The build thread: 430gal. display

Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#101
#101
I just finished setting one of the books and the other is half-prepped, so I should be good for Monday. Woohoo!

Site meeting today and it seemed like there were a thousand people in there working. The roofers are there, the window installers, the HVAC people, the electricians, the door makers, and the regular crew are all framing some of the downstairs interior walls. 8)

Had a short meeting with the electrician and backup generator people. The electrician is going to make sure one panel contains heating/air conditioning, the refrigerators, all of the aquarium pump outlets, and minimal lighting throughout the house just to keep the place habitable in case of emergency. I think we'll probably wind up with a 20,000KW unit.
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#103
#103
Well, you know, as long as we're doing it we're trying to never have to do it again. I sure as heck never want to move again.

My lovely bride and I do work at home so we're there 24/7. That's another of the motivating factors to making it pretty nice in there.
 
osprey77

osprey77

Angel Fish
#104
#104
I understand the work at home thing. Tank makes a great stress release here in the office. You better have one heck of an open house after all this.
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#105
#105
The roofers were in today. Sigh. Pretty much the first bad experience and only just one of the employees. The building crew bails out at half a day on Fridays if they've gotten enough work done that week. I assume that's one of the ways they keep good employees. But as soon as the crew left, this one guy on the roofing crew was screaming and yelling, "If the construction guys aren't here then I don't see why I have to work." "We should leave the nails out here so the construction guys step on them." Racial slurs. Smoking in the house. (The builders designate the house as a no-smoking zone not just for health reasons, but also because there's a ton of sawdust around and kerosene for heating oil, etc.) And that employee sure as heck didn't do any more work the rest of the afternoon. Of course, another couple of guys were doing their jobs and probably angry at this guy.

Anyway, in good news, the construction supervisor emailed this morning and this sentence jumped out at me:

As all stands as of now we expect to complete the project sometime in late Sept excluding landscaping which will be underway at this time.
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Woohoo!
 
stugray

stugray

Blenny
#106
#106
Wow!

I had no idea you were getting this extreme with the new build.

When you finally start getting into the details, let me know. I work in Boulder & would love to have a look.

Lets see some more details of the plan for the setup ( which pumps, skimmers, plenum-or-no-plenum, etc. ).

Good Luck!

Stu
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#108
#108
Damn, I didn't get a message that there were any posts. I was just signing in to post an update. Hi guys! Should I do the update first?

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I just put up a bunch of new photos. I tried to go through the house again and take pictures like it was a tour including silly things like views out the windows and such. So, there might be repeats of things you've already seen, but I was trying to give a good overall impression.

http://65.102.221.68/remodel.html

One thing that I did notice was that the geothermal guys had connected the unit on the 2nd floor all the way down to the basement. I'm very excited for them to get that running. They should have the drilling rig out this week to drill all of the geo holes. Believe me, I'll be taking some photos of that!
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Now that that's done.... :)

Hey Cris! We wound up going with Aquariums For You out of New Jersey. I've heard bad things about their acrylic work, but lots of good things about their glass. They're behind schedule, though, and I think that's driving the project manager nuts 'cause he's ready for the tank to be here. Me, too, for that matter.

Stu come over any time. The crew usually starts bailing out by around 3:00 during the week. Subs often stay later, but even they're usually gone by 4:30 or so. Just give me a call so I can be sure to be around. Do you have my number?

I had no idea you were getting this extreme with the new build.
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Yeah, well, I don't think we did, either. :) It's a good thing we did, though. We're sinking a lot of money into fixing a lot of pretty iffy structural issues that we didn't discover until the project got underway. But, I'm really happy now that all of those things have been taken care of.

Lets see some more details of the plan for the setup ( which pumps, skimmers, plenum-or-no-plenum, etc. ).
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Mwa-ha-ha! The nitty gritty! Actually, with Mike from Aqua Imports doing most of the work, I don't have all of the info in my head like I usually would. But, my philosophy is to have a lot of water behind-the-scenes to help keep the display tank stable despite my feeding like a mad fiend. That's pretty much the goal here.

Mike's planning on reusing the tanks I have downstairs: so the 40 long will still be plumbed in there with my 120. He's planning on a 180 for the sump. In addition, he's planning on also plumbing in 6 more 90 gallon tanks.

One of them will just be plumbed for doing quick water changes (take it out of the loop, drain the water, add new water, and add it back into the loop).

One will be homebase for the skimmers: two Deltec AP902s (http://www.deltecusa.us/proteinskimmers/ap902.php, thanks Luis!).

I think two are earmarked for refugiums. One above the 120--that I think will end up being a seahorse tank at some point--and one to go straight to the sump and up to the display.

All of these will be able to be bypassed in the system if necessary, so that all can be in service as QT tanks in the early days.

I'm also planning, whether Mike knows it or not :) , to include at least one 55 gal. RDSB into the system.

I've decided not to include the drainable plenum this time. I never used it last time and I did a thorough check of the sandbed. My overfeeding gave me tons of life in the sandbed, thousand upon thousands of animals, and absolutely pristine sand at the end. _No_ discoloration at all. I heard Eric Borneman describe a bacteria crash that sounded remarkably similar to the one I had. He said that it usually came from too much disturbing of sponges in tank moves. I was taking a toothbrush to my rocks trying to get rid of bubble algae and took out a lot of sponge life in the process. At any rate, I don't think my crash was a problem with disturbing my sandbed. So, I think I'm going to just overfeed and get a lot of life in my sand and call it a day.

Equipment:
Lights. Short side (Euphyllia garden). 2 x 250W Ushio 14,000K metal halides. LumenMax reflectors.
Long side. 4 x 400W Ushio 14,000K metal halides. LumenMax reflectors.

Electronic ballasts. He's planning on Gallaxy ballasts. I haven't heard much about them.

Water movement. Closed loop. Eductors on the returns.

More in a minute, food just got here. :)
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#109
#109
Water movement. Three Hammerheads on the closed loop. Two Iwaki MD100RLT as return pumps from the basement. I wanted two as backup in case of a failure in one.

Most of the return water comes into the aquarium on the short arm of the "L". This will push water in, hopefully, a fairly crazy way all the way across the tank to an overflow at the far end of the long arm. I have space for five 2" drain pipes in the overflow. At least one, and maybe two, will be normally dry and extended up over the water level of the tank to use as emergency overflows in case of any blockage in the other pipes.

Misc.:

I'm planning on plumbing a UV in-line with the closed loops. I may never use it, but it's there if I ever want it.

Underneath the tank, there will only be the closed-loop pumps and UV. Otherwise the space under the tank will be set up as an enormous water-tight space with drains in the floor that will divert water to the sewer line in case of catastrophic failure of the bottom of the tank.

Calcium. I have a two-stage calcium reactor that I'm going to try to dial in for this tank. I'm also planning on a kalk stirrer and doser.

I'm also planning on using a controller of some sort, but I haven't decided on brand yet. Mike suggested one brand but it only interfaces with PCs and I'm a Mac guy. I can't believe this controller doesn't interface with some sort of Web-based program, honestly. What better way to get your controller to be cross-platform? Especially, since it does give you a Web server. Sigh. So, I'm still in the market there.

Did I miss anything? :)
 
stugray

stugray

Blenny
#110
#110
Controller

"I'm also planning on using a controller of some sort, but I haven't decided on brand yet."

I have a homebrew controller project that is very close to working.

It is a rabbit Micro RCM4010 with ethernet. I have it controlling 4 PWM circuits ( for LED dimming, DC powerhead speed, hood fan speed, & Icecap660 dimmer control ) plus Analog to Digital converter inputs ( for Ph, ORP, Salinity probes ) I just havent perfected the High Impedance Op-Amp circuit required to read the probes. It also has a 2 line LCD display & web server capability. In addition I have ~20 I/O pins left over to control AC power modules for pumps, lights, heaters, etc.

Beyond that, I have figured out the Dallas 1-Wire system for temperature/humidity monitoring & general I/O.

If you are looking for a fun project ( as if you dont have your hands full ) we could figure out the rest. I just dont know your expertise in programming ( the place I am currently lacking ).

Stu
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#111
#111
I just dont know your expertise in programming
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Very, very low and very specific in application. I did write a bunch of software to automate a lot of my business needs a long time ago, but that was pretty much just Basic, Applescript, and Word macros. Other than that, not much. I'm pretty good at breaking projects down into small chunks and taking care of those, but I often have to reinvent the wheel because I haven't the shared coder experience of the day-to-day slogging.

Anyway, sounds scary to me! :) That's quite the DIY.
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#112
#112
Annotations on the website! Oh, aren't I getting fancy? Next I might have to get graphics or something.

http://65.102.221.68/remodel.html

No sign of the tank yet. The contact person at the aquarium maker is out of town. Sigh. I asked for photos of the aquarium build, but those'll have to wait, too. Sorry. I'm trying for you here.

The builder's decided to go for a partial rough inspection and finish later with the tank, so that he can start installing insulation and drywall. They should start drilling geothermal holes next week (we had a weird snowfall this last week that threw off getting the phone lines moved so the drilling equipment could get in).
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#113
#113
I hope I'm not too completely incoherent. I can't sleep so I'm going to try to update my thread. We drilled for oil this week. I don't think we found any, but maybe we managed some heat. We passed the rough inspection for the water this week! Framing continues--they are siding what needs it on the rear of the house and otherwise getting ready for the masons to show up Monday after next to start laying brick. Design-wise, we spent the week trying to get figure out if the kitchen sink is far enough away from the stove. There were some unforeseen issues that wound up chipping away at the space between until it was finally just too tight. So, we finally decided to just push it six inches into the living room. Problem solved.

The big evil issue now: The tank. It's now supposed to be three _more_ weeks, and it is now late enough to be causing a lot of problems with finishing other things. But, what can you do?

A highlight. Electrical boxes and plug boxes for above the aquarium:





More photos: http://65.102.221.68/remodel.html
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#114
#114
I have some new photos up at the website: http://65.102.221.68/remodel.html

But, as I finally have some tank build photos, I'll post some here. The electrician has roughed in the electrical for the fish room.







I really hate to have a plug and no where to plug it into. :)

I STILL don't know when the tank will be here. :( It's really holding up the rest of the house at the moment. Grr.

As far as the rest of the house goes, it's all going really well. The masons are held up at another job, but I think they're planning to start laying brick tomorrow. The tile guy is supposed to start building the basin for the downstairs shower, maybe tomorrow on that as well.

Otherwise, it's kind of sad. We've just about run out of things for most of the carpenters to do, so about half the crew is being pulled out to start working on another project. I'm really glad that we're to that point, but it's sad to see them go. It's going to be awfully quiet over there in the morning from now on. I think from now on the majority of the work is going to subcontractors.
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#115
#115
Well, I found out why the tank's so very late today. The tank builders went out of business. :( So, now we're scrambling to get someone else. If they had just told us, we could have found someone else months ago, but they lied to us and strung us along. Sigh.
 
crisc

crisc

Tang
M.A.S.C Club Member
Platinum Sponsor
#117
#117
Andy that blows. I only used that company one time and that was enough for me. I am sure that you are looking around, but I have had good luck with Concept Aquariums. They are priced better and their aquariums are solid. Don't get me wrong, AFY can build a good aquarium but not if they are out of business!

Concept Aquariums
1-877-444-6711
http://www.conceptaquarium.com/index.html
Contact: Lori Cameron

They might even remember the project as they had bid it for me a while ago. I think you have changed some things since then. I am ordering 5 new ones from them as we speak for my next project.
Cris

PS I really like the amount of outlets in the fish room. It will make life easier and keep it clean and professional looking. Nicely done!
 
Ummfish

Ummfish

Dolphin
M.A.S.C Club Member
#118
#118
Grr.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=12601654#post12601654

Well, so me and my builders' are not the only ones screwed.

Fortunately, Aqua Imports are being amazing about this right now. They are treating the deposit with AFY as their money and not my money, and that's pretty much the coolest thing ever. Hopefully we aren't past the date where they can get money back from their credit card company.

Thanks, Christina!

Thanks so much, Cris. I will pass the info along.
 
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