A new reef is born!

[chrispyfish]

So after moving from Alberta here to beautiful Vancouver, I was looking to get my biocube set up. Pokin' around on craigslist for live rock led me instead to trade in my biocube for a 55 gallon that came with live rock and sand.

So, I made a sump out of an old 10 gallon tank I had and some corrugated plastic ( super cheap and non-leeching ), picked up about four hundred bucks worth of equipment and plumbing, and off I go.

SO, in the sump I have the overflow coming down into a filter sock (which I haven't decided what to fill with yet...any suggestions? Was thinking purigen), and into the first chamber, where I intend to put the cheap yet promising protein skimmer I got off of amazon.ca. http://quintereef.ca/products-page/p...-skimmer-2520/

Second chamber is going to be the refugium, which has nothing in it but the heater at the moment. I still haven't decided what to do for a substrate in the refuge either. Has anyone had any really positive experiences with something they'd like to share?

Anyway, moving on, third chamber houses the return pump, a quiet-one 3000. It is set on the lowest possible setting, as that is the most the overflow can handle. The return pumps up a 1" tube to a T intersection where it splits off to 2X 5/8" tubes running to an over the wall return assembly on either back corner of the tank. The overflow box, a CPR C-syphon CS50, sits as close to the centre of the tank as possible, away from the two returns in the corner. Inside the tank there are two Koralia 750gph powerheads stirrin things up.

So to conclude, I thought I'd mention, you know how they say nothing ever works properly the first time? I DID end up putting about 2 gallons of water on the floor. The return assemblies originally had tubes that went about 6" into the tank, and I forgot to put a syphon break hole, thinking the sump could handle the overflow. NOPE. So, now that every piece of dry dirty clothing in my room is now sitting in a soaking pile, all the issues have been corrected, and I am glad to say the system runs worry free, and restarts properly if power's been out for a while on its own.

Anyway, enough for today. Did some tests. High Nitrate, and some ammonia, but no Nitrite to speak of. Let the cycling begin!