Skynyrd Fish
Valuable Member
Awesome!
Mehaffy's 1100+ gallon Plywood display in North Alabama
- Monster Build
- Thread starter mehaffydr
- Start date
- Tagged users None
OP
OP
IT IS FULL
As of this morning tank is full No apparent issues at all. No leaks No deflection on back wall. The temp is up to 72 as of this morning. I will continue to monitor, add salt and finish getting the lighting up this weekend.
As of this morning tank is full No apparent issues at all. No leaks No deflection on back wall. The temp is up to 72 as of this morning. I will continue to monitor, add salt and finish getting the lighting up this weekend.
Have you gotten a chance to check out the PAR in the aquarium under the MH fixtures yet? I'm extremely curious to know how far they penetrate and what the spread looks like on the rockwork for coral placement.
OP
OP
I have not. I only have Old bulbs right now. I have new ones ordered that should be here early next week. I do not have a PAR meter so I will end up buying one or borrowing one once I get all the new bulbs in. I also have 6 new T5 bulbs coming in next week. SO I will have 4 new 250 watt MH, 14 new 39 watt T5 and the 5 Kessil 360X I will be placing the Kesssils over the rock work to improve lighting where corals will be placed.
Monkeynaut
Active Member
- Joined
- Dec 15, 2016
- Messages
- 460
- Reaction score
- 208
I can bring my Par meter when I come back for the RO system.
OP
OP
Wow you are full of surprises. That would be great. I will let you know as soon as I have all of the lighting in place. I would love to be able to get an idea of what I have for lighting.
Thank You
Thank You
OP
OP
So this evening I added 6 Buckets of Reef crystals. Looks like salt is at about 1.22-1.23. I will recheck in the morning and add more as needed after what in there has more time to completely dissolve. I have 2 800 watt heaters in the display and the temp is already up to 77 deg.
I have the nine WAV powerheads fire up and it is crazy how much water movement I'm seeing. The water surface is moving up and down at least 1" If I new how to post a video I'd show you guys. I think I'm good on movement because this is without the 8500GPH Reeflo hammerhead pump.
I have the nine WAV powerheads fire up and it is crazy how much water movement I'm seeing. The water surface is moving up and down at least 1" If I new how to post a video I'd show you guys. I think I'm good on movement because this is without the 8500GPH Reeflo hammerhead pump.
OP
OP
Salt is at 1.025 and temp is 78 deg this morning. For today I'm just going to let things settle and let that salt completely dissolve. Either tonight or tomorrow I think I will do a test run on the water circulation system going through the sump and all of the return pipes. If this all goes well I will put some of my older established rock in and let some bacteria start populating. right now I have 5 fish so not really concerned about bioload with 1200 plus gallons of water. I also have to start adding sand. I am using Carib Sea live sand so this should also help with the bacteria.
Auflyfish
Active Member
@mehaffydr you gonna do tours once you’re all set up?! I know my father and I would love to see it. Dads huge into woodworking and I was telling him about your craftsmanship of this beaut
OP
OP
I will welcome anyone from Reef2Reef who wants to come by. I am actually going to do a barbecue day here in the next couple months when the weather warms up a but. Just watch for it on the NARC page or sent me a message and your welcome to come by.
OP
OP
I did start a Dehumidifier today as the humidity seams to be rising. But it also been constantly raining for the last few days. I am looking at what to use to cover the top of the tank to keep the evaporation down.
najer
Valuable Member
Have you thought about using Stability or Dr. tims to help seed the tank with bacteria? You could also take water change water from someone's system and add that for more bacteria (I would just advise being selective of who's water you take, don't want bubble algae or other nuisances coming in with it).
OP
OP
I actually have my own. I saved the sand and live rock from the 225 gallon tank that I took down. So far I have added 200lbs. Carib sea live sand and at least 50 lbs of sand from my personal tank and I also have about 250 lbs live rock that has been in my system for years so I do not think that having bacteria will be a problem. I just want to move slow because in my temporary system I only have about 100 gallons and now I have at least 1200 total so its kind of like doing a 90% water change and adding double the rock as dry rock so it will just take a little time for everything to balance out.
OP
OP
So a lot of time spent on the tank today.
Started the morning by going to Tractor Supply and buying a 40 Gallon stock tank.
I then pulled all 250-300 lbs of live rock out of sump which is also temporary housing for the fish.
I then pumped all of the water 100+ gallons into brute cans 5 gallon buckets and filled the new 40 gallon stock tank that I had washed with vinegar.
I had to pump the water out to catch the fish.
I put a power head a heater and about 30lbs of rock in the stock tank fish will only e in here a few days.
I then put the water I had removed from the sump back into the sump.
Then I decided it was time for the final big test in this build. I was ready to test the plumbing of the return pump. I opened the valve from the sump and immediately water everywhere I had 4 or 5 gallons on the floor as I quickly closed the valve. This was a surprise not sure what had happened I started inspecting and found that the pump was cracked. I have no idea when this happened. I think maybe in shipping but can't hardly believe I never noticed it. Luckily for me I had a back up pump. Not quite the same volume but I'm sure plenty for the job. The broken pump was a Reeflo Tigershark and the backup is a Reeflo Hammerhead Gold both are high pressure pumps so I was confident it would be fine. So just a little time switching the pump and ready for test 2
This time I opened the valve and all looked good.
I plugged it in and a lot of air came through followed by water flowing. It took a little to get things balanced out but it has been running for about 6 hours now and all looks great. The overflo is working good and the best thing NO LEAKS at all. I put a filter sock on the drain to get things cleared up tank is very cloudy right now with all of the sand added. Ill just let it run a few days to a week and make sure everything is balanced out and then next step put my livestock in the new tank.
Cracked pump
Cloudy Tank
Overflow
Started the morning by going to Tractor Supply and buying a 40 Gallon stock tank.
I then pulled all 250-300 lbs of live rock out of sump which is also temporary housing for the fish.
I then pumped all of the water 100+ gallons into brute cans 5 gallon buckets and filled the new 40 gallon stock tank that I had washed with vinegar.
I had to pump the water out to catch the fish.
I put a power head a heater and about 30lbs of rock in the stock tank fish will only e in here a few days.
I then put the water I had removed from the sump back into the sump.
Then I decided it was time for the final big test in this build. I was ready to test the plumbing of the return pump. I opened the valve from the sump and immediately water everywhere I had 4 or 5 gallons on the floor as I quickly closed the valve. This was a surprise not sure what had happened I started inspecting and found that the pump was cracked. I have no idea when this happened. I think maybe in shipping but can't hardly believe I never noticed it. Luckily for me I had a back up pump. Not quite the same volume but I'm sure plenty for the job. The broken pump was a Reeflo Tigershark and the backup is a Reeflo Hammerhead Gold both are high pressure pumps so I was confident it would be fine. So just a little time switching the pump and ready for test 2
This time I opened the valve and all looked good.
I plugged it in and a lot of air came through followed by water flowing. It took a little to get things balanced out but it has been running for about 6 hours now and all looks great. The overflo is working good and the best thing NO LEAKS at all. I put a filter sock on the drain to get things cleared up tank is very cloudy right now with all of the sand added. Ill just let it run a few days to a week and make sure everything is balanced out and then next step put my livestock in the new tank.
Cracked pump
Cloudy Tank
Overflow
Last edited:
Skynyrd Fish
Valuable Member
Your tank water is like coke. It needs to be less white. sorry I couldn’t help myself.
I bet you had a mild heart attack when the water hit the floor. Good thing you had an extra pump.
I bet you had a mild heart attack when the water hit the floor. Good thing you had an extra pump.
CrimsonTide
Valuable Member
Do you have some sort of warranty on the pump? Bc right now you don't have a backup. It is working as the main. I'm glad everything tested well after that. Sounds like the tank is really close to adding your small livestock.
OP
OP
I do not have Gas where I'm at so I will just use electric' I am not seeing a problem I have 2 800watt and they heated it right up.
No warranty I bought it of a Reef2Reef member. Its like brand new but No warranty. I have already ordered the replacement part from Reeflo it was only $37.00
Similar threads
