New 225G reef

Everything looks awesome. Hurry up already, get everything going. :D
 
I was asked to post some pics of how I comibned the rocks. I used a 1/2" mortar drill bit and bought a 6' long 1/2" diameter acrylic rod from Regal Plastics.

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I'm so close to being finished I can taste it. I'm waiting on my electrial panel to clean up the "rats nest" of wire behind the tank. Other than that I just need to finish my aquascaping. That's what I'll be doing today. Here are a couple of pics of with all of the lights and pumps turned on. You can't really see it in the picture, but I'm not liking the 10k reeflux bulb I have hanging in the center of the tank. It's considerably pink compared to the 2 10k ABs I have on each end. I'll give a week or so to burn in and if it hasn't changed it's color, I'm going to put it up for sale.

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Jeremy, I have a question. I have actually wondered this for a while because so many people do it. How do you stop the circled returns from draining your display if the power goes out?
-Chuck
 
Hey Chuck,

The large circle drains are actually intakes for the closed loop. If the power goes out all the water just stays in the pipes that are part of the closed loop. Let me know if that doesn't explain it well enough.
 
are the gray pipes attached to the white pipes returns ?(underneath the circle intakes) I guess if they are part of the closed loop there really isn't a chance for them to siphon backwards. I really have no clue about this type of thing. If you know where I could get some good info, please let me know.
-Chuck
 
Yes, the 4 gray returns on the bottom of the tank on the back glass are part of the closed loop. Those 4 returns and the 4 returns in the corners are all part of the closed loop. Those 8 returns are connected to the 8way at the top of the sequence hammerhead pump. The intakes (big strainers) are also connected to the sequence hammerhead. There is no chance of siphoning. The to returns that have penductors on them are the returns for the sump return pump. Those are the only 2 that will siphon water back to the sump. Your more than welcome to come by so we can talk shop :)

Reef Central has some good explainations of closed loops if your able to use the search function. Let me know if you have any other questions.
 
Thanks, Jeremy! It makes more sense to me now. I am going to have to do a lot of research to get it figured out. I hope to be upgrading my tank in the next year or so. I would love to come by and talk shop sometime. Your tank is awesome. Anyway, stop reading this and get back to work! :lol:
-Chuck

Thanks for your help, again.
 
Here's a closed loop I built years ago. It should help make sense of it, even though it looks kind of convoluted due to the tank it had to fit upon.

Still the principle is sound: http://www.melevsreef.com/closedloop.html

Jeremy, the pink makes the blues pop out more. It is a tad pink, but when my tank looks perfect even without VHOs (actinics)... :wink:
 
Well it took all afternoon, but here is my first attempt at the aquascaping. I still have a 5G bucket of small/medium size pieces. I might add those to the right hand side later. The tank is still a tad cloudy, but hopefully you'll get the idea. I only have the T5 actinics/blue+ running. Should I leave it or redo it?

Pics are from the left side around to the right side.

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It looks great! Will your cleaning magnet fit along the sides? If so, I'd leave it as is. If it hits the rock, I'd move it inward a bit to allow glass cleaning.
 
Thanks everyone. Yes there's plenty of room for the cleaning magnet. I could even move everything out a couple of inches.
 
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