Rygh's 250 gallon upgrade

[rygh]

Final plumbing plan.
So I simplified it a bit. One ATS recirculates to Sump. But I decided that having both would just be too inefficient.
It would leave only about 800 GPH flow from filtration to main tank. Only 3.5X or so.
Less of a nightmare, but still a lot of pipes.


Attached files /attachments/sites/default/files/FinalMainPlumbing.jpg

 

[rygh]

PLUMBING DONE!!!!!
arty:

Doing the happy tequila dance tonight. Hard to type, pics when sober.
Finally. What a pain. Huge milestone for me.

The best part was the wife's comment : "Oh it is?"
Sounds bad, but was really great..
The key context being : "The plumbing is done, and ALL THE PUMPS ARE ON."
It was so quiet, she could not tell.
Even the fluorescent light makes more noise.

Oddly : Besides the garage, you can hear the dribbling/gurgling in the downstairs
guest bathroom. I am going to take that as a bonus.

 

[Tumbleweed]

PLUMBING DONE!!!!!
arty:

Doing the happy tequila dance tonight. Hard to type, pics when sober.
Finally. What a pain. Huge milestone for me.

The best part was the wife's comment : "Oh it is?"
Sounds bad, but was really great..
The key context being : "The plumbing is done, and ALL THE PUMPS ARE ON."
It was so quiet, she could not tell.
Even the fluorescent light makes more noise.

Oddly : Besides the garage, you can hear the dribbling/gurgling in the downstairs
guest bathroom. I am going to take that as a bonus.

That could come in handy some day.

 

[rygh]

Besides the plumbing milestone, Aqaua-scaping started.
So I made a bit of a mock-up of the tank outside, and tried some piles of rock.

Best part is, my little helper is doing a great job. Very cool!

From Aquarium_Release



From Aquarium_Release

 

[ryanjiang]

Nice! Are you gonna use his design

 

[rygh]

Nice! Are you gonna use his design

Pretty much, at least for the left side. It is pretty good.
The other section is nice, but too small. Maybe scaled.

 

[ryanjiang]

Nice! Are you gonna use his design

Pretty much, at least for the left side. It is pretty good.
The other section is nice, but too small. Maybe scaled.

Cool! He must be very proud!

 

[rygh]

I am concreting the left hand side pile for real.
About 13" wide, 16" deep, 14" high. Steep pyramid.
The plan is to put mostly softies on it, so goes a bit closer to the surface.

The base layer:
I used way to much concrete for the base. Oh well. It is strong.
I decided to put it on eggcrate. Mostly to keep things from moving around as I built.

From Aquarium_Release



Here it is about 2/3 done.
Getting much taller, with a lot more character.






From Aquarium_Release

Some thoughts:
1) I really like a conglomeration of all sort of different live rock.
It allows for some interesting forms.
Also, it allows for you to build coral mounts that stick out, for example on a piece of big stag.

2) Using lots of little pieces is great - but very tedious.
Other than a couple of pieces, this is all made from rubble.
Doing so, you can really build exactly the shape/tunnels/whatever you want.

3) Fast set concrete is a curse and a blessing.
Again, very tedious, since you do one rock at a time.
But, you can basically keep going non stop. Working around, the previous section will be completely
hard, so you can connect to it without breaking the old piece loose.
Tend to waste concrete. Hard to mix exactly what you need every time.

4) Those cheap sponge paintbrushes are great.
Good for soaking rock with the glue/water mixture, for adhesion.
But key - they are great for pushing the concrete into the nooks/cracks, and smoothing/texturing it.
You get a solid joint, plus less visible.

5) Probably should have done bigger caves.
They are pretty big, but small relative to pile. Although I did want the end to be a bit more solid.

 

[rygh]

QUESTION:
What are peoples opinions on pre-drilling the rock for frag mounts??
I keep flip-flopping.
Drill, and keep them mounted, or remove corals from frag mounts when installing, and glue them directly to rock.
I really like it to be adjustable for lighting/flow. But the holes and mounts are ugly, plus they fall out.
Thanks.

 

[rygh]

Finished the left side rock pile, and installed.
Ended up around 60 pounds I think. But looks tiny in the tank.
I have a few holes drilled for frag plugs.
It also deliberately has rock jutting out in spots to keep corals a bit isolated from each other.
Plus, I can tuck the big magnum-8 powerhead in behind the top piece.
I also started on the main middle rock pile. The middle one will be shorter, for more room for coral to grow.

From Aquarium_Release

 

[yardartist]

Plugs or rods? I use all the holes in my rock and drilled a few in natural divots so they do not look like odd holes all over. Drilling two sizes also makes them look more a part of the chunk rather than added. Being able to move frags around and be somewhat snail proof is a plus. I then glue them in place. Sometimes in the hole and others nearby.

Hard to tell, but it looks like the rock work is open in the center to allow flow through and hiding places. Nice.

 

[99sf]

Wow, cool rock structure! Is there enough room from the sides of the tank to slide a magnet cleaner? I have a couple of spots in my tank where the rocks settled too close to the acrylic sides.

 

[rygh]

I drilled a few 1/2 holes for rods, but not very many. For the rest, I will super-glue them on.
It does look a bit unnatural, plus a lot of the rock crumbles, or is too hard.
I could use hammer mode to go through the hard ones, but that seems too risky.

Yes, center is fairly open. You could fit several baseballs in there, but not a football.

 

[rygh]

Center rock section is done. Curing before soaking, and probably easier to take pictures out
of the water.
I am really just messing around here with pictures and movies. Not like people will
care that much about a pile of rock.

Left view:

From Aquarium_Release



Center view:

From Aquarium_Release



Right view:






From Aquarium_Release

Movie: (Click to play)
Audio is just the wind. Need to work on that.






From Aquarium_Release

 

[gimmito]

Love the canyon look Mark...good job.

 

[sfsuphysics]

I concur, did a really good job on the rock, canyons always looked nicer to me than pillars or mounds.

Now lets see that bad boy filled with water and in action

 

[rygh]

Thanks!
I can hardly wait for the water as well, but I have 2 more piles to do, and I want to let is soak in tap water
for at least a week, even though it is hydraulic cement.

So I figure about 2 weeks till real water.
The plan then is to slowly attach the old and new tank, so water equalizes, then move a few things at a time.
Next big task is the lighting.
Sure would be easier to buy a few MH lights. - Bet Mike would approve.

 

[sfsuphysics]

Hey I'm not knocking anyone lighting choice, everyone has a different situation on how they want to light their tank

 

[rygh]

Well, another big flood in the garage today.
|(
I was working on one section, and decided to empty the pipe out completely.
Well, there was enough water in it, and it came out fast enough, that it started suction
from the main tank.
So suddenly, many gallons of water were pouring out where I had been cutting.

So there I am, one hand on one pipe opening, the other hand on another pipe opening, trying to at
least slow down the water, while kicking the wall and yelling for the wife.

Oh well, no damage. Garage floor was getting dirty again.

 

[rygh]

Rock-cementing work is done!!
arty:
I must say that while a bit tedious at times, it was a lot of fun gluing all those rocks together.
A bit of an artistic challenge, which I don't get that often.
I have two pieces still curing. I will put them in to soak in a couple of days, then get some good pics.

I am getting a huge bacterial bloom. Must be tons of dead stuff on those dry rocks.
I may have to soak it a bit longer, just to get the crud off.
Probably do a big water change also. Just tap water, so not a big deal - but it is 300 gallons total.
Tank is probably cycling. I guess I could check ammonia levels for fun.

----

I have been setting up powerheads as well.
I am very disappointed on how noisy the Tunze Stream2 pumps are.
I am really picky though. Not like they are remotely as noisy as a skimmer or something.
You expect something more expensive to be at least on-par with the Koralias.
Better flow, but definitely a lot noisier.
That one is going in the sump.
I am also making small brackets inside the tank to hold the powerheads.
Primarily due to thick acrylic that is right up against the house wall.
But also acts as a noise reducer.