Pastey's 200DD--SPS v. 3.0

Have to order 1 uniseal to finish up and put the sight glass on the bottom barrel.

 

After a little lull in the action, I ordered some more stuff today.

I finally broke down and bought the last remaining insert fitting from Amazon (and paid $8 shipping!!!) along with two 250w heaters (for the tank) and one 150w heater (for the mixing station). Ordered two 175g. buckets of Red Sea Pro salt, a ball valve for the RO tubing (so I don't have to go outside to start making RO/DI, an extra 15' of RO tubing, the last remaining Uniseal that I needed and Red Sea nitrate test. Most of my tests are 1-2 years old so I'm going to ditch them all slowly. I just needed to hit the $175 for free shipping

 

Got a round of packages Thursday and Friday. Is it just me or has shipping been really rough lately?

Box the heaters came in:


Heaters (they were OK):


Salt bucket (luckily the bags were Ok):

 

Oh my!!!!

You got lucky. I would still be suspicious of the heaters though, that is a lot of banging around.

Did you use pro before?

 

About 6 years ago I worked for one of the 2 big shippers, I had the privilege of seeing how packages get loaded and unloaded and all I have to say is, if I can avoid having things shipped I would. Loaders and unloaders are under a lot of pressure to unload quick and a lot of heads get turned when it comes to the handling aspect of the job. I say dropped, thrown or repackaged, it's just what happens. Unfortunately you are subject of a bad handler. That is one of the reasons I did not keep up with my employment. I would contact the shipping company and the company you ordered from and let them know your situation. Totally sucks.

 

Cheryl, I tested the heaters and checked carefully for cracks and couldn't find any reason to bother with sending them back. I have never used Red Sea Pro. I've been using ESV but wanted to see how this stuff does.

I'm going to the send the pictures to the company I bought from and the shipper. I doubt anything will be done, like you said, but its better to bring it to someone's attention.

 

Depends on where you got them from. Most places would work with you.
I have one of the Eheim jäger heaters and they are tough. I don't see why you would have a problem with it. Unless it rattled the internals. I would test it and follow the directions to calibrate it and make sure it works.

 

Saltwater mixing / storage setup is 98% complete. Only thing left is to add the hole in the salt barrel for pouring salt in. I'm still undecided as to where to put that so I'm going to wait until the setup in it's final resting spot to avoid the "Man, I wish I would have put it like this" situation. Other than that, both have been given a vinegar bath and leak tested at full capacity.

In other news, I went and got the supplies to take care of my sump this week so pending what day I squeeze it in, this thing might be getting wet this week to test the plumbing. I still have sand, rock, powerheads and lights to order before I kick off a saltwater fill. The lights are 100% neccesary as I have some but I would rather replace them now.

 

Got the sump squared away this afternoon.

Drilled hole for new (larger) bulkhead


Patched the small hole:


Increased the skimmer section depth:


Filling to check for leaks:


One part works:


Patch and bulkhead sealed:


Only thing left before wet test is making two new return standpipes. After that, I fill 'er up and crank it.

 

Got the drain and return standpipes built and cemented in place last night. Only thing left is to reinstall the sump and all the plumbing which I will do tonight. Then I turn it on and find all the mistakes I made