10 salty gallons.

[cableguy69846]

The tank is chugging along. The temp is running about 4 degrees higher than I want it. Could be cuz the AC sucks. I need to put the window unit in. Anyway, things are growing and I finally got my ATO semi-installed today. It is not the permanent setup, but it will work until I can get the fancy stuff.

FTS first.

Some feather dusters.

The sump. The fuge should be drilled, painted and installed tomorrow afternoon if I can get the PVC fittings I need.

The ATO water reservoir. A 2.5 gallon baby water jug. It is gonna work great.

Just used airline tubing cuz I didn't have any 1/4" tubing and can't get it until I get paid again any way. It was a little lose in the float valve so I took a part of a "T" connector and shoved it in the end. Fits nice and snug now.

Made the bracket out of eggcrate cuz I didn't want the float to be attached the the tank itself. Works like a charm though. Watch for more tomorrow.

 

[cableguy69846]

News on the 2.5 drilling. It cracked to hell. Doh! That is ok though. I have a busted 10gallon tank sitting around, that I can take a pane of glass from. Going to do that and get it cut. Then replace, and try to drill again.

 

[cableguy69846]

Ok, boys and girls. Here is why you should not attempt to drill a 2.5 gallon.

I did a quick fix with a piece of plexi. Siliconed the bejesus out of it and then drilled it. I used it to cover up all the cracks from the drilling and put tons around the seem of the plexi. It looks terrible, but it is gonna be for a fuge anyway, so no worries.

Won't know if it is going to hold water until tomorrow. Need to let the silicone sit for about 12 hours. (I hate waiting) But until then, I can play with some PVC.

 

[cableguy69846]

IT WORKS!!!!!

I ran it for a couple of minutes like that. No leaks. Not even from the bulkhead where the pipe is not glued in yet. I need to glue the PVC, make some more SW, and paint the back and one side.

Here is a question. I was going to paint the tank to prevent light bleed into my sump. With the now fragile nature of the tank, you think I should not paint it so I can see if it fails on me?

 

[cableguy69846]

I have some saltwater mixing as I type and am going to glue the plumbing in a minute. Not going to paint the tank so I can see what is going on with everything as it blocks a good deal of my vision while in the stand.

 

[cableguy69846]

All hooked up and running like a champ. Here is what it looks like in my stand at the moment.

The fuge itself.

Ok. Details. The drain/overflow is a 1" female slip to 1" male street. A short piece of 1" pipe is in the female end with groves cut into it to act as teeth. There is a 3/4" pipe in the street end that goes into the 3/4" bulkhead. None of that is glued. Should I need to change it, It will all come apart. The rest of the drain is all 3/4" in pipe with a 90* elbow to lead down to the sump. At the end there is a 45* elbow with a short piece of pipe that goes into the 3" PVC rubble stack. Pretty simple.

The feed for the fuge is from the display and controlled by a ball valve. Should I need to take it off line, I shut the valve, drain the fuge, and pull it out. Easy Peasy. With this setup, if my pump should quit on me, everything will still have water in it and my sump will not overflow. That makes me happy. The flow through the fuge is a bit slower than I would like, but that will change once I get the Meg3 return I am planning on getting. (I hope.)

OK, here are a few goodies.

Random sponge.

This is a bad pic, but I think it is a small coral. Any help would be appreciated.

Also came across this goodie in the garage. Forgot I had it.

A CPR HOB skimmer. It needs a gasket and pump, but I may have that all figured out. Need to do some looking on the net and I will know for sure.

My next step is going to be substrate. I also need a decent heater as I think mine went out. Add some Koralia nano 240 power heads to that. And I am in business.

Oh yeah, light bulbs and a Mag3 pump too.

 

[cableguy69846]

So. Had my hands wet for a bit today. I put some eggcrate under the rock as per someones suggestion. Don't want a busted tank cuz of a simple mistake. I also changed the rock around a bit. It is stable and looks a bit better.

While I had the DT empty, I moved my whole system about 3" more from the wall. Now I have room for my skimmer on the sump. When I get paid again, I am going to get the Accela pump for it along with a new "O" ring and some Biobale. Should be running in a week or two.

I also got some better pics of the random coral I found. Maybe someone can offer up an ID now?

That's all for now. Need to get my skimmer working, and some substrate for the DT and fuge.

 

[cableguy69846]

So. Had my hands wet for a bit today. I put some eggcrate under the rock as per someones suggestion. Don't want a busted tank cuz of a simple mistake. I also changed the rock around a bit. It is stable and looks a bit better.

While I had the DT empty, I moved my whole system about 3" more from the wall. Now I have room for my skimmer on the sump. When I get paid again, I am going to get the Accela pump for it along with a new "O" ring and some Biobale. Should be running in a week or two.

I also got some better pics of the random coral I found. Maybe someone can offer up an ID now?

That's all for now. Need to get my skimmer working, and some substrate for the DT and fuge.

 

[cableguy69846]

Snapped a couple pics of the tank today. It cleared up big time.

Looks a lot better now. Now I just need to figure out why my rubble stack is foaming like crazy. Can't wait for Tuesday. Gonna order the stuff to get my skimmer going, and I am going to find some substrate for this beast. Maybe a CUC as well. We shall see.

 

[alienz]

Looking good, your plumbing work is very nice.

Guess there goes my idea of ever drilling my old 2gallon tank too hahah.

 

[Veganbrian]

looks like a yuma ricordea to me, could be wrong.

 

[screename116]

Tank is looking good, I like all the DIY.

I think its a ricordea too.

 

[cableguy69846]

Looking good, your plumbing work is very nice.

Guess there goes my idea of ever drilling my old 2gallon tank too hahah.

You can drill it if you replace the back glass with thicker glass. That is the only reason mine failed. It was too thin. And thanks man.

looks like a yuma ricordea to me, could be wrong.

Tank is looking good, I like all the DIY.

I think its a ricordea too.

Thanks guys. DIY is way cheaper than buying everything new.

 

[cableguy69846]

Apparently my cheap ATO went bonkers last night. It dumped about a gallon and a half of water into the tank. Got it fixed for now, but I think an upgrade is in order for it. We shall see how well it does over the next day or so.

 

[cableguy69846]

Ok. I got my ATO all fixed up for the most part. Not dumping random amounts of water in the tank any more.

Got some goodies today. The tank finally has a sand bed. 15lbs of CaribSea special grade. Dry. Rinsed the crap out of it and it still clouded my water up.

Going to have to tweek the look of the sand a bit, but I like it. I put a little in the fuge too, as I don't like the BB look.

Will probably get another piece of some good looking rock to put in the fuge. Or, I will just let it fill up with macroalgae.

Grabbed 3 hermit crabs too. Hopefully they will get rid of some of the algae. I really need to switch to RO-DI water. Gonna start doing that too.

As for my skimmer, the parts should be here Tuesday. Gonna have to run it for a few hours with some vinegar as it needs a good cleaning, but the system should be much better after that. We will see.

 

[CollegeTyler]

love all the DIY, cool setup! and id agree that the coral is some sort of ricordea

 

[CollegeTyler]

A hood will help alot, i made one with 8inch by 1/2inch furniture wood, a mitar saw, nail gun, and wood glue. Took all of about 30 minutes paint and all.

 

[cableguy69846]

love all the DIY, cool setup! and id agree that the coral is some sort of ricordea

love all the DIY, cool setup!

Thanks man. DIY makes it so much cheaper. I think the next big build for this tank is going to be a new stand. This one is a bit too flimsy for my taste. And maybe a hood. Too much light bleed with it being right next to the bed and all.

 

[cableguy69846]

So, I think it is time to update a bit. It has been a while. Have not touched the tank in a couple of months other than to clean the glass or refill the ATO. It needs a water change badly. Here it is for now though.

The skimmer has been running for a while. Finally got it tuned and got it to stop splashing everywhere. Also put the fuge lights on the opposite time as the DT lights. Going to start replacing the water with RODI next week. All three hermits look to be alive still, and I have seen numerous other critters in there as well. That's all for now.

 

[NanoReefWanabe]

i would not have put sand in the fuge...that appears to be a very low flow fuge, and it is fed dirty water from the tank, you are going to have piles of poop settling out in there, and a tonne of nitrate problems to go with it...

as for your foaming rock tower, you have a air water drain that also has a Y fitting in it that adds considerably more turbulence to the drain...and now you are splashing this air filled water all over a pile of rocks...it is certainly going to foam up, you are basically creating a very primitive skimmer out of your rock tower...

i like the rest of the setup though...looking good.