125 Gal

Joe on the nozzles you now have at about 45' Deg I would remove the cones from the loc line and then point the perfectly vertical you really do not need the pressure increase they cause all you want is the flow volume this will also stop them from lifting the sand from the deflection off the glass and the low pressure area they are causing in the pockets between them and the glass . I never use the nozzle cones I want the softer less pressure and larger volume water flows on my circulation loop

 

I'm going to give this a try, as soon as my display rock arrives.

Today's chemistry results, week 2 of operation:



...and the tank looks like:



As you can see, much of the brown algae bloom has already gone. This week, 10#s of Garf Grunge was added to the sump and refugium. Along with a bit of macro algae starts from Reef Cleaners.

I'm thinking the cycle may be very short as the only the sand is new...the live rock and coil de-nitrator are a year old...

 

180 LBS of "Aragocrete" has arrived from GARF.ORG...







It came in 5 boxes, packed in bubble wrap and styrofoam....all arrived in very good shape...there are pine needles, so I'll wash them all before placing in the tank...

 

Nice! Can't wait to see some rock in that tank. Have any ideas on a rockscape?

 

Follow on Chem Results...



...SG, pH, alk are all a bit low...added buffer tonight...will check again tomorrow and add a bit of salt as well...

 

Our "going in position" is along the lines of a wall or island along the length of the center line allowing swimming room for the fish on 3 sides... caves... holes... something that will hide the closed loop inlets...

 

Note: the pH probes have not been installed...still using a test kit with 7.6, 7.8, 8.0 , 8.2, 8.4 indicators...certifiably less than ideal, but sufficient to get the system through cycling and up and running...

 

Alright, last night, round 1 of aquascaping is complete. All of the Aragocrete had to be rinsed very well to get the pine needles and dirt off. That said, this morning, I still found some pine needles in the overflow and sump. And the skimmer waste collection had shut down the skimmer and needed to be emptied. A quick check of NO2 and NO3 reveled that both are still at 0...but that won't last long...

Living Room side:


Walk around the tank...








The end result is a mix of new Aragocrete, dryrock, and live rock (taken from the sump). I have about 1/3 of the Aragocrete still sitting out. I re-boxed it and put it out in the shed...

The end result is 100-120 lbs of rock in the DT, 150 lbs of year old live rock, cured here at the house in the seed tank, and 10 lbs of rock in the refugium.

 

Tangster,

Solid recommendation on the nozzles! Take a look at the above post. I have pulled all 10 nozzles off, still have very significant flow, but none of the "tornadoes" pulling up the sand or sucking in air from the surface.

Good call! Thank you.

 

So that's what you had in mind! Great rockscape.