jph's first reef tank (90g)

[jph]

didn't get much done this weekend... but made *some* progress

started the plumbing on the first CLS system.
this will have two spraybars onder the liverock, and two outlets in each front corner, with a 45 deg. elbow aiming towards the middle of the tank.
powered by an OM S-Squirt compact.

it was dark, and my camera didn't want to focus where i wanted it to

so here's a blurry pic.




J.

[jph]

the baby was sleeping, and mommy was not home, so daddy could get some work done

glued two ball valves to some flex pvc, that will connect to both of the CLS inlets. then i had a "oh sh!t" moment, when i realized that i may have drilled the inlets and outlets too close (those 1" ball valves are pretty big). but lucky me... it just fit in place.

then off to do some work behind the stand. good thing i'm skinny not much space there to work with power tools.

but i managed to get a "shelf" attached to the back of the stand, which will hold both of my CLS pumps (and will be used in the future to collect much junk)

sorry, no pics yet, too dark inthere to properly focus.


J.

[jph]

trying to get as much done as i can this weekend.

- some more plumbing ang glue'ing PVC for the CLS systems. almost done now.
- modify some PVC parts and strainers to make custom inlets for the CLS pumps.
- water change on the curing liverock
- started building a new canopy, now that i have a completely different lighting system as when i started planning this


J.

[Casey]

cool looks great post pics as you can we love em.

[jph]

Originally Posted by Casey

cool looks great post pics as you can we love em.

heh

well, not really much new to take pics of right now.
so, here's some rock that's curing. very exciting!

fiji live rock, and reef bones. i've got some more bones curing in a container in the garage







J.

[Casey]

sweet we like to see it all! thanks

[jph]

i'm feeling lucky!

so i started filling up the tank with RO/DI water, while i'm not even done plumbing yet. this may turn out to be a big mistake if there are any leaks or other roadblocks. fingers crossed.

at this rate, i think that i'll need to change my DI resin again before the tank is half full ;(


J.

[jph]

alright, finally feeling that i'm accomplishing something.

the first CLS is plumbed.



i used flex pvc for all the horizontal pipes, regular sched 40 pvc for the vertical one.
also tried to make everything simple to disassemble if needed (maintenance/troubleshooting/emergency/...).

now it's waiting for the RO/DI unit to fill the tank up to the level of the intake to give this a test run.

still keeping those fingers crossed and hoping that there are no leaks.


J.

[jph]

and this is how far i got with the new canopy.

the light fixture will not be attached to it, instead it will rest on top of the canopy.



it's upside down, and the support on the left is just a temporary brace.


J.

[jph]

small update this morning.
the tank has filled up to almost the halfway mark now.

i dumped in two 40lbs bags of caribsea seaflor special grade sand.
WOW! what a mess! the water turned into milk instantly. there are also quite a bit of waht looks like dried plant remains floating on the surface.

i tried to spread the sand out into an even layer, but a few things prevented me from doing that
- i couldn't see anything in the water, so it was all done bllindly
- the rock lift didn't makt things any easyer either
- neither did the spraybars
- fly guy's rocklifts are REALLY SHARP! it didn't take long before i was bleeding all over the place and felt like i had to stop before jaws decided to emerge from the deep and bite my hand off

anyway... once the dust settles, i'm going to try and spread this sand out evenly across the bottom, and start adding more sand (a couple of bag aragamax sugar sized, and one bag of aragamax oolitic)

i'm suret hat will create another sandstorm that will need about a week to settle

i did add a little salt mix to it yesterday, while it was filling up, salinity is not yet where it needs to be, but it's not fresh water anymore either.

oh, before i forget, i turned on the CLS pump and OM SuperSquirt compact.
got to keep that water moving


J.

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by jph

- fly guy's rocklifts are REALLY SHARP! it didn't take long before i was bleeding all over the place and felt like i had to stop before jaws decided to emerge from the deep and bite my hand off

ROTFLMAO

sorry to laugh. If it makes you feel any better.......I one time a while ago(who knows...it might have even been YOUR rocklift), had just made a lift and had it all assembled the night before planning on taking it apart and shipping the next morning...........I put it in a stupid place on my garage floor almost in line with the garage fridge........In the middle of the night i walked out there with bare feet and stepped on it. It wasnt pretty. I bled a ton and limped good for a couple of weeks. Not te mention slamming my elbow on the concrete as i dove forward realizing what i just stepped on before the pain set in

[jph]

Originally Posted by Fly Guy

ROTFLMAO

sorry to laugh. If it makes you feel any better.......I one time a while ago(who knows...it might have even been YOUR rocklift), had just made a lift and had it all assembled the night before planning on taking it apart and shipping the next morning...........I put it in a stupid place on my garage floor almost in line with the garage fridge........In the middle of the night i walked out there with bare feet and stepped on it. It wasnt pretty. I bled a ton and limped good for a couple of weeks. Not te mention slamming my elbow on the concrete as i dove forward realizing what i just stepped on before the pain set in

AUCH! that must have sucked i can imagine stepping on one of those spikes in the dark, barefoot can be quite a... uhm... wake-up call

oh, i don't know if you recall this, but i had to saw the lift in half in order to fit in in my tank and because of the layout of the rods, and my silly spraybars, i can't just put them wehre i want, so i was left with a "spike-less" area on the left side of the tank. which i "solved" by glue'ing some rods to the lift frame on that side. i''m not sure what i'll do if for any reason i have to take the lift out ain't i a genious


J.

[Fly Guy]

Originally Posted by jph

AUCH! that must have sucked i can imagine stepping on one of those spikes in the dark, barefoot can be quite a... uhm... wake-up call

oh, i don't know if you recall this, but i had to saw the lift in half in order to fit in in my tank and because of the layout of the rods, and my silly spraybars, i can't just put them wehre i want, so i was left with a "spike-less" area on the left side of the tank. which i "solved" by glue'ing some rods to the lift frame on that side. i''m not sure what i'll do if for any reason i have to take the lift out ain't i a genious


J.

I DO remember that. In fact, yours was the last lift I made in one solid piece just for that reason. Now i make several smaller lifts that could fit through anything

So you glued them to the top of the frame?? Im sure they will snap off if you torqued them enough.

[jph]

okay
we have two very small leaks. i mean... just a few drops per day
two bulkheads were leaking where the fitting screwed into them.
i did have a few wraps of teflon tape on the threads, but apparently, i needed to tighten them a bit more.

they are dry now, hopefully, there won't be a drop of water dangling when i wake up in the morning.

water is at he 60% mark now
i have about 1" of light penetration into the milky waters... this dust storm is going to take forever to settle.

the CLS running probably isn't helping that either.

salinity is up to 1.020 now, almost there

the T2 pump is keeping the water nicely at 80.5 degreees.
i'm starting to think that my 1/10 HP chiller won't be able to cut it when i have four of these running



J.

[jph]

so a few things happened yesterday.

i started adding more sand to the tank, a few bags of aragamax select.
while doing so, i think that a few grains may have been sucked up by the CLS, and seized up my OM Squirt

i've been soaking it in vinegar overnight and it seems that there is some progress, the drum is moving again, but not smooth yet.

the water is back to it's milk color now.

i've tossed in a piece of shrimp, to see if i can get some bacteria going in the sandbed

added a MJ1200 to the tank to keep the water moving now that the CLS is out of comission.


one of the bags of aragamax must have had a TINY hole in it. not big enough to let sand out, but big enough to absorb moisture from the air. and having it sit in my garage for a few months (where i'm curing rocks) didn't seem to have don this any good.
that bag is now all wet, and there is some yellow'ish-green discoloration visible in the sand. i'm going to toss this away, and order some new oolitic sand to top off my sandbed, and another 15lbs of special grade to make a DSB in my sump fuge.

J.