It is time for another update.
Over the last week I pieced together the plumbing remaining plumbing on the tank and did some work on mounting lights. The plumbing was done a little at a time over almost every day in the last week. If I could have carved out some solid time (and had a fully baked plan) I would have taken Andrew up on the offer to help...I now understand that I could have used some help.
It didn't go all that clunky, but I did make more runs to the hardware store than I had envisioned. At first I didn't have all the parts I needed, then I needed just one part but I bought the wrong one and so on and on it goes. I would still not call the plumbing done, but the big stuff is out of the way. The pump pump and return line are connected and leak free (now) and there are 3 drains which are in place and working decently.
The return line from the pump gave me a little trouble. It turns out that I either did not glue one elbow or barely glued it. When I did a first water test through the line there was a small but noticeable puddle of water under the pipe. When I pulled / twisted just slightly on the pipe it popped apart. It was purple inside so at least I meant to glue it even if that didn't happen. I'm still not sure what happened but it is fixed now.
The second leak was an almost undetectable drop coming from the tee above the pump. This was irritating as I glued one of the unions too close to the tee to simply cut and replace it. So... I did something that is definitely not by the book here. I cut the pipe right below the leak and then used my Dremel to bore out the pipe from the fitting. That is hard to do nicely and takes a long, long time if you are being careful. Also, my dremel is battery powered so I needed a charge in the middle. I did get it bored out and then glued the pipe (generously) back into the fitting (with an extension below). You will see (in a future picture, maybe) that my return line is not level due to this. It will probably get level in the future after I plumb more tees into that line for the refugium, reactors and skimmer.
So now that those links are gone I tried to run the system again and learned that the flex PVC inside which was going onto a nipple fitting had a very slight leak on both sides. I contemplated adding clamps, but I was truly amazed at the leak since I had to use very hot water to even allow me to get the flex PVC onto those nipples int he first place. So, now what to do? The other end of the flex pvc was glues in place, and I did not put a union in these lines--as I figured I could cut them if needed. I did contemplate cutting them. Well I snuck up to the bathroom and snagged my wife's hair dryer and started coaxing the PVC to back off the fitting (or at least loosen up). Eventually I was able to pull them off. I then decided to roll the dice and glue them in place. If this doesn't work long term then I am buying new bulkheads and coming up with a new plan. Once they were apart I had to dry them out with this handy blow dryer and then prime them. Then I heated the flex pvc with the hair dryer for a second time, quickly applied glue and then slipped it all back together. Oh, and then I repeated the process because I was smart enough to make two connections like this
.
I did catch a break when I tested the other 3 lines and I found there were no leaks. These runs are simpler and there is no flex pvc. I also had true union valves in place so it figures that the easy to disassemble lines would not have a problem. I then turned on the flow... Oh wait it took 2 days to pull enough RO water to fill the tank and sump and then I turned on the flow (last night). I was a little amazed to watch how much water was moving. I did the math earlier, but seeing it makes it more impressive. I also learned that I made the right move having 3 x 1" return lines. The first one runs at full siphon and the second one catches the balance. The third one isn't necessary, but I sure like having an emergency overflow available so that I can sleep sound at night. When I initial thought about the runs I was going to send 2 x 1" returns back to the garage, but when you are under the house already what's 1 more pipe?
Okay--So the water movement is looking good. Now my wife says are you sure the tank is level? I did freeze for a second and then I ran to garage to get a level. Crisis averted. I was careful through the build to make sure every piece was square and level and now it turns out that luckily my house is too. This was a moment of truth and the level showed the tank in both directions was arguable perfectly level.
Now, I stopped to have some fun. Those Gyre's arrived and I wanted to make some waves in the tank and see what they could do. I'm still not sure where I will finally place them or what mode to use, but right now they are following the Lunar Tide Cycle as I write this. These are impressive and I'm pretty excited to have them. They also look clean and are pretty darn quite for the flow they produce. I kept putting my hand in front of them just because it is so much flow even compare to the return pump.
Last, but not least I started prototyping the mounts for the lights. We debated hanging from the ceiling, but my wife liked the legs that the T247s come with and their overall look. So, I headed to the store and started looking for ideas. I ended up with an aluminum railing that is sort of a C shape. I cut this down and drilled some holes which line up with the hanging mounts on the T247s. Then I bolted 2 of the lights together using two of these rails. I could then use the legs on one side of each light to support he units. So far I'm thinking this could work. Initially I did not have washers and the railing was not snug enough with the lights to give them enough rigidity (and they sagged slightly in the middle -- there is one picture with the sag and one without). I should mention here that we looked at Holly's build thread for some inspiration as Lindsay remembered liking the look of that setup. She has a great build thread if you haven't seen it, by the way.
Well, that about wraps up another week. Oh wait, we also picked up a purple tang,foxface rabbitfish, a tailspot blenny, and two anemomes which are hanging out in the QT for a while. And, I plugged in the heater and the tank is now warming up.
In the next week I need to finish some minor fine detail work on the stand railing around the bottom of the tank, tune the overflow, add salt and then start cycling. I'm going to be moving some marine pure media over from the current tank and adding some new media as well and I expect good and speedy results. I also need to work on the remaining framing of the insulated sump closet and filling the gaps in the floors so that Lindsay doesn't have to be scared of spiders from below coming to get her.
