monkiboy's 265g build thread

[monkiboy]

haven't done much but the stand for the frag and refugium tank was bothering me as i never did coat/redgard the underside of it and only did one coat vs the three i did on the stand for the 265 and area above so the perfectionist in me had to fix that. did two more coats and did the underside of the whole structure and the legs for good measure, haha.

 

[monkiboy]

ordered some more plumbing parts for this project from flexpvc.com to give them a try as it has been a while. i forgot that it takes freaking a week to get anything from them and they don't ship anything USPS - their sole shipper is UPS, unfortunately.



i went to them because they carry just about every unique plumbing fitting one can ever need. so when i went looking for 1.25" bulkeads, 1.25" sch80 pipe and true union gate valves they had it all and i gave it a go.


the fittings all look fine but the pipe looks janky at best. it's obviously abused and thrown around - it arrived all scraped up, scratches and small gouges in it and that just does not fly for plumbing that i am going to have exposed for oogling. if this were going in a wall somewhere that is fine but not for something that i plan to basically show off (show off plumbing, weirdo right?). the stuff i got from BRS is glossy and in mint shape but BRS doesn't carry 1.25 so i'm going to just bush up to 1.5" or down to 1" from the return's 1.25" fitting, i guess.


here's the 1.25" pipe from flexpvc.com

and the whole package that arrived today:

 

[monkiboy]

what was that mr. schedule 80, you have something to say? no? i didn't think so. now i've got enough umph to slice you up proper, wahahahaha...

 

[Sakura2282]

We are getting closer to see the tank finally running. You have done a great job so far. So keep going.

PS: That thing is a monster tool. lol

 

[monkiboy]

if i told you how long just this took you might not believe me so i won't bother mentioning it. i think i need to relax a bit because figuring out the optimal plumbing job for this tank and revision after revision is getting taxing but i'm having a blast with my power tool PVC shears, haha.



i haven't even begun messing with solvent yet but this is looking pretty close to final version.



need to get the air line tubing added to the secondary drain, figure out how to secure the pipe to the stand to support it and final length or horizontal runs and positioning of the sump underneath to make sure i don't have issues with air lock on the bean animal.

 

[monkiboy]

thanks for the replies. i decided to keep the gate valve for the full siphon were it was.



i took apart the temporary sump for the upstairs tank in order to make room for the new sump. moved it to the side and rearranged plumbing to work. it was almost all braided hose so it was pretty easy but took some muscle moving that stupid sump around and into place.

figured out where i wanted the sump for the drains and for ease of removal of the skimmer head for maitenance and got to plumbing.



i dont know if i'm just slow, or i overthink things but i was plumbing this darn thing, getting the other sump out the way, water change, filling up again, doing the return for the new system, etc for just over 12 hours today. basically non stop from 3pm to 3am. i was determined to get the 265 moving water and letting it run over night.



i finished the returns and all my plumbing was done!

then as water began to drain into the sump i begin to see a big problem emerging...



the fu**ing sump is LEAKING---ahhhhhhh!

needless to say, i drained as much water as i could out of the thing, put a towel down there, cleaned up my tools and gave up.



this isn't how i planned to end my evening and feel completely defeated. at the very least, the plumbing is done but now i'll need to wake up in the morning, clean up the mess, drain as much i can again, get the skimmer out, the sump out of there and order up a new one.



i leak tested the tank (before it was cut in half and converted to a sump) twice but since then it's been to a few places so how this happened, i am not too sure about.



the added expense of a new sump was not in the cards but oh well. at least this time it'll be exactly what i need. it just irritates the heck outta me because i just had it reinforced, cleaned up, edges smoothed, and baffles redone and not it's scrap material.



pardon the rant. thanks for reading.

 

[Marinne13]

Where is the leak on the sump? Might be a connection

 

[monkiboy]

Where is the leak on the sump? Might be a connection

thanks for the input. it's on the bottom right center where there used to be two drains for the overflow where a large sheet of acrylic was places over them to seal it. i guess not done to well. that being said, it's tough working with nonvirgin acrylic and virgin. i'm going to see if i can ensure where it is coming from, isolate and seal with weldon or dow 795.

 

[Marinne13]

Maybe try some more silicone and acrylic... I would try and fix it first but sometimes its a lost cause

 

[ZyberGoby]

That stinks I hate leaks but aside from the leak its looking really sharp. Also I see you got the Tim Allen PVC cutting tool lol

 

[monkiboy]

Maybe try some more silicone and acrylic... I would try and fix it first but sometimes its a lost cause

thanks for the idea and i got to work today on it and will post shortly on what i decided to do.

That stinks I hate leaks but aside from the leak its looking really sharp. Also I see you got the Tim Allen PVC cutting tool lol

thank you sir. i'm trying!

 

[monkiboy]

borrowing the club meter got a bet tedious so i got a new toy in the mail today. i am going to compare readings from the club meter once just out of curiosity but having my own will be loads more convenient and really helpful with coral placement on the new build. should be fun!

 

[monkiboy]

ok, so today i decided to remove one of the trim pieces from the first chamber area designed to keep salt creep away in favor of having a 2-3" more room in the back of the sump to navigate my skimmer body in.

thankfully, that was really easy work (maybe five minutes) with a circular saw and a jig saw - easier than i anticipated anyway. sanded it down and smoothed out nice and clean.

now onto the issue of the leak. this is where i thought it was coming from. not from any of the seams of the original tank but from where the two preexisting holes for the overflow drains where on the original tank design.

as you can see, a piece of black acrylic was laid over top from the inside to effectively seal this off.

so after draining everything, removing the sump yet again and all gear i had the sump outside for inspection.

filled up the various sections in parts where i could to isolate and ensure i found all leaks and problem areas.

no leaks along all original tank seams and even the new beefier and reinforcing baffles jeff/naga did for me were leak free - bonus!

i checked the underside where i suspected my culprit to be found et voila. one of the holes was leaking about a drop a second - no bueno.

the space to access from the top to try some weldon in the interior was too small and difficult to reach

so i had my godson, what kids are best used for if not to get into spots where our big adult cumbersome arms can't, put to work. it was messy but it couldn't be done any other way from the inside and he said "i got all the edges really good padrino" and proceeded to run off with sealant covered hands (that didn't end well but another story, haha).

now that was just stage 1 as i was going to go through all this trouble and not fix this 200%. so flipped the sump over and started working on the backside and sealed both holes (with the same dow 795 structural/building sealant almost completely to ensure leak free from both inside and outside. no way any water is getting out through there now!!

and just a matter of diligence and since i already had the sump outside, i went ahead and sealed all seams, baffles, etc. i dare say, i think after about a week and letting this thing cure properly, i should be good to go...again. fingers crossed.

 

[ZyberGoby]

I say acrylic glue and a sheat of half as thick acrylic inside the chamber should fix it good. But I hope all that goo holds well enough for you

 

[monkiboy]

I say acrylic glue and a sheat of half as thick acrylic inside the chamber should fix it good. But I hope all that goo holds well enough for you

there's no getting into the chamber (hence the need for child labor). also virgin and nonvirgin materials don't mix well and often there's poor adhesion without considerable diligence. unfortunately, the person that did this the first time didn't check or get it right. the sealant used is dow 795. i've used it all over my build with the external overflow and other sumps. i really hope it does it. thanks for checking in!

 

[Civicdemon]

wow just when you think your ready to go something else happens. But like u said at least the pluming is done. Now the wait !!!

 

[Sakura2282]

Definitely, good things take time and patience. ;)

 

[monkiboy]

wanted to do something with the tank while the sump's new seals cure so i cleaned up the hanging kit yo-yo contraptions.



i removed the yo-yo thingies. i thought it was a good idea to use them to aide in lowering and raising the light fixture for maintenance and working in the tank but they were not the self retracting kind i thought they were and relied on one tightening and loosening a wing-nut on its side to free or grab hold of the cable. this proved to be less efficient than i had planned for and no easier and possible more complicated than just using the standard adjustable wire hanging kit assembly pieces. removing them also gave me about eight inches of vertical flexibility back so now the light can go all the way up to the top leaving just 2.5" above it vs 10" or so with the yo-yo thing-a-ma-jigs.



cleaner, less components, less points of failure, more vertical adjustment = win in my book.

 

[Civicdemon]

Is that going to be your return line on the side of the tank ??

 

[monkiboy]

Is that going to be your return line on the side of the tank ??

yes. you can see it better in the previous picture that i've copied below. it's one return going through two 1" sea swirls. i didn't want a bunch of plumbing all over the place so kept it to the one side and the side against the wall so doesn't get in the way of tank maintenance, etc.