My 38 gallon tank

New pics (took a few days to get the time to post them):

July 7th:

Added live sand to sump.



Next up was priming the overflow siphon. How to do this............hmmmm.....
Went and got 2 one gallon water jugs from the basement. End caps fit perrrrrrfectly on the ends of the siphon tube (u tube, j tube, whatever it's called).



Filled overflow (with 1 inch ballvalve in the sump closed) and then primed the u tube. Placed blue end caps on each end. These don't stay on by themselves, but just by applying a little pressure, I was able to get the u tube in the overflow box with minimal water loss. As you can see, some air got in, but not enough to break the siphon.



Plugged in return pump and opened both ball valves. Rewarded with sucking sound as water rushes out of overflow, down the drain line, and into the sump.

Sump in operation:



Now for the moment of truth...........does it overflow the sump if I lose power?



Nope! Yay!

Turned pump back on. 20 seconds later:



Okay, now time to tweak/fix 2 small issues:

1) Tremendous sucking noise coming from overflow (sounds like a horse peeing in a bucket) . Easily fixed by partially closing the 1 inch ballvalve down in the sump. Doesn't affect flow at all as the level in the return area doesn't change (would get lower if the drain was bringing in water slower than the return pump is bringing it back up to the main tank).
2) Return sits too low in the tank. If the power goes out the water will backflow down to the sump. This can overflow the sump and flood your floor. Not good. I could either drill a couple of very small holes in the return outlet (just below the water's surface) or raise the return outlet. Either way will cause the siphon to break once a gallon or two of water flows out of the tank and into the sump, lowering the main tank's water level (causing air to get into the return line). I chose to raise the return outlet.

Here's my temporary solution to raise my return outlet. Don't laugh. Well, ok maybe a little. And yes, those curtains are UGGGGLY (and old)! Haven't gotten around to renovating the living room yet (finishing the bathroom first).




Okay, now that I added about 6- 6.5 gallons of day old saltwater and everything is running properly, the new sand in the sump has clouded my water slightly. It also caused my skimmer to go nuts, producing a TON of microbubbles.



Added some live rock (one small piece to the sump and some live rock rubble underneath the eggcrate- both came from my established 20 gallon tank).



A couple of closeups of the live rock rubble inside the eggcrate basket that i made.





You'll also notice the live rock rubble on top of the eggcrate. Seems eggcrate doesn't stay put when there is either alot of flow, or alot of air bubbles.
The rubble weighs it down just enough. The eggcrate on top of the floss holds the floss down (it likes to float too ;D ).


July 10th:

Microbubbles have FINALLY dissipated. Sheesh. Here's a pic of a much clearer tank. Some aquascaping has taken place (getting the polyps closer to the light).



Just a closeup of the polyps. Their tentacles (probably wrong word but you get the idea) are more fully extended now. Guess they like the light




Jeffrey says "After all of your hard work, I'm pooped."



The wife says "You'd better clean up after yourself!"
Time to clean my mess.........

 

Looking awesome....

 

looks good

 

Well, haven't updated in a long time, so here goes:

7-14-08:

Added two more pieces of live rock, bringing the total to 7 pieces in the tank (for now). You'll notice some algae growing on the pieces on the left side of the tank. Guess it's about time to order a clean-up crew, before the algae gets too out of hand.





7-21-08:

One week later and it's time to add some more live rock. Added two more pieces, so now I have 9 pieces in the tank. This is fully established live rock I'm adding (was in this 38 gallon tank before I restarted it), which has been being held in my fully established 20 gallon (which has no livestock currently in it as it will get restarted once I'm done with the 38 ), so there has been no additional cycling taking place (ammonia and nitrites have been, and remain, at zero ppm).




Close-up of the left side of the tank, showing the green hair algae that's going to be a problem soon if I don't get my act together and order a clean-up crew. You'll also see quite a bit of Halimeda Monile growing, as well as some "Neomeris Annulata" (also known as spindleweed or Caterpillar weed):





Here's a close-up of the polyps. They look pretty good, except that piece of rock is also starting to get some GHA. If you look real close, you'll see the start of a "Maiden's wineglass" at the top of the live rock (straight up from the polyps). Trouble seeing it? Look at the largest polyp (also happens to be the furthest to the left) and go straight up from it's left edge.




The right side of the tank, showing some of the newer additions of live rock (not much algae growth yet):




And just for sh#@!ts and giggles, here's a picture of a POS (otherwise known as a Seaclone 100 HOB skimmer). It will get replaced with an AquaC Remora very shortly.




More to come later.................

 

thats priceless

btw nice looking tank

 

How did I miss this thread....and with pics?????? looking good Reeron. Did you use tap water to fill the tank? Luna