Tye's AstoriaReef 350: Cycle Started

[Nelson Tiago]

man...I love this build so much! Truly an inspiration to me. I'm still decided between the RedSea 300xl / 350 or WT 130.4 keep posting !!

 

[TJAVOREK]

Super glued everything together with BRS extra thick super glue and the insta-set accelerator spray which is amazing. I was able to create solid bridges between the rocks and the flat base rock pieces. Everything seems to be solidly together including the right island which actually spans across two separate flat base rocks. Finally in the tank and going to rinse the sand and add that tomorrow.

 

[TJAVOREK]

man...I love this build so much! Truly an inspiration to me. I'm still decided between the RedSea 300xl / 350 or WT 130.4 keep posting !!

Thanks so much. You're basically debating the same tanks I was. Unfortunately I live in a NYC apartment so width of the tank was super important which is one of the reasons I ended up going with the 350 as its only 20" wide. I also made the decision before Waterbox came out with the Marine X line.

 

[Nelson Tiago]

thank you so much for your reply so in your case it was a good choise. I'm real debating that on my head for a long time now hahah, wide is not a problem for me...but I'm super inclined to WT 105.4 or the 130.4, I love the shallow look. I'm following your build closely for ideas

 

[TJAVOREK]

Sand rinsed and added. Started working on the electrical and finishing up the plumbing.

 

[TJAVOREK]

Finished up the plumbing I decided to switch to the converters that AZMSGT posted an article about:

How To: Convert 32mm PVC pipe to 1" pipe. Red Sea plumbing used as an example.

One question that comes up allot is "How do I convert my metric plumbing to US spec?". Red Sea owners are always asking this. Here I will explain what Red Sea owners need to do to get a clean finish and conversion. Also the adapter I use can be...

www.reef2reef.com

Finding the ABS to PVC cement was actually the hardest part I had to order it from Home Depot for store delivery and the smallest can they had was 16oz which is way to much. Other problem was the larger the can the larger the swab applicator is so I used q-tips to apply the cement. Be forewarned that this instantly starts melting the ABS so you have to work quickly and in this case keep the twist collar on the RedSea 42221 away from the cement as that will melt.

After a lot of measuring, cutting, some more measuring and lots PVC welding I finished the three overflow lines and my manifold. One thing I did experience is that I used normal PVC to plan everything out and then did final cuts with my red 1" PVC **but** the red PVC pipe actually went less into the fittings so I had to re-measure a lot which while annoying I wasn't mad about as this was my first time working with PVC.

 

[TJAVOREK]

So I have a pet peeve when it comes to cords, I hate seeing them. I tried to make all of the cords and boxes as neat as possible. I am not ready to take any type of apex plunge (credit card needs to recover lol) so I am using two DJ power strips. I mounted everything with 16lb command strips that are normally used for hanging large pictures. The inside cabinet isn't to my liking yet but I will have to play around with it when I put in the ATO chamber. I probably could have mounted the ecotech controllers to the back as well but I figured its would be better to have easy access to them.

 

[TJAVOREK]

So I have a pet peeve when it comes to cords, I hate seeing them. I tried to make all of the cords and boxes as neat as possible. I am not ready to take any type of apex plunge (credit card needs to recover lol) so I am using two DJ power strips. I mounted everything with 16lb command strips that are normally used for hanging large pictures. The inside cabinet isn't to my liking yet but I will have to play around with it when I put in the ATO chamber. I probably could have mounted the ecotech controllers to the back as well but I figured its would be better to have easy access to them.

One thing that I found a little irritating is that pretty much everything comes with way too much cord but the cord for the NYOS skimmer is way to short it barely makes it to the side cabinet and I had to add a random extension cord to make it to the powerstrip outlet.

 

[Soren]

So I have a pet peeve when it comes to cords, I hate seeing them. I tried to make all of the cords and boxes as neat as possible. I am not ready to take any type of apex plunge (credit card needs to recover lol) so I am using two DJ power strips. I mounted everything with 16lb command strips that are normally used for hanging large pictures. The inside cabinet isn't to my liking yet but I will have to play around with it when I put in the ATO chamber. I probably could have mounted the ecotech controllers to the back as well but I figured its would be better to have easy access to them.

There are still a lot of chords all over the place, but you are certainly making good progress toward organizing and cleaning up the electrical layout! I still have yet to work on this for my own reef setup. Thanks for showing me about DJ power strips to have a control switch on each outlet!

 

[TJAVOREK]

Alright water went in, tested pipes no leaks spotted keeping fingers crossed. Started cycle with Microbacter Start XLM. Now the waiting and testing begins.

 

[Doreno]

So I have a pet peeve when it comes to cords, I hate seeing them. I tried to make all of the cords and boxes as neat as possible. I am not ready to take any type of apex plunge (credit card needs to recover lol) so I am using two DJ power strips. I mounted everything with 16lb command strips that are normally used for hanging large pictures. The inside cabinet isn't to my liking yet but I will have to play around with it when I put in the ATO chamber. I probably could have mounted the ecotech controllers to the back as well but I figured its would be better to have easy access to them.

Very clean install, but how you will replace power brick if it will failure?