Well after over a year of research and planning my journey in marine aquariums finally begins. This thread will follow me through the building and maintaining of my first reef setup, enjoy and feel free to comment.
My stand
__________________ "Noone cares how much you know, untill they know how much you care."
"Fear Leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering"
And thanks to the miracle of the internet we jump ahead about 2 hours.
__________________ "Noone cares how much you know, untill they know how much you care."
"Fear Leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering"
Well now that the main structure of the stand is built I thought it was time to start looking in to plumbing. So after looking at some plumbing setups online and scratching a few notes on paper it was off to Lowes. I never realized there was such a variety of fittings available for 1/2" and 3/4" pipe
Since I only had a partial idea of what it was I was going to do, and I didn't want to make any return trips for anything that I missed, I determined that the best possible idea was to grab a handful of all of the fittings available in the sizes I was going to use. (you should have seen the poor girls face at checkout) So I'm sure I have fittings that I will prolly never use but hey they are there if I do. I'm hoping to get the plumbing mocked up in the next day or so, my skimmer and pump won't be here for a week or so, so I can't finalize anything until they arrive.
__________________ "Noone cares how much you know, untill they know how much you care."
"Fear Leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering"
Do you have your RO/DI unit, refugium/sump, do you plan on using a protein skimmer? Will you be going for fish & corals, or FWLRO? I sure wish I could go back in time and re prioritize the order in which I made my purchases. What will be the first live stock you plan on adding after cycling your tank?
I am sure you will find a good use for any spare fittings. I am always finding a use for more and realising I need yet more - fittings, it's like a disease, that spreads!
lReef lKeeper the bulkheads that came with the tank had hose barbs on them so the guy at the LFS where I bought it traded a few bulkheads that he had laying around. How much is using smaller fittings going to hurt the performance of the tank? I haven't actually measured the hole size in the tank but I do know the bulkheads I have now drastically reduce down to the size of the pipe I am using. I can measure the holes tomorrow and pick up new bulkheads and fittings if need be.
Coreyz: yes I have a Ro/di unit ordered also along with skimmer and a few other odds and ends. I currently have 2 rubbermade containers one for a sump the other for a fuge, both hold around 20 gallons when full so I figure at normal levels they should add between 20 and 30 gallons to my overall tank volume. It will probably be a swlro (sand with live rock only) tank for a few months untill I decide/can afford the lights I want but it will end life as a mixed reef, I'm still playing with the stocking list.
__________________ "Noone cares how much you know, untill they know how much you care."
"Fear Leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering"
The Following User Says Thank You to IAreef For This Useful Post:
Did you tell her why you wanted 37 different plumbing parts? Telling them that you want things for an aquarium always raises eyebrows.
lol try going to a supermarket and going to the customer service saying that you need 75g of their RO/DI water from their machine that they have....for a aquarium....that really got em..lol and then going to the cashier and explaining to here when she asks why are you buying so much water...lmao.
Looks like you're on the road to reefdom. Funny how pictures make things look so easy and fast to do, that is until you do them. You did a great job in 2 hours. Glad to hear your equipment purchasing is coming along nicely. Look forward to following your tank build.
Upon closer inspection the tank will support larger diameter plumbing with new bulkheads. So I suppose that I will be ordering some of those also and putting the rest of the plumbing on hold for now. Thanks for the heads up lReef lKeeper. Any suggestions to where these would be available at reasonable prices.
__________________ "Noone cares how much you know, untill they know how much you care."
"Fear Leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering"
icon under their name to add to their reputation. 
) So I'm sure I have fittings that I will prolly never use but hey they are there if I do. I'm hoping to get the plumbing mocked up in the next day or so, my 
) tank for a few months untill I decide/can afford the lights I want but it will end life as a mixed reef, I'm still playing with the stocking list.
Looks like you're on the road to reefdom. Funny how pictures make things look so easy and fast to do, that is until you do them. You did a great job in 2 hours. Glad to hear your equipment purchasing is coming along nicely. Look forward to following your tank build.