Tom's 55G Saltwater

[TommyP]

I have the egg crates on the top of the tank bc I still didn't find 1/4 inch black mesh and I even covered the square holes I cut that have been open in the past bc that's where I though he jumped out. I guess he jumped through one of the holes

[Daniel Fishy]

Time to go to the lfs.

[54seaweed]

your not alone Tommy I found my fire fish goby on the floor today dead he had to be there awhile , never would have known he was there if I didn't have to clean up from a minor fire and flood due to a faulty skimmer
knock wood he was the only fish I lost in a long while

[TommyP]

So that sump - has a teeny tiny leak in one corner so far. It's acrylic. What's the best way to get that fixed? Can I use silicone?

[TommyP]

I don't care how it looks. Just want to stop the drip

[Daniel Fishy]

Use the epoxy for setting corals.run a nice piece along the area little farther on both sides of leak. Used it to mod my skimmer with new pump and a leak in my sump to.

[TommyP]

That's a good idea, but I don't have any I didn't set any of my corals yet. Now that the goby went carpet surfing I can re-arrange my rocks without worry of anything digging, then glue down my corals. I ended up picking up some aquarium sealant. Letting it cure now. Just caught petco before they closed

[Daniel Fishy]

I don't glue my corals either. When I got the new pump for the skimmer I had to make the hole bigger up top so I used this to fill in the bottom part of the old hole. I used it on my acrylic sump in a couple spots so if your still dripping use it. That just sounds weird.

[TommyP]

So I put the sump in last night after letting that corner set and cure all is well with that but I had to cap off a bulk head on the lower left side of the tank (I guess for an external return or something) made sure it was nice and tight and it didn't leak at that point. Last night I fill it up get the siphon goin again for the overflow and the return going maintained a good water level salinity is matched now the cap has a small drip so since its full of water I sealed the sh*t out of it hopefully when it cures it stops dripping. This sucks.

[TommyP]

Oh. Here's some pics.

[TommyP]

The bottom of my stand in the center has 2 sets of 4 screws I guess bracing the bottom so I didn't want the acrylic to crack since the screws are raised so that's why you see the egg crate on the bottom so it lifts it off the ground a little. Worked out great

[Sniperhank]

What are the 2 bio wheels for?

[TommyP]

I just had them when I first set up my tank and for some reason I just put them in the old sump I had bc they were wet and thought maybe there was bb on it so I just kept them and forgot about them. I just had no where else to put them last night so I threw them in there for now

[TommyP]

Got my ato installed. Was easier than I thought. For some at first when the water level got to the right height, the pump turned off but water kept flowing in. The container was higher than the sump which I believe caused a siphon. So it never shut off. I placed the storage container on the ground ( I just had 2 stacked on top of each other ) and it works fine now. This cost me $70. The Toms aqua lifter pump was $19, the bracket and ato sensor was $39 and it was $12 shipping. Got it in 2 days. Now just got to keep an eye on my storage container and see how many times I have to fill that. It's easier than manually topping off water every or every other night with a small Tupperware container lol.

Here's some pics.
This is from under water


This is where it sits in the sump




This is the airline tubing I have going from the container to the pump then pump to sump. It's resting snug here



And here's the container - water looks dirty but idk why it came out that way I didn't vacuum. Don't judge me lol

[Keithhjs]

Good for you. It's a nice treat to get things automated!

[TommyP]

Any tricks to keep the airline tubing under water? It keeps like bending up since it was rolled up and was sucking in air not water this morning. I just unplugged it for now.

[Keithhjs]

You can get a piece of plastic hard airline, or do like I did on my calcium reactor intake and weight it down with something. Also I see you have the egg crate in there, I would zip tie to it.

[Jaketit]

That's funny I just installed mine too. What a dream to have it more automated. Do you add any buffer to your top off??

[TommyP]

No I didn't add any buffer. I'm not sure what to add or why to add it. I heard about kalkwasser added from watching videos on brs. What's that for?

I don't have egg crate Inside the sump. I put egg crate underneath because there's 8 screws ( 2 sets of 4) that I guess hold the bottom of the stand together. I put the crate there so the acrylic doesn't bend or get cracked.

[TommyP]

A hard line would probably work. I was also thinking about drilling a small hole in like a 1/2" or 3/4" PVC cap just not sure if it would float or sink. Either way it would work. Ill find out whatever is cheaper lol.