Movable Monster?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
This is what I have finished so far. Some things came up so I just finished my bio sumps last night. I should be able to get the bulkheads drilled and installed in a little bit. Then I have to add oak 2x4, 1x6, and 1/2" plywood on the outside which will again add support and also allow me a finished surface for staining.

I also need to install my 5x cross members across the top to stop any bowing. The inside of the glass panels at the top have additional 2x4 support which attaches the front panels to the side panels via 3/8" lag bolts.

I still have to find a 4 foot long set of industrial drawer runners so I can build the canopy. The canopy is going to be able to roll 2 feet front to back so I can slide the whole canopy out and get access to the tank from either side.

Fullshotbare.jpg
 
Man she's a serious beast! looks like really good craftsmanship though. It looks like you could park the titanic on it, and it'd go trhough the concrete floor before anything bowed or bent. I'd be tempted to make the skin on the ends where the plumbing goes into cabinet doors, so you can stick odds and ends in there, as well as be able to access the plumbing down the road. How does that overflow work? is there 2 vertical pipes per end of the tank, with a T and 2 elbows, so you actually have 4 overflow outlets per end? If that's the case, it may be noisy. That's one major regret I have with my DIY as it is... the plumbing is really noisy, even though I have a durso.

What id you paint the outside of your sumps with? I may be building a new sump soon... I built a plywood on ethat worked, but was huge, and had some flaws, so I built a nice acrylic one, that promptly fell apart. Now I'm thinking of going back to ply. :p
 
The outside of the sump is painted with drylock, and the inside is coated with the remainder of the west system epoxy that I used for the tank. There are 8x 1.5" bulkheads that T into 4x 2", two 1.5" per 2" drain. I have some saddle Ts that I will cut into the 2" PVC to quiet the whole thing down. I want to get a feel to where the water in the pipe makes the most noise then saddle it there and feed it through the top of the end panels.

The inside of the walls and the stand will be insulated with asphalt roofing material. The T for the drains will also feed into some DIY silencer boxes.

I could make the ends covers removable, thanks for the tip.
 
I'm not getting a very clear picture of your quieting idea - it sounds interesting though. What do you mean by a "silencer box"? I'm not sure what a saddle tee actually is, I'll google that ;) but how does it work into your system to quiet it?

Mine is mostly noisy because the bubbles and turbulent water going down the drain pipe makes a racket. Your plumbing is enclosed so you're already further ahead in that respect, but since your overflows are sort of half submerged, sound can escape through the airspace above the water... is that making any sense? You sound like you've thought this through pretty thoroughly, so maybe your plans are already better than my suggestions, but I'd be tempted to remove the elbows (if you still can at this point) and put in T's, with a downward facing elbow inside the tank, so the overflow behaves like a durso standpipe. Just some ideas. I'd really like to know more details on what you're planning now though, it sounds interesting.
 
A saddle T lets me tap into the pipe anywhere so I can allow extra air into the system at that point. The turbulance where the water falls and hits water inside the pipe can be raised or lowered depending on where you let air into the system.The place where I want the splashing is at the bottom 90 where the plumbing will be completely in the stand's side-wall. Then I can insulate the bottom wall with a couple layers of asphalt.

To silence the air intake so I don't get the gurgle or rushing air sound, is just a larger diameter pipe over the intake that allows air into the system from an offset area with baffles inside of it instead of a large direct area. It is basically like a muffler for a car.

It seems like it will work but this is my first attempt at a larger sump system. The concept worked on my HOB overflow so I am just hoping that it will work with larger pipes.

The durso or stockman standpipes are alright but I cannot get the surface skimming without a separate overflow baffle.
 
The sump is in full operation now, I cranked it up to about 5000 GPH but will tone it back down to about 3k. The plumbing is super quiet. Without any insulation or exterior sheathing, it is more quiet than my reef ready perfecto 120XH.

The Durso in the perfecto makes a ton of noise compared to what I am hearing from the 2" pipes.
 
Ok well PICS obviously ;)
 
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