MitchM tank build

[MitchM]

Brass.

[MitchM]

Here is the hookup to the hot water tank:
Hot water exit is coming out of the top middle of the hot water tank. The red PEX pipe attached at the "T" fitting is leading to the recirc pump which pumps to the coils in the sump.
The cold water supply line to the hot water tank runs down the front of the tank out of the picture. The white PEX pipe at the "T" fitting is coming directly from the coils in the sump.
The loop follows: hot water tank -> red PEX -> recirc pump -> coils -> return line to the cold water supply -> water gets reheated and goes through the loop again as needed.

[MitchM]

It took 5 hours to raise the temperature from 73F to 79F.
I'm happy with that.
The gas boiler didn't turn on today so that means that the heat came from solar.

[MitchM]

I've bleached 2 40g pails of LR and let them sit out in the sun and rain for a couple of weeks now.

Today was acid dip day. I have about 50 pieces of live rock to do.

I bought some nitrile gloves, muriatic acid from Canadian Tire and had some baking soda on hand in case I splashed something on myself.
I put 10 liters of water and 1 liter of acid in an old salt pail and had a rubbermaid container full of tap water for rinsing.



It was actually a pretty tame procedure. The smaller rocks foamed a bit but didn't overflow the bucket. I left the rocks in the acid dip for 3 minutes each. I tried to put in about the same mass of rocks each time. I did about 10 batches per bucket of acid dip then I dumped it out and started with a new batch.
After 10 batches, the foaming was minimal so the PH had risen quite a bit and the solution was close to neutral.



For the larger rocks, 11 liters didn't cover them, so I did them at the end. I just added additional 10 liters of water plus 1 liter of acid. That covered the rocks, but also overflowed the bucket.
Definitely an outside project!



Tomorrow I hope to start drilling and stacking the live rock with some acrylic rods.
Gotta get this show on the road.

[MitchM]

I got the tools ready for tomorrow and tried out a test piece. It worked pretty well. I'll put an old towel in between the rock and the workbench so the rock doesn't get vibration from both sides and break apart.

[MitchM]

This is how far I got today. The lights are a little bit askew because I had to lie right on top of the tank to adjust the rock.
It looks like the ATI's won't be sufficient to provide light to the whole tank. I'll probably end up putting my 3 Mitras along the front and moving the ATI's back a bit.
I've ordered a PAR meter that will hopefully be here in a week or so.
(The iphone pics make it look a lot bluer than it is. I have a Nikon D70, but only with a 105mm macro lens.)





I started out thinking I would be using a lot more rock, but the more I thought about it, the less I wanted a wall or pile that created a lot of detritus traps that I knew I wouldn't be happy with.

I kept thinking of CingChai"s setup and thought I would set it up similar. I like the idea of corals being viewed from a couple different sides, not necessarily the front only.
My tank doesn't have the height that his does, my tank is only 30" tall, so I decided to make a few more columns instead. I also want to leave as much room as possible for corals to grow until I need to prune them.

There's a couple of new little rocks in the lower front that I saw had some life on them (maybe some corals that survived the trip), I left them in there with the lights to see what becomes of them.

To help with the stability of the columns, I made some 1 1/2" high feet out of 4" PVC. This will also help prevent detritus from accumulating directly underneath the rocks.





I may still add some arches reaching from column to column, I'll leave this for a while and see.
There are2 MP60's on the far end of the tank, synced together, but unfortunately they can't be directed anywhere other than perpendicular to the tank wall they are mounted on. I'll probably add a couple of Tunze 6255's in the future.
There will be some sand at the bottom, very little. Maybe some Caribsea pink, coarse.

Of course any criticisms or suggestions are welcome!

There's a LOT of rock left over!

[MitchM]

For the last 3 weeks I have been waiting out what I thought was a bacterial bloom, except bacterial blooms only last around 3 - 4 days.
If it is algae, I thought my 200 micron filter sock would have picked it up.
I stopped any further Zeo dosing or adding more rock and I started up a diatom filter today to see how that works out.
Over the last couple of weeks the cloudiness hasn't gotten any better and hasn't gotten worse than what it is here.

My Tunze 6255's came in so I added those.

[MitchM]

My cloudy bacterial problem is just now clearing up. I couldn't see 6 inches into the tank for most of the last 2 months.
I would try one thing, wait a few days/weeks, try another thing, wait a few days/weeks....
What finally worked was changing out all the filters in my RO/DI unit, after I noticed I was having ongoing cyanobacteria problems in my freshwater tank which also gets the RO/DI water.

I want the last 2 months of my life back, lol.

[Skimmerking]

good to have you back Mitch. PS my Mitras light is working flawless now after the update.

[MitchM]

Thanks Mike, good to hear about the Mitras.