jlanger's 120gal Arts and Crafts Inspired Reef Build

[gerards_reef]

Agreed! Please share the link to your new build!

 

[jlanger]

Any link to his reef setup, I would love to see that- I have been thinking about trying to breed leopards (not that I have any experience)- do you have a new thread or staying with this one?

 

[EmusJames]

Water Change Improvements

Here's some improvements I have made to my water change maintenance routine.

Since I upgraded from the 45gal to the 120gal system, I purchased a 44gal Brute container for making new saltwater and a 32gal Brute container for moving the water from/to the tank.
The first thing I did to the Brute containers was to thoroughly clean them.
After I cleaned them, I used 5gal water containers to fill the Brutes with water. While doing so, I recorded the height of the water levels for each 5 gallons in the two different containers. I did this so I could quickly measure the amount of water I had available when making new batches of saltwater.

I made a couple of "measuring sticks" using leftover sections of white pvc pipe with vinyl numbers and line markers.
I started with 10 gallons and placed a line at each gallon; with numbers for every 5 gallons.
When I need to know how much water is in a container, I just drop in the stick and have an accurate measurement.
This works well with needing to know how much salt to add, how much water I remove from the display and how much water I need to refill the display.



Another project was to create a siphon for draining water out of the display.
I created a U-tube Siphon out of pvc parts and hooked it up to a length of 3/4" flexible tubing. The tubing just empties into my 32gal Brute container on a dolly.



I didn't glue any of the parts together so I can make modifications and changes as I see fit.
If I want to siphon out more or less water, I just change to piece of pipe that is inside the tank to a longer or shorter piece.
Once the water level reaches the upturned elbows, the siphon breaks.
When using this siphon, I can be away from the tank to do other maintenance and not have to worry about overflowing the Brute container.



With this setup, I remove about 23 gallons of water.
Since I know how much water was drained from the display, I fill the Brute container to that same level and wheel the fresh saltwater over to the display.
Using the same U-tube Siphon, I hook up a smaller water pump to pump the fresh saltwater up into the tank.



Since I have the same amount of water in the container that was removed, I don't need to worry about over-filling the display.
Which regardless, wouldn't be much of an issue as my sump has the overflow space available.

Another little toy I picked up was the Bucket Head wet/dry vacuum for cleaning out the detritus that accumulates in my sump.
For about $22, it's a great way to clean out a sump that is too low for a siphon system.
Having a dedicated vacuum and bucket for my tank should eliminate any possible contaminations from other sources.
And since the basin is just a 5gal bucket, it's a breeze to pick up and dump out the waste water.



Doing these type of upgrades really made my water change maintenance routine a lot easier and not such a chore.
No more guessing about how much water I have.
No more lugging around 5gal buckets.
No more lifting and dumping buckets of water into the display.
No more splashing and dripping water all over the place.
And I can get it all done in less than half an hour.

Where did you get the vinyl numbers and line markers?