Start of Helifax's Tank (lots of pictures)

[HelifaxNZ]

Hi Guys,

Got my two tanks on Friday before the weekend

My wife was not too happy as she thought she could have the desk where the tank will be sitting on, all clear for her to work! :oops:

But after a few compromises and a lot of sucking up - A LOT of sucking up, I'm sweet!!!!

The tanks were made by Greg - Tanks2U. He's done an awesome job.

The main tank is a cube (well almost) 500mm(H) x 450(L) x 450(W).

The sump is 500mm(L) x 300(W) x 360(H) with a couple of baffles and a fuge.

I am getting some acrylic sheets to make the overflow for the main tank which will be at the back in the middle of the tank. Also will make a corner box in the sump for the overflow water.

After much deliberation I had decided to make 2 durso standpipes in the main tank. This is just incase one is blocked for some reason. I have spoken with Jetskisteve on this and he did say it wasn't necessary, but for my piece of mind, I decided to keep it in the plans.

So here's some photos.

Before painting the back:

After painting the back: Plasticote Marine Blue Spray Paint

I was meant to make it two tone, marine blue up top and black below. Unfortunately I was happily spraying the blue then remembered about the black!!!! So decided to spray the black on the bottom half anyway, which works ok because the bottom does look slightly darker than the top when looking through.

Finished product looking through:

You maybe able to see on the right of the last photo, there is a gap. This is where all the plumbing is going through down to the sump. So no need for holes through the table.

Oh and I will be buying another table leg to help support the tank because I'm sure the end is not going to hold sand, water, and rocks!

[skuzza]

Is it on the bench in the kitchen?.Sorry if i missed the location in previous post.

[Brianemone]

fun.

what are you plans for it??? softies sps???

i would reccomend looking at getting the acylric overflow cut/molded to your design by a pro, preferably out of a material similar in colour to your background

(make sure you scrape away the paint from where you silicon on the hansen fittings)

[slappers]

looking good

[HelifaxNZ]

It's sitting on the bench in our home office.

Thanks Brianemone for that tip. I didn't even think about that!

Just bought some more plumbing today so will start on at least the durso's tonight.

I'm waiting on a quote to get my overflow, etc cut. Let's hope its not going to cost too much. If so I'll cut the teeth and holes out myself.

Not sure what I'm going to put in there yet. Definately soft corals. I'm yet to get the lighting from Ben.

All takes time and money - lots of it! Maybe I'll win the $2mil on Wednesday.

[HelifaxNZ]

Forgot to mention, I've got a little UPS as well so hopefully it will be ok for the times we have blackouts. I'll be plugging in the heater and the pump only. All the rest can be on mains.

[slappers]

looking good

[HelifaxNZ]

Thanks Slappers. Your setup is awesome too!

[HelifaxNZ]

Just finished making the standpipes last night (photo's to come). Going to get one more ball valve today and organise my overflows.

[slappers]

any updates :bounce:

[HelifaxNZ]

Hi Slapers, here's the latest update. I've received my acrylic overflows care of Modern Plastics. I decided on Marine Blue see through. It looks very nice. I'm yet to cut the teeth. It's 3mm thick. They don't have blue see through acrylic any thicker. I was going to use my jigsaw, but I think I will keep with the manual hacksaw. It cost $33.75. Would have cost an extra $60 or more to get them to cut the teeth.

You can just see a peak of the colour, not that it really looks like much.

Here's a picture of the standpipes as promised.

And here's a picture of my Moonlights that I made. I just need to find some 20mm bungs for both ends.

I'll do another update once I have the teeth cut. Which hopefully will be this weekend.

[Pies]

How big are the DURSO stand pipes? You realise that for them to work they need to be larger than the rest of the plumbing? So if you drain to a 25mm they need to be 32mm or larger? e.g. I use 40mm plumbing to my sump and my DURSO are 50mm.

Pie

[HelifaxNZ]

No one mentioned that! They're 20mm PVC Piping. I do have two of them which might help?

Oh and the picture of the moonlights which I forgot to add:

[Pies]

No idea if two would make any difference or not. You should check Richard Durso's web site for information on the correct setup and assembly for the stand pipes.

Better to catch it now then install it and have problems once its wet.

Pie

[HelifaxNZ]

Bummer, that's where I read it from, but must have forgotten about that part. For everyone elses benefit, here is the excerpt from the website that I missed. :-?

http://www.dursostandpipes.com/

"If you have a 1 inch bulkhead the standpipe needs to be larger than the bulkhead to work correctly. I get a lot of e-mail questions on why this is. Honestly, I'm not sure. Typically if you use 1 inch PVC pipe on a 1 inch bulkhead you get poor results. (Some exceptions with smaller low flow tanks.) Take my word on it and use 1¼ inch PVC pipe. For very large tanks with large return pumps however, there does not seem to be any need to oversize the standpipe for larger bulkheads such as 1.5 inch. Larger bulkheads can use PVC pipe & fittings that match the size of the bulkhead. (I consider tanks in the 350 gallon and up good candidates for 1.5 inch bulkheads). "

[HelifaxNZ]

I've made them both already (not glued!), so I will give it a test run. If I find it doesn't work, then I will change it to larger pipes. It will be a good test.

[HelifaxNZ]

Ok, here's an update:

Picture of my cut overflows:

Sump overflow pieces. Had to cut in half so it makes it easier to cut the slots:

Glueing together:

Finished product of the sump:

Here's some pics of the main tank overflow being piece together:

Here's pics of the main tank with my standpipes (without the top on) temp. screwed in and my inlets with part of the Loc-Line system:

[HelifaxNZ]

Ok, here's another update.

The finised overflow in the maintank.

Here's a pic of my stand pipe outlet with the ball valves.

Here's a close up of the SCWD and the Hansen elbow to hose connection.

I do have a question. How much do you tighten hose clips? Should I silicon around the hose to SCWD or just leave it as is like the picture?

Thanks

HelifaxNZ

[Pies]

It will be fine. I don't like your choice in plumbing, but a word of advice would be to remove those silly 'built in hose clamp thingies' and replace them with the stainless ones you used on the SCWD.

Also, and like the stand pipes it maybee a little late, those red handeled taps really are 'poo'. They are so hard to turn, and you can't easily disconnect plumbing from either end. If you can return them, or can afford it, look for the Blue handled taps used in my tank (and many others). The are the 'good stuff'.

Don't mean to put down your plumbing either, i've become somewhat of an expert in tank plumbing over the past few years, perhapps even a plumbing snob.

Can't wait to see it all up and running.

Pieman

[HelifaxNZ]

Thanks for your comments and tips. Hey, I take the good with the bad. How else am I to learn? No wonder why they cost only $13 . How does the blue handle ones work? and what's the cost of those? All my plumbing are 20mm.

Many thanks.

[Drifty]

make sure you get the ones with the union coupling at each end(still blue), most people seem to get them for around $25-30 each

[slappers]

these are the blue ones that pies is on about, they are worth they wait in gold i do have some of the red handles on my tank, and yes very hard to turn but hopefully you shouldn't have to use them that much when set up

depends on the size 20mm 25$ 25mm37$ you might be able to get them cheaper if you got some good contacts got these from Mico Plumbing

but they got them from Asmuss Plastic Systems LTD

34 ARRENWAY DRIVE, NORTH HARBOUR

Phone 094772320

www.plasticsystems.co.nz

[Feelers]

What are those SQWD things like? How much are they?

[slappers]

i seen them somewhere in here someone selling but none in stock ??? ??? around 100$

[HelifaxNZ]

I sell them

Check under Commercial Trade.

Thanks for the pics Slappers. I've decided just to keep with the ones I have for now, even though it is harder to switch off. I plan not to use them that often once my system is running. How often do you guys use the valves?

Also one more question... Does anyone use some type of filter over their standpipes to stop foreign objects from being sucked into the sump?