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.