Construction Journal of my new Paludarium

[Biznatch]

I'm farther than the journal has led you guys to believe, i just have been working on it so I didn't get to post it all. I had a danner mag 3 which is 350gph. At a 2' head it says it pumps like 300gph (I think, going off memory). When used in the tank it actually pumped faster than a 3/4" pvc overflow could drain. We did a semi accurate test and came up with it was pumping aruond 275gph where it was. So I bought a pump that at 2' head is supposed to be ~130gph, so 2gpm. The overflow keeps up with it no problem, but the problem is now it's kind of noisy :P

I have found some ideas online on how to reduce the noise of the water flowing that I'm giong to try, but any other ideas are welcome.

[Biznatch]

Ok another update, hopefully by tommorow I should be caught up to where I'm currently at (Maybe tonight before bed if I have time). So after testing drilling the practice piece of glass I moved on to the real tank. I also wasn't sure if this bit would work for cutting glass , but as you can see it did

So I set up the template again to start the hole. That piece of metal is solid steel and ways something like 25lbs. It was to hold the template in place. The bottom of the tank is elevated from the ground with wood so the glass has some support on the back.


Here I am drilling away.




And both holes were a success Still a lot of water/glass bits all over though.



And here are some pictures of the bulkheads installed with the tank on the stand. Yes one of the holes in the stand is a bit off and yes those teeth marks in the paint are from the hole saw owning me :P (Stuipd pilot bit wasn't in tight enough). The holes in the stand are 2 1/2" to give some room.

[lacerta]

I appreciate the journal you have put together so far and find it very informative. I hope to set up a pair of 18x18 exo-terras soon. I do have a question for you. I see that when drilling the two holes in the tank bottom, you are reaching INTO the tank and drilling from the inside - out. Why couldn't you drill from the outside - in by flipping the tank upside down? Would that not allow you to use a drill press? I suppose you would still need to provide some support on the inside as you drill. This may require you to build up some sort of support to put the inverted tank over. Please keep us posted on your progress. Thanks.
George

[Biznatch]

In answer to your question, I supposed you could flip it but I wouldn't recomend that. There is no support above the 2 front doors. They go all the way to the top and there is a flimsy piece of plastic above it. Plus the tank (mine at least) is 24" tall. I have a large drill press at home and it can't even go that high. Then like you said there would be a lot of problems with supporting the glass ont he opposite side.

Drilling from the inside is better because you get a nice clean cut on the inside wheren the seal is going to be. The outside is kinda ragged/chipped because even the board I had underneath wasn't enough support.


Now for another update. The canopy is built completely except for the fan holes I'm giong to have to drill and I have to wait for my commision check to buy the 2- 36watt AH retrofit kit to install in it. It's already sanded/filled with wood putty and I put the first coat of primer on it last night. The design for the canopy was something I came up with so it could get some decent airflow without the need for ugly vents on the sides or front of it.


This picture was extensively detailed with very expensive photo editing software to explain precisely how my canopy design will work


Here is the unedited one to make it easier to see.


And here are some pictures from the outside.

[jmcc000]

Nice work on the stand and canopy. I cant wait to see this when its done. Keep up the good work!!
Jason

[Biznatch]

Ok well I haven't had as much time to work on it as I would have liked to. I have gotten a little done so far, but I'm having a lot of problems with my overflow system. It's work fine.....if you like the sound of nigra falls constantly. This tank is going in my room so it really needs to be quiet so I can get some sleep :P

I have been doing extensive reserch on the reef forums and their systems for quietting down the overflow/sump. On my fish tank I have 2 canisters filters that are both plumbed with PVC along with an inline heater, CO2 reactor and UV filter. So plumbing isn't new to me, but overflows are. My initial design was to just have a pipe going up with a 45degree elbow to allow water to flow in.

Here you can see it filling with water. The output is not setup at all. I just made the pipe taller so no water went in the slipped a 1/2" tube right down the middle for the pump to return water to the tank from the sump.


Here is the water flowing down the tube. It swirls/sucks in air and is really loud.


So after doing a lot of reserch on the reef forums, I found an overflow they use called the "Durso" overflow. If you want more information you can serch for it on the forums. A large number of people have it and recomend it. Here is what it looks like set up in my tank. The top cap has a hole in it so it is not a siphon. It almost completely silences the overflow.


So now the overflow is silent you'd think everything was great huh.....Not really. Now the sump is even louder. Water/bubbles come down the tube and make the sump sound exactly like a hot tub. I have found some ideas that I am trying to use/modify to work for my situation. I have found one that eliminates most of the noise, but it still douns like running water all the time.

Here the exit tube goes about halfway down the water line. The "T" has a tube going up to release the air and one going down to release the water. It is much quieter, but there is still some air being released into the water making noise.


So I have come to the conclusion that my pump is a bit too much for my system. It does around 120-130gph at 2' head. I really don't need that much so I'm going to take it back to the LFS and get a smaller model. I really wished they caried something other than a RIO and that I had been patient enough to order one online. I have read lots of crappy reviews about them and am a bit worried. Oh well we'll see what happens.

[Biznatch]

Here are a few more pictures to post also.

This is my profesional painting studio all set up ready to start adding the primer to the canopy and the door for my stand. They are both drying and will probably get sanded/second coat tommorow. My dad was working on the brakes for his car and wanted to be in the shade, so I was kind of cramped lol.


Now the rest of these are to show what happens when you are experimenting with a siphon overflow and don't pay attention to it. I turned the pump off and thought the siphon would die on it's own how I had it set up. Well apparently I had too much water in the sump and it overflowed. I lost a couple gallons before I got it to stop......stupid stupid stupid........



I had to dry off the edges of the plywood since the water soaked in on the bottom/sides of the stand. Don't it to start swelling up or anything. So I elevated it and had a fan blowing full blast on it for an hour or so. That was like 2 days ago and the stand is still in perfect condition. I really need to seal the back/bottom/inside of it soon though.


Well now I'm currently up to date with everything. Time to go read up some more on the reef forums to see if I can come up with any more ideas for the overflow.

[Biznatch]

Well it's time for another update. I have been doing a lot of sanding/priming everything. I have also been doing some more testing on the overflow system. I am trying the 3rd pump out and it's just barely too much flow. It works great and is pretty quiet, but it's still too loud. The last one I had was almsot silent but the flow was too low and the pump was buzzing (Said 2' max head, but couldn't really handle 2').

But the canopy/stand/door are now fully sanded and ready to be painted. Tommorow I will do some final cleaning on them and paint them all black to match the rest of the furniture in my room.

Well today I was doing some more reserch on fans for the canopy and found that compusa had some nice quiet 120mm ones for 10$. This was good news since it saved me the 7-10$ that most online places wanted to ship fans. So I bought them and brought them home to test them. Not a tremendous amount of flow, but man are they quiet. Here is the link for the info on the fans. http://www.compusa.com/products/product ... pfp=BROWSE

After doing some searching in my room I found a AC to DC coverter than has an output of 12v DC with 300mA. This is perfect since each fan needs .12amps (Which is 120mA in case you didn't know :P ). I dont know what it was from but here is a pic of it.


Now the fans each have 3 wires. A red, a black and a yellow. The red is the +12v wire and the black is the ground wire. The yellow wire is the RPM sensor for fan controllers/motherboards. So basically you just ignore that wire and dont connect it to anything. Being the computer tech guy I am I had a spare male fan connector to use to hook up to the DC converter. Here is the pic of it just twisted on so I could test it to make sure it was wired correctly and that it worked.


This is the fan hooked up and running. I'm still amazed that the camera caught it so the fan doesn't looked blurred at all. I assure you the fan was spinning at full speed though. I used the receipt by the connector just to make sure the wires didn't touch during the test.


Now that I'm sure it works, I'm ready to solder the connector on. Don't forget to put the shrink tubing on the wires before you solder.


Here is it soldered together.


And now here is it finished I tested it again and it works great. Wow these fans are quiet. Now I have to find a 4" hole saw to cut the holes in the canopy.


Well that's it for tonight, hopefully I'll get everything painted tommorow and have another update ready.

[Biznatch]

Well I finally finished painting the stand, the canopy and the back half of the door. Tommorow I'll paint the front, right after I drill the holes for the hinges. I have never enjoyed or been very good at painting anything. I can build stuff but I just can't paint worth a darn with spray paint or with a brush. With that in mind everything came out alright which means I can almost move on to more fun things (Like working on the actual tank). Anyway here are the pictures I just took.









The stand is not 100% dry yet so I couldn't get a picture of the tank on the stand with the canopy yet, but it should be ok tommorow. Now I need to order the lights from http://www.ahsupply.com and try and find a 4 1/2" hole saw to cut the holes for the fans in the canopy. Then I have to get a differen't pump for my waterfeature/overflow sysetm.


I'm also doing some research on using a windshield washer pump for a misting system but I'm not finding much information. I need to know the voltage/current the pump needs to run and the average PSI they normally run at, any information would be really helpfull.

[Biznatch]

Well I have been busy working on finishing up the stand/door/canopy and I think I'm finally done. I really hate paiting so i'm glad that is over. I also borrowed a hole saw to cut the holes for a 120mm fans int he back of the canopy.

The hole for the 120mm fan needed to be 4 1/2", but the only size hole saws I could get were 4" and 5". I decided to use the 5" one since it allowed full airflow and wasn't too overlap the screw holes. I put masking tape over the back so I didnt' mess up the paint and So I could mark the center of the holes.




Here are the holes completely done and the screw holes drilled for the fans. It also has the fan grills sitting on it for testing.


Now for the fun paiting to begin :? I painted the canopy with a gloss white and primed the inside/back/bottom of the stand to seal the wood.


The next day I put the second coat on the canopy and then put the final coat on the stand and let it dry. So I'm finally done, here are the pictures of the tank on the stand witht he canopy and door on.


And here is the inside of the stand. You can see the horrible wopper in the wood I used to make the door. I was hoping it would straighten out as the wood dried out but I was wrong. I may have to make another door


So for this week I have to order the 2x36 watt kitt from AHsupply.com, And also order 2 VIA AQUA pumps from marinedepot.com for the overflow/waterfeature. I'm taking back the RIO I bought cuz it's a noisy POS and I found that they are known to die quick.