Chaeto tank is built and curing.
With a whole lot of elbow grease, I managed to remove all the glass from the broken 5.5g to re-use the trim.
I was quite shocked to see how much silicone Aqueon used. The whole upper trim was sealed to the glass.
I couldn't fit 6mm in it, but 5mm fit perfectly. A FAR cry from the flimsly 2mm the original came with. It feels nice and solid now.
Pics to come in 2-3 days when it's tested and plumbed.

I'm gettin' a little impatient with the rock cooking. We'll see how long I can hold out.
Once all these fussy things are done, it may be time to fill the system, scape it and put some fish in the QT :razz:
After all, it's only been 3-1/2 months since I started this journal, and 6 since I decided to go SW :mrgreen:

You are a little "impatient" with the rock cooking ? .... hahaha ... nice try to say that, Greg :mrgreen: You have LOTS of patience and I think you are actually trying to torture everybody, especially ME, to have to wait to see your tank when it is running :becky:
By the way, I got 2 racks from Home Depot. LOVE IT !

your way too patient dude :lol:

well Im gonna give Greg props for taking the time to do it right and not settle for "good enough".....I think way to many people settle for the way things work out instead of taking the time and expense of re-doing something that isnt functioning or looking right.....

Great looking build Greg!....

Hehe, thanks everyone. I know you may think I'm too patient. As I told Casey, it may be a case of OCD :wink:
Ya, I do feel like I'm torturing many, myself included.
I'm also worried you're all going to be disappointed once you see it wet. I only bought 14# LR and am not going to stuff it with critters right off :mrgreen:
Thanks fishy for your thoughts. I'm hoping I'm not fussing with it once it's wet :rolleyes:

Chaeto ( maybe /frag tank later ) is up and running.
I'm quite happy with how it turned out. All I need is a swing check-valve for it's plumbing as the anti-siphon hole I drilled interferes with the secondary system's ease of re-start .... I get loads of air in the lines that cause the UV/Chiller line to spew loads of water that splashes everywhere.
Tonight I tested the new tank with full flow. Surprisingly, it will handle all the flow from it's Eheim 1262. Good to know in case I turn off the UV/Chiller and TLF reactors at the same time.

Besides the emerg overflow, I also built a flood perimeter as I like redundancy.

So, without further ado, here's the sump before
( I still need to build the new Chiller stand )

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00898.jpg

And after
Notice the removal of the in-sump Chaeto tank ?
Now there's piles of room to remove the pumps

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00944.jpg

The whole thing so far

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00939.jpg

And the Chaeto tank running

http://i749.photobucket.com/albums/x...d/DSC00945.jpg

Next, I'm on to the list I started of 12 more things I found need doing, of which at least 8 have to be done before I go salty. I am going to fully test this system running before it gets salt, making sure the kill switches work correctly. Then it's getting another test salty to make sure the ATO is working right. I might as well be as anal-as-all-get-out at this point, otherwise, what's the point in taking so much time and effort ? Right ? Ya ? Would you rush it at this point ? :mrgreen:

Thanks to RDNanoguy and fishytime for their thoughts on my TLF reactors interfering with the socks. You'll see they have been moved.
And thanks to the rest of you for the support.
Keep the nice comments and suggestions coming :razz:

Looks like a professionals work to me! Nicely done Greg!!

That is OCD in it's truest form, well done Greg.
Looks awesome.
Is that a main drain and an emergency drain in your Cheato tank ?

Thanks so much Wayne. Is your build progressing well ?


Thank you, I think :smile:
If it's not officially OCD, then we'll call it boredom
Ya, there's both, plus the 'trough' in case it ever overflows the overflow

Whoops
I forgot to mount the light before I took the pics
Oh well