OINK! I'm a Pig. 200g Reef Savvy, Bashsea, Royal Exclusiv -Direct sunlight- In wall w/ IKEA fishroom basement sump build

[drtechno]

Man! Read your entire thread last night thinking “this thing started in 2020 and surely it’s beautiful”. Cant believe you just got the tank! Incredible build thus far. Can’t wait to see where this goes. Strong work!

I LOL’d reading your comment. Read it aloud to my family for a good laugh. Ya I hear you. If u told me at the start that I would finally get things going on this date, I would call you crazy. Haha. Ya. That’s all in the past now and I’m just happy to move on

 

[squidarcher]

Oh man i remember reading this thread in 2021 and I kept checking back. Happy for you!

 

[Acrononomus]

Awesome build quality looks like! Would love some close up shots of aquarium. So happy for you! Congrats !!!

 

[drtechno]

 

[LeDart]

Looking great, wish I could have an aquarium that size

 

[drtechno]

I dunno.. I have 'regular' low iron glass in several places in my house, but the glass he used on the front pane is just ridiculous. You literally cannot tell it is there. When you look from the top of the tank out the front, you might as well be looking through air. My kids were amazed at how clear it is. I think Ryan on BRS said it is some type of special low iron glass? Whatever it is, it's like magic.

 

[drtechno]

Awesome build quality looks like! Would love some close up shots of aquarium. So happy for you! Congrats !!!

If you give me something specific I could take some pics. But it’s so shiny and reflective that they are kind of tough to shoot. Here are a couple.

 

[drtechno]

A little bit of a delay on things since the Ghost overflow is not ready due to supplier issues. Maybe next week. So I will do some under cabinet plumbing, set up the power bricks, etc

Also started to mix some more salt water. Funnels for filling the water containers are so key. Can get them off Amazon pretty cheap.

 

[Acrononomus]

Looks amazing! So I take it your running bare bottom ? What type of rock are you using?

 

[drtechno]

Looks amazing! So I take it your running bare bottom ? What type of rock are you using?

So we used CaribSea LifeRock for the majority of our rock, with small amounts of shelf rock to create some of the aquascape. It's been "stewing" for 2 years now (!) and we have been 'feeding' it and cycling it.

As far as the bottom, nah, we are definitely going sand. I refuse to have a tank without a sand bottom The plan is for 2 bags of Oceans Direct (we already added one to the cycling rock) and Special Grade dry sand for the rest.

Right now, just waiting for Felix to finish and ship the overflow.

I plan on doing some plumbing of the return lines tomorrow, as well as mounting the LED powerbricks and planning out where the MP40/60 controllers will mount.

Probably still 1 month from fish :/

 

[drtechno]

Finished plumbing the final leg of the return side of the tank today, so she’s all set up. Unfortunately the overflow box comes later this week so couldn’t finish plumbing the drain side. Planning on mounting the controller board right in front of the power bricks there for the Vortech’s. But I fear the cords will still get messy given I can’t pass them through the tank stand (controllers attached to the wet side)

hopefully leak test and water next weekend?

 

[drtechno]

So what’s been going on this weekend? Well after years of waiting we finally got the rocks and water into the tank.. but it isn’t going entirely smoothly. i have been fighting leaks all weekend. A couple pvc welds didn’t go well apparently, so I have to wait for new fittings later this week to continue. Also, the APEX flow meters are a massive PITA. Like many report, they leak around the threads no matter what I do. Tried thread sealant (great white). Tried some thicker stuff. Still leaks. At this stage I’m just going with Teflon tape AND pipe dope because this is getting ridiculous. Anyway, can’t circulate the water thru the overflow side anyway until BRS ships the fittings I need.
picture of the ghost overflow also below
Anyway. More updates later this week

 

[drtechno]

Water has cleared so it’s starting to look like a tank!!
still not circulating thru the sump as the plumbing parts don’t arrive until Thursday. But still excited

 

[c_healy]

Awesome build thread. Following along. Glad I stumbled upon it now and not two years ago! Lol

 

[Acrononomus]

Aqua scape looks great !

 

[nickm]

Awesome build thread. Following along. Glad I stumbled upon it now and not two years ago! Lol

Yes, I have been watching his build tread for the same amount of time. Plus, I'm waiting on my tank from Reef Savvy the same amount of time.

 

[drtechno]

Aqua scape looks great !

Thanks! I will at some point get a video of that rock formation in that lower picture since we are so happy with how it come out (almost by accident actually). There's two pretty cool cave 'systems' in the center of that rock, with one cave having 4-5 entrances/swim throughs and a smaller cave system on the left, almost under that ledge, having 2-3 entrances. I guess we were just gluing rocks together without trying to make them solid, and it just sort of evolved from the pieces we assembled. Pretty happy with it as it should provide lots of habitat for the fish.

 

[drtechno]

So part 1 of my Octoaquatics order arrived today. The skimmer stand (I need to raise my skimmer about 1” so that the waste line from the cup clears the edge of the sump, for a skimmate “locker”) and the naughty fish room/acclimation chamber. Both came out pretty nicely I think.
the tank lids should arrive Monday

 

[drtechno]

You know, I read about how sensitive the conductivity probe can be to electrical interference, but WOW I didn't realize I would be affected. My salinity was off, so I was correcting it. However, my conductivity was stuck at 26. It wouldn't move even though the refractometer showed that the salinity was beginning to normalize. So I unplugged the conductivity meter and rerouted the cable completely away from the AC cables of the EB832.... and bam, it went up to 32 (which is roughly where it should be). Lesson learned. Glad I watched some BRS episodes on the conductivity probe !

In other news, I have found a small leak this time in the "sump tubing" I bought as a flex tube to connect the overflow to the PVC pipes. It's at the OEM joint ... Grrr.. Knowing this, I am going to replace at least the open channel and siphon drains with full on flex PVC. So I am gluing that joint as we speak and hoping to install it in a couple days. The flex PVC does not have a snug fit with the PVC couplings tho, so I am a bit worried. We will see if the glue fuses the flex to the fitting. What a pain in the $# getting the plumbing all correct.

Unfortunately, no pics of anything fun as nothing has really changed except for redoing some plumbing.

 

[drtechno]

Ok. One minor update. My lids from Octolids came today. Very pleased and they look to be very sturdy. We will see how they hold up over time but they look excellent right now