AlanM

Hung the light and got it all working. It doesn't look this blue in person. I may have to break out the orange filters. 8) I still have some wiring to clean up and am waiting for my order from Tampa Bay Saltwater the end of January. The problems with Southwest Airlines have shut down their air cargo shipping operation. Once I get that in there I'll be ready for fish and corals within a couple of weeks, I think.

They may be little collonista snails. If their shells are round they probably are. Harmless if so.

I ended up needing to hand tighten some bulkheads on the overflow box once the water warmed up because I saw a couple of drips. Other than that, no leaks. There are some quirks to still work out, but it's been pretty good so far. The drain area overflowing into the filter socks was making some trickling noises, but stuffing just a little bit of floss in the tops of the socks quiets it right out. It's running at 78F and 35ppt salinity, which I'll keep going for a week or two to make sure everything I know how everything works before ordering rocks and sand. Next is mounting the light.

Merry Christmas! Merry Fishmas! Hope your aquarium got something good this year.

I'm making water today and filling it up since I'll be home for a few days. Fingers crossed that nothing leaks. 8)

OK. Good to know. I'm taking the time to glue on all of the light lenses that had fallen off over the years. Also trying to decide where to mount the big toolbox that has all of the electronics in it. I may try to suspend it up in the very top of the stand with the open part facing up.

Yes, I am. I wasn't sure if you had something under it so was nervous about setting it right on the plastic floor of the sump with no feet or padding under it.

Hope not. I am waiting to see if I need a silicone trivet under the return pump.

Thanks! Not yet ready to declare success until I see where it leaks and what terrible noises I've created by putting things on hard surfaces that will vibrate with the pumps. It's my first time plumbing with flexible tubing and barbed fittings rather than glued spa-flex or hard PVC. I have a feeling that as I keep it running I will be battling salt creep constantly because that stuff is insidious, but at least all of the fittings are easy to see and clean.

Closer to getting it wet! It's not the world's best plumbing or neatest wiring, but I think it will do. Rather than routing the wires extremely neatly I made sure I could easily get each probe or control wire out if I needed to while keeping them out of the way of the work area. Since it's sitting out in the middle of the room I'm sneaking the power cord for it under the rug to the wall on the right. I'll make a panel to cover up the end that used to be on the wall that will attach with magnets. It's all plumbed and wired. I think it's ready, but I'm not going to start filling this close to bedtime. 8)

I read this today. Terrible.

Duh, I guess it is! I didn't realize that it was the same.

I should get the rest of the plumbing parts today in the mail. Now to start straightening the vinyl tubing... I'm going to get live rock and sand from Tampa Bay Saltwater. I just don't like bare bottom even though Isaac was really successful with it. I've always wanted to try Tampa Bay rock, so I think this is the tank to do it on. I'm putting an mp10 at each end so I'll have lots of flow, but I'm hoping the relatively coarse sand from Tampa Bay will stay in place. I am leaning toward an LPS and nem tank with basic fish and inverts. Torches, hammers, frogspawn, and a couple of nice colored nems plus some clowns and maybe a royal gramma which I've always liked. No jumpers cause it's rimless without a lid. I'd be open to an acrylic/mesh lid for it. Maybe from clearviewlids.com since Artfully is out of the game. It will be hard to resist getting lots of colorful SPS. Every time someone posts a sale thread before a meeting I'll be tempted again. Maybe just a couple...

I agree that getting this far is pretty amazing.

It has some quirks, but I don't know if that's because I've been out of the Apex world for 8 years or because it's really quirky. It's an A3 Apex Pro. I assumed it would have the latest version of the OS to support all of the hardware that is in the box like the liquid level sensor, but I was wrong, lol. I struggled with calibrating that level sensor for a while. The automatic calibration never worked. Manual worked on the third try. It uses one of the voltage input ports on the integrated FMM module that is included now in the A3 Apex. I feel like they need a "So you got an Apex, what should you do first to set it up" type of document. Should I calibrate the new temp, pH, and ORP probes or did they come pre-calibrated and I should leave them alone? No idea. I'll ask on the neptune forums. I definitely did need to calibrate the liquid level sensor. It works well now. I had hoped to use it for an ATO sensor, but I don't think it's sensitive enough for that. It has a long lag before updating the value and it's only accurate to about .25 inches, which is at the outer edge of what I'm comfortable with for ATO.

It's really nice. I'm probably going to hang stuff inside it, so since I won't use the doors on the other side I'll put some 1x6 across or something for a screwing surface. On that note, lets go with stuff to install arriving: Have to learn Apex again after a long interlude with ReefAngel/Arduino.

The tank and stand are in my house. It ended up being a heck of a deal. I didn't expect the sump to be so nice, and the stand is really pretty. I'm flipping the sump around the other direction from how it was so that the plumbing can go straight down and the return will go across the stand. I ordered some fittings to plumb it that way and am reusing some of the bits that came with it. Once I get it plumbed I'll post a sump picture. The stand is open on the right, which is the side that previously faced the wall. I'll make a panel for that side and maybe put controllers and things on it.

This is so cool. I think it would be great to have your experiences both raising larvae and culturing pods and phyto for one of the WAMAS meeting talks.

Those are good links. I also think buying from a good fish store that handles the QT is the best. The risk of fish loss is all on them in that case, but be ok with paying more for the fish because they have much higher costs holding them so long and losing some of them. It evens out, though, because you'd essentially be paying more for them and spending way more trouble at home anyway.

Lots of things besides formalin and methylene blue, but I don't think many folks will have advice for you if you say you can't quarantine. Quarantine is the answer. Dips are for corals, not really fish aside for a couple of situations. With three buckets and three airstones and heaters you can do the tank transfer method of quarantine and be done with it relatively quickly. It's not foolproof but is pretty good.

Can you elevate the 29 gal a bit? That would let you drill the end and put in a bulkhead that would drain back in to the sump. It would be a nice cryptic refugium for all kinds of stuff eventually.

I do still have the pico, but it is sad. Like 5 zoas left in it and a few snails. No chance for sump in the basement on this one. It will be in our addition with just a really unpleasant crawlspace below it. I'll miss the basement sump for sure, so I will end up spending money to get it really quiet. Since it will be so close to our dining room my wife is concerned about fishy smells and gross stuff happening in there. The stakes are high on this one!

So many decisions to make when starting a new one. Gotta decide on sand vs bare. I might get live Florida rock to start it. I've always wanted to do that instead of starting with dry.

I'm getting back into the game. Starting a build thread here for Isaac's 22 long (https://wamas.org/forums/topic/83271-living-room-nano-peninsula/ ) that is coming to my house soon. It will be a very long journey to get it to look as good as it did when he ran it. It will go here, where the tape on the floor is, so viewable from all sides instead of peninsula: The spot is kind of in the doorway between our family room and dining room. The overflow will be on the right, so I guess it's still technically viewable from three sides. The stand goes directly up to the top of the back of the couch. I'm excited to run my DIY LEDs again. I always had fun tinkering with them. I'm also excited to bring in the amazing stand that Ben A made for Isaac.

Hey, yeah, I do have it. Just a few snails and zoas. I'm considering an 18" cube or Isaac's 20g peninsula, but haven't pulled the trigger on anything. I want something small and around 20-30g total volume.