I've been updating on other forums, so here is the whole digest of what I've done so far:
Here's the display tank on the floor. It's beautiful, but unfortunately came cracked. Red Sea is sending me a replacement, but with the hurricane aftermath, it's unlikely it will be here anytime soon.
Close up of the cracks:
Dry rock cycle: Started August 26, 2017
- 15 lbs Key Largo from marcorocks
- 1x MarinePure BioMedia Plate
- Aquaforest Reef Salt (probably could have used something even more basic)
- RO/DI from my AirWaterIce Typhoon III
- Dr. Tim's Ammonium Chloride (40 drops) and 4 oz. of Dr. Tim's One and Only (added over the course of 3 days)
- This is all in a 18 gallon Rubbermaide Roughneck tub
Initially I think I may have overdosed the ammonium chloride, even though, according to directions, I should have been way under. Took about 5 days to finally drop down to maybe 2.0ppm. I did a 80% water change anyway in the tub and got it down to 1.2ppm. I've been maintaining somewhere between 1.2 and 2.0 now since. Now on week 2!
Ran my new Simplicity 120 DC skimmer in a bath of RO and vinegar for a few hours. I rinsed it off in RO/DI afterwards.
Here is the skimmer and heater in the sump:
Build quality for the skimmer is pretty nice, though rough around the edges. The acrylic / plastic feels sturdy.
The cheesy sticker sucks. Photographs badly. Simplicity needs laser etching or something:
Got the Neptune ATK system to replace the stock one. I eventually razor bladed off the black triangle piece that held the stock float valve in place to give more space. But you'll see later on why this doesn't work either.
The original ATO float valve hole almost looks perfect for a temp probe... but flow might not be good here:
I put the ATO reservoir into the skimmer chamber. I'm probably going to just plumb the drain of my GFO/Carbon reactor into this little 1.5 gallon area and let it overflow. I'll use it as a refugium, and maybe put a little angler fish in there and spot feed him daily =)
I added a LED strip into my cabinet (Eshine 12" LED). You can wave to turn it on, but I can't for the life of me get it to turn off without cutting power:
Here is my AI Hydra 52 HD. Took a few tries to find the right hanging kit. I happened to need to drill right up into some ceiling joists, so I didn't need the alligator anchors and just used some strong wood screws. I was able to almost put 30% of my body weight on it and it didn't budge, so I think I'm good. Black power cables everywhere are ugly, but keep scrolling to see a good fix for that.
Sump in the stand:
Used a neat bungee chord thing that quick releases from a round adhesive piece that I stuck to the top. It doesn't hold too much weight, but works for these cables. I'll clean them up later once plumbing is in. Those two "L" brackets used to hold my ADJ power strip, but I took that out of the cabinet and mounted it behind the tank. I just left those brackets there just in case I needed them for something else.
And here's a shot of the sump without the triangular ATO mount. I cut it out using a razor blade:
And I had to actually mount the ATK sensor/valve thing on the opposite wall against the baffle because the magnet couldn't fit with the sump in the cabinet:
And lastlhy, just today, added cable raceways to hide as much of the black cables as possible. Still need to wrap the last bit of black in some white neoprene sleeves. Then I'm going to paint the raceways to match exactly the wall
Preview before paint:
That's it for one massive update. I'll post more as it comes from now on. Thanks for reading!
