My 150 from the ground up

Got my pumps in today....Yeah. One step closer. Sorry about the glare in the picture.

 

nice work RMP1, i'll be following this!

 

What kind of pumps are those?

 

Rio 26hf's.... I know they are not the best pumps in the world but I have had good luck so far with Rio pumps... Knock on wood. Cheep, fairly reliable (If you keep them clean), easy to find parts for if needed.

I had some one give me a Rio 3100 a month or so ago. The impeller was bad and it made some noise. I got a replacement impeller today and it works line a champ. Found my new mix pump!

I also know a lot of people believe a mag drive pump is not the best choice for a tank this size. I suppose I am about to find out for myself.

 

My 250 watt Eheim Jager heater came in the mail yesterday. Eheim says it will handle about a 160 gallon tank. I am going to put the heater between the two drains behind the overflow because it's too big to fit in the sump. But once again I find myself hoping something will work. Hopefully with two mag drive pumps and probably two Koralia 1400's heating the water the heater will be minimized. I can always toss a small heater in the sump if the 250 won't keep up. Two heaters on a controller would probably be a better choice anyway. Maybe I should start a list of questions that I would post answers to when it starts to cycle.

I picked up a few pounds of live rock I'm going to seed the tank with, from the LFS and tossed them into 35 gallons of water I made up. I have begun making up water to fill this thing so now, I have three trash cans around my house with pumps in them. I painted the living room so I have the go ahead from the wife to put water in the tank as soon as my last box of base rock gets in. Yup, still waiting on that.

So far the build cost tally is.... about $420.00 but still need that $70.00 box of base rock, $375.00 skimmer and whatever the parts for my LED light setup is going to set me back.

 

My last box of dry rock came in Friday and my wife placed it to her liking over the weekend.

I had the green light to fill the tank today and see how the monster runs. After all day of making and mixing water I was able to throw the switch on the pumps. 1st off the overflow is fantastic, quiet and adjusted fairly easily. Per Powerman's recommendation I adjusted the level in the overflow just up to the top of the emergency. Three cheers to Powerman on his great write up on the Herbie. All the plumbing is tight except for I have one very small leak in the refugium side of the drain. The good thing is it drips into the fuge so I really don't care right now.

Now, everything is not all peaches and cream.... Oh no. I would have called you crazy if you told me these pumps would be this loud. Now I am the crazy one. Dang they or should I say one of them is INCREDABLY loud. Maybe (Don't wreck my fantasy) it will quiet down overnight. If not I will send the online retailer an email and see what I can do. Other than the noise it looks like it flows very well. Anybody have any suggestions on quieting these things up I’m listening.

Either way, I am a few months ahead of schedule getting this thing up and running so I shouldn't complain. For the most part I am happy with the way it works. I just have to overcome thinking I have a freight train in my living room.

I need to round up a couple of Koralia 1400's, figure out what skimmer I'm using, and tackle the LED project. I hope that I can get that done before the cycle ends but if not, I bummed a double 48 inch T5 fixture from a friend and we can start slowly adding some fish.

 

So your mag drive pump is loud? Also what kind of sand are you using? Yours Looks great!! looking to build a cube myself

 

Loud is an understatement. It's a little quieter today but not a bunch still freight train loud.

The sand is Carib Sea Fuji pink. Yes, my wife picked it out. It's not very pink though, really more white.

 

For the last two days I have been fighting the freight train I mean loud pumps in my sump. I first went the insulation route and cut some foam board and lined all the doors and the back wall. Part of the noise was the return pipes vibrating in the 1/4 inch ply cabinet back. The foam board on the back wall cut the noise in half. I ended up taking the foam board off the doors as it turned the stand into a sauna.

Tonight I took the pumps out to see if I could see something out of place. I looked at the impellers and they looked imbalanced. Since I fly RC airplanes I pulled out my prop balancer and balanced the impellers. I could not get them perfect because of the design of the HF impeller but they are close. Put them back in and the noise is greatly reduced. I might take a second shot at this in the future but I am going to have to figure out a way to add weight to one side because I cant take any more material off the heavy side without destroying the impeller. Anyway, you can detect a slight hum standing by the tank but thats all. Hooray.... The tank can now sit and cycle without driving me crazy.

Also got my reactor from BRS tonight. I am going to have to see where I can mount the canister and get it going. The water is still a little cloudy from storage so I'm hoping some carbon will clear it up.

Now back to shopping for a skimmer and LED parts.

 

Where did you get those grey clamps that you have holding the pvc pipe to the stand? Also, I am having to do an over the tank return,but will not be using a canopy, instead will have screens to keep fish from jumping. I just can't figure out how exactly I'm going to do it.