World's slowest custom 85g system. ...and there was coral. (p.18)

[Rollermonkey]

I am so not motivated to rinse my sand...

 

Note to self:

 

Static head from floor to top of sump is 5' 8", so if the height of the mixing station bottom is > 8", I can use five feet, otherwise, call it six.

 

Now to look at external pumps that can handle that.

 

A Danner MAG5 would give me @ 3.5 minutes to pump 20 gallons that high. And nothing can touch that performance for twice the cost, sounds like a deal.

[RollaJase]

Plumbing is looking good, those reactors look classy.

[Rollermonkey]

Yeah, the LFS that made the tank and sump made them, too. They do great work, but since the two owners had a falling out and one bought out the other, customer service has kind of taken a nosedive. I reminded them three times that I wanted these reactors and they still weren't done for almost three weeks after the promised date. Every time I spoke to them it was like they had no clue what I was talking about. They make skimmers too, but I'm kind of glad I went another route, despite all the issues getting that.

[Rollermonkey]

Finally stopped being lazy and rinsed my sand and attached the two nicest barnacle clusters.

 

FTS:

 

 

Right side:

 

 

Left side:

 

 

...and a closer look at those barnacles:

 

[EL CHUPACABRA]

[FlowerMama]

Those barnacles are beauties. They look really special in there. Can't wait to see who makes a home in them. What are your stocking thoughts?

[Rollermonkey]

Fish thoughts:

 

Ocellaris Clownfish pair

1X Blue Assessor

1X Helfrichi Firefish

1X Coral Beauty dwarf angel

Red Velvet Fairy Wrasse pair

1X Comet (Marine Betta)

1X herbivorous blenny such as a Black Combtooth, Starry or Lawnmower or the Red Faced one Live Aquaria had the other day.

1X Purple Tilefish

 

I wanted a Flame Hawkfish, but apparently they like to eat shrimp. (much like I do! )

 

Stocking order will be:

Firefish

Assessor

Clowns

(BioCube breakdown)

Tilefish

Wrasses

Blenny

Dwarf Angel

Comet

[Rollermonkey]

Wait, wait, wait.

 

Lowe's has a 10% military discount?

 

OMG, I could have saved so much money!

[Rollermonkey]

It looks like it's going to be Skimmersgiving here for sure!

 

My package hit the UPS distribution hub at 1:16am. Normally that's early enough to get on the delivery truck, but stuff coming from FL always seems to sit there an extra day for some unknown reason.

[nanoreefer11]

Wait, wait, wait.

 

Lowe's has a 10% military discount?

 

OMG, I could have saved so much money!

 

Isn't it 15%? I swear, everytime I go there they give me 15%

[Sunar357]

Home Depot does military discount also.

[Rollermonkey]

May have found a source for my MP10... below MAP... and...

[Rollermonkey]

7 weeks, 4 days, one cancellation and one vendor change later, I finally have a skimmer.

 

Now to open the box and see if I can figure out how to put my first one together.

[Rollermonkey]

Well, there were no instructions in the box, but there are a couple unboxing/assembly videos on YouTube, so all was not lost.

 

Ta da!

 

 

Before doing anything else, I made sure that it actually fits in my sump, what with eurobracing, overflows and return line all in the same corner that the skimmer goes.

 

It's a tight squeeze, to be sure, but it fits.

 

 

Very, very tight fit. I actually have to rotate it about 10 degrees to fit the skimmer's wedge pipe between the return line and the side of the eurobrace, and the silencer is about 1mm from the eurobrace in that position.

 

 

Pay no attention to the NeoTherm box acting as my 2" skimmer stand! (I don't know what the final skimmer stand height will be, but that should be pretty close.

 

I guess it's time for a bath?

[Rollermonkey]

Skimmer is bathed.

 

Should be able to order my MP10 taking advantage of this weekend's rebate, and once that arrives, I can push the whole thing into position and start filling it.

 

A list of equipment to be obtained added after the fill:

 

Neptune Apex Modules:

VDM, LSM, WXM, EB-8 (#2), Moonlights

Apex/Kessil link cable

Danner Mag-5 (for mixing station / delivery)

Assorted lumber & fittings for mixing station fabrication

Skimmer stand

Replacement MP10 wetside and RF Module

 

I think that's it.

[RollaJase]

Really tight fit on that skimmer, looks like a beast though.

[Rollermonkey]

Yeah, the reviews on it say even though it's a only 6" body, it pulls skimmate like a much larger unit. A couple have claimed to be pulling nearly yogurt like consistency. (Gross.) The norm seems to be that it breaks in quickly then works great. The first generation had some durability issues with the pumps, but those seem to be worked out due to a change in manufacturer over in China. I'm just hoping those issues don't affect my return pump which is a Reef Octopus, but came from the same factory as the 1st gen RLSS pumps.

[Rollermonkey]

Just got off the phone with Marine Depot... With the price matching guarantee and the Black Friday sales going on right now, I got the WXM and VDM modules for the Apex, the Apex-Kessil cable, for the tank and the Danner Mag-5 and three bulkheads for the mixing station. All that for $293.

 

I also started making water! 20 gallons of RODI so far... I only have storage for 60 gallons, and the system volume is @100 gallons, so I'm not going to be able to fill this in one production run.

 

I'm going to get the lumber this week, but the rest of the mixing station stuff will have to wait 'til next moth.

 

Ahh, crap. I forgot filter socks. Well, those aren't necessary for cycling base rock, I guess.

 

I'm going to make my own skimmer stand because $45 for a pre-made one is ridiculous. an 8x10 sheet of acrylic is like $5 and I can glue a couple legs made out of unused PVC pipe to that with superglue I already have.

[Rollermonkey]

MP10 ordered.

 

That's coming from ID, so it should be here Tuesday or Wednesday. The stuff from Marine Depot should be here Thursday.

 

I should be able to finally slide the tank into position on Friday and I've got 40 gallons of RODI made already.

[Roshan8768]

Nice... it's coming along.

[Rollermonkey]

Yup. I can see the way to the end of the build phase, as the list of things still to be bought finally starts to get short.

[Rollermonkey]

Went to Lowe's to get the wood to build the stand.

 

Got to the back where they cut wood for you, but the saw wasn't working.

 

Can't fit full-length 2x8s in a G35 coupe, so I had to delay buying the wood apart from the 1/4 sheets of plywood. (2'x4')

 

Was able to get all of the pipe/plumbing/hose components though, so it wasn't a complete loss.

[Rollermonkey]

After a trip to the next Lowe's, I got the wood, and got it cut to size before leaving the store.

 

Got pretty far at putting the whole mixing station stand together when I ran out of screws.

D'oh!

 

Skimmer stand is going to be cake to make, though: Lowe's had a 1/8" acrylic piece that was exactly the right size without cutting. All I have to do is drill a bunch of holes in it and glue some feet on.

[Reef_Suds]

This build is looking great!

[Rollermonkey]

Thanks! It has been a loooong, sloooow process. Tomorrow is 8 months from when I ordered the tank.

 

One of the good things about going so slow is that I can really think out what I want to do.

 

The bad part of course being the interminable wait to execute the next step.