Ian's 320g SPS Adventure
- Thread starter krazysvede
- Start date
krazysvede
New member
Thanks Dromon, I am very happy with it!
LOL! 14 months, 22lbs and growing fast. He just learned to say NO! So thats all we've heard this week.
I spent the day plumbing and not on the tank. Sprinkler leak woooo!!!
Tomorrow I have to paint our guest bathroom before the rest of the family comes to town for Xmas. Hope to get to plumbing on Tues/Wed but with family in town all bets are off.
krazysvede
New member
Thanks DasCamel!
Progress has been made, kinda. I put a mix of 5 bags of Tropic Eden Flakes and Mini Flakes in the tank LOL. Family goes home tomorrow, so should have plenty of time for aquascaping and plumbing this weekend.
krazysvede
New member
It's been slow going around these parts but I have some updates.
I have 2x ¾" SeaSwirls that were purchased used. They worked but I had a couple issues with them. One of them moved slower than the other, which lead me to believe one of the motors may be starting to go. The other issue was the inlet fittings were FTP and I wanted slip due to space in the canopy. I found replacement motors on McMastercarr and got both open. Once opened, one of them was almost full of salt crustys, that was all cleaned out, the motors were replaced on both and with a little elbow grease and a vice I got the inlet fittings off and swapped, both appeared to have be siliconed in place at some point.
With that done it was time to work on the plumbing. I have all the plumbing behind and above the tank finished up now. I still need to figure out support for the pipe between the wall and the union valves, for now I'm using a spare pvc coupler I had. As you can see in the picture below, there is some water in my sump. I leak tested the return plumbing before I got too much further and was mostly successful. The plumbing in the wall and above the tank is solid but I have a leak on each end of the hose between my return pump and the hard PVC in the wall, I'm waiting on some hose clamps and that issue should be fixed.
Drain plumbing had to go on hold, I ordered threaded bulkheads when I should have gotten slip. They came yesterday but server issues at the office kept me from doing any plumbing.
I also got lighting installed above the sump a couple days ago.
The lighting is the adhesive backed LED strip lighting from Amazon. Once this tank is operational and my Apex gear has moved over, Ill hook it up with contact switches so that the lights come on automatically when the sump doors open like my current tank, for now its manual.
Hoping to finish or at least work on drain plumbing tonight and get to aquascaping this weekend. Here's some pics and video of some of my current livestock as you can see my racks are getting filled up. I guess I need to get a real camera and get this new tank wet"¦
I have 2x ¾" SeaSwirls that were purchased used. They worked but I had a couple issues with them. One of them moved slower than the other, which lead me to believe one of the motors may be starting to go. The other issue was the inlet fittings were FTP and I wanted slip due to space in the canopy. I found replacement motors on McMastercarr and got both open. Once opened, one of them was almost full of salt crustys, that was all cleaned out, the motors were replaced on both and with a little elbow grease and a vice I got the inlet fittings off and swapped, both appeared to have be siliconed in place at some point.
With that done it was time to work on the plumbing. I have all the plumbing behind and above the tank finished up now. I still need to figure out support for the pipe between the wall and the union valves, for now I'm using a spare pvc coupler I had. As you can see in the picture below, there is some water in my sump. I leak tested the return plumbing before I got too much further and was mostly successful. The plumbing in the wall and above the tank is solid but I have a leak on each end of the hose between my return pump and the hard PVC in the wall, I'm waiting on some hose clamps and that issue should be fixed.
Drain plumbing had to go on hold, I ordered threaded bulkheads when I should have gotten slip. They came yesterday but server issues at the office kept me from doing any plumbing.
I also got lighting installed above the sump a couple days ago.
The lighting is the adhesive backed LED strip lighting from Amazon. Once this tank is operational and my Apex gear has moved over, Ill hook it up with contact switches so that the lights come on automatically when the sump doors open like my current tank, for now its manual.
Hoping to finish or at least work on drain plumbing tonight and get to aquascaping this weekend. Here's some pics and video of some of my current livestock as you can see my racks are getting filled up. I guess I need to get a real camera and get this new tank wet"¦
krazysvede
New member
Progress Finally!
Progress Finally!
Finally had a weekend with my wife off and toddler free time to get the plumbing finished and leak tested.
Also got rock ver. 1.0 in the tank, I'm not 100% sure I like it yet. Going for the minimal look for plenty of vertical space for SPS. Tops of most of the platforms are about 13 to 16” from the top of the tank. Do you guys think this is too low? I have a bunch of tonga branch in my current 90 that’ll go in eventually and some more branch on the way from eBay that'll increase the height a little bit.
And because I feel like this thread has been lacking in the coral picture department I bought some new ones. Vendor pics not mine, I have been playing with my DSLR though and am getting a little better. Will start using it instead of the iphone soon…
The 90 had a rough couple weeks. The skimmer pump too a crap sometime in the last 2 weeks, finally caught it last Wednesday, did a bunch of maintenance in the stand when I pulled the skimmer out to look at it. Forgot to turn the ATO back on, sump level got super low and burned up my return pump. 2 pumps in 2 weeks... good stuff. I had my Apex programmed to not Alarm while I have my "Maintenance" virtual outlet turned on... forgot to turn it off when I was done... :headwally: All's well again now and humming along.
Should have the tonga branch from ebay late this week. Will hopefully finalize scape next weekend and start the fill up.
Progress Finally!
Finally had a weekend with my wife off and toddler free time to get the plumbing finished and leak tested.
Also got rock ver. 1.0 in the tank, I'm not 100% sure I like it yet. Going for the minimal look for plenty of vertical space for SPS. Tops of most of the platforms are about 13 to 16” from the top of the tank. Do you guys think this is too low? I have a bunch of tonga branch in my current 90 that’ll go in eventually and some more branch on the way from eBay that'll increase the height a little bit.
And because I feel like this thread has been lacking in the coral picture department I bought some new ones. Vendor pics not mine, I have been playing with my DSLR though and am getting a little better. Will start using it instead of the iphone soon…
The 90 had a rough couple weeks. The skimmer pump too a crap sometime in the last 2 weeks, finally caught it last Wednesday, did a bunch of maintenance in the stand when I pulled the skimmer out to look at it. Forgot to turn the ATO back on, sump level got super low and burned up my return pump. 2 pumps in 2 weeks... good stuff. I had my Apex programmed to not Alarm while I have my "Maintenance" virtual outlet turned on... forgot to turn it off when I was done... :headwally: All's well again now and humming along.
Should have the tonga branch from ebay late this week. Will hopefully finalize scape next weekend and start the fill up.
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krazysvede
New member
Its WET!
Its WET!
Thanks guys!
Picked up some different rock last week, tons of open space and still plenty of places for frags. Im much happier with the scape now. Thanks Mhucasey for the lead on the rock.
Started to fill her up...
DI filters are shot, more on the way. Should have this beast cycling by next weekend.
Its WET!
Thanks guys!
Picked up some different rock last week, tons of open space and still plenty of places for frags. Im much happier with the scape now. Thanks Mhucasey for the lead on the rock.
Started to fill her up...
DI filters are shot, more on the way. Should have this beast cycling by next weekend.
sfsuphysics
Active member
Well assuming that's salt water in there you could start uour cycling, I mean a bunch of sand and a good portion of the submerged rock
I've heard that before. Just curious, what's the reason?
krazysvede
New member
Yep its fresh water.
Worm whats the reasoning for not adding salt once the tank is full? Haven't heard this before.
Depending on how you mix it it can become lodged in rock and under the sand. A movement of the sand can start the section of undissolved salt to change the chemistry of the water near the inhabitants around it. You would not want a hyper salinity invisible cloud to come out and kill coral or inhabitants months down the road.
Mixing it externally allows for no risk of clumps settling within the tank.
Just saying. Be careful.
While there are currently no inhabitants and you are going to be mixing it, very well, there is not going to be a problem right now. Also if you overadd your saltmix you will end up having to dilute it down some too. I would much rather not chase the numbers by accidentally causing a problem.
I have created tanks where I have mixed the salt in a bare bottom situation then added everything later.
Mixing it externally allows for no risk of clumps settling within the tank.
Just saying. Be careful.
While there are currently no inhabitants and you are going to be mixing it, very well, there is not going to be a problem right now. Also if you overadd your saltmix you will end up having to dilute it down some too. I would much rather not chase the numbers by accidentally causing a problem.
I have created tanks where I have mixed the salt in a bare bottom situation then added everything later.
krazysvede
New member
Ah, that makes sense. Haven't put any salt in yet, was planning to add 1/2 a bag of salt at a time to the sump after the tank was full and let it mix as water passes through. Would this work ok or should I just mix in a brute and be done with it?
My order from Ultimate Corals last week shipped out today, so new corals tomorrow. Woo!
My order from Ultimate Corals last week shipped out today, so new corals tomorrow. Woo!
Ohh defenately.
In the sump, is a quick and simple way to do it.
Since it is hyper salinity be careful of any splashing or water spray on metal, like always.
There was a thread not to long ago where someone wanted to increase the Sg in their tank and just sprinkled saltmix into their tank. Made lots of things mad. I don't remember if they lost anything.
In the sump, is a quick and simple way to do it.
Since it is hyper salinity be careful of any splashing or water spray on metal, like always.
There was a thread not to long ago where someone wanted to increase the Sg in their tank and just sprinkled saltmix into their tank. Made lots of things mad. I don't remember if they lost anything.
krazysvede
New member
Thanks for looking out man!
Never added unmixed salt to a running tank but could see that causing some tissue burn/damage/etc on my beloved SPS for sure!
Never added unmixed salt to a running tank but could see that causing some tissue burn/damage/etc on my beloved SPS for sure!
I've always wondered why people do freshwater tests on tanks using tap water and then drain everything and redo it with mixed RODI. I have always set up the tanks bare bottom first. Used RODI water and then added salt. If you're going to have a leak it's usually something slow on a joint or bulkhead and if the tank cracks, well the fact that you used RODI Vs. tap is the least of your problems. I definitely hear you on the rock and hypo issue though for an already aqua-scaped tank.
