R2R - Bottyfish 60 gallon rimless

[Bottyfish]

I installed a sliding panel for my ATO tank which will make it easier for me to fill the water.
Also moved my sump and ATO tanks into the stand so I can start planning and doing the plumbing.

 

[Bottyfish]

Here are some pictures of my pump. Sicce Syncra 3.0

This thing is super silent. Can be used submerged or external.
I chose this pump for its value, low noise and the tons of raving reviews it has online. I may go with a controllable pump in the future but for now this is great for my needs.

• Output: 714 GPH
• Maximum Head Height: 9.9 Ft
• Power Consumption: 48W
• Inlet: 3/4" Female NPT or 3/4"-1" Hose
• Outlet: 3/4" Female NPT or 3/4"-1" Hose
• Dimensions: 4.84" x 3.35" x 4.13"

 

[Bottyfish]

What came in the package...

Model comparison I took from BRS website.

 

[Bottyfish]

Ok...

Tons of updates tonight, Ill be posting my plumbing details very shortly.

 

[Bottyfish]

I will be running a herbie style drain system using two 1" PVCs for draining the water out of my tank.

The first pipe will be about 6-7" below the draining water level and will run on a full siphon. It will be controlled by a valve under the cabinet and will be fully submerged in my sump.

The second pipe will rest at water level and will barely pull any water. It will act as my emergency and the pvc will not be submerged in the sump so that there isn't any air locked in should the secondary pipe need to go full on draining.

I picked up two strainers and the second pipe will have a very low profile strainer that is basically flat disk shaped vs the traditional coned shaped strainers.

 

[Bottyfish]

Here they are attached to the drains.

 

[Bottyfish]

So my overflow box was never drilled and so I had to do it myself. Since it was just acrylic I didn't need to use any diamond dust hole saws that you use for glass...

I decided to put the return on the front side instead of having it stick out sideways when viewing the tank from the front.

I will be using a 3/4 locline modular hose for my return. It will have a fan/wide flare nozzle.

The drilling was simple and the bulkhead fit perfectly.

I took this time to also installed my drains. And run vinyl tube for the return pipe housed in the overflow box. Although the tubing fit real snug and would be pretty hard to slip out (its in like 2 inches on the hose) I still used two zip ties at each end. I didn't want to use stainless hose clamps as those will eventually rust and the scew will rust fairly quickly from experience.

 

[Bottyfish]

Here is the overflow box... top down view.

 

[Bottyfish]

So that was above the tank plumbing...

I also completed my under the tank plumbing. Going to need a few minutes but really excited to share this tonight as well.

 

[Bottyfish]

Picked up all my fittings, valves and pipes.

I think it was reasonable amount compared to some of the pics Ive seen people post with tons of fittings that can fill up the trunk of my car. ;Spitoutdummy

I want to keep my pipe work as simple as possible, modular and the ability to expand and easily take apart should I need to make changes or move things in the future.

Thank goodness for union and union valves!

I had to visit different hardware stores and some carried the red and white union valves but only had black or blue ball valves and the competitors were vice versa... Same with the fittings, one hardware brand had the threaded but not the slip and the other had the slip and not the threaded. I don't get it...

 

[Bottyfish]

I mentioned a few posts back that I will not be painting my PVC but I wanted it red... It's so hard to get stuff in Canada and we are so limited with the choices we have here. Like how it took 5 yrs for spicy Cheetos to get here.

Aisle after aisle i went to every type of store, searched far and wide only to be disappointed at the choices of PvC colors we have. We have white, off white, cream white and more white...

 

[Bottyfish]

I will be explaining and going over how I went about making my PvC red. If I had easy access to reasonably priced standard red furniture or regular red PvC I wouldn't have done this....

Here goes.

Purchased Solvent Red 164 fuel dye, PvC Cement and CLEAR PvC Primer/Cleaner.
Now typically, when one primes PvC the usual stuff that is available is either clear or purple primer.

I read somewhere that its just clear primer/cleaner with purple dye so that when inspectors check up on plumbing work they can see that the PvC pipes were primed and thus have a better bond than not primed.
​

Ok, so this red fuel dye is mixed with the cleaner. The cleaner contains MEK. MEK is a strong solvent and degreaser. It basically stripes away a thin layer of the PVC and lessens the bond so that when you apply the cement it sticks and molds/becomes one piece easier.

Now with the MEK stripping the clear coat on the PVC and also dissolving it a bit so that the dye can sink in.

For every 118ml (4oz) of cleaner you put 1ml (0.034oz) of the dye.

Shake the clear cleaner for about 1 min and then apply it to the PVC. This stuff smells really bad. I recommend using a NIOSH approved mask as the regular N95s are mainly for particulates and note vapor/fumes. This stuff will knock you out if you are not using it in a well ventilated place.

Now the clear cleaner has a very low viscosity and it also evaporates very fast. The regular applicator that comes with the clear cleaner may be tricky to apply, also leaves streaks and so I created this coat hanger wrapper and took some of my daughters pipe cleaners to apply the dye.

Worked out pretty well and evenly dyed the pipe.

 

[Bottyfish]

Here are my 1" and 3/4" PVCs dyed red.

 

[Txdragonslayer]

I prefer to see individual pics, the clusters are difficult to see the pieces you used, and what you did

 

[Bottyfish]

Took me most part of the evening as I had to do the usual kids swimming and so forth but basically had my gas mask on, a fan and soaked these pipes till they were all red.
I've read that some people said their pipes get swollen and they can't fit them in the fittings, but I had no issues with that.

 

[Bottyfish]

I prefer to see individual pics, the clusters are difficult to see the pieces you used, and what you did

Hi Sheldon,

After mixing the dye and cleaner solution, one can use anything from a paper towel to a custom made applicator like I did and simply paint it on. You need to work fast as this stuff is very running and dries fast. It is no different than applying purple primer and cement except you are applying the primer on the whole pipe.

 

[Bottyfish]

Because my return is drilled in the furthest back, I did the plumbing for that first.
The drains were bigger holes close to the front of the overflow box and I plumb those last.

Lots of running back and forth from the tank to the garage...

 

[Bottyfish]

Here is the display with the drains plumbed as well...

 

[Bottyfish]

Close up on the overflow box to cabinet...

 

[Bottyfish]