Well, we tried, but we have our first loss of the tank. Wait! You don't have anything in the tank yet except for rocks and water. Well, that's right. We lost our rock.
When we first got all of our 'stuff' for the tank, we also got our live rock. When we got home that evening, putting the tank together was just taking too long and we put saltwater solution into buckets and put the rock in there with our fingers crossed and within the next day we did our best to get it into our tank the best we could.
Try as we might, the live rock did not make it. No problem though - we'll just get some more. The tank is currently cycling water, we know the sump is working (albeit a bit louder than I like and I'm going to try and fix that sometime soon with perhaps a new return pump).
This week we will be picking up new live rock and introducing it to our tank and hopefully by next week we will be seeing our ammonia spiking through the roof letting us know we are well on our way.
Sunday, June 24, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Call me Ishmael
Okay, the title may be a bit overdoing it, but after its all said and done this might just be a whale of a project.
This blog is to keep us and others up to date with our aquarium(s). At the moment we just started our first tank and so I also started this. I guess the next question is where did we start.
Thanks to the wonderful people over at That Fish Place we walked away with a 65 Gallon tank (pre-drilled with an overflow) and a corresponding stand. We wanted to go pre-drilled so that we could attach a sump underneath of the tank to get rid of some of the clutter and, well, because I don't know anyone personally that did one before, so why the heck not.
For our sump, we got Eshopps RS-75 Reef Sump. It was the smallest one they had. In the next model up (the RS-100) had a larger Skimmer Compartment but only by an inch or two and that didn't seem worth it to me for an extra $30. The RS-200 on the other hand would have been perfect for our needs and with the space we would end up needing, but alas wouldn't have fit under the tank stand. Inside the sump we have our Bubble Magnus NAC5.5 Skimmer. I don't want to say that this thing is MASSIVE, but lets just say that with our sumps release compartment, it BARELY fits. So, there it is. The sump.
Oh, and the plumbing. OOoooohhhh, the plumbing. This was the first sighting of my White Whale. Here's the scenario (and pay attention, this gets crazy fast). Coming down from the overflow portion of my main tank into my stand is a 1" tube. My sump comes with a flex tube that is also 1" in diameter, slides right in, easy peasy. Now lets take a small walkabout to the other side of the sump. I have a small water pump to get water out of the sump and back up into my tank after it's all 'clean'. The tube that goes back into the tank is also a 1" tube. Makes sense. The out line of my pump is a 1/2"hole. Okay, easy enough. Get an adapter that goes in a 1/2" hole, attaches into a flex tube and attach it to an adapter that can go into my 1" bulkhead. Oh wait... that won't work because I can't attach the 1" adapter that is threaded to a non-threaded bulkhead. This is where I started working on those creases in my forehead a little more.
I won't take you through the journey of many hours of my life that it took to come up with the solution, but instead show you a picture of what the final product looks like and you can just assume the madness that occurred in my head.
I had a better picture of that before I put it in the tank but due to technical problems (read: user error), I had to take a picture of it currently in the sump.
But to answer your first response, yeah - I did that. 13 pieces combined from pvc pipes and adaptors all glued together by yours truly. Honestly, it was fun although crazy to plan for someone that had no idea about any of it earlier that day.
Combine all that with some live-rock, some rock-rock, 2 heaters, substrate and a fancy-dancy light, we have ourselves a tank.
Currently, things are cycling and settling and who-knows-what else. The rocks are not nearly where I want them to be, but I wanted to get them in the tank to start things cycling. I also want to get a black backdrop and I'll be moving the heaters into my overflow, but this is the general setup at the moment.
This blog is to keep us and others up to date with our aquarium(s). At the moment we just started our first tank and so I also started this. I guess the next question is where did we start.
Thanks to the wonderful people over at That Fish Place we walked away with a 65 Gallon tank (pre-drilled with an overflow) and a corresponding stand. We wanted to go pre-drilled so that we could attach a sump underneath of the tank to get rid of some of the clutter and, well, because I don't know anyone personally that did one before, so why the heck not.
For our sump, we got Eshopps RS-75 Reef Sump. It was the smallest one they had. In the next model up (the RS-100) had a larger Skimmer Compartment but only by an inch or two and that didn't seem worth it to me for an extra $30. The RS-200 on the other hand would have been perfect for our needs and with the space we would end up needing, but alas wouldn't have fit under the tank stand. Inside the sump we have our Bubble Magnus NAC5.5 Skimmer. I don't want to say that this thing is MASSIVE, but lets just say that with our sumps release compartment, it BARELY fits. So, there it is. The sump.
 |
| Sump system with skimmer. Lacking return pump and associated plumbing. |
Oh, and the plumbing. OOoooohhhh, the plumbing. This was the first sighting of my White Whale. Here's the scenario (and pay attention, this gets crazy fast). Coming down from the overflow portion of my main tank into my stand is a 1" tube. My sump comes with a flex tube that is also 1" in diameter, slides right in, easy peasy. Now lets take a small walkabout to the other side of the sump. I have a small water pump to get water out of the sump and back up into my tank after it's all 'clean'. The tube that goes back into the tank is also a 1" tube. Makes sense. The out line of my pump is a 1/2"hole. Okay, easy enough. Get an adapter that goes in a 1/2" hole, attaches into a flex tube and attach it to an adapter that can go into my 1" bulkhead. Oh wait... that won't work because I can't attach the 1" adapter that is threaded to a non-threaded bulkhead. This is where I started working on those creases in my forehead a little more.
I won't take you through the journey of many hours of my life that it took to come up with the solution, but instead show you a picture of what the final product looks like and you can just assume the madness that occurred in my head.
 |
| 1/2" to 3/4" adapter, pvc pipe, 3/4" Union, pvc pipe, 3/4" Flow valve, pvc, 45 degree joint, pvc, 3/4" slip to 3/4" thread, flex pipe adapter, flex pipe to (not shown) flex pipe adapter, 3/4" thread to 1" slip |
I had a better picture of that before I put it in the tank but due to technical problems (read: user error), I had to take a picture of it currently in the sump.
But to answer your first response, yeah - I did that. 13 pieces combined from pvc pipes and adaptors all glued together by yours truly. Honestly, it was fun although crazy to plan for someone that had no idea about any of it earlier that day.
Combine all that with some live-rock, some rock-rock, 2 heaters, substrate and a fancy-dancy light, we have ourselves a tank.
Currently, things are cycling and settling and who-knows-what else. The rocks are not nearly where I want them to be, but I wanted to get them in the tank to start things cycling. I also want to get a black backdrop and I'll be moving the heaters into my overflow, but this is the general setup at the moment.
 |
| Current setup. First diagnosis, need more rocks and need to arrange them better. Threw them in while it was cloudy. |
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