I cleared the space, ordered the acrylic, and got set up to build some tanks and sumps.
I put together a work table with hold down bars to make it easy to router trim the acrylic pieces.
Here I’ve put together the sides.
Securing the sides to the top.
The finished units set up for sealing the inner seams.
With the tanks and sumps complete, I began work on the racking. I first installed separate circuits for the electrical.
Racking complete and ready for finishing.
Racks finished, tanks and sumps in place for fill testing. Each sump was to service both tanks above it.
Painting the backs and sides of the tanks.
Finished tanks in place.
Drip trays for the wet/dry systems.
I installed LED light ropes in a pine box. I later swapped the LED’s out for fluorescent fixtures because they were cheaper to run.
The boxes were mounted so they could be swung up out of the way.
Next, I started the plumping. I used external durso’s for drains.
Internal drain with strainer.
There’s also a center drain that does some skimming and sets the water level.
The returns are pvc with three sets of holes drilled to direct the return to the top, middle, and lower levels.
The sumps were fitted with drain and fill lines to make water changes easy.
I valved off the tank returns so that I could adjust the flow to each level.
The tank return line was taken up above both tanks and then split off to each from there.
I used a set of valves off of the sump pump to direct the flow to either the tanks or the floor drain.
Finished units with tank plumbing in place.
The sump drains were all directed to one floor drain.
A 70 gallon storage tank is used to refill sumps after draining. 70 gallons is enough to do two racks at once.
The electrical switches for the fill pump, circulation pump, and heater.
The storage tank is filled with a ¾” supply line tapped right from the house main supply. It fills the tank in about 4 minutes.
The finished room.
Complete with computer system.
Here’s a video after initial stocking
It’s been up and running since November 2009. All is still going well. Other than occasionally tightening up a bulkhead fitting, no problems or issues.
Thanks for looking.
(as I'm all fingers and thumbs in that matter)
