Haha Ryan and Mike. They'll really Drain your wallets dry, but no one can resist :mrgreen: the eye candy is too strong!

Looking good. Glad that you drop by.

Thanks for having me over Peter! Frags are doing well so far!

spent the last hour going through all 33 pages. simply amazing build

Thanks, it's been a wild ride... With plenty of regrets lol.

So the tanks been running about 2 months now and everything looks fine. Got my daily and weekly maintenance routines down. They are not as bad as I was expecting (testing et all).
Just waiting on a BRS bulk order before I get started with dosing (should be around Tuesday). Diatoms continue to recede and the corals appear to be happy campers. No sign of nuisance algae (knock on wood).

My first water change proved to be a bit of a nightmare, and took far too long to mix and heat the new SW.

So I've tried to simplify and speed it up a little with a Friday night project.

Step 1 : Gather necessary items to construct a portable mixing station.

It's a 32 gal Brute with a Speedwave 790, air pump and Jager 300W heater.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7603/...0fa2ca5c_b.jpg

Step 2 : Put it all together while trying to watch 'Girls' on the PVR with the wife. Damn... that show is funny!

Here is the mixing side assembled (with a little bit of influence from daplatapus)...

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7633/...5c22aeed_b.jpg

...and the filling side, with the piece that goes into the tank missing.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7592/...3da9e718_b.jpg

Step 3 : Try to justify the cost to the wife. :rolleyes:

I think I will have an acrylic top fabbed up in the future to mount a ro/di float valve, the air pump, a heater bracket and electrical plugs. For now I will probably just notch out the lid.

Thanks for looking.

That looks cool. You'll have to let me know how that re-circ line works. I have a feeling yours will be running far before mine, lol
After a bit to talking with a couple guys on RC, I've decided to hook up my RO/DI to my Apex so I'm waiting on a couple float valves and solenoid before I can make any water.

FYI, I'm pretty sure I saw at Home Depot a roller cart for those 32 gal Brute's. It looked exactly like one of the flower pot rollers with 4 wheels. Not sure if it'll hold 300 lbs of water, but worth looking into if you don't have a method of moving that can around.

Thanks for the inspiration Dom!

My new mixing/water change system seems to work good. I am starting to find that there is always room for improvement in this hobby.

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7612/...b49a770e_o.jpg https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8679/...dd77d24c_o.jpg

Bblinks picked me up an Appleberry Monti (on the right) from Tim T. Went to Rich's place tonight and I am completely blown away with how much he has added to his tank in a few months!
It's incredible, and going to look amazing once it grows in. This guy is a master! Thanks again Rich for all your help and advice!

Encrusting Monti's have really peaked my interest, and I'm thinking I may go with them, rather than Chalices. We'll see how this first one does though.
Need to start adding corals with colours other than green, lol. Still haven't added any new fish, that will be next.

https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8628/...50a09ee6_o.jpg

Sweeeeeeet! Looking good man. I gotta get over and Rich's set up one of these days...