Dragon2115's 180 Tank Build - update

[Dragon2115]

It's been awhile but progress has been made. I finally got the sump running with fresh water in it today. The display tank is just waiting for some last minute silicone touch-ups to dry before full system startup.

Here's a few pics.

 

[Miller]

Looking good. What is the egg crate setting in the bottom of the tank for?

 

[pillowfish]

Looking good...I need to upgrade soon, sigh..tank envy!


Barry-
I think some people place the egg crate on the bottom of the tank to halp stabilize and give a nice foundation for the LR. At least that has been the answer I received most when I asked the same thing.

 

[chew*]

Some people want to be able to move LR without disturbing the sand bed, It's a common belief that a well established tank and disturbed sand bed don't mix. I think thats what the eggcrate is for in his application.

Me personally I used small LR chunks pushed through the sand bed right to the glass, My LR that you see is actually sitting on those chunks and not the sandbed. Eggcrate is more affordable however.

 

[Miller]

Barry-
I think some people place the egg crate on the bottom of the tank to halp stabilize and give a nice foundation for the LR. At least that has been the answer I received most when I asked the same thing.

That could be it, I was kind of thinking of something like that.

Me personally I used small LR chunks pushed through the sand bed right to the glass, My LR that you see is actually sitting on those chunks and not the sandbed. Eggcrate is more affordable however.

We did the same thing but used dry base rocks sense they were going to be majority covered with sand.

 

[Dragon2115]

Thanks. It's been a long time getting to this point. It's nice to finally see signs of life.

The egg crate is to provide a good solid foundation for the rock so any burrowing critters don't undermine it while at the same time keeping it off the glass so there's no chance of causing a stress riser.

 

[ReeferMedic]

Nice to see that tank is finally getting wet.

 

[Ifferfish]

I love pictures!!!

 

[DawnOctopus]

Nice tank... And I *love* your peach walls!!!

 

[Dragon2115]

Thanks everyone.

I went for a full system test last night. And let me just say, I hate plumbing. j/k What I should say is, I hate plumbing when I don't get it perfect on the first try. However, it was a good test of how things come apart and how my system drains work. Here's what I found.

1. Main drain bulkhead had a slow seeping leak. Ok, tightened that up a little and all set.

2. Double check, and I can't stress this enough, all of your glue joints. I found one I overlooked on the drain from the return line. Yeah, it's a 1" pressure line. Lets just say it's a damn good thing I was right next to it at the time. Spent some quality time with the mop for that little oversight. Nuf said.

3. The acrylic piece that hides the glass overflow sucks for the volume of water I'm moving. The slots in it were 1/8" and couldn't handle the flow and caused the level in the tank to get uncomfortably high. After a trip to the table saw to open up the slots to 1/4" it started running properly. I'm still contemplating trimming 1/8" off the whole top edge just to feel better about it.

4. Then I decide to test the closed loop. Did I mention I hate plumbing? Ok, I open the valves and get a couple of minor seeping leaks from a few of the threaded fittings. I used teflon tape it's just that when screwing plastic into plastic I didn't want to over torque it and snap a pump housing. I tightened everything to what I thought was reasonable but apparently that wasn't quite enough. Ok, so I get all of the nuisance leaks taken care of and start up the Snapper pump. Remember what I said about the acrylic piece a minute ago? I opened the gate valve and holy schnikies batman I thought I was going to overflow the tank for a minute there. Ok, out comes the acrylic piece and now the system runs fine. The Oceans Motions four-way is doing it's thing and the Snapper pump is making plenty of flow. Ok, one more good reason to reconsider modifying this acrylic piece. On a side note it's interesting watching the level inside the overflow box change by 2-3" as the flow changes from the four-way switching directions.

5. I did some power failure testing and at least in this area everything went as planned right out of the gate. No close calls from back siphoning.


At that point I was ready to go watch Futurama and crash. Well, that was the adventure for the evening.