Kessil

Mike's Last Build

Ok it turns out the threads were 1/4" not 3/8" just the adapter took 3/8" pipe, assumed it was 3/8" because the elbows I had is a1/8" threaded connection (which is wider than a 1/4" pipe... go figure plumbing world!). Either way, no bushing that small (at least in plastic), so found 1/4 x 1/4 and I'm good to go.
 
Alright RO unit is replumbed, new filters, and ready to start making water for the tank. Big thanks to Mario @xcaret for the RO unit. It's not hanging in the final spot quite yet which is why no pictures of it. But it's a beefy 9 stage system, 5 micron sediment filter into 1 micron sediment filter, 2 - 1 micron universal carbon blocks, dual 75gpd membranes, then through 3 DI chambers (2 separated cation/anion, 1 mixed bed to clean up anything that goes through), all powered by a Aquatech 8800 booster pump.

I'll start filling sometime tomorrow morning, simply because if my hole covers didn't quite cover in a water tight fashion I want to make sure I have plenty of time to deal with it.

Next up need to make a sump. Gotta figure out my protein skimmer situation, currently using a ATI BM250 with 1 pump running it which seems to do fine, in fact the BM200 only uses one pump. But it has a fairly wide base, and need to decide if I want to stick with it or maybe go in the direction of a different skimmer. Either way don't want to have a skimmer section of the sump that's too small for the skimmer I have, but I don't want to just have a huge area because that takes away from other sections, and I kind of want to have a rather large refugium area.

Sump plan A is to repurpose a really old 100G acrylic tank, unfortunately requires some chopping- shortening and baffles added. Plan B is to do like Eric @Ibn and just get some precut acrylic pieces and build my own up from that. The unfortunately thing is that my sump area is restricted to about 44" (I could go the full 48 if I let it hang out 4" on one side and build a mini-platform under that) unfortunately most off the shelf tanks that are 48" (and somewhat affordable, ie Aqueon prices) tend to be a bit on the thinner side, I have 20+" to work so an 18" one would be fine... too bad there's not a 55 breeder that has similar dimensions as the 40B but a foot longer :D
 
Well ideally 48" long, 20" wide, 16-18" tall would fit just about perfectly into the space but leave little room if wires need to be behind it or something. 18" wide is perfectly acceptable though, as it does allow "breathing room" around the the back of the sump. The height is a hard maximum at 18" though, with my current skimmer the cup barely slips out, and getting the skimmer in with a 10" wide body is going to take some tetris skills.

Of course this is all based on my current skimmer, which I may or may not keep, if I do change out though it won't be bigger, otherwise I'd need an external skimmer.
 
Well after packing the mixed bed resin I noticed how it looked almost identical to the cation resin, now part of this makes sense because they only put color changing cation resin in that with non-color changing anion but sent a pic to BRS to confirm that it is in fact mixed bed but it didn't look like there was any variation in the resin.

That said, helpful hint, while keeping aquarium stuff in a greenhouse sounds great, the sun mixed with the heat will prematurely weaken the plastic. The collar of one end of my flow restrictor for my RO membrane broke off, I managed to still pop some tubing in there,and gave it a quick test to make sure it wouldn't pop out but... eh, I need to make water tomorrow, not a week from tomorrow. Found an old flow restrictor that actually goes into the tube, but there's no markings on it to signify what the rating of the restrictor is. Either way, tomorrow morning I want to start making water.
 
Well it's good that salt is going to take a week to get here. Had a few of the hoses just snap from getting brittle, the flow restrictor while it did fine against house pressure as soon as I turned on the pressure pump it just shot off. Quite a bit of cursing and grumbling, but overall I am happy I was doing this in the crappy part of the basement and not on my new subfloor.

Either way, while I can get hoses locally I don't think I can get the flow restrictor locally, so back to the online ordering, maybe I start making water next week.
 
rygh said:
BRS has a nice combo flow restrictor / bypass, for flushing.
Click to expand...
Yup that is the one I got, and it was only like $2-3 more than the stand alone restrictor too. Even though I had enough tees and a valve to make one from multiple pieces (like they used to sell).

Coral reefer said:
I have an extra but I think it’s more flow than you’d want. I have plenty of extra hose tho.
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No worries, I bought some more hose too, figure I'll just replace all the hose since I don't know which is brittle and which isn't.

Just pissed me off that I tested everything individually yesterday and it all worked fine, then as soon as I plugged in the pressure pump... KABLEWIE! or I should say KERSPLASH!
 
you filling the tank with salt water on the unfinished floor? How do you Plan to finish the floor? just up the the stand and stop?
 
The floor isn't going to be "finished" under the stand, the whole wet area is going to be covered in a pond liner, and then covered with those wet area walking mats (rubber with holes in them.

The flooring is going to be finished right up to the stand.
 
Well when it rains it pours (no pun). As it turns out one of my resins is not a mixed bed resin (cation and anions) but just the cation portion, now they are sending me a replacement but I am a bit miffed that it took them 3 days to get back to me on this, because everything else I need to "make water" is sitting at the UPS facility right now awaiting pickup, and my salt comes Friday. I did dump out a bunch of resin already that was in an older canister that did look viable (still mixed colors) but considering the unknown age of it I think I'm going to pass on using it and just wait a few more days they are shipping me new stuff but some how I don't think they're going to ship it next day or 2 day :D
 
I am glad I switched to 3 DI stages.
pure cation, pure anion, mixed.
Because it really seems like one (anion I think) gets used way faster than the other.
Plus, even if I let it go a bit long, the mixed stage makes sure nothing gets through.
 
rygh said:
I am glad I switched to 3 DI stages.
pure cation, pure anion, mixed.
Because it really seems like one (anion I think) gets used way faster than the other.
Plus, even if I let it go a bit long, the mixed stage makes sure nothing gets through.
Click to expand...
Wow...so how many stages in all...6?
 
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