Ted_C's 320 Build

[Ted_C]

My build starts with the delivery of my tank in Jan 2015. I ordered my AGE 8' x 32" x 24 " tank in October 2014 from a local LFS (FAOIS). The tank has sat in my garage until a few weeks ago as I gathered my resources and built out everything that was needed.

The plan was:
AGE 320 (96" x 32" 24") 3 side Low iron glass, black back, PVC bottom. Steel framed
Steel Stand 42" high
Beananimal external coast to coast overflow.
Custom designed sump w/ filter socks.
4x 1" Deluxe Multi-Sea Swirls
2x PacSun Hyperion Pandora S (that'll give me 4 banks of 145 W LEDs and 8 39W T5)
NYOS Quantum 300 Protein skimmer
2x Ecotech MP 70 on the sides and 2x Ecotech MP 40 on the rear wall
Tradewinds 1/2 hp Chiller
AquaUV 57W Ultraviolet w/ wiper.
Neptune Apex Gold
2x Waveline DC12000 Return pumps
1x Waveline DC 10000 sump re-circulation pump.
Avast Marine K2 Kalk Stirrer

The first step was building out the overflow. I had the external made and the internal was just cut pieces that I needed to assemble. It was easier to do it this way since the 6 holes in the tank would be impossible to measure out and send to a fabricator. This way I could clamp the pieces to the aquarium, mark out the holes and drill out what I needed.

Original design idea:

Building out the internal overflow:

Internal (Assembled):

What it looks like on the tank:

 

[Ted_C]

My next step was to make water changes easier for the tank and for my rock curing setup.

Water Mixing station plumbing:

A spectrapure UHE Max 100 GPD RO/DI Unit:

Overall:

The copper work I had to do (I had the hardest time getting this to work - the solder just wouldn't hold since I apparantly hadn't cleaned the copper adequately): Tee on the left and the 3/4" to 1/2" 90 on the right + the plumbing to the valves for the slop sink.

 

[Ted_C]

With the water mixing station set-up - the next step was to clean up and get the 250 pounds of BRS Dry pukani rock curing. To accomplish this - I had a 100 gallon trough from TSC. I plumbed in a Little Giant - 2-MDQX-SC Inline Pump and two Tunze Turbelle Stream 6085 Pump with a filter sock holder.

1st was 2.5 gallons of Pool bleach soak over a week:

A muriatic acid bath over a day:

 

[jsker]

Following on this one.

 

[Ted_C]

Next up was to finish out what I needed on the tank. Light frames and mounting the seaswirls. I went with EZTube as my choice for the frame. I'll get it skinned at a later date when the funds are available.

Their part# 250 (Dual fins) fit the steel support frame perfectly. Everything else was made up of staight pieces and 3/4" single fin

Completed assembly:

 

[Dreadnaught]

Great build

 

[Ted_C]

Its getting closer to being done. I hired a moving company to lift the tank up on the stand. Worked really well with 4 of these: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007VL3CB0/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

After that - I assembled the overflow (i used silicon and extra o'rings to make sure there is no leakage between the glass and the external overflow.

I'm filling it up with saltwater as I type this and leak checking. Nothing serious so far. But I have 300 gallons to go.

Here's a crappy picture of the electrical:

The completed aquascape (used about 30 pounds of Marco rock Aquascaping cement)

Aquascape RHS:

The sump:

 

[jsker]

I like the bridge in the middle of the aquascape

 

[Ted_C]

Thanks! I'm not liking the "chaos" I have over on the right hand side. However, it offers many hiding holes for the fish. I might have a tad too much rock...

 

[justingraham]

Following can u take a pic of how ur running ur sea swirls? And why do u have the lights so far back? The looks like it's a good foot away from the front of the tank.

 

[Ted_C]

how ur running ur sea swirls

Two return pumps (DC12000) - each one feeds two sea swirls. I have it plumbed from sump to the Tee with 1.5" plumbing. The Tee is 1.5" x 1" x 1" - then 1" to the sea swirls. I then have a side out 90 on the end of the sea swirls - one outlet is just a 3/4" locline outlet. the other is a 3/4" eductor. I'll have more pics once I have it up and running. 130 gallons is currently in the system. working on the other 200+ gallons.

And why do u have the lights so far back?

The Lights are centered front to back and left to right. what your probably seeing is the frame doesn't extend to the front because I want a piano hinge style front door on the canopy.

 

[justingraham]

I head it's not good to run penductors on sea swirls they aren't meant to handle the backward pressure and will blow the o ring

 

[justingraham]

I'm running two 3/4 on a closed loop ran by a vectra m1 and it's just the perfect amount of flow out of both sea swirls.
Then on my regular return I have a penductor and that thing is crazy I would say it added 7-8x more flow. I can see it moving the sand after the water has bounced off three of the walls

 

[Ted_C]

I head it's not good to run penductors on sea swirls they aren't meant to handle the backward pressure and will blow the o ring

Should be all right with two outlets per sea-swirl. no back pressure is involved. I have run this same setup on my oceanic 150 (except everything is 1/2 of the 320) for 2 years now.

 

[justingraham]

Should be all right with two outlets per sea-swirl. no back pressure is involved. I have run this same setup on my oceanic 150 (except everything is 1/2 of the 320) for 2 years now.

Hum this is interesting to me as that I wanted to do this. So considering water wants to take the easiest route and u have it come to a y fitting so it would try to go out of the othe y side since water is so lazy does the penductor or enductor (both the same ) which if u read how they work they work the best with back pressure. So does it even tech work at 5-6 x overflow? Because I really wanted to do this but was advised by sea swirl that a) it's not needed and b) that it wouldn't be worth it because u wouldn't get the "full results" and could c) could cause damage.
Now u have me wondering as I have extra penductors to try out. So I guess with all my rambling my question is when u put ur hand in front of the penductor does it feel like more flow then when u put ur hand on the other side of the y?

Also is it done filling up yet? I'm excited for ya.

 

[Ted_C]

it'll take me three days to fill the tank. I can only generate about 100 gallons per day.

 

[revhtree]

Very nice build!

 

[Ted_C]

Bah. I took a risk filling it with saltwater - thinking I wouldn't have any major leaks. Boy was I wrong.

One of the bulkheads on the external overflow was over tightened and snapped the head off inside the internal box. I didn't think it would matter much - as the external box holes were silliconed before tightening it down. What happened was - water could leak into the internal box between the glass and the back of the box (very slowly). What this means is in the event of a power outage - the main tank would drain down to the bottom of the bulkhead (around 67 gallons) into the sump. The sump I have couldn't handle that in case of an emergency. Moot point anyway - after getting it running - I had a leak between the glass and the external box on that bulkhead that snapped on me.

That means I need to drain and discard 300 gallons from the display so I can move the tank to get behind it and disassemble the internal and external boxes. The good news is I get redo a few design flaws.

The external box is too low on the back of the tank (holes are pretty much centered in the box). The external box needs to sit higher. This is to allow less water-fall and allow me to fill the box up a bit more to fine tune the beananimal drainage system.

The current water height in the display is 1/4" below the bottom of the bracing. The internal box is about 1.5" below the bracing - I can up this by .5" - giving me more total water in the main display - so the water will go to the bottom of the bracing.

I need to redesign a new sump. The current design has the tank drain into a compartment then flow over into filter socks. It's way too noisy. Instead - I'll have the pipes go directly into filter socks and use nipples so I can remove the pipes and use a slider filter sock holder so I can remove the socks. I might design in a refugium as well. at 24"x 48" x 16" of available space, I have the space available for it. I also have enough rock rubble and extra rock - I could clean up the chaos over on the right hand side a little better.

Edit: Some good news - none of the PVC glued fittings leaked. I had minor leaks at the threaded fittings @ the chiller and the tops of the pumps. Tightened them up and had no additional problems.

 

[Ted_C]

Here I am back at trying this out. Those leaks from nearly a year ago were fairly discouraging and it took quite a bit of motivation to get moving again.

The sump has been redesigned. I've re-built the internal overflow. Had to get a new external overflow. I've added an additional open channel to the drains (giving me 4 pipes: one siphon, two open and one emergency) I've gotten around to hiring a great woodworker to skin the tank and canopy. Re-plumbed alot of what was done previously. Re-plumbed and moved the chiller into the inside of the stand (heat is not going to be a problem - it's separate from the sump)

This time, instead of taking chances with leaks, I took the advice of my LFS owner. Cap the drains and fill the external overflow for 24 hours to check for leaks. Since I didn't break bulkheads this time - everything worked out fine. I also filled up the sump and turned on the re-circulation (through UV/Chiller):

Having passed the overflow test - started filling it:

Sorry for the bad reflections in this one - it's just too darn nice down here to close up the windows.

 

[Ted_C]

After another 100 gallons today - I am close to being able to turn on the returns and get under operation. Its considerably more cloudy today but once I start getting flow through the filter socks it should clear up.

More Pics: