Hookup's build.

[archie]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w15wOWcZ7Mo
The pumps were set at about 50% power, so the wave easily could have been sloshing out of the tank if I cranked it up... and no, my stand is NOT reenforced for the lateral stress of a wave so this was just playing around...

how quiet is the pump now?  how much stress would the wave put on the stand?

[xenon]

how quiet is the pump now?  how much stress would the wave put on the stand?

The stress would be quite a bit. That is a serious amount of weight transferring side to side.

[salvini55]

I love the comments in the video! "and why did you need a wave box again?" LOL

[Hookup]

Yeah comments in the vid are funny... and agreed, no idea why a wave box would ever be needed... but to each his own...

The stress from 90gallons of water sloshing back and fourth will tear apart any stand not designed to take that lateral force... unfortunately you can google for these types of accidents and see posts all over the place...

Yes, that is Pat talking.  He was over to help me move the tank .25inches... which we did without emptying the tank... i pulled up on the tank, he pushed against the wall and it moved... I'm guessing 1000lbs... which was way way way easier than pumping out the water...


The noise level has gone down some, but not enough for my liking... however know that I am a sensitve SOB for noise and the smallest amount buggs me... on Lagoon mode it's quite enough.. on reefcrest mode you hear it more obviously... I still have to finish aligning and playing with the setup, and from the mfg whom i showed the vid to, including the noise level, they do require a short break-in time...

[redsanurse]

Exactly!  She did ask how much the vortech's cost... I did answer, "honey, $20 bucks... " with a smile.. that ended the conversation right there... 

Funny that is how I talk to my husband. How much did you spend shopping? "Just $50" as I carefully hide the $400 in receipts away. Then when I get caught later I tell him he had a hearing problem and I told him the right price and he just chose to hear differently.

Course drilling holes in the hardwood,  he is lucky I won't be doing that. The basement under my tank is completely finished. In fact the only unfinished area of my basement is under the stairs and the fridge.

HMMMMM A tank as you walked down the basement stairs..... Yep ok. I need to win the lottery. Or maybe I can live without a fridge. Or put the fridge in the living room. Who needs a fridge in the kitchen? LOL

[Hookup]

Wow, it's bee a while... Ok some photos...   Some stuff is in temporary positions due to the crash a month ago... Most stuff is very brown in color, well the SPS are brown, some of the LPS are back to full-color.

The photos are crappy.. be warned... I did not edit, nor did I go into Macro's...

[Hookup]

The Sump Room is something that people wanted to see.  Again, be warned.. I'm mid-process of finishing it off so there are quite a number of stray wires and cables and tubes... but this'll give everyone an idea.

[Hookup]

Ok, So there are several things on the to-do list, like continue to clean up the sump-room, but before that I need to continue to DIY modify the Ultralith reactor.  I bought the biggest aquarium air-pump I could find and it blows... well it blows badly... I need to find a bigger air pump for my needs.  So that is an on-going project before I can continue much further with the re-introduction of the ultralith system.

I need to get the ATO system running, though at this time i'm not 100% sure if I want to use the trickle method on my proflux controller, or other ways... that is still TBD.

I just changed out the T5's for all 12k bulbs... Now I'm running 20k MH as the main and 4x12k T5HO's as the supplements... I know that is "weird" to say the least... but it's an experiment... more on that when I get further down the road.

[Vincenzo.]

straight up bad ass man. and for the rock wall, that's a nice effect. thats some crazy plumbing too. ahhh what a job, but in all seriousness it is very neat and tidy. BoomBap!!

[salvini55]

yep the walls always make me drool for ten mins. That lab is Kickin bad's ass, rockin out.

[Hookup]

Thanks, honestly...

But the plumbing is no-where near neat and tidy...

And for info's sake... the sump is not only in the basement, but is also 20feet away from the tank... the water does travel a long-long way to get from the DT to the sump..

There are quite a few "mini" clean-up projects that are required, but right now I'm 100% focused on the ultralith system... I have all the parts, i just have not made it 100% automated (lazy)... As it sits, I have to go down 2x per day and "shake" the rocks... ok at least once a day.. anyhow.. that's just waaaay to much effort... so I'm adding blower (air) to the reactor to flood the rocks with "air" and tumble them around and around... on a timer (proflux) and automate the system... I've also changed dosing plans (thanks Pat)...

Now;

Dosing Pump 1 - Calcium
Dosing Pump 2 - ALK
Dosing Pump 3 - Magnesium
Dosing Pump 4 - Potassium
Dosing Pump 5 - MIN-S (ammino acid)
Dosing Pump 6 - BAK (ammino acid stuff)
Dosing Pump 7 - MIN-D (gorg & clam food)
Dosing Pump 8 - FreshWater (tied to the Salinity Sensor)

Power 1 - Fuge Lights
Power 2 - Ultralith Reactor
Power 3 - Ultralith Blower (4xday - once I find a powerful enuf blower)
Power 4 - Heater (on a safety associated w/ temp sensor auto-shut off at 84deg)
Power 5 - Future Ozone Reactor (associated w/ future ORP probe)
Power 6 - ATO Trickle System ( Auto Shut Down the Trickle System if Salinity is *off* , Also Timer controlled On/Off every 4 hrs for #-Min)

ATO Trickle System - 2 BRS 50ml/min Dosing Pumps chaining 1.5 gallon/day over 6 intervals = 10%/week changes

[Vincenzo.]

you must be some ones idols idol. thats nuts. me i use a dayyum baby syringe and add some purple up now and then with the odd drops of a few other products. along with a nice big wc every week for my tanks...god i got a loooong way to catch up.

[JD]

Compared to the amount of air the aquarium air pump delivered, how much more flow do we need? 2 times, 4 times, 10 times more? I am curiious because I just bought a reactor and plan to do the same.

[pminister]

Wow. that is an intense setup............ tank is looking amazing

[Hookup]

Compared to the amount of air the aquarium air pump delivered, how much more flow do we need? 2 times, 4 times, 10 times more? I am curiious because I just bought a reactor and plan to do the same.

Right now, I'd guess at least 4x the air...  Silly thing isn't rated (Rena Air 400 Pump)...

I'm looking into Pond Pumps now... $150 of frigg'n ouch...

[bitterman]

I'm not very  that you would have shuch an awesome setup. Keep it comming on all the very good work! I'm sure learning somthing!

I bet you don't wnat to add up the $$$$$ you have spent on the setup to date!

Bruce

[RoxyDog]

I bet you don't wnat to add up the $$$$$ you have spent on the setup to date!

Shhhhhh, we do not speak of it!!!   

Very nice man, very nice. 

[Hookup]

Ive got to let the cat out of the bag... We are planning a 6-foot, 4 sided viewable in-wall tank upgrade that will split the dining room and the family room.  I'm working out how many holes to get drilled into the bottom of the tank and where, so I can get the order placed.  I will be starting a new build thread on this "the last tank of my life" tank...  and, yes it's the last tank of my life because I cannot cut a 6 foot hole in the wall, drill more holes in the hardwood floor and say in a year or three, "honey, what do you think about a bigger tank" without wearing full body armor or completely lawyered up for another divorce.

That said, the investments made in the sump area were always done to support a bigger display.  I'll be going from a 92gallon bow front to a 180 gallon 72x24x24 tank.  The only thing that I did "wrong" was the lighting on my existing tank.  It cannot be transferred to the new system because it is the wrong shape/style and I want to go 100% T5HO.   Therefore, in the future, my 92gallon corner, with foam-walls, sand, some frags and fish, including stand, canopy, and lights will be in the classified ads section...  Someone will just have to add a 25gallon tall tank as a sump, with return pump, and a skimmer and they have a fully cycled reef-system for a fraction of the cost of new...

[gerryo]

Seems to me that you would not need a wavemaker in this tank.  It is large enough to create it's own TIDES.  If you go any bigger your house will disintegrate. 

You're making all of us envious of all that stuff.  Seems like you are building your own world.  I guess you're taking over from God himself. (or is that herself, hard to know these days. 

Simply BEAUTIFUL. 

[Hookup]

Thanks Gerryo...