Gimmito's 450 L-shaped display

[gimmito]

I hung the Maristar fixture & hooked up the lumatek ballasts. I need to change out the bulbs soon...I like the ushio 14k's and will probably go with aqua blue special and fiji purple for the T5's.

[gimmito]

I hooked up the jbj heater w/controller (nice big led reading), dialed in the H&S A150 (it started making some nice foam within a few hours), & threw some live rock in the drain section to jump start the cycling.

[CarmieJo]

Woo Hoo! It's got water in it!

[gimmito]

Update on the sump for the frag tank:

I added some chaeto & gracialla (Big thanks Christina), fuge light, & cleaned up the cords via corrugated tubing.

[gimmito]

One 1 1/4" elbow and small stick of pipe did wonders to quite the skimmer and knock down the salt creep.

[gimmito]

I got a chance to finish plumbing the drains.

[gimmito]

...and plumbed the fuge.

[gimmito]

Finished the plumbing of the return pump to the fuge (bottom 1 1/2" pipe reduced to 1") and the drain from the fuge (1" pipe w/blue ball valve). I'll probably drain it to the right front of the tank, where I'm sure there will be a line of fish waiting for a snack.

Next is to finish plumbing the returns into the tank and I'll be done w/the plumbing. I took apart the manifold I previously made. I'm leaning towards 2 returns into 2 wavy seas.

[CarmieJo]

Smart idea on the skimmer!

[Coreyz]

Looks good! Very sharp!

[gimmito]

I finally got around to finishing the plumbing.

[gimmito]

Pic of left rear return. The plumbing goes from 1 1/2" to 1" omni flex nozzles. This is most likely a temporary return setup so I can do a water test. I plan on getting a couple of vertex mocean 3500's down the line.

[gimmito]

Pic of right rear return...please excuse the dirty acrylic...too tired to clean it.

Again, plumbing goes from 1 1/2" to 1" omni flex nozzles. I'm thinking about building a couple of "wet boxes" (6x6x16) for tunze streams and placing them along the length of the overflows and siliconing them in. The idea is to hide as much plumbing as possible via the rockscaping. Any thoughts ?

[CarmieJo]

I'm not good at plumbing but I like the idea of having as much of it as possible hidden.

[gimmito]

It's not to bad once you get the hang of it. Dick's talk on plumbing sumps on the last Talking Reef live was one of the best talks on plumbing if nobody evers listen to it. The hardest part is not getting primer or pvc cement all over the place.

[CarmieJo]

Yes, Dick is really knowledgeable! Here is the link to that TRL podcast. http://www.talkingreef.com/forums/po...sode-16-a.html

[Mostly Rock]

Why not just use clear primer? The only time I use the purple primer is when an inspector is going to be checking my work, and generally that's just big commercial jobs. Clear primer by Oatey http://www.oatey.com/Plumber/Shared/...SF+Listed.html is identical to the purple stuph, other than the purple dye, and when coupled with the clear glue (green can http://www.oatey.com/Plumber/Shared/...ar+Cement.html ) will hold under more pressure than we will ever see in the hobby. I usually stick a rag under the fittings and the cans of glue and primer and use a second rag to wipe the joints (after holding them for 15 seconds to prevent push out) and all of my joints look like they came off of an assembly line. You also need to make sure there is a puddle of primer in the hub of the fitting before you apply the glue, according to Charlotte pipe and foundry (yeah, I know, one too many training classes, right?), I have seen many an old school plumber wipe the pipe and fittings after applying primer, before applying the glue, and, according the the manufacturer, that makes the primer absolutely pointless. The primer and glue vulcanizes the PVC together at the joint, and if it doesn't mix properly, it will not melt the PVC together the way it was designed to do it.
Your plumbing looks pretty good, I like your use of 45's instead of 90's, and you have a good handle on the "bigger is better" philosophy when it comes to pipe sizing. I can't wait to see the aquascaping!

[gimmito]

Why not just use clear primer? The only time I use the purple primer is when an inspector is going to be checking my work, and generally that's just big commercial jobs. Clear primer by Oatey http://www.oatey.com/Plumber/Shared/...SF+Listed.html is identical to the purple stuph, other than the purple dye, and when coupled with the clear glue (green can http://www.oatey.com/Plumber/Shared/...ar+Cement.html ) will hold under more pressure than we will ever see in the hobby. I usually stick a rag under the fittings and the cans of glue and primer and use a second rag to wipe the joints (after holding them for 15 seconds to prevent push out) and all of my joints look like they came off of an assembly line. You also need to make sure there is a puddle of primer in the hub of the fitting before you apply the glue, according to Charlotte pipe and foundry (yeah, I know, one too many training classes, right?), I have seen many an old school plumber wipe the pipe and fittings after applying primer, before applying the glue, and, according the the manufacturer, that makes the primer absolutely pointless. The primer and glue vulcanizes the PVC together at the joint, and if it doesn't mix properly, it will not melt the PVC together the way it was designed to do it.
Your plumbing looks pretty good, I like your use of 45's instead of 90's, and you have a good handle on the "bigger is better" philosophy when it comes to pipe sizing. I can't wait to see the aquascaping!

Good to know about the clear primer...I've only seen the purple primer. I was half joking about getting the primer and glue all over the place until I dropped a few on the FRP (the one time I did'nt use rags).
Thanks for the compliment on the plumbing...I did try to minimize as much hard turns as possible.
I finally passed final inspection on the house (which is why this is a 2 year build), so I'm hoping to finish the stand pipes and do a water test this weekend.

[V]

Making some progress here Bud. Good to see.

[gimmito]

Making some progress here Bud. Good to see.

I'm trying V. Say, do you belong to MASNA ? I heard a podcast on the MASNA site interviewing Aussie Reefers..it was very informative about the reefing scene down under.

[gimmito]

Gen finished my drip tray. I originally was going to use filter socks, but I saw Dan Riggle's tank that used a drip tray w/filter floss. I glued ribs w/Weldon 16 and taped them w/blue painters tape. Next, I need to drill out some holes for water flow.

[gimmito]

Gen also made me 2 wetboxes. These will be attached via suction cups and hidden in the rockwork. I plan on using 2 Tunze 6205's in each box pointing through the canyon and especially in dead spots. There are removable lids to access the pumps for cleaning and keep critters out.

[V]

No, ive not become apart of the Aussie movement in this regard.

Masna in my opinion, although full of experienced members, is still full of tossa's. Which as you can imagine, I dont stand for American's tossa's that are meant to be at the forefront of technology, let alone from my own idiot countryman!

Consider me an independent country in this regard, as i have no ties except to friends!

[gimmito]

...finished drilling 100 holes for the drip tray.

[V]

wow, used a drill press?