Corey's 130 gal System Upgrade

[Rcchanlder]

yeah, i could have bought a 55gal for $50 more that the 75 gal. the refugium in my sump should be about 20 gal if i did my calculations right. that should give me plenty of room for cultivating copepods, macro algea, or what ever else i put in there. my fiance wants to put sea horses in it. everything ive read says thats a bad idea. maybe after everything else the 29 my house some.

 

[Rcchanlder]

The first water test on the sump failed. Resealed it last night. Time to wait another 24 hrs before testing. The good news is the rest of the odds and ends i need to the the overflow box working should be in today. i put 40lbs sand in last night as well. i think another 20lbs and i will be good to go. My LFS really discouraged me from doing the deep sand bed.

 

[Rcchanlder]

going to add some extra lighting today. the lighting i have up now is at about 216. im going to get some 4' T8's and white bulbs to add some watts and some more variety to the spectrum

 

[Rcchanlder]

squeezed in the 55

 

[Bifferwine]

Man, you had to cut those 2x4s to get that in there! I'm glad you got it worked out.

 

[Rcchanlder]

yeah, but i had them all doubled up. the second set of 2 x's didnt even have any stress on them. i have all kinds of power tools for things like that. but i have to say it wasn't fun.

 

[Rcchanlder]

Bulkheads come in today. Any one else feel like a kid on Christmas morning when you know your package is coming in?

 

[d2mini]

Looking good! Man that is a tight fit.

Speaking of tight fits...

Any one else feel like a kid on Christmas morning when you know your package is coming?

YES. :mrgreen:

 

[yote]

Looks good Corey.

 

[Rcchanlder]

ive got it all the plumbing cut glued and drying and the acrylic glue is coming in today. the system should be up and runnign by tomorrow afternoon

 

[Rcchanlder]

i noticed some small grasses popping out of my sand bed. Any idea if that is a good thing? I also dropped a couple of hermits in the tank and some bits of shrimp to see how they do.

 

[Bifferwine]

Sounds like algae, which is not a good thing, but is normal in a new tank. The cleaner crew should help, and be sure you're keeping up with water changes and not using tap water.

 

[Rcchanlder]

i have a RO/ DI filter im using. this doesnt look like the normal algae. it may be though. i dont have much water movement right now

 

[Rcchanlder]

I added a snail in this morning to try and start on some of the algae that is beginning to grow. Ive nearly got the overflow box and all the plumbing done.

 

[Rcchanlder]

here are some pics of my DIY overflow box

 

[Rcchanlder]

Clean up crew is going in

3 Astraea Snails
2 Emerald Crabs
5 Nassarius Snails
5 Hermits

 

[Rcchanlder]

here is the sump with some plumbing

 

[Rcchanlder]

This is another shot of the DIY overflow

 

[reeffreak]

The oveflow looks great.I've said this before-I envy all you D-I Yer's out there.I'm an avid B-U-Yer,so lazy.

 

[Rcchanlder]

lol. DIY... takes more time, effort, and tools, not to mention you make a lot more mistakes. But i have probably saved myself around $500 so far. if i can perfect some things on my overflows perhaps i can share my savings with everyone