madweazl

Float valve did its job and I woke up to a full freshwater tank. It was measuring 1 TDS (I didn't rinse the containers) so I transferred that over to the saltwater tank and then drained it. All the plumbing from both tanks to the drain were leak free The freshwater is refilling now and is measuring 0 TDS; once full, I'll actually mix up some saltwater in preparation to fill the sump. If the flexible PVC gets here early enough, I may have this running late tonight!

Starting to take shape now! Got the manifold started for the reactors and return pump but still need to wire the supports to the ceiling (should be able to knock that out tomorrow). The fresh water portion of the mixing station is up and running (little over half full in this picture) and I built a few cheap shelves (they're $30 at Lidl right now) to hold odds and ends (need to seal the particle board so they hold up). The flexible PVC is supposed to arrive tomorrow so I should be able to tie the display into the sump tomorrow evening. Edit: the drain is working great! Hopefully the float valve in the fresh water tank is at the appropriate level and I don't push water down the drain all night LOL.

My two cents (after using Instant Ocean for 20+ years), you arent going to find much better. Some of the most well respected "pros" in the hobby and industry use Instant Ocean or Reef Crystals. The likelihood of salt making any difference in the overall health and growth of your corals is slim to none. With that said, I just ordered a box of Tropic Marin Pro for giggles. I only tried it because I couldnt find Instant Ocean on sale; less then a week later, it was naturally. On the plus side, it mixed up to 7.7 dKh, 390 calcium, and 1365 magnesium which was almost identical to my tank this week (calcium of 385 and magnesium was 1380 but well inside margin of error for the test kits). Coupon expires tomorrow (Sept 17th).

Petco has a $30 coupon (save30) for purchases of $100+; that gets 200g boxes of Instant Ocean down to $40 shipped if you buy two.

The links would remain broken regardless. I have most of the originals still.

Looks like both of my build threads are dead; none of the pictures are there any more :( I was able to save a bunch from my posts on R2R to rebuild a lot of it (and preserve the memories). Still cant believe I deleted everything.

Got a lot done today Bends in the PVC to the pumps didn't come out as clean as I wanted but it's functional. Left to do: 1) Order 1" flexible PVC to run from the main lines coming into the basement all the way to the sump. 2) Connect primary and emergency drains to the sump. 3) Build manifold for the reactors and plumb the return line. 4) Order fittings and bulkheads to connect 1/4" ATO line to the sump and RO/DI to mixing station. 5) Finish plumbing the stand's drain to the home's sewer. Concerns: 1) The Reeflow is connected to 1" input lines when they recommend no smaller than 1.5". I'm only shooting for approx. 600gph flow rates so I'm hopeful it will work out just fine. If not, I'll be ordering in Iwaki. 2) I'm using the return pump's input line (from the sump) to push water from the mixing station back into the sump. I haven't calculated the water level in the sump for a 15g and 30g water change but I'm hoping the PanWorld 100PX has enough muscle to combat the head pressure in the return chamber.

One coat down, one more to go. Ran out of rollers so I'll have to wait until tomorrow to continue :(

The basement is a really nice luxury to have in that regard for sure.

Tore everything down and applied the first coat of Red Guard.

Getting close!

Productive day! First, I drilled the sump and installed the bulkheads (sure hope it holds water, I didn't test it before drilling...). Once I had that finished, I started working on the plenum that will drain the first three chambers (closest to furthest) along with the main return to the Snapper/Dart hybrid that will pump water up to the display (furthest bulkhead). All the bulkheads are threaded and the plumbing can be completely removed for maintenance without cutting anything. The valve and union were a little tricky to get lined up nice but I measured twice and cut once (it actually saved my butt twice tonight). I ran out of red PVC (and energy) so the rest is on hold for a few days until more supplies arrive but this illustrates what I'll be working on next. The mixing station sits to the right of this and everything will share that common drain along with the rest of the plumbing so I can transfer water back to the sump for a water change.

Got the trim on the bench. After displacement of the sump and mixing station, it will hold about 6.4 gallons of water. I'm hoping to mock up all the plumbing tomorrow including the drain in the top of the bench (2" shower drain). After that, I'll apply the Red Guard and paint it white. If the moons align, I may have it up and running next weekend but I'm also waiting on the PanWorld 100px to arrive for the mixing station.

I ended up screwing it together but appreciate the offer On another note, I got a little work done in the fish room. I was hoping to get the trim mounted on the bench but forgot to pick up finishing nails at the hardware store so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Everything has a place but none of them are a silver bullet for success. I like running a refugium and do think they're beneficial provided they're large enough for what you're trying to accomplish. Over time, they turn into another entire ecosystem that is actually pretty cool to observe if you leave them alone (all kinds of critters down there) but I'm also not a fan of chaeto and use caulerpas instead (some beautiful varieties out there but ours is so packed in now you cant make heads or tales of what is down there). Our fox face loves to eat it (I tear some out of the refugium and toss it back in the display tank, ironic eh?) and the yellow tang will eat it as well (think he just does it because the fox face is). We also have reactors (carbon and GFO/other) that I keep on hand in case things go willy nilly. Carbon is run 24/7 for water clarification and the other reactor is on standby. In the end, we're often our own worst enemy when it comes to the welfare of our tanks and cause problems that didn't exist in the first place.

It has been a slow grower. Glass bottom might make maintenance a bit tougher though.

Zero post processing color correction; really getting the A7ii dialed in now! Cant wait to get some appropriate glass and tweak it a little further. Show in RAW with post processing tweaks to exposure and contrast. On the negative side, I accidentally deleted all of the corals photos in my flickr account when I trying to organize it :( Might have a lot of dead photos in this thread now.

Gonna look pretty nice once I hang the peg board and get to finishing up the stand (applying Red Guard, running a small piece of trim around the perimeter so it will hold some water, and then painting the top white). Also need to drill the hole in the table top for the drain and run the plumbing for that. I'll get it done one of these centuries...

Filled the tank with tap water almost three months ago now and it still hasnt had an "ugly" phase. I'm hoping to have the sump plumbed in this week so I can fill the tank the rest of the way and get the reactors online to clean up the water and get the phosphates at a level more desirable (over 200ppm at the moment). This rock had the base of two acroporas that I broke off before transferring to the tank. One took a digger within days but the other has started to encrust the original plug. Makes you wonder just how "bad" phosphates really are.

Are the bristleworms harming the tank someway? Many people dont like to see them but I've NEVER seen one harm anything healthy in the tank.

T5s mute it quite a bit but I wouldnt augment with another LED if you're trying to reduce shimmer, you're better off replacing it. The T5s and Kessil give a very pleasing look; video is four T5s with two Kessil A360WEs. The shimmer is a little more prevalent than what you see in the video.

We finally have a sump! Too bad I'm on the other side of the country...

Maybe one of these days I'll try my hand at worms (or any live food); always been interested just haven't had the desire to maintain it (I'm a lazy son of a gun sometimes).

There are many [url= ]youtube[/url] videos that can show you how to check; basically, you take a polarized set of sunglasses, place a laptop or cell phone in the aquarium, and rotate the sunglasses to look for striations in the glass. If it has them, it's tempered and if not, you're safe to drill.

I used the hang on styles for at least 15 years without issue but drilling really is easy as can be (provided the glass isn't tempered).