Dez' Tank Journal

[Dez]

Today I got some more done on the tank. I lined the bottom of the tank with pond liner. This way I'll be able to hold about 16 gallons of water under my stand in case of spills. I went to a local pond place and asked for a 7' x 3' chunk of pond liner and he just gave me a scrap piece he had. I though nothing was free anymore.

Here is the chunk before I cut it up


Here is the final product


I also put my washed sand in the tank


I plugged the holes of my closed loop so that I don't get sand in the OM 4 way. Right before I turn it on then I'll remove the plugs.


I also wired my other lights tonight and boy is it bright with all 3 lights on. I picked up another PFO pendant with ice cap ballast from Saltynuts tonight which worked out perfect because I only had one ice cap ballast. So now I have a matching pair. I'm debating whether to switch the middle pendant to 250w. I'll wait and see for now. I mounted the ballast up in case of spills.

Right side


Left side with the 150 watt ballast as well.


I actually didn't have quite enough sand, so when Saltynuts came, he brought me some sand. I used a quarter pail more to top it off to the level I was satisfied with. Funny thing is the sand that Ed brought over was from my 180 gallon tank that I had running 5-6 years ago. I had sold the setup to a fellow canreefer, and it then went to someone in Spruce Grove, and then went to someone else and Saltynuts ended up with the sand from it recently, and now I have it again. I guess the saying "What goes around comes around" is really true.

I also started filling my sump this morning at 7am. Now it's 11:30 pm and the tank is only 1/4 full - this is only the sump. It's going to be a long wait to fill the tank. Thanks for following.

[lastlight]

Clean work with that scrap. A few questions for ya:

1) what's with the flexible white ducting near your return pump
2) where on earth did you get that strip of plugs? Looks like the power poles you sometimes see in office spaces.
3) are you worried about moisture with the plugs on the floor and facing up?

Must feel nice to post updates so darn often. Onward! Oh and those sink plugs were totally the dezTouch©

[banditpowdercoat]

Ya,. I'm wondering about the plugs too. Water will get in them. Not good.

Also, GREAT idea on the stoppers for the OM-4 returns. I was extremely carefull not to get sand in my loop. Then, when tank was full, and I went to fire the loop up, Soon as I opened the shutoff's. Each outlet gulped its air out and took in a big breath of water and SAND. Had to take it apart and clean. I suggest fill the inlet first, turn OM-4 on, and start pump. then open the outlet shutoff's and use the pump to purge the sand out. The pump should push the plug out too

[Dez]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Clean work with that scrap. A few questions for ya:

1) what's with the flexible white ducting near your return pump
2) where on earth did you get that strip of plugs? Looks like the power poles you sometimes see in office spaces.
3) are you worried about moisture with the plugs on the floor and facing up?

Must feel nice to post updates so darn often. Onward! Oh and those sink plugs were totally the dezTouch©

Hey Brett,
1) That flexible white ducting goes from my basement. It will be run all the way to my canopy to pull/push air through the canopy. The idea behind this is to keep the fan noise in the basement. I copied this idea from mark. It works great for him.
2) That strip of plugs is from Princess auto. Bought it for $3. It's great. I'm going to use my wife's label maker to label everything when all said and done.
3) I was toying with the plug facing up thing for a while. It is sitting 3 1/2" up. There is 3/4" plywood/foam right above it. It I have a leak, it's going to trip the GFCI anyway. If I have spills, it's going to be down the face of the tank and no where near the plugs. I am actually not going to be under the tank all that much, but in the basement sump room where all the equipment is going to be. Thinking about all of my old tanks, I had several power bars hooked up together sitting behind the tank facing up without being plugged into a GFCI outlet.... Never got wet ever. So after going through all of these options in my head, I settled on that location. I tried it upside down on the underside of the stand, didn't work well, in the front upside down, it impeded access to my flow valve. I thought this way everything is labelled in case my wife kids have to unplug something in an emergency where I'm not home, it'll be right there and labelled.

PS. My wife thought my sink stoppers were dumb. I told here they were $1 each, and she said that's a waste of $4. You should have just used seran wrap and a rubberband. I'm glad that you like the stoppers. I was pretty proud of myself when I thought it up.

Thanks for the comments.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by banditpowdercoat

Ya,. I'm wondering about the plugs too. Water will get in them. Not good.

Also, GREAT idea on the stoppers for the OM-4 returns. I was extremely carefull not to get sand in my loop. Then, when tank was full, and I went to fire the loop up, Soon as I opened the shutoff's. Each outlet gulped its air out and took in a big breath of water and SAND. Had to take it apart and clean. I suggest fill the inlet first, turn OM-4 on, and start pump. then open the outlet shutoff's and use the pump to purge the sand out. The pump should push the plug out too

Hey Dan,

The whole loop is full of water now from my full water test run, so I think it should be pretty good. I plan on loosening the stoppers, then turning the pump on and letting the stoppers fly. It'll be like mini-fireworks to kick off the debut of the tank.

[Leah]

If she was upset about the $ 4.00's for the plugs, I say you had better learn to hide receipts

[lastlight]

Haha true dat.

My wife handles all the money. It's a wonder I'm even alive anymore!

Fan in the basement. Hmmm. You know there's just a LITTLE room left in my cold air return hole...Wonder if like a reverse spraybar along the back of my tank (which is open top) sucking humid air would be worth it. It's have to blend pretty darn well tho.

[Dez]

Originally Posted by lastlight

Haha true dat.

My wife handles all the money. It's a wonder I'm even alive anymore!

Fan in the basement. Hmmm. You know there's just a LITTLE room left in my cold air return hole...Wonder if like a reverse spraybar along the back of my tank (which is open top) sucking humid air would be worth it. It's have to blend pretty darn well tho.

It's interesting the crazy ideas you get from canreef isn't it? I'm looking forward to the final product.

Leah, My wife wasn't "concerned" about the $4, just thought I could get the same results with seran wrap and rubber bands. If she was concerned about the $4, she wouldn't let my have my toy cars.

I have a good excuse with the fish tanks because my wife was the one originally who got us into the hobby.

[Dez]

Not too much to update except that I'm getting fairly impatient. I hooked up my ph controller that I had from 5 - 6 years ago and calibrated it tonight. What is the standard ph of RO/DI water? Is it under 7? I thought it'd be right around 7. I have been filling the tank for 2 and a half days now and the tank is about 2/3 full and there is about 4" of water in my 100 gallon sump.

Can't wait. I still have to figure out what I'm going to do for heaters after it's full.

[StirCrazy]

Originally Posted by Dez

What is the standard ph of RO/DI water? Is it under 7? I thought it'd be right around 7.

there is no standare for RO water as thee is no buffer in it to maintain PH. usaly it is a little acitic. to calabrate you have to use a solution that is buffered to a specific PH RO water will just screw ya up.

Steve