Well after dividing up my tank a couple of years ago, I have now decided to combine them both back into one tank. Without further chattering, here is the play by play so far. I'll post pics as soon as I get them off my camera.
Day 1
Saturday of this past weekend I purchased an All Glass, 92 corner reef-ready setup. At the same time, I sold my black volitan lionfish that dominated my 55 gallon tank, moved the other 2 inhabitants of that tank to my 20 reef for now, and cleaned and removed the old 55 gallon tank.
I also took this day to paint the back walls of the corner tank a deep shade of blue. I also drilled out the 3/4" pvc piping that my LFS recommened as a replacement for the flexi-nozzles that the overflow kit came with. I drilled approx .25" holes at alternating angles (45 and 90 degrees) every inch of the pipe. Each pipe runs the length of the straight wall of the tank and terminates at a cap.
Day 2
With the 55 gallon tank removed and the new 92 corner in it's place, I started to get things going. I increased the size of the intake port on the wet/dry filter that I'll be using as a sump from 3/4" to 1". Then plumbed everything using flexible nylon hose. This allowed me to have very flowing pipes with no sharp bends. My overflow to the sump is almost a straight shot with very little bend in it at all. My return line is another story though with a little extra hose, but nothing my Mag12 can't handle.
Day 3
After 2 days of making RO/DI water, adding salt, and doing it all over, I now have the tank filled and a heater chugging away trying to bring all that water up to the desired temperature. I might need to invest in a new/bigger heater.
Problems at the end of Day 3
The main problem I'm having right now is flow. I know the corner tanks are hard to get proper flow into.
My LFS recommended that I dump the flexi-nozzles that came with the overflow kit, and install some 3/4" pipe, drilled in an alternating fashion with 90 and 45 degree holes. While I was checking for leaks with my Mag5 all seemed alright and I slapped on my Mag12 that I bought especially for this project. Well the Mag12 was pushing too much water into the tank and the overflow couldn't keep up. So I headed to the local big box hardware store and grabbed some stuff to rig a ball valve to throttle back the flow. Well now all I have is a trickle of water coming out of the ends...
So tomorrow (day 4 for the tank) I am headed back to the hardware store for a different valve setup. I'm gonna replace the 3/4" pipe with pipe that has fewer holes in it (1 hole every 3 inches vs 1 every inch) and hopefully this will settle my flow problem.
The day started with a trip to the hardware store for a new ball valve and some end caps. With those in hand, I ran by the local pet death superstore and grabbed a stealth heater (i love those black plastic ones), and back home I went.
After replacing the gates valve with the ball valve, I removed the pvc pipes and replaced them with ones that had been drilled at alternating angles every 3 inches. By the time I had this all done, the tank was up to temp, and the salinity was sitting at a "close" 1.020. So I added a few more scoops of salt to the sump, installed the new spray bars, and fired that sucker up.
At this point, I had the pleasure of taking my neighbor to the hospital to have her baby. Her husband was a couple of hundred miles away on a job at the time, and since I was home, I got volunteered
About midnight I came home from the hospital (soon to be Daddy had arrived) and I added all the LR from my old 55 gallon to the new tank and fired up the Mag12.
Day 5
Everything seems to be running properly. The temp is holding steady. There were a couple of pinhole leaks in the pvc that I glued up with pvc glue (being careful not to drop a plop in the tank). However, I noticed a nice collection of foam in the bio-ball chamber of my wet/dry filter.
So question of the day... Is it normal to get hella foam in the bio-ball chamber of the wet/dry filter? And when I say hella foam, I mean foam that creeps over the edge of the filter and down the sides? Not smelly skimmer foam, but just white bubbly foam.
Thanks all...
__________________ I'm hot, hot, hotty jalapeno, the hottest jalapeno in toooowwwwnnnn.
Well, still dealing with plumbing problems and trying to keep my sump from overflowing with foam. But here ya go, a couple of pics of the up and running product...
__________________ I'm hot, hot, hotty jalapeno, the hottest jalapeno in toooowwwwnnnn.
Hun you know that you and everyone else are always welcome at my place for a little tank viewing...
I don't have any pics of the baby downloaded yet, but I'm sure once Mom gets settled in I'll have more than enough of them. Little thing got all fussy with me at the hospital cause the flash was in her eyes
__________________ I'm hot, hot, hotty jalapeno, the hottest jalapeno in toooowwwwnnnn.
Its been a long time, but things I haven't stopped piddling and upgrading and futzing with the tank.
Here is the inhabitants list:
1 big arse Gold Stripe Maroon Clown (Side Show Bob)
1 Yellow Tang (Pooty Tang)
1 Bicolor Blenny (Muppet)
1 Six Line Wrasse (One-eyed Willie, he lost an eye at the LFS before I bought him)
1 Dragon Goby, or is it Engineer Goby... (Dump Truck, cause he likes to shift sand on my plate)
There are also a couple of emerald crabs, a pink/purple lobster, and snails and hermits...
I'm too lazy to do the corals right now... oh, and I figured what the heck, I'll throw in a pic of my little freshwater tetra tank. I did this using all used equipment that I had lying around from various tank adventures.
__________________ I'm hot, hot, hotty jalapeno, the hottest jalapeno in toooowwwwnnnn.
The tank is looking great. BTW - did you ever figure out what caused the foam in the wet/dry? And are you still using bio-balls in your wet/dry? Cuz if you are - we need to talk!
__________________ 240 gallon Mixed Reef + 46 gallon Mixed Reef + 40 gallon coral prop tank - 180 gallon FOWLR = a little more time and money!
NO bio balls anymore... they are in the garage somewhere waiting to be done away with. BTW, has anyone else seen the 2 bioball pack that some some LFS are selling as "cricket catchers" so that crickets dont drown in their water bowl? Quite funny and a much better use in my opinion
I'm not exactly sure what was causing the crazy foam, could have been the fine sand dust, could have been the curing pvc, who knows... but I added a mat of carbon filter at the bottom of the intake side of the sump and that seemed to help things, and time really helped things out.
I just added the 250w MH a couple of days ago. I bought 3 thinking I would need them, but to be honest, 1 seems to be doing more than enough for my inhabitants.
Thanks for the pats on the back, it isn't perfect, but I'm having fun getting it that way...
__________________ I'm hot, hot, hotty jalapeno, the hottest jalapeno in toooowwwwnnnn.
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