Rcpilot - 29g Frag Tank

looks really good rc. :D

Impressive!:)

ahh ok got it now, i'm onboard with the plumbing...

as for the tripple baffels and the bubbles, its gonna end up a question of flow rates and velocity...

the water needs to be moving slow enough so that the micro bubbles can float thier way up and out...

if the baffels are closer together then the velocity of the water throught the baffels will be greater than the rate at which the bubbles propogate upward... and thus they will be carried with the water into the pump section, if the velocity is slower than the bubble propigation rate then your good...

there are a couple variables that you can manipulate to effect the velocity. one is the flow rate, and 2 is the cross sectional area of the flow path.

ie, slow down the gph, and/or make the baffels farther apart on the "intake" side.

the slower the velocity, the smaller the bubbles that will be "filtered" out by the tripp baffs..

so, just for giggles, lets do an example.. if your flowing 300gph and your tank is 12 inches wide, and the baffels are 1 inch apart, then you have 12 inches of cross sectional area, and thus the velocity is 300/12=25 gallons per inch
so, if you increase the width of the baffels to 2 inches, then you have 300gph/24 square inches = 12.5 gallons per inch...

see where i'm going with this?

Yes, I do see where you're going with that. Makes sense and I wish I'd thought of that BEFORE I cut the top off the silicone tube. :frustrat: Frikken! Frakkin!! Frukkin!! :grumble: I'm an idiot...........

I'll just have to fill it up and try it out.

How long do you think I should let the silicone cure? It's been almost 24hrs. Can't smell vinegar anymore. I'm ready to plug in the RO pump and start filling this baby!!

I should wait until tomorrow, but if somebody wants to rib me about it, I could probably be talked into getting it wet today. :mrgreen: I could start filling the 29g tank at least. It'll take all night for that sucker to fill up.

Well fine!! If nobody wants to egg me on about filling it up tonight............ I'll just go ahead and do it. :fechten2:

:mrgreen: Filling the 29g tank. I'll fill the sump tomorrow.

We knew you couldnt resist gettin it wet tonight:D so there wasnt no need to rib you about it :mrgreen:

Dear God RC! Where you tryin to go with that crazy return? (referring to the pic of the 4 port attachment) THE MOON!?!?!?!

Get ready for blast off! :coolgleem

It's a pretty crazy fitting, isn't it? I'm still not sure if I want to use that thing and all the loc-line attachments. I am planning to just let the return run wild in the tank for the first few days. I won't be able to determine if I want to use those loc-line fittings or not until it's all up and running.

WooT!

Fill that tank!

Love your build thread!

Catherine

Getting closer....... :bounce:

We're pumping water. Couldn't stand it. Sump tank didn't smell like vinegar at all. I took a risk.

If you get bubbles through your baffle I would just stuff some sponge in there. Just my :twocents:

yea, see i hate the sponge thing, its just a nitrate factory waiting to happen(well it is for me cause i'm crappy with maintaining anything except cars on a regular basis...

thats why i built my ATO, so i didnt HAVE to do anything on a regular basis, but i can if i want to....

yea, i dont know all the #'s on the velocities and stuff, so i would say just give it a whirl, and let us know how it goes..

oh, and really once the smell of the silicone goes away, then really the only risk i think your are taking by getting it wet is that it may not be up to 100% of its strength, so i wouldnt put any abnormal stress on the joints, like filling one section and having the next empty, (there by putting all that water weight on your silicone) keep the sections even and you should be fine..(yes i know i'm saying all this after its already done, but someone else might come along and read this...)

I thought about that exact problem when filling the sump. I used my RO bucket to fill most of the sump all at once so there was no stress on any of the joints.

So far, no bubbles through the trap, but it doesn't have salt in it yet. When the water density goes up, it may be harder for the bubbles to float out and thats when I may experience some bubbles getting through.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. My first sump, first drilled hole, first plumbing project. No leaks overnight. Seams like it's all good to go.

Looking good RC:Cheers:
Hope you are over flowing with frags soon

good job man, so, how was drilling that hole? nerv racking?

i'm about to order me a bit, i gotta change some things around with my sump and fuge..

ya, the density of the water will play a part in it... oh, and glad to know i'm not the only one that thinks about the stresses on the baffels in my sump.. :D

project5k said:

good job man, so, how was drilling that hole? nerv racking?

i'm about to order me a bit, i gotta change some things around with my sump and fuge..

ya, the density of the water will play a part in it... oh, and glad to know i'm not the only one that thinks about the stresses on the baffels in my sump.. :D

Click to expand...

Drilling the hole wasn't bad at all. I'll admit that I was nervous as hell. But that $9 Hong Kong hole saw went through that glass like butter. I took some video that you can view on my photobucket page. If you go back and click the link where I was using the hole saw to sand the edges of the glass, that will take you to my photobucket page. Then you should be able to view the other video where it shows me drilling the hole.

My wife was holding the camera and pouring water over the bit at the same time, so it's not a great video and there's a lot of nothing but the back of my neck. :grumble:

I did pop through the other side kinda hard though. It blew out the glass in the back a little bit. Around the edge on a couple spots, there was some flaking off the glass.

If I did it again, (watched a few u-tube videos) I'd use the plumbers putty and make a water dam around the hole. Then I'd use blue masking tape on the back side of the hole. But don't cut all the way through the tape. Cut just through the glass at a slow and measured pace. The tape keeps the glass from falling out the other side and possibly cracking the other side of the tank when the glass falls through.

I'd just go slow. Let the weight of the drill do the work. Thats all the pressure you need. And when you get near the end, you should actually be lifting UP on the drill and taking some of the weight off it. You want to come through the other side like a butterfly. Nice and slow. That should cut a clean hole and avoid the blow out I had.

But it's all sealed up and it ain't leakin', so screw it!! :Cheers: :mrgreen:

I need to buy a copper test kit and some of those poly bags that change color when exposed to copper. The 29g tank is suspect and I want to make sure it's copper free. I did a bunch of vinegar and bleach washes in it. I did about 10 washes in vinegar and alternated with 10 bleach washes. All in all, it's had over 20 bleach and vinegar washes + about 40 rinses in hot water. It should be fine. I washed the sh*t out of it. If I was smart though, I'd have filled it up beforehand and got a copper test kit. But I'm not smart and I'm impatient. :D If this one has copper in it, I'll just go buy a new 29g tank.

The 10g is full of frags again, so I need to get this going in the next 2 weeks. Still need to do the following:
coper test
lights
canopy?
salt
HOB refugium from existing 10g frag tank
live rock from 10g tank into dark sump on new 20L sump
20lbs of dry sand in the refugium on the 20L for a DSB
live sand from 10g frag tank placed on top of new DSB in 20L refugium
cheato from 30g display tank cut off and tossed into 20L refugium

if it aint leakn i aint freak'n!

i figured there would be some lifting up on the drill, considering that you and i are both fans of the 18v xrp from what i could see....

i'll have to give it a shot.. i really wanna drill my sump and fuge tanks...

sounds just like drilling a hole through steel. Let the weight of the tool do the work, lift up a bit when you are about to get through. Good luck on the copper test there. Hope it comes out good

well with as much as he washed it, as long as the source of the water he was using to wash with didnt have copper in it, i think he'll be ok...