JaysLittleOcean Piece of the Reef.

[JaysLittleOcean]

Skimmer Cleanup Time.

So when purchasing the aquarium from the other person they also have this protein skimmer for sale. I'm a bit skeptical on the performance but I figured why not. I can always purchase another protein skimmer down the line. So when I purchased it the original owner was starting to get a cleaning done. So when I got home I thought I would finish the process.

























So I took a Sterilite 66 QT container and used it to run the protein skimmer for a few days in a water and vinegar bath.

















I then took apart the entire protein skimmer. Cleaned each part off thoroughly and put humpty dumpty back together again.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Eheim 3400 Primary Return Pump.

After a few days of deciding whether to go with Sicce or Eheim for my return pump I finally settled on the Eheim after reading a few reviews of someone people having their in operation for ridiculous lengths of time. So I ordered an Eheim 3400 Universal pump that will be used for the primary return pump. I went with 5/8 Inch tubing for the return line instead of plumbing is with PVC primarily for aesthetics. Since I'm using both drilled holes for the herbie drain setup I didn't want to see PVC piping coming up the side of the aquarium. With the tubing I was able to move run the tub right up the back pane spacing with no issues. I have a Two Little Fishies Ball Valve running inline for flow control and it all ends with an Eshopps Return Jet assembly, all held in place using Two Little Fishies hose clamps.

 

[duromega]

good job cleaning the skimmer
why does the return goes behind the glass on a reef ready tank?

 

[Exotic Reef]

Likeing this build keep it up

 

[reefiness]

good job cleaning the skimmer
why does the return goes behind the glass on a reef ready tank?

He said hes running both drilled holes as drains, and returns around the back.

jeeze duro, get with the program.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

good job cleaning the skimmer
why does the return goes behind the glass on a reef ready tank?

The aquarium came pre-drilled with two holes to be used in a Durso configuration (one drain and one return). However, because this aquarium is in the family room right next to the home theater setup I wanted to concentrate on keeping the aquarium as silent as possible and as dependable as possible. So I setup the aquarium using both pre-drilled holes in a dual standpipe Herbie configuration. Then to keep everything looking pretty I ran the return tubing up the rear of the aquarium.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Likeing this build keep it up

Thank you Exotic Reef. Good to have you tagging along.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

UPS, FedEx and USPS Dont Like Me.

Got home today to another wonderful delivery of goodies from the fairy god fishy.

 

[reefiness]

team lift... really? what a bunch of wimps those two stick figures are

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

team lift... Really? What a bunch of wimps those two stick figures are

lol

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Dancing to the Flow of a Different Pump.

I decided to go with some good ol fashion German engineering when choosing my powerheads. So I ordered two Tunze Nanostream 6095 Stream Pumps. You might be asking me why I ordered a pump with the word Nano in its title. My aquarium is a perfect cube measuring 3 feet on each side. I need a pump that could not only move water but also provide wide flow. This pump has an observed flow reach of 3 feet long by 2 feet wide with a controllable flow rate of 528-2510 GPH. I would say more than enough for this particular aquarium. Who knows I might even add two more for an insane amount of controllable flow. There was some assembly required to put the holder together but that took no more than a few minutes.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

RO/DI Filtration Unit.

I had an older 150 gallon per day RO/DI Filtration Unit prior to purchasing our new home. But maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave it in the car during the winter, especially with water. This is what happens when you.







So I decided instead of just purchasing replacement canister that I would just order a whole new unit and pretend I was Dr. Frankenstein. So when the FedEx Delivery Driver came be my house yesterday I was super excited! But after opening the package I didn't think it would be some assembly required.







After unpacking some of the pieces of the unit I was a little disappointed that the main mounting bracket that holds the three primary canisters together was not metal, rather plastic and a bit flimsy. So I took the entire unit apart so I could swap with metal mountain bracket from my original RO/DI filtration unit. Once I had everything in pieces the gears in my head started turning... why not use everything and make something better? The new RO/DI Filtration Unit now has the following. I also added a Hanna Inline TDS Filter and Pressure gauge to ensure everything is working right. I call it Frankenfilter! Once these filters are exhausted I will reduce the Deionization filters and move to another combination of sediment, chlorine and carbon. But until then I'm reading 35ppm TDS In and 000ppm Out.


- One 5 Micron Sediment Filter.
- One Chlorine Filter.
- One Carbon Filter.
- Two 150 gallon per day Reverse Osmosis Membranes.
- Four Deionization Filters.













The next task was to get the water line adapter in place underneath the family room bathroom sink where the RO/DI filtration unit is going to be placed with the Aquatec 88000 Booster Pump & Power Supply. This was a little nerve racking at first because I have never done any plumbing like this. But I think everything turned out okay.

 

[Reef Lobster]

nice setup and good job with the RO!

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

nice setup and good job with the RO!

Thank you... twice!

 

[Reef Lobster]

Whats your plans on livestock, I skimmed through the pages and didnt see a mention of that! I love to hear everyones goals especially when the tank is still dry

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Whats your plans on livestock, I skimmed through the pages and didnt see a mention of that! I love to hear everyones goals especially when the tank is still dry

I haven't really focused too much on what I want to keep in it regarding fish. I know I want to concentrate on SPS Corals and I'm hoping to at least have an Achilles Tang or Powder Blue in their. Maybe some Anthias.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Time to Finish the Plumbing.

So with the end of my vacation nearing I decided that maybe I should get my stuff together and get my plumbing all square away so I could start making some saltwater and begin cycling the aquarium. So after a few trial and error glues I finally found the right combination that worked for my setup. I'm pretty happy with it.

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Go with the Originals.

So there is something to be said I believe in working with a company that set the bar back in the day for what was considered the high end, top quality and design innovation of aquarium equipment. I did some searching and discovered on another forum that Deltec is making their way back into the U.S. market with Doug Thompson being their primary dealer in the states. So I gave Doug a call and had some conversation with him over the past few days and decided to get some new toys delivered. I purchased a Deltec SC1456 DC Variable Speed Protein Skimmer to replace the Bubble Magus that I had purchased and cleaned up earlier. My experience with Deltec equipment made such an impression in the past that I just had to swipe my card and give it a try. Doug was extremely helpful right sizing the equipment for my particular setup and addressed any concerns should the need for a replacement part be necessary. So I waited eagerly until the next day (thankfully I live only a 1 day delivery time from Pennsylvania). My items were delivered with safely with an extreme amount of care taken to pack the items safely for transit.
















After drooling over the new protein skimmer I managed to put some to the pieces together and see some













The first thing I have to say is that the Deltec SC1456 Protein Skimmer has a much smaller footprint than the Bubble Magus. This provides me the ability to have more room underneath my cabinet for maintenance, other equipment if necessary or opens the possibility of running two Deltec SC1456 Protein Skimmers for redundancy and extra skimming capacity if I wanted which I am please with. Also the build quality is still their. The skimmer is sturdy and looks very nice. I will review how it performs once I have it fully setup and running for a for weeks. One of the things I am also happy about is the skimmer uses only 11-38 watts of electricity which is always nice!

 

[JaysLittleOcean]

Disaster Strikes Early!

I noticed that a had a very slow drip leak in the return line of my aquarium this Satuday. Apparently I didn't place the clamp high enough up on the barb fitting. So when I tried to get some slack I realized that not only could I not get the plastic clamp to clear the wall and the trim of the aquarium that I had to play a little game of shimmy the stand. Well... not the brightest thing I could have time because I cracked the bulkhead to the emergency drain within the overflow and my little drip turned into a huge problem. So I gave Russ a call at Saltwater Critters and took a little drive to get the last 1 inch slip Bulkhead fitting he had in stock. Got home later that day and thank goodness for spar PVC parts. I just cut another piece of 1 inch PVC Pipe took half of a new PVC Union and I was back in business. Good thing is that my sump has proven it can hold the entire overflow capacity of extra saltwater without overflowing.

 

[reefiness]

you get water into your tank yet?