The longer I think about it, the less I want to put in this tank. I want to be sure that whatever I put in there, I want to be able to feed enough.
I'm in no rush to stock it.

I got the basic stand frame done today. I still want to put two joists with hangers in the middle, but LVL's need special hangers and nails. I would like to find someone in Calgary that stocks them. Home Depot wants 10 - 14 days to order them in.

I used 1-3/4 X 9-1/2 LVL for the beams (doubled up front and back) and 6 x 6 treated dimensional lumber for the legs. I'll be moving the tank into place using an engine hoist, so I needed clear floor under the stand to allow for the hoist wheels. With the strength of the beams, I won't need any other support underneath, but I may still frame up a wall under the back and sides then sheet it with plywood to prevent racking of the stand once the tank is loaded with water and rocks.
Alternatively, I could put in some knee braces to give it a timberframe look.

I like using engineered lumber for stands because it's simple, beefy and straight.


http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...m/IMG_3681.jpg


http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...m/IMG_3684.jpg


I used this laser level to level things:


http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...m/IMG_3687.jpg




http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...m/IMG_3686.jpg

Wow that's one simply way to do legs! Although I doubt I have the skills to cut posts like that myself.

Does Rona/Home Depot sell those LVLs right in the store? Good idea!

:smile:
With a pencil lay out the area to be removed.
Tools required to cut the posts are:
circular saw
reciprocating saw

Use a chisel and block plane to clean up the cuts. It takes about 10 minutes per post.

Rona or HD doesn't stock the LVL's. Go to the contractor desk and order them. I think they'll round up the size to the nearest 6" and give you about 1/2" extra length to square off each end. There are a lot of different sizes available.

Well it's been a month. What's up?

Got it on the stand, started on plumbing and it's filling with water. I had to stop the water fill until I'm back home for that.
Work has been crazy busy.
I've got some pics to post this weekend.:smile:

I got the hangers and special nails for the center joists and got those mounted:

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...m/IMG_3689.jpg

put down some plywood and got the tank on the stand.
Here is a pic of the intake portion of the closed loop completed:

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...m/IMG_3694.jpg

Here I've started the framing for the workbench behind the tank with the closed loop pump roughly in place:

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...m/IMG_3696.jpg

I've started the filling of the tank with R/O DI. One thing that I'm not happy with is that the DI cartridge is already 80% exhausted and the tank is only 25% full so far.

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...m/IMG_3695.jpg

The RO unit is a 300 GPD from BRS. The RO unit itself is giving an output value of between 2 and 5 TDS.

I'm stalled a bit for setting up the sump at this point because I don't have a setup finalized for the sump return plumbing. I could set up two pumps and control the bidirectional flow pattern with my Profilux, but I've been in contact with Reeflo and they tell me that the constant on/off cycles would shorten the life of the capacitors and do no damage to the motor itself.
They have also told me that if my valving setup involves a total shut off of the output for any length of time that it would also not damage the pump. It would just result in a transfer of heat to the water trapped in the impeller chamber.

Another option that I came up with is that instead of the pump turning off for the rest cycle, the water could just be diverted back into the sump tank for the hour. That way the pump would run continuously and the sump would get a bit of a "super rinse" cycle.
Perhaps an existing OM unit could be modified with some timers instead of inventing a new setup.

The cycle would then be:

5 hours through output #1
1 hour sump recirculation
5 hours through output #2
1 hour sump recirculation

repeat.

Maybe that's something I can do myself. I haven't had time to sit down and think it through.

Well I'm on my third time filling the aquarium now.
About 1/2 full one of the bulkheads started dripping so I drained it and filed down some imperfections in the mould for the bulkheads because I thought that that might be the cause. It wasn't.
Drained it again and thought the problem could be from the way the manufacturer gave me a blue background on the tank.
What they did was take a 1/4" blue acrylic panel and glue it inside to the 1" clear back panel. It's hard to tell, but the water must have found a pathway between the two panels and made it's way to the threaded portion of the bulkhead, bypassing the rubber seal and leaking out the threads.
I took some methylene chloride (solvent for the acrylic) and applied it between the two panels, then clamped it together with the bulkhead.
The tank is about halfway full again and the bulkhead is remaining leak free.
We have low water pressure here - between 40 and 60 psi with an incoming water temp of about 10c, so the 300 gpd RO unit is only producing about 60 gpd.
When I needed to drain the tank I only have a spare 180 gallon old aquarium to transfer the water to, so the rest has to go down the drain.
Not the end of the world, but a little frustrating and time consuming.
Guess that what leak tests are for.

Water's in, plumbing's leak free, salt's in, sand's in.:smile:
I'm expecting the cloudiness to take a week to settle down.
I need to order some loc-line or something similar to drop the outlets of the Seaswirls about 1-1/2" because they are causing too much turbulence and noise at the top.
The closed loop is running fine, but I had to shorten the lower part of the workbench because I decided to use for a sump an old 180g aquarium I had instead of selling it and buying a plastic replacement. 4' of the sump will be tucked under the aquarium to save on space a bit.
Because I'm now using a glass sump, it's not as easy to drill and experiment with different hookups.
I don't have a final valving configuration for the bidirectional tidal flow yet. Hopefully that will be figured out soon, otherwise I'll be going with two separate pumps.
I would like to get the sump drilled and finalized next weekend.

...and here's a couple of pics:

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...m/DSCN1309.jpg

http://i724.photobucket.com/albums/w...m/DSCN1308.jpg

Looks great Mitch! Bet you can't wait to see "stuff" in there.. :)

Like how you've mounted the seaswirls. One nice thing about these larger tanks is the increased elbow room. I thought my 280g was big until I started getting stuff mounted on the light rack. I want an auto feeder up there somewhere but I haven't figured out where I'll be able to shoehorn it in. I don't imagine you're going to run into a lot of the same issues. :)