190 Gal build
- Thread starter EagleFF
- Start date
EagleFF
New member
I have the skimmer put together, the refugium plumbed to the sump, I just need to connect the overflow to the sump, trying to figure out how I'm going to plumb this thing, I built 2 brackets from 1" aluminum for the UV sterilizer, and where I have room I dont know I can get it to fit, I also have some filter canisters for the sump on order and dont know how tall these are, I have the ballasts for the radions mounted to the stand rim above the refugium with the heat sinks facing down, running out of room and fast, its looking more and more I am going to soft plum this sump and return lines to make the bends and move around the inside of the stand like it needs to be, I also have a ATO container being built when Jeff finds time to build it that will most likely set in front of the refugium as my external pump will take up the right side of the stand. I'll take pics tomorrow of the mess I have now, BTW peanuts, Packing peanuts, theres a million of them around here lol, wife made me clean up before beginning, next time I'll unpack by the garbage can outside,HAHA, Jeff did an excellent job of the packing to make it safe, wet test may be delayed until wed, that way I have the plumbing completed all at once.
EagleFF
New member
Here it is 2 days later and I finally have the drains plumbed in, I'm sick of PVC, not having this, needing that,not lining up, hoses crimping, back aches, moving stuff around where I nver wanted it to begin with , you know?,even when I was building giant scale R/C planes, the actual build never took too long, it was where in the world did I put this at that took up most of the build times, I have enough PVC connections to go around my house I believe, just 50 more glue joints to go when the external pump arrives, I'm hoping soon today, I want to wet test tomorrow, if not tonight....pics to come.
EagleFF
New member
Ok, plumbing done and done, I wont be making that mistake again anytime soon, lol, I will run the wet test until I get off tomorrow, it will either work or I'll have 190 gal freshwater on the floor, wouldn't that make mama happy....NOT!!
I ended up running all 3 drains dorso style, ran them into the same manifold, with 2 valves, 1 going to the left side of the sump where the skimmer sits, and the other to the right side, I made a manifold for the discharge side as well with 4 valves, 2 go to return to DT, 1 goes into the 45 watt UV sterilizer, and into the refugium, the 4th will go to the canister reactor when they come in.
what it all looked like before I got my fat head in there messing up a good thing
in there messing around
All of the plumbing completed and wet testing
Filling the tank with the hose
All in all, running the 3 dorsos, I do not hear the drain, I barely hear the external pump running, this setup makes no more noise than my 61 gal with a hang on skimmer, so far soo good, I am happy, A big shout out to Jeff at Life Reef Systems for building a great product, the man has skills and the know how on building and knowing what you need and what will work with the system you tell him. I am very pleased I took the time to wait on having my sump/refugium built by him...Thanks Jeff.
If all goes well, I'll try to get the Pink Fiji in tomorrow night, right now I am going to straighten and mount the light wires inside the canopy while I have it off and accessible.
please don't bash me too hard for not using braided silicone line, I didn't have any and I will before too long..
I ended up running all 3 drains dorso style, ran them into the same manifold, with 2 valves, 1 going to the left side of the sump where the skimmer sits, and the other to the right side, I made a manifold for the discharge side as well with 4 valves, 2 go to return to DT, 1 goes into the 45 watt UV sterilizer, and into the refugium, the 4th will go to the canister reactor when they come in.
what it all looked like before I got my fat head in there messing up a good thing
in there messing around
All of the plumbing completed and wet testing
Filling the tank with the hose
All in all, running the 3 dorsos, I do not hear the drain, I barely hear the external pump running, this setup makes no more noise than my 61 gal with a hang on skimmer, so far soo good, I am happy, A big shout out to Jeff at Life Reef Systems for building a great product, the man has skills and the know how on building and knowing what you need and what will work with the system you tell him. I am very pleased I took the time to wait on having my sump/refugium built by him...Thanks Jeff.
If all goes well, I'll try to get the Pink Fiji in tomorrow night, right now I am going to straighten and mount the light wires inside the canopy while I have it off and accessible.
please don't bash me too hard for not using braided silicone line, I didn't have any and I will before too long..
EagleFF
New member
mounted the canopy light cords last night
I drained my freshwater out today, rinsed the Fiji Pink Sand , 200 lbs right at 2 inches
beginning the aquascaping, I began by using 5 pieces on the bottom that was large, by the time I was finished with tat, I had a line of rocks, began removing the bigger rocks and moving stuff around, I began on the right side of the tank
so I worked on it, I had a rock that looked like a pillar, in front of a cave 8 to 9 inches wide by just over a foot deep
I decided to move the pillar to the left side of the right hand island, much better
finished product, looks pretty good to me, I have all kinds of places to put corals, even room for my clam, I may turn the rock hes on upside down see if he'll let go so I dont add that rock in here
The cave, the wife and I love this so far
I changed my DI resin, I can currently making the RO/DI water in my mixing station, I just might have this thing curing/cycling before I leave tomorrow afternoon, if not, I'll at least have 100 gal in the tank by tomorrow anyways, I'll use the mp 60's to keep the water moving til Sunday, and mix another batch of salt, I ordered 200 lbs of dry live rock, I may have 140 lbs in tank, no way could, with my skills, use 200 lbs without making it look like a rock pile.
I drained my freshwater out today, rinsed the Fiji Pink Sand , 200 lbs right at 2 inches
beginning the aquascaping, I began by using 5 pieces on the bottom that was large, by the time I was finished with tat, I had a line of rocks, began removing the bigger rocks and moving stuff around, I began on the right side of the tank
so I worked on it, I had a rock that looked like a pillar, in front of a cave 8 to 9 inches wide by just over a foot deep
I decided to move the pillar to the left side of the right hand island, much better
finished product, looks pretty good to me, I have all kinds of places to put corals, even room for my clam, I may turn the rock hes on upside down see if he'll let go so I dont add that rock in here
The cave, the wife and I love this so far
I changed my DI resin, I can currently making the RO/DI water in my mixing station, I just might have this thing curing/cycling before I leave tomorrow afternoon, if not, I'll at least have 100 gal in the tank by tomorrow anyways, I'll use the mp 60's to keep the water moving til Sunday, and mix another batch of salt, I ordered 200 lbs of dry live rock, I may have 140 lbs in tank, no way could, with my skills, use 200 lbs without making it look like a rock pile.
footyreefer
Member
Looking real good.
EagleFF
New member
Thanks footyreefer, I got called out on a job while on my fishing tournament, so I'm waiting to finish this job, I should've known better to leave a premix mixing for 2 days, I bet that water is 90 degrees, that's just from ambient temp in my garage, I need to enclose the station and add a small air conditioner either that or a small frig, I think the ac would be better, that way my ro/di doesn't stay hot. I have an idea now to cool the water before topping off the tank.we'll see how it goes.
EagleFF
New member
I do believe I isolated where most of the heat is coming from on my mixing station, its coming from the mixing pump, I cooled the last 50 gal by using the 100 ft 1" pex in a 17 cu. ft. trailer full of water and 20 gal of pellet ice to cool the water down, I am about 35 gal shy of filling up the tank completely so I am mixing another 50 gal, using my panworld pump to stir the tank while filling it up with water, I felt the pump, man this thing is hot between the motor and the pump, so I switched it off until I have all the water in then I'll stir for an couple hrs, then transfer the water to the tank so maybe then I can get rid of the funky fog out of the water.
EagleFF
New member
188 gal of water pumped into aquarium, got the skimmer half set, I was filling up the sump/refugium, external pump was air locked, I almost ran everything over, I had a spare vale not hooked to anything, I used it to release the air, took a minute to get air out, next thing I knew the pump primed, I was shooting a 3/4" stream to the back wall, grr a mess already, 1 of many I'm sure....I'm skimming kind of wet right now, I have no carbon to run to help clear up the water, smells like dirt right now, I'm sure its from the sand, and rocks, now I need to order my test kits for curing/cycling the tank.
EagleFF
New member
Tank full and curing/cycling the rocks, sand
Skimmer in action
Tank is running at about 85 degrees right now, I opened up the top took 1 side of the glass top off, opened up the cabinet,turned off the UV sterilizer as well, will see how this goes, waiting on the boss to give me the ok to get a chiller and another pump. more than likely the JBJ 1/4 hp
Skimmer in action
Tank is running at about 85 degrees right now, I opened up the top took 1 side of the glass top off, opened up the cabinet,turned off the UV sterilizer as well, will see how this goes, waiting on the boss to give me the ok to get a chiller and another pump. more than likely the JBJ 1/4 hp
EagleFF
New member
Cleaned up in the cabinet today
Mounted the Vortex controllers to the back right side of the cabinet
I also mounted the Apex in today, along with fashioning some brackets out of strips of aluminum to mount the power packs for the Vortex and mounted those above the electric bar 8
I'll try to get the probes installed tomorrow night, along with mounting some more cords and clean up the cabinet some more, Looking pretty good now, playing with the skimmer a touch now that it has calmed down a bit, I should have a 100% water change done by next weekend, I need to order more salt along with the nitrate,ammonia test kits to see how things are going.
I ordered a JBJ Artica 1/4 chiller with a Sicce Syncra 4.0 pump to run the chiller, I have a few more things to add to the Apex then that will be complete.
Mounted the Vortex controllers to the back right side of the cabinet
I also mounted the Apex in today, along with fashioning some brackets out of strips of aluminum to mount the power packs for the Vortex and mounted those above the electric bar 8
I'll try to get the probes installed tomorrow night, along with mounting some more cords and clean up the cabinet some more, Looking pretty good now, playing with the skimmer a touch now that it has calmed down a bit, I should have a 100% water change done by next weekend, I need to order more salt along with the nitrate,ammonia test kits to see how things are going.
I ordered a JBJ Artica 1/4 chiller with a Sicce Syncra 4.0 pump to run the chiller, I have a few more things to add to the Apex then that will be complete.
EagleFF
New member
All I got done today is installing the temp prob in the sump, spend almost all day dealing with Dr. offices getting ready for my knee Surgery 7:00 am tomorrow, Chiller will be here Monday, I hope I feel good enough by then to continue doing things to the tank, not much more to do other than wire routing and testing.
EagleFF
New member
At home recovering from my knee surgery just in case anyone reading is wondering, I should get back to messing with the wiring around Monday After hooking up the chiller, somehow I have to get my son to get into the attic to route my Ethernet cable, I bought a 50 ft cable to go from my router up the wall, across the ceiling, down the same wall I will route my ATO line, Auto water change 1" pex line, when I do the 100% water change, I'll cut the hole in the wall to install the washing machine drain box to make the exit from these lines into the sump a little more sexier than just a raw hole.
