Tophers 425xl begins.

[Tophers Reef]

Stand built today and tank placed on it. On to plumbing tomorrow. Built the water mixing station yesterday and its busy making water.

Coming from a biocube this is a huge step up for me. I'll be trying to bring you all along for the build. Have 75 lbs of Marco rock along with 60 lbs of fuji pink sand for the aquascape.

Merry Christmas.

 

[fishguy242]

hi,off to a great start ! i'll be along for the ride Merry Christmas

 

[Tophers Reef]

Rockwork started... This is much harder than I thought it would be. I broke up a couple of the larger pcs and attached a few using the emarco 400 cement. Bit of a learning curve for getting the proper consistency to work but it's getting there.

Also finished the stand and started loading up the sump with the following

Bubble magus Curve 5
Finnex 500w titanium heater element
Inkbird heater controller
Jebeo dc6000 return pump
Stock ATO for now (I have a tunze osmalator to hook up once I have an appropriate RO water vessel)
American DJ 10 switch power bar

I also added the 3 Kessil A160we with the kessil gooseneck mounts. Not a fan of the mounts and have already ordered the solid A series mounts to replace them. Lack of cable management and the fact that I can't get the lights out to the center of the tank was the deciding factor.

 

[Tophers Reef]

Also replacing the red sea valve with a spears gate valve. Thoughts on valve being on the vertical like stock or adding it on the horizontal before the 90 that takes it into the sump?

 

[fishguy242]

Also replacing the red sea valve with a spears gate valve. Thoughts on valve being on the vertical like stock or adding it on the horizontal before the 90 that takes it into the sump?

hi,not sure it matters as far as flow,would say whichever leaves you more room under tank

 

[Tophers Reef]

hi,not sure it matters as far as flow,would say whichever leaves you more room under tank

I've just seen it done both ways, didn't know if one was better than the other.

 

[Rudzbrewski]

Also replacing the red sea valve with a spears gate valve. Thoughts on valve being on the vertical like stock or adding it on the horizontal before the 90 that takes it into the sump?

I did mine horizontal along the side wall before the elbow to the sump. No issues

 

[Tophers Reef]

Few shots of the 'scape mockup. Kind of like this one so far. Just under 60lbs of Marco rock.

Used Marco cement for some joints. Waiting on some cyano glue to arrive to finish things off. Will stare at this for a few days to be sure I like it.

Thoughts?

 

[Tophers Reef]

Final aquascape model...

 

[fishguy242]

hi,looks great,nice scape love the cave look

 

[Tophers Reef]

Rock has been added to the tank, led strip lights run in sump and cabinet. Gate valve installed, will leak test the plumbing in the morning.

If leak test passes, then I'll add the sand and first half of the water tomorrow. It'll take 24 hours or so to make up the rest.

Should I just mix the salt in the tank once it's full or mix it up befor hand? I've read both ways being done.

 

[fishguy242]

hi,looks great,i normally do before

 

[Tophers Reef]

First fill.... Took a bit of playing around but got it dead silent. Innovative marine 15g overflow comes in next week. Now to figure out some cable management, what a mess. Will be making a control board of sorts to attach everything to. Please post any pics of your DIY control boards.

 

[Tophers Reef]

Ditched the stock ATO and added the tunze 3155 and the 15 gallon resevoir from Innovative Marine.

We do a bit of travel and needed an Ato resevoir that held more than 2 to 3 days worth of top off.

I know cheaper reservoirs can be had but had to keep the wife happy with something that did not look like a Jerry can next to the stand.

Cycle is under way, dosing with Brightwell start and Macrobaster 7. Chunk of shrimp in a filter stock for a carbon source. Will test for ammonia in a few days.

 

[J_anderson_75]

Rock has been added to the tank, led strip lights run in sump and cabinet. Gate valve installed, will leak test the plumbing in the morning.

If leak test passes, then I'll add the sand and first half of the water tomorrow. It'll take 24 hours or so to make up the rest.

Should I just mix the salt in the tank once it's full or mix it up befor hand? I've read both ways being done.

Looking good! What LED strip lights did you run in your stand?

 

[Tophers Reef]

Looking good! What LED strip lights did you run in your stand?

Thanks.

They are just some cheap ones off Amazon. I was able to do both sides of the stand all the way around and still have left overs to cut off.

 

[J_anderson_75]

Thanks.

They are just some cheap ones off Amazon. I was able to do both sides of the stand all the way around and still have left overs to cut off.

Thanks! Do you think they are bright enough? I need to get some for my stand, but want them to be pretty bright so I can see what I'm doing down there. LOL

 

[Tophers Reef]

If they are set to white or light blue yes. Reds would be for show but not practical. I literally went around from right rear towards the front, down the divider and around and then all around sump area to back at the right rear so it works well

 

[Tophers Reef]

Thanks! Do you think they are bright enough? I need to get some for my stand, but want them to be pretty bright so I can see what I'm doing down there. LOL

If they are set to white or light blue yes. Reds would be for show but not practical. I literally went around from right rear towards the front, down the divider and around and then all around sump area to back at the right rear so it works well

 

[J_anderson_75]

If they are set to white or light blue yes. Reds would be for show but not practical. I literally went around from right rear towards the front, down the divider and around and then all around sump area to back at the right rear so it works well

Perfect. Thanks for the info!