280g Inwall

[globaldesigns]

That is one monster skimmer, would love to see that in operation.

Looking good of course.

[reefcanada]

It's looking good Tony. Did the holes line up for the bulk heads, or did you have to redo some of your plumbing? When do we get to see water in that bad boy?

[Delphinus]

Filling as we speak. Need to get me some sand and start working on the rock now I suppose.

The sump return hole worked out perfect. The skimmer feed hole was something I had to scratch my head on for a bit but I think what I've done will work out. There are two 90's on the suction side, but it's 1.5" pipe for a 3/4" input so hopefully the pump will not notice a perceivable restriction. Gonna find out tonight how well it works once the sump is full enough to do a wet test of the plumbing!!

[Rbacchiega]

you squealed like a little school girl. Admit it. We know it's true.

[Delphinus]

You mean more so than usual?

[Delphinus]

Oh .. and .. first leak found. Well ... not "found" exactly, but has made its presence felt. Grrrrrr. I can't tell where it's coming from. It actually looks like it's coming out the side of the union valve that was meant to be the shutoff point for the skimmer feed. The valve itself is shut. Going to go lie on the floor and stare at it some and see what's up with this..

[Rbacchiega]

oh leaks...
the guys at the shop got a kick out of me just staring at plumbing for minutes on end....or laying on the floor half under the tank and just my legs out on the floor. Some people just dont get it ha ha

[Delphinus]

Argh, the one bulkhead leaks too. Of course it's the one where the threaded end is on the inside of the tank. I've gotten my pipe wrench in there and reefed on it but it doesn't seem to stop. The gasket is squishing out from under the thread nut so I guess I can't be running the bulkhead this way (I don't really like to run bulkheads this way anyhow) but I only did so on account that I have a really right clearance, if the skimmer sits any further away from the sump the output pipe is not going to reach back over to the sump.

YAY! Guess I'm emptying the sump to fix this. Hope I have enough buckets and empty tanks to hold the RO/DI cuz it would suck to have to dump it and produce it all over again. I should though, .. sometimes being a packrat has its advantages.

[Delphinus]

Okaydoke. Here is today's valuable learning experience:



Don't use a valve like this in the 1.5" size (I've used similar half-union'd valves on 1", 3/4" and 1/2" without issue on a few calcium reactors I tried making back in the early days).

The 3 little sticks are these little holder things that keep in place the white plastic ring that in turn holds the ball in place. The ball just sits in the fluid and it's insane how loose it all is (it just falls out when you take the clip out). There's no way this thing could hold back pressure of any kind ... and, well, it didn't. 10" of water and the thing was leaking right through the join. In fact I can blow into the pipe and the air escapes out - not through the ball - ie., water wouldn't flow through the pipe at least, but the housing isn't watertight in the least.

I can't imagine ANY scenario that a valve like this would be useful. What the heck???

Off to find me a true-union 1.5" valve tomorrow. Man I hope Red Coral has one in their boxes-o-plumbing heaven .. to order something like this from BRS is do-able but darn it all if that isn't another 2 weeks or whatever. I suppose I could just use a standard PVC valve from HD and a union and get the same effect but that will end up being huuuuuuuge and cumbersome and I'd just rather not.

Bah!

Guess it's still better to find these things out now and not after there's rock and sand and livestock in there.

[Rbacchiega]

weird, I've never seen ball valves like that before. Where'd you get em? A little off topic, but remember how I said I couldn't find unions anywhere...went to home depot yesterday to pick up a new dremel...unions galore.