DaveS

As others have said, unlikely you will need to worry except maybe 1-2 nights a year. The powerhead you have running in your salt water barrel to keep things mixed probably puts out enough heat to prevent freezing there (besides the fact that salt water has a lower freezing point. Use a heater in the fresh water barrel on the nights you are worried. I think the bigger problem would be if the water in your RODI canisters froze and cracked them.

While any purchase should be made with some caution and risk, I am usually very comfortable with what I buy from WAMAS members. Unlike CraigsList, where you don't even get a persons real email address, there is some accountability here. While I am not encouraging a public bashing of member transactions, the possibility of this tends to keep people on check,. Also, if you keep an eye out for who has been around a while vs. new people who start off selling stuff, you can get a sense of what you may be getting into. In short, WAMAS is able to provide the small town experience in what would otherwise be the big scary city of the Internet.

I'm by no means an expert on this but my gut says it would be easier to go with option 1, build a table on the other side to match the height of the cut out block wall. I would suggest having the top of the table extra thick and having it cantilever over the block just so you have one consistent smooth surface for the tank. I think building a wood table instead of another block wall will also give you more workable space under/around the tank for running plumping, electrical and other things.

I was just thinking about this! I need a few boxes.

Looks like things are fixed!

Haha cool. Another minor tip, try to keep the tip from touching the coral, plugs or whatever. Just raise the ip a tiny bit above whatever you are glueing and let the glue fall on it. This way the tip doesn't touch salt water. I rarely have clogged tips, I'm guessing it's for these two reasons.

Try this: http://www.kinginnovation.com/products/83/leak-b-gone

Yup, we are both thinking the same thing. That's a good thread to reference when building a stand. Hope you are having fun!

I'm may be wrong but you may want to check your stand construction. Looks like the screws are carrying all the weight and not the 2x4s...

Been a long time since the last update. The thing about spending all that time designing things in the beginning, I'm making much fewer changes later on, assuming I can resist the urge to expand. These days it's mostly about swapping out things as they break or otherwise need replacement. Last year I replaced the acrylic frag tank with glass as I got annoyed with scraping coraline. Also replaced the salt water mixing tank with a new one since it developed a pinhole leak. This year I I decided to upgrade my sump. The old one functioned perfectly fine but didn't give me much spare capacity when I shut the return pump off. I also wanted to include filter socks as part of my mechanical filtration process. I know people are split between whether socks are good or bad. I've found that I get tons of debris and stuff floating around and socks help to reduce that. I custom ordered one from Adam and picked it up the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I spent most of Saturday after Thanksgiving ripping out my plumbing and installing it. Decided to change around some overflow plumbing while I was at it. Apparently doing plumbing under my tank is a Thanksgiving tradition for me... Here's the new sump. Note how all the water goes into the corner. This sump is super quiet! It's hard to believe how clean the new sump is!

Seems like you have a realistic expectation and plan. The main challenge will probably be to get the transfer switch installed in a location that the circuits can be run to it (without drywall work) and outside the generator can be easily connected to it. You may not need to get the gennie that close with a big/expensive "extension cord" designed for this application. Keep in mind- if everyone works and is out of the house during the day, you need a way to know the power went out. Putting your Apex's 9V plug AND home router/network on a battery UPS will allow you to get an alert. 17K Generac- you didn't specify if it was $17K or 17KW. Probably both!

I went through this process a few years back so here's my perspective, a good bit of which has already been mentioned. 1) decide if it's mostly the tank and a few other minor accommodations or if it's also for the rest of the family. i.e. is the wife going to get any benefit from the generator or just your tank. 2) do you travel much for work? i.e. will you be home when the power is out or will your wife/kids be by themselves Aside from money, those 2 are the main questions to answer. If you only want to run your tank and not much else, a 1KW generator could even work. I had that during the derecho of 2012 when we were out of power for over a week. It ran the main tank pump, vortechs and that was all I needed. I even had enough extra power to charge iPads, phones and laptops to keep the family entertained. I could also run the basement freezer by itself so we alternated between 6 hours tank and 6 hours freezer. Not saying you want to restrict yourself like that, just saying you don't need a huge generator to keep the tank alive. Getting bigger generators are mostly to keep the wife and kids happy too (but see below). If the other things you want to run include electronics, you need to make sure the power out of the generator is clean. Many portable generators put out a STEP wave and not a sinusoidal signal. Sensitive electronics (including UPS battery systems) will reject this so that may be an issue. The Honda EU generators are expensive but that is because they also have an inverter component that puts out a clean signal. It's more than just a generator. If you aren't home a lot, a portable generator may not make sense. Someone has to be home to pull it out, connect it, and turn it on. If you travel to work, you need to think about whether your wife or kids will be able to do that when you are away. That means physically able to move/connect the equipment but as Alan said, also during a big thunderstorm or in the snow. I travel a bit so I started off with a Honda EU1000i. It was the smaller of the Honda units but it was one my wife could take out of the garage, pull and start. It's the size and weight of a largish briefcase. During the derecho, I used about 2 gallons of gas that week. As Evan mentioned, maintaining a gas engine that isn't used much is an inconvenience (as is ensuring you have the spare gas on hand). He is also right in that having a centralized place to plug the generator into an power what you want is better than extension cords everywhere with doors left ajar. Sorry, not trying to sound negative. Just providing input so that you don't think it's simply stopping at Costco/Home Depot and dropping $500 and you are done. The "drop money and done" scenario comes with a standby generator that is plumbed into your natural gas/propane supply and wired into your house with a auto-transfer switch. But those solutions are more like capital improvements to your property (e.g. a patio/deck) and start at $10k.

I was about to start a thread for this but this one works too. I decided a while back to upgrade my sump. Picked this up from Adam Wednesday evening and spent most of Saturday ripping out my plumbing and putting this guy in. Apparently doing plumbing under my tank is a Thanksgiving tradition for me... Can't believe how clean the new sump looks. Guess I should do maintenance on it more often than once every 5 years.

I made one. It was my first attempt at acrylic work. I figured if I could do that well, I might move on to a sump or ATO container. It took me (I only spent) 20 minutes to realize it's tougher than it looks on YouTube. I had leaks at various seams. But for a fish trap, those leaks are not a problem so I highly recommend buying some scrap acrylic and doing that yourself.

Haha a teaser for a teaser!

I'm kinda digging that plan. What if, instead of capping off the holes and cutting out the over flow, you drill two holes on the back of the tank within the space covered by the current overflow. This way you basically have 4 holes in the overflow space instead of only 2. You can use the existing overflow but use the 2 new holes for the drain plumbing and the 2 existing holes for return lines. Hmmmm....

Not sure I understand what you are saying. Only have 2 holes so are you suggesting using both for drain? Tall cap?

We are putting together a school tank and I wanted to get some input. Tank has an overflow with 2 holes in it. A 1" hole for drain and 3/4" for return. This isn't exactly how I would have spec'ed a tank. I like 3 drains for Bean Animal as it allows silence and redundancy. Does anyone here have a similar plumbing set up? If so, are you concerned the single drain might clog and cause the tank to overflow? Do you just use a Durso standpipe and have the pipe go below the waterline in the sump? I'm tempted to use both holes for drain just so we have a backup and then have the returns come over the back. But that kinda ruins the rimless tank look.... Comments and suggestions are welcome. Thanks all.

Disappointing...

So nice. Hopefully whoever gets them has a lid as they are jumpers. I'd be all over if my tank has a cover.

Yup, consider yourself lucky the weight didn't cause the bulkhead to crack/break and lead to a major leak. We have had members in the past experience major bulkhead failures causes huge leaks and departure from the hobby. In general Schedule80 PVC plumbing is overkill for fish systems but schedule 80 bulkheads are very useful in places where the plumbing may get bumped into and cause that flimsy black abs plastic to crack.

Channel grips should help. My guess is that the gasket is on the nut side. That would explain the leaking as well as tough to remove.

Yes actually we do. We got a a 2 bulb one that provides some visibility but isn't anywhere enough to help grow corals. Supplementing it with this one may be enough. Thanks!

Yes that is how a wetsuit works. The worst part about diving wet is right after you take the suit off and catch a cold breeze...

Instead of a wet suit approach (where your skin gets wet but warms up the water between you and the glove), maybe a dry suit approach would be better? Get a pair of those arm/shoulder length gloves and wear some knit gloves under for insulation. http://www.marinedepot.com/Coralife_Aqua_Gloves_%28One_Pair_Shoulder_Length_Protective_Gloves%29_Protective_Gloves_for_Saltwater_Aquariums-Coralife-ES09505-FIMTPG-vi.html Cost is probably cost less and if it doesn't work, you still got gloves you can clean your tank with...