Idaho-Tank build... Starting over

Very detailed and love it! Looks like a great project that you put a fair amount of thought into!! Great job I will be watching this one!!

K+

 

Yes there was a Jeep.. lol. I am a bit of a Jeepaholic you could say.. Love Jeeps. About a year and a half ago I spent about 9 months doing a jeep build. If any of you are Jeep guys or are interested.. here is my Jeep build:

http://www.jeepforum.com/forum/f9/idaho-jeep-build-600683/

And a couple shots from this years Moab trip.




And from a recent camping trip near my home.

 

Thanks for all the comments guys!

Thanks for the comment... you are right in that the back two middle 2xs are screwed into the sides as opposed to the front where the 2xs are below. Without getting into all the little reasons I built it this way, I have no concerns at all that this will hold without problem. I plan on building top (top to the stand) from 2x6 that will further spread the load over all the stand structure evenly. The tops of those rear two 2x4s go all the way up to the bottom of said 2x6 top. It will be stout and would support a tank 4x the weight of this one. Shear was the only concern I had with regards to structural support but I believe I will have enough lateral bracing with my finish materials to take care of that.

Thanks for the comment. Yes I live in Idaho.. been here for the most part all my life... But I am a fan of the state too... lol. I live in McCall which is a couple hours north of Boise. My kids play a lot of hockey so we make it to Idaho Falls almost every year.

 

Today was the big day to test out the sump.... The cement had had 24 hours to cure so I was ready.



Everything was flowing just as I had hoped... the bubble tower and bubble trap worked great.



Then I filled up the Refugium.




Then I noticed a little leak! I was hoping I wouldn't have any but.... there was one spot where a small gap occurred in the edge and I thought I had used enough of the #16 cement to seal it but no... So I emptied the sump, dried it all and fixed the the leak. I was able to inject the #16 cement into that gap with the syringe. Then just to be safe I applied a small bead of #16 to all interior seams.

Here you can see water from the leak on the left. This is also a shot of about where the water levels will be in the sump when it is at max capacity.



Will let the #16 cure for another 24 hours then test again. I also plan to test the plumbing before glueing it (will probably leak everywhere) just to verify the flows all work...

 

Build is coming along nicely. Awesome sump. ..how many gallon is it?

lol. Your 3 photos with the Jeep look like they could be in an advertisement.

 

Thanks!
If my calculations are correct, the sump holds about 38 gallons max... and will run with about 25 gallons.... that leaves me with about 13 gallons of room should power go down... I could put an overflow tank (I have some unused room that I won't be able to access anyway). Thoughts?

 

Great build so far, it's about time someone showed all us DIY guys an acrylic build from scratch!
I'm subscribed so I can keep following along

OH yeah, before I forget.....












For those of you joining us that are new to the hobby - the best piece of advice you'll get around here as a saltwater newbie is 3Reef's slogan
"Go slow, let it grow."
And for those experianced hobbyists joining us - it's still good advice
good luck and post pics soon

 

Jimbo, well not everyone can be masters of acrylic like you and Pat.. lol.

The good news is that the sump is now water tight! Sat for one hour full of water with no leaks.... Then I took out some water and hooked up the plumbing. I didn't glue anything so there were a few leaks in the plumbing obviously but I was able to test out the flow... worked great! The bubble trap everything seemed to function perfect... I may put an elbow on the inlet to the refugium not sure yet. Now I just need my special order fir to show up so I can finnish this stand and hood!! Im running out of things to do until it arrives.

The sump tank takes up just about all of the stand...



Up and running



Even a boring video of a sump....

 

An overflow tank would be a good idea. Currently you have 13gal of overflow space, which is a about 9.6% of your total water volume. You wont need an overflow tank unless you will have more than that 13 gal(9.6% of your water) overflow in a power outage.

So I would suggest, to figure out how much of your water will really overflow in an outage, you should calculate the amount of water obove your overflow pipe. I.E. your OF if 3 inches below the waterline. so 48" length X 18" width X 3" depth. That means 2592cu inches, or 1.5cu ft. That means 11.5 gallons of water will flow into your sump.

 

Seano,

Thanks for the comment.
My display tank is 60" x 18" (outside dimension but we will not worry about the thinkness of the acrylic ) I will lose less than 2" of water through my overflow... so under 10 gallons. To prevent water from siphoning back down from the supply line I am buying a check valve. So I think I should be in good shape