Deeper Well - An Aquasole 60

[jedimasterben]

So my 40 gallon breeder setup started leaking, and I was planning on replacing it soon anyway, but my timeline for that suddenly got WAY shorter. Luckily, my friends at Coralvue came through and had an Acquasole 60 system in Orlando with Ricardo, so I could go and pick it up! Also, I must be cursed, because as Ricardo was showing me his big tank, I noticed he had a small trickle of water coming from the bulkheads in his sump, which had had the gasket installed on the wrong side for quite some time, but had picked that very moment to start dumping out water! Luckily it was a somewhat quick fix.

I got everything home, and then I started to get to work.

Got the stand bottom I cut prepped (they don't come with bottoms). Going to silicone it in place tonight.

Corals and fish are doing well so far.

Put a buttload of felt slidy-jiggies under the stand so it wouldn't scratch the floor any when moving it around.

Thinking I'm going to put it back on the far wall instead of on the wall to the left where the 40 was.

And a test fit of the sump, skimmer, and return pump.

Ordered sand this morning. Going to see if 20lbs of Nature's Ocean Samoa Pink #5 (1.7-2.5mm grain size) is enough. Can always add more later. It is the same kind of sand that I used to have in my 80, but this is a slightly larger grain size.

I'm still deciding on what to do about the aquascape. I don't want to use all dry rock, but with live rock I'll be limited as to what I can do since I can't keep it out of water too long. Decisions, decisions.

 

[Ljaus]

Sorry to hear about your last tank, was looking really nice to. However I'm looking forward to watching this build progress!!

 

[jedimasterben]

Well, poopily, we off to a great start, a little while ago I found my marine betta on the floor, it jumped out of the tub

 

[ksfulk]

Well, poopily, we off to a great start, a little while ago I found my marine betta on the floor, it jumped out of the tub

Thats so heart breaking to hear - that was a great looking fish Good luck on the rebuild!

 

[hung]

What sump is that?

 

[revhtree]

Following!

 

[jedimasterben]

Thats so heart breaking to hear - that was a great looking fish Good luck on the rebuild!

Thanks, hopefully it goes smoother from here. Will likely be breaking my current rockwork apart this week, removing all the coral on it, and then putting it back together in a new cube-style scape. Still unsure what exactly to do with that though!

What sump is that?

It is an IceCap 15.

Following!

 

[jedimasterben]

Got two bags of sand. One bag of Nature's Ocean oolite, and one of Samoa Pink #5, which is 1.7-2.5mm grain size. It is not as 'white' as the #2 size, but it can DEFINITELY withstand way more flow.

An hour, some cement, acrylic polymer, and a little vision, and you can turn a bunch of rocks into a pile of rock.

Another 30g or so of water ready to go to finish filling the tank (will only need to use 10 gallons or so of the water that is in the holding tub).

 

[jedimasterben]

Was a good morning for a tank fill.

I may or may not have had the Gyre outputs turned so that they were facing straight up when I plugged it in.... oops.

 

[revhtree]

Was a good morning for a tank fill.

I may or may not have had the Gyre outputs turned so that they were facing straight up when I plugged it in.... oops.

HAHA! Done that!

 

[jedimasterben]

Got the 8020 mounting for the Ethereals on Friday and got it in place on the wall. That stuff is so awesome.

And then this.



I replaced the drain with a piece of FlexPVC and glued it in, but this morning after running it all night I saw a drop of water at the top, I don't know yet if it was because I didn't have it on tight enough or if it's just that the female threaded piece of the tank itself is crap.

The return tubing is this super thin silicone, and it had a couple of small holes that were invisible to the eye, but water dripped right out of once pressurized by the return pump. I was able to cut that inch or so off, but the tank did not come with any clamp to hold it to the barb fitting, so I just used a large worm-drive clamp I had, and it was too large, I believe, so it still has a very very minor drip leak.

This is all on top of the tank being so loud with my return pump pushing the minimum amount of water. I sent some pics to Coralvue and they said that I am missing some parts that they'd send over. Converting the drain to FlexPVC instead of the ribbed garbage it came with reduced noise significantly, but being a standard open channel drain with no plumbing to adjust airflow into the drain, it will never be quiet, hopefully the parts I'm missing will do the trick. It went from sounding like someone was filling the tank with a garden hose from five feet above to a muffled water gurgling sound. When I fully close the stand, it's tolerable as it is, but the inside of the stand get so humid in such a short time that I will need to vent it or I cannot keep any electrical hardware in it.

After all that, I couldn't sleep, so I got the Ethereals hung up. There is no hanging kit yet, so I literally just took some copper wire I had left over from my Sunpower build and have that tied together. The stuff can hold probably 40lbs of weight or so, so the two Ethereal is nothing, and the wire sleeve is tacky enough to hold extremely tightly when tied. 10 cents in wire holding up $1200 in lighting

Got them plugged in, they connected right up to the ICV6 wireless controller, and were ready to roll.

 

[jedimasterben]

oh snap.

 

[Ljaus]

Coming along very nicely

 

[jedimasterben]

Coming along very nicely

Thanks! Yeah, besides issues with noise and leaky plumbing, everything is going decently. Looking forward to the corals fully settling in and getting some more fish.

 

[jedimasterben]

i hate flickr sometimes.

FTS 8/8/2016

 

[jedimasterben]

Whoop whoop, looks like all the leaks are done, the stand was bone dry inside when I checked today. Well, bone dry except for the near 100% humidity inside it. Still gotta figure out an easy way to get rid of that. Might just buy something like this and clip it on the inside of the stand pointing up through the overflow cutout, that should do it cheap and easy, so long as it can be directly powered via USB.

I am going over what fish I want to add to the system. I am definitely getting another betta, they're my favorite fish and relatively care free. And if I can ever find a pygmy hawkfish that will live more than a month I'd love another. A springer's damsel will add some blue pop, and a Talbot's is a nice addition.

I'm also thinking of a yellow candy hogfish, Bodianus bimaculatus. Beatiful fish, but lots of conflicting reports of them being angels or buttholes.

 

[revhtree]

Looking great man!

 

[jedimasterben]

Looking great man!

Thanks rev!

 

[jedimasterben]

Got a coral beauty angel, a solorensis fairy wrasse, a blue knuckle hermit, a candy stripe pistol shrimp, and a sand sifting starfish yesterday. Solorensis eats Larry's Reef Frenzy like a pig, and the coral beauty is interested in it, but seems confused as to why there is so much of it

 

[Smite]

Incredible photos! So crisp. The tank is coming along very well, it will fill in nicely.