Fritz's 58 gallon mixed reef

[jenniebutterfly]

saw fred's tank in person today. it is amazing, the picture does it no justice. when everything grows out it will be beautiful.

 

[fritz]

Thanks Jennie, I've got some updated pics with sump as requested.

 

[fritz]

and more

 

[fritz]

I still need to plug in the auto topoff but it's mostly done (yay)

 

[inkblue]

sunPod... mY neXt new liGhts...!

 

[fritz]

My camera is a vivitar crapola 1250 so the colors are way off. It looks much better in person, although don't we all say that.

 

[jenniebutterfly]

it really does fred. so you are not just saying that

 

[fritz]

New pics!!!! Since my last post I've gotten an ASM G2, daisy chained phosban reactors (one carbon and one phosban). I also picked up a Reef Keeper 2 which I love. It's 8 outlets are much better then my old power strip and being able to control each channel is fantastic. I also plumbed everything with PVC, the vinyl was just a quick temp fix. New pumps are coming on Thursday so I'll redo the plumbing again and push only about 4x my tank volume though the sump. I'm excited to see if I get better performance from my skimmer. Right now I push about 10x my tank volume though my sump.

 

[fritz]

Will update with pics tomorrow, new Maxi-jets came in (two MJ-900s) and I've throttled my return pump (Eheim 1262) back to about 50%. I like this way much better. I'm getting much more random turbulant flow with 4 sources putting out less then I was with 3 sources pushing volume. The lower volume through my sump has solved my micro bubble problem and now I can use only one bulkhead as my drain and use the other for return.
Tonight I found a leak in my plumbing (go figure ) haha, not bad just a slow drip. My bulkheads have 1.5 inch FPT and I just can't screw the PVC on tight enough without fear I'm going to break something. I unscrewed the PVC and covered all the threads with silicone. I screwed it back on and left the unions off to let it dry. I'll hook everything back up tomorrow and hopefully it won't leak.

I still want to tee off my return so that it feeds my phosban reactors. Right now they're powered by a MJ-400 and I could use the electrical outlet. My return is all 3/4" PVC so I'm going to Tee it off to a 1/2" hosebarb and feed them that way, just got to work out how to run it so that my skimmer still fits.

 

[DEEPWATER]

I unscrewed the PVC and covered all the threads with silicone. I screwed it back on and left the unions off to let it dry. I'll hook everything back up tomorrow and hopefully it won't leak.

I still want to tee off my return so that it feeds my phosban reactors. Right now they're powered by a MJ-400 and I could use the electrical outlet. My return is all 3/4" PVC so I'm going to Tee it off to a 1/2" hosebarb and feed them that way, just got to work out how to run it so that my skimmer still fits.

nice tank fred ,,But you just failed the plumbing test big time :yo:


why didnt you use teflon tape ?

 

[fritz]

Hahahahaha
I DID use teflon tape!!!
I think that I just didn't screw it on tight enough. I (like a fool) solved the PVC together and then tried to screw it on (I know, I know) so at its tightest the elbow points the wrong way. If I try to tighten it any more the bulkhead starts to turn with the PVC piece. I thought about reconfiguring the bulkhead so that it could be at its tightest and face the right way but my bulkheads are very near my wall outlet and I'm using a ghetto GFCI, not the GFCI that is the outlet.

I know, I should redo the whole thing the right way but if I do that I won't have anything to do later

 

[fritz]

I"ve redone my sump and fixed my botched recirc mod. I added some live rock and changed the way the drain was setup. I had it setup the way the outlet of an ASM or ER Skimmer is. The water left the tube just before the surface of the water and went through the foam tube and into my sump. The foam, turns out, doesn't do much so I removed it. Having the drain water "U Turn" in the sump and exit upwards just below the surface let all the detrius settle on the bottom of my sump. The way it is now I get much better flow throughout the sump. I have the outlet of my reactors on the opposite side of the drain to even the flow out a little bit. I've decided to stop using 2 part once I run out and switch to kalkwasser. I'll add it directly to my RO/DI top off resevoir.

The feed for my skimmer is T'd off the drain and a ball valve regulates how much water goes to the skimmer. Skimmate is darker now My previous setup had the skimmer fed by a MJ 400 mounted right next to the drain. I like this way much better.

 

[digitalreefer]

Damn dude... looks good... I haven't seen your tank in awhile, gotta swing by soon.