southpaw23's reef

[southpaw23]

Full shot..

[southpaw23]

Here's a shot of the other set of blinds from the living room. This is to shield the reflection of the tank (with lights on) if i'm wanting to watch a movie on the plasma...

[godzillaliu88]

maybe you can put the blinds down when your fishes go to sleep.

like the tanks in changi airport last time.

i wonder how are you gonna put in the rocks and water. seems pretty cramped up.

i think you might wet your sofa.

[southpaw23]

There's no access to the tank from the living room. Rocks and sand all go in through the bedroom But there's sufficient room between the tank and the bed to allow me to work

[jervismun]

Any more update? Can't wait to see water and sand

[southpaw23]

No water and sand yet i'm afraid

Still finishing up the piping work...here's a couple of shots.

First shot of the HUGE GF check valve used for the RD 12m3

[southpaw23]

Hooking it up to the external overflow

[Nitro]

Haha another powerful tank and setup

[southpaw23]

The T joint below the check valve is gonna be used to run my FR....reducing the total pumps in the system.

[southpaw23]

Here's a shot in the external overflow. Phil used the transparent piping that came with the skimmer to do the durso which looks cool

As a side note, i must give due credit to Phil on his work. He truly takes pride in what he does and i for one being particular about piping work am really impressed by what he's done and still doing...more pics showcasing his work in the coming days/weeks

[southpaw23]

Top down view of the external overflow

[godzillaliu88]

okay. i've seen many tanks with such over flow pipes. why is there a need to make the water entrance face down wards? why not just a straight pipe?

okay. i've got illustrations. why no.1 and not no.2?

[southpaw23]

The diagram in no 1 is called a durso, founded by a guy name richard durso i believe. one of the main reasons why he came up with this design was due to the fact that in ur diagram no 2, when water flows through a straight pipe like that, it creates a very annoying flushing sound (like one u'd get when u flush the toilet bowl) and he basically was looking for a way to silence the overflow some.

By coming up with his design, i believe he was lookin at the principle of siphoning, whereby water enters thru the bottom travels up a short distance and proceeds back down, however a full siphon would possibly cause fluctuations in the overflow compartment if the rate of the water siphoning down is not the same as the rate of the water returning from the sump.

As such, a small hole was drilled at the top of the pipe to regulate the flow by introducing small amounts of air. This reduced air intake also indirectly reduces the flushing sound produced when too much air and water gets into the overflow pipe at the same time.

Please don't take my word for gold...that's my understanding of the matter and in my words only. I could be far from the truth but that's how i understand it to be. Hope i'm making sense

[godzillaliu88]

oh. so the main purpose is to reduce the noise.

hmm. .okay.

[southpaw23]

Yep..i guess that pretty much sums it up

[godzillaliu88]

how about the height of the pipe.

why does it have to be tall?

[jervismun]

how about the height of the pipe.

why does it have to be tall?

So that the hole on top of the durso is not submerged

[godzillaliu88]

oh. okay.

i will fix one of those over flow in future.

[southpaw23]

It's quite a straight forward design but quite useful in reducing noise. Good luck with it

[jervismun]

Water yet?

[godzillaliu88]

Water yet?

good things have to wait, bro.

pop a chill pill and have a beer 1st.

[southpaw23]

Water yet?

Still no water i'm afraid..

And there won't be water for another week cos i'll be back in KL from today till Thursday

Also incorporating a couple of safety features so that's also the cause of the delay. But on the bright side...most of the plumbing work got done yesterday...and it's lookin good. Once it's all neat and tidy...i'll present the masterpiece

More to come next Thursday onwards i guess

[Salty_Creature]

Any more updates?

Btw, any meaning for ur nick "South paw"?

[southpaw23]

Yeah...have lotsa updates actually...been away for the last week so gimme a couple of days to sort pics out and will post stuff up soon.

Water and rocks are already in!

As for the nick, southpaw is another word for left handed person

[southpaw23]

OK...time for some long overdue updates

First up...the starmex compressor housing in the balcony.

Unfortunately, the unit has yet to be setup...hopefully this weekend or early next week.