P.D.'s Elos-Inspired 40 Breeder Thread!

[xpxdx]

It's been a long time, but I have some updates!!

I decided to use the 20 long I was using as a temporary setup for a new sump. The old 10 gallon sump worked fine, but the 20 long offers more water volume, space for a larger skimmer, and a larger refuge space.

Here's how the inside of the stand looked with the 10 gallon sump plus 5.5 gal ato reservoir:

I got everything unhooked, and all the sketchy electircal stuff out of the stand:

I had measured previously to make sure I could get the 20 long into the stand, but on the first try it wouldn't fit at all. I had to flip it around and try the opposite way, and finally got it in.

I built a mini-stand for the ATO reservoir, since the 20 long sump takes up most of the floorspace underneath the stand:

And here is everything mostly together, and the electrical all mounted in the stand above the sump. The wires everywhere are a problem, but I'm not sure how to clean it up, since they all go to different places.

That's it for the new sump updates, I did have some trouble with the ATO, I'll put that in the next post!!

pd.

 

[xpxdx]

So after I got the ATO all hooked up again I ran into a problem that I didn't anticipate. I triggered the system to test it, and it worked fine, except that when the switch turned the aqualifter pump off water continued to siphon into the sump. I guess the height of the reservoir over the sump caused this to happen. I think the aqualifter should be able to stop the siphon when it shuts off, but i'm not sure.

Temporarily I taped the output hose from the pump to the bottom of the main tank, so that the ouput was level with the pump and not below. The only problem was that it sounded like someone was taking a major leak in the living room whenever the ato came on.

A couple days later I came up with a solution:

The T in the output hose breaks the siphon, and allows me to put the end of the hose much closer to the water level in the sump, so it's quiet, doesn't splash, and most importantly doesn't siphon!!

 

[xpxdx]

This is probably what you've been waiting for, the full tank shots!!

This is what the tank looks like today.

It is really difficult to take good photos of the entire tank with this camera, these are just on auto.

The rest of my rock is in the basement in a bucket, hopefully de-nastifying.

Future plans include a bigger skimmer, I'm looking at a Vertex IN-100, so the Tunze 9002 may be for sale soon.

I'm also considering some sand rather than the starboard bare bottom. It is real difficult to keep clean, and doesn't lay flat on the glass since it's so thin, and it tries to float up, so I have to put rocks on either side, which I don't really want to do in the long run. I'd hate to sell out BB, but i might have to.

I'm still thinking about the RKL, but i'll have to see if it's in the budget. I also need to repair my tek light, since 2 of the bulbs have stopped coming on

Thanks for reading, and comments are always welcome!!

pd.

 

[Henry Colf]

Lookin good....keep the pics comin

 

[Johnny C]

Looks Awesome!

I have/had the same problem w/ the aqualifter backsiphoning, thanks for the idea!

 

[aqualab]

Very sharp looking cabinet and sump setup. Did you place anything (plastic sheeting?) on the wood floor below the sump in case of splashing/drips/salt creep/etc....? Would hate for you to damage that beautiful wood floor should you ever relocate the tank. I cut through our berber carpeting and drilled holes through the floor for the return and drain lines because my sump was located in the basement. I cleverly brushed off my wife's concerns with "the cabinet will sit over it so you'll never see it - don't worry about it". Well... when I got out of the hobby (I'm back in it again)and sold off the tank and stand - there was a nice hole in the carpet and floor and at night you can tell if you left the light on in the basement (a plus). I did save the piece of carpet I had cut out, just in case, and placed it back in the cut out, but her dopey cat thought it was a toy and mangled it all up - looked like hell, he wouldn't leave it alone. The new carpeting cost a lot more than the tank setup I had.

 

[tmz]

Nice work

 

[smogl00]

This is really turning our awesome. Great work! This is helping me alot for ideas for my next tank.

-Steve

 

[xpxdx]

:fish1:

well... i was waiting til October to get 20% off on a Vertex skimmer from marine depot, but i ended up picking up reefdreamz's octopus extreme instead!!

you can check on page 1 if you'd like to see how the sump looked before. this thing is massive, maybe a bit too much, but it's pretty awesome!

here's what it looks like next to my old skimmer, a tunze 9002

i reeeealy need to clean up all the wires, i just haven't gotten around to it. i got a pack of those velcro zipties, hopefully those will work!

enjoy!

 

[xpxdx]

I think i mentioned earlier that i was having trouble with my tek light fixture... after about a week of just running 2 blue bulbs over the tank, i was able to take a look at it:

i was pretty sure that the problem was in the endcaps and not the ballasts, so i opened up a couple:

most of the contacts inside the endcaps looked like this:

so i cleaned them all up with the wire brush on my dremel, and put it all back together!! now all the lamps work, and my corals hate it... they're still used to 130W of crappy PC's :beachbum:

 

[Conesus_Kid]

Get ready to fall in in love with that Octopus skimmer!

Everything's looking great!

 

[xpxdx]

Wow, it's been a long time since I updated this thread. Since October the tank has gone from the frag tank look to looking like a real reef tank, finally.

Things I've done:
-Added my 'cooked' rock back to the tank, it came out pretty nice, not perfect.
-Removed the starboard bottom, it looked horrible and was hard to clean
-Aquascaped the tank and mounted most of the corals on the rocks
-Set up the tank on Auto mode for almost a month during the holidays since we were gone, everything survived!!
-Added the Reefkeeper Lite, just controls the lights and heaters right now, but it's capable of lots more, and really easy to use.
-Started testing Ca and Alk, and I'll start dosing 2 part very soon.
-Just tonight, I went to the dark side. I added sand. The bare glass just looked lame and dirty, hopefully the sand will work for me this time. It's the Special Grade.


Plans for the near future include:
-Possibly adding dosing pumps for 2 part.
-Adding fish, a group of bangaii cardinals, or other cardinals like orange stripe or threadfin.
-Getting rid of the mushroom corals I have, and maybe adding a couple sps??

Thanks for reading, I don't have pics ready right now, but I'll get some uploaded soon!

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

sounds good... we need pix! :bounce1:

 

[xpxdx]

ok, pictures!!!

here is the tank before sand.

and after the sand!

here is a sump shot with rkl! this was before the sand was added, now it's dark in there..

and a full system shot, it's hard to get all the colors right, but you get the idea...

thanks for looking!!! :fish1:

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Wicked awesome tank. I love the clean look! Much nicer with sand IMHO.

 

[solRNY]

looks great! how did you cut the doors so straight?! i always have a hard time cutting any long length straight...

 

[solRNY]

another question, since you took apart the tek, what brand ballast was in it?

 

[belgian_waffleman]

Awesome! Very Euro -style.

Waffleman

 

[Gary Majchrzak]

I like it as well.

Is that the room's thermostat on the wall to the right of the aquarium?

 

[Fatboy Stinger]

Supper Clean! I love it! Keep up the great work!