Neptune Aquatics

In the beginning...

Gablami said:
Man Flagg, you are one handy sonofagun. You sure know your way around acrylic (and everything else it seems, argon tanks for welding?!?).

I ordered a clear acrylic baffle for my refugium/sump, but was wondering whether I should paint it with epoxy black to keep the shine through from growing microalgae. I don't think you mentioned anything about refugium earlier though. You have other plans...
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Yeah, I changed the sump design a bit from the earlier post. It's got the chamber I'd drains into then over flows into two filter socks (I'm still not sure I'll use them), then into the refugium, then to the skimmer, and lastly the return. I've got a time lapse video of when I leak tested it. I'll have to see if I can get it uploaded.

I've got a new problem though. I took into account the hinge on the wall but not where it attaches to the door. So I can't close the door unless I move the sump over 7/8". This wouldn't be a problem except that I made the sump just right so that the main drain and emergency drain go straight down into the first chamber and that 7/8" is enough to not line up with the chamber.

I'm trying to decide what's the best option to move forward with. I'm leaning towards modifying the sump so that the hinge fits into it so that I can keep the drain flowing straight and I get that 7/8". It's kind of tight down there. The other option is to modify the drain or I guess I can just leave the door off.
 
That door is a beauty. Shows the grain really nice. Would hate to have you not use that. Oh, and the thing with having kids around it. Don't have one yet, but I'm imagining what they could do. I'd say modify something else.
 
Everything is looking great. As a fellow acrylic fabricator, I must say, "nice job on the sump!" I'm guessing this is not the first thing you've made with acrylic? Coincidentally, I too and building a sump for my new system. I've been taking pics but haven't started the thread yet, I'll try to get the thread started shortly. One of the toughest challenges I encountered in attempting to building the perfect sump has been committing to just one design, and choosing the sizes and heights for each chamber while trying to consider everything that must fit inside, around and above the sump. There were so many choices and decisions to make. Just want to mention this since I'd imagine you can relate, after just going through the process. Again, Nice Job and can't wait to see it all in action!
 
Presumably you have looked at using other normal types of hinges.
How about removable doors on pins. The open-doors really get in the way working down there anyway. Could be a win.
It would not be much of a hassle to pop it off instead of swinging it out.

Do you have zero room on each side of the sump? That could be a hassle. You may want the space for
powerhead/equipment magnets on the outside. Or wiring and such around the sump.

Changing the drain sounds easier than modifying the sump.
No doors does not seem like an option.
 
I switched gears for a bit. I bought a tankless water heater so that I could get rid of the massive cylinder in my garage. It will make room for the two 60 gallon food grade barrels I got for fresh water and salt water. I've got to reroute some water and gas pipes and rework the vent for it. Not the easiest of tasks but will make the most efficient use of the space.
 
Flagg37 said:
I switched gears for a bit. I bought a tankless water heater so that I could get rid of the massive cylinder in my garage. It will make room for the two 60 gallon food grade barrels I got for fresh water and salt water. I've got to reroute some water and gas pipes and rework the vent for it. Not the easiest of tasks but will make the most efficient use of the space.
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I need to do some hot water heater work also. Not for the house, but for the tank. Tired of electric heater bills, need to switch to gas.
 
Flagg37 said:
I switched gears for a bit. I bought a tankless water heater so that I could get rid of the massive cylinder in my garage. It will make room for the two 60 gallon food grade barrels I got for fresh water and salt water. I've got to reroute some water and gas pipes and rework the vent for it. Not the easiest of tasks but will make the most efficient use of the space.
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Sounds like a great project. If you have time, post some pics of the progress, before and after. I've thought about doing the same thing but have been waiting for the water heat to wear out a little more first. We had installed the best water heater OSH had when we moved into the house 9 years ago.
 
<3-2-reef said:
Sounds like a great project. If you have time, post some pics of the progress, before and after. I've thought about doing the same thing but have been waiting for the water heat to wear out a little more first. We had installed the best water heater OSH had when we moved into the house 9 years ago.
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Well, if is good quality and you do proper flushing you'll be waiting for a while lol. Though they do break without warning. I had one that just started leaking like a geiser one day after 15 years.
 
Flagg37 said:
I got most of the sump built. I still want to add things like a couple heater holders and the probe holders. I also need to finish the top pieces to cover each compartment. I might make some frag racks and a porthole or two while I'm at it. I've got plenty of left over acrylic.

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This is the internal portion of it.

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Starting to get a couple sides on.

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Sides and bottom now on.

View attachment 5619 I made two adjustable baffle plates. One that goes from 7-9" and the other that goes from 9-11". Those are 8mm titanium bolts that I drilled and tapped into the baffle. Originally I had planned to just make it a through hole and use a nut on the back side but I tested out my tap in a spare piece and it worked great. I'm used to using it on stainless steel so the acrylic was like butter compared to the stainless.
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YOU are a builder. That's fricken awesome John. It looks beautiful and you should be proud. Heck and this is only a sump we're talkin about right now lol
 
Super snazzy! I know with these smaller sumps it is a sometimes a pain to shoehorn in everything you want, but as long as you have an ATO you should be good to go. Any idea of what you want in your refugium area? sand, algae, rocks?
 
So here's the update in regards to the tank less water heater.

This is what I started with.
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I cut out the partition walls that weren't supporting anything and just taking up room and moved and stacked the washer and dryer to give me room to work.
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This is the water heater that I'll be removing. The previous owner brought the water and gas lines over to this location all on the outside of the walls.
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There's two water pipes coming out of the wall along with the gas that go around the corner to the water heater. I also move the sub panel and run some of it's wiring inside the wall to clean things up a little too.
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Here's a few of the progress pictures where I removed the drywall to figure out where I was going to run the plumbing and how much of it I could hide inside the walls.


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Ahh, so much cleaner and more organized. I successfully removed the water heater and installed the tankless water heater (it's the white thing attached to the wall). I rerouted the gas line so that it is all inside the wall except where it needs to come out for the tankless water heater and the dryer. It took a bit longer than I thought it would but everything went pretty much according to plan. The vent was one of the biggest ordeals. None of the local vendors sell a concentric vent (not double walled but concentric) so I had to run separate intake and exhaust vents out through the roof. I still need to remove the old exhaust vent from the roof and get it patched up, but it's not hurting anything being up there so that will wait for another day when it bothers me enough to do something about it. While I was at it, I replaced the washing machine's gate valves to some nice ball valves and added an extra outlet and gfci protected them all.

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Here's everything put back together. I built a pedestal for the washer and dryer and a reinforced one for the water barrels. I built the drawer boxes but still need to build the drawer fronts and mount the drawer slides to them. I also got the RODI system mounted. That's it for now.
 
roostertech said:
Pipe clamps...that's a lot of them! Neat pedestals
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I really need more. What I have allows me to make about 12 treads at a time. Most staircases have about 16.

The pedestals are actually sitting on pressure treated wood so that they don't rot out from sitting directly on the concrete. That's why there's that little gap at the bottom.
 
Is that white PVC pipe going into the electrical box in one of the before pictures? Ugh... it's always fun to see other people's work when it comes to electrical (not plumbing.. it's never fun to see someone's idea on how plumbing should be run)
 
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