chipmunkofdoom2's 29g EXTREME RENOVATION!

I would put traditional doors on the stand. I would build them like doors but attach them with magnets so they each come completely off. I would put them on each end panel as well. With as overbuilt as the stand is the skin wont be needed for strength and it would make everything underneath easy to access.
 
I may try that. As of right now though, until I can get my friend's dad's pickup to go get the plywood, stand construction is on hold. I'm looking at different sump designs and I've kinda decided on this:

finalsumppy2.jpg


Pretty self explanatory. The left is where a majority of the water will be flowing and where the skimmer will be. The far right is my fuge and will have a lower water flow. The middle will be the return with a valve plumbed in so that I can tune it back in case my pump is too powerful for my overflow.

For my fuge, I was planning on getting refugium rubble from the Drs, but that shit is over $4 a pound without shipping! So what I was thinking was just getting a bigger chunk of rock from my not-so-LFS. It would work out to be cheaper after shipping and all. That all's gonna be on a DSB and I want to put macro in there, but that's about all I'm sure on.

Now, for the questions.. what kind of macro would do best? Does it really matter? I was going to get mangroves.. any other recommendations?

For the sand bed, I want to do a DSB in the fuge and I want to change the crappy gravel out of my tank for some sand as well. My biggest issue is I cured my rock in my tank long ago and this gravel is pretty diverse I'm guessing. I'm planning on just buying regular aragonite sand and I was thinking about getting GARF grunge. I've read a lot of mixed reviews and I don't really see a problem with it... I'd probably put half the bag in the fuge then half the bag in the main tank so all the sand is fairly well populated. Any ideas/suggestions/comments?
 
I dont see anything wrong with your sump design.That should work fine.
To change out the gravel to sand,I'd probably just use dry aragonite and replace a little at a time.Say maybe 1/4 a week.But you'd have to come up with some way to keep the sand and gravel from mixing in the tank.
 
your stand looks awesome! it looks like youre doing a ton to renovate and it all looks great. good luck with the gravel to sand conversion.
 
yote said:
...you'd have to come up with some way to keep the sand and gravel from mixing in the tank.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was thinking it'd be really easy to just make up some sort of acryllic divider, but then I thought wait a minute... wouldn't that defeat the purpose of leaving both substrates in there? Haha.

I'm leaning toward just getting the grunge.. I know a lot of people say it's the same as just scooping the muck out of the bottom of a LR tank at the LFS, but it's not like they're charging hundreds of dollars per pound of it. It's only $5. I'll probably split it half and half between the fuge and display so that the fuge has an extremely rich sand bed. It's not the same as live sand, but I'm thinking it'll be good enough and probalby a bit cheaper.

flojo said:
your stand looks awesome! it looks like youre doing a ton to renovate and it all looks great. good luck with the gravel to sand conversion.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I'm really excited to get it covered and painted, but until I can find something to haul my plywood with, I'll just have to wait :grumble:
 
RO/DI unit hookup

Part of my planned upgrades was my RO/DI unit. After arriving with the TDS, but without all the tubing and hookups, I have had to wait to get it running. After I got the hookups and realized the system relied on a pierce valve, I wasn't too thrilled. I don't think my dad wants me poking any holes in his pipes :grumble:

SO! My alternative... I searched around on the web and found out that a lot of people end up hooking it up in the wash room and just using the cold water feed for their drier. I went to Home Depot and after buying a couple incorrect threadings and wrong sized pieces, this is what I've come up with:

p1010766jv0.jpg


From left to right:

Splitter so that I don't have to unhook the washer whenever I want to use my unit.

Garden hose to 3/4 inch adapter (which, I found extremely odd and frustrating at the same time.. garden hoses are 3/4"... why make the threading different so it won't fit on other 3/4" hardware??! :frustrat:)

Ball valve (so I don't have to unhook the unit when I or someone else wants to do a wash)

3/4" from the ball valve to 1/2"

1/2" to 1/4" tubing quick release

A pic of it all assembled

p1010767kg6.jpg


After I had bought all this crap, of course, I learned that a seller on Ebay has a hose fitting to 1/4" tubing adapter for sale for under $10 shipped.. oh well. Live and learn for the next one I guess.

Now as far as operating the unit goes. Do I need to flush it or prep it in any way? If so, how is this done? Any input would be appreciated!
 
Let about 10 gallons of water run through it after you hook it up, then test the TDS. If the TDS is good, then start making tank water (throw out the initial 10 gallon batch).
 
Oscarsdad608 said:
You are going to use teflon tape on those fittings right. They will leak if you don't.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, definitely. That was just put together loosely to show how it's gonna work.

daugherty said:
this is weird i just posted that same thing a bit ago and it never showed up
Click to expand...

Yeah, you did. It was on my other thread were I was looking for RO/DI hookup ideas. I posted this there first just to kinda let everyone know I found a solution. Then of course I had to upgrade my tank build thread, haha.

RyanG said:
OBTW People dont use a cold water hook up on their driers. Lol J/K
Click to expand...

Oh really? Yeah, ours is water powered. A bit of a modern marvel actually :mrgreen:
 
Okay, I got the RO/DI all hooked up and it's making water :mrgreen: :D :^: :bounce:

If I want to use this as top off water, should I be adding kalk or any type of buffer or can I just dump it in?
 
Thanks man. :h5:


Haha, never before have I been so excited over water.


Just out of curiosity, anybody drink their RO/DI water? I tried some and it tastes a lot like bottled water (at least I think) but not a whole lot different from tap.
 
I am only 13 so I will not give out that information. I know that my grandpa he uses a uv and a ro on his faucets. He uses that as his drinking water.
 

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