Ryans Reef

Its proving to be a pain in the rear! Ill have it done or mostly done tonite though. Ill get some more pics up later.
 
Well I completely forgot about my cousins wedding today, so I didnt get much done today.(READ THAT AS DIDNT WORK ON THE TANK AT ALL)

Here is a shot of the two hardest line that I will have to run. Had to do these several times to get them right. Its not pretty due to the excess glue but Im hoping they work right. They look easy enough but trust me they werent.

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Nice. I'm interested in how you do the closed loop. Looks like you haven't got much vertical room. Would it have worked to 90 that manifold and work it from there?

I'm so jealous. I have a 90g sitting here and no money or space to set it up.
 
The poor planning on my part is what made it a pain in the ass, RC I wish I wouldve 90ed the manifold, too late now. Cant afford to replace the bulkheads manifold and flex pipe. Piss poor planning on my part.

You dont really get a sense of how much of a lack of room you have with every thing outside of the stand, when you throw a four foot sump under there it really sucks up space. In retrospect I wish that I wouldve just used powerheads(they are still ugly as hell) Putting everything under the stand is just a pain I really am going to be completely out of room under this beast when Im done. Im going to have to build a matching stand to keep other equiptment in if I want to expand at all.
 
Looks great so far, I can't wait to see the finished product.

Did you get that flex pipe from one of the box stores?
 
Nope I got it at a large pool and spa store. You WONT find that at Home Depot, Lowes, Meynards, etc. Check out www.flexpvc.com also. So far I dont love the stuff though. but I havent made any long runs with it yet.
 
I would suggest putting in unions. You don't want the whole thing to be stuck together and something breaks or doesn't work. Then you would have to cut it up to fix it.
 
Well I finished the external closed loop plumbing, dont shred me too bad it was my first time. Im not digging it so much. I hope it all works as intended. I might scrap it all and start fresh next weekend.

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Looks good man! I wouldn't worry about how pretty it is it will be unseen for the most part. But to eaches own. What kind of fish list are we looking at for the 180?
 
Mostly small fish, Bluespot Jawfish is my favorite, few firefish(maybe helfrichi???) pair of Picassos, maybe a dracula goby/pistol shrimp pair? Id like to set it up like a huge nano if that makes any sense. Id like to try a bellus angelfish after doing some more research, I hear they are coral safe.

For corals im going to start out with LPS ie euphylia, duncans candycanes. Then slowly add some easy sps when my confidence builds.
 
Didnt see enough flow control valves. the short runs will push faster than the long runs so you will want to be able to slow down the short runs to balance out. at this point if you are not happy with something, now is the time to fix it. once you water up it will be harder to fix. keep us posted on the build out.
 
Im going to see what I can do about getting some more valves into the mix John. That is what I was actually most disappointed about I had all the valves but couldnt work them into the mix. Ill probably hack it all apart on friday and weasel them in somehow.
 
After going back and looking at the pics.I see what Johns saying.
On those short runs,just use a single 90 out of the manifold,ball valve,then 90 back up.It'll restrict the flow some,but I doubt it'd be enough to notice on those short runs.
Looks good though.Knew you was a plumber in disguise.
 
Well I finished the external closed loop plumbing, dont shred me too bad it was my first time. Im not digging it so much. I hope it all works as intended. I might scrap it all and start fresh next weekend.

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Ryan, did you get that white tubing from the local spa store too or did that come from flexpvc.com? Also in your earlier posted you stated you were not to happy with the shorter runs. How do you feel about it now after making some longer runs? I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out what I want to use to plumb my CL returns from my OM-4way.
 
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