MitchReef's Reef...well the current one at least....

Thanks folks....the funniest part is how NOT patient I really am....I am King of Instant Gratification....but for some reason this job has just gone along nice and easy and now herre it is, coming together!!!!

I also HAVE to get through all those stupid totes in the Living Room!!!!
 
Did you die or somethin? I need an update, tell me you got some clean rocks or somethin. I need to watch someone elses tank come alive before I jump the gun on mine!
 
Actually I have been fighting with water haze....it's really bad now but I started some carbon today....I have to do the room ventillation openings hopefully today but if not it will be tomorrow....it's getting up to 81.4 in the room and that's just too hot!!!! All the pumps and such are running and I'm doing the Muriatic acid today....my little girl is going to a Birthday Sleepover tonight so I have been waiting to take her for a gift and to the party...I went through just about all of the bins in the Living Room and I have a bunch of stuff I will be getting rid of after I get finished going through them...sorry Kyle, but I never get rid of Powerheads or pumps....they always come in handy....I am picking up the trim for around the tank because I got the mudding done around the bottom, where the stand popped through....I need to do my water station....I built a bubble trap in the fuge side and still need to get a valve for the outlet pipes so I can adjust how much flow each part of the sump gets....I still need to do all the cable management and mount a few more things to the walls. I have to mount the Vortech controller, Vortech battery backup, Fuge Light hanger, etc....bunch of things to organize...I need to build my ATO float switch holder and Probe holder....soooo, basically I have a bunch to do, but precious plenty of these ideas can be done with fairly little time committment so I can do some on the evenings....but I will try to get pictures of what all I have going on now....the Tank Room is a bit of a mess now, but all will be organized when I am done....
 
Gee, that's some progress and no updates? I'm hurt. That sounds good, though. You know how much we like pics!

Ah well, I decided to go get a couple Koralia Nano 240's one of these days.
 
I am very fond of the Koralias, just had a heck of a time when I bleieved them about wavemakers....

I have the rocks in 10:1 Muriatic Acid as we speak....I will post pics after I neutralize it and rinse the rocks....
 
No wavemakers here. Not until I buy a house and put an 8' tank. Then were talking lots equipment and monitors.

Do you just take your rocks to a car wash and spray them real good?
 
Nope....I'm doing my own variation of the "Rock Reincarnation" method from ReefCentral....I started with a bunch of varied new and used dry rock....First I swished it all in RO/DI water until all the loose dirt came off....Then I did a 24 hour soak in 10:1 Chlorine Bleach mixture....Rinse until no more chlorine smell, swish each rock in RO/DI (changing it to make sure it's a good cleaning) then allow to air dry for a week....today I put them in 20G of fresh water and slowly added 2G of Muriatic acid....It fizzed and bubbled like crazy for a while but now it just looks like dirty brown water....I will go out at the 1 1/2 hour point and neutralize it using about 12# of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda....then dump, swish in RO/DI and allow it to air dry until Aquascaping time....
 
Be real careful with the Muriatic Acid....it's some nasty stuff....always put acid in water, not water in acid....and add it a little bit at t time as it WILL foam all over Hell....I used 12# of soda for 2 gallons of acid in 20 gallons of water and it worked great....
 
I guess I need to put up some pictures....it's been a while....

I've gotten a lot done but ran out of $$$ for a couple weeks....I need to work on my rockwork, I have some epoxy putty, bout a tube and a half, but I will probably need another stick at least...but I can get started....

I did a lot of cable management after I wall mounted all of the major components....

The components are (Left to Right) Apex display, Vortech controller and the heater power strip below them, then the Vortech Battery Backup with it's charger and the Vortech power supply on top of it, and below that is my DIY Breakoout box that will connect to my ATO floats, and the Apex head unit then power strips for Blue Lights and White Lights with the EB8 down under those

I put drip loops on everything and have all the wires clipped in place with sticky back wire clips....

see all those little clippies and drip loops....

This one is my Titanium Ground Probe....(more drip loops)
Here is the Fuge side of the sump/fuge....with some of the rubble in it.....

and the skimmer box and pump suction area.....I will be mounting the ATO floats and the DIY magnetic probe holder (yet to be built)...

This is the Silenex fan that pushes Living Room air into the Tank Room.....it's mounted under the tank...

and on the right side of the tank I put in a plug strip for the fan and the Koralias, cause they just run non-stop.....


That's kinda where I am now....I still need to put in the ventillation return louver so the air conditioning can really work in the Tank Room but the tank is remaining between 78.3 to 79.0 with no heater or specific cooling fans in use, just the room ventillator....not bad so far....
 
If you don't have drip loops in your wiring and water gets onto it the water will run down the wire to a plug or other problem point....drip loops are just safe....

I didn't used to do them but I learned the lesson the dangerous way....luckily it just tripped a breaker....I was home to check the problem and get the system running again....
 
Aint all those drip loops kinda pointless since they aint directly under the tank on anywhere water could actually drip down a line ???
 
I guess I could roll the cords all up but I have had water splashed and sprayed from every part of an aquarium system and would hate to see the wires get a little spray and then my Apex or something go poof......
 

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