cullymoto Posted July 27, 2014 Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 (edited) Hello. Thanks for looking in. I'll do something of a journal here, don't know forums well enough to make a real one lol. Here is where it all starts. This is going to be the fish room. The opening in the wall is 32 inch by 82 inch. The tank will be two feet wide. ... I made the builder install a second engineered beam in the floor under this wall for weight considerations. Stay tuned! An explanation of the colored drawing photo; This photo is the simple version of the plumbing design. It does not show valves, uv, heaters, lighting, controllers, pumps, air supply etc. it simply serves to explain the water movement. The black rectangles are the large show tank and the smaller sump tank. The blue line is the transfer line. Water will flow from the main tank to the sump. The blue line will have an elevated section, this section will prevent water in the system from dropping below its elevation. The pink line runs to drain. The small black line is an air vent The brown line is return from sump to tank The yellow line is from storage tank The hard to see dotted green line is an elevation mark, this shows the minimum water level. Edited October 9, 2014 by cullymoto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullymoto Posted July 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 (edited) An information spot. The idea of this all is that there's going to be a window into a river in my living room. The show tank will be approximately 300 gallons with a 90 gallon sump / refugium. There will be a large storage tank in the basement with 500 to 600 gallons capacity. This storage vessel will be heated and aerated ready to go for water change replacement water. The storage vessel will be half tap and half r/o filtered water. There will be a large external pump to move water from the storage up to the show tank system. The show tank will be drilled in the bottom in two places as the filter draw. The drilled holes will be covered by 3d plastic grates, similar to what you find on a canister filter intake tube. Those two covers will be the only hardware you will see. The water will pass through a uv filter before going into the sump. Water will pass through dish pot scrubbers for mech. Filtration, then plastic bio balls, then ehiem biological filter media, then through a chamber of purigen. After filtration water will pass through a planted area under 24 hour light that will house many many ghost and algae eating shrimp. There will be a large submersible pump in a filter bag in the refugium pushing water back to the show tank. Between the sump and show tank will be a second uv filter and three inline heaters. Both the show tank and sump system will be at identical elevations ( that's important in this design ) gravity will cause the two tanks to have an identical water level. As the pump in the sump moves water, it creates a low water level in the sump, and a high water level in the show tank. At all times the water will be moving to equalize, except when there is a power outage and flow stops. There will be a computer controlled auto water change system. I'm a discus keeper, there will be one 99% water change every week and smaller "spot" water changes as required. ...hard to explain this part without a drawing. Basically an electronic valve will drain the two tanks from the plumbing beneath the show tank ( there will be a mechanical, no moving parts system to prevent total drainage ) once drained a water level sensor will power the large pump at the storage tank that will refill both tanks simultaneously. I still need a system to accurately dose either safe or prime, as well as a dry powder kh boost. ( any help would be appreciated ) There will be three custom built led lights over the show tank and a controller. This will allow me to cover the full spectrum of a natural day / night cycle. I think the lighting might just steal the show on this whole system. There will be a large 3d background and slimline covers for the two sides of the show tank as well. The bottom will be a mixture of a light / near white sand and ecopoxy. This I have done in my current 125 and it gives the effect of a bare bottom system while looking like a normal sand bottom aquarium. Very easy to clean, but permanent. After two years with this setup I'm getting a covering of green algae across the bottom. Looks very natural. If you made it to the end of this post, your a real fish nerd! Lol thanks for looking in Edited September 21, 2014 by cullymoto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullymoto Posted July 27, 2014 Author Report Share Posted July 27, 2014 (edited) Time for an update! Progress continues. I've gotten the water change water holding tank installed and operational. Might install an overflow system on it just as a safety but, I've never had issues with the valves I use. Play that by ear.(see photos below) My electronic actuated valve has come in, I think it's dam near a piece of art lol! A significant portion of the automation equipment is here ready to go (neptune apex) just waiting on a couple back ordered pieces and their new DOS pumps that I'll be using to control liquid chemicals. I gave up on using powder. Also, just last night the 3d background came in. This thing is both monstrous and goergous! The tank builder will be done soon and then the assembly can begin! Edited November 23, 2014 by cullymoto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullymoto Posted August 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2014 (edited) Reserved. Thanks Time for an update! Over the holidays there were some extreme delays in getting some problems sorted out. Long story short, builder didn't do what they were hired to do and it took an extra month to get it sorted out. In the end, the builder made it right. Check out some photos! Tho photos are of fitting the 3d background, then of me installing the epoxy + sand mix. Hard to get a sense of scale until you see the pics of me in there. I'm 6' tall lol. Edited January 10, 2015 by cullymoto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psylant Posted August 18, 2014 Report Share Posted August 18, 2014 I think this place does some custom sizes and what not. It's not cheap and the shipping will cost a fortune though. http://www.universalrocks.com/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullymoto Posted September 21, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2014 (edited) Reserved Update posted: It's been a pretty crazy few weeks, and I worked my butt off getting things to where they are. So much so that I never stopped to take photos to document the process. Once I got the background in and the tank hardscaped I got busy doing all the support stuff behind the aquarium. I will get photos up into this post eventually, for now I'll do details. I built a catwalk platform behind the tank, the top of the aquarium is 6 feet off the floor after all. I've plummed the aquarium together into the sump, made baffles in the sump (which then failed) and then redid the sump lol. I've hung shelves to hold equipment, I've wall mounted dosing pumps and Neptune apex components... Built a diy powered syphon unit, plumbed the refill system into the other components, routed drainage, tested everything... Fixed leaks... Lots has happened. Had a local sign shop make vinyl prints from photographs of the 3d background for the outside of the sides. Still have things to do, like putting trim along the front of the aquarium to hide edges and top/bottom. For now, enjoy a photo of the aquarium running (still have a canister filter running to help establish biofilter, but that intake and hose to the left will be gone soon) and a close up of my non photogenic wet children Edited January 26, 2015 by cullymoto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullymoto Posted October 14, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 14, 2014 (edited) Reserved Edited November 23, 2014 by cullymoto Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperGuppyGirl Posted October 14, 2014 Report Share Posted October 14, 2014 I would check with any commercial livestock supply stores, maybe see if UFA has something or can point you in the right direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jjt1 Posted October 15, 2014 Report Share Posted October 15, 2014 (edited) There is a plastic tank manufacturer in Crossfield that would be worth looking into. SMS Plastics. Edited October 15, 2014 by jjt1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullymoto Posted November 23, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2014 Update occurred. See above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jvision Posted November 23, 2014 Report Share Posted November 23, 2014 Just wondering what the purpose of the 24hr lighted plant section is. Is it nutrient uptake? With all of your WCs it seems quite redundant (not a bad thing w discus, tho) with nearly pure water, you might not get much growth and 24hr light will be overkill. Is it for O2 production? If that's what you're going for, you'll need to balance nutrients for noticeable O2 production. If nobody is going to see the plant section, and it's just for nutrient uptake, a floating plant like duckweed would work best under 24hr light. Great build! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikeaholic Posted November 29, 2014 Report Share Posted November 29, 2014 Looks good!!! kind of reminds me of my set up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pikeaholic Posted November 29, 2014 Report Share Posted November 29, 2014 I wish this site would let me pull and drag pic's, so out of date!!!!!!!!!!!!! Too bad Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cullymoto Posted January 10, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2015 Update occurred. See post 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cichlidtank Posted March 18, 2015 Report Share Posted March 18, 2015 This is amazing! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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