Meredith's 180 In-wall happy place

melypr1985 · Nov 30, 2016

Ljaus said:
Can't wait to see the other gear that goes with the build

Me too!!

Reeferdood said:
Congrats on the build and welcome to the big tanks club!
If I may,
I saw something in the video that I'd like to share.
The drains will be quieter if you do one of two things or both...
Remove the pipes from underwater and add a filter sock. The drains need to breathe in order to flow better..
And the other would be to slow the return pump back a little..

Love the in wall setup and filter room, I envy that setup...

Thanks! Actually I do plan to slow down the pumps some. I had them at full blast to mix the salt into the water and that's done now so I'll be adjusting them tonight. I think I can take the longer pieces off of the pipes after I slow down the flow some. I had to put them on there with the flow going so fast! Water splashing everywhere and the noise was tremendous! I've got some plans in that area including what the service guys at the store call a "muffler". I'll get a picture on friday to share what I'm talking about there.
Thanks for the tips and the complements!

Reeferdood · Nov 30, 2016

You are very welcome..

Cristy17 · Dec 1, 2016

YAY!!!Congrats on getting the tank up and running! Now the hard part...the wait, but sounds like you have enough to keep you busy.

melypr1985 · Dec 1, 2016

Cristy17 said:
YAY!!!Congrats on getting the tank up and running! Now the hard part...the wait, but sounds like you have enough to keep you busy.

Thanks so much! Yes, I'm constantly busy and there's so much more to do with the fish room that I don't think I'll have a problem waiting on the cycle. I couldn't get the screen tops built today, but I think I'll squeeze out some time for that in the next day or so.

tripdad · Dec 1, 2016

Sorry I'm late to the party here. I just wanted to say on the water change front..... I run a separate pump and manifold for my reactors for two reasons. 1) I never affect my return flow adjustment by adjusting something else in the system, it only feeds the return flow so it stays rock solid. 2) When I do a water change I turn off the main return pump and the tank "drains down" overfilling the sump.( This has to be tested for in case of power outage by the way.) This allows me to get my 10% change volume by just having the second pump running and cracking open my "extra" manifold valve and wallah!, out flows the water easy as pie.

melypr1985 · Dec 1, 2016

tripdad said:
Sorry I'm late to the party here. I just wanted to say on the water change front..... I run a separate pump and manifold for my reactors for two reasons. 1) I never affect my return flow adjustment by adjusting something else in the system, it only feeds the return flow so it stays rock solid. 2) When I do a water change I turn off the main return pump and the tank "drains down" overfilling the sump.( This has to be tested for in case of power outage by the way.) This allows me to get my 10% change volume by just having the second pump running and cracking open my "extra" manifold valve and wallah!, out flows the water easy as pie.

wow! That sounds like some setup you have there. got a picture?

melypr1985 · Dec 2, 2016

I'm finding out that a dehumidifier is going to be in my near future. Wow, that room gets humid if I leave the door closed all day. Not the best thing I suppose since we didn't do anything at all to the rest of the room to combat moisture. For now I'm leaving the door open whenever I can which helps a ton. I figure in the dry air of winter it won't hurt to add a little moisture to the air in the house.... for now.

I also ran into a problem when I was assembling my new screen tops. I bought 4 extra corners ( i need 3 tops) but apparently there are different thicknesses on these things. The ones I need are slim, the ones I bought are rather thick. Dumb. I'm not sure if I'm dumb or if it's the people who made and packaged this as I didn't see any screen edge at the store that would take these fat ones.

Leslie Tabor · Dec 2, 2016

Oh Mely! This gives me hope...I want to talk my hubby into a 300 gal in the "Man Cave" aka basement! He may be slightly resistant to the idea. Maybe we can start our 300 builds at the same time in a year or so...or be strangled together...it is nice not to be alone!

Beautiful set up, can't wait to see more!

melypr1985 · Dec 2, 2016

Leslie Tabor said:
Oh Mely! This gives me hope...I want to talk my hubby into a 300 gal in the "Man Cave" aka basement! He may be slightly resistant to the idea. Maybe we can start our 300 builds at the same time in a year or so...or be strangled together...it is nice not to be alone! Beautiful set up, can't wait to see more!

Thanks! It will be nice not the be the only one getting strangled over that! LOL But shhhhh... we can't talk about it yet. The 180 is just getting started and I might be winning him over. He looked me right in the eye the other day and said "it's OUR tank honey" HAHA!

Ljaus · Dec 3, 2016

melypr1985 said:
Thanks! It will be nice not the be the only one getting strangled over that! LOL But shhhhh... we can't talk about it yet. The 180 is just getting started and I might be winning him over. He looked me right in the eye the other day and said "it's OUR tank honey" HAHA!

Hahaha, slowly working away at him.

tripdad · Dec 3, 2016

" ...got a picture?"

It's pretty basic really, the larger piping next to the skimmer is for the main pump and the three valves on the right are the reactor feeds and water change out from the second pump.. The middle valve just has a hose on it that normally just flows back into sump. At waterchange time I just swing it out into a bucket.

Lynn52 · Dec 4, 2016

melypr1985 said:
I'm finding out that a dehumidifier is going to be in my near future. Wow, that room gets humid if I leave the door closed all day. Not the best thing I suppose since we didn't do anything at all to the rest of the room to combat moisture. For now I'm leaving the door open whenever I can which helps a ton. I figure in the dry air of winter it won't hurt to add a little moisture to the air in the house.... for now.

Maybe you can just install and exhaust fan with a humidistat to deal with humidity. Probably cheaper in the long run than a dehumidifier.

tcarter1936 · Dec 4, 2016

Lynn52 said:
Maybe you can just install and exhaust fan with a humidistat to deal with humidity. Probably cheaper in the long run than a dehumidifier.

I do ac and heating for a living for the last 16+years and if the rooms only humid with the door closed then all you may need is a return duct back to your hvac system. Much more efficient than a dehumidifier which with use electricity and add a bunch of heat to the room.
Also exhaust would work but that puts negative pressure on the home so when you open doors your pulling in air,dust,dirt ect.
Just my 2 cents.

melypr1985 · Dec 4, 2016

Lynn52 said:
Maybe you can just install and exhaust fan with a humidistat to deal with humidity. Probably cheaper in the long run than a dehumidifier.

tcarter1936 said:
I do ac and heating for a living for the last 16+years and if the rooms only humid with the door closed then all you may need is a return duct back to your hvac system. Much more efficient than a dehumidifier which with use electricity and add a bunch of heat to the room.
Also exhaust would work but that puts negative pressure on the home so when you open doors your pulling in air,dust,dirt ect.
Just my 2 cents.

Thanks to both of you! I'll show these to my husband so he can have a few more ideas on what to do with the problem. I'll tell ya, we both would love NOT to buy a dehumidifier. With the money I've spent so far on this build and the money I'm about to spend on the rest, I could have remodeled my whole kitchen with all new appliances.

melypr1985 · Dec 4, 2016

This little cutie is at the store right now. I just got him to move from live ghost shrimp to a couple very small silver sides. Totally off topic, but figured he was cute and I would share.

Mattsaddiction · Dec 4, 2016

dwarfs are the best! nice build

melypr1985 · Dec 4, 2016

Mattsaddiction said:
dwarfs are the best! nice build

Thanks! Yeah, I always love these little guys. I got stung by one not too long ago, but they are still among my faves in the personality book.

Ljaus · Dec 5, 2016

melypr1985 said:
This little cutie is at the store right now. I just got him to move from live ghost shrimp to a couple very small silver sides. Totally off topic, but figured he was cute and I would share.

That's a pretty cool photo!