I didn't know Ring had a water sensor. I have a ring door bell so this could work for me as well. Do you have to pay more for a monthly/yearly subscription that includes the leak detector? Right now I only have the doorbell which is like $30 per year.
440g System Setup
- Thread starter DThompson
- Start date
I've got all the plumbing glued together and painted. The only section I haven't glued is where the 2" overflow pipe hits the sump. I think I need one more union by this pipe incase I ever need to take the sump out. If I don't put a union in, the the entire 2 foot tall piece of pipe that goes to the overflow box has to come with it... Besides that news, I've completed the extra 5" of stand/bracing for the front of the tank. Now I could technically fill it with water, and it's taking every ounce of patience in my body not to fill it with water, but I still need to build a facade with doors for the front of the tank. Here's some pictures of the progress.
I also plumbed the airline into the stand. I wanted the Alita pump to be in the storage room behind this room because they're loud. I turned it on after I had it plumbed and it seems like a huge difference having it back there, can hardly hear it. The 1/2" white tubing in the picture below is where the airline comes in.
I'm also starting to think this Alita AL40 is overkill for what I'm intending on using it for. I have just an 9" disk airstone in the display tank and two 12" long cylinder airstones for making the moving bed in the sump that I will be running off this hog. If it's to much power, I might be selling it and downsizing to something smaller.
I also plumbed the airline into the stand. I wanted the Alita pump to be in the storage room behind this room because they're loud. I turned it on after I had it plumbed and it seems like a huge difference having it back there, can hardly hear it. The 1/2" white tubing in the picture below is where the airline comes in.
I'm also starting to think this Alita AL40 is overkill for what I'm intending on using it for. I have just an 9" disk airstone in the display tank and two 12" long cylinder airstones for making the moving bed in the sump that I will be running off this hog. If it's to much power, I might be selling it and downsizing to something smaller.
It's officially leak test day. Started filling the tank an hour ago and it's about 1/3rd of the way full. Water level has crossed the bulkheads near the bottom of the tank. I'm most worried about the plumbing external to the tank, hope I sealed everything well.
I also finished up the backwash line for the Ultima. I got a 2" soft hose, 50' long and some quick connect fittings so it doesn't have to be hooked up to the Ultima when I'm not doing a backwash.
I also finished up the backwash line for the Ultima. I got a 2" soft hose, 50' long and some quick connect fittings so it doesn't have to be hooked up to the Ultima when I'm not doing a backwash.
Haha yeah hopefully it's not overkill. Currently have silver dollars and Tapajos Geophagus growing out to put in there. Eventually will get 1 or 2 stingrays as well. I've got ball valves on all return lines so I can cut back the water flow from the sump and Ultima if needed. Apparently these Reeflo darts actually run more efficiently with more head pressure so I might use that to my benefit.
I need to look a little more into the Ultimas and how they operate, assuming you’re adding more bio/sponges in the sump?
Yes, the sump has (I think?) 3 cubic feet of K1 media and 8lbs of ceramic blocks for bio filtration as well. The sump and Ultima should do the same thing, I just wanted them both for redundancy in case I need to have one down for maintenance for an extended period of time.
I let the tank sit for a couple days with water and all the ball valves shut just to make sure all the bulkheads didn't leak. Everything was good there.
I tested out the sump and Ultima today. 1st was the sump. Only had 1 leaking pipe, where the overflow bulkhead connects to the ball valve there was a leak which was due to not enough thread tape. Easy fix that took a minute.
2nd issue is that the silicone in the middle sump baffle didn't hold up under pressure from the water rising in the sump so it blew out the silicone seal... I'll try re-siliconing this piece into place but I'm not sure if it will hold. Here's a picture of the failed baffle. I didn't put silicone on the backside bottom of the baffle and I'm assuming that's why it failed.
2nd thing I tested was the plumbing to the ultima and the backflush drain. This was a used ultima so I knew there would be sludge in the ultima that needed to be drained. This was a perfect way to drain the tank. Took about 15 minutes to drain 3/4th of the tank.
I had 1 leak on this portion, it was the soft hose connection to the backflush outlet on the ultima. It seemed that the hose wasn't thick enough to make a gasketing effect on the barb I attached it to and water started pouring out of this connection as soon as I started the backflush.
My fix was putting an old bulkhead gasket over the soft hose, under the clamp to create a gasket tight seal. This seemed to solve the issue. You can kind of see the black gasket over the hose in this picture below.
This hose then drains over to the shower in the room next to the tank.
There was a lot of sludge in the Ultima, this picture only shows a small portion of the grime that came out of it.
Now that I have the tank mostly empty, I need to put some shims under one side. I thought it was level but once it was full I could see the water level was slightly off at the top.
After shimming, I need to buy some fittings to connect my airstones that will go in the K1 chamber in the sump and then completely drain the sump so I can apply some more silicone to that middle baffle.
After that, I think I'll be ready for a re-fill of filtered water that can start cycling the tank!
I tested out the sump and Ultima today. 1st was the sump. Only had 1 leaking pipe, where the overflow bulkhead connects to the ball valve there was a leak which was due to not enough thread tape. Easy fix that took a minute.
2nd issue is that the silicone in the middle sump baffle didn't hold up under pressure from the water rising in the sump so it blew out the silicone seal... I'll try re-siliconing this piece into place but I'm not sure if it will hold. Here's a picture of the failed baffle. I didn't put silicone on the backside bottom of the baffle and I'm assuming that's why it failed.
2nd thing I tested was the plumbing to the ultima and the backflush drain. This was a used ultima so I knew there would be sludge in the ultima that needed to be drained. This was a perfect way to drain the tank. Took about 15 minutes to drain 3/4th of the tank.
I had 1 leak on this portion, it was the soft hose connection to the backflush outlet on the ultima. It seemed that the hose wasn't thick enough to make a gasketing effect on the barb I attached it to and water started pouring out of this connection as soon as I started the backflush.
My fix was putting an old bulkhead gasket over the soft hose, under the clamp to create a gasket tight seal. This seemed to solve the issue. You can kind of see the black gasket over the hose in this picture below.
This hose then drains over to the shower in the room next to the tank.
There was a lot of sludge in the Ultima, this picture only shows a small portion of the grime that came out of it.
Now that I have the tank mostly empty, I need to put some shims under one side. I thought it was level but once it was full I could see the water level was slightly off at the top.
After shimming, I need to buy some fittings to connect my airstones that will go in the K1 chamber in the sump and then completely drain the sump so I can apply some more silicone to that middle baffle.
After that, I think I'll be ready for a re-fill of filtered water that can start cycling the tank!
I've got the tank officially running on the Ultima and almost running on the sump now. Have a few hickups currently.
If I close the valve on the outlet side of the Ultima to much, it creates to much pressure in the pipe and starts to push out the rector seal5 which is used on the threaded connections between the ultima and PVC pipes. I think I've got it dialed in now to the slowest flow allowable without pushing water out the seals. You can see in the picture below how it's pushing water/sealant out of the threads.
On the sump, I forgot the K1 is super buoyant when you 1st put it in the tank so it was overflowing into the return chamber... After about 12 hours it became less bouyant and now tumbles correctly.
I just tossed on 1 of my leftover saltwater lights to see what the tank would look like. I like it but I might put a second one on it and spread them apart just to give it a little more light across the tank.
As you can see from the picture above, I have some rough cut MDF that I'll be using for the façade on the tank stand. This will be my next task, the reeflo pumps aren't loud, but they have a decent hum to them, that I think will be much quieter with a fully covered stand.
If I close the valve on the outlet side of the Ultima to much, it creates to much pressure in the pipe and starts to push out the rector seal5 which is used on the threaded connections between the ultima and PVC pipes. I think I've got it dialed in now to the slowest flow allowable without pushing water out the seals. You can see in the picture below how it's pushing water/sealant out of the threads.
On the sump, I forgot the K1 is super buoyant when you 1st put it in the tank so it was overflowing into the return chamber... After about 12 hours it became less bouyant and now tumbles correctly.
I just tossed on 1 of my leftover saltwater lights to see what the tank would look like. I like it but I might put a second one on it and spread them apart just to give it a little more light across the tank.
As you can see from the picture above, I have some rough cut MDF that I'll be using for the façade on the tank stand. This will be my next task, the reeflo pumps aren't loud, but they have a decent hum to them, that I think will be much quieter with a fully covered stand.
