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Thread: 220g Reef Tank

  1. #11
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    Last weekend was a killer. Before it all began, I finished the sump insert







    Then with the help of a handful of local reef addicts, I got the tank drained and cleaned out, and did the aquascaping with the new rock on Saturday



    Pulled out the old sump (can you say "salt creep"?)



    Sunday, I worked for several hours installing the new sump and plumbing.



    Intake strainers (crosscuts on underside)



    Iwaki 30's on each side





    Plumbing for drain and return



    Sump insert



    This was all great until I tried to start the pumps. The strainer pipes cause an airlocking issue, meaning that there was air trapped in the pipes and the pumps would not start. On top of that, I had plumbing leaks all over. I discovered this at the zero hour, where we were getting ready to put the fish in (which were in buckets). So we fired up power heads in the DT and acclimated the fish and called it a day.



    Of course I get home and everyone wanted to go there for dinner

    I got a few of these on the house



    Had to take a partial vacation day on Monday (the only day during the week that they are not open for lunch) and fix the plumbing. I drilled holes in the intake pipes in the sump to let air out, and they fired up now problem. The leaks were another issue.

    On the pump return lines, where the plumbing goes from 1" to 3/4" and then into the 3/4" bulkheads (all high pressure points), there were leaks. I use TFE paste and I never will again. I know you are "supposed to" use TFE on PVC fittings to prevent crack out, but I never will again. After 2 hours of messing with fittings, I got one side running with minimal leaks, and the other side was still leaking too much and I had to shut that pump down and drain the return lines.

    So right now the system is running on one pump, which is fine. Filter socks are doing their job, old skimmer is in place (will be replaced with a Reef Octopus NW-150). Sump insert isn't perfect, but works pretty well. I already have 2 or 3 requests for building one of these!





    The next problem is the cycle. Tested 0.5ppm ammonia the other day so I've been dosing Prime to keep it all locked up and non-toxic. Prime is great and used in FW all the time...us saltys forget about that stuff sometimes!

    Algae scrubber will go on ASAP as well. Need to make a stand for it in the sump and mod the light fixture for the dual half power blues setup, lower the side drain so it is compatible with ultra-high flow. Once the screen is cured, I'm going to be putting well over 400 GPH across the screen.

  2. #12
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    Forgot the FTS, from Monday evening


  3. #13

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    This amazing work congratulations

  4. #14

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    Nice sump and really like the aqauscaping that you did.

  5. #15
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    Thanks guys. I had some help on the aqua scaping, I really only cared about the main piece of the left of center. I wanted to arrange things according to the "golden ratio". The rest just sort of fell into place, and I had 5 guys standing back a ways to give me perspective and feedback as I moved and stacked stuff.

    I expected to use a lot of mortar, but ended up only using a couple cups on the main piece to secure it and the rocks that were supporting it's base. The E-Marco-400 mortar is really good stuff.

    Thanks to sabbath also for the plumbing tips. FYI for anyone who had difficulty getting threaded fittings to seal, the trick is to wrap the threaded fitting with 2 layers of Teflon tape, then put a small bead of TFE paste on the first thread. This worked very well for me and fixed many of the leaks I was having. I am still having trouble with the reduction fitting on the ball valve, which I think is just a combination of the ball valve and fitting, because I can fully seat the connection and it still leaks. I am hoping it will just self-seal, so I set up towels for now to see how it goes. Spent a couple hours there yesterday, and will need to go back again today.

  6. #16
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    Algae Scrubber was installed on or around March 17th. It's been such a blur lately!!

    Anyways, here is how I installed it, I made a frame from 1/2" PVC and 3-way elbows, worked pretty well!

    This is a Rev 1 L2 - I don't have any of the Rev 2's in operation personally, they all go out the door as soon as I can finish them



    16 days Growth on 4/2 (no cleaning performed)



    I decided to just let it grow

    4/9, 25 days growth



    Cleaning on 4/10, 26 days (normally, I would not recommend letting a screen go this long!)



    False bottom



    Clean screen


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