My Reef Journey Begins!

[Brew12]

Following along. Looking good so far.

Wow what a great steal following this one and welcome to Reef to reef

Thanks guys. I can't tell you how overwhelming it can be at time trying to do this as a first aquarium. Well, not exactly a first. I guess my parents had a 20 gallon freshwater tank when I lived at home 25 years ago. Some days I wish I had picked up a smaller tank but I think I'll be happy with the end result.

 

[Joey waid]

Sorry to hear that! We went through that years ago before I moved south. Nothing fun about it.

You should really find someone better to live vicariously through. I can't even get a shrimp to rot in my tank properly!

You did take the shell off? It took the two tanks I just cycled, about three weeks for the shrimp to disapear. Yours should be turning in to a big cotton ball soon.

 

[Brew12]

You did take the shell off? It took the two tanks I just cycled, about three weeks for the shrimp to disapear. Yours should be turning in to a big cotton ball soon.

Yup, 4 raw shrimp with no shells. 5 days in and still no detectable ammonia. Going to hit the store after work today to pick up a bottle of pure ammonia and hit it with that.

 

[Bob Escher]

Yes it is. I was born in Chicago and raised in the suburbs up until I joined the Navy. It's a good time in sports for me right now. Cubs are playing great and first Bears game of the season is in a few hours!

Born and raised less than 4 miles directly down the street from Wrigley field. Same to me joined the army went back home and then my job moved me up to Milwaukee. My wife and I have issues she is a Packer fan and I'm a Bears fan so you can imagine how that is.

And thank you for your service. Great build lucky you at the same time. Those kinds of deal come few and far between. Will be watching my friend

 

[Joey waid]

Anywhere near round lake?

 

[bknapp]

I prefer the ammonia over the shrimp due to the smell. Good luck. Just make sure there are no extras in the ammonia.

 

[bknapp]

Rather it be the Cubs than the White Sox.

Go Lions and Tigers!

 

[Brew12]

Born and raised less than 4 miles directly down the street from Wrigley field. Same to me joined the army went back home and then my job moved me up to Milwaukee. My wife and I have issues she is a Packer fan and I'm a Bears fan so you can imagine how that is.

And thank you for your service. Great build lucky you at the same time. Those kinds of deal come few and far between. Will be watching my friend

I was a south sider but I never picked up my dads love of the White Sox. Growing up we would go to both Wrigley and Comisky and I just like Wrigley much better. You live very close to my brother. He is in Waukesha. I did some college in Watertown, WI which is just up the road!

And thank you for your service too! I was a quitter and only did 10 years. Another 5 year tour on a submarine just didn't appeal to me.

 

[Brew12]

Was too tired last night to do much with the tank. Worked on my electrical board a little bit but that is about all. Shouldn't have a problem getting it finished and installed tonight so will post a picture of how it turned out when it is done. Once I can get some pictures, I think I will write an article and submit it for R2R to post on my design and how I created what I believe is a very safe electrical environment for both people and fish.

 

[RamsReef]

You put a 751a on that or what?

 

[Brew12]

You put a 751a on that or what?

My aquarium? Nah... don't have CT's big enough to make it worthwhile! I've always preferred the 451's anyway and those are my go to in the substation paired with a 387L. Could you imagine what I could automate on the tank with one of those and an RTAC?

 

[RamsReef]

That would be fun actually.

 

[Brew12]

Well, almost got the electrical done. Need to reprogram the Apex and install the skimmer. I'll explain how it all works and why I did it this way when I am not so tired!

 

[Brew12]

Ok, here is the quick and dirty of how I set up my electrical. If you look at the 4 plugs currently connected to the EB 8, they are pigtails that go to the GFCI outlets. Outlets 1 and 2 go to my heaters (top 2 outlets), 3 goes to my sump return pump, and 4 will go to my skimmer. The VorTech MP40's (I have 2, but one wouldn't reach) will not be plugged into the EB 8.
Heater 1 is set to maintain 77 degrees. The Apex will not turn the outlet on unless the temperature is below 77F and turns it off at 79F.
Heater 2 is set to maintain 74 degrees. The Apex will not turn the outlet on unless the temperature is below 75F and turns it off at 79F.

By doing it this way I have a separate GFCI for each electrical component that is submerged in my sump. A single ground fault will not take out more than the one failed device. Long term I plan on plugging in an indicator light visible outside my stand to quickly indicate if I have a tripped GFCI. And yes, I do have a ground probe installed in my sump.
Since my lights and powerheads are not in the water I have decided not to put those in a GFCI. The powerheads will eventually be powered from a battery backup system that will keep them running for at least 5 hrs if I have a power outage.

I feel like this is a great compromise in tank/fish safety as well as being extremely safe for people.

 

[Brew12]

A quick separate thought... I never bothered to look at the flow of the return pump that came with the used system I bought. When I got it running it was incredibly noisy. I fought with it for around 30-45 minutes and came to the conclusion that it was just way too much flow for the dual 1" overflows. I looked up the pump specs and calculated the head loss from the way my plumbing is installed and figured it was putting out around 9 times my tank volume. I'm not sure what he was thinking, he must have had a valve on the pump outlet that was throttled way down.
Time for a smaller pump!

 

[justingraham]

A quick separate thought... I never bothered to look at the flow of the return pump that came with the used system I bought. When I got it running it was incredibly noisy. I fought with it for around 30-45 minutes and came to the conclusion that it was just way too much flow for the dual 1" overflows. I looked up the pump specs and calculated the head loss from the way my plumbing is installed and figured it was putting out around 9 times my tank volume. I'm not sure what he was thinking, he must have had a valve on the pump outlet that was throttled way down.
Time for a smaller pump!

Unless want to run the triton method then that's perfect amount of flow

 

[Brew12]

Unless want to run the triton method then that's perfect amount of flow

I don't want to run any method that requires earmuffs! The tank and even my sump have no issue with the flow. The problem is the 1" bulkheads. I feel like they should have been bigger to support that volume of flow quietly.

 

[micorals]

Great build so far! Tagging along. Where did you get the custom sump partitions if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Brew12]

Great build so far! Tagging along. Where did you get the custom sump partitions if you don't mind me asking?

Thanks, I appreciate it!

Got it from Exotic Marine Systems. Here is their thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/diy-sump-baffle-kit.224889/

He was great to work with and got me exactly what I thought I wanted. In hindsight, I probably should have gone with a 40B for a sump to save room under the tank. I do love the extra space in the sump though.

 

[micorals]

Thanks! This is awesome, it will save me so much time in designing my sump. I pretty much did the same thing you did and bought a used 120g system. I'm redesigning the sump as I want a refugium in the middle.