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Message: <blockquote data-quote="kyleinpdx" data-source="post: 7526841" data-attributes="member: 71483">Alright, so where did I leave off? I ordered the tank and stand from IM on black friday,  around the same time I picked up the sump, return pump, aquaticlife fixture, skimmer, and all the plumbing bits. I ended up saving about $500 off the "retail" of everything I bought during BF/CM. I was reusing the Reefkeeper and A80's from my previous setup.I cant remember exactly but I believe the tank shipped a week or two later. Arrived via LTL to my driveway, the kid who was making the delivery wasn't fond I wouldn't sign his BOL before I unboxed and inspected every corner, but it came well shipped from IM and there wasn't any damage to report. And there it sat... on its pallet for weeks. Mid-January I decided I should probably do something with it, so I got the stand assembled and started mocking up the plumbing. This was my second go-round assembling one of these IM APS stands so I knew what to expect, but man, its still a PITA to get assembled. Its not difficult or technical, it just requires a lot of tweaking to get everything level/square. Got that situated and began the first leak test! <img src="/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/Xenforo-Extended-Smilies-1k/nailbiting.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=";Nailbiting" title="Nailbiting    ;Nailbiting" data-shortname=";Nailbiting" />[ATTACH=full]1599992[/ATTACH]This is actually a very telling picture, it includes at least 4 other of my... ahem... hobbies.[ATTACH=full]1599994[/ATTACH]As I was filling it, I noticed a weird pattern emerging on the leveling mat underneath, after some messing with it I realized it was where the adhesive holding it to the bottom of the tank wasn't sticky/tacky. I could press it up and it wouldn't stick. Oh well, it'll be covered with sand and no one will ever see it, it didn't impact the leveling mats effectiveness so I left it as is. [ATTACH=full]1599991[/ATTACH]Here you can see what I did with the gate valve. I notched out the shelf kit and covered the cut edge in epoxy (hopefully it doesn't swell, time will tell). I did this for two reasons:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">I always see these located in hard to reach places under the overflow, make it easily accessible. You'll want ready access to it. </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The longer the run from the overflow bow to the first "obstruction" (in this case the gate of the gate valve) will help getting the siphon started during maintenance or after a power outage. The siphon will still start if the valve is directly below the overflow, this helps with velocity of water through the pipe. </li> </ul>I planned on three sections of the stand: the bottom half being devoted to the sump and "wet" (meaning no electronics should be down there), the upper half I've split in two, the right hand side will house all of my power strips, bricks and wiring, it will be hidden behind a controller board, the left hand side will be my dry goods storage such as test kits and tools.What you cant see from this angle is how I plumbed the manifold. I knew I would want some expandability so I built a 2, 1/2" ball valve manifold off of the return pump. At the time, I wasn't sure how much of the return pumps power I would need to devote to in tank flow (spoiler alert, its about 55%) so I wanted to minimize inefficiencies in the return pluming.[ATTACH=full]1600019[/ATTACH](please excuse the wiring, haven't finished the controller board)Its easier to see in the image above, I used a "T" to feed the manifold, but made sure the "path of least resistance" was upward to the tank. I added a union, then stepped down to 1/2" since the valves were easier to source. You cant really see from the photo but the left most ball valve is way in the back behind my fuge light, where as the right hand side valve is much closer to the front of the sump. I figure I'll run either a reactor or UV at some point and I'll want them positioned over the sump (far back valve) BUT I also want to make sure I can keep the sump, sand, rocks clean so the 2nd valve is for running some 1/2" clear plastic tubing and using that as a "hose" to stir up anything that I wan to clean. Instead of having to do a water change, if I want to blast some detritus off the rocks or sand I just pop in a filter sock, hook up the hose, turn the return pump up nice and high and open the valve. Everything gets suspended in the water column and pulled out by the sock and skimmer. A clean sand bed is a productive sand bed. I also called out in that above image the PVC hanger, the manifold was heavy, and I didn't want the stress of my turning the valves on and off all hanging on my return bulkhead, so once everything was in place I used a plastic PVC hanger and screwed it into the bottom of the shelf, now when I turn the valve handles or knock things around when cleaning (with the hose mentioned earlier) everything is held nice and tight against the shelf. That's cool and all but the tank was far from finished, it wasn't even in the house yet! Since it was going to be a replacement for a currently running tank that would be going in the exact. same. spot. I had some juggling to do. I was really dreading moving the running tank so I found every excuse for the 50 gallon to stay in the garage for another 2 months.And then?!A GLOBAL PANDEMICThankfully my wife and I are able to work fully remote so outside of not having childcare (our 2.5yr old is home with us) life went on, but I found myself with a lot more spare time and less and less excuses to not getting the new tank setup. So one afternoon I decided to bite the bullet and move the tank, we were only going across the room so it wasn't the end of the world, but I was not looking forward to it. I picked up some additional 5 gallon buckets and siphoned 90% of the water out of the tank and into the buckets. With my wife's help I used some "furniture movers" (little plastic pads) under each corner and slid the tank across the floor. I know from brandon429 and personal experience that most corals can live exposed to air for longer than we give them credit for as long as they dont dry out, so I wasn't too concerned about that. The move went so much easier and quicker than I had imagined. I was thrilled. Got the old tank in its temp home and started thinking I was getting close to swapping everything over. Ah ha, if only. In my next post I'll go into detail about the actual crappy bit, a wrench that got thrown into the gears that I was not expecting. I'll give you a hint, it involves about 600lbs and my floor.Until next time.</blockquote>

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