Well it has been quite a while since I posted an update here. I have made some more progress, but alas, I still don't have water in it.
Hopefully that will happen in the next week or so. So here is what I've done:
My ATO system will consist of an Avast Marine top off kit equipped with the connection for the DA switch ports. This top off uses a small rigid tube connected to an airline that uses air pressure to trigger a relay to close. There are no moving parts and it is virtually impossible for a snail or algae to effect its operation. I used a similar system before and it worked great. I prefer something like this instead of relying on float switches exclusively. I will have a backup system of float switches but the Avast system will be the main trigger. When the water level is low the RKE will turn on a MJ600 pump that is in the 55g drum holding my RODI top off water. This drum will be in the garage which is directly under my living room. I ran a 1/4" tube up through the floor and into the back of the stand. I got a hold of a bulkhead JG fitting to bring the tubing through the wall of the stand and into the sump.
Eventually I will trim down the tubing so that it doesn't reach the water level in the sump. That would cause a siphon and drain a bunch of water down into the reservoir.
I also made a little mod to attach to the venturi on my skimmer to feed the output of my bio pellet reactor directly into the skimmer.
The reactor is a Hydro Aquatics reactor and it is fed from the manifold that my return pump is connected to. I am going to be using Prodibio for my bacteria dosing and will be using the entire line of Prodibio supplements. I won about 6 months worth in the raffle at MACNA so I will be set for a while. I have read about quite a few systems that have been running real good using Prodibio so I decided I would give it a go.
I picked up about 45lbs of Seaflor Aragamite sand today so I could start building my rock work. I hope to start that tomorrow. I took the rock that was in my 300g and stored it in a couple barrels for the last year that it has taken me to get this 130g system up and running. All of the rock has been sitting out in the sun for the last week getting nice and dry. It wasn't very "alive" last year anyway. I'll get the rock scape put together with everything dry so I can change it 50 times like I always do. Only this time it will be much cleaner since it won't be under water. I placed egg crate on the bottom of the tank to keep the rock from sitting directly on the glass bottom. I needed the sand to fill in all of the little egg crate squares under the rock. I will build the bottom layer of the rock and then fill in the rest of the sand around it. This way my critters won't be able to undermine the rock and topple it over.
I have to turn this:
into a beautiful work of art. We'll see how it goes....
More updates a little later on.
