Our 1st Reef Tank build ever - 70 gal AGA tall

[lvsuckerfish]

yeah it will pull from the sump and return in the sump there is no difference as to what area you will want to pull water from that will go through the reactor you will want to put a T in the return line and a small ball valve there should be one on the reactor on the input side of the reactor to control flow. I believe it is a more effecient way to run equipment then having power heads all over the place. I have always pulled mine from or after the sump area. as the cleaner the water the less clogged the reacto will become.

 

[eww]

Thanks Justin. I was thinking of putting it in the return chamber with the return pump so it doesn't pull any of the detritus from the water and plug up the . I have the pump so I might just use it for now and see how it goes.

 

[citycoral.com]

this is going to look great as a mixed reef system with the height. What kind of lighting are you planning to use? Looks like T5 setup is would be great

 

[eww]

That's exactly what we are doing. I have a 4bulb retro kit with reflectors and and Icecap 660 to run them. I am going to use some combination of Midday 6000K, Aquablue+ and True Actinic bulbs. I'm just not sure in what combination yet or if I should set it up on two ballasts for timers and flexibility.

 

[dragoneggs]

Thank you Jeff. I think I will be making the change to a gate valve for sure. The only thing is I need it to be a sched 80 because everything else is and I can't find any locally. I can order one for BRS and I just might end up doing that today.

Sched 80 is serious overkill but it is kool. If money was an issue and your pride/ego could be convinced... sched 40 would do more than fine. Now that you are committed to 80, I understand where you are coming from though.

 

[eww]

Sched 80 is serious overkill but it is kool. If money was an issue and your pride/ego could be convinced... sched 40 would do more than fine. Now that you are committed to 80, I understand where you are coming from though.

In this case it wasn't pride/ego... It was the wife saying there was not going to be any white pvc pipes in our Dining Room period! That pretty much over rides any pride/ego/money issue what-so-ever.

 

[dragoneggs]

In this case it wasn't pride/ego... It was the wife saying there was not going to be any white pvc pipes in our Dining Room period! That pretty much over rides any pride/ego/money issue what-so-ever.

Then you have a license to install sched 80! Just have to be more patient! The fact that she allows PVC period is a blessing! Or something like that.

 

[eww]

We put about 50 lbs of rock in tonight. I think that bings us to about 60 lbs total so far. We also added about 2-3 inches of fine sand in the fuge as well as two K-3's joining the already existing K-2 for some good flow in the DT. I'm still working on the lights. Hopefully they will be done tomorrow. It doesn't matter right now anyway as the DT is just a big white cloud from adding the sand. We can't wait until it settles out. Once our 50 lbs of Marco Rock shows up we will begin the aquascaping and see how we do at that. That should bring us to about 110 lbs or so.

That's all for now... Goodnight.

 

[eww]

We got the lights all installed today. Man I forget how much I hate electrical until I do it again. We are running 4 T5's right now with TekII reflectors and all Giesemann bulbs. 2 Aquablue+, 1 Midday 6000K and 1 True Actinic. The True Actinic and one of the AquaBlue+ are running on the Icecap 660 and the other Aquablue+ and the Midday 6000K are on the standard ballast. This way we have some flexibility with a lighting schedule. Thanks Todd for the help there. The tank has cleared a lot since last nights sand storm of putting the sugar sand in the fuge. We have seen lots of little critters already and are learning what they all are. Again, we can't wait for the Marco Rocks to show up so we can start aquascaping instead of having a pile of rocks but FedEx says not until next Wed There is also a small frag of zoos and a mushroom of some sort in there that came with the rock that seem to be doing well for it only being one day in this tank. They really light up nice under the Actinic. We've seen several amps and copes floating around as well. This is one little starfish too. We dont' know what is good or bad so if anyone see's anything that we need to get out of there please speak up. We have lots of learning to do.

Now some new pics

Some compact lighting work

A full tank shot with only the actinic and aquablue on

A little colony of zoos

A hitch hiker

Oh yeah... and photographic proof that she let me mix SW in the dining room

 

[lvsuckerfish]

progress of moving inside the house Priceless lol

 

[lvsuckerfish]

lights look good good job tank looks good

 

[lvsuckerfish]

one thing I noticed the return is your sump going to be capable to handle the return siphon? if power goes out?

 

[eww]

one thing I noticed the return is your sump going to be capable to handle the return siphon? if power goes out?

Yep. I've run several tests of just killing the power and letting it drain. Once the siphon breaks we still have about 6-7" of tank left in the sump. The DT only drains to the bottom of the return nozzle which is only about 3 1/2" below the surface. The other drains are inside the overflow box so those break almost immediately. I am actually considering putting a 2-3" stand under the skimmer so I can raise my water level in the sump that much for even more volume. We would still have plenty of room for the power outages. However in almost 16 years here I think we have lost power once or twice but everything is set up for the just in case scenario anyway.

 

[roscoe]

Looking good Eric! Now time to sit backand be patient and let your system do its thing.

 

[jrgilles]

Looks awesome, nice work man.

I drilled a hold in my return line about 1" below water level as a siphon break. Maybe not needed though since you have a tank that is tall instead of wide.

 

[eww]

Looking good Eric! Now time to sit backand be patient and let your system do its thing.

Thanks Sarang and thank you again for the impressive display you showed us the other night. Very very inspiring.

 

[eww]

Looks awesome, nice work man.

I drilled a hold in my return line about 1" below water level as a siphon break. Maybe not needed though since you have a tank that is tall instead of wide.

Thank you too Rob. We couldn't have done this without all the people on RF!!! Our siphon breaks after the DT drops about 3-4" and we have LOTS of room in the sump.

 

[eww]

Well our Icecap 660 just burned up. $40 used I guess what should I expect. I was doing a water test and fizzle fizzle pop pop and the lights went out. Grrrr!!! Now I only have two lights working. It's better than none I guess. Anyone have one? I should probably post on the FS thread.

 

[TJL]

Looks awsome Eric, come on up anytime to get some macro for the fuge. I have a few easy & inexpensive coral frags for you as well.

Todd

 

[Greyhound]

I have an Icecap 660 that is not being used right now.
Is the ballast all you need?