wjb Posted November 9, 2007 Share Posted November 9, 2007 Well, I am truly hoping to move and inject myself, (another socal burnout), into your neck of the woods.. I want to move SOONER, rather then later... But, I have only toured through your areas many many years ago. And I was not looking to move back then. So, now, I dont have a clue as to how to start looking... Or where.... I dont have many NEEDS. The only true consideration is I am a single father of a 15 year old daughter, (who thinks she is thirty) Other then that, I would WANT, a 'smallville' type of farm/ranch/home. I want a small town, and elctricity , telephone or cell phone, gas or other heating fuels, and sewer/septic... Other then that, barns, stables,horses would be okay... If not a farm or ranch, then just a small neighborhood, with as much space between neighbors as possible... Anyways, as for my TANK. It is a 180g tank with a 50g sump/fuge I am using a MRC MR2 skimmer with dual beckett, (w/ quick release fitting everywhere) I have a 1/4hp chiller, and a aquaC XP media reacotr, and 45 watt Aqua logic UV. I also have a saltwater mixing barrel with auto top off float valves, and a homemade DIY/ 12v auto top off that is fed directly from my RO/DI filter... The sump and all equipment, (except for a closed loop), are located outside on my private patio. (it has a roof, but the perimeter is actually a fence, (wood fence)... Inside is my tank, which is drilled with a center overflow, (which I will not do again, as I can not get access to the inside of hte overflow) The overflow has 1-1/2" drain, and two -1" return lines... The back of the tank has 4 - 1" holes for the return lines of the closed loop system, and two 1-1/2" holes for the inlets to the closed loop, The closed loop is a Oceans Motions, 4-way, powered by a Sequence DART pump, 3600gph Lighting is a 72" Hamilton fixture, which has 3 250 watt MH bulbs. the outside bulbs are 10K, and the center bulb is a 14K. One of my upcoming projects will be to replace the center ballast with a 400W as the bluer the bulb, the dimmer it appears, as compared to the whiter bulbs... The fixture also has two 72" Super actinic VHO bulbs Everything is controlled by the Aquacontroller 3, which is bridged wirelessly to my router... NOW for the pics... The sump, and chiller, (the tank is onthe other side of that window) A very old pic, (Actually 10 months old), I promise to take some new pics this weekend) A closeup of the Oceansmotions 4-way. For those that dont know, thing that is just on top and out of the picture, is the motor that turns a drum inside that section that has the 4 red unions. (it turns it via a bunch of magnets, so there is no direct contact between the motor and the saltwater.. It turns at the rate of 1 revolution per minute, so (depending on the model of the drum), one hole is open at a time for fifteen seconds, then the next and so on... (very simplified explanation) (A better pic, but, it was taken after installation and after I found a 1/4" hole in the side of the pvc elbow...) (also notice the drain line and return lines going into the bottom of the tank. That little 'field goal' looking assembly to connect the return lines took me thre tries to get it to work and fit... (It dont look pretty, but it dont leak either) (CONTINUED in next message) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wjb Posted November 9, 2007 Author Share Posted November 9, 2007 Hello ALL (continued...) Continued from the earlier message... After I orginally plumbed everything, (about 4 months after), I decided to redo most of the plumbing, to minimize the elbows and in-efficient pipe runs... After it was all done, per the calcs, I had reduced the head pressure by about 7 feet, and the flow increased by almost 500gph... Part of the changes was this... I replace 4 - 1" pvc elbows with these two 1-1/2" wide sweep "90" (found int he electrical department at home depot and lowes... This is actually the only elbows needed for my tank... Unfortunately, there is two other elbows that can be removed, but it is more then a PITA to get to... This has to do with teh overflow being in the middle, and my not being able to get to the overflow, cause I would have to remove and replace the bulkheads, but I can not get to the overflow, so.... So, I deferred replacing those till whenever, (WHEN? NEVER!!) I will get to it, but, it will be a while... When I re-piped, I removed several auxillary pumps and decided to go with the Quiet One 6000 pump, and fabricate a 'manifold' to branch out and supply water to each of the equipments I have, i.e. the chiller, the media reactor, the UV light.. But, again, I did not want ELBOWs, although they would not affect the flow into or out of the display tank, it was the intent and goal for consistancy.. (I do have elbows in my system, just the bare minimum though Here is a manifold, (I ended up scrapping it and making it slightly different, but at least you can see the concept... Here is a pic of my skimmer. I dont understand why everyone doesnt have the MRC skimmers or something like them. (they can be upgraded by buying or fabricating sections to make the chamber longer)... (you can see how I plumbed the top of the skimmer to feed both beckett injectors so they had equal pressure and flow... You can see on the sump, the black ABS line is the drain line coming from the display tank, (I split the drain line, so one side comes in onthe left side of the sump, and also the right side of the sump, (the fuge, and it is throttled back to reduc the flow through the fuge) I approximate the flow through the sump/fuge to be less then 400 gph, with about 100gph through the fuge (no the pipe is not copper, (I was bored and had some copper spray paint) Anyways, hope you enjoy, and if you gots questions, I gots answers, or guesses... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dsoz Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 Very nice looking set-up. It puts my humble 75g to shame. Where are you thinking of living? Do you want to be close in to Portland (Salem?)? Further out? (commute time to job?) Do you work from home or for a company? Are you being transferred? How much can you afford to put into a house? What kind of school district do you want for your daughter? There are many nice places to settle around here, some are better than others. If you want opinions on where to look you need to give some more information on your situation. I am sure that many people will tell you what you want if you just ask. And welcome to the area (before you actually get here). dsoz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reefgeek84 Posted November 10, 2007 Share Posted November 10, 2007 If you have a place to sell in socal, then you can get some great stuff up here!!!! I would check into the outskirts of oregon city, mollala, estacada, boring, sandy, woodburn...would be some good places to start, or you could go further up the Gorge and hit cascade locks and possibly even hood river...Great tank, never seen red unions before!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
180Brandy Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 Hello and welcome to the site!!!! As far as places to live if your looking for piece and quiet McMinnville is a good choice. Silverton is also a good choice. Nice tank set up by the way! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael7979 Posted November 11, 2007 Share Posted November 11, 2007 With some more info. about what you are looking for and where you will be working we can give you some better ideas. BTW welcome to the Pacific Northwest! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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