Starting ~800 Gallon Custom Reef Tank Build

JLowder

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this is what I'm referring to..

copper.jpg
Did you hire Stevie Wonder to do your soldering? Call me a jerk if you want but that looks horrible and is definitely likely to leak in the future.
 
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ravi197699

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you can call me Stevie Wonder lol, soldering copper pipe is not my forte as you can see, I might redo this but I will have my plumber do it this time but you are correct it is horrible and so far it is holding pressure of water coming from hot water heater,
 

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you can call me Stevie Wonder lol, soldering copper pipe is not my forte as you can see, I might redo this but I will have my plumber do it this time but you are correct it is horrible and so far it is holding pressure of water coming from hot water heater,

Trick is with soldering is you want that copper pipe cherry red before you even apply the solder. The heat will instantly suck it into the joint and melt it smoothly. Just make sure you add solder to the bottom as well :)
 
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ravi197699

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Hello guys so my 350 gallon sump is filled all the way and I have turned on close loop pump for my sump that powers my sea swirls that pushes water to the front of the sump which was the idea, I wanted to have all the detritus push on the front so that I can be syphon out of the system and as you guys can see the pictures it is doing its job and water is moving so well that I can see the swirls on the surface when water hits the side and front wall of the sump, I have plumbed my nitrate reactor that holds ton of ceramic media, I have installed 1.5 inch drain and I call that Skimmer and reactors drain, nitrate reactor and my cheato reactor and my skimmer will be draining via this 1.5" drain, I have installed 3 of 1.5" "T" and using reducers to connect drains from my reactors. cheato and nitrate reactor will have very low water flow through the reactors so that tank water can reactor to bacteria in the reactor and cheato has enough time to process tank water to remove nutrients, My electrician came Sunday and installed 20 amp circuit which is dedicated circuit to run the tank, these 6 outlets are controlled by 20 amp GFI and 20 amp breaker, all the outlet boxes are grounded and mounted high on top away from water, He installed 1 switch and socket for bulb because I found that it was not bright enough on that side when I was working on plumbing so that is solved as well, I have manifold build that will run my reactors and feed my protein skimmer, it has 6 outlets but I will be using only 3 for now, I was able to tuck in my calcium reactor that I bought from fellow reefer and it is commercial size reef octopus calcium reactor, size is 26 inches high x 12 inch diameter and it is driven by reeflow dart pump. this thing is monster and I will be using DaStaCo pro media which I got in the mail and it is 5 gallon bucket of pure lab grade 99% Alk and Calcium at 6.0 ph in reactor, I will be rinsing the media and fill up the reactor with this media, I have cole parmer pump that will be using to pull water from sump through the reactor, speed of cole parmer peristaltic pump is controlled with solid state driver and I am using #24 tubing for this pump, it is old fashioned pump which is dc motor and I have upgraded the head with Masterflex Easy load. I will be uploading the pictures later this week when I connect the pump and fire up the calcium reactor without co2. just want to make sure there are no leaks. here are some of the pictures of sump, sea swirls etc.

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ravi197699

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Trick is with soldering is you want that copper pipe cherry red before you even apply the solder. The heat will instantly suck it into the joint and melt it smoothly. Just make sure you add solder to the bottom as well :)


got it, I guess that was my problem I was doing this outside in cold and it was cooling pipe at the same time
 
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ravi197699

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hello R2R, I bought Finnex HC-810M digital temperature controller and I was very disappointed when I got the package, controller is good and very easy to use but temperature sensor wire length is 3 feet only, that means I have to install this controller under my stand and every time I need to check the temperature I have lean under the stand to look at it, So I decided to extend the wire, I bought longer cable sensor that has 10 feet wire and soldered it to this sensor, they should give at least 5 - 6 feet to sensor wire so that it can be easily mounted away from water. JMO.

apart from above, I have ordered and decided to go with Fritz Pro salt and I ordered 10 boxes which are arriving tomorrow and 1 gallon of nitrifying bacteria that will be seed my sump with to start the cycle and add 4 - 5 fishes to keep bacteria alive, I have 5 brightwell bricks sitting in my friends system which are getting populated with bacteria which will help seed my sump as well..

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ravi197699

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Hello R2R, Happy Monday! as things are getting to finish line for the most part, I was able to install my cheato algae reactor, I bought this in the past and I decided to use this for this purpose due to size and it is light weight and clear body for lights to be able to mount on the outside, I plumbed my calcium reactor and rinsed DaStaCo Pro media and 50 lbs of media did not fill the reactor all the way, I am going to leave it to this level since this media burns very slowly. I turned the pump on and filled the reactor with water and as of right now it is running and no leaks so far and I am not hoping for 1, I checked again this morning and it looked fine, simple reactor but built well. I added some more ceramic media in my sump, I will leave it there and let is seed with bacteria and I will utilize these ceramic tubes to start my fish holding system and frag tank. fish holding system and coral frag system will be stand alone systems with independent filtration. more pictures to come...

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mch1984

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Man I missed a lot for some reason, getting super close to seeing that thing full. this really is a fantastic build.
 

crusso1993

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I first viewed this build back in early November but, for some odd reason, "watching" it never registered. Anyway, just finished reading through the entire thread and am impressed on all levels. Your attention to detail is second to none!

So close to getting wet has got to be so very exciting!

You mentioned you were going to upload s video of the RODI but no big deal that you were unable to do so. Out of curiosity, which unit and pump did/do you use?

Following along with excitement about upcoming happenings!
 
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ravi197699

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Thank you crusso1993, I bought Grownix GX 600 Pro with external booster pump which turns GX600 Series RO system to 1200 GPD RO system, It runs at 150 PSI and I am using commercial size DI unit which holds larger amount of DI resin, it should produce 2500 gallons with 25 ppm going in, my membrane output is 9 ppm so production should be higher than 2500 gallons, this unit produces 1:1 ratio and if I buy add on upgrade then I can recycle the waster water to pass through membrane and production will bump to 1: 1/4 ( 1 gallon RO with 1/4" gallon waste water) but I am not running commercial facility so I don't see need of that as of now. I will be starting my channel on youtube to make videos and updates on my tank in near future...
 
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ravi197699

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Man I missed a lot for some reason, getting super close to seeing that thing full. this really is a fantastic build.

Thank you mch2984, I am taking my time for this build, I want to fill this up so badly and start cycle but that will happen eventually, just want to take care of minor things first..
 

crusso1993

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Thank you crusso1993, I bought Grownix GX 600 Pro with external booster pump which turns GX600 Series RO system to 1200 GPD RO system, It runs at 150 PSI and I am using commercial size DI unit which holds larger amount of DI resin, it should produce 2500 gallons with 25 ppm going in, my membrane output is 9 ppm so production should be higher than 2500 gallons, this unit produces 1:1 ratio and if I buy add on upgrade then I can recycle the waster water to pass through membrane and production will bump to 1: 1/4 ( 1 gallon RO with 1/4" gallon waste water) but I am not running commercial facility so I don't see need of that as of now. I will be starting my channel on youtube to make videos and updates on my tank in near future...

Thanks for the info, much appreciated!
 

mch1984

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Thank you mch2984, I am taking my time for this build, I want to fill this up so badly and start cycle but that will happen eventually, just want to take care of minor things first..
Absolutely, no reason to rush a project this big.
 

crusso1993

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@ravi197699, fair warning. Don't listen to anything @crusso1993 says, he has no idea what he's talking about. ;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious;Hilarious

Ok, if I agree with this but, since I have no idea what I'm talking about, does that make it false? Lol
 

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