made some progress today.  I moved the stand into the lab,  scratched the paint up on it pretty good but nothing that can't be touched up.  The stand will all be hiden by a nice birch plywood shell but I still want it finished inside and out the best that I can.

Installed the new r/o system I bought from bulk reef.  It seems to work very well.  it takes about 4 min for water to work its way all the way through the filtration system. 

water enters around 400 ppt and leaves the last can at 000ppt.  According to the pressure gauage I have about 55 psi which is a little above the minimum.  I bet I will need to add a booster pump when all the students get back to class and are using water in the bathroom and the kitchen crew are working.  

Re-installed the last pane in the sump.  I blew open the silicone tube and ended up the two water tight hands.  I still  need to set the divider between the refugium and frag grow out sections but had to remove two other panes to get them a bit straighter up and down.

I will bring in some 55s to get cleaned up and ready for the switch over and clean the brutes to start making fresh saltwater.  

I know for sure that I will not be able to make the big move this weekend but think that if the tank is moved into my room that I might be ready for in two weeks on Saturday

Guys let me know if that day would work for stopping by to help or watch if you are Scott the one armed bandit:  (hope you are healing ok)  My latest shoulder damage is healing on its own ok.  It hurts most of the time but did that before too so no real harm 

Briney Dave said :

I know for sure that I will not be able to make the big move this weekend but think that if the tank is moved into my room that I might be ready for in two weeks on Saturday

Guys let me know if that day would work for stopping by to help or watch if you are Scott the one armed bandit:  (hope you are healing ok)  My latest shoulder damage is healing on its own ok.  It hurts most of the time but did that before too so no real harm 

Dave, just clarify for me would this be on the 24th or 31st?

Dave, if it's the 31st, I will be able to be there and help in any way I can.

Update time:

The district mat. crew were all in and lifted the tank onto the cart I built

we rolled down the hall and made it into my room in under five minutes flat:  BTW the local moving company wanted over 800 to make this move

we had no trouble lifting the mighting beast onto the stand:  Here is where the fun comes in:

the holes for the closed loop were not where they were specified on the blue print so I ruined a sheet and a quarter of 3/4 pressure treated plywood and now have to go buy another sheet and recut all the holes to match what is really there

more fun from Miracles is that they spec'ed the use of sch 80 fittings:  I bought all size 80 only to find they will not fit in the holes Miracles cut.

I am not at all pleased with that.  The fit and finish of the glass panels looks great but the hole sizes and placement are crap. 

I have to contract bulk reef to make sure they will take back their fittings and I am going to drop Miracles a note asking for the cash needed for new plywood and the shipping costs on changing the fittings.  Not sure I will get anywhere with Miracles but I am going to make that point to them 

I will not set a build date until I know when I will have the right fittings and have the plywood switched out

My best guess will not be this weekend but the following Saturday

Briney

Ugh, gotta love the endless trails and tribulations. Eh, Dave?

Sorry to hear you're hitting some roadblocks, but keep us updated when you get some of this issues sorted.

Wow what a drag.   On the good side I'll be able to make it to the build if its Saturday the 31st. 

It never ends, does it?  Is this what I have to look forward to with my 240 build?  I certainly hope not.  Let us know how Miracles responds.  That might be enough to take my business elsewhere.  Looking foward to build day... ETA  July 31st!

Off the topic for a minute:I took the family on a mini vacation down to Columbus for a zoo tour.  I have never made the Columbus Zoo before.  They have a great collection of birds and my kids loved the small avary where you are allowed to feed the parrots nector.

I was not impressed with the aquarium and thought overall the t-town zoo is better

I have not seen a 3-D movie since I was a little kid and was really dragging my feet about so many movies and even the likelyhood of it going to TV.  I was wrong!  My goodnes.  We went to an I-max 3-D showing of the last air bender.  (please don't see this movie if you have seen the cartoon story and liked it)  anyway the visuals rock and I can not wait to see the next movie in this format.

I hope no one minds the full disclosure approach to the build.  I think we can all  best benifit from full exposure and discussions where needed when things go wrong or might in the future verses some eye candy pictures and me making it look like its a walk in the park.

I will give Miracles a call first this morning when they open to find out what they suggest about the fittings and what they have to say about the holes not matching the blueprint

I will let everyone know for sure that the 31st is it but that seems like the best plan today

Its 7 am Saturday morning (build day)  I started around six and so far have taken the main pump off line,  drained the lines, and cleaned the pump.  Also the first sink that has to be torn out is gone.  I am pretty happy with the progress .

Going to catch my breath and get back at it. 

OT: can Amtrack ever run on time?  My wife and daughter did the American girl tour and dinner and all that junk in Chicago with the Sister in-law and her two daughters.  They took the train which has only one run per day out of Toledo.  It was an hour late leaving and more than that coming back. 

By the time Deb dropped Tina off it was after 4 am before she was home.  Needless to say she will not be into the lab until mid day if I can con her into it at all

Tuesday has seen a couple leaks develop in the closed loop.  There are not many places where a leak will be easy to fix and these two were far from those places.  But that is just the nature of this sort of project

I put four trash cans of new water in the tank and started moving some of the live rock in.  It looks pretty good so far but is going to be a two day project to get it to a point that makes me happy.

I learned that the dart pump is no where near big enough to power the closed loop.  I am not even sure that if I added a second one and divided the loop into to that it would be enough.  Right now I am going to take a look at the over all flow before I settle on what to replace this pump with.  I am guessing a single baracuda might be the ticket or a hammerhead

Its fun to have to wade around the tank to move the rocks because you can even touch the bottome much less reach across to move rocks in to a solid arrangement

I think one more day to scape and set corals and one more after that to bring the support equipment on line .  Maybe on Friday it wiall all be done

Dave, I'm sorry to here of the leaks in the closed loop. As far as flow I thought it would be worth while to look at the supply line first. As I recall you had reduced the output of the dart from 1 1/2" to 1" right from the pump. Now if you would keep the 1 1/2" all the way to the bulk heads and reduce just off of the T's and 90's down to 1" to fit the bulk head I think you'd find an increase in your flow rate. Whether you stay with the dart or upgrade to a larger pump this direction would definitely increase your GPH.

Briney Dave said :

Tuesday has seen a couple leaks develop in the closed loop.  There are not many places where a leak will be easy to fix and these two were far from those places.  But that is just the nature of this sort of project

I guess when an Optician does the job of a plumber your bound to have a bit of trouble.    

I am sure that a pro would have had at least one  leak too. And charged way more than some pizza and an IOU for some of your favorite draft.   Had it just been me under there;  two things would have happened.  First, I would still be under there glueing and cutting. And second, I would be glued to the floor and not able to get up while most every joint was leaking on my head like some sort of water torture device.

If theCIA really wanted information for evil agents , they should threaten to make them re-plumb my tank.  I know I would spill the beans on everyone I know rather than go back under there again LOL

As for switching the trunk lines to 1.5 from one.  I am not sure about what to do.  In my mind, (and lord knows that is a mess in there to try to see anytihng mechanical) I could see water becoming trubulent right before the nosal at the step down point and thus actually blocking the flow.  I might try penductors 

There is a ton of head pressure from all the line and turns,  the penductors may act to lower the port pressure a bit and get the flow up to an aceptable level without any other changes. 

Briney Dave said :

As for switching the trunk lines to 1.5 from one.  I am not sure about what to do.  In my mind, (and lord knows that is a mess in there to try to see anytihng mechanical) I could see water becoming trubulent right before the nosal at the step down point and thus actually blocking the flow.  I might try penductors 

There is a ton of head pressure from all the line and turns,  the penductors may act to lower the port pressure a bit and get the flow up to an aceptable level without any other changes. 

Someone else chime in here. Our homes are plumbed with 3/4" supply lines the reduced to 1/2" at each sink, bath shower ect.

That must be the right way then,  I am just not ready to take out the few pieces not currently leaking.

While fixing one leak I bumped the bulkhead fitting loose.  Its amazing how much water can fall out of the slightest gap with 30" of water above it

that got fixed only to find the thread adaptor to the main pump leaking.  I pulled the main pump and re tightened it with new thread tape.  put it back and all looked good but 20 min later it was leaking again.  I am not sure if its a bad adaptor or a crack in the pump hosing. 

the other section I replaced this morning also thought it would be cool to leak again in the exact same spot.  I may not be a pro plumber but I am sure that I glued that stuff up exactly correctly. 

bummer of a day. I am hoping that the district building crew can pop by and help me make sense what I am doing wrong with that.

On the up side the sump went together nicely,  I placed macro algae (cheato and that stuff that looks like strings of flat disks) and xenia and live rock in the other divider.  I think that one side will be great at absorbing the N group and the xenia will be pretty good at taking up P.   I will be feeding the skimmer off the return pump and dumping it back into that same last bin. 

also  the corals and fish are in and look nice.  Plenty of room for a few more pieces to pick up down the road and for a couple larger fish that I have always wanted to add

have to have something to look forward to. 

I am sure that it will work out in the end but that end is hard to see at the momenet

Did I read right? The fish and corals are in the new tank now. 

Please send PICS!!!

I will have to get some up but we are off to the state Fair.   My son won the county 4-h marksmenship so he gets to show at state. 

He also blue ribboned for poultry production but since we can't show at the country fair he could not be in the running for state there too.

the leak was fixed this morning on the first attempt.  there is a light on the sump now and the auto top off and kalk are on line as is the ozone generator.  That was a funny story getting up on but I will save that for another time.  We will just leave it as the drier chamber will blow under very low pressure LOL

I figured out a very simple but great rail system for the lights and will have to post a pic of that as well