My Ultimate Multi Mantis System(s)

[Kharn]

Originally Posted by TundraGuy

you lucky lucky guy.
look at all the fun your about to have!
did you start the steel work yet.
sorry don't want to sound pushy but can't wait to see this develop

Luck ain't got much to do with it really I just happened to spend my money on this and it is all money that I have bled for, worked for, sweated for so there was no "LUCK" per say.

Haven't started the steel work yet I still need to get the steel however that is all sameday stuff the building of the stands will be done this weekend when I have the spare time.

I wanna get these tanks up and running a.s.a.p its what I paid for

[TundraGuy]

hehehehe
Forgot not lucky.........
*thinking about a bumpy finger*

[Kharn]

Thinking on DIY spray bars.

Going to need to fashion 2, 1 for my "2footer stand" & 1 for my "3footer stand" to help reduce the overall flow of the water going into the initial compartment of the top tanks that each FX5's output is in. The FX5 is a POWERFUL canister filter and a damn good one for DIY's my only concern is that I am reading most DIY spray bar jobs on these filters being at 18inchs or more where by mine can only be 8-10inchs long...

Unless (at the cost of Fuglyness)

Create a "L" shape or "Dogs Leg" shape where by the out let hose connects to 2 spray bars set at 90degrees so I can slot it in the corner at the back and one will run along the side of the tank whilst the other runs along the back of the tank.

Also thought about perhaps making the end portion of the spray bar (part with holes where water exits) slightly larger or thicker then the other portions of the outlet hose for example, if the entire hosing for an FX5 is 20mm diameter (I think it is) then I keep it that thick through all of the DIY job but make the last part of the bar (where water exits) slightly thicker at say 25mm-30mm.

Planned on making the holes slightly larger then a "normal" (if there is such a thing) DIY spray bar to also help reduce flow, most times I read of the holes being around 5/16 or 3/8 whilst I planned on going 7/16 or 1/2 max if needed but at 1/2inch that is getting to the point where a mantis could squeeze in, like during daily filter purge (FX5's shut off automatically daily then restart after about 1-2mins).

I be thinkin' linkin'

[TundraGuy]

I want you to move closer so I can come play on this set up.

[LeLutinBanni]

Really cool build !

[TundraGuy]

hey are you going to run any kind of steralizer?

[Kharn]

I have thought about utilizing UV sterilizers but as of rite now I am undecided If I do run a sterilizer it will likely be on at least STAND B (3footers) since that is the stand that will likely house the O.scyllarus and larger smashers.

The steel arrived yesterday for my stands so I can build them all this saturday, 75mtrs of 35mmx35mmx3mmgage box steel and some flatbar to help hold the really thin, tall, long tanks that will house the spearers because the tanks are so slim there much more susceptible to following forward or back, to prevent this I am welding flat bar along the length of STAND C above each tank so that the top rests inbetween the flatbar, the flatbar will have high density sticker foam on it to prevent damaging the tanks.

[Kharn]

One area that I am constantly conflicting with rite now is whether or not to put Morgoth (L.sulcata) in the "spearer" designed tank, if I did this that would mean that BOTH spearer designed tanks will be taken (Leviathan goes into the biggest) or to just put morgoth in one of the 3 footers leaving the smaller of the 2 spearer designed tanks free or put Leviathan the long L.maculata in the slightly smaller top spearer tank and then put a (hopefully) mated pair of L.mac in the bottom larger spearer designed tank, Morgoth is literally maxing out in size whilst Leviathan has the potential to keep growning and I don't want to hinder him either.

Decisions

EDIT: Once the spearers go into there "spearer designed tanks" its going to be a lot harder to get them out just because of the minimal space to work with....

[Kharn]

Here is the steel awaiting to be cut and welded together then encased within a wood/board and finally painted!

[Kharn]

Starting the stands today actually in about 20mins I'll start still waking up a bit

I hope to be able to get all 3 stands completed today but I'm not gonna push myself hence that will just cause stuff ups like wrong measurements etc. I have an entire steel warehouses set of tools to use with a big drop saw to help reduce the stress on me and hopefully churn out the cuts faster, the welding is easy.

I'll take pics as I progress along.

[Kharn]

Well today I got done what I could get done with the time I had fortunately I did get something done =) STAND C is virtually completed (minus its decorations) the skeleton of the frame is completely done and its built like a TANK to hold my 2 x 1200mm L x 150mm W x 600mm H (top tank) 700mm H (bottom tank).

It took quite awhile as there were lots of welds to perform all up I estimated around 3hours it took from cutting to completion however STAND A & STAND B will be much quicker to complete because they aren't going to need the "extra" attention this stand need (tanks being so slim and tall made me worry about it tipping forwards/backwards).

Both STAND A & B will be completed next weekend.

Phase 1 - Cutting the steel into lengths.


Phase 2 - The cut lengths of steel. (Note this isn't all the steel we used for this one stand in the pic, there were smaller cuts made for bracing).


Phase 3 & 4 - First tack Welding the pieces together for alignment then finally welding the aligned pieces together.


Phase 5 - Completed stand waiting for "Decorations" like the wood panels on its side and rear + the wood hood flaps above and infront of each tank.


Points of interest.

The Red circles in these pics outline the FLATBAR steel that is used to help support the tops of the tall and thin tanks and prevent them from falling over, the inside will be lined with dense foam to prevent damage on the tanks and they sit near the tanks rims so they will NOT obscure vision (no water up there) in the end its not a dire need to have but it does give peace of mind!



The Welding - My master craftsmen welder whom I shall keep private decided that watching me struggle with the stand alone was too much, he and I both knew who is the "true" king of steel where we work and that is him, so he said he would help me "Your making it look hard" he says so I thought considering he was so eager to help why not let the better man do the welding and what I got speaks for itself.......immaculate! These weld joints in the pics I took have been "untreated" by that I mean they were taken rite after the weld was done, no polish, no wire brushing (DO NOT grind it).

[Dana42078]

Looking fabulous Kharn!

[Kharn]

Originally Posted by Dana42078

Looking fabulous Kharn!

Glad you like it =)

Next weekend both other stands will get done (STAND A (2footers) & STAND B (3footers)) just that because STAND C tanks are so 'different' they required a lot more in the stand to ensure no disasters happen. Tomorrow I plan on going to get all the plumbing for each of the tanks, pvc connectors that will connect each tank in each stand along with the DIY difuzor/spray bar to help slow the flow in STAND A & B.

[Kharn]

Bulkheads

When I purchased my tanks off my LFS they also supplied the bulkheads, however I do not like the bulkeads they provided, don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with them but there color is just way to "loud" and you would see them so easily in the tanks because the sides of the tanks are black and so are the backs....so I went for a Black Poly Bulkhead instead =).

OLD - As you can see the blue/aqua color just would make the bulkhead almost "standout' against the black backgrounds....


NEW - With this type of Bulkhead I can make it virtually invisible & connect poly pipe fittings to the rest of the system, connecting one tank to the next in each stand, since these are low pressure areas just gravity fed mostly, these bulkheads need to be tinkered a bit and there are 10 all up lol...

firstly some of them won't fit because the hole cut in the glass is to close to the tanks lids so a cut needs to be made on the black bulkhead just removing the lip (not the 'nut') then it fits perfectly, also its rather simple to see that the threaded end is just way to long so that will be cut a fair bit down.


More to come stay tuned!

[Alexraptor]

Looking very nifty, Can't wait to see it all come together.

[Kharn]

DIY Bulkheads

So I just finished the overall look of the test bulkhead and it looks good so far although there are still some things to cut and a piece to glue it should end up looking better (more hidden/noticeable) then the previous bright blue bulkheads.

Here is a partially completed bulkhead or the test bulkhead, the outter most lip on one side was sliced of with a grinder so it could fit (won't need to do so on the bulkheads in the tanks for STAND C) also which I haven't done yet is the rubber inner ring also needs to be trimmed down for a snug fit then all will be set in place with silicon, I do like these bulk heads a bit more because they come with 2 rubber O rings rather then the single one that comes with the aqua blue old bulkheads. I made the grate out of a plastic storm water drain cover, using a drill with a circular saw blade in it I could cut a 2inch circle then trim it back to the cube as you see in the pic, its just glutac'd on for now (for pic purpose) but I'll silicon it down too.



Although in this pic the bulkhead could of fit without the trimming, its because the bulkhead is on a tank that will be in STAND C and like I mentioned above those tanks don't need to have trimmed bulkheads.


Still need to trim a LOT of the threaded end off as I do not want a LOT of pipe hanging off the sides so I'll keep them hugging the sides of the tanks going down as much / where I can.



More to come =)

[Kharn]

Oh yeah I should also mention that by using the "NEW" poly bulkheads it makes it 100xeasier to get "matching parts" the bulkheads provided ("OLD" aqua blue bulkheads) are of a....weird size, I heard American dimensions so finding the typical piping required would of been well to annoying to bother with.

(Me being Aussie n all )

[ccapasso]

Looking awesome! Can't wait to see the finished product!

[Kharn]

Bulkheads have had the upper lips trimmed lol... ( so they can fit ) whilst the outer portion of the bulkhead remains untouched because they don't get in the way anywhere. Also the plastic mantis proofing guards are glued on and just setting with silicon which should hopefully be enough!

Again I do not aim to actually have water reaching the tops of the bulkheads only the lower halves of them, like the bulkheads are not going to be totally submerged...hopefully... I also do NOT plan on gluing these bulkheads in place I am confident in the DOUBLE rubber flanges provided since most aquarium bulkheads or the original ones I got (the aqua blue ones) were single rubber flange in there case I would of used silicon.


More to come!!

EDIT: There are only 8 in the picture because the 2 bulkheads on STAND C do not require modification, not even the grating because I do not see large spearers going through.....

[Kharn]

Here is a small demonstration on the different sized pipes used to hopefully help paint a mental picture for the curious few.

In the left of the image the smaller circle, is a small 1inch cutting off a FX5 inlet/outlet hose that comes with the FX5 this is around 20mm in diameter, to the right of that is the bulkheads that will allow for water to be transported from one tank to the next in each given stand, as you can see to minimize pressure the bulkheads are quite large to act as overflows these are 32mm diameter on the inside so should be more then enough to handle the water incoming/outgoing.

[TundraGuy]

Yo why not put elbows with the screen on top to act as surface skimmers?
Dose that cut down on bubbles doing this way?

[Kharn]

Originally Posted by TundraGuy

Yo why not put elbows with the screen on top to act as surface skimmers?
Dose that cut down on bubbles doing this way?

I want to go with minimal in tank equipment and having the surface skimmer/elbow would place basically whats on the outside, into the tank. You'd be surprised at the cost difference between poly and PVC lol...where a PVC fitting similar to the bulkheads I have chosen would cost around $5 (but be grey) these cost $17 ea lol...worth it though since I want the nice uniform look.

I'll probably paint the tanks tomorrow I do not plan on gluing the bulkheads to the tanks just securing them firmly (then painting them so I can get an event crisp look), there is NO pressure at those areas and there double flanged, I love how I can just screw things together with this Poly pipe stuff.

[TundraGuy]

Yea man gett'er done. can't wait to see the new video of water flowing!

[Kharn]

Originally Posted by TundraGuy

Yea man gett'er done. can't wait to see the new video of water flowing!

Well this weekend I planned on doing a sort of large scale or full scale test with the most awkward stand (STAND A) because this stand will house the least amount of water volume but the same sized canister fitler (FX5) so I plan on assembling a DIY spraybar/difuzor along with stacking the tanks in there stand then filling STAND A with just freshwater to see how the stand itself runs.

[TundraGuy]

Dang it’s only Tuesday. Weekend hurry up and get here!