My 180g, 4 sided viewable project thread

[Rybren]

Must be my old and tired eyes, but I can't see any pictures....  I know that you must have posted them, cause you said you would.  Plus, you've been posting in other threads, so I know that you're still alive.

As I said, it must be my eyes...

[HomerJ]

Must be my old and tired eyes, but I can't see any pictures....  I know that you must have posted them, cause you said you would.  Plus, you've been posting in other threads, so I know that you're still alive.

As I said, it must be my eyes...

Fear not, you are nt alone.  My eyes are getting old too.  Can't see any pictures either.

Time for new glasses I guess.

[Hookup]

While filling the display with RO/DI the cheap heater exploded in the night.  The house smells, the water ruined.  Basically a restart on the fill.  Argh

[fishsticks]

ouch sorry to hear that good luck and it looks good though.

[Rybren]

Tim,

Sorry to hear about the heater.  Talk about bad luck.

If I were you, I'd just blame it on Pat and move forward.

[redbelly]

Yeah that really sucks!
Not sure I would call a Marine land stealth or whatever a cheap heater but still, a real PITA.
So much for the heater beeing "unbreakable"

[JD]

Sorry to hear.
Nothing worse than set backs NOT caused by ourselves.
Go Titanium for heaters, I did.

[Rybren]

The Marine land stealth heaters have a really bad rep on RC.  There are quite a few threads on them going bad and killing tanks.

On the plus side, Marineland is apparently good about giving replacements, not that I'd want one.

[White Lightning]

I had one go squirrelly on a freshwater tank a few ago. The tank heated up to over 90 degrees.

Pictures this week???

[redbelly]

Well the heater selection issue may have been my fault - not the heater failing.... but choosing this heater....

Hookup does have a titanium heater + heater controller for his display that works VERY well.

But I was out in Kanata and picked up a heater for him for heating RO water. The Marineland Stealth heater said it was shatterproof and could come out of water safely I thought it was the best option available there for its intended purpose and I picked it up intown to support local business.

I missed the line on the packaging though that read:

"May explode of it own accord, wipe out your tank and potentially burn your house to the ground"

That line may have changed my mind about choosing this heater.....

Good thing your son noticed it right away though Hookup!

[Hookup]

An update... An awesome friend, Shaun, happened to have about 120gallons of salt water mixed in his house.. so during the snow-fall yesterday evening we pumped it from his house, into 50gal bins and into my display... yep... display is full of fresh-mix.

All params were 100% perfect (Temp,Sg,pH that is) as of 8am when I left the house so a transfer of livestock will begin tonight.

The 120gal temp tank will be recycled and used as a cool RO/DI & Salt-water making station in the basement. 

[Vincenzo.]

im not threatening you, but u know im a fighter..
get that camera ready - peter parker,
cuz we on the line like a fallen spider!!
grab your bic, flick, and start your lighter
how i raise heat , and melt plastic
in on the rebound, snap-back, -the elastic
everyone soft like nerf,
i was born on a air plane
i been on top since birth!!

[Hookup]

Xfer was successful with no immediate signs of dammage  The room is being painted today. I really do not want to show the tank without the lights hung and the corals scattered around... I do have many photos I will attempt to photo tonight....

[Hookup]

There are 65 photos and one video.  Sorry, Pat (Redbelly) has the video on his camera, so it cannot be posted... I can show bags of corn.

Might as well get started.

The emptying of the display into a 120gallon that lived on the floor for the 5 weeks.

[Hookup]

Dis-assembly of the old plumbing that was the root of the problem.

[Hookup]

The "problem area" under the display where a new hole needs to go... the freezer needs to move and the air exchanger needs to be re-located... (sorry for the rotated photo)



A hole will appear here... 14" by 4"  The largest "standard" floor vent cover size available...




And some plumbing parts... this accounted for about 25% of the parts purchased and about 40% of the parts used... I have an amazing collection of 1" - 0.5" fittings left over (for sale too btw).

[Hookup]

installation of the closed loop pumps under the floor to hide the noise (insulation still needs to be added to get even lower noise levels, but this isn't bad.

[Hookup]

The tank gets some drywall and clean up on this side (dining room)






Now the fun can begin... internal flow/plumbing.  Getting this done was no easy ticket.  Having loads of parts on-hand was the key to creativity IMO... being able to reach for just about any part and fitting worked very well... in the end I'd say this took upwards of 16 hours to get completed.

[Hookup]

This is under the tank, it's upside down (sorry)




Flow lines were drawn and alignment lines were added so that we could glue things into the correct final positions.

[Hookup]

The Closed Loop input screens were created by gluing two screens together and cutting a hole in the top of one (or bottom depending on your point of view) so that it could thread onto a fitting.