Fishroom Remodel Has Begun!

[markvo]

Keep on going Dave. It's looking better all the time.

[obrien.david.j]

Triple Pump module is complete and glued.   As a reminder, left pump is feed to main tank, right pump is feed to frag tanks, and middle pump is pre-plumbed spare.   Unplug a malfunctioning pump, flip five ball valves, Plug in the spare - you're back up and running.   Also enables routine maintenance on either main pump, without flow disruption.  

[obrien.david.j]

The past week has been about finishing the mixing station up and running.   And last night, IT GOT WET.   (not done, but getting there)

1. Plumbing done and Glued.  Thanks @SuncrestReef, you'll notice this is your design.  
2. Cable track, electrical routing, and RO Tubing is locally routed
3. Apex setup is two PM2's, FMM, and EB832
   • Left PM2 for Salt tank:  Temp & Salinity probes
   • mid FMM: Salt Tank low sensor, RO tank High Sensor, RO tank low sensor, Leak detector for tank basin
   • Right PM2 for RO tank: Temp & future toggle box   (why a PM2, because I had a spare)
   • EB832: Mixing Pump, RO Booster Pump, RO Heater, Salt Heater, tank LED backlight && Apex Solenoid for RO Unit (main water feed)
4. And ITs WET.   Here's the regime
   • leak test RO container (right) , with garden hose
   • pump Garden hose water into salt tank (left) as a leak test
   • leave salt tank pump running to recirculate
   • Start new RO water into RO container (right) to start the cleaning process.   
   • (As of this morning, salt tank is recirculating w/garden hose water and  30 net gallons of RO water w/remnants of garden hose water in fresh tank)
   • before use, need to run clean water through these systems.
     • 2x of dump salt tank, move RO tank with cleaner water into salt tank, refill RO tank with RO water, ...

Caveats:

• RO unit itself is not mounted.   (sitting on floor)
• Electronics are not connected into main Apex system, and thus not programmed (yet)
• I want a wider cable track.   current is 2" wide, just ordered 4".   Can notch and hide all of apex connections. 
  • Thus will be replacing existing track.   Will re-run RO tubing at the same time.

1. Plumbing done and Glued.  Thanks @SuncrestReef, you'll notice this is your design.  

 

2. Cable track, electrical routing, and RO Tubing is locally routed

 

3. Cable track, electrical routing, and RO Tubing is locally routed

 

4. And ITs WET.   

(Left/Salt side is ~65 gallons of garden hose water, recirculating)
(Right/Fresh side is ~30 gallons of first batch of RO water)

 

[SuncrestReef]

Just now, obrien.david.j said:

 

1. Plumbing done and Glued.  Thanks @SuncrestReef, you'll notice this is your design.  

Wow!  I just went out to my garage to make sure my mixing station wasn't stolen overnight!!!  That's a perfect clone.  Nice work.

[obrien.david.j]

13 minutes ago, SuncrestReef said:

Wow!  I just went out to my garage to make sure my mixing station wasn't stolen overnight!!!  That's a perfect clone.  Nice work.

Actually, it's not a perfect clone, only slight differences.   

• Unions into tanks are threaded<->slip, so didn't need piece C
• Unions on pump are threadded<->slip, so didn't need piece D
• Longer drops on to the bottom valves, to get below the horizontal pipes behind them
• pushed pump deeper between tanks

Yes, its a copy. 

[pdxmonkeyboy]

So you can only make 75 gallons of saltwater at a time?

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[obrien.david.j]

True statement - up to 75 gallons of salt water always made, and always ~75 gallons of RO water ready to mix an additional full batch - with something like 1-2hrs of salt disolve/mixing time.   Fragtanks are something like 50 gallons each, so in an emergency I could refill either one or both, and move everything there.

[obrien.david.j]

In case you're wondering about water tubing routing...  There is no water supply nor drain in my fish room.  So everything goes ~50 feet back to the laundry room of the house.

Three Lines to/from Laundry room, routed around garage ceiling, into fish room

• Raw Freshwater as input to RO unit (yellow) - from laundry room
• RO waste water (green) - to laundry room  drain
• Old Saltwater (black) - to laundry room drain (stops at main sump alcove)

Two DOS pumps live above the main sump alcove  (not shown in pictures)

• DOS1 - Auto Water Change.   Old salt water (black) goes to laundry room.   New salt water (orange) from Salt mixing station tank
• DOS2 - Auto Top Off.  Top off RO water (blue) from RO mixing station tank

Four Lines goto Mixing Station & RO unit alcove (just visible on right of first picture)

• Raw Freshwater as input to RO unit (yellow) - from laundry room
• RO waste water (green) - to laundry room  drain
• New salt water (orange) - from Salt mixing station tank
• Top off RO water (blue) - from RO mixing station tank

Main Sump Alcove (laundry room to the LEFT, mixing station alcove to the RIGHT)

 

Route into the garage, onto way to laundry room

 

In garage, routed just below ceiling around the garage perimeter 

 

[Nick]

2 hours ago, obrien.david.j said:

In case you're wondering about water tubing routing...  There is no water supply nor drain in my fish room.  So everything goes ~50 feet back to the laundry room of the house.

Three Lines to/from Laundry room, routed around garage ceiling, into fish room

• Raw Freshwater as input to RO unit (yellow) - from laundry room
• RO waste water (green) - to laundry room  drain
• Old Saltwater (black) - to laundry room drain (stops at main sump alcove)

Two DOS pumps live above the main sump alcove  (not shown in pictures)

• DOS1 - Auto Water Change.   Old salt water (black) goes to laundry room.   New salt water (orange) from Salt mixing station tank
• DOS2 - Auto Top Off.  Top off RO water (blue) from RO mixing station tank

Four Lines goto Mixing Station & RO unit alcove (just visible on right of first picture)

• Raw Freshwater as input to RO unit (yellow) - from laundry room
• RO waste water (green) - to laundry room  drain
• New salt water (orange) - from Salt mixing station tank
• Top off RO water (blue) - from RO mixing station tank

Main Sump Alcove (laundry room to the LEFT, mixing station alcove to the RIGHT)

 

Route into the garage, onto way to laundry room

 

In garage, routed just below ceiling around the garage perimeter 

 

I cut a drain in my floor. I didn't want a bunch of pipes running all over the place. 

[obrien.david.j]

8 minutes ago, Nick said:

I cut a drain in my floor. I didn't want a bunch of pipes running all over the place. 

I seriously understand this thought process.   Fish Room is just on on the Wrong Side of the house.    Thus, I ran two 1/4" RO lines for waste.   Wish I could have done drain, and feed, and sink...   All in fish room.

[pdxmonkeyboy]

Looking good.  It is nice that you don't have your supply RO line mounted directly to the drywall.  When it gets a little warmer, the RO line WILL be covered in condensate.  Looks like you have it mounted in tubes as it passes through the wall which is also really nice.  

[obrien.david.j]

Exactly.  Each wall the lines pass through (two.  fishroom --> garage  &  garage --> laundry room) got a PVC sleeve.  And my technique to hold it in place is glue on a fitting, chop saw the fitting down to a small collar.  and on the other side, just push a chopped fitting on tightly.   So sleeve doesn't simply slide out as I move hoses around.    Plus I think it looks nicer.

 

[obrien.david.j]

On 4/6/2020 at 11:49 AM, obrien.david.j said:

Caveats:

• I want a wider cable track.   current is 2" wide, just ordered 4".   Can notch and hide all of apex connections. 
  • Thus will be replacing existing track.   Will re-run RO tubing at the same time.

New track arrived and I like the new look much better.  Notice the apex connectors are how completely hidden inside the track.  

Before - 2" track is now removed

After - 4" track installed, cleaner look

 

 

Edited April 9, 2020 by obrien.david.j
deleting extra picture

[obrien.david.j]

Weekend Update:  RO Unit and DOS Units installed!

• DOS1 - Auto Water Change.   Old salt water (black) goes to laundry room.   New salt water (orange) from Salt mixing station tank
• DOS2 - Auto Top Off.  Top off RO water (blue) from RO mixing station tank.   Also setup 2nd head to dose Aminos.  (Do you like the (new) hot sauce bottle!)

 

Overall setup:  

 

DOS Setup:

 

RO Setup

 

Incoming TDS = 13(yesterday) / 14 (today) -- Outgoing = 0

 

[obrien.david.j]

Look what showed up in the mail today, fresh from Harry's printing press.   FYI, dealing with him was breeze and a pleasure.   I wanted this box and an Apex solenoid bracket.  Emailed him, he threw in two brackets for free.    And he shipped everything two days earlier than quoted.    Solid interaction.

https://www.harrysaquatics.com/

 

[obrien.david.j]

MILESTONE DAY!    Mixing Station is up, running, and In Use.

• 1st ATO (Auto Top Off) done last night
• 1st AWC (Auto Water Change) done this morning.   (Started lite, first run was 1000ml.  2nd run was 5000ml.)

Still running OLD sump.  Frag tanks still dry.  Next step is clean the garage and Chop the used tank I got & Make the new sump.

(Orange is Fresh saltwater going into sump.  White is Amino dos.  You can't see Black drawing out old salt water)

 

 

[obrien.david.j]

Mixing Station is working well.  Both ATO and AWC.   Took time last night to organize my the apex components on the already running side of the room, and then today made connections over to mixing station side.   

New additions:

• EB832 - running Mixing pump, heaters on RO and Salt water tanks, booster pump for making RO, and RO-Solenoid to turn on raw water feed.
• FMM - Salt water low sensor, RO water High sensor, RO Low sensor, and There's Been A Leak sensor.  
• PM2 - for Salt tank.  Temp and Salinity
• PM2 - for RO tank.  Temp and connection to Harry's break out box of switches.   (I had a spare PM2)

Cleaned up the room, tidied the garage.  And on to starting making a sump.   Reminder, bought this used 120gal plexi (24x24x48).   Turning it into a 90gal sump without overflow boxes.  24x24x36.   Stage one, grind off the overflow boxes.   Surprisingly easy, although plexi dust Everywhere.   The maker of this Tank could have been named Sherman.   This is one well built plexi tank. 

Before:

After:

 

  

[obrien.david.j]

Today, a 4 foot tank took another step on it's journey to becoming a 3 foot tank. (sump)

• used a clamp bar to guide a circular saw, and then a flush cut router to take off the endcap.  (to be re-glued as the sump end)
• used a clamp bar to circular saw off 11", but it's too rough and not straight enough to re-glue the end on
• Then used PVC pipes to make consistent and crisp height setting for the saw bar, to guide final flush cut router

Worked great.   Of course, I realized I didn't have enough glue to start that ...

Clamp Bar: https://www.lowes.com/pd/BORA-Modular-Clamp-Edge-Guide-50-in-WTX-Bar-Clamp/50092628

A 4 Foot tank, and the sections cut out of it.

 

A future 3 Foot sump, and final setup to guide router for crisp end, ready for gluing

 

[obrien.david.j]

Custom Toggle Box ordered from Harry's Aquatics for the Mixing Station.

• All latching switches, no momentary contact switches
• Toggles are for "Overriding Automated Control"
• Latching Push button for mixing tank backlight.   
  (as opposed to funky apex programming to make a toggle switch out of momentary contact button)

Here's the design.   Expected to take a few weeks to make.

[Bicyclebill]

Good lord, this custom switch box warrants it’s own club tour for an explanation when done!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[obrien.david.j]

New Sump is complete, and got its first use last night.   Temporary water Reservoir.

My system has two hard plumbed recirculation loops, each feeding a sea swirl.  Right side, and Left side.   One of the pumps needs to be relocated, in order to fit the new sump and new pump complex in place.  And of course, the pump intake is about 16" below the waterline.  

Last night was:

• drain the tank down 18"
• Unscrew Unions, remove recirc pump.
• Attach new Union, with new Valve as a stub.  Ready for pump relocation
• refill tank

Success.  All done in <30minutes.

Ready to Drain the Tank (into new sump)

Done, Refilling the Tank

 

Had to swap connection to this union, connected to submerged bulk head on back of tank

And capped off, ready for future plumbing changes

This Recirculation pump needs to be relocated Above the shelf.

 

 

 

 

[obrien.david.j]

Took a pause while the realization of "need more plumbing pieces" sunk in, ordered, and received what's needed.

New shelf for the two re-circulation pumps done, and painted.   This week, expecting to remove and replace the East recir pump, including install this new shelf.   Also realized, the west -recirc pump that was pulled out last week will Stay Offline until the new sump and new pump complex is installed.   (It's plumbing needs existing/old plumbing removed.)

 

Dual Pump Shelf.   Pump on left (east), Pump on right (west), and main sump return plumbing come up the middle.

 

[obrien.david.j]

Last night, committed plumbing to glue for the East recirc pump replacement.   

Tonight was to swap it in.  Drain half the tank, pull out old plumbing, mount new pump shelf, install new plumbing.   That plan was scrapped.

Did a dry run of where everything would fit before draining tank... bulk head to wall, 9".  New plumbing, 11.5".    Replanned location, and cut apart part of last nights work to salvage the union valve threaded ring.  (I have replacement pipe to union fittings).   New glue job, will try again tomorrow.

New Plumbing glued last night

 

Whoops, cut it apart tonight

 

Newly glued, for use tomorrow

[obrien.david.j]

In case you want to see what's going in tonight.   White union in the back connect directly to bulk head in back of tank.  (thus it's being drained tonight to do this swap)   Union at the top goes into hood to sea swirl.

 

[obrien.david.j]

East Recirc pump and plumbing replaced.  New shelf installed.  And new West pump just set on shelf, waiting on final white plumbing removal, so there's room to plumb it.   Yes, cable management is part of the plan.

• OLD:  Blue pumps, white plumbing
• NEW: Yellow pumps, grey plumbing

Before

 

During

 

After