Mike's 260g Rimless Build

[MBSL55]

I actually started my build earlier this year before I was really active here but I thought I'd go ahead and list what I have done in case it can help others avoid my mistakes and I'll update this as things progress as it is not quite done yet.

Tank dimensions are 84.5" x 30" x 24" with dual overflows offset about 1 foot from the edge of the tank. 3/4" Starphire on the front and sides, regular 3/4" glass on the back. PVC bottom with an additional 1/2" glass on the bottom for bracing and support. No trim on the bottom either. Drains are 1.5" in each overflow with 1" returns. Black silicone for the seams and black vinyl backing. This will basically be a massive Solana

The stand is custom made and then painted black with no visible hinges and a small lip that is flush with the walls of the stand. Clean and simple.

Lighting consists of 5 AI Vega Colors using 5 of their EXT supports bolted to the back of the stand.

Return pumps are dual Mag 12s. I decided on the Mags as they are cost effective workhorses and the heat doesn't bother me as I'll be running all LEDs anyway. I will also have a pair of 300w heaters in addition to the Mag 12's

I plan on adding a battery back-up system for the pumps that I will DIY using some marine deep cycle batteries. Right now, I'm thinking about 4 of them but I will have to see how things go.

Existing equipment from my 70 gallon transferred over including:

Apex with dual EB-8's and socket expansion module to run a JBJ 1/3 hp chiller. I/O breakout box that is used to connect backup switches for my ATO. The ATO is a JBJ tied to an aqualifter pump. I've added a PM2 module for extra redundancy on the ATO portion and, an extra Breakout box to automatically switch and turn on/off my stand lighting, and a WXM for the MP40's

Supplementation will be via standard 2-part solution and a Bubble Magus auto doser that I already had. I had Marc Levenson build a some custom container for the 2-part solution (5 gallons each on Alk and Ca and 2.5 gallons on Mg).

I also have a pair of Vortech MP-40W-ES pumps that made the move over.

I also had Marc build a custom sump with a large refugium section. I am a firm believer in using macro for phosphate control and other goodness. I started with a TS-300 skimmer powered by a Mag 12 but upgraded to a ATI PowerCone 200iS.

I went with Tropic Eden Reeflakes for the sand bed.

Rock work consisted of about 270lbs of rock from tank breakdowns. Some was live, some dry and dead, and some in a funkified decaying state. I used some Marco Rock mortar to pre-form one large structure that I wanted. I aquascaped with an eye toward keeping things open by using a lot of negative space

One other note on the pumps. I like redundancy and backups. I keep a spare 12 around as my mixing pump as a backup and also keep an additional spare impeller around. I also built my QT system with an eye toward redundancy and have a Bubble Magus doser and JBJ ATO for that as well. I also plan on using AI Vega fixtures for the QT so I have spares and so I can use them for coral acclimation.

 

[MBSL55]

Preparing the rockwork for this tank actually started in mid-June when I started to get stuff from tank breakdowns. I've learned that I want to cure all my rock and ensure it is pest free to give me a good start. I really don't want to have to deal with bubble algae, aiptasia, majanos, etc. I've also read up enough about phosphate leaching from Pukani and other types of rock. I didn't want to start off with a phosphate battle that could last for months. I ended up using rock from existing tanks which can be roughly sorted into 3 categories:

1. Live Rock
2. Dead Rock that dried out
3. Funky Rock (I invented this one to describe rock that recently came out of a tank and dried out)

Regardless of the type of rock, the goal is to remove as much phosphate that can leach out as possible. The live rock has received Lanthanum Chloride treatments to precipitate out phosphate that leaches into the water. The other two types of rock got a full chlorine bath, muriatic acid bath, and is now going through Lanthanum Chloride treatments.

I wanted an idea of how much phosphate was really coming out of the rocks so I started each type of rock in a saltwater bath. I picked-up some rubbermaid containers and also a pair of 40 gallon breeders from the Petco $1 sale for curing and preparing all the rock. I'll try to document everything in case someone else wants to go through the same prep process.

Here's what the phosphate levels read for each type of rock according to a Hanna Checker:

1. Live Rock = 0.15 ppm - 0.43 ppm depending on the batch
2. Dead Rock = 0.45 ppm
3. Funky Rock = 0.35 ppm (after bleach and acid wash!!!)

Dead Rock and Funky Rock were treated the same way. Here's a sample batch:

And after the bleach bath of 1 gallon of bleach per 20 gallons or so of water and a good rinsing and drying out:

Next, a muriatic acid bath to remove organics and strip away some of the rock. This is nasty stuff so research and use the proper precautions or the acid can cause blindness among other things. Also do this outside and stay away from the fumes! Make sure you have removed all the bleach, rinsed well, and dried the rock out. HCL and Chlorine mix are bad juju. No comment on what I ended up using for "safety" equipment.

More acid bath nastiness:

I used a 1/2 gallon of acid at a time until it stopped fizzing, added more, and repeated the process until there was little to no fizzing. I then dumped a bunch of baking soda in to neutralize any remaining acid and then washed each rock off in a baking soda laden tub to be sure. Here it is after all the acid washing. Note how porous and open it is. I still had to hose off a layer of organics from the surface. Also, as you can see from the phosphate readings above, the newly exposed surfaces still leach phosphate.

 

[MBSL55]

Next up, Lanthanum Chloride. I used this to treat my Live Rock and my cleaned Dead Rock and Formerly Funky Rock. I love this stuff. It is the same stuff they sell for "instant phosphate removal" purposes. You can get it a LOT cheaper at the pool supply store. Just look for SeaKlear or for PhosFree. Don't get the PhosFree+ as that apparently has other additives. Bonus: If you have a pool this stuff is awesome! There are dosing instructions based on your phosphate level. I used the SWAG method and just added some every morning for a couple of weeks as I am not doing this in-tank so I could care less about over dosing it and reducing Alk levels. Here's what it looks like as it is working:

A note on Lanthanum Chloride that I came across while researching this method of phosphate reduction. The stuff disassociates into Lanthanum and Chloride in water (if I'm describing the chemistry correctly) and the Lanthanum then bonds with Phosphate or Carbonate precipitating out. The particles are very fine and, some users have said fine filter feeders like clams react poorly to the precipitate. A hermit crab hid in one of the pieces of live rock. Keep in mind this little guy made it through all the LC baths so I'm guessing my live rock is still live if he could survive this process.

You want to remove the precipitate from the system otherwise the phosphate stays in and is just bound to the Lanthanum. I suppose in an acidic region there is a chance it could unbind and go back into your water column. So, I wanted to remove all the precipitate that I could after the bathing process. 5 micron filter socks are what people have been using so I did a couple of rinses:

First, I used the existing saltwater bath to rinse by attaching a filter sponge to my mag pump and then secured the filter sock around the filter sponge. Water entering the mag pump would be filtered before being used to rinse the rock. Here's what one of the filter socks and remaining water looked like:

This was nasty enough that I did the process a second time.

So what happened to the phosphate levels after all of this madness? The live rock, after soaking for 48 hours in saltwater, only released enough phosphate to bring the levels down to 0.05 ppm! I can live with that. There might be other algae and stuff dying off that will release more so I've added a ball of grape caulerpa to the live rock batch and a fuge light. I figured the macro will use up the phosphate. I am dropping a little food into this rock tank to keep the bacteria fed and our little buddy the hermit crab that went through the LC baths.

The bleached and acid washed rock is sitting in the LC bath right now and has been seeded with some live rock. I gave it another week or two and did the same rinse procedure. Here we have a batch of rock, waiting on the new tank:

Time to head out for today but I'll get some more updates on here soon.

 

[rarelyseriousb]

Following

 

[revsgirl]

Watching!

 

[tcreeftank]

Can't wait to see this all come together. Seems like a pretty intense process on the rock but well worth it.

 

[revhtree]

Yes looking forward to the progress!

 

[AsphaltPays]

Great job Definitely Following Along

 

[MBSL55]

Thank you all!

The funky rock that I bleached and acid washed still read 0.35 ppm for phosphates after that process so I questioned whether it did any good other than to remove layers of rock. After one week of LC treatment, the phosphates in a new batch of water with the rock after sitting overnight only read 0.06 ppm. So, the bleach and acid wash did remove a lot of stuff and made for a shorter LC treatment. I also noticed the water from the LC bath was not nearly as nasty as with the other rock.

My conclusion is that the bleach and acid wash do remove a lot of organics although some new surfaces with bound phosphate will be exposed. Those new surfaces will not leach as long so only a one week LC bath was needed as opposed to 2-3 weeks with rock that was not bleached and acid washed.

GFCI and Household Wiring:

The tank is in our formal living room where there is a floor outlet and no GFCI outlets to be found. First I checked the breaker box to see what the whole circuit is rated for and to determine what that circuit feeds. The circuit is a 15A and feeds all the outlets in the formal living room and the recessed lighting in the ceiling. After running the numbers, 15A is more than enough even with voltage sag. If I wanted to upgrade to a 20A circuit I would need to run new romex as the current wiring is only 14 awg and would not support a 20A breaker. What I do have the option of subbing out the 15A standard breaker for high magnetic or delayed trip breaker should the chiller require more start-up power than is available but that has not been an issue so far.

All wall outlets near the tank (3 total) are now GFCI outlets. This is overkill and redundant to a degree as GFCI's down the chain (load outlets) are already protected by the first GFCI in the chain. I see no harm in doing this and the cost of a GFCI outlet is minimal so I went ahead and did them all if they were close to the tank

The floor outlet was a little more of a pain. First, a standard GFCI outlet will not fit into the box. Considering I'll have about 300+ gallons close by, I wanted to something about the floor outlet. I ended up removing the old outlet, tying up the wires with some wire nuts, and then picked up a wet environment (outdoor) cover with gasket. Here's the old floor outlet with the cover and gasket installed:

Next, I went around and silicone sealed the rest of the box and any other gaps I could find:

So now the floor outlet is gone, sealed, and double GFCI protected as well. This should take care of the household power distribution and shock protection for this build.

 

[MBSL55]

AI EXT Mounts:

The tank mounts are very solid, much more so than I expected, and the rails are also very sturdy. It all looks to be anodized aluminum. Very clean look and no screws will be visible from the top of the mounts. The rails will also be able to hide the one power cord coming off of each fixture. If I had full access to the back of the tank, I probably would have speced out dry boxes for the Vortech dry sides so that not a single wire would be visible. AI doesn't have a lot of pictures of the EXT on their site so I've included some below:

 

[MBSL55]

Rock Structures:

I had some structures in mind that I wanted to build after looking at some aquascaping threads and I did not want to deal with rock slides anymore. One of the tools I am using is the Marco Rock mortar to cement pieces together. I had read you can work with live rock and wet rock but it really works a lot better when the rock is dry IME. If I were to do this again, I would have built any structures that require mortar before the curing process as the rocks used now have to go through all that again.

Other than that, the Marco Rocks mortar is great! Mixes quickly and easily and cures super fast. Below are pics of my "centerpiece" formation. I still need to use some mortar on the bottom to give it a flat base and will mount it to a cutting board for additional support to counter the weight of anything hanging off the far end. I know people use sand to make it look more natural or the same type of rock to get a consistent look but I figure it will be covered up in corals and coraline soon enough.

The entire structure is probably about 34" long from end to end:

Substrate:

After more than a few recommendations, I decided to go with Tropic Eden Reeflakes for my substrate after considering Caribsea and Marco Rocks sand. The Tropic Eden costs a bit more but I figure I'm only doing this once and am going all out on just about everything else so I wasn't going to skimp on the sand and I really liked the way it looked in people's tanks. Heed the warning on top of the boxes to not open them with a sharp object.

I ordered a total of 240lbs to get me a roughly 2" sandbed. And used the majority of the last bag for my QT tank. I did not rinse it as that is a LOT of sand to rinse and I could use filter socks to pick-up anything if it stayed too cloudy. When water was added, it cleared up pretty quickly and my skimmer extracted a lot of stuff out of the water.

Funny side note, so my wife asks what I was doing when the sand came in and I told her I am updating my build thread. She asks what I could possibly be updating given that the tank had not arrived yet. I tell her, "Well, I took a picture of the pile of sand that I got in." She gets a freaked out look and says, "What!?!?!? There's a pile of sand in the living room and you took a picture of it?!?!?!" Me: "Yeah, I took a picture of the pile of sand." Her: "OMG, REALLY? You took all the sand out and put it in a PILE." Me: [light bulb goes off] "Oh, no I didn't take it out of the bags and make a pile, I just took the bags out of the boxes." Her: sigh of relief, shakes head.

Word choice folks, word choice.

 

[bige]

Coming along nicely. The rock scape looks really good.

 

[MBSL55]

Here's the tank, stand, and delivery process. The tank was built locally by Planet Aquarium. The stand was built locally by DCT Woodcraft.

Delivery time! The stand came in first:

Then the tank:

And finally next to each other:

 

[MBSL55]

Some more pictures of the setup process. I had already pre-made about 180 gallons of saltwater so it was easy enough to get her filled up on delivery day.

Tank on the stand with EXT mounts:

Nice and open in the stand with a divider for the "dry side" that contains all the electronics:

Glass reinforced overflows:

Sand, rock and water added. There is a layer of eggcrate lining the bottom as well to help keep rocks in place.

 

[MBSL55]

Side notes: I actually kept track of how much water is going into the tank so I'll know what my actual total water volume is (with sump I'm at 250g)

Also, the rock was prepared in mid-June so it had been sitting and seeding and cycling now for close to 3 months. I wish I could have done all this stuff in the span of a couple of days and just dump everything together. This is kind of the condensed version of the timeline and build

Plumbing:

I have never done plumbing before so this phase of the build took me forever, a total of about 15 Home Depot runs (despite my planning that you'll hear about below), and a few do overs but I did learn a LOT during the process.

Standard Durso drains with 1.5" Sch. 40 and returns are Sch. 40 3/4". First bulkhead leak test did not go too well as you can see from the water that dripped. I had the gasket on the wrong side of the tank so I need to go redo that. I also learned that regular teflon tape sucks and went with the thicker Blue Monster teflon tape for threaded connections that is sold at Lowes.

I spent an entire morning planning out the plumbing and then a good hour and a half at Home Depot finding all the plumbing items I wanted. I also went to Wallyworld and picked up some Krylon Fusion paint so that the Durso drains and returns would be black. They blend in perfectly now and are not visible unless you get close. I also installed the snail guards and glued the elbows and some other pieces down.

I also picked up some bright red Krylon for the return lines and blue Krylon for the drains. Here's what I ended up picking up:

Had to make a second trip to pick-up a couple more items as I started dry fitting pieces and figuring out what I need. The plumbing plan is as follows:

Drains:
Nothing too special here. Just a couple of unions to make sure I can take it apart and work on it or replace it if needed. 1.5" inner diameter is what I went with although I could have gone up to 2" I can always change it out if needed as the bulkheads are threaded. The PVC drains will terminate in 1.5" barbs. I've decided to go with hard PVC for most of the plumbing but go with flex tubing for the final terminations so I don't have to mess with too many crazy bends and so that I can account for any mistakes in measurements. It should also make servicing things easier and I can always go to hard PVC or flex PVC later if I need to. There will also be a ball valve to cutoff flow close to the bulkhead so that part of the line can be serviced or modified without draining part of the tank.

Return 1:
I will have a total of 3 ball valves in a manifold on a 3/4" ID return. The manifold will have a union at each end so the system can be taken down for service or modification. This will be for adding a GFO Reactor, Carbon Reactor, and BioPellet Reactor should I decide I want to or need to add any of those. Manifolds are terminating in 3/4" barbs for now as well. There will also be another ball valve near the bulkhead to cut off flow if needed so that the line can be serviced or modified.

Return 2:
This will also have a total of 3 ball valves in a manifold on a 3/4" ID return but in a different configuration. The manifold will have a union at each end so the system can be taken down for service or modification. The first two ball valves will be close to the return pump, then a ball valve will be in-line with the return line, and final ball valve will T off after the in-line valve. This line and manifold will be for water changes and connection to the chiller. All T's are currently terminated with a 3/4" barb.

The first T will be for water changes. Pull out the 3/4" flex tube attached, close the appropriate valves, and the pump can drain the sump for a water change. The second T will go to the chiller input and the third T will be the return for the chiller. If I ever need to replace or service the chiller or bypass it for whatever reason all I have to do is open up the in-line ball valve and close off the 3 T-valves.

Here are the manifolds on the first dry fit:

I eventually reduced the space between all the ball valves to save a little space.

Aquascaping:

This is revision 2 of my aquscape after getting about 3 hours assistance from the wife who is MUCH better at this stuff than I ever will be:

And finally with some lights added when the AI Vega fixtures showed up!

Dangit, have to to get back to work . . . more updates later.

 

[MBSL55]

Some more pictures of the tank with lights:

The ledge on the formation to the left is actually free floating but the picture I took kind of makes it look like it is supported by the island at the back, which it is not. I finished securing down some of the rocks using some of the techniques I learned when Scott Feldman last spoke at one of our local club meetings. That and some of the other builds I've seen inspired me to really hunker down and spend literally hours working on the aquascape. I am, for the first time, happy with the way my rock work looks and do not have the urge to mess with it . . . and I don't have to worry about avalanches!

Water Parameters:

One bucket of Red Sea Coral Pro made exactly 175 gallons at 1.023 salinity. I bumped it up to 1.024 and need to bump it up a wee bit more to 1.025 which is what I am running my other tank at.

Parameters checked out well for the most part. Caveat: I added a bunch of pellets a few days ago to test my nitrogen cycle and feed the sand bed. My readings today:

Salinity: 1.024 (after adjustment; Hanna digital refractometer)
Ammonia: undetectable (API)
Nitrite: undetectable (API)
Nitrate: undetectable (API) (Add celebration for nitrogen cycle doing its thing!)
Alk: 9.5 (Red Sea Pro)
Ca: 420 (Red Sea Pro) (added Ca to try to get to 450ish)
Mg: 1300 (Res Sea Pro) (added 1/2 gallon of Mg to try to get to 1450ish)
Phosphate: 0.06 ppm (Hanna Checker)

Pretty happy with the test results overall and I expected there would be some phosphate given the food that was added and nothing that is exporting nutrients at this time as there is no sump or skimmer running. I'll be checking the big 3 (alk, ca, mg) to make sure they get in-line to match my other tank and work on getting those phosphates down as my main tank runs anywhere from undetectable to 0.03 max.

 

[MBSL55]

Plumbing Update:

You can spend HOURS at Home Depot looking for bits and pieces. I've never done PVC plumbing before so this is quite the learning experience. Hopefully not one that results in the equivalent of a water park in the stand . . .So, here are the two manifolds freshly built and taped up ready for paint:

Top 10 things I learned about plumbing PVC (so far):

1. PVC glue is not as bad a super glue. You won't really glue your fingers together unless you try very, very, hard. But it will stick to your skin. My hands look like they have some sort of skin disease with all the glue flaking off.

2. Purple primer gets on everything and stains everything it touches. Marc's website also has some information about what primer does to acrylic . . . not good at all. After reading that, I decided I'd finish up most of my plumbing.

3. Glue dries FAST. Assemble one piece at a time and do it quickly once the glue is on the primed pieces. I tried gluing some small scrap pieces first when I learned this and made sure I did not try to do more than one fitting at a time.

4. Dry fit and re-measure everything at least twice. This probably saved my butt more than a few times. Still, I did some stupid things and lost a few pieces. So far, damage for my screw-ups has only been about $15 worth of plumbing . . . not too bad.

5. Plan your plumbing while you are planning everything else. Don't leave it as an afterthought or figure, "I'll get it to fit somehow." I should have thought more about things like exact locations of drains in relation to everything else and height clearance in the stand after plumbing. I have most of my lines running parallel to the bottom of the tank and relatively high-up in the stand so I should have had the drains and returns offset from each other instead of in-line with each other. Then I could have had parallel horizontal return/drain lines if I wanted to. Manifolds can take up a lot of space and you also need to figure out where the buggers will go. I've got a bunch of 90 degree elbows due to my manifolds.

6. Unions and threaded fittings are life savers!!! Of course, I say this before leak testing so I might rescind this one. At least I had the forethought to use threaded bulkheads and unions. That has allowed me to redo sections of plumbing or tweak without messing everything else up.

7. Think about pipe supports and how they will fit into the scheme of things. I've tried brackets, hanging wire and ferrules (didn't go so well), suspension from eye hooks, electrical conduit support, and now strapping support as a temporary measure until I go back to Home Depot again . . . .

8. Live near a Home Depot. Based on just the receipts I have, I have made a total of 11 Home Depot runs to date . . . . and that was with a plumbing plan already in hand! Given that I've made so many Home Depot runs, this naturally follows . . .

9. The cost of plumbing can add up QUICK. It is easy to blow hundreds on plumbing for the tools, PVC, etc. Things like check valves, large unions, large ball valves all add up very quickly.

10. This stuff takes time. I wouldn't want to try to slap together hard plumbing for a good sized tank in one day. I'm sure a lot of this has to do with my lack of experience but it really does take quite a bit of time, especially if you plan on painting your sections of PVC. Personally, I think it is worth the effort. I only plan on doing this once so I want it to look halfway decent.

Here's some stuff as it was in-progress:

And partially installed:

The one drain is not connected as I moved the equipment divider and I had to redo that drain section. Okay, I didn't HAVE to redo it but I wanted to in order to keep the plumbing along the perimeter of the stand.

Other Updates:

1. Installed lights in the cabinets. Eventually, I will install some reed switches tied to the Apex I/O breakout box (need another one) so that the cabinet lights will automagically come on when the door for that section is open.

2. Moved the equipment divider. Figured I needed to give Marc a little more room for the planned sump, ATO, and dosing containers. I'm sure I've also probably made him lose some of his sanity with all my PM's and noob mistakes as to calculating things and forgetting about little details like, oh, I dunno, clearance for plumbing as noted above.

3. Organized and mounted the wires and power adapters for the AI Vega lights. Much less of a rat's nest back there now. I plan on staying on top of wire management and may split loom wire runs.

4. Spent a ton of time working on plumbing.

I should note that I added a check valve even though I originally didn't plan to have one. I've setup my plumbing so that each return and drain is completely independent. I added one check valve to a return line (let's call it return "B") in case my system has to limp along on just one pump for some reason. The pump on return "A" will be tied to a separate Apex powerbar that will be tied to a large battery back-up system with a true sine wave DC-AC inverter and automatic switch. The idea is the battery backup would kick in if there is a loss of power. That battery backup would power one Apex EB8 that has the following plugged in: 1) Return Pump "A"; 2) Skimmer; 3) Wireless gaming adapter to connect to the internet; 4) ATO system; 5 - 8) Vortech pumps and doser if there is an outlet available. I'm going to try to get a bunch of industrial deep cycle batteries meant for solar panel energy storage so that I have enough battery power to run the above for 12 hours in case I am at work so that I can have enough time to hook-up a generator. The check valve is so that I don't get back-siphoning from Return "B" while everything else is limping along.

Return "B" will also be the one connected to the manifold for the reactors so that if there is back siphoning, hopefully it will be useful pressure that can run the reactors. Total shot in the dark as to whether that will work.

The game plan from this point going forward on my build was to:

1. Finish the plumbing. Being a PVC and plumbing noob, I decided it would be best if everything terminated for their final vertical runs with flex tubing (they actually have 1.5" flex tubing!) as I do not trust myself to precisely drop lines or with spaflex. Hence, as long as my plumbing is generally in the right area I can use flex tubing to get things where they need to go. Even if they are in the wrong ZIP code, I can probably still use flex tubing to make it work.

And, if I want to, I can always just run PVC or spaflex later down the road to clean everything up.

2. Drop in a spare 40B as a temporary sump for leak testing. Let's see just how bad my first plumbing job is . . . If the stand starts to look like a sprinkler system exploded, you can bet Home Depot Run #13 will be for some barb connectors to the bulkheads along with a TON of flex tubing and barbs

3. Get past leak testing, leave the 40B in place so I can run the system with a skimmer and check levels and move livestock over before MACNA weekend.

 

[MBSL55]

PAR Measurements:

AI Sol Super Blue, 80% power, 12" AWL, all 70 degree optics, center of fixture, depths are given below water line:
3" = 360
6" = 250
10" = 215
18" = 150
18" offset to side of fixture by about 6" = 85

AI Vega, 100% power, 15" AWL, center of fixture, depths are given below water line:
At water line = 410
3" = 350
8" = 230
16" = 180
21" = 125

I know the depths don't match up as I was taking measurements of where my existing corals are (roughly) with the Sol readings and then the Vega readings are based on mounting heights for corals in the new tank.

Readings between Vega fixtures: roughly 14" separation between fixtures (7" from the "back" or "front" of a fixture where the power cord input is located); 15" AWL:
At Water Line = 300
3" = 220
8" = 175
16" = 150

Leak Testing:

The Good: Drains are leak free!

The Bad: Some of the threaded fittings for my valves on my manifold and barbs on the returns were dripping a little. I was able to crank those down and I think they are good to go.

The Ugly: Return lines are dripping where the threaded connector goes into the bulkhead. Taking those apart is a bit of a pain and I think I didn't use enough teflon tape on the threads after doing some more reading and research. At least I can take them apart to work on them though . . . after draining the overflows which each hold 4 gallons. As of late last night, I was still getting a slight drip. Might try silicone or something else on the threads instead if re-taping properly doesn't work.

Note to Self: Do NOT leave manifold valve open on return line unless something is connected to said valve . . .

Leaks were fixed after I learned about using Blue Monster teflon tape and using more than one layer. One of those things I hope someone can learn from my mistakes and not go with cheapie teflon tape and just a layer or two.

Finalizing Plumbing:

Here's the plumbing 98% complete. The white PVC sections were just temporary until the sump arrived. Not too happy with using strapping for hangers but it works for now. I also need to get some touch-up paint and also need to replace the strap type hangers at some point:

And here's my little helper and me checking for leaks with the 40B in place as a temporary sump:

 

[MBSL55]

Parameter Updates:

Had some cyano develop that stayed put in certain areas, which was kind of weird. A lot was on on particular seed rock so maybe that one had excess nutrients leaching out. I also had a small diatom bloom on the sand bed but that hasn't spread either. Finally got a light coating of hair algae so I'm hoping all these things are just sucking up some of the food I put in and processing away some of the nutrients left over from seed rock leaching.

Temperature:
The temperature is holding well at 79 degrees. Because of how high the lights are and because they are LED's, they really are not adding any heat at all to the tank. I've had a total of 3 x Mag 12's running in the temporary sump and the heater still has to kick in . . . I don't think heat management will be an issue at all for me.

Flow Pumps:
Moved the Vortech MP40's over and have them on the back wall between the overflow and sides. I'm using my return lines for lower flow in the center for now. For perspective on size, I had the MP40's on my 70 gallon and had them turned down to 2. Now I can crank them all the way up and need at least one if not two more in the center. I should also note that although they are rated for 3/4" glass, I would add some supports to the power cord and do something to keep the dry sides from slipping. 3/4" for a MP40 really seems to be cutting it close in terms of their ability to stay exactly where you want them, especially when running full tilt. The MP40's seem just right for going from front to back on my system so I think I'll stick with my plan to get a couple more and just run 4 of these off the back wall so that no power cords are visible. Kind of defeats the purpose of side starphire panels I think to stick a big magnet on it. That and I am all about having spares and backups so running the exact same pumps everywhere simplifies logistics and stock spare parts.

Skimmer:
I started with a Trigger Systems TS-300 Beckett skimmer (older tech) and though about upgrading to a SRO-3000. That all changed when I won a ATI PowerCone 200iS. But, in case this helps someone, I originally started with a Mag 18 that TS recommended to maximize the capabilities of the TS-300 skimmer but that proved to be way overkill. I switched it over to a Mag 12 by changing out the impeller as the Mag 18 & 12 are the same pump just with a different impeller. The pump was then only somewhat overkill. The TS-300 does make a ton of bubbles and pulls out a lot of stuff, it just needs a big pump.

Parameters & Cycling:
Happy to say that my parameters checked out great (whis was about 1 week after the first test I did). My Mg was a little lower than I like at 1400 ppm so I added 1/2 gallon of Mg to bump it up to 1500. No signs of ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate. Alkalinity was at 9.1 and Calcium at 435. The cool news was that my Phosphate levels were undetectable by the Hanna checker. I think my theory of the slight growth of hair algae and cyano consuming up any leftover nutrients is correct and this was all before I had the skimmer running.

 

[MBSL55]

First and foremost, eye candy:

It took an insane amount of time to get to this point. Parameters are still checking out perfect and I had a little more hair algae. I didn't have to go looking for it anymore, I could actually just see it there if I wasn't cleaning glass regularly.

As you can see, I moved the livestock over from my previous 70g on a Saturday. Then, I spent the Sunday pretty much breaking down and cleaning up equipment on the old tank and taking care of stuff on that front. Monday entailed cleaning up the plumbing a bit and testing my manifolds, ball valves, etc. to make sure they were not going to leak and become a problem. I also ended up getting my sump, ATO container, and dosing container later that evening. Filled the sump and made do with some makeshift plumbing so that everything would run.

The Tuesday was spent finalizing the plumbing to all the drain and return sections in the sump, setting up the auto doser to resume dosing, filling the ATO container a bit and dosing containers a bit. Moved a cabinet light over where it was getting in the way and started planning the locations for electronics.

Wednesday involved making about 5 gallons each of Alk, Ca, and Mg for the dosing containers, filling the ATO, and taking care of multiple loads of laundry and dishes to help try to keep with wife happy. That is a very important part of build progress mind you. Had some time later in the evening to install a couple of float switches and probes into the sump. Got the fuge running with sand, rock, macro, and a fuge light.

Thursday evening was electronics day (and night) and I was still not done. Reprogrammed the Apex but I was not able to get the PM2 with salinity probe setup yet or the WXM for the Vortechs. Plus I have to take the time to learn how to use them.

Some more pictures after the changeover and the day before MACNA: