175g Deep Sea tank

[Jimbo662]

One more update. Next is to paint it and get the baffles added to the sump tank. I probably won't have the existing tank out of the way till next weekend so I can cut the rest of the sheet wall out.

 

[Jimbo662]

It's finally done!

 

[ErinCahir]

Nice! I love the in-walls!

 

[d2mini]

This looks awesome!

 

[cvcdrk]

Looks terrific! I'm excited to see where this continues.

Have you thought about how you're going to arrange the rockwork yet? Is your goal to make it viewable from both sides (like an island of rock) or just through the hole in the wall?

 

[Jimbo662]

Here's my first attempt at aquascaping. I did a mockup of the tank in cardboard. Each pile has a cave that runs through it. Yeah, it'll be visible n both sides. I'm moving my office area into the room so I can watch it from there too.

 

[Jimbo662]

I'm making progress slowly but surely. Spent the last two days putting down the flooring. I picked up everything for the plumbing yesterday...holy crap...I spent almost 2 hrs in Lowe's with my diagram trying to find all the right parts. Hoping to get that completed through this next week. I just placed an order for a return pump, parts to make a cover screen and parts to move my RO/DI unit into the room. Planning to set it up along the wall on the right side of the tank where I'm planning on keeping a trash can for water changes. I think the only things left are sand, some extra live rock and to order the lights. Due to budget I'm leaning toward the AI Vega's.

 

[hoopsdaddy]

Looks really good. Built-ins rock.

 

[cvcdrk]

The Vegas are really nice. All the reviews I've seen have said they have good spectrum and penetration. I bet they'll look really cool over your tank. :-)

 

[Bluesaltwater87]

looking good buddy.

 

[Jimbo662]

Making a little more progress. I got the baffles done in the sump. Received another order from BRS and just got home from the sale at the LFS and picked up a few goodies. Got the skimmer for $300... 25% off internet prices! The guy was setting all of the equipment up and had a 10g tank sitting on the table and was using a smaller version of the skimmer. He took water from the live rock tank, poured it in the 10g, turned on the skimmer, made a couple of adjustments and it started foaming like crazy. This weekend will be plumbing and doing a water test on everything.

 

[Jimbo662]

Well, I've been a busy boy today. Got my RO/DI unit moved out of the guest bathroom. I counted wrong and didn't order enough elbow connections to finish the setup so I see yet another BRS order in my near future! Just finished the plumbing. Tomorrow will be a test run with water. Anyone got any words of wisdom before I start that???

 

[Jimbo662]

Woohoo!!!!! The tank is full and no leaks anywhere! I kept a level on the tank the entire time and the bubble never moved...my little homemade stand held up. :-) Only thing left now is adding the trim to the living room side, getting some more sand and lighting.

 

[d2mini]

Cool! Congrats!
Looking good.

 

[Jimbo662]

Woohoo!!! Water test successful!!! After about 20 min of tweaking I got the return and drains to sync up and maintain water level! As I was watching I started wondering...I've got two down facing drain and one up facing overflow. When I plumbed them I connected the overflow with one of the regular drains and put the second overflow on it's own. Is this correct or should i connect the two drains together and put the overflow on it's own?



I ordered the rest of my sand from the Drs and it shipped today. I may have it ready to start cycling this weekend!!!

 

[Jimbo662]

Need some advice. I've got Agra Alive sand. Is it better to fill the tank and mix the salt in before adding the sand? Or, is it ok to put the sand and rock in then fill with RO/DI water then mix in the salt?

 

[cvcdrk]

You're going to see significant die off from any kind of bagged live sand. I would mix the water first, though, personally and then add the sand. The reason being is that any salt that doesn't disolve could potentially cause harm later on if it gets stuck in the sand and then gets stirred up later on.

I would just mix up your water and then add the sand after.

 

[Jimbo662]

I was afraid there's be too much die off so I wanted to check before I did anything.

 

[Jimbo662]

I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel! I ended up with a couple of tiny leaks in the plumbing so spent the last two day getting those fixed. Started filling the tank at 7pm last night with RO water...OMG this is going to take for ever...as of now there's about 3" of water in the tank. I figured this would be better than 4 trips to the LFS and hauling water to the house...gas and tolls would have been a whole lot more expensive. I picked up a couple of pieces of birch plywood for mounting equipment and my sand was delivered Friday! Got 12 bags to go along with the 6 I picked up last week.

 

[Jimbo662]

Ok everybody...I need some advise. This past weekend I got it all loaded up with sand and rock and got it running. I did a test to see what happens if the power went out. When I turned the pump back on I'm not able to bet a full siphon going. I've got the two main drains facing down and the one emergency overflow sticking straight up. What am I missing here?