Neptune Aquatics

Yet another cube, small cube thing in progress.

Eh, it's a done thing. I upped to regular primer and I have a lovely white wall... where ever there was new drywall, unfortunately the old paint that's there is absolutely sucking up the primer like they were stuck in the damn desert for weeks.
 
Worked a little while on figuring out the plumbing; fitting PVC before glueing and thinking what to do with the second drain as I’ll set the return over the rim.
Thinking the old fashion way of a closed loop with the second bulkhead without the pipe but that would mean I have to bring four pipes over the rim right next to the overflow and if that’s the case, I’ll need to order some black PVC.
I saved a Brute full of spare PVC fittings; most of what I had ended up in the recycling bin years ago but saved some just in case I decided to return to the hobby. I had to work the magic of un-glueing some of the unions and fittings from an old closed loop system, mainly because of the true union ball valves and did pretty good; I only cracked one elbow.
The drain of the tank has a 2” Durso style pipe but in reality is a 1” drain, that’s the size of the bulkheads.
I used sections of 1” PVC that were asking for a purpose in life but I think a trip to get a ten footer pipe should be on the list for next weekend.
The ball valve next to the skimmer section will controll flow so it can feed the fuge, the fuge pipe travels down and at the bottom of it, the diacharge PVC pipe was drilled several small holes. I will not use filter socks; I don’t have any the size for this sump’s sock holder/s but if I spor a couple for next to free, I will grab them just in case some cleaning has to be done that requires to trap large pieces going down the drain.
To light the fuge, I have to plan a trip to the east bay to get some of those Oxyleds advertised on craigslist, emailed the person and seems to know me and that means I know him/her.
 
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Still figuring out the plumbing for the closed loop; black PVC hmmm... a bit pricey so might go the route of Krylon Fusion just for the pipes, the U G L Y white pipes.
Ran out of re-purposed 1” fittings and will need more pipe but had enough to do the layout of the closed loop; I might add another pipe for the intake of the CL and leave the second bulkhead as a drain, undecided on that but I’ve set the ball valve just in case. I’m going to set strainers at first for the outputs of the CL while I figure if Lockline with the Random Flow Generators is a good option.
Sand will bury the pipes and outlets might be hidden by rockwork or just stick out a bit.
I have to add a shelf behind the stand to support the external pump; that will give room to other equipment, maybe a CaRx and if I ever get to it, a DIY Kalk reactor out of a tall skimmer body that had the collection cup section cracked while construction was taking place in the basement.
 
Wow that’s some time spent in thought!
From here...
Just one return line, maybe on a seaswirl
and a tunze for flow manipulation


Hit me with a pm
I’ll send you some clips of the same tank
 
Find out how much PVC you need, yeah the colored stuff is quite a bit pricier than the white stuff, half as much for 3 times the price in most cases (except orange for some reason, but IMO orange is fugly... sorry Neptune), but if you only need say 20 feet of the stuff, that's less than 50 bucks to have it look the way you want.
 
ABS comes naturally black but it’s normally larger diameter. I think 2” is the smallest you can get at Home Depot. Maybe you can find smaller online. I’ve got a little blue left in 3/4” and 1-1/4”.
 
Also presumably you're going to add sand to cover the pipes on the bottom, so who cares what color that is only get colored pipe for the visible pieces, just add some epoxy and dust sand to the white pipe to make it blend in if the sand does get blown off, heck you could maneuver your pipes even to keep the sand from blowing around in that case, again assuming you're going the sand route.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Also presumably you're going to add sand to cover the pipes on the bottom, so who cares what color that is only get colored pipe for the visible pieces, just add some epoxy and dust sand to the white pipe to make it blend in if the sand does get blown off, heck you could maneuver your pipes even to keep the sand from blowing around in that case, again assuming you're going the sand route.
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Sand is the plan, black sand. I’m not very concerned about the bottom pipes but the vertical ones yes.
I’ll have the tank’s back and left side blacked out, maybe a piece of ABS plastic or roll some paint on the glass so the white pipes at least have to be painted or cover them with sand over epoxy. Planning on some rock to hide the pipes too but the upper of the PVC will show for sure.
 
You could create an acrylic box out of black acrylic to slide over the pipes too, find the thinnest stuff they make since it literally doesn't have to hold back anything, sure it might take up more tank space but so are the pipes. Possibly make it slide over the bottom pipes (cut to fit) and you may not even need to silicone it into place if you want to have access to the pipes for something
 
sfsuphysics said:
You could create an acrylic box out of black acrylic to slide over the pipes too, find the thinnest stuff they make since it literally doesn't have to hold back anything, sure it might take up more tank space but so are the pipes. Possibly make it slide over the bottom pipes (cut to fit) and you may not even need to silicone it into place if you want to have access to the pipes for something
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You just reminded me I do have a piece of black plexi; it was a canopy kindly donated by Boun many, many moons ago.
Hope it is the right size for the project; already know where it’s at.
 
Well, not much progress; been a bit busy with work.
Today I stopped by and spent a few minutes bonding the pipes for the CL.
I wish had more time and add an Oceans Motions 4-way but I cannot remember where it is stored; found the 8-way; even tested an old Dart but that’s too much for this tank at the time being.
Gotta stop at HD to get a piece of flex PVC since the secondary drain is off by an inch for a straight downpour; if I move the sump forward, the pipe fits in a straight line but I loose real estate in the front of the tank for a future big size fuge.
Originally I was planning on using the second bulkhead to feed the closed-loop; ended up adding another 1” pipe with a Tee and two strainers.
I will use Krylon Fusion to paint the pipes black, the piece of plexiglass I have is too short.
 
Final touches on the plumbing part of the system.
Hope to find some time to glue the lower pieces this week. Had hoped for today to deal eith the plumbing of the tank but I ended up taking a small plumbing job for a friend at his business since today was closed due to the holiday.
I decided to do a closed-loop, worst thing that can happen is I pull the pipes out (vertical ones) plug them and use old Tunze 6100 and an even older Deco-rock and a 6080 to add flow... Just ideas.

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So no Ocean Motion? Just push water through the pipes?

I thought briefly of doing that with the overflow holes on the bottom of my tank, but last thing I want is a leaking bulkhead that I can't fix without draining the tank.
 
sfsuphysics said:
So no Ocean Motion? Just push water through the pipes?

I thought briefly of doing that with the overflow holes on the bottom of my tank, but last thing I want is a leaking bulkhead that I can't fix without draining the tank.
Click to expand...

For the OM I need more time to thinker on it and I need water in this thing as of middle of August 2018.
I can at a later time take that manifold off and replace it for the OM. In either case, The four return nozzles for the closed-loop had to be in place so sand can be set on top. I need to build a shelf behind the stand where the pump and OM can sit at tank’s level so there’s not much flow reduced due to head-loss if the pump sits on the concrete floor three feet lower.

To deal with the fear of a leaking bulkhead, I’d order the nice sch-80 from BRS, figuring they are the same diameter as the stock ABS ones.
 
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