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Liams 180 Gallon project

thanks again.
No doors on yet, i got tied up doing other household chores this weekend.
My skimmer is coming today,i will post plenty more pics of the sump set up,plumbing etc as it comes along.:)
 
well the skimmer arrived today:)
i was originally going with a Barr aquatics skimmer but due to the fact brent barr has just sold out his designs to a company called Austins oceans and it would seem they don't have their act together and could not meet my deadline on the skimmer.So i went to Andy Diass at MRC and let him know of my situation,he really came through for me and i had my skimmer in 5 days which is awesome for a skimmer that is not an off the shelf skimmer.
The skimmer arrived well packaged and here are the parts
 

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and here it is assembled.
it is a twin beckett recirculating skimmer,as you can see from the chair for scale in the background it is a fair sized unit.The beauty of this skimmer is it can be upgraded easily by adding another riser.
Its quite a work of art and i hope it works as good as it looks.
 

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Nice, what pump will power that?
 
Nice, what pump will power that?

it will run on a genx 40 or 55,i will try both(obviously the less costly running one first:) ) Because the pump will be mounted right next to the skimmer there will be no headloss,the skimmer will be fed directly off one overflow.
I am plumbing it now:)
 
ok here it is all plumbed in.
The 1 inch spaflex coming down the middle is my right hand overflow,it is feeding the skimmer exactly 450gph,at the top of this pipe you can see a T ,this is a redundant pipe that goes to the sump incase anything should ever block in the skimmer and hence block the overflow.
The pump to the right is purely a recirculating pump that is on a loop powering the two 1408 beckett injectors.
Halfway up on the right to the side of the becketts you can just make out the needle valves for adjusting airflow and bubble size,i had an ozone port added to one of these to inject ozone through.
Right noew i temporarily ran the 1 1/2 inch drain right into my sump but the drain will eventually be feeding my frag tank to the right.
 

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here is a close up of the riser chamber
 

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and here is whats going on in my sump.I have a cut down 55 gallon brute in which both my overflows dump(in reality only one because the other feeds the skimmer).This barrell will house my refugium chaeto and weill have a floodlight hanging over it on a reverse lighting schedule.The water overflows from here out of the screened outflow which is to prevent the chaeto escaping.The pipe on the right is my temporary skimmer drain.
 

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Why come thru the side of the stock tank with bulkheads for drains instead of over the top?
 
so in winter i can close it down better to help against heat loss.

The stock tank has holes threaded into the top you could mount plexi to.
you might find that covering a good part of the sump will reduce your evaporation as well.
 
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The stock tank has holes threaded into the top you could mount plexi to.
you might find that covering a good part of the sump will reduce your evaporation as well.

I am going to cut one of those insulation panels to fit the top in winter,i need the top open in summer for cooling,hopefully i can avoid the chiller.
Yes the ozone port is on the rear injector,Andy at MRC actually sent me a couple of those fittings because i guess the ozone does a number on the John guest fittings.
I only expect to be injecting a very small amount of ozone for water clarity purposes,the becketts should help greatly keeping the ORP up.
 
Liam, The MRC looks sweet, but is there a reason you aren't going to use your deltec skimmer on the new setup?
 
Liam, The MRC looks sweet, but is there a reason you aren't going to use your deltec skimmer on the new setup?

well the ap600 i have just wont be big enough,i wish i could use it.I did not want to drop $1500 for an appropriately sized deltec.
I am running the MRC on my right hand overflow and i may just end up keeping my deltec and running it on the left hand drain,that way i get the benefits of both styles of skimming.:)
 
Running them both sounds like a great idea :) I hear you on the 1500 for the deltec. I like the design of the MRC, and will be interested in your results with it !!

-Brian
 
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