hahaha awesome avatar.

beer always makes projects go more smoothly. Im a sleeman's fan myself.

A couple of small projects,

The Stirrer was a simple mod,

If you look at the top flange set of the old ca reactor in the pics above, you can see where the new stirrer body came from. :)

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ingHead017.jpg

I just hacked the top half off and replaced the bottom, and routed out the flange to accept the motor casing off the old stirrer.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ingHead018.jpg

All i really did here was increase the body size so it could accept more kalk without bogging down the stirrer too much.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ingHead021.jpg

You know your in a sad state when you take a Deltec and make it into a DIY. :D

The reseviour,

This was an old 220 plexi that had a corner blown out of it...so i repaired it and put it into use.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...Scaping018.jpg

I wanted to keep it simple and use only one pump for mixing and pumping to the tank.

In this pic`s lower left you can see the valves used to do this.
When they are in the position shown, the pump inside is feeding up through and back into the res for mixing.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...Scaping581.jpg

Then when waters needed i just have the valves oppposite to what is shown, then it uses the same pump to push water into the sump after a water change.

Also in this pic you can see a small blue valve....this is plumbed into the intake of the pump, this was done becuase the feed to the sump is running along the floor back up over the sump edge.
I didnt want water to go stagnant in this line when not in use....so this small line acts as a venturi, when the water change is done, i open the small blue valve and it suck all the unused water out of the lines running along the floor.


Many Projects yet to come....

Can you provide some details on those vaccuum hoses that are hanging on the side of your mixer? It looks like you've got a powerhead hooked up to one, and they both have union fittings on one end...I would love to see how these work because I need to create something like that myself.

Marc enjoying the ride, I am learning more on this thread, than if I were paying attention in class instead of reading this!
Also that is a hilarious quote at the bottom of your signiture.

Keep it coming,

Kris

this is a great thread giving me many ideas for when i move and redesign my setup

Ya those vacuum hoses interest me also.Its to hard to get into my sump to siphon.A mark mod would be great.By the way thxs for sharing your ideas.

Any pictures of setting and sealing of the viewing panels?

Untamed & Blaster,

I have the opposite end of the union attached to a bulkhead fitting in the side of my sink.

One set is for siphoning the tank, one set is for vacuming the sump.
Since the sump is too low to start a siphon one was made seperate.
It was just attached to the intake of a mag 5, so i could suck it out, but then i can still use the same union on the sink.
I just did it this way so the line stays in the sink when im pulling on it all the time as i walk around the tank with it.
I made the union high enouph in the sink to use a gravel trap before entering to the drain.

Mark,

Unfortunatley i didnt take pics of mine, maybe if jamie see`s this he can find a few pics of the same type of install we did on his window.
All i remember is like using 7 caulking tubes on the face pane....

Dual closed loop w/OM 4 way`s .
Ill put this one on as it still may help others with idea`s, but i no longer use this on the system.

When the tank was being built, i placed 10 holes in the perimeter bracing to accomodate 8 Closed loop outlets and 2 for the main system feed lines.
These were each a Sequence 5800 fed to its own Ocean motions 4way.
I didnt want these lines fed on the backside of the overflow, so the line ran back up through the overflows to the 4 way`s.

Some pics of that all being set up...
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...nkshots066.jpg

The loops plumbing had to bend so it was somewhat straight when it came up through the old walkway, because the walkway was still removeable at this point.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...Details116.jpg
http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...nkshots193.jpg

The outputs and the OM`s still had to all sit as flush to the tank so the canopy could slide in and out.
But the OM`s needed still to be at the high point of these loops, so when i did need to open the OM`s, i didnt have to drain the loops everytime.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...Details122.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...nkshots074.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...tails142-1.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...Details141.jpg


I wasnt happy for long with this set up due to a couple reasons,

-Heat....3 degrees per pump difference.
-clutter...i hated leaning over on the plumbing while worked on the tank.
-noise...by far that was the noisiest part of the whole system.
as much as i loved the OM`s i dont miss opening them up either.
I felt as though this were also a weak part of the system, due to the fact the intakes for the pumps were low, and i had nightmares of a pump housing cracking or a pipe let loose...draining the entire system.
I also wanted a more permantent walkways that also wrapped around the side of the tank aswell.

I loved the movement it offered however, aswell as the "in tank" views was overall cleaner.

The substitute....

I opted to use wavy-sea`s with tunze`s attached to them.
Heres how i attached them together,

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...touches042.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...touches043.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...e/May25098.jpg

At this time a pair of waveboxes was also added, to help pick up detritus off the floor.

I am very happy with the change and glad i switched it, heat was drastically reduced, the system actually became more simple.
Aswell, combining the variable flow from the tunzes and variable movement of the wavy-sea`s made for the most adjustable and versatile flow patterns that i have seen.

Marc.

Bulkhead the sink! What a brilliant idea!! That will be done pretty soon at my place for sure.

OM's a the highest point. I'm not certain that I could have done that...but I never thought to do it, either. Draining them for service is certainly annoying.

Nighmares...Thanks for sharing that one. I don't think I'll be sleeping so good for the next little while...

Sorry...im slow i know, being sick this weekend allowed me to have time to scour for pics.


The largest amount of time and effort was put into the skimmer(s).
Always an ongoing saga for me, on this system it started here....

The first trial was another single beckett injected skimmer similar in size to a Bullet 3.
This one i knew was a bit undersized at the time, so an experiment was done using a single housing, but 2 becketts in it.
This one also had a spray bar to clean the neck, a later scrapped idea.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...inshing018.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...inshing017.jpg

To be honest, i dont think that one even got anymore than tested before another was built.

The next one i wanted to try several idea`s, I hated most venturi`s becuase of the too small holes in them...so i wanted to make my own type.

These i made out of solid acrylic, so i could see if they got plugged or not.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...Skimmer002.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...iscroom047.jpg

Here is how i tested them,

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../may7021-1.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2.../may7020-1.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ge/may7015.jpg

The skimmers injector housing had to be removable to continuously change and test these, aswell as injector tower hieghts.

Here`s a version with 2 of them,

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...Skimmer009.jpg

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ge/may7034.jpg

These were being tested while the skimmer had no change in neck diam and no cup to speak of.
In these pics you can see i just bulkheaded the top, and it just spit the foam out the side. :D

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ge/may7031.jpg

Then another injector was added ,aswell as heightened injector towers.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...ge/may7037.jpg

And an auto shut off.... good testing requires that you flood out your house several times during your build before making one of these.

http://i82.photobucket.com/albums/j2...iscroom012.jpg

Then, for some unknown reason, i had to play more...