A noobs first attempt at a tank...by rjengen

[rjengen]

Well, not too much has gone on in the last few days. Once leducreef got me set straight on my stand, and paint I did manage to get two coats onto the stand of kilz, a mold and mildew resistant primer. I put the second coat on it last night, and got the tank set back on it tonight. I hope to put some water in the tank tomorrow night and give it a leak test...fingers crossed

[IMG][/IMG]

[leducreef]

looks good

[rjengen]

Ah they joys of the hobby...Got stuck working in Edmonton for the last couple of day, and I headed home today finally to go see the family. Of course I had to go shopping around town before I left though...

I picked up 90lbs of live rock off a fellow CanReef'er and finally got to go through it tonight and take a good look at it. Got a steal of a deal, and a good head start now on that. Picked up a RO/DI unit at Blue World and also snagged a bit of Ken's sand to seed. I have the RO/DI set up and I'm going to purge it over night and see if I can't get it to settle down a little. Ah, also picked up 120lbs of Carbisea.

I have figured out the set up for my closed loop, but since it's so friggen close to christmas, I decided to just send my wife the link. I'm tough at the best of times to shop for, so hopefully she will take the hint, and there will be oceans motions 2way squirt for me christmas morning, along with some omni flex nozzles. Until santa decides to make that appear though, I'm planning on just using some PVC plumbed into the PS4 pump to move water...after all, I plan to cycle for a good 6 weeks. I was going to attempt some D.I.Y. cement and coat a 1.5" Y fitting for the suction end of the closed loop...but I then got smart (I think) and ended up coating that said "Y" with reef epoxy and placing some rubble I had from when I was down picking up the tank. Not sure I totally like it, but I'll decide more on that once I get the rock in.

Finished plumbing the herbi tonight...and was just about to fill the tank and sump with water / viniger when Noob Mistake #1 of the thread took place. Was working on the bulkhead on the overflow and dropped my pipe wrench accidentally and it took a bad bounce and decided to make a break for it. Needless to say, I will be building a new sump in the morning, not even going to try and fix this boo-boo. I think it was a stroke of luck though, because I now have a reason to re-design things, and build in a fuge to the sump...costly little mistake though, but stuff happens like that right? I will post picture in the morning.

[leducreef]

sounds like you are moving right along
sucks about cracking the sump
now we need to see some pics when you get that rock in place

[rjengen]

Well, I thought I had posted last night with an update and some pictures, but I guess I had a brain fart. Anyways, I've finished the plumbing for the time being, and it is just temp until santa show's up with the OM. When that gets here I plan on going with all flex PVC plumbing. I have 120lbs of LR in the tank now, some of it is cured, and some that I picked up yesterday isn't. I made a batch of water on the weekend and got it in the tank with the rock. I've figured out my lighting now, and will be going with 4-48" T5's, and a single MH that I hope to pick up this weekend in Edmonton. I have one retro kit here, and another one on order. Let the waiting begin I guess. anyways, here's some pictures for you all, hope you like em. Chime up with suggestions please if you have any as well

EDIT: The rock is in there to get it going...some of the stuff I picked up was smaller then expected, so I'm slowly going to be looking for bigger pieces. I would like to try and create a two teir archway...so don't flame me on how it's placed in there, or flame me...whatever...it is a noobs attempt after all.

[rjengen]

I moved the rocks around a little to where I like them. I'd like to get a little feedback from some of the "old guard" around here on their thoughts. Any thing I could do different with it? I have a micro bubble issue that I'm working on right now, and hope to have solved here sooner rather then later.

[leducreef]

i will bet you lol
that your micro bubbles are comeing from the input side of the pumps
prob a air leak around the poly line with the hose clamps
i had the same prob with my t3 pump it was sucking air around one of the conections i took it apart and put more teflon tape around it and my prob was solved

[Ryan]

Looks good. Glad to see more people up there getting into it. I thought forsure I was the only one up there with a SW tank. I used to make trips to edmonton every 2 weeks on my days off. I hated that 8 hour round trip drive.

[rjengen]

I've been working so much lately...back and forth from Edmonton, and I think I missed an ammonia spike, or at least I hope so. Anyways, not a lot has gone on, I did pick up a 150w metal halide fixture when I was in Edmonton from leducreef (Once I finally found his house...lol) , and bought a 150w Ice Cap ballast for it. Got it all wired up today and mounted in the canopy and it does make a nice difference to the tank.

I'm about ready to take the resun pump out of the skimmer and set it up for target practice, everyone is welcome to come see what happens when a 12g goes after it. I don't know what it is about them, but I guess...well...anyways, I'm trying to find a Sicce PSK 2500 and once it's found, it will be slapped on the skimmer and life should be good. I have the supplies as well bought to add a silencer to the venturi tube. Turns out I have a first get IN-180 (Noob mistake #2 of the thread) and if the new pump doesn't do the trick, I'll end up adding it on.

There is rumor of another Poseidon pump for sale in the Edmonton area (back off...it's mine...just got to get back there!) and I plan on picking that up and plumbing it into my water station as a mixing & transfer pump over to my main tank. I'll post pictures of that mess once I get it all rigged up...I think it should work fairly good, since the same plumbing philosophy has been used in the oilpatch for the last 100 year...unchanged

There's not much that is picture worthy right now, hope to have the controller and OM here over Christmas, then there will be some pics.

Edit...I found out the source of the micro bubbles, the level in the sump was too low. I had it down a bit for the skimmer, but once I raised the level the bubbles dropped off 95%. I raised the skimmer out of the water so it's only in 7" and everything is looking good.

[BlueWorldAquatic]

Looking good Rob.

Sorry I missed you on the weekend, you got my number call if you need anything.

I got lotsa PVC and ends in the back room if you need any more.

Ken