abcha0s' 300G Ultimate Reef

[abcha0s]

<New Content Posted>

Planning the ATO (Automatic Top Off)..........<moved to 38 - Changed status to draft>

Pretext: I’ve had my ATO fail while on holidays. This caused the sump return chamber to completely evaporate leading to a subsequent failure of the return pump. After fixing the ATO and replacing the return pump, the ATO did what it was supposed to do and pumped 10 gallons of saturated Kalk water (pH 12.4) back into the system. The result was a pH spike reaching upwards of 9.5. While I was able to recover from this without a tank crash and better yet, without losing any wildlife, it drove home the importance of a reliable ATO. In my opinion, it is one of the more critical components and can potentially fail without warning.

[steveg]

Amazing how a quick look on the computer can generate such green eyed monster feelings................:mrgreen :

Looking forward to seeing this develop!

[TheMikey]

Absolutely fantastic build. The level of detail and planning incorpotated into the build (as well as the great explanations) could (should?!) be made into a How-To for those looking at building large tanks. You seem to have all your bases covered on your build.

I do have one question, however:

In regards to the steel design (and redesign) I've noticed that on the stand that the aquarium isn't actually sitting on the back brace where you've added the additional support and the entire backside seems to be for the benefit of the overflow alone. You were very concerned in this build early on about having enough support but from my (rather limited, forgive me) knowledge it seems like you are ignoring the rear re-enforcement entirely. Can you give me the rationale for it?

I really hope this doesn't come off as a flame/troll post (it's not I assure you ) I just found it a little odd the way the tank fits on the stand.

Again, fantastic tank journal; it's making me itch for an upgrade

[abcha0s]

Originally Posted by TheMikey

Absolutely fantastic build. The level of detail and planning incorpotated into the build (as well as the great explanations) could (should?!) be made into a How-To for those looking at building large tanks. You seem to have all your bases covered on your build.

I do have one question, however:

In regards to the steel design (and redesign) I've noticed that on the stand that the aquarium isn't actually sitting on the back brace where you've added the additional support and the entire backside seems to be for the benefit of the overflow alone. You were very concerned in this build early on about having enough support but from my (rather limited, forgive me) knowledge it seems like you are ignoring the rear re-enforcement entirely. Can you give me the rationale for it?

I really hope this doesn't come off as a flame/troll post (it's not I assure you ) I just found it a little odd the way the tank fits on the stand.

Again, fantastic tank journal; it's making me itch for an upgrade

Hey Mikey

Sure - ask me a difficult question.

There are a couple of ways to look at this. Let's make sure we are talking about the same thing.



I believe that you are referring to the fact that the tank sits on Beam B and not Beam A. I did consider this.

The first modification I made to support this arrangement was to add an additional brace from front to back. Where splitting the load in two squares (3'x3') should be sufficient, I am splitting the load in three rectangles (3'x2').

I also figure that the two beams together, being only 2.5" apart and welded in 4 places, will collectively have a strength greater than a single beam.

Finally, I am counting on the distance to the braced beam (Beam A) being small enough that the load will be almost directly transfered between the two beams.

Having said all of that - there's not a lot of science behind it. It's more intuition than anything. If the stand weren't overbuilt, I would be a little more concerned, but I think there is a sufficient safety variable built in to offset the risk of deflection along this beam.

This stand design gives me considerably more space underneath the tank. The extra 4.5" makes a big difference. It also will make it easier to hide some of the plumbing when I start panneling the stand. So far, I don't regret the design.

Anyway, the question is perfectly reasonable, no need to appologize.

- Thanks