Good to hear George.... Bet ya can't wait to get her alive

Yes Doug - we are really looking foward to getting this up and going. Will do a bit mor etoday but it is looking like yard work might be the first priority.

Well, not all has gone well - we are still a few days from adding water. :cry: I did a test of the overflow to ensure that there were no leaks and discovered a leak on one side - so, a bit more silicone tonight and hopefully that will fix the problem. I will do a leak test tomorrow evening and then let the silicone cure a few days before adding water.

If its a small leak George the salt creep will plug it in no time. If it's over the sump let it go.

Thanks Jason - yes it is a very small leak - only a drop or two after a few minutes. The way I tested this was to close the gate valve, fill the overflow with water and watch for leaks into the tank. My concern was to ensure that in the case of a power outage, that no water leaks from the tank into the overflow and then down into the sump causing a flood. I have already done another round of silicine in the affected area - if for some reason this is still leaking, you think it will be fine?

The overflow looks a lot better! Nice silicone job.

Where did you get the white gate valve? Not that I have looked for one lately...But I like the white ones better than the grey ones.

Thanks for the compliment regarding the silicone job on the overflow. The white gate valve came from Concept Aquatics.

Good build thread so far, Welcome to the DARK.. errr Salt Side of the Hobby!!!

Can't wait for the wallet to empty and Coral/Fish start to populate the tank.


Reading your last post on the leak, I couldn't help but picture the infomerical "Mighty Putty" when he pushes it onto that leaky PVC pipe. Haha I guess you could give it a try. Never tried or looked at the stuff myself.

I was ready to try almost anything - but fortunatly, all leaks are now sealed and the tank holds water!

We have made a bit more progress in the last few days. All the leaks have been resolved and we have our 70lbs of dry rock in the tank.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...ey1/scape1.jpg

The next step is to add water, live rock and begin the curing process. We have decided to follow Myka's guide for this which includes having the skimmer up and running from day one. ttp://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=44859

We purchased our skimmer (Reef Life Support System R8-u) a while back and last night pulled it out of the box to assemble it. We quickly discovered that one fitting has messed up threads and the fitting to hook up the pump to the skimmer is missing. This morning we contacted RLSS and new parts are coming by Fed Ex. The folks at RLSS were very easy to work with.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...1/skimmer1.jpg

So, while we wait for the parts to arrive, I plan to begin to work on a side cabinet that will house an ATO tank, some of the electrical and some storage space. So its off to the workshop this evening or tomorrow AM to start on a cabinet. I am willing to take any and all suggestions and recommendations on the electircal part of this cabinet. - Thanks

Full of SW and Rock!
 

Wow - it has been a month since I lasted posted on here. Because of waiting for replacement parts for the skimmer, a trip for a conference and a busy schedule we have just now made some progress.

Last week we were able to add salt water to the tank! On Friday we bought 32 lbs of live rock to add to our 70 lbs of dry rock. We ended up putting some of the live rock in the sump as we didn't like the very full look of having everything in the DT.

Question: In order to properly seed the dry rock, do we need all the live rock in the DT?


http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1343098255



http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1343098238


We got the skimmer working, but it isn't doing much - not that I expected much at this point. Part of it might be that we really don't know what we are doing! :biggrin:

The next steps are to complete a side cabinet for the ATO and electrical stuff, and then to build a new canopy that will fit the Radions we bought.

I'm also looking for any advice on cycling the tank - people talk about ghost feeding the tank - now that we are at that place, what advice do you have for us?

Thanks!

ATO ready to go (almost!)
 

While waiting the the tank to cycle, I have been working on a side cabinet that will contain the ATO tank, a bit of storage and the electrical stuff.

We have purchased an ELOS dIGITAL SYSTEM and managed to test it today - and we had one problem. After the pump shut off, the water started to siphone from the ATO tank into the sump :cry:. How do we prevent that?

Here are two pictures of the first part of the cabinet. The tank is on a shelf on slides (thanks Jason for the idea!).

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1343780309

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1343780289

Great little cabinet

Live rock is OK in the sump, it will still seed the DT. You may speed things up a bit with coralline if you scrape some of it into the DT

Get the ATO issue fixed ? I saw your other thread

Thanks re: the cabinet. I'm finding that making the cabinets is the easy part of the whole SW expereince :mrgreen:.

I appreciate the advice on the ATO - I'll be doing "take two" on that tomorrow.

And thanks for the comment re: live rock in the sump / DT. We did put about half the live rock in the DT and half in the sump. I guess that the next step is to wait for the ammonia levels to get to zero.

And if you don't want any algae issues, do weekly water changes until the nitrates and phosphates go away too
A Guide - Live rock; Curing & Cooking, and Tank Cycling

Thanks for the link. In the meantime I'll be working on getting the electical looking presentable, finishing my mixing station and designing / building something to mount the lights in.

Success!
 

I had time to tackle the ATO today - this time with success! Because I had already run the line and didn't want to mess with that, I decided that the simplist solution of the ones that were mentioned was to drill a small hole in the line. The ATO now appears to be working without any problems! :biggrin:

Completion of Side Cabinet
 

Well, after several months of slow work we have finally completed the side cabinet that houses our ATO tank, a small amount of storage and the electrical "stuff".

It started as two sheets of plywood, became three seperate boxes and then one cabinet.
http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1344445333

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1344445342

The bottom main cabinet is for the ATO tank, the top portion houses the electrical stuff and the bottom side one is for a bit of storage.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1344444762

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1344444758

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1344444751


We designed the electrical cabinet with a 2 inch space in the back at the top and bottom for ventilation. In the cabinet are the controls for the ELOS ATO, the skimmer and return pump, the two VorTech MP10s, and the two Radions. I have space for a future UPS (cost is delaying the purchase).

Thank you to Subman for the inspiration for the electrical part of the cabinet.

All in all, we are quite please with how it turned out. :biggrin:

Next on the "to do list" is to complete the water station in the basement.

Wow , that is one of the cleanest, most organized electrical setups I have seen. Subman may have started something here.
Well done

Very nicely done Grid

Thank you very much - we are very pleased with how it is looking. Again - thanks to Subman for the inspiration - he has also done a great job.

Thanks George and Jason!!!!!....... thanks to you guys, I look at my electrical and I want to puke:puke:

Oh . . . well . . . uh . . . sorry about that!:lol:

Almost ready to go!!
 

:biggrin: We have been doing regular water changes and testing the water since we got the SW in the tank. We have been using Salifert test kits. As of last night the levels have been stable for three days at the following:
NH4 - <0.25
NO3 - between 2.5 and 1
PO4 - 0

The plan for today is to add the substate - we have 60 lbs of Nature's Ocean Substrate - argonite reef sand. We will rinse it well before adding it. We will then let everything settle, do another water change, further tests and then I think we will be ready to add a small cleanup crew.

While all this is happening we also will set up our quarantine tank.

:question: We are completly open to ideas / thought on what to add first for a cleanup crew.

Wow, nice set up! That electrical box is genius, I gotta say, I'm a weeeee bit jealous. :mrgreen: can't wait to see life in your tank!

Thank you very much. I'm really looking forward to finally seeing life in the tank as well - it seems to have been a long time since we started this journey.

We put in the sand today - pictures likely tomorrow - once the water has cleared we will do more testing and begin to add some life!

Mixing Station
 

One step at a time things are getting done! We have completed our mixing station.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...y1/1208087.jpg

I built a stand for the 20g Brute Cans to sit on - there is room under the stand for two buckets of salt. The right Brute is insulated and is for the SW - I have added a spout to make it easier to fill buckets to take upstairs. In the SW can is a heater and used Hydor Koralia powerhead. The left can is for fresh RO/DI water. I do not yet have the spout added to that can - but it will come eventually. Each can has an auto shut off float valve. Our RO/DI unit is a Puratek. I have plumbed the lines so that I can fill both at the same time or switch between them. On the right of the panel I have a power bar that everything plugs into including an overhead floresent light. If you look carefully, you will see an electrical box just under the panel - that is for a light in the adjoining room. Though it can't be seen I added vapor barrior over the electrical box just to make sure water and electricity don't meet. (I figured that would be a good idea :idea:)

Thanks to Nate for the idea of insulating the SW can!

Our next step is to install the Radion lights over the tank - maybe there will be fishies by the weekend! :biggrin:

Are you sure this is your first set up??? LOL, again, nicely done.

Ya, first set up - maybe it is my perfectionism that has caused me to take 6 months from tank purchase to "ready for fish" . . . well, that and my failure at being a plumber! :redface:

"Let there be light . . . and snails!"
 

At the start of the week - after all the water parameters had been stable for about a week, we added the substrate and had the expected sandstorm - a little over a day later everything settled and was looking good.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1345247515

Once the sand settled we checked the water again and with everything good we installed the two radions and we now have light! :biggrin:

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1345247499


This afternoon I hooked the lights up to my computer and programmed then - not exactly simple :sad: as the software really isn't very intuitive - but I got it figured out.

For better or worse we have started to add livestock! We put in 5 turbo snails this afternoon and have picked out a Royal Gramma and a Percula to be our first inhabitants. They are staying at the LFS to ensure they are healthy then sometime next week I imagine that we will bring them home!

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1345247482

Interesting Finds
 

I was looking at the tank the other afternon and saw something small and white floating through the tank - pod - maybe a copepod? Upon closer look it was mostly translucient - once it landed on the substrate it quickly zipped behind a rock. I haven't seen another since.

I also noticed that there has been quite a bit of brown algae growing on the formerly "dry rock" over the past few days.

The few snai;ls I have in their seem to be doing well and we have one royal gramma in the QT - looks to be doing fine.

Wait till the dry rock turns fluorescent green, mine did, then the coralline started to appear! Goes through a bit of an ugly stage for a bit.

Great news on the pod, bet there's lots more in there if you've seen one. Great job!

Thanks - so how long does it typically take for the brwon algae to begin to turn the fluorescent green?

Hair Algae?
 

Well, our Royal gramma continues to do well in the QT, and the DT seems to do be doing well. We had been having quite a bit of brown algae forming on the rock and sand - the Turbo snails are keeping that in check without any problems. I did notice yesterday a new algae growing. This is very thin and hass the appearance of short hair - currently at 3/8" or shorter. WOuld this be what I hear of as Hair Aglae? Do I need to be concerend about this? Any advice :question:

If it's single stands like hair no biggie. Lots of critters will eat it....but if it's fern like strands it's bryopsis. Bryopsis is hard to get rid of as nothing eats it. Post a pic George.

Good to hear from you Jason - thanks - I've got to call it quites for tonight as I work early tomorrow. I'll try to get a picture in the afternoon and put it on.

By the way - thanks for the inspiration for the electrical box and slide out ATO! They are working well for me.

Thanks for all your compliments. Your setup is beautiful you definitely have amazing talent.
You should be very proud!

I'm just trying to catch up with everyone after a summer of holidays lol

Thank you very much Jason - and welcome back after summer holidays!

Well, it took a few days longer than I thought it might to be able to get a pic, but here is it. I hope it is clear enough.

http://i1265.photobucket.com/albums/...g?t=1346204205

Thanks

Bryopsis?
 

As I have been watching the newest algae grow in the tank I suspect that it is bryopsis. I posted a picture yesterday (above post) though the quality of the picture is not great. I'm now doing some reading on how to get rid of it - it sounds like it is tough to deal with. :sad:

I have five turbo snails in the tank and they did an amazing job of getting rid of the brown algae that had been in the tank but they are not touching this new stuff.

I have also noticed hundreds of tiny white specks floating on the water and on the glass. As I ahve watched the ones on the glass I have realzied that they are alive - moving around on the glass. If anyone has any idea of what they might be, I'd love to hear.

Our royal gramma (which is in the QT) appears to be doing really well - swimming well, eating very good and looking healthy. She/he has been in there for just over a week. :biggrin: