The dimensions on that tank look like a nice size. Ill be following!
-
Folks, if you've recently upgraded or renewed your annual club membership but it's still not active, please reach out to the BOD or a moderator. The PayPal system has a slight bug which it doesn't allow it to activate the account on it's own.
Mike's 315 Gallon Build
- Thread starter Mike S
- Start date
I know ive been slacking.
ill get an update and some pics tonight. How did the move go?
I know ive been slacking.
How did the move go?
Movers loaded and packed everything end of last week. We are staying in town until the end of the week and then we will make the drive south on Friday and then fun really begins.
Not too much progress in the past week or so. It took about 4 days to fill the tank with RO water and I just finished filling the sump. I ended up putting in 3 bags of Reef Flakes and that gave me a nice shallow sand bed. I threw a few pumps in the tank and added a 200 gallon box of ESV salt and about half of a 200 gallon box of Instant Ocean to get the salinity where it should be. I'm tweaking the calcium, alkalinity and magnesium levels to match my current tank. Calcium and magnesium are close but my alkalinity was over 13 compared to my current tank which is around 8.0. I added about 100 ml of muriatic acid which got it down around 10. I'll let it sit for a few days to see where it settles in at.
I had gone through two rounds of etching on about 40 pounds of pukani rock. After that I put it in a brute can filled with RO water for a few weeks. I periodically added lathium chloride and kept tabs on the phosphate levels. After a few treatments the phosphate levels seemed to bottom out and stay there so I rinsed the rock and moved it over to the tank. After seeing the rock in the tank I think I'll have plenty once I move over the rock from my current tank. Especially if I go with one large and one small island.
Ordered a second 4x80 watt ATI Sunpower fixture today from Reef Geek. That should get here early next week along with a pair of WP40s. In the meantime I'm going to try to finish up the plumbing runs. I'm attempting a bean animal system but I'm not sure if it will work. My drain lines run about 10 to 15 feet with only a few feet of drop. My understanding is that horizontal runs can cause problems with purging air from the lines and getting a siphon started.
If all goes well I should be ready to do the transfer in a week or two. Then it's on to skimming the stand. Gotta start doing some research on that.
In the meantime here are some crapy cellphone pics for the less advanced followers.
I had gone through two rounds of etching on about 40 pounds of pukani rock. After that I put it in a brute can filled with RO water for a few weeks. I periodically added lathium chloride and kept tabs on the phosphate levels. After a few treatments the phosphate levels seemed to bottom out and stay there so I rinsed the rock and moved it over to the tank. After seeing the rock in the tank I think I'll have plenty once I move over the rock from my current tank. Especially if I go with one large and one small island.
Ordered a second 4x80 watt ATI Sunpower fixture today from Reef Geek. That should get here early next week along with a pair of WP40s. In the meantime I'm going to try to finish up the plumbing runs. I'm attempting a bean animal system but I'm not sure if it will work. My drain lines run about 10 to 15 feet with only a few feet of drop. My understanding is that horizontal runs can cause problems with purging air from the lines and getting a siphon started.
If all goes well I should be ready to do the transfer in a week or two. Then it's on to skimming the stand. Gotta start doing some research on that.
In the meantime here are some crapy cellphone pics for the less advanced followers.
Thanks Steve... hopefully I'll have better luck with them. I'll definitely be keeping tabs on my phosphate level. I had left them in the brute can for several months before I etched them. When I finally checked the phosphates they were screaming so it seems the etching and lathium treatments helped significantly.
Sunpowers and Pukani! This looks real good!
Maybe i missed it, but what bulbs are you using?
Maybe i missed it, but what bulbs are you using?
Approaching the finish line... My 2nd T5 fixture came in and I got it hung. I think I'm going to get a few extra T5 bulbs to play with the mixture a little bit. Right now I have 4 blue+, 3 coral+ and one purple+. I'm going to grab another blue+. Any other suggestions? Does anyone know which local stores carry ATI bulbs.
I finished up the plumbing yesterday and swapped out my pump on my current tank so that I could get things circulating. As I suspected my long horizontal drain pipe runs are causing problems getting a siphon to start. I seems to be having a hard time purging the air from the line. I need to play with it a bit. The good news is they are functioning fine as dursos and are not very loud.
I'm just waiting on a pair of WP40s and a screen kits from BRS. Barring any issues I should be ready to transfer over my livestock next weekend.
I finished up the plumbing yesterday and swapped out my pump on my current tank so that I could get things circulating. As I suspected my long horizontal drain pipe runs are causing problems getting a siphon to start. I seems to be having a hard time purging the air from the line. I need to play with it a bit. The good news is they are functioning fine as dursos and are not very loud.
I'm just waiting on a pair of WP40s and a screen kits from BRS. Barring any issues I should be ready to transfer over my livestock next weekend.
Thanks Steve, my setup is similar with one siphon controlled by a gate valve, an open channel, and an emergency open channel that is a little higher. I think that I may just need to tweak it a little bit. Right now I can't hear it over the fans on the ATI fixtures unless I'm standing right by the overflow. The flex pvc seems to really deaden the sound.
On another note I was going through my stuff and have a small bucket containing bags of powder and white liquid. I think it came home with the tank lol. Is it some sort of two part cement mixture? Do you remember what brand it is or the mix ratio?
On another note I was going through my stuff and have a small bucket containing bags of powder and white liquid. I think it came home with the tank lol. Is it some sort of two part cement mixture? Do you remember what brand it is or the mix ratio?
The systen had been running for a few days and no signs of plumbing leaks or any major issues. The issue that I was having with getting a siphon started on my drain line turned out to be easy to fix. I noticed that I wad getting zero flow through it even though the valve was wide open and the open channel drain which sits higher was taking all of the flow. After some reading it turned out the line was air locked because the discarge was several inches below the water line. I cut it back so it was just an inch below the waterline and after it vented for a few minutes it worked fine.
Ive got my water parameters balanced between the two tanks and am ready to make the switch. Im planning on moving my corals to the frag tank tonight, then move the rock, fish and inverts over tomorrow along with the rest of the equipment. I have the fealing that it will be a long day but it should be fun.
Ive got my water parameters balanced between the two tanks and am ready to make the switch. Im planning on moving my corals to the frag tank tonight, then move the rock, fish and inverts over tomorrow along with the rest of the equipment. I have the fealing that it will be a long day but it should be fun.
Good luck with the transfer.
Good luck! Hope everything goes well, and looking forward to some pics!
It was a long day but I got all of the fish, rock and inverts moved over to the new tank. It looks like I may have one casualty. I put and extra power head in my old tank while I was moving my rock over and my mystery wrasses got stuck to the intake. I'm kicking myself for not putting the intake screen on it. I put him in my frag tank but he isn't looking very good.
Everything else seemed to handle the move fine. My rhomboid and one of my dispar anthias are in hiding but they should be fine. Everything else is out and exploring their new crib.
I spent about two hours on the rock work. I'm fairly happy with it but will probably wait a day or two before moving my frags over in case I want to make some changes.
Tomorrow I just need to mover over my controller, disconnect and clean out the old sump, hook up the calcium and biopellet reactors and remove the sand from the old tank. I'll get some pics when the water clears up a bit.
Everything else seemed to handle the move fine. My rhomboid and one of my dispar anthias are in hiding but they should be fine. Everything else is out and exploring their new crib.
I spent about two hours on the rock work. I'm fairly happy with it but will probably wait a day or two before moving my frags over in case I want to make some changes.
Tomorrow I just need to mover over my controller, disconnect and clean out the old sump, hook up the calcium and biopellet reactors and remove the sand from the old tank. I'll get some pics when the water clears up a bit.