the brand new bulbs I have for it. I also plan on donating a bunch of corals so when that happens then I can try and get the bulbs to you as well. Otherwise if spazz heads down again then maybe he can bring the bulbs to you.

[invincible569]

Wow, I am impressed. You can tell the difference in commercial builds like this when someone is an active RC member. They know the inside's and out's and have more advanced tricks/styles. Keep up the good work and the more pics, the better!

[Tico Mike]

Congratulations Scott. To show you what a great guy Scott is, he drove across town after work to do some MINOR acrylic work on my tank, shot the breeze and hit the road. If he was willing to put three hours work and drive into a local club member's tank for nothin', I'm sure he's doing top-notch stuff out there.

[trodder]

Glad to see everything is looking good Scott!

When we gonna see more pics?


-The Prodigal Son

[Elliott]

wow again, great cause as well, nice job!

Scott: you mentioned that the tank is cooled down with 42 deg water and a titanium heat exchanger, can you elaborate? Chiller? Do you anticipate a cooling effect from the surge action? Also wondering how you calculated how much volume would be needed for the surge and height of the surge tanks.

[bshumake]

Originally posted by Elliott
Scott: you mentioned that the tank is cooled down with 42 deg water and a titanium heat exchanger, can you elaborate? Chiller?

We tapped into the cooling tower for the MRI units next door. Since the chiller feed was already planned we got the Design and Construction crew to work it into the plans and presto-chango, we're rolling in cold water. This floor will have some never-before-seen designs with MRI and CT equipment so it was one of those "sure, lets try it" type things.

[reeftanktime]

That is an awesome setup for a great cause. Kudos to you Spazz!!

[bshumake]

Scott has gone above and beyond on this build much farther than any of the Design and Construction crew ever thought someone from outside the institution ever would. He has been here for 2 weeks overseeing every aspect to make sure that everything is absolutely perfect. He has continued to impress all of us with his knowledge, ingenuity and enthusiasm. Sure, there were a few concerns and doubt among a few. But once Scott got going he left no question as to his professionalism and expertise. Scott hasn't built a tank, he's built a legacy for all of us here to see and marvel at.

[bshumake]

Originally posted by bshumake
We tapped into the cooling tower for the MRI units next door. This floor will have some never-before-seen designs with MRI and CT equipment so it was one of those "sure, lets try it" type things.

Here's a little more detail about the designs:
The MRI's are unique in that there is a floor below them and patient rooms above them. This is the first time in the world someone has done that.
The building also contains three linear accelerator vaults with 4-8' thick walls for radiation shielding purposes. Two wil go into immediate use with the third reserved for future technology. The third vault's ceiling is 10.5' thick. And yes, thats FEET, not INCHES.
The tank may be close enough to the MRI's to run the pumps off the mag field . Still, i'll need to test that one when the time comes.

[erics3000]

Originally posted by bshumake
Here's a little more detail about the designs:
The MRI's are unique in that there is a floor below them and patient rooms above them. This is the first time in the world someone has done that.
The building also contains three linear accelerator vaults with 4-8' thick walls for radiation shielding purposes. Two wil go into immediate use with the third reserved for future technology. The third vault's ceiling is 10.5' thick. And yes, thats FEET, not INCHES.
The tank may be close enough to the MRI's to run the pumps off the mag field . Still, i'll need to test that one when the time comes.

I use to be a PACS admin. At one of our sites FL we got a new 3t magnet (MRI) and we put it on the 4th floor of a building. Everytime you by a magnet the vendor will do vibration test and such. We had the 3rd floor roof reinforced with some crazy steel reinforcement. I can see if I cna dig up some pictures. We had some windows on the side of a building cut out and then it was lifted on in with a crane. We were the first with a clinical 3T (MRI) Florida.

We had a tank in one of our mr rooms and the fish didn't like the noise. They kept dieing. If it close you might want to consider some type of noise shielding. When the magnets perform different types of exams they can make some loud weird anoing noise. The noise really stressed the fish. I would love to see pics of there setup.

Funny I now am being trained on Linear Accelartors. What vendors are they using for there magnes and Accelaors?

This is one incredible build. Keep the PICS coming.

[erics3000]

Sorry for my spelling. I am typing with my laptop on my bed.

[ricks]

Great looking tank, great build... The children are going to love it..

One question, are those check valves on the pumps??? if that sump can't take the back flow you beter have a good drain..

Happy reefing

[spazz]

Originally posted by ricks
Great looking tank, great build... The children are going to love it..

One question, are those check valves on the pumps??? if that sump can't take the back flow you beter have a good drain..

Happy reefing

there is a 4 inch depression with a 3 inch drain in the floor so the water cant escape the sump area. also there is uninteruptable power in the room to run the main pump and the tunze. streams.

[spazz]

here is a couple of videos from water testing and flushing the plumbing. there is alot of plastic shavings in the plumbing because we had to use a chop saw to cut the big plumbing.

this is testing the tidal surge systems and seting the timing devices for the dump valves. we still dont have the special clear acrylic end piece that will be installed on the end of the one pipe to make it so its not an eyesore in the viewing pannel. that sureg tank puts air bubbles into the water right now but the other one on the back side does not. if you look closly in some of tthe videos i will post later that barrott took you can see the plastic shavings being tost around in the eddies. the flow is amazing with a tidal surge tank. these 2 tanks will only operate duiring the high tide times of the morning and evening. we have to do some more research to se how long the tides on the reef last and what times they come in at. that way barrott can set the computer to control the tidal surge tank to kick in durring those times.




this is a video of the room so you can see just how compact things are in there. the room size is smaller that they had originally designed it to be because of the sky lights that are right outside the fish room.

[normanfine]

I will be moving to tennesse so I am glad to see a reef organization there.

Thanks,
Norman

[spazz]

more pictures ....
here is an awesome suprise that BJ gave me yesterday. there club here in memphis has t shirts made up with this logo on it and i really liked them. so she made me and barrott these awesome mugs with our names on the back.

this is lonny. he did a great job of finishing the room and painting the floor and walls with epoxy paint and the stands with battle ship grey epoxy. he admitted to painting the mural on the front of the tank. ha ha ha ha

these are the 2 main plumbers that worked for almost 2 weeks gettingthe plumbing done. first is master plumber Ken. and the one below that is the assistant plumber Gaven. these guys worked feverishly to gwt this massive amount of plumbing installed and working with no leaks.


this will give you an idea of just how tall the celings are in this room. the electrins are installing the chains to hang the powered lifting light rack. because barrott needs to lay on top of the tank to service it the lights have to lift up far enough so he dont get burnt from the bulbs. also the ballasts are made to sit on that light rack . because of the weight they had tto anchor the chains to the concrete in the celing.

[spazz]

the salt mixing tank. because the storage tanks are 10 ft off the ground we had to make a salt mixing tank and pump the mixed salt out to the storage tanks. this corner and all its valves on the wall control that. just dump in a pail of salt and let the water start flowing.

this is the control box and trip system for the air operated valves on the tidal surge tanks.

because the air valves closed too fast and made way too much noise when the air was vented out we had to make a quick adjustable valve muffler. this alows barrott to slow the valves open and close movments by restrictingthe flow but not the pressure. this also prevents the hammering of the water if the valve is closed too fast. the muffler is just some wadded up gause in the pipe with holes in the ned for venting. you almost cant even hear it running.

theplumbers are working on gettingthe last little bit of plumbing done. here is the return form the sump. it runs through the heat exchanger into an oceans motions and then into the tank.

[Water Box]

incredible