New Custom 120g - Pix Begnning Day 1

[cybermeez]

I just began setting up a new 120g custom built acrylic reef tank as part of moving to a new apartment. I figured I chronical the process from day one in this thread.

Day 1
Getting ready to be shipped from the builder.

Plumbing for the sump built into the stand. Dry side on the right, wet side on the left:

 

[cybermeez]

Day 2
Delivered and filling with R/O water.

Return pump

Return lines

Pump intakes

Refugium

Refugium outflow

Sump plumbing

 

[cybermeez]

Day 3
Sand added and now really cloudy.

 

[cybermeez]

Day 4
Still cloudy. Changed filter sock, the added floculent and bacteria booster.

 

[rkaragozler]

Real nice set up, who was the builder. just a quick question. Where do you put the skimmer?? And is it easy to take out the filter sock.

 

[cybermeez]

Day 5
Still cloudy. Cleaned inside of front pane and changed filter sock.

 

[cybermeez]

Real nice set up, who was the builder. just a quick question. Where do you put the skimmer?? And is it easy to take out the filter sock.

Midwest Custom Aquariums built it. To change the sock all you have to do is lift it up and out. The skimmer will sit in the wet side to the left of the refugium and a little in front of the filter sock.

 

[rkaragozler]

Thank you for the info.
Do you think the over flow from the skimmer would get sucked into the return lines? and cause micro bubbles to go into the dt.

 

[cybermeez]

Thank you for the info.
Do you think the over flow from the skimmer would get sucked into the return lines? and cause micro bubbles to go into the dt.

I'm not sure. I'm running an Elos skimmer on the tank holding the critters until the new tank is ready and not noticed bubbles there. It's the only one I have the right pump for, but I may put it in the new tank just for the weekend to see if I can get the water to clear more quickly.

 

[jr973]

nice tank there goodluck with the new setup

 

[cybermeez]

Day 6
Still cloudy. Changed filter sock again. Will add more floculent tomorrow.

 

[TheHun]

Nice setup! I just noticed the return line tees installed incorrectly, you should change that tees to vertical instead of horizontal like now. That should start to give you less back-pressure on the pump.
How loud is your pump? I have same, about 3 weeks old, and is very loud compare to my old eheim 1260.

 

[KuyaMark]

very nice looking tank can't wait til its fully setup

 

[cybermeez]

Day 7
Still really, really cloudy. Changed the filter sock, added another 8 oz. of floculent and replaced the durso that came with the tank with a GEO Aqua Silencer to quite the drain. I also hooked up a H.O.T. Magnum filter with a micron cartridge in the hope it will finally speed clearing up the water.

 

[cybermeez]

Nice setup! I just noticed the return line tees installed incorrectly, you should change that tees to vertical instead of horizontal like now. That should start to give you less back-pressure on the pump.
How loud is your pump? I have same, about 3 weeks old, and is very loud compare to my old eheim 1260.

Yeah, ordered the PVC fittings this week to fix the returns. I'm going to replace the tee with a wye fitting to smooth out the return flow and further quiet the sound of water.

The water blaster pumps aren't really all that loud for me. I got some air in one of them today and that made it a little noisy, but that usually resolves once it clears from the line.

 

[Awibrandy]

Robin, what type of sand did you use? Also, did you rinse it prior to putting it in the tank? I can't seem to rap my brain around the cloudiness issue you are having.

 

[gholtmeyer]

I was going to ask if you had washed your sand also. And, is a pump, powerhead, etc. disturbing the sand and could that be what is keeping the sand cloud going? Try to shut the pumps off for a few hours and see how much it settles down.

 

[cybermeez]

I used 160 lbs of Ocean Direct Caribbean Live Sand and 80 lbs of Seaflor Special Grade Reef Sand. I didn't rinse either because because 3/4 of it was live sand and there was no way could make enough salt water to rinse it and not kill the bacteria.

I've been doing some reading on the Ocean Direct product and found several complaints about the kind of problem I'm having, but no solutions.

I'm not running a skimmer on it right now, the sump is rather shallow and I need to modify the door opening so I can run more water in there. It will involve adding a few extra pieces of acrylic to the inside of the sump door and it will be at least 48 hours before the glue is dry enough to let the sump fill. Even then I'm not sure it's going to solve my problem.

 

[cybermeez]

OK. So, I went to home depot and got an R/O canister with 1/2" fittings. Tonight I'll put in a micron cartridge, hook it up to a MaxiJet and see what happens.

Just can't bring myself to drop a few hundred $$ to buy diatom filter to use just this one time.

 

[TRIGGERMAN]

The magnum should help I can lend you a canister filter if you want. Just pack it with filter floss and sponges and it will clear up quick.