........said the midget to the Jamaican woman........

aw your just trying to impress the Girlys arent you Tony:wink:

well according to all o ya-ll, I am the king of perversion, so Tony has a ways to go before his thread get like mine.....or Lances.....or Bretts:razz:

Made my day there doug! Although I was mentioned LAST :cry:

Sept 7 - The prodigal tank project returns
 

So, this update has been a long time in coming. I'd like to blame the weather and doing summery things outside but looking outside right now I guess that can't be the only reason. :lol: Boo cold weather.

This update itself is also a bit late because I uploaded pictures to facebook first, then meant to upload them to a Shaw photoshare I use so I could update this thread but the Shaw photoshare won't let me upload pictures. I put in a support ticket 2 days ago and haven't heard back since. I think they've forgotten or don't really care. Anyhow, Picasa to the rescue for now.

So where to begin the actual update? For the most part, progress has been steady, but slower than I would have liked. I am learning that I chronically underestimate how much effort a task will be. The drywall is up, the ceiling is up, all the mudding and painting has been done and the room trim is mostly done.

I understand now why paint stores seldom recommend high gloss paint. It shows EVERYTHING. I had those walls so smoooth I could not see ANY blemish after it was primed. And then after the finish coat I could see every seam, every screw hole, every scratch that was filled in. Crazy. It's took a while and several attempts to get it to not look too terrible on close inspection.

I also continue to hate metal stud framing for walls. Hate with a passion. I thought that perhaps once the drywall was up, it would stiffen the walls up. I was wrong. On the finished wall I can press in and get at least 1/2" flex in the middle. Man am I not happy about that. For the rest of the basement I will have to either reframe it with wood or at least use 2x3's and double up the framing before drywalling.

The other reason you want to preblock with wood is that if you want to attach things like floorboard with nails, there isn't a nail in the world that can grab that metal framing. So you have glue the floorboard on instead. Putting everything I could think of against the floorboards as the glue set still wasn't enough, they bowed out some in places so I had to use paintable caulking to fill the gaps.

It's a learning experience. :lol: I just wish I could stop learning and start applying more. Oh well. On to the pictures!

Here we are at the doorway looking in. As you can see the drywall is up, tiles around the sink area, and the ceiling dropdown is finally finished up. It's actually painted plywood up there instead of drywall to work with the tight tolerances.

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...Q/IMG_1436.JPG

A closeup of the sink work area. There is a 2x8 under the drywall to hold the RO/DI up. It's one solid mounting. Too bad that AS was I mounting it, it slipped and landed on the TDS meter. The canisters help up luckily but the TDS meter is toast. I haven't replaced it yet but did at least buy the replacement (you can see it in the bag still on the little shelf thing). :redface: There might have been a few swear words uttered as this played out.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...g/IMG_1449.JPG

I had to cut the drain pipe out and redo the whole dang thing to allow the sink to sit flush against the drywall. Again, more swear words.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...2/IMG_1437.JPG


A look towards the tank from the back of the room. Where I'm standing will eventually house the 110g cube which at this point I'm thinking of keeping for a little while as I'm considering not moving my eel and butterflies into the 280g. The butterflies are too destructive; and the eel is not appreciating the company of his tank mates these days. I can only feed him at night when the rest are sleeping or in the morning before I go to work and the lights haven't turned on yet.

Anyhow you can see the light rails are back up and the plumbing is started.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...k/IMG_1438.JPG

Around the tank is painted plywood, the rest of the room is drywall. Where the two meet I covered the seam with a corner moulding seen here.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...M/IMG_1439.JPG

As you can see I still am storing some stuff in the tanks. Ignore the bags in the sump for the time being. They hold stuff which will come into play at a later date. In the meantime here is the plumbing return started. 2" flex PVC to the intake of the Dart, 1.5" flex after that. The hugeness of the 2" tru-union ball valve made it hard for me to visualize how I wanted the plumbing to be but I think I'm happy with this arrangement. I would have preferred not to put a 90 in the intake line but otherwise it would have jutted into the room by a large margin. My old 75g had its pump like this and it ran for like 7 years so I'm hoping it will be OK.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...A/IMG_1440.JPG


This is the manifold that feeds various outlets. Up goes to the 280g, to the right will go to the frag tank (which will be the 40g semi-cube - 24x24x12 - that right now houses my carpets and clowns. They'll move into the big tank and that will free up that tank for this). The frag tank feed will be a 1" line which right now isn't installed - it will just glue into the valve when I'm closer to working on that part.

The other two outlets are for a 1/4" line (just for the heck of it - but it might be useful for drip acclimations) and another outlet that's just capped for now - it's there in case I ever want to run another line to somewhere down the road.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...Y/IMG_1441.JPG

A look at the delivery manifold loop. 4 3/4" locline outlets, two at the front and two at the rear and two 3/4" outlets (capped off for now) in case I ever want more down the road.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...Y/IMG_1442.JPG

The Herbie overflow. A wet test will tell me if I need to shorten the pipes.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...2/IMG_1443.JPG

Tight tolerance for the 2" gate valve on the overflow but you can get to it easily enough and adjust it.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...0/IMG_1446.JPG

The emergency overflow pipe seen here.
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...4/IMG_1447.JPG

Another look at the overflows draining into the sump.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...2/IMG_1448.JPG

A shout out of thanks to reefcanada for the sock holders. I'm not convinced I'll be happy with the 4" socks but man the glass sock holders are just so damned sexy.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...A/IMG_1445.JPG

A look under the skirt, er, stand. Here is the span at the back of the tank. There is a 2x8 and a 2x6 glued-n-screwed together supported at the ends with 3 vertical 2x4's each. I am hoping this will hold up and not bow in. I couldn't detect any bowing when I had the tank filled last, so hopefully it's OK.
http://lh5.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...2/IMG_1451.JPG

Skimmer whoopsy
 

So, next on the radar is the plumbing for the skimmer. I have Canadian Man's old DIY beckett skimmer that has been waiting to be put back to use for a few years now.

Plumbing is such an interesting exercise. I both love and loathe it at times. It's like putting together a jigsaw puzzle but you don't know what the end picture will look like.

This was my first thought on how I'd run the line. I'm using 1.5" line that will step down to 3/4" for the GenX/Mak4 pump intake.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...w/IMG_1452.JPG

... But I just didn't like it. It wasn't speaking to me. So I ended up picking up a few different pieces and am right now thinking about something like this instead:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...M/IMG_1453.JPG

I've had the red handled valve in my junk drawer for years and was excited to use it again. But the problem is the threaded ends means threaded-to-slip adapters are needed and it just adds to the overall length needed. I want flex PVC involved to suck up pump vibration and also compensate for any alignment issues but flex PVC is defeated if you don't have a long enough run.

So, a switch to a half-union valve from Western Pump (man I love that store, more on this later) and hopefully a pump feed arrangement I can live with.


Here's a look at the skimmer itself.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...2/IMG_1456.JPG

Jonathan didn't have a gate valve and I've been wanting to add one to this skimmer forever. So finally here I am and I've done it! Haha! WOOHOO!

.. but .. in the "I don't know WHAT I was thinking" category, I ordered a threaded gate valve instead of a slip. I was probably thinking "this way I can reuse it later!" ... but the problem is all those threaded to slip adapters just keep adding length and more length to the pipe (holy that sounds terrible) but I want a lower profile on that sort of thing.

Again, Western Pump to the rescue with stuff like this:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...Y/IMG_1454.JPG

.. and this:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...2/IMG_1462.JPG

The close nipple will sit inside the bulkhead and that is a challenge in itself. I used a copious amount of "heavy bodied" PVC cement and am hoping that it will seal up. If it does, the valve can then just thread on and off the bulkhead as needed.

A second option would have been to add a threaded to slip adapter but again it just makes the pipework huge and a bother to work around.

The male threaded elbow just goes into the other side of the valve and drains down into the sump.


On the topic of draining down .. another one from the "I don't know what I was thinking." Remember that most of this stuff happens late at night - don't judge me! :lol: Instead of measuring the sump height, I got it into my head that to find out how high the skimmer needs to sit off the ground (ie., how tall the skimmer stand needs to be made at), that I should hold the skimmer up and measure the height it took to get the effluent pipe to clear the sump wall.

Can you see where this is going? Well, I'll give you a hint: doing it that way was not smart.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...w/IMG_1460.JPG

Ouch. There was a time I might have reacted with swear words but at this point I'm more just "ugh, now I need some weldon. This will also undoubted push back the wet test."

So a trip to Industrial Paints and Plastics today was in order because I was out of Weld-On 16 (I use a LOT of that stuff fixing stuff and toys that the boys break. Man if the butterflies are destructive to a reef, they don't hold a candle to a 5 year old and a 2 year old, and the damage they will do to a household.) :lol: Or a dad who works on his hobbies at midnight and after.

But, it's given me the thought that sometimes things like this are an opportunity. One thing about this skimmer that I worry about is, well, let me just show you. This:

http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...I/IMG_1457.JPG

My goodness that is a lot of screws. It will take forever to take this apart to clean and put back together and I'll need a screwdriver to boot. I am tempted to see about replacing the flanges to something that uses maybe 3/8" acrylic and no more than say 8 thumbscrews. And keyholed screw holes so it can just twist off.

Only problem with that is I don't want to make them. At one point Barr Aquatics was selling ready made flanges but unfortunately his reseller, Austin Aquatics, has gone out of business. I put in an email to Brent a couple days ago but no reply. I'm not sure if he's still doing acrylic fabrication for the hobby.

So I might be looking around at some point to see if someone can make me some. I might even talk to Industrial Paints and Plastics about that.

It would be a good opportunity to install a second flange at the bottom of the reaction chamber so that the skimmer can be taken apart for cleaning.

On the topic of cleaning .. I always wondered where people get muriatic acid to clean out things like skimmers. Today I was at Western Pump and thought .. hey I wonder if people use that stuff to clean out pools. Lo and behold - they do! $16 later I have a gallon of 35% muriatic acid. Dirty skimmers beware!

The top of the skimmer cup as well could probably stand to be reflanged with something that includes keyholed openings for the bolts:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...g/IMG_1458.JPG

.. as well as the injector housing:
http://lh6.ggpht.com/_ujFD9DxsrV8/TI...8/IMG_1459.JPG

It's just that, in my experience, when something becomes a drag to do, it gets pushed off. And it's a slippery slope between "I'll clean that out tomorrow" and "why does my tank look like crap?" ...

.. but it's a balance point too. I don't want to re-engineer the entire skimmer. At some point it might just be further ahead to say "to heck with it" and buy a new skimmer. The problem with that of course is funds or more specifically a lack thereof. So the initial plan will be to just fix the break for now, and worry about "making it better" later on.

Looking good Tony!

I know what you mean about late night mistakes.
(except for me that is after about 8!:lol:)

Mitch

Update looks awesome to me Tony. I think you were the one to say to me 'it photographs well' and we can't see and imperfections in yoor walls so you're actually allowed to pass it all off as perfect. Disclaimers for those that visit in person. Those are the rules man!

See what you mean about that brace and your pump. Just roll with it as is and 'see what happens' I'm sure you're fine.

The skimmer looks like a nightmare to take care of and I can only say good luck. You'll have to weigh the cost of the custom fabrication against something that's good value for the money like SWC etc. Or maybe it's worth it for now to just suffer the screws and do the weld-on thing?

Good points about threaded fittings. I went that route as well this time and yeah why bother worrying about re-use. It meants buying a ton more threaded parts to get to a slip fitting anyways. All slip again for me the next time around (years away!).

Looks like a really nice fishroom though I'm jealous as frag.

Thanks Brett and Mitch! It's finally nice to see a room with drywall. I want to hurry up and move the fish over so I can finish up the rest of the basement. Living in the construction zone for this long is starting to get a little old.

And yeah, Brett, I think you're right about the skimmer. Might just be further ahead to just fix it for now and get it going and just save up for a replacement sooner rather than later. It is a good skimmer, the tank it was on was a 230 with a 75g add-on and it seemed to handle the load well. So it should at least be able to get me started and I can worry about the rest later on.

Looking good Tony! Nice, neat, organized build.
I always try to go with slip fittings if possible. Like Brett said: "You nearly always end up with slip anyway."

Nice work Tony, looks great. Save some room for froggies and fruit flies.:biggrin:
What are you planning for water mixing and top up?

Thanks Lance and Brian!

Brian to be honest I haven't much thought of what to do with that. Currently I have a rain barrell for RO/DI and a rubbermaid garbage can mixing SW. It's not food grade or anything so it's probably a terrible thing to use but on the other hand it has a few years worth of calcium buildup on the sides so it's really more of a calcium based tank with a plastic underlayer. I'll keep these going for now although it would be nice to switch to a glass based tank for SW mixing at some point.

Funny you've mentioned the frogs. Kien and I had to go to Atlanta together for work a couple weeks ago (we were working on the same project), to amuse ourselves in the evenings one time we went to the botanical gardens and then another day to the aquarium. Both places have nice dart frog displays and it's rekindled the interest in me in setting up a dart viv, either with some auratus or some azureus. But I've promised myself "no new projects" until this one is done (it's been embarrassingly long as it is, I can't believe how pathetic I am :( ) but I might just use it as the carrot on a stick to get this tank filled as soon as possible. How are your froggies doing these days? Any pictures you can share so we can live vicariously through the internet?

I'm still using a rubbermaid can and the Lee Valley barrel myself.
As an afterthought on mine I would have run more RO lines in the wall with some kind of John Guest wall jacks.

Froggies are doing fantastic thanks I still have the same 3 leucs, only 1 orchid left but the broms and everything else grows like mad.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...s/IMG_0139.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y12...IMG_0105-1.jpg

That looks fantastic!! :cool:

Very nice setup so far! I cant wait to see the finished product in action.

Great work Tony!! Its all coming together now! Keep up the momentum and remember, you can sleep when you're dead :razz:

It's looking very good Tony, can't wait to see it full.

Thanks Jay and Christy!

Last night's update disappeared mid-typing thanks to my bluescreening laptop (which I really need to get around to FnR'ing - format-n-reinstall - schtoopid computers). Anyhow.

No pictures this update. Last night I made the skimmer stand and put the skimmer where I thought I wanted it which was right in the center of the tank next to the return pump. Unfortunately it became evident that having it there and my frag tank on the right meant that I'd have no hope of ever getting into the sump area to replace dirty filter socks. So a few head scratching moments and a few "what about here? what about there?" moments and I think I have figured out a layout that should work. I'll slide the skimmer over the far right of the tank and have it turned 90 degree so it just drains straight into the sump (so I didn't need that 90 MPT fitting anyhow. Ooops. Oh well...). I'll have the frag tank on the left. Nice and open in that spot and it's a spot in the sump I wouldn't likely need to access on a daily basis. It does mean it's in the middle of the room, sort of, but at least there's plenty of space to workaround. The real bummer is that it also means that my plumbing for the frag tank is now pointing in the wrong direction and I'll have to either redo it, or put a "U turn" in the pipe and bring it back all the way over to the OTHER side of the tank.

Plumbing - love it and loathe it! :lol:

I am thinking at this point I am going to transfer my clowns and carpets into a temporary tank sooner than later, move them into the empty corner of the tank room (I need to start moving the tanks out of the open area in the basement, sooner or later anyhow). That leaves the semi-cube open and ready for cleaning (it needs it big-time, it's been running for about 4 or 5 years now!) and I'm thinking of plumbing it into the system sooner rather than later. This way when I do the wet test it will be a part of that and I can see what adjustments to the plan will be needed.

Trial and error for the win!

Tony if you want a hand one night this week let me know and I'll pop by!

Slightly bittersweet this evening.

I finally finished the plumbing, after MUCH trial and error, and redo-ing a few things after not liking it as much as I thought I would. Funny how seeing things in person never seems to match up to my expectations of it in my imagination.

I switched the direction of the frag tank feed pipe. Unfortunately in doing so I busted the valve ($8 down the drain, oh well). Luckily I did have a spare 1" valve in my junk drawer, only thing it it's threaded over slip .. but in that same drawer of shame was a threaded to slip adapter so it's all good.

Next up was the skimmer. I think I might have mentioned already that I had originally planned on having the skimmer in the centre and the frag tank to the right, but it became evident very quickly once I got the measuring tape out that this wasn't going to work out. So on the right for the skimmer. Built a little stand for it, drilled the sump, did a few iterations on the plumbing before finally settling on a schema that I liked.

I got so excited tonight that I had to do a wet test of the skimmer, so I filled the sump partway and flipped on that Mak4 pump to see what would happen.

Unfortunately the bearings are shot. That pump turns, but it howls like a banshee. The whole house resonated with the sound. Completely unacceptable. :(

So ...... a quandary now. I was already not liking the flanges, and was having trouble finding a solution for that anyhow. Now if I have to spend money to replace a pump I'm left wondering if I'd be better off spending money and replacing the whole skimmer with something insump. Which sucks because it means I drilled the sump for nothing then, but at least that can be patched or plugged.

And that's of course ignoring the financial end of the equation.

I'm left wondering if I'd be even able to sell the skimmer. It's VERY large so the target market is probably pretty small. I see by this thread:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/sho...d.php?t=22453&
.. that I paid $250 or probably very close to that for the skimmer. Fast forward to today, becketts are a bit dated these days, so it's unlikely I'd be able to sell it easily and certainly won't be able to defray the cost of a new skimmer by any significant amount even if I did. :(

On the flip side, the acrylic alone is worth a mint. I'm probably better off for the moment looking for a replacement pump and dealing with the skimmer replacement question down the road, but then I'm left wondering, why do it twice. Do it once and be done with it.

Any opinions?

Here are some pictures. Looks like Shaw fixed the photoshares so I'm back to hosting these pictures at Shaw. I have to go back and fix the last batch now but I'm kinda too lazy to get the get up and go for that.

http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1534-0.jpg

http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1535-0.jpg

http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1536-0.jpg

i woulld say if it works then why change. sure there is new tech and new design but if yours does the same thing in the end why not keep it .. besides if you do an in sump skimmer you will lose precious space fro media reactors and such in future. if i could have a fish room (never happen in this house) i would use it. notto mention if you ever wanted to use ozone i think you would get more water contact on your skimmer. just my opinion tho.

but i am very jealous if i wanted a fish room id have to build a garage weather proof it and build my dream system out there. wife would never seemem again

Nice to see you closing in on the final lap Tony. Let the fun begin.

looking great Tony, cant wait to see rock and water in er.

Some clean plumbing there dude the end is near. That skimmer is pretty massive. I'm still thinking you should go with a new pump or find a used one.

Tony!......what are you gonna do when you finally get water in that thing???:razz:.....think we all should throw you a "Tony's tank has water in it" bash!.....

so just the skimmer pump holding you back?

If it was me I'd stay with the Beckett and find a pump. I love my Beckett! :biggrin:

OMG OMG OMG OMG....Almost time for water. I've traveled the world (literally) only to return to this thread and watch and wait

Yeah, well ... you know. It's all about the journey or something. Just be content that no matter what adventure you go off on, you can always come home and read up on the latest misadventures on how I screwed up this, or do that wrong and had to redo it, or whatever. I give you at least that constant in this ever changing wondrous world. No need to thank me. :p

To me, things still feels a long way off. The next thing will be to work on will be the lighting. The rough frame is there and the halide reflectors are mounted but I have some mods needed now to the light rack so it can hold T5's. I mistakenly bought too many Radiums (I bought two initially, then bought one in a BRS bulk order a few months ago .. then forgot I had done so and went and bought ANOTHER one in the last BRS bulk order. I was CERTAIN I was going to find strainers that I thought I had bought in that BRS box and lo and behold it was ... oh ... a Radium. Score! ... too bad I only have 3 reflectors mounted. Technically I do have 4 ballasts though ... hmmmmm. And spare reflectors in my shelf of tank junk. Man I am an amazing packrat. You'd think this latest skimmer issue wouldn't be so bad but apparently despite all the junk I have hung onto, a lot of "what I really need right now" is STILL not in amongst it all. It's really similar to shopping at Home Depot. Wow, they really are big stores full of "stuff." I marvel at the number of times I go to one and despite how big the store is and how full of it with stuff that it is, not one thing of that stuff is what I happen to be looking for at the time. But, I digress.) Point being I bought too many Radiums and not enough T5's. I have the T5 reflectors and sockets though and was hoping to buy some T5's soon but the skimmer pump thing is going to eat into my ability to purchase new T5 lamps anytime soon. Luckily I don't need the T5's to at least get working on the aquascape but I'd at least like to get the light frame all finished up before starting on that.

After that I have to sit and stare at the wall for a while until inspiration hits me for how and where to put ballasts and etc. Then I'll end up redoing it because what I imagined would be awesome is never as awesome in reality and I come up with "gee, if I had only done THIS" type things. Maybe redo it once more after that. It's a good thing I don't pay myself an hourly rate.

I also want to repaint the floor. The last 8 months of construction and concrete rework has really taken a toll. I don't mind the painting so much but the prep work and cleanup afterwards is such a drag, I've been putting off this task but it's the point I can't put it off much longer.

The skimmer thing is an unexpected expense and it comes at time when things are very lean so it's a little annoying. At the very least there though, behind the scenes it seems as if a path forward has presented itself, so we'll see how it plays out.

ha ha you know I'm just bustin balls (hey Jersey talk!) I can't wait for this to continue moving forward Tony...going to be fantastic. If and when I'm in town and you need a hand shoot me a text or something on facebook (gets sent right to my black berry) and I'll do what I can!

Tony I know you have a fishroom but I'm really a strong supporter of cramming as much as you can above your stairs. See my ballast? :biggrin:

http://www.fishbrains.net/images/97/ballast.jpg

Next task is to run a 1/2" drain and 1/2" return from that 20 gallon tank there thru the wall. My wife has noticed I keep making the hole in the livingroom wall a little bigger as time goes on lol.

No worries "Cash" at the speed this has played out I know I'm a huge target. Seriously if I had hired myself for this work I'd have fired myself eons ago. "Holy crap! You have NO IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING, DO YOU!? Get out! Take your tools and get out! And don't even think about leaving that invoice behind I AM NOT PAYING IT!" Hey wait, I'm not getting paid for this. So there. In the fight of me vs me, I still win. Of course that also means I still lose. Weird. No matter what.. I can't actually win.

Wait. What was I talking about again? I have no idea anymore.

Brett - love it! :cool: That is sort of the idea I was thinking (maybe minus the stairs). I wasn't sure how much clearance there should be above the ballast before the ceiling and how far they have to be from the tank. I can just see the inspector coming in for final inspection (he has to look at the plugs if nothing else), seeing what I've done, and just writing a big ol' "NO." on his inspection report.

Wow this is really coming along! very nice!

As Journey would say, Don't Stop, Believing! :-)

He Tony, I know where there is a Mak4 with good bearings and a bad impeller for pretty cheep :wink:

Steve

September 26 update
 

Hey Steve, thanks, I might take you up on that. Seems a shame to throw out two pumps when we can merge parts and maybe salvage one of them. Anyhow we can talk offline on that at some point perhaps.

...

Here's a quick update on things.

After spinning my wheels around about the skimmer the last little while, it looks I found a replacement skimmer. It should be arriving sometime this week and I'll save the detailed story for after when I have it in my hands. One sucky thing is it means I have to redo the overflow plumbing to gain full benefit from it but I think it will be worthwhile in the end. At any rate, stay tuned for developments on that particular story as it plays out.

So after deciding to not worry about the skimmer for now I tried getting my T5's going. The original plan here was to use 24" T5's mounted perpendicular to the tank so that they can fit between the Lumenarcs. There is room for long T5's on the outside edge of the halides for lengthwise but there are two reasons I opted for perpendicular: cheap and easily available, and also the way that long T5's would sit would have them directly over the Eurobracing, which seems like a waste of light. However that said, it's just for dusk and dawn, so who cares if one is not squeezing out every last shred of PAR out of the T5's.

But, a snag. I had bought 16 T5 sockets and 8 24" reflectors with the intent that I would drive them, at least temporarily, using a Workhorse 7 ballast I've had sitting around since the days of old. Two problems played out here: 1) WH7 isn't rated to drive 24" T5's at all, and 2) Even if it could, it's not to drive 8 lamps (I just thought I could "get away with it" if I ran the lights in series. I riveted in two 2" straps of aluminum into the light rack so that it could hold 24" t5's and starting wiring up the sockets. Well, unfortunately, ... it didn't work. Either my lamps are defunct or my ballast is defunct .. but after finding out I was trying to squeeze lemonade out of a handful of dirt anyhow, I thought .. why not look into just buying a proper retrofit kit. Why not go with 80w and be done with it.

Well, wow, 80w kits are both expensive and hard to find. Ok. So decided to shelf T5's altogether for now and just get on with things.

But, a stroke of dumb luck, or for once, being a packrat paid off. When I went my pile of equipment to find the one last ballast I had for the halides (it was a bare ballast that I had to wire up and put into a case), I found a forgotten-about 2x24w CurrentUSA Nova unit I had purchased for the sake of adding actinic to my cube tank, which I never got around to doing. The brilliant part is it fits perfectly between two reflectors and the amount of light it throws off, even if it is a little askew to one side, is perfect for a dusk/dawn effect. If I can find a second one of these somewhere, to put on the other side, I'm going to call it done.

So, yesterday was a beautiful day outside and had 2 invitations to go mountain biking, which I probably should have taken... but instead I said "this shalt be a tank project day." The family went off doing shopping and chores and I stayed home and starting to work on finishing my halide reflectors. Took a bit of fiddling with washers to act as spacers for the socket-to-reflector mount to get the lamps to sit nicely centred in the reflectors, but I got the light rack finally wired, lamps installed, and the whole dang thing back up in the ceiling.

I've been waiting a LONG time to see this:

http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1558-0.jpg

So what we have here is 3 Radiums. The outside two are lit by HQI ballasts, so overdriven at 430w or so, and the middle is a DIY M135 ballast (pulse-start, and slightly underdriven at 380w or so, IIRC). To be honest at this point I can't see a difference, all 3 are insanely bright to my eyes and the colour a nice shade of cool-glacier-ice-sort-of blue. But there's only been 5 minutes of run time so it will be neat to see once it's past the burn-in period.

The tank with all 3 halides on:
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1560-0.jpg

Of course without context, you can't really see how insanely bright this tank is. When I took this picture I looked over to my right and looked at the cube tank. The cube tank with its single 250w just absolutely pales in comparison.

For the next two photos, of course I let the camera auto-adjust so it's hard to see the step-downs in intensity but at the same time, I'm actually really impressed with things, they are still brighter than I thought they would be.

Here's just the middle halide on:
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1561-0.jpg

It's a pretty decent amount of light still.

And this was just the mind-blowing moment of the day for me yesterday. Here's a 280g tank light by only 2x24w t5:
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1562-0.jpg

There's my dusk and dawn. I'm happy with it. Like I mentioned earlier if I can find a second 24" Nova unit I might throw that up there but that will be it. Any other t5's after that will be simply be icing.

And ... and ... and:
http://photoshare.shaw.ca/image/a/d/...img_1567-0.jpg

The fill has begun. The RO/DI is a 75gpd unit so it's going to take a few days, but ... the tank is now officially wet. Happy days are here! :)

75 gallons per day....ha ha normally that'd be fairly quick...I vote pics at the end of each day.

On the first day God said: "Let there be light," and there was light. God saw that the light was good.



Very good Tony, although it took you 384 days to make light your light is good!

:lol: agreed :mrgreen:

MOAR

We wants moar! Congrats man I'd have called in sick for a few days to watch it fill up.

well its about time glad that i see that i never put any money on this bet.................................



however 75 gal per day i will talk to you next year at that rate......


Adda BOY Tony

Way to go Tony!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!