Back from Iraq, Now lets setup my 120g!

Here is a little better explanation of the closed loop. As I said before, this is not my design, it was modeled after Marc's 29g closed loop.

This is the intake.

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It is first started by removing the white (soon to be painted black) threaded cap. Then I had to close one of the ball valves on the pump.

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Next I poured water into top where the cap was until the pipe was full, this removed all the air out of the intake side. Next I put the cap back on. BTW all threaded joints have 3 layers of teflon tape. Lastly I opened the ball valves and turned the pump on. Within a few seconds the pump pulled any small remaining amounts of air through the pipes.

After the water enters the pump it goes through a few feet of spaflex and the plumbing splits into 2 3/4 inch legs. Each of these comes back into the tank at the return bulkheads, and is plumbed over the top of the overflow tower. At first I had a penductor at the ends, but I have them off right now due to the sand issue.
 
I have made enough water to fill the tank and the sump high enough to not suck air. I don't have standpipes in the drains yet, so my tank sounds like a giant toilet. Also I drilled 3 anti siphon holes in the return line as a safety measure, and tested by turning the pump off. The water is clearing up enough that I can see the front rocks. Conductivity is measuring 50.0 right now, but I'm not going to worry about that until I'm fully setup. As long as it is within a healthy range.
 
My major project for today was to build my very cheap DIY sump. I have seen many people use rubbermaid totes as a sump, but I wanted to bring it to the next level. This is only designed to be a temporary solution, but temp can sometimes turn into a long time.

My idea is to use multiple totes with holes drilled in separate sections to make a simple bubble trap. First I drilled the inner 2 totes, one about 10 inches up to keep the skimmer stable, the other towards the bottom.

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Next I put the together and did a test fill. I filled it as high as I wanted it to fill in the event of a power outage to see how it could hold up. A little bowing happened, but not to bad.

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I ran into a major problem when I brought it into the house. I couldn't get it under the stand! I might have better luck when we clean the room out a little better and I have more room to move. Its pretty cramped in there right now. For now it is sitting in from of the tank. The skimmer immediately started pulling crud, I'm trying to get it tuned.

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Lastly here is a shot of the tank today. It is starting to clear up a little, but I still cant see very far. I began leveling the sand back out.

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I just did my first round of tests, and I was surprised at the results.
Conductivity - 50.5
NH3 - 0
No2 - 0
No3 - 0
kH - 12.2
Ca - 400
Mg - 1350
pH - 8.2

Im just amazed that the tank is showing no ammonia, lets see if it stays that way.

On another note, the skimmer went crazy and pulled a lot of skimmate already. It appears to have slowed down now, and I have it dialed all the way back on the gate valve to try to get some thick skim. So far I'm still getting some liquid though. Maybe the water level around the skimmer is to high.
 
I used those totes ONCE and never again as it sprung a leak and then had to use a coping saw to remove the front brace to put a proper sump in .

In my case cheap did not last very long, only a month or two I think.
 
The tank has now completely cleared up! Still battling with sand moving a bit though.

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As you can see the skimmer is pulling out some good skimmate. This is from about 12 hours.

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I just moved the 105g out of my fish room portion of the room. I now have some room for some storage space. I also have room to finally hookup my AquaController Jr.

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I've been doing Nh3 and No2 testing about twice a day, still with no results. I think I got lucky and got some very cured rock! Maybe a cleanup crew is right around the corner! I'll wait a few days more to be sure.
 
Ok, now that the Ac Jr. is hooked up I have found I have a small temp problem. I had 2 clip fans from when I bought the 105g, but both didn't work. So I went to Walmart to find a clip on fan with no luck. I got a small table fan that I can point downwards, and its currently blowing into the sump. At the time the fan was installed my temp was 81.9. This is with no lights btw. The Jr. is set to turn off the heater at 80.5. In the last few hours the temp has gone down just over 1 degree.

Ph - 8.10 (uncalibrated, no cal solution yet)
NH3 - 0
NO2 - 0
Temp - 80.8
Conductivity - 51.9 (replacing evap with saltwater to bring it up to 53)
 
looking good...

on the fans, something i have found that works amazingly is the 120 mm 120 volt PC fans that can be wired strait to an outlet with no transformer. Frys sells one i have been using for the past year for about $20. a single fan has kept my 90 in perfect range through the summer with 2 150ish watt MH's on the tank

also, on the sand issue...have you considered running your plumbing into the sand and having the penductors re-attached and facing upwards in the tank? this will still give you relatively the same flow style, but no chance of hitting the sand and it will give the added benefit of more surface aggitation...
 
Hi,
I would throw a raw shrimp in there to kick off the cycle. Let it rot for a few days as you test your levels. Glad to see you went with a fishless cycle. :D

Cheers,
 
@WeMa wrote:
looking good... on the fans said:
Thats an awesome idea! I wish I had more black pvc now. Time to make a temp setup and order more!

As for the shrimp, I can't say I haven't thought about it.......
Click to expand...
 
@Scuba_Steve wrote:
Thats an awesome idea! I wish I had more black pvc now. Time to make a temp setup and order more! As for the shrimp said:
Nothing a can of black krylon can't fix 8)
Click to expand...
 
The skimmer is an ASM G3 with mesh, recirc, feed, and gate valve mods. I had never used this skimmer before, so I can't tell how it acted before the mods. Right now it is producing a pretty wet skimmate though. Probably because it is a new tank.
 
Happy Valentines Day everyone! My lovely wife and kids hooked me up this year. Even the pets got me presents. Here is all I got.

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Last night I went to a meeting and I got a few things. First I got some chaetomorpha from Greatwit and Darby to add some extra pod life to the tank, and to take up some excess nutrients. The problem is I don't have a fuge setup yet, so I improvised. I think this is better off anyways for the time, because I can add the pods directly to the tank this way.

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This was hanging directly centered off of the middle brace, but you can see its swaying very far due to the new Koralia 4s set on a wavemaker cycle with the Ac Jr.

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Also Misty had some cerith snails that have been multiplying like crazy for sale. I still have no signs of ammonia, so I got some as a test.

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I thought this picture my wife took of the center arch was cool.

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Lastly, a fts.

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Other than my sump setup my tank build is coming near to be completed!

I finally got all my lights installed into the hood. They are 6 x 54w t5s driven by icecap 660 ballasts.

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The camera doesn't show anywhere near how bright this is, or its true color.

Here is a daylight shot. The tank doesn't look this blue, more towards about a 13k

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Here is an actinic shot.

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Moonlights to come tonight.
 
Here is the moonlight shot. I had to bring out the tripod for this one. Notice the blur that is the refugium in the center. That is totally temporary btw.

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I just got in a big shipment today! It's a cleanup crew from Reeftopia with a few extras!

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First I opened all the bags and separated the crabs and snails in the same container.

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Next they went into the sump to acclimate.

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Then I put them into the tank. I placed them in 2 separate piles so I could tell if something wasn't alive. Whatever didn't move away from the place I placed them was obviously dead.

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The larger emerald crab immediately found a home right up front in a hole. He is still there right now.

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Everything has moved from its original place now! It took some time as some of the snails were clinging to each other in big clumps. It was funny seeing one of the conchs trying to pull a train of about 5 snails attached to each other.
 
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