It must be all those fingers and toes i had crossed ;)

Its nice to have it in the house already. It gives me a chance to look at how i want to lay out my electrical and plumbing. I was surprised exactly how big the sump was lol, didnt pay much attention when ordering it. It was a pretty snug fit inside the stand. Barely a few mil front to back to spare. I think i'll have to build a little shelf above the return chamber on the sump to store a couple cleaning supplies, and house my electrical.

If anyone has any advice on the electrical my ears are open. As of now, we have plans of a 12x12x4 control junction box, housing the electronic components my husband is putting together. The part i get to play with is the relay interface for the controller. The relays will power 4 or 5 duplex receptacles. The idea was to use 2 circuits and split up the loads to ensure if one trips the tank will have a better chance to survive.

As for GFCI protection im deciding whether i want to go with inline protection or receptacle protection.

i love my Hubby, he knows im itching to get the tank wet, even just to put the liverock in and circulate it in there.

I came home to find a new inhabitant.

Wet test is a success! Picked up my pump and plugged it all in today to a temporary power bar. Added sand and right now its a cloudy mess but im sure by morning it will look a whole lot clearer.

The hubby is a bit concerned by the noise level of the skimmer. I might be looking to pick up something a bit quieter unless anyone has any tips to quieting pump hum.

yesterday the silt all filtered out, and today the rock went in.
I tried to leave lots of hole for fish to swim around while still leaving lots of surface area for future corals.
Tomorrow i'll start re-testing the water and see what kind of cycle i get.

we managed to get the skimmer a bit quieter but its still by far the noiseist part of the setup.

I think i need to go shopping today, pick up a float mag, and a loc-line nozzle. Im also looking forward to getting the powerhead off the side and getting a gyre in there but that will have to wait until after christmas.

is it pump noise or drain noise from the skimmer?

i think its pump noise. When we first plugged it in it was a loud vibration hum. now its quieted a bit. i personally think its a bit too big for my system anyways.

Its a bubble magus G9, and i was considering a curve 5. lol i wish there was a way to volume test pumps.

Nice aquascape
Glass cleaner - check out the : Tunze strong

so the tank has been circulating for a week, with no bump in any readings. I think the month in the bins did the job for cycling my rock. Scott and i spent the last few days assembling the hood and today we are sealing the inside surfaces of the hood and stand wood. Tomorrow we will be siliconing any remaining gaps and seams and mounting a t5 dual strip to get a bit of life in the tank. While taking a break from sealing the hood i spent some time searching for life in the tank. A little feather duster survived the curing cycle. I think i scared Scott when i was telling him to hurry and come look. I was so concerned i had cooked all the little life off the rocks that i was thrilled to see something alive in there. I also noticed a bit of green algae growing on one of the rocks and on the cord to one of the powerheads. Its amazing what can survive through such a harsh process as curing.
I guess the next thing we will be looking for is the diatom bloom. Up until now the tank has had no dedicated lights over it, just ambient lighting from the room.
If the parameters stay consistent we'll pick up a small clean up crew to keep the algae in control and maybe a small fish sometime before christmas.

Too small for your tank imo. I'd use Curve 7, or equivalent DC.

I like the aquascape, looks good!

Thanks guys :). We have gotten very used to the pump sound of the skimmer. It's a large skimmer and doesn't pull out much (yet) but will handle anything I throw at it in the future.


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