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.

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.