North Dakota Mini-Ocean









Stand "blacked out" with 3/8" acrylic, Reef Octopus Elite 220 sss protein skimmer installed at 8 1/2" water depth, and Red Dragon RD3 80W pumps placed. Waiting on plumbing parts and a few more gadgets for the Apex and we will be pretty dang close to having this bad boy ready for water.
 
How will you remove the skimmer cup for weekly maintenance? If possible, I suggest you work out a way to keep the skimmer lower in the sump. The easier a task is to do, the more likely it is to get done.

Dave.M
 
I know it doesn't look like it, but the whole skimmer cup and lid come out with a 1/2" to spare. So weekly maintenance shouldn't be an issue at all. Good question though!!
 
How easily does the skimmer body come out? That situation seems like a recipe for disaster in terms of long term maintenance and the inevitable reefer laziness.
 
Everything in the sump is very easy to access. Proper maintenance of an aquarium, in my mind, is a choice and something you need to be diligent and prudent about to ensure long lasting success.

But trust me I thought of the same potential issues you both raise and I believe the setup we have should work long term. But only time will tell.
 












Playing around with the rock structure. I like it so far. I think the far right structure I will make into a 3D cave. I've never seen one before in an aquarium, but I think it would be unique and create a sanctuary and hiding spots for fish and inverts.

The sand will come in Monday and the plumbing Wednesday, and lower cabinet skin Friday so we should have a water sometime the following week and put the aquarium online by May 1st.
 
Rock work is 75% complete and glued in place. Orphek V3+ LEDs came in today. Fired them up and played with the channels. Very big, well constructed, and professionally looking lights!! 300lbs of fine grain sand comes tomorrow. Cabinet bottom will be installed Thursday. Plumbing will be installed this weekend. Water next week?!?
 
Wow you've had some ups and downs!!! I'm glad to see your setting up a tank again. I'm in a similar situation. Had to take my tank down and sell some things off and move to NC from FL... I can't wait to get back into it.
 
Rock work is 95% done and glued. Plumbing is preliminary run BUT NOT glued. I still need to install 4 unions so I can disassemble and remove the plumbing completely and easily. I'm pretty satisfied with it so far. I will probably trim a few pipes and use some brackets to keep all the pipes level.
 






Wiring is coming along pretty nicely. Since I want to hide as many wires as possible I am taking my time to run wires behind the acrylic in the stand by drilling 3/4" holes and running the wires to where they are terminated. I still have a long way to go, but I happy with it so far. If I ever need to access those wires for any reason, I just unscrew the acrylic from the stand and grab whatever I need.
 
Hey Next time you need some granite work hit up another fish nerd that runs a granite shop.... i think we've done some work with Amy
 






Lighting rack started. The Orphek LED's are placed. I have to install the T5's on the rack yet.

The tank is officially starting to cycle! Hopefully the canopy will be installed next week so I can add the light rack in and give the tank some light.
 
Looking great! The red plumbing looks awesome!

Looking forward to getting up there for Homecoming, so if you are in town that weekend would love to check the system out


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Reefaquariumnut said:






Lighting rack started. The Orphek LED's are placed. I have to install the T5's on the rack yet.

The tank is officially starting to cycle! Hopefully the canopy will be installed next week so I can add the light rack in and give the tank some light.
Click to expand...



Is that wood tile? I just did our whole bottom floor of our home with it. I'll never touch tile again!!!
 
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