Rummy's 65g Reef Build

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Would you run 2 daylights (10k) and then 2 actinics? I have room to install 2 more fixtures but I don't want to spend any money on this setup. I rather put money towards a T5HO setup or similar.

2 of the bulbs actually say actinic white thennthe other 2 just say super actinic.
 
if you have a 4 lamp VHO fixture now, you can just continue using that. yes, 2 daylights and 2 actinics should be fine. whichever looks better to you. the drawbacks are that you can't use assorted bulbs and "tweak" the look, and you'll use more electricity. before T5s were out, many people kept successful reef tanks with VHO T12 lamps.
 
Well the tank is running! Finished my sump Thursday night. Filled the tank about %75 Friday and threw a power head in for circulation. Added the sump Friday night and let it sit overnight just to be sure the silicone was cured. Saturday night I filled the sump and tank the rest of the way and turned on the return pump. No leaks and all was well! I still need to do some tuning on the Durso standpipe. I think I drilled my hole in the end cap too large. I also only used 1" PVC for it and just now noticed they mentioned using 1.25". Not sure if that effects anything.

The water level in the over flow chamber is just under the top of the street-ell. The water level stays stable. If I turn up the flow on the return pump the water level will just rise in the overflow chamber but it will stop at a certain point and stay stable. This does make it more noisy though. To me it's not putting out that much water. I thought it would flow a lot more.

If I put my finger over the hole in the end cap slightly the way it is the water level will drop to around the middle of the street-ell which I read is a good thing. Then I might be able to turn up the flow a bit more? Let me know what you guys think about that.

I glued in the stand pipe and end cap. I think my only option would be to plug up that existing hole and drill a new one or maybe just put a little silicone to cover up half the hole?
 
Not much interest in the boring stuff I see :D

Well here's my solution for my end cap problem on my standpipe. I drilled the hole out larger and then ran an air line down into it. Attached that to an air valve and now I can control the vent. Basically cranked the return pump as high as I could while still maintaining a stable water line in the overflow. Stays pretty quiet as well.

img_1189075_0_7e47069730cab8dcba8e959474e4cea6.jpg


I'll be running the valve on the backside to keep it out of the way.

img_1189075_1_95872f97365ec4cf3cc19d54639ee30e.jpg


Sump is also finished. Here's a shot of just RODI water being ran through it.

img_1189075_2_112b6b1e8cffe7eb847ab2df2c1d1bf8.jpg


My Mag 9.5 seems to be a bit noisy though. Should it be suctioned to the bottom of the glass or does everyone just let it sit there? It doesn't have a stand or anything. It's making a pretty annoying humming sound, also some noise I can't really describe. Not really loud but it can be heard if you pay attention. Almost like something is in the impeller but hard to tell.
 
That wouldn't effect water at all huh? That's interesting. What all is involved with taking those Mag pumps apart for maintenance? The more I think about it the more I want to check out the impeller and what not.
 
Easy enough. Thanks again Doug!

I'm taking a water sample to the LFS tonight to have it tested for copper, ALK, and PO4. If all goes well I'll start mixing in salt tonight and add heaters.
 
I read about the sensitivity of corals and invertebrates to copper in a tank and since it was used I wanted to see if there were any traces of it left from anything that the previous owner might have done? They said they never treated anything in the tank but I figured it'd be a safe thing to do while I'm at this current state?
 
Nah. Just trying to be as prepared as possible I guess. Figured this way if for some odd reason the water does have copper in it then at least I didn't waste time heating it all up and waste the salt that was added.

Any tips on adding the salt since we're on that topic? Turn off the main return pump or keep all the pumps going? It's Red Sea Pro. I'll be using a Hydrometer for the time being but have been researching refractometers.

Also you mentioned earlier that I should add the sand after the rocks are in place. Is there anything I can do to prep the sand for being put into the main tank? If I can do anything to cut down on the sand storm that follows that would be amazing. I know that it needs rinsed. Should it be rinsed with RO/DI water? Can I put 10g or so of RO/DI into my 20g tank then pour in the sand and swirl it around for rinsing and get rid of the water from that? Should one good rinse be good? I was thinking of a 2" sand bed for the main tank which would require about 52lbs of sand. 1" of sand in my fuge would require about 6lbs of sand. I'm thinking (2) of the 30lb bags I got will work out perfectly.

After the sand is rinsed I can fill the 20g tank back up with RO/DI and throw a Maxi-jet 1200 in there to keep water circulating until the live rock is ready to be put in?
 
i would keep all pumps going and just pour the salt in.

to prep the sand i would rinse the daylights out of it in 5 gallon buckets...fill it up with water then pour off the white until the water coming out is mostly clear. it's gonna look like this-
img_1189389_0_2d1bb87b17722b7b89f1c3c221cecee7.jpg


i guess you could use a tank for this purpose, but i think it would be more work. a bucket can be easily tipped over to pour out water and no risk of breaking it.

to add it to the tank i used a large fish net (seen in the bottom of the sink in the above pic). it worked ok i guess.
 
So did you just rinse it out using tap water? That was my only reason for using a tank. I have quite a few 5g buckets I could easily use as well. I just didn't want to risk getting tap water into the tank that I just spent days on making RO/Di for. haha!

On mixing the salt, can I just add it to the display tank and add in a little less than what it should take? I'm not sure the exact amount of water in my system. How long should I wait before testing salinity? I'd imagine it will take a little while for the salt to distribute evenly through the water?
 
i wouldn't worry about a little bit of tap water....as you can see..lol. boy am i glad i took all those pictures that i felt were pointless at the time!


yeah...i would add about the equivalent of a 50 gallon mix, and let that mix in for a couple hours then add a little at a time till i had it right. then check again the next day to be sure. you could always remove some water if you over do it.
 
Ok added in my Ebo Jager 150w heater into the sump and then added the 250w Stealth heater to the DT. I added in 30 cups of Red Sea Pro salt which should do around 60g. I know I'm closer to 70-75 easily. I did that last night. Going to check salinity when I get home today.

The DT was up to 76 this morning. I have the Stealth about 2" under the water line on the back of the DT with the return line output going over it. The stealth was set on 79 for that so I upped it to 81. The Jager was set on 77 in the sump so I upped that to 79. The issue I was having was that the Stealth say the water is up to temp. I think it was because the water coming out of the return was heated up by the Jager and maybe the return pump? Should I move the Stealth to the bottom back wall of the DT? I just really want to keep it out of site. The Jager is a bit too large for my sump as well so I'm thinking about finding something under about 12.5", say (2) Stealth 100w heaters on each side of the sump. Input?
 
those adjustments on the heaters themselves are not accurate. you'll have to play with them to get your ideal temp, as you are experiencing. i do think you should have 1 heater up top and one in the sump, in the event that your return pump quits on you, you'll still have a heat source in the DT.
 
Yeh that was my thinking as well. Is the stealth ok a couple inches under the water line on the back wall? I ended up moving my outlet from the return in front of the heater so it wasn't directly on it. I figured this would give the heater more water from the DT instead of directly from the return pump.
 
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