Tony's Innovative Marine 200EXT Build

Dburr1014 · May 19, 2023

#2 is what I did.
You can make it as large or small as you want. My manifold on my drain dumped water into a 5 gallon bucket while I dumped in water in the sump. So very simple.

QuickrdenU · May 19, 2023

Yeah. I have a lot to figure out with mine. I don’t want to use buckets and want it as simple as possible. Water in is the easy part for my setup. Hardest part would be going through the wall or floor to a drain line or separate receptacle.

Dburr1014 · May 19, 2023

QuickrdenU said:
Yeah. I have a lot to figure out with mine. I don’t want to use buckets and want it as simple as possible. Water in is the easy part for my setup. Hardest part would be going through the wall or floor to a drain line or separate receptacle.

Yes, I agree. I set up my AWC and won't look back. Just a small hole in the basement going to a drain away from the house. We had a mild winter this year so we'll see how it does next year. Fingers are crossed.

QuickrdenU · May 19, 2023

Dburr1014 said:
Yes, I agree. I set up my AWC and won't look back. Just a small hole in the basement going to a drain away from the house. We had a mild winter this year so we'll see how it does next year. Fingers are crossed.

That’s probably what I’ll do as well. We’re on septic so I’d rather not have it go into the plumbing. For the manifold part, I may just dump it into a garbage can in the garage for the rare times it will be used. Which AWC pumps are you using?

Dburr1014 · May 19, 2023

DOS on an apex

tritonpower · May 20, 2023

QuickrdenU said:
Time to get to work!

sweet. congrats. everything was good on inspection?

h20cyclone · May 20, 2023

Glad to see everything finally shipped out, and in one piece! Looking forward to seeing how your build evolves.

QuickrdenU · May 20, 2023

tritonpower said:
sweet. congrats. everything was good on inspection?

Seems to be. Stand went together well. I tried to shine a flashlight at all the glass and didn’t find anything. This tank is a beast though. Haha

QuickrdenU · May 20, 2023

h20cyclone said:
Glad to see everything finally shipped out, and in one piece! Looking forward to seeing how your build evolves.

Thanks! Gonna have to start putting in some long nights to get it up and running. I can’t wait!

QuickrdenU · May 23, 2023

After 3 trips to Home Depot, I’m loving how the water proofing went.

I also got the lights mounted. This setup will work until the tank matures a bit and it will give me time to plan something better. I’ll probably pop a pass through in the wall and just run the wires into the garage for now.

The tank is off level an eighth of an inch and I’m 6’5” so next I’m probably gonna build a base to lift it all up about 6.5”.

I already have tons of plumbing stuff so I can get started on that soon. I may set it up in the garage to get all the plumbing and wiring done before I move it back in the house.

WISH ME LUCK!

tritonpower · May 24, 2023

QuickrdenU said:
After 3 trips to Home Depot, I’m loving how the water proofing went.

I also got the lights mounted. This setup will work until the tank matures a bit and it will give me time to plan something better. I’ll probably pop a pass through in the wall and just run the wires into the garage for now.

The tank is off level an eighth of an inch and I’m 6’5” so next I’m probably gonna build a base to lift it all up about 6.5”.

I already have tons of plumbing stuff so I can get started on that soon. I may set it up in the garage to get all the plumbing and wiring done before I move it back in the house.

WISH ME LUCK!

Exciting. I'm about 3 weeks from my email, supposedly

QuickrdenU · May 28, 2023

Got the base mostly done. Gonna sand and paint, and then install shoe molding and caulk once everthing is in it’s final position and bearing some weight.

I got 3 neighbors to help me put the tank on the stand in the garage. We’ll use 6 total when it’s time to move inside. Time to plumb this B! Not looking forward to this part.

QuickrdenU · Jun 4, 2023

I’m so done with pvc! Stayed up til 3am a few nights in a row. Hopefully the inevitable leaks are easy to fix. I tried to future proof it as much as I could…

Today, I have to make a couple small aluminum brackets to mount the UV to the stand.

And then, it’s time for some wood working… still trying to decide whether to build a cabinet in the stand or buy an external cabinet to mount everything in.

tritonpower · Jun 5, 2023

QuickrdenU said:
I’m so done with pvc! Stayed up til 3am a few nights in a row. Hopefully the inevitable leaks are easy to fix. I tried to future proof it as much as I could…

Today, I have to make a couple small aluminum brackets to mount the UV to the stand.

And then, it’s time for some wood working… still trying to decide whether to build a cabinet in the stand or buy an external cabinet to mount everything in.

where did you get those clamps you use for the mount the PVC tubing to the aluminum?

QuickrdenU · Jun 5, 2023

tritonpower said:
where did you get those clamps you use for the mount the PVC tubing to the aluminum?

Got ripped a new one from BRS! They work well though. Used a punch to mark the hole, tapped the aluminum for #10 stainless machine screws and blue loctite. Cut all the screws with cut off wheel to get the perfect length. Let my OCD fly!!!

QuickrdenU · Jun 12, 2023

Things are coming along. Things I confirmed today. I’m decent at carpentry. Absolutely terrible at painting anything with a brush. And if I don’t get this thing installed soon, my wife is gonna kill me. I keep trying to blame it on the kids and juggling everything back and forth in the garage but in reality, it’s a pretty big undertaking. And of course I had to make it pretty much as complicated as possible..

Control panel is absolutely as big as I could make it while still being able to install and remove it from the stand. I made it in 2 pieces. The front will be screwed in somehow with brackets but the back is just a cover using 4 strong magnets to hold it in place. I’ll mount the 4 versa pumps on the back of it but if I move the inevitable dosing containers, it should allow me pretty easy access to all the wiring and power bricks that I can tomorrow, hopefully… pack into this small space… i’m planning on just hanging them on angle aluminum using velcro straps.

Also, I installed a big piece of plywood over my mixing station(I’ll post a pic tomorrow) where I mounted the power bricks for my lights. I also decided to use the DOS pumps for AWC so I have it mounted there(hopefully I wont hear it at all in the garage) and I ran all the tubing into the tanks, drain, and back through the wall. I installed a second DOS for future KALK and magnesium needs. So I’ll have 4 versa pumps under the tank to dose whatever I can think of in the future. I also installed the FMM for the auto top off and 2 low level optical sensors in my RO and salt tank.

Gotta get this cabinet installed, and thoroughly clean everything. The sump and inside of the stand are so dirty! Then maybe we can get it in place and fired up soon! FINALLY!!!!

QuickrdenU · Jun 13, 2023

Boom! Moving the tank into position Saturday!!

Looking for the ultimate webcam setup for the sump and full tank. Recommendations?

JonoH · Jun 13, 2023

QuickrdenU said:
So I'm planning on using my versa pumps for AWCs but I also want to be able to do large/quick water changes with my plumbing. It seems like there are several ways of doing this. Is there a common approach that works best?

1. No Wye Check Valves, fill up sump when returns are off, pump out water, pump in water.
2. Leave return pump on, pump water out of manifold while pumping in new water
3. Pull from somewhere else besides the return pump chamber? idk

I am looking at doing something like #2 at the moment on my new set up.

I do wonder though how much of the water changed (like %) is the new water that is being pumped in through the return - or is it negligable?

QuickrdenU · Jun 13, 2023

JonoH said:
I am looking at doing something like #2 at the moment on my new set up.

I do wonder though how much of the water changed (like %) is the new water that is being pumped in through the return - or is it negligable?

I guess some people have figured out that percentage during AWC’s and it’s relatively small. That is, the amount of new water you end up pumping out during the process. I’m sure the same principle applies to larger, more manual changes all at once. I’m holding off on running the plumbing for that until I get the tank setup and I’m familiar with how it all works and the water levels, etc. I made it so that I can easily tap into spots in the returns and 3rd overflow pipe or I even have an extra manifold opening if I want to steal it. We’ll see. Or I might just get lazy and rely on the AWC stystem and not bother but something has me thinking it could be good to have in a potential emergency.

Also, it might help further, to pull from the overflow section and return to the return pump section but that may indeed be negligible. IDK yet. I feel like I have to see everything in action to somehow wrap my mind around it all.

I’d prefer to shut everything down, pull out, and then put back. We’ll see how much volume would be possible that way with the sump but I feel like it wont be much without taking water directly from the display.