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Got the canopy mostly wired and mounted, that sucker was heavy to put in place too. Right now I only have one 175W MH lamp over the tank with the actinics which is a temporary solution. I still need to order one more ballast and the bulbs to go live. I figure I can get the algae bloom out of the way with that crappy bulb before I start moving my LR and livestock over. This weekend I built the doors for the canopy, and am in the final stages of staining and sealing those. I figure mid-week I should be able to install them. That will be nice as the actinics are casting a very eerie blue glow out our front window. Plus my wife is not overly impressed with the towels as temporary doors. The other really cool thing is my shiny new Tunze Wavebox I picked up from Bruce at Aquatek. I always said they are one of the ugliest thing to put in a tank but you just can't beat the wave motion from these things. I lucked out and was able to put it in the back corner of the tank so it it kinda blends in with the background for now. The wavebox coupled with the OM closed loop creates amazing flow in the tank. My canary-in-the-coal-mine Green Chromis is loving life swimming in the flow. Tank shot And a little video of the wavebox in action

The way it is mounted there isn't a easy way to raise the bulbs. If this becomes an issue, I can always spread some eggcrate or something across the top with some screen and slowly remove layers. Thanks for the comments...

It took me longer than I expected to build this canopy, but am really happy with the results. With a 30" deep tank I needed something that was very open for maintenance access . I think I nailed it. I spent yesterday mounting the Luminarc reflectors. It was a tight fit, but should give me a nice spread of light across the tank. Yesterday I picked up the T5 endcaps to mount the actinics. I am hoping by the end of the weekend to have this thing wired and ready...

Sorry to hear of your troubles Karen. I doubt you'll have too much trouble selling this setup. Good luck, Craig

I have been playing guitar on and off for the last 18 years. More off than on for the last 8 years though. I think my last gig was over 5 years ago. I've thought about getting back into it, but between the other bazillion guitarists in this town and the fact I am really rusty at it. It is better if I just leave it to the professionals. I always wished I learned the banjo... I love bluegrass as well

I'm available to help again if you still need the help.

Since I helped bring in the 200 I feel I have a vested interest in seeing this thing up and running... I'm in

Depending on when, I can probably help out... When are you planning on doing the move?

I have been really bad in keeping current with this blog, but have been pretty busy lately. Anyway, lots happening with the new setup. It is full of ~200lbs of base rock, 150lbs live sand, and freshly mixed Tropic Marin Pro. I mixed the water last weekend and got the cycle started last Monday. Haven't tested today, but Wednesday I was still reading amonia and nitrite. My next update should be with the canopy as that is next on the list. Right after I finish up a sump, canopy, and stand for a friend. Here is a current FTS

It looks like you are going to be passing all of the flow through the main refugium. Typically you want reduced flow through a fuge. Have you thought about flipping the return pump / refugium area? You can still feed from the main drain just T-off in 3 directions to feed the mangroves, skimmer, and fuge sections.

That sucks Joseph.. If I had the room I would take a bunch. Best of luck

YGPM

It has been a while since I posted my progress on the upgrade. Things are moving along, just slowly. The last couple of weeks has been busy with work so I haven't been able to get as much done as I hoped. One of my biggest challenges has been trying to quiet down the drains to the sump. I tried several methods to silence the water as it falls in the sump. My wife had the final say as I tested the various methods to muffle the noise. Three times I got the look of "are you serious, that thing sounds like Niagara Falls" Finally thanks to this thread I came up with a solution. If you have the room, this device works awesome. I also built a manifold to feed the skimmer, CaRx, carbon, and phos-ban reactors. Other than some little miscellaneous tweaks I am calling the plumbing complete! Up next, I need to get the ReefKeeper II wired and pull electrical lines through the wall to control the return and CL pumps. I am also planning on putting the MH ballasts in the garage, so I need to run some lines for that as well. End shot to show the muffler/bubble extractor... Manifold

The holes and airlines are there now. I just hadn't drilled them at the time of the picture. So far they are working nicely, very quiet. Currently I am fine tuning the plumbing with fresh water. The dual Hofers took a bit of finesse to get adjusted, but once I got them dialed in they are completely silent. Much better that the dursos on my current tank and they take up way less space. Anyone looking to use these are more than welcome to come check them out in action. BTW, how is your build going?

I wanted to make sure with this tank I took better advantage of the under stand space. When designing and building the sump I wanted to have an integrated fuge section. I am very happy with the way this came out. I am going to be building another sump for a friends 90 gallon build and am going to try and design something similar for his setup. Space is more of an issue, so we'll see if I can pull it off.

Just a quick update as it is late and I need to go to bed. I have been working hard on getting the tank ready for the water test. It is full of water and I am letting it run to work out the bugs in the system. Yesterday I filled it up and discovered one of the ball valves was bad and leaked through the shutoff. Of course it was the most difficult location to have to replace. The Hofer drain pipes took a while to dial in but are woking nicely now and are very quiet. I still need to tweak the drains to the sump cause there is a fair amount of noise there, but a little adjusting should fix that. Other than that everything is holding solid. I have some tweaks I need to make, but overall I am happy with the initial testing. I will shut up now and just show the pics... OM 4-way Pumps plumbed through the wall in the garage Short clip of the sump in action

not running yet... but close. Sure, stop by after work and we can get that sump taken care of. give me a call -craig

I'm in...

Thanks Joseph... I still owe you a canopy for frags. Once I get past the plumbing we can talk.

The reactor is my next project (after plumbing) so you can check it out to see if you like the design. I get the tubing at Regal Plastics off Metric and 183ish. They have all your DIY supplies.

Nice shots... Can I get frags?

First Off... Happy new year! I am a little groggy today as we did it up hard at a friends house last night. They got their kids Guitar Hero III for Xmas, so the adults stepped it up and showed them a thing or two. I have been making nice progress on acquiring, building, and getting the tank ready for water. I have most of the big equipment to get things plumbed out, just waiting on an order of union ball valves. They are supposed to arrive tomorrow, so hopefully by the end of the week I can fire it up and leak test my work. There is too much to update, so I will just show you the pics of where I am at... 6000GPH of flow just waiting to be unleashed This is an awesome deal for anyone needing water reservoirs. Austin Home Brew will sell you these for $10 a piece. I plan on using one for the top-off, and the other is going to be plumbed in for mixing SW and doing water changes. I built this the other day for running PhosBan, but it came out so nice I plan on building a second for charcoal. The concept is very similar, so I may also build a larger calcium reactor to use with this setup. Nice thing is they are easy to build and the materials are fairly inexpensive to acquire. For the drains, I wanted to try the Hofer Gurgle Buster. On my 90 I am currently running Durso standpipes and they work alright. They are a little noisy, and take up a lot of room. I don't have the room in the overflow on this tank, so it was either a Stockman or the Hofer. They are basically the same concept, except for the direction the water enters the standpipe. Sometimes the timing of a picture is everything.... Installed Here is where it sits today. The last thing I did was cover the back in limo-tint and installed the bulkheads. I am going to run a bead of silicone around the bulkheads on the inside to hopefully minimize the chances of developing a leak down the road.

Got the call from Carlos yesterday, the tank has arrived from Oceanview. I made the calls and got a bunch of friends lined up to help lift. Last night after close, Carlos, Misty, and Jake delivered the tank. It took about 5 minutes and we had it up on the stand. Thankfully it fit, with about 1/8" to spare on the sides. This thing is massive, but looks incredible. I definitely can't wait to get started on the plumbing and get it full of water... Stay tuned...

Nice setup... The aquascaping looks great!

You can get 3/8" and thicker at Regal Plastics. Unfortunately their 1/4" is extruded, if you want cast it is special order. I also found you can get cast at Interstate plastics, but haven't bought from them yet. The material from Regal is more expensive, but it is name brand i.e. Plexigls G. What I was quoted at Interstate was "import" material. I see you are in Cedar Park as well, you are more than welcome to use my shop if you want to give it a shot...