Flip's Reef

[revhtree]

Good job! Looks like you have lots of room to work with there. :)

 

[CHEF]

Great job.

 

[Flipside]

Good job! Looks like you have lots of room to work with there. :)

Thank you, sir!

Great job.

Appreciate that!

My wife informed me that I have to get the sand off of the little deep freezer out in the garage... so, it looks like I'll be putting my sand in tonight. I wonder if 160lbs is overkill? LOL!

 

[LILBUDDHA]

Awesome job KUYA !!!

I know it's a long project but why aren't u done already >>>JK

All I hear in my head when I go back over your build thread is Carly Simon singing ....Anticipation .

 

[Flipside]

Awesome job KUYA !!!

I know it's a long project but why aren't u done already >>>JK

All I hear in my head when I go back over your build thread is Carly Simon singing ....Anticipation .

LOL! Martial Arts class is taking up all my nights during the week, and the weekends are just too busy!

I know... 'scuses, 'scuses. :D I'll get there soon!

 

[Flipside]

Oh dear God, I'm all beat up from class! LOL! I am going to try to get the sand in tonight, and I'm going to get some sal water mixing.

I decided it's time to cycle this thing. I'm going to risk putting the rock in there, and let it cure during the cycle. I figure that it will save me some time.

On another note, how bout them Texans! :D

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 

[Flipside]

Late entry, but I've been busy...

So, here's the sand I'm using.

Again... I'm not at all interested in a sand bed. I prefer bare bottom tanks, but my wife really likes sand and different types of fish and corals (than I like). We'll see how this pans-out.

Still cleaning up this area, but the top container has about 90g in it in this pic. Float switch stopped the RO/DI unit, and no leaks. This was my first time filling it to the top.

 

[MarvinsReef]

looking good.. :)

 

[LVE]

Looks great. I love the dimensions of your tank.

 

[KoleTang]

That's a lot of sand. Why are you using so much?

 

[Flipside]

Thanks Marvin and LVE!

I'm doing a DSB for my wife. This tank is viewable from her computer area and she likes DSBs. It's all good though because I have another build coming that will be more "mine." LOL!

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[Flipside]

So, here are the updates. I did all of this yesterday...


Here's a better shot of the water change/ato station, since I got my camera back from Best Buy yesterday:

I still need to some cable management, and finish up where the pvc passes through the wall.


Here's a shot of the pvc run in the garage. I left a ball valve in there to add where I am going to remove water from the tank during water change time.

I put putty in the gaps for now. I plan on making my own flanges from wood to not only seal the holes' gaps, but act as bracing for it as well.

Here's where the pipe hits the sump. Again... not finished, but I plan on doing quite a bit more here, later.

This is the rock in the garage. I've done 3 water changes since I put it in here, and the skimmate was starting to clear up. So, I moved the rock to the tank, and will start the cycle after the sump is full of water (last batch brewing up now).


Basically, from here, I just started running water to the sump, then I'd turn on the return pump to put it in the display.

Since my camera just got back, I'm still working on the white balance issues... All my settings were lost, so I took some pics with flash:

This was just about all my first transfer could do.

With rock moved over (not 'scaped as of yet). This is how it looked when I woke up this morning.

Here it is now. :) Again, I still need to fill the sump, but so far so good!

That's it for now. Something that I noticed, and already knew would come up, is my lack of flow. There's not much in the system right now, but I'm going to try it out this way for a bit. The system is extremely quiet as it stands! :) Stoked about that! Obviously, I don't have the skimmer or return running yet, though. LOL

 

[Flipside]

So, I had to elevate my skimmer a bit, due to the way the sump was built. The baffles are too tall, IMO. So, it's doing it's thing.

Here it was when I first fired it up:

The gate was wide open... no bueno...

Here's how the gate looked from the side:

They shouldn't be under the water like that. LOL

So, I elevated it with one of those tackle box accessory thingies... It's was brand new, so I just rinsed it off and dropped it in there. Like a glove:

Now I can adjust it.

I also got my top off switch in place. Those who work with acrylic know how difficult it can be to put holes in it. My handy dandy Dremmel made the sump look like a chump:

Wifey's finger there. :D She held the vacuum so chips didn't get in the water.

And, I kicked off the cycle. I put some fishing line around the shrimpy so I can pull it if needs-be. I usually just let them rot away...

Any way... that's all. Productive weekend, if I say so myself. Now, on to the lighting

 

[Flipside]

Since I seem to have a different mindset on what rockwork should look like, here's my first attempt:

I'm going for a "less is better" approach as in the past, I've always had to remove rock as the tank filled in. I'm definitely open to suggestions here...

 

[revhtree]

Great job and lobe the water changing station!

 

[Rob.D]

Great build thread! Your water station is second to none!

 

[Flipside]

Thanks Rev and Rob!

 

[Flipside]

I didn't really accomplish much last night, as I'm just watching the tank cycle. I did, however, work on a temporary solution for my lighting, though... I should have that mounted tonight. It will have to sit like that until I get someone to do the canopy for me. I'd like for it to be similar to the one I had on my last tank (floating) because I like the clean look of it against the wall. Here's how that one looked:

I did take a brief video of the tank and sump this morning. I had to use a mag light to show part of the sump. I guess I need to get a light under there, too...


138g Build :: 2012-10-16_05-56-56_617.mp4 video by TSDLeo - Photobucket

 

[Flipside]

Bout to hit the hay, but figured I'd get these pics up before hand. I got my lights in their temporary home. Not a big deal, but got to play around with the Apex a little bit.

 

[MarvinsReef]

looking good bro. 1smile1

nice avatar too. :bigsmile: