My New Tank

[Woodstock]

Originally Posted by tommyp

Hubba, hubba, hubba~~~ No wonder you need a monster air pump!!!

[tommyp]

wood- no doubt it is a big skimmer. It looks like a hot water heater in my basement.

here is an update on skimmer construction:

I glued 3/8" acrylic to the top and bottom of the pvc tube with weldon 16. The top got a hole routed in it to fit to the 6" riser It also was drilled and tapped for 3/8" nylon bolts. I am hoping that it will seal well enough with a little teflon tape on the threads.

I went through like 4 manifold designs and ended up with one just pointing the 4 stones straight up. I know it is not ideal but it was the only thing I could come up with in a hurry. I figure I can make another, once I wrap my head around trying to get them horizontal. 1/2" pvc is almost free.

I drilled the pvc for a unisealed 1 1/2" drain. It is drilled on center about 4" off the bottom with an 90 pointed towards the bottom putting it about 3" off or so. Hartford loop off the other side. I have one of those sliding pvc couplings on it to adjust the water height abit.

A 1" uniseal takes care of the input. which will be run off of the tank drain. it is about 3" from the top of the pvc tube with a 45 to swirl the water and keep it from going directly into the area under the riser tube.

A 1/2" uniseal about the same distance from the top feeds the air to the manifold and to the air pump. I am using 1/2" hard line and speedfit connectors.

I think I might be able to fire this bad thing up tomorrow night. I have to get the return plumbing on my new tank done and fill the skimmer with the 20 gallons of saltwater it will take.

Tank update:

I almost finished the drain plumbing today. the two 2" drains are plumbed with spaflex to a 3" Pvc pipe under the floor it has two reducing tees 3x3x2" pointing downward on the end of it. The first of the tees feeds the skimmer it is choked down to 3/4" and is ball valved to control flow. The second drain for now is just a 2" pipe straight into the sump it will take all of the rest of the return. The pipe is strapped to the floor joist and looks pretty cool. I will take a pic of it tomorrow. The return I am still woking on. I picked up a mess of plumbing today and have to cut and assemble the tank portion of the return. It is going over the rim of the tank. The return will also be spaflex from the pump to the hard pvc which starts about a foot off the floor behind the tank. i am using some plastic pipe holding clamps to hold the 1 1/2" return up. it is working okay but I am really cramped for room back there. It has been a busy few days and I have been flat out. I am hoping to have every thing buttoned up tomorrow to do a test run with the sump and skimmer online. my fingers are crossed.

[tommyp]

some pictures.

plumbing under the tank. 2" drains and 1.5" return



plumbing below floor. 2" spaflex drains into 3" hard pvc

[tommyp]

some skimmer pics top view of 12" tube with some plumbing


air input on right top, water input left top, hartford loop on left empting into 90

[tommyp]

Test run of aquaticeco airstones in the 190. You can see the starboard too.

[tommyp]

here is a shot of the basement setup as off right now. Rock and all will be transferred up to the main tank soon and some dry rock will be added to the sump slowly.

[tommyp]

Rock was moved. The fish aren't cooperating... yet. I might have to drain the sump.

[Woodstock]

Great job! Your aquascaping is very inspiring~~

[tommyp]

I call it pile of rocks. lol. My plan was ugly rock underneath pretty rock on top. I still have to mess with it a bunch. Lots of options with 30" front to back. It is quite the change from 18" x 36"

Thanks

Tom

[Woodstock]

30"?!? wow... the things you could do with 30" of space! I really, really like the islands of rocks. I want to do something similar to mine. It gives it more personality than just a wall of rocks like mine has.

[sandman3467]

That is a change from the norm...Mine form two peaks with a small row in the center.

[tommyp]

Yeah 30" deep is cool. I was going to go 36" deep. but I would have had to turn the tank on the edge to get it through the door (after just straight lifting this tank with 4 guys I don't know how we would have ever done that) and it would have taken up too much real estate in the room that its in. The nice thing about 30 is that you can make something tall and stable and not touch the glass. The overflow is real big so that cuts into the space alot. But it will flow over 2500 gph.

[Witfull]

sweet~~

[tommyp]

Skimmer is breaking in nicely now!

[tommyp]

a few hours later