I doubt it's tempered but there's an easy way to be sure. You need two polarized lenses, one on each side of the glass and look through them while you rotate the lenses. If it's tempered you'll see a matrix type pattern which represents the internal stresses caused from the process. You can use polarized sunglasses if you have them.

You can test this procedure on your car windows, your windshield will not be tempered but your side windows will be.

Huh, very cool! Imma try that! I think I saw that on YouTube once.

I would also put shut off valves on your RO lines to both your brute cans. It makes it handy if one barrel is full and you need to fill the other barrel. I often ran into a situation where I had my salt reservoir already premixed and it was half full. At the same time my Fresh water reservoir needed filling but I didn't want to top up my salt reservoir because it was already at the desired salinity.

Yup, it's already setup like that.

While we're nip-picking you should move the one tee on your return line, the horizontal one right after the tee should go on the vertical leg that feeds your display. You can also remove the first tee after the return pump.

In addition; most glass tempering facilities will imprint or acid etch their logo into a corner of each tempered piece of glass. Take a look for a small white logo in all of the corners. If you see one; it will for sure be tempered.

Steve are you talking about the manifold? Or the small feed line for the waterfalls?

Like this

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...kLayout-11.png

Thanks! The only reason I thought of the valve on the manifold, was in case I had to isolate it, or take it off. This way I could shut all the valves, and not have water spill everywhere when I undid the union. But being that it's over the sump, that won't matter. And it will save me $10 on the valve! haha.

I kind of assumed it was one big manifold. Either way I think you'll need that valve there in order to better control the feed line for the water falls, reason being is you'll probably have to restrict it a little to make enough of a pressure difference to send water up the feed line which is higher than the tank.

Yeah that makes sense. I have two pretty overkill return pumps to choose from, so I will have to dial back the pressure to the main return anyways. The other manifold valves will be for the reactors and the waterfall line for sure, and possibly a UV and another fuge tank thats in the works. So it will need to have a lot of pressure in it.

I have a Mag 12 and a Mag 24 for this build, one will be used for the mixing station, and one will be used for the return. So I'm going to start by using the Mag 12 for the return to start, and if it's not enough, then I'll switch to the Mag 24. I think the 12 at 1200 GPH shouuld be more than enough. It's only rising about 4 ft to the tank. But at least I have the option.

Keep the picking coming tho! I want this build to be a good one.

So thanks to steve, I now have a good first skimmer sump, so the layout has changed. I am also adding a 50 gallon live rock sump on a new top shelf. The layout has changed to this:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...osetLayout.jpg

I'm not sure where to but the DSB and cheato fuge though. Should I put it in the 20 gallon tank on the middle shelf (right) or in the main sump in the middle chamber? (see yellow arrows for locations)

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...losetSumps.jpg

Also, I want a frag tank in the middle of all this craziness. My original plan was to have the DSB and cheato in the middle chamber of the bottom sump, and the 20 gallon on the right as the frag tank. Now that I have the dedicated live rock/water change tank on the top shelf, I have lots of space left over for other things. What should I dooo??

Frag tank in the tank next to the skimmer and fuge in the lower sump. That's what I would do.

Yeah that was my first thoughts for sure. Thanks again!

Sorry if I missed it, but how are you controlling Humidity in this room? That's alot of surface area with all 4 tanks. Your evaporation rate for that small of a display tank is going to be insane.

The support system is going to be used for a larger system in the very near future, so the display will only be temparary.

The humidity will be controlled by an exhaust fan in the hole you see in the wall on the left hand side of the closet (next to the skimmer tank). This leads right outside to vent humidity. I also have a large de-humidifier in the room that the closets are in.

Eventually I will install an HRV, but until the day money grows on trees, the humidifier and the exhaust fan will have to do!

This coming from a guy who's about to stuff a VOLCANO into a 50g.. Have you no decency man! That poor volcano :-(

BAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

It grew there naturally.......I SWEAR!

Do you have any idea how much swimming room those volcanoes need? Also they grow extremely fast so you'll need to upgrade in a couple of weeks time.

Setup looks sweet right now, can't wait to see the finished product!

One question, I may have missed it, are those brute containers directly above each other? It seems like accessing the bottom one might be a little difficult.

One volcano alone can generate a HUGE bioload. Trust me, I know. I wrote a very informative paper on volcanoes once. In grade 3. I'll see if I can dig it up tonight and scan it for you to read at your leisure. #VolcanoPoPo

I know, I know... I will soon have to upgrade the volcano's overall tank volume, but the fish stores stock these volcanos in small tanks... so why can't I ??? !!!!

Yes, they are right above eachother. This makes it easier to gravity fill the mixing container from the RO above it by just opening a valve. There is about 12" of space between the two, and if need be, the saltwater one on the bottom can be pulled out for maintenance. But there is plenty of room to add salt, and the mixing is done with the mixing pump at the flick of a switch.

A minor update:

Got the RO system mounted all up, holes drilled for all the bulkheads on the shelves, and all the paint touch ups finished. Tonight I start going through the wall! :twised:

Starting to look like something finally! I'm ready to start plumbing!!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...07_resized.jpg

RO System (Yes it is still a construction zone in there...) Stuff everywhere lol.

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...44_resized.jpg

Got some plumbing done. Bulkheads, yadda yadda yadda. But my favorite is the new manifold!

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...25_resized.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...58_resized.jpg

Also started removing the baffles on the right side of the sump. They were optimized for freshwater. Problems: Only two baffles, spread out way to far, first baffles were not high enough and the return section was unreasonably large.

So I will be replacing them, and re-arranging it a bit. Adding 3 baffles for the bubble trap before the return section. This will give me more space for the fuge.

The teardown:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...02_resized.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...56_resized.jpg
http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...14_resized.jpg

And what it looked like before:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...aterCloset.jpg

New baffles will go here:

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c3...erCloset-1.jpg