BornToHula

I'd make a terrible plumber. I don't think I actually need a check valve, I have a ball valve right next to it. If I need to stop all the water flow I can just turn the valve. I think I can make a threaded bulkhead work now, just have to change my plumbing around a little bit.

True! I had to order the bulkheads online, it appears I am the odd man out in needing slip bulkheads which no one carries. My return lines don't have room to turn for threaded. Also, for some reason my 1" check valve uses a non-standard union size . Have to order that too. Hopefully as long as the water is kept circulating it will be fine until the replacement parts come in.

When I did the leak test with tap water everything was working perfectly. Now that I filled the tank up with saltwater..... a return line bulkhead has a major leak! Going to have to find a 1 inch bulkhead and do some emergency plumping fast!

Worst part of this hobby: Wire Management! Also got the fancy bit of aquascape in the tank today

Finally got everyone eating! I guess ARC doesn't allow gifv format, but the first link shows the Blenny and Anthias Blenny and Anthias

First round of fish are in from the Diver's Den and in quarantine! The Blenny is hiding behind the marinepure blocks but you can see his head poking out. I have been trying to get the fish eating and have fed very small quantities of NLS pellets, mysis, brine shrimp, spirulina flakes and nori sheets. The Blenny has eating everything I've fed except the nori. The Anthias have eaten mysis and brine shrimp. The Lemonpeel hasn't eaten anything yet I have some mussels I will try next for the Lemonpeel. He's an active bugger so he is bound to be hungry.

Well I have decided that I don't like ordering fish online and this will likely be the last time I do so. It's too stressful waiting for UPS when they miss their morning delivery time and you have to be in the office during the afternoon. Good idea on extending the visual inspection period. While I have the equipment, I don't think I am going to do the tank transfer method unless I see ich is present. My Quarantine tanks are 40g and 36g so that will be a lot of saltwater being used.

Well unfortunately the McCullochi Dottyback perished at the Diver's Den . Hopefully the get another specimen soon.

In the past I have only done a 21 day quarantine to visually inspect the fish before transferring into the display tank. I never found any signs of anything so no medication was ever used. This time around I want to be a little more proactive and pre-treat for Ich and other parasites. What I have planned: Prazi Pro treatment first (5-7 days) Large water change/ Run carbon for 2 days New Life Spectrum Ich Shield Powder treatment (21 days) Visual inspection for a day or two and if it looks good into the tank they go. Any comments or suggestions on this procedure?

Aquascape is progressing slowly, but I expect to have water in and start the cycling process this weekend I also have my quarantine set up so new fish can start coming in. These guys will be coming in Thursday!

Nice! Looking good

Leak test has been successful! No leaks except for a bad O-Ring that was an easy fix. Turns out on the bean animal drain, the main siphon drain pipe can only be under the waterline in the sump by half an inch or the siphon will not start. Works like a charm now. The next issue I need to fix is the water noise coming from the filter sock area. The filter sock holder I made from acrylic doesn't quite fit right so a lot of the water goes down the sides instead of through the socks.

The tank officially has water in it! ...Tap water counts, right...? The only issues so far has been a bad O-ring on a union and the bean animal drain doesn't work yet.

What, you can't read my mind to know what I am talking about?! I was talking about where the red arrows are in the picture below. I can't think of a reason why those connections would need to be 100% water tight, but then again, I can't really think of a reason to not glue them in. They are slip bulkheads by the way. I'm probably over thinking things .

Question on the plumbing in the overflow. Do y'all usually glue the drain & return pipes to the bulkheads or just push fit them in?

I think it's totally worth it for the fish and for me at least, detritus isn't really the enemy in any tank that has a good oversized skimmer and methods in place to remove nitrates and phosphates. I haven't removed detritus manually (besides what gets sucked up in my skimmer) for 3 years in my old 125-gallon. There was literally 1/2" to 1" of detritus in my sump! In my new 215-gallon, the same thing, about 3 years now, no detritus removal ever manually, and things aren't blowing up for me. Just adding my experience with it. I've never been too worried on detritus in the sump, I don't like looking at it in the display though. Maybe one day I can get my tank running well enough without water changes, but I plan on needing to for for the foreseeable future. I may as well be able to vacuum the sand.

Thanks! I agree,detritus is a bit of an issue with caves. The cave on my 75g collects detritus as well, but the fish love swimming in it so much I think its worth it. I do need to make sure the sand vacuum will reach in there to keep it somewhat tidy.

I played around with the aquascape some this weekend. Ended up liking this design for the left side of the tank. Its not very stable so I will be using the cement from marcos rock to ensure it will stay together. I also glued most of the plumbing this weekend. Only thing left is to glue the pipes to the bulkheads.

Sounds like it would be a good idea to get some marine pure blocks.

I was wondering about the quantity of live rock in larger tanks. Does "rule" of 1 pound of live rock per gallon still hold true? How many pounds of live rock are you guys with larger tanks running with? I currently have about 100 pounds of dry rock (a mix of Marco rock, Fiji and man-made) and will be transferring another 50 pounds from my 75 gallon tank for a total of 150 pounds. Aquascape wise, this is all that I want to have in my display, but I do have room to add several of the large MarinePure blocks to my sump.

That manifold is lookin good. Where did you find your push connect fittings for it? I asked the guy at Lowes if they had any and he looked at me like I was crazy

Thanks for the advice Reburn and Ty. I think I'm going to change the manifold to four 1/2 inch outlets and run the UV off its own pump when/if I get one. I was reading more on the CaRX and it looks like as long as you restrict the effluent outflow to the desired rate there isn't any drawback on running it off of the manifold. The outlets will be: 1. Biopellets 2. Carbon/GFO 3. CaRX 4. empty for now. Plumbing is almost complete. Need change the manifold and to get some bracing to help it stay up, then its on to glue!

Looking for some advice on the manifold I built. The more I look at it the more unsure I get about it. It currently has 4 outlets, one 1" outlet and three 1/2" outlets. The manifold is supplied by the Vectra L1 return pump which is 3100 gph not accounting for head pressure or friction from the return piping. The returns are about 5'6" above the pump. If possible I want to have the following items running from it, let me know if you think this is feasible or not before I glue it in! Biopellet reactor ~150 gph - needs 1/2" barb fitting Carbon/GFO dual reactor ~150 gph - needs 1/2" push connect fitting (future upgrade) UV sterilizer ~500 gph - looking at different models they all have 1-1/2" to 2" inlets which seems huge to me considering they only need about 500gph. Do these require their own pumps or would adapting a 1" pipe up to the size required be okay ? (future upgrade) Calcium Reactor - I can't find the typical flow needed for these but if I remember right it is a low flow. Will a 1/2" valve be enough to feed one?

Got quite a bit of work done this weekend. Filter sock holder is complete. LED strip lights were installed under the tank and the sump was moved into place. About this time I was wondering what I had gotten myself into How far I got before I had to call it quits. The Bean Animal plumbing is mostly complete except I need to find a 1/4" NPTF tap for the durso drain's air hole. Going to check Lowes today.

Yeah, the cords are both facing the center. The sides have an about an inch and a half of room, which I hope is enough to allow the hot air to rise and be exhausted by fans I installed. If the lights end up being too hot then I will have to install side fans, but I really don't want to for aesthetic reasons.