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Cultivated Reef

Dropped's Reef


dropped

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Nice. Mine was pretty much the exact same thing when I got mine. 6 stages and everything. I did end up replacing the DI canisters which were a bit different for me. I couldn't get mine to unscrew and when I went to look for replacements it was the entire DI canister. Ended up just getting one of the expansion canisters from BRS and tossing the old DI canisters. Your link looks better in that I can see some threads where it should be refillable.

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Ok bit of an update,

 

Last night i drained all of the water out of the tank/sump.

 

Pulled the sump out of the cabinet and moved it into the garage, now i can install a few baffles, the baffles will seperate the live rock in the sump from the cheto.

 

Also pulled out the 4 port power board and installed a 6 port for all the pumps and heaters etc, now i can get OCD on the wires before the sump is put back in for the final time.

 

Also got my overflow box laser cut this week, so that should turn up tomorrow and can be installed this weekend, it will allow alot more water to stay in the display which also means i can put more water in the sump. Then i need to pick up a back flow valve so no water flows back down the return line, becuase the misses would kill me if i overflowed the sump and got salt water all through the house!

 

Will also pick up some salt mix this weekend and a heater and ill finally be done... apart from a new light, but that will be a few months away for sure, at that point ill also worry about carbon and phos etc. I shouldnt need that while its fish only right??

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tanked_kiwi

Ok bit of an update,

Last night i drained all of the water out of the tank/sump.

Pulled the sump out of the cabinet and moved it into the garage, now i can install a few baffles, the baffles will seperate the live rock in the sump from the cheto.

Also pulled out the 4 port power board and installed a 6 port for all the pumps and heaters etc, now i can get OCD on the wires before the sump is put back in for the final time.

Also got my overflow box laser cut this week, so that should turn up tomorrow and can be installed this weekend, it will allow alot more water to stay in the display which also means i can put more water in the sump. Then i need to pick up a back flow valve so no water flows back down the return line, becuase the misses would kill me if i overflowed the sump and got salt water all through the house!

Will also pick up some salt mix this weekend and a heater and ill finally be done... apart from a new light, but that will be a few months away for sure, at that point ill also worry about carbon and phos etc. I shouldnt need that while its fish only right??

Sweet! Sounds like good progress.

 

How much water flows back into the sump when you turn the pump off? I'd suggest you allow room in the sump for this rather than trusting a check valve to stop it, it seems these are prone to failure and ol' Murphy says this will happen when you're not home and the power goes out. Your misses sounds a lot like my misses when it comes to salt water on the carpet. Avoid this at all costs, lol.

 

I can't see how you would need gfo or carbon during cycling, in fact, depending on how much water you change and how often, you may not need it at all. I ran my tank for over a year without gfo, carbon or a skimmer, just weekly water changes and the first 6 months without a sump. I still run with only a skimmer in the sump, although a little carbon does make the water crystal clear.

 

Do you have test kits?

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Yea, my thinking was not having a back flow valve and then let it drain back down the return line. The return line is much higher than both of the drain lines, however with the overflow box, the return will be the lowest point.

 

I have enough capacity in the sump to cater for the back flow.

 

yea i may use carbon just to clean up the water, in saying that i have a skimmer and filter socks so it might not be needed.

 

nope, no test kits at all yet...

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tanked_kiwi

I think running the check valve would be fine as long as you have room in the sump in case it does happen to fail. The main thing, as I've learnt the hard way, is making sure you can leave the skimmer running 24/7 without the water level in the skimmer compartment changing. Do this and your golden.

 

You'll want test kits while you're cycling, cheap api test kits for ammonia nitrite and nitrate would do. You can get the rest later once you start adding corals.

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Oh i have those in my fresh water test kits, perfect, dont need to spend another 80 bucks on test kits for a while haha.

 

Going to head down the bunnings this weekend and get some water proof pant for inside of the cabinet, the cabinet should hold a good 5 - 10 L of water before spilling over, it may have a few spills here and there.

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60985e1604b0b3178e85d6e479c15885.jpg


My laser cutting turned up today,


may trim it down a bit before installing to make it a bit thinner, currently its 90mm wide x 200mm long 150mm high.


Might cut it down to 45mm wide x 200mm long x 150mm, just so it sits against the back wall a bit better.


Its made out of black 6mm acrylic (still has the white protective plastic on in the picture)

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Nice!! I wish I had access to a laser cutter. I recently redid my sump using that same thickness acrylic. Those acrylic cutters are awful and they definitely didn't work very well... Ended up using a dremel until I broke the last cutting bit which sucked.

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There are easy ways to cut it :) i just score the crap out of the line i want to cut with a box cutter ( there are proper tools) and then snap it like glass. The first couple you are a bit cautious but after them, its rip sh*t and bust, and it comes out right most of the time.

 

Laser cutting is great though everything is perfect every time.

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There are easy ways to cut it :) i just score the crap out of the line i want to cut with a box cutter ( there are proper tools) and then snap it like glass. The first couple you are a bit cautious but after them, its rip sh*t and bust, and it comes out right most of the time.

 

Laser cutting is great though everything is perfect every time.

Damn. I had good and bad luck with it. I had to cut off about an inch off a few times and it was a pain since I couldn't get any sort of leverage. I used an acrylic cutter and scored it halfway through the glass. The pieces where I had some leverage weren't too bad though.

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tanked_kiwi

More progress, nice!

 

Bugger you gotta cut it, is always the way though. Doesn't matter how well you try to plan it sh*t changes. Guess I'm lucky, since I'm a builder I already have the tools to cut this stuff. Table saw with a plastics blade and a router to finish the edges. Scoring should work on 6mm though, you don't need to glue the cut edges though right?

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Overflow box all glued in and taped so it does not move.

 

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All glued, and its not falling off so that is a bonus!

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Masking the overflow box up, next is to apply some black silicone to make sure the over flow is super water tight.

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All silicone'd up

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Top view of the herbie overflow setup and overflow box.
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Ive spent many hours getting things in place, cabling wires and making sure i can service the sump.
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Just trying to keep the mess to a minimum, controllers are not plugged in as there is currently no water in the system.
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Both return lines and filter sock, the DC300 is now in place ready to skim some crap.
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Not sure if this is going to work... but i made a small refugium for sum cheato, will need to get a small light for it.

 

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Return pump and heater hidden under the rock in a safe void.
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Sump looks really well thought out.

Waiting for my JBJ 45RL to be delivered Monday so I can get my hands wet again.

I am in Canada, New Brunswick and getting hold of livestock is not the easiest.

Local store closing down so going to involvecdriving a few hours to get stuff.

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tanked_kiwi

Your plumbing looks familiar lol. Looking good mate. I'd be keen to hear how you get on with that skimmer once you're up and running. Looking at these and bubble magus again for my next tank. I already know how quiet the jebao pumps are.

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