This post is going to be long.... you've been warned!
What a weekend. I had no idea this would be such an undertaking. I have some pictures of the before, and the disaster my living room was, (still is) and will post those shortly. Some more after pics later tonight.
Cody, I can't thank you enough. Dude, to commit that much time to someone you barely know, blows my mind. I'm cynical by nature. To know there are people out there like you reminds me there are some good people around! It's refreshing.
Cody was at my house for 10-11 hours Saturday, and another 7 hours or so yesterday. I learned a lot from watching him work, I've could have never plumbed my tank like this.
It turned out awesome! We do have a very tiny drip on one of the bulkheads. Long story as to maybe why, (we cleaned as best we could before installing) Hoping this week will see it self seal. If not, Cody said he'd be back to help redo the section. Luckily it won't be such a big undertaking. But again, him being so generous with his time and offering to help down road if necessary, so unreal.
LOL, the purple pipe. When Cody offered the help, he said we had to do color. I went to BRS, looked at the colors.... and what was available! The blue and red seem to be the most popular, I was leaning red, but BRS was out of most sizes. I guess with the COVID deal, lots of people are doing some work on tanks. The purple, (my wifes favorite color) was the most available. Even so, I still had to order 1/2" pipe from ebay to match. BRS kept telling me it would be in stock any day, and that day never came. But the ebay stuff was the exact same piping, so good to go. The purple and grey look good together, so I'm happy with it!
Man, from ordering a new sump about a month ago, this has been an expensive ordeal. Between the sump, plumbing parts, etc, I don't want to add it up.
Couple tidbits most reefers can appreciate.
HD / Lowes trips, even after thinking we had everything we needed. FIVE
I'd made 50 gallons of so of salt water, knowing I'd need to fill up the new sump. We'd siphoned out another 40 or so from the tank and overflows. Maybe more. So the siphoned water goes back in. The saltwater in the garage? Well, when I got up yesterday morning, I dropped a heater into the water to warm it up some. Thinking I'd turn it off in an hour. (no thermostat on this heater) Well, about 5 hours later, I remembered it was on. Think hot bath water. Not warm, hot. Like I'm shocked I didn't see steam. I emptied 5 gallons into a jug and you could feel it though the plastic. Ugh. Luckily I live near Oceans Tropical, and two trips and 65 gallons of store bought water later, we had enough. ($1.29 a gallon) GRRRRR Bought a bag of ice from the liquor store, put it in a trash bag, put that into the hot water, and it cooled it off eventually. I know there's a lesson to be learned here, but I'm too tired to care about it at the moment.
Okay, I think that's enough info for the moment. Some befores and disaster pics up shortly. Afters later when I get home.
