My rendition of 300

[uclamatthew]

Looks great so far. Can't wait to see water in there.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by dwolson2

At least it didn't drop while you were over the tank!


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There's the silver lining!!! it took a chip out of the acrylic sump... not enough to even matter though.

Originally Posted by halmus

My compliments on the rock work and your self control after the rock work fell apart. You’re a better man than I am.

Thanks, I'm starting to imagine them full of coral.... eventually... one day... it'll get there.

Originally Posted by rpjaws74

very nice set-up...

Thanks for the compliment.

Originally Posted by uclamatthew

Looks great so far. Can't wait to see water in there.

Water is flowing, adding salt as quickly as I can to bring it to 1.026.







I was able to calibrate and set up the Vectra L1 return pump. One thing that I'm a bit disappointed in, is that the Vectra isn't compatible with the WXM, it really irks me to think that the conflict of business gets in the way of individual versatility and choice to select particular equipment. With that said if anyone has a clever way to use this pump with apex and utilize the feed mode, I would be grateful.

I haven't done any hard looking yet but an option may be to have the Vectra plugged into the EB8 and when feed mode is initiated it will cut power to the Vectra having it go to battery backup, and while in battery backup have it run at the predetermined minimum speed, to prevent water from being siphoned back into the sump.

Does anyone know if that's possible???

Among the pumps, I'm slowly getting my feet wet with Apex programming again, and bringing all the MP's online... one thing that I want to point out is that the sheer silence of these Quiet Drives is amazing. I had an old MP60 running on one side of the tank and a new MP40QD on the other side. Standing next to the 40, I couldn't hear it but I could easily hear the 60 that was 8' away. couple the Bean Animal silent failsafe return setup and the QD's the loudest thing so far is the hum of the skimmer. And to think that Mcpuff was ahhh... right:

Originally Posted by McPuff

I think you may be too worried about sound deadening... if you have a full siphon overflow then the noise is so minimal, especially since your sump is in the basement. That's where all the noise will be. My tank is not in a wall but with the full siphon overflow I can hardly hear anything when I'm right next to the tank.

You were right! I was umm.... less right....

If you remember, when I picked up my acrylic, I asked the guy for scrap pieces and I was able to walk away with a hodge podge of assorted sizes and thicknesses. in which I was able to make a tray for the siporax.

With the laser I was able to cut holes to align with the siporax,





Knowing that the siporax isn't machined to precision I was able to take averages and hopefully keep the pieces aligned with the holes...But in the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter, there's enough holes for flow and ample opportunity for surface exposure for bacteria



Cut these out with the laser



Glued them together



And this is where most of you will say, "that's too much work!" but I stacked them 2 high

[Sisterlimonpot]

To create the ability to add more or take away, I had to make it easy to gain access to the siporax. so I'm using these 1.5" sex bolts to hold it altogether







I only purchased 2000ml to see where that puts me when the tank is booming with bio diversity. The tray has some room for growth and can probably hold 3000 ml. If I need more, I can make another and stack themas deep as I need.





That's my contribution this time... While the tank starts its cycle, my next big project is a light rack, I have some aluminum rails that i've been holding onto for a while for this reason, however I need someone that can TIG weld, and I can't find anyone locally.... I may have to turn to the laser again for brackets.... More to come.

[fishguy597]

Jim you have put together a first class system. You definitely got your money's worth out of that laser cutter. The sump looks fantastic.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by fishguy597

Jim you have put together a first class system. You definitely got your money's worth out of that laser cutter. The sump looks fantastic.

Thank you so much!!! I like the laser too... Here's an impulsive creation that only took 20 minutes from from conception to completion, I already had the exact foot print of my skimmer mapped out when I was designing the sump which made it easy to cut a platform for it... no measuring at all









Raised the skimmer up to the proper level... bad news is that it made collection cup servicing a little harder... but there's still plenty of room.

[McPuff]

Man, that is so cool. You've made some very nice things with that laser! Gotta love the way a freshly made acrylic project looks!

[SawCJack00]

Wow nice work Jimmy!

[dwolson2]

Originally Posted by Sisterlimonpot

Thank you so much!!! I like the laser too... Here's an impulsive creation that only took 20 minutes from from conception to completion, I already had the exact foot print of my skimmer mapped out when I was designing the sump which made it easy to cut a platform for it... no measuring at all









Raised the skimmer up to the proper level... bad news is that it made collection cup servicing a little harder... but there's still plenty of room.

Jimmy, are you still using corel draw? I might have to convince you to make/sell me one of those skimmer stands!

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by McPuff

Man, that is so cool. You've made some very nice things with that laser! Gotta love the way a freshly made acrylic project looks!

Thanks, there's a point that you start going overboard, and I'm teetering on it... It's a great tool to have.

Originally Posted by SawCJack00

Wow nice work Jimmy!

Thanks Bill, a lot of the inspiration of my tank stems from yours.

Originally Posted by dwolson2

Jimmy, are you still using corel draw? I might have to convince you to make/sell me one of those skimmer stands!

Yes, CorelDRAW is the only program that is compatible with that laser. I use corel draw X7, it seems more user friendly than 4. Although I'm only scratching the surface with what I do on it. there's not much to 2D hairline drawings.

Give me some dimensions and I'll see if I have enough scrap still.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

I see you've been busy while I was away winning another Baja race. 4
Things are looking good. Glad you got the holes drilled with no issues.
I like the islands and how you constructed them. I had always wanted to build mine like that but never did. How far to the top of the water is the "bonsai" ?

Once I get word on the race, I'll text you info.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by Crusty Old Shellback

I see you've been busy while I was away winning another Baja race. 4
Things are looking good. Glad you got the holes drilled with no issues.
I like the islands and how you constructed them. I had always wanted to build mine like that but never did. How far to the top of the water is the "bonsai" ?

Once I get word on the race, I'll text you info.

Yep, it's turning out to be my white whale. The bonsai slopes towards the front of the tank, at the tip it's roughly 4" off the surfaces, the lower portion is about 8 inches.

I've been evaping roughly 3 gallons a day, and I don't want to continue adding water so the ATO system has turned into the top priority. I've bee making progress on the lights and I will share it with you guys once it's complete. In the meantime, I had to build a stand for the barrels so that I could drill the bottom of them and place some bulkheads, There's not much to the stand cut out 8 pieces at 22.5 degree angles then nailed and glued them onto a 1/2" piece of plywood



Trimmed the edges



Routed around the middle to make room for the plumbing



Painted them, set them in place and started plumbing





I'm using one of my jebao pumps to transfer and recirculate water, this will be the first time using one of these pumps outside of the water, let's hope for no leaks.



I'm stopping here for the day, going to let the glue dry and test it out tomorrow.

Knowing how much I'm evaping will help me deterine the size of the ATO container that I'm going to build. I want it to hold at least 3 days of water and no more than 5.. this will help if there's a problem and the ATO get's stuck on, it won't dump 55 gallons of fresh into the tank. Which means, I will probably go with a 12 gallon container.

Some good news to report, I walked into the equipment room this afternoon and the exhaust fan was running based on the humidity level. I have the sensor adjusted to come on at 20%, which is the lowest I can go with it... 20% still feels a bit muggy, I need to get a humidity meter for the room to see what it actually is. I also need to set up the AC to maintain a constant temp in there which will help with humidity, yet another thing that needs attention.. hehe.

Thanks for following along, more to come soon.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Finally finished the ATO system today, over the last week I've slowed down with other priorities popping up, but I managed to make my own magnet holder for the high low float switches. Here’s a photo dump of what I’ve accomplished.

Cut layers out on the laser and then had to machine some surfaces for the thickness of the magnets.







These are to redirect the magnetic field so that it doesn't interfere with the reed switch in the float switches


Used some neodymium magnets to couple to 2 halves together. (when did these things get soo expensive??

[Sisterlimonpot]

Layered them all together and sealed them from salt water


Here'sthe 2 magnetic halves holding together in between 3/8" acrylic



Then I cut out a piece for the float switches and float valve



Float switches attached... those magnets could hold a lot more weight if needed

[Sisterlimonpot]

Then I made the ATO container

[Sisterlimonpot]

So far so good...

[SawCJack00]

Nice work Jimmy!

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Having been out of the hobby for a while, I was not sure of what the siporax was, so I looked it up.

So it's just a medium to grow bacteria. Is there a special reason you are using it? Not going to overload the tank with LR? Something I don't know about?

Please educate this old man.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by Crusty Old Shellback

Having been out of the hobby for a while, I was not sure of what the siporax was, so I looked it up.

So it's just a medium to grow bacteria. Is there a special reason you are using it? Not going to overload the tank with LR? Something I don't know about?

Please educate this old man.

You pretty much hit the nail on the head, the surface area in these little sintered glass cylinders is vast, it can host more bacteria than any porous rock out there. The 580 grams (1.28lbs) of siporax that I have in my sump will replace the need of over 100 lbs of live rock. This means that I'm no longer forced to stuff 300lbs of rock in my tank to achieve the necessary nitrification process. That free's up more space for fish to swim and allows for a minimalistic aquascape.

Another great benefit is that due to the way these are formed into cylinders they are easy to shake off and remove any detritus that may accumulate on their surface, which is why you will hear clams that they also aid in denitrification as well as lower phosphate levels.

I've only recently learned about these guys and liked what I read to the point that I had to incorporate them into this system. I do know that they can do too good of a job and strip away all of the tanks nitrates and phosphates starving out other nutrient exports like macro algae and such. That's why I'm being conservative with what I start off with and possibly add more in the future, although my hope is to strike a natural balance between chaeto and siporax to maintain a healthy nitrate level in the range of 3-5 ppm. It may take a little work at the beginning to get there but I hope as the tank matures it occurs naturally.

[Crusty Old Shellback]

Got it. So just another take on the old wet dry filter system of years ago. just you keep the media wet/sumberged all the time.

I just used to put a lot of extra rock in my sump. had all kinds of life growing in there.

But as you aid, this will be easier to clean out when needed.

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by Crusty Old Shellback

Got it. So just another take on the old wet dry filter system of years ago. just you keep the media wet/sumberged all the time.

I just used to put a lot of extra rock in my sump. had all kinds of life growing in there.

But as you aid, this will be easier to clean out when needed.

The biggest difference between the wet dry and rock rubble is the ease of detritus removal.

[Sisterlimonpot]

I'm still working on finishing up the ATO system and the light rack, but in the mean time I had to deal with some cord management of the Ecotech pumps...



Simply unacceptable!!!

Got this today and went to work installing it



2 screws and channel the wires and DONE!





More to come!!!

[Sisterlimonpot]

Little things are starting to come together, buttoning up cords and hoses. I was also able to get the macro algae light on line...



Tucked up underneath the stand





I can't quite put my finger on it, something about it reminds me of Amsterdam

[Crusty Old Shellback]

So you admit to being in THAT section of town?

[Sisterlimonpot]

Originally Posted by Crusty Old Shellback

So you admit to being in THAT section of town?

...when in Rome. If hey didn't want me to go there, why would they station me so close? You have to experience what the world has to offer.

Wait, how do you know it's just a "section of town"?

[SawCJack00]

I got some new Chaeto Jimmy. Hopefully it will do better this time, and I'll have some for you in a week or two.