mygolfisslow Posted February 25, 2011 Share Posted February 25, 2011 Reef Octopus 6" NWB150 nice i have the 110 and am very happy with it. took quite a wile to break in, give it a good vinegar bath to speed things up. Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted February 26, 2011 Author Share Posted February 26, 2011 Sweet! Dad came by today and delivered the granite. So as soon as the cabinet gets here tomorrow I can set it then plumb it. IDK how I'm going to get water into this thing since i only have 3 5gallon jugs and that RO/DI system wont be here for a while. How did some of you guys get fresh or salt water to your tanks? Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted February 27, 2011 Author Share Posted February 27, 2011 Well... FINALLY the stand is here.!!!!! Plumbing later on tonight. Still wondering how I'm going to get water in there lol. And is it ok to test for leaks with regular sink water? Link to comment
gutterguy Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Stand looks great. Worth the wait. I leak/plumb tested mine with tap water. As far as getting the sw in there I bought a brand new garbage can and over a couple days filled with RO/DI then mixed my salt in there. Pumped into buckets and carried up the steps. If you can attach a garden hose to any of your nearby faucets it will make easir for leak testing. goood luck gg Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted February 27, 2011 Author Share Posted February 27, 2011 Ya. Im glad the color came out just like the other furniture in the room. Lol if not my gf and mom would make me take it out lol. Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted February 27, 2011 Author Share Posted February 27, 2011 Thanks for the advice GG. Link to comment
mygolfisslow Posted February 27, 2011 Share Posted February 27, 2011 Thanks for the advice GG. Looks super nice Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 Plumbing is done. 1 small leak at the ball valve that just needs to be tightened and we are good Blurry pics. The one thing I am worried about is the return pump. To me it doesn't look like it has enough power. Ball valve is open all the way. I don't know if its the plumbing or if that's how its supposed to be. Its a Mag7 700gph. Any thoughts? Link to comment
Byrdman Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Doesnt seem to be to bad looking but its really about how many GPH it moves. My return looks similar to that when I turn it on after a WC but its moving some water. One thing I see with your setup it you need a way to break siphon in case of a power outage. Right now your returns are a good ways under the surface and your sump wont handle the water from back siphon. Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted February 28, 2011 Author Share Posted February 28, 2011 Check valve is already there Tested it 5 times and no siphon. Link to comment
gutterguy Posted February 28, 2011 Share Posted February 28, 2011 Check valve is already there Tested it 5 times and no siphon. Dont trust the check valve. I have one and it has work everytime since I have had the tank set up, but when I was leak testing I had the tank filled up overnight and the CV failed for what ever reason. I thought the same thing about my returns when I set mine up. My pump is rated at 1050gph not counting head hieght and I had it cranked and the water did not shoot out. It looked alot like yours. Good luck Link to comment
Byrdman Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I would add the holes to be on the safe side, but I work at a pump manufacturer and we test our check valves and they last an extremely long time. The fact that the valve stays open 98% of its life I cant believe the problems I hear people having with them. They must be buying cheap check valves. Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 Where would holes be added if they were to be added? Also today I got my SCWD and installed it and I got my 200g box of IO reef crystal salt. I can smell that fish tank already lol. Link to comment
SpringFever Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Hey Inferno! Nice build you have going here. As to siphon breaks: The third picture in this link (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1950179) shows a good image of a well placed siphon break. In your case, however, I don’t think siphon breaks would be of any benefit. What I would do if I were you, is angle your return lines up and have the output be as close to, and parallel with, the surface of the water when full as possible. If you have the outputs even with the water surface, you will only have an eighth inch back flow… My return is going to come up and over my weir. I will drill a siphon break at the bottom of the lock line right where it touches the water surface. This works because I am coming from the top down. You have your returns drilled ~3” below the surface. Coming from the bottom up is less effective for siphon breaks. HTH… Edit: Check valves scare the hell out of me. The corrosive properties of saltwater and gunk build up which is completely unavoidable will eventually cause it to fail. In addition, you will be shutting down your main pump frequently (feeding, maint., power outages, etc) and it only takes one nasty episode for you wife to change her mind on this whole reef tank thingy… K.I.S.S. there are ways of plumbing which don’t rely on mechanical equipment to keep your floors dry. Link to comment
Coastie Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I would agree with all the comments. To me a check valve is just asking for trouble. Since the check valve is fairly stationary until the water reverses think about the amount of algae that could build up. Personally I also like aiming my return to the surface anyhow because it keeps a sheen from forming plus helps oxygenate your water. Link to comment
Byrdman Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 I'd add the holes or move them closer to water surface for peace of mind. I ran a CV for a few years and didnt have problems. It was a kind we sell with plastic flapper and washer so I didnt have to worry about corrision. Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Thanks for all the info guys. I did move one of the return lines so that it would get some air as soon as the water level reached its minimum in the DT. Also this happened: Got rock from a friend and decided to just go for it. Mixed the water. Added 60lbs of sand. And then I put the good pieces in. There are more branching pieces that I didn't know what to do with so I put them in the fuge. I think I'm going to order some dry rock from BRS to fill on some of those empty spaces in the back and make it look a bit higher. The big piece on the left has some tiny apt but as soon as it cycles I will get a CuC with a peppermint shrimp and let them go to town. Thanks for following along so far. Link to comment
Coastie Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Damn that is some awesome rock! I love it! I would go ahead and pull the rock and burn the bastards with a lighter since you are starting out fresh. Why wait around for a peppermint shrimp to do the dirty work, which they may or may not do. Link to comment
SpringFever Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Nice Tonga Branch!!! I hear that stuff is hard to come by. I will be ordering some BRS dry Tong Branch for my 40B. You totally lucked out getting established rock. Did your buddy have any algae problems? Was it a reef or FOWLR tank? The reason I ask is that ‘used’ rock kept in poorly maintained tanks can absorb phosphates and doom you to algae problems from the start. There are measures you can take to avoid this problem, though. I hope you don’t mind if I make two suggestions. I am no expert, so take what I say with a grain of salt. Return Lines: Rerouting only one of the return lines to the surface makes little difference; in the event that your check valve fails, water will still drain down to the bottom of your bulkhead, flooding your sump. Further, I take the approach that return lines should serve as surface agitators, and powerheads (or closed loops) serve as primary random flow generators. Oxygenation and gas exchange are very important and difficult to achieve without exaggerated surface agitation. Moving both lines to the surface with give your great agitation, fostering good gas exchange and oxygenation. Here is an example: . Regardless of how you position your returns, you are going to need more flow in the tank than what you have currently. I would move both lines to the surface, remove your check valve, and add a few power heads to the display for primary flow. That’s just me, take it FWIW. Scape: I think you have the perfect amount of rock in the display. If you put any more in, you won’t have room for coral placement/grow out. The branch rocks will be difficult to scape unless you epoxy them into a ‘bonsai’ type structure. The middle of page 5 in this link (http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthre...0422&page=5) is the perfect example of what can be done with branch rock. Also, Live rock can be out of water for hours without ill effect, so don’t worry too much about killing the rock. I am far from knowing it all, so I apologize if I am sounding like “that guy”. I’m just trying to give you a different perspective. Thanks for sharing your progress with us. Please keep the updates coming! Link to comment
Coastie Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 Load the sand bed with acans, grow the hell out of some zoas on that tonga, and get a big birds nest growing right in the middle.... I am liking it! Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Thanks for all the info Spring. It helps a lot. There is going to be an MP10 w ES in there as soon as i get the money for it. I will definitely point the returns up higher though thanks On other news the Skimmer came in. Ran it through some water n vinegar for a bit. and then when I tried to install it turns out it was too big . It really messed up my plans. So then I just took out one of the baffles and then it was all good . I'll give it a while till maybe the cycle is complete till I put it in. The RO/DI also came in,need to install it then I can be ready for some clean water . Now I still need my lights, MP10 and the RKL. Money is coming to a slowdown so come the 15th I'll buy another thing. Thanks for following along guys. Link to comment
mygolfisslow Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I would get the skimmer in and running now. I will still need a week or two to break in fully. If you start now it should be pullin the good sh!t by the time you start putting in the livestock. And check out reefcleaners for a CUC, when the time comes you just can't beat his prices. Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 Yeah I was definitely going to get them from reefcleaners they have the best selection! Link to comment
inferno2113 Posted March 5, 2011 Author Share Posted March 5, 2011 Well, I installed that darn RO/DI system. Looks sooo much easier on the video lol. After running it for 2 hours to make sure everything got flushed out I started filling a jug. I left it on and went to go do something else as soon as I remembered I left it on I walked in to a bathroom full of water! I definitely need to buy a float valve and then we can be in business. I'll take pictures of it and show you guys later. Here's the pretty box for the Skimmer. and here it is in action. Now I don't know why but I decided to test my water and this is what I got. PH 8.0 Ammonia 0 Trites 0 Trates 0 Looks like zeros across the board, but I sure as hell don't want to trust those damn tests lol. I am definitely going to give it 2 more weeks before I put a CuC in there. Still undecided on that damn light! I need to make a decision quick. O' well. Link to comment
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