The crew is coming.

Ordered my cleanup crew last night from saltwaterfish.com. Here is the breakdown:
10 Nassarius snails
15 Turbo's
1 Emerald Crab
1 Cleaner
2 Peppermint
1 Lettuce Nudi
1 Serpent Star
1 Fighting Conch

Going to do another full round of tests tonight as well as a 5 gallon water change in preparation. I will drip acclimate them over a 2 hour period and then move them to the tank with only moon lights on. One step closer!

Finally

The hood is complete. 5 sided box of smoke acrylic. Here you can see the main support legs.

Main support top and sides.

Main support resting on lip of tank. 2 sides are then added to the legs.

Here is the complete "box" support for the tank rim.

Complete structure minus the fixtures. Now the fun (NOT) part. Lights need to be stripped from their existing housings. 4 switched need to be mitered into the side of the box. Holes need to be drilled for main power wiring.

Here you can see the holes mitered for the switches. I had to create 4 of them approximately 1/2"X 3/4" Flexible shaft tool did a nice job.

Switches installed. Wiring done. Both reflectors were suspended by bolts hung from the top.

The light mods begin!

So I got my fixture back from Finnex today and promptly started tearing it apart. I have a surface area of 14X24 inches to squeeze 96Watts of T5's and 130 Watts of PC into the Black Acrylic hood I made.

The Finnex proved to be a little harder then anticipated. The grommets that hold the main power cords into the side panel were glued in place. Normally these grommets pop right out. Not that lucky. I sorted out the switch wiring and just snipped the cords. I will solder and heat shrink these connections to make them solid and water tight.

Here you see the full fixture as well as the ballast. In case you need to replace one.

This next pic shows both the Coralife and Finnex fixtures together in hood. Ballasts for PC's will be mounted behind reflector. Finnex ballasts are already secured on top of the reflctor. There will be about a 1" gap between the reflectors and the top of the hood. Stand off's installed with long screws and locking nuts.

In other action, I have installed my American DJ power station. What a great addition to the stand. Layout is straight forward and simple. Now there is only ONE cord visable outside the stand. 1=Main pump, 2=ATO, 3=Skimmer, 4 both 50 watt heaters, 5= 8 bank Coralife digital controller, 6=8 bank Coralife digital controller, 7 and 8= Tunze Nano Streams (left and right)

Today I discovered some green algae growing on my LR and sand substrate. Not sure if a tank can cycle that fast. LR was cured but sitting out of water for a week wrapped in wet newspaper. After adding to tub(in there for 2 weeks) and then to main tank I noticed NO smell.

I was given a small packet of...ummm I can't remember the exact name of the product but it was live bacteria. There are tons of pods all over the glass and some algae.

Hummm....... wait or start looking at cleaning crew?

Just waiting.

Still struggling to get salinity up where it needs to be. Currently at 1.021. Close, but a bit more and I'll be happy. Temp holding at 78.3-78.8 Started 2 part dosing today. I'll start checking PH,KH/ALK and CA Monday. Get base numbers and see where we need to go.

I received the 10K/50 actinic Friday. They look very nice. Custom hood in the works. Black acrylic, full length about 3 inches off the surface. Speaking of lights, my T5's are on their way back from Finnex. Bad ballast!

I'm going to strip both fixtures and build one that consists of 96W and 130W fixtures. Ballasts will all be mounted under hood covered by acrylic box.

The Remora NANO skimmer has been producing nice skim mate and a LOT of micro bubbles. I hope the bubbles dissipate over time.

I have ordered individual reflectors for the Coralife PC's. I plan on mounting them on each side of the T5's. I have also ordered a QuiteOne 3000 for the pump. I want to add the LocLine and the second return to the system for more flow.

A few new shots. Skimmer running nicely!

Re-Rock work and Remora Nano

I've added a few more pieces of rock and re-aquascaped a bit. I needed less height and more surface area for corals. Finally got the temp to moderate without light. Now I need to get salinity up. Current salinity is 1.019. Too low. That's what I get for NOT mixing my own.

DIY top of bracket is done, in place and working good. Pump works good. Dual 65 watt 10K bulbs arrive tomorrow. Now I need to build a hood for them. Finnex replacement should be back next week. Ordered a DJ power control center for main control of all tank fixtures.

Aside from that... the wait continues. Another week and testing starts along with Kalk dosing.

Remora Nano skimmer started tonight. Little loud but bearable. Funny how folks hate a little "white noise" kind of relaxing to me.

I love the smell of a skimmer working. Not the result of the skim, the process!

Lighting

This weekend during the set up of the Finnex tank my 10K T5 lights went out. Don't know why/how but they just flickered and then POOF, OUT! Also the fan has been working on and off. Weird. So I emailed Finnex Sunday night and got a response Monday morning.

I was asked to return the lights for replacement. Hopefully I'll have them back by next week.

I have been struggling with the main return pump. All is working well, but it seems like this tank can handle more flow. The Tunze Nano's are creating a lot of movement in the water column but that does not move was "through" the system. I have read that folks are able to run the QuiteOne 3000 with no problems. I may try this pump. Maybe then I can add the LocLine Y and 2nd nozzle to the system. The current Finnex pump is rated a 623 GPH. The 3000 is rated at 780GPH.

I received my ATO today. Need to find a pump now. I have no clue what to buy. LOL! Back to Nano-Reef and start reading.

I also am waiting for 2 65watt 10K Coralife bulbs to arrive. The MH just throws to much heat into this little system. 226 watts over a 30 is decent for what I want to keep. 7.5 watts per gallon.

Here is just the 250 watt Iwasaki MH running. Bulb is about 10" above the water and it pushed my temp over the course of 3-4 hours from 79.2 to 81.1 That's almost 2 degrees. Safe but I still don't like swings like that. So the Finnex and Coralife light will be incorporated instead.

Now to figure out those damn Coralife programmable power strips!!!

It's ALIVE, It's ALIVE!

After a quick trip to the LFS for water this morning the project began. Half the water was added and rock work began. After numerous attempts at a layout I said enough is enough and left it as is.
Now the rest of the water was added and I was ready for the real test.

Power strip plugged in? Check. Towels at the ready? Check Tank leveled? Ah shit Nope! LOL! Time to cut a shim strip and get her level.

OK! Power on. First issue. Crappy flow. I kinda figured that was going to happen. LocLine Y removed. Flow MUCH improved. Next issue. I forgot to seal the factory hole for the fuge plumbing. Draw the tank down, cut a piece of acrylic and patch it. Let it dry and start over.

Power on. Everything works great. Adjust fuge flow and tadda! Now for the sand. The most tiresome part of the whole project. Sand done. Time to break out the HOT Magnum and scrub the water. Next series of picture shows the 4 hour process of cleaning the water via the HOT Magnum. I did have my main light go out. I think the ballast took a crap! POS!!!!!!!

Plumbing

After some thought I decided to install a bulkhead. I installed it to accommodate the use of LocLine. In order to use LocLine I needed to drill (ream) out the stock hole from Finnex to fit the 1/2"ID, 1 1/8"OD bulkhead. The Dremel tool, nice and slow did the job.

I wanted the ability to target specific areas in the tank to eliminate dead spots. Although, with two Tunze Nano streams that won't be necessary.

You can also see I added an elbow to meet the T connector.

I did have to modify the barbs on the MPT connectors. I cut two sections off of each end to gain some space to make connections. I also had drill another hole in the wall the sends water to the fuge side. The hole is the same size but about an inch towards the back.

Here you can see the whole Finnex stock connections. The ONLY part used in this mod is the main straight pipe that connects directly to the pump. I also had to cut down the main feed that heads to the fuge flow control side.
Next I cut the tubing to fit each connection. The only drawback to this mod is when you need to service the pump the whole thing needs to be taken apart including the elbow that is installed. That is unless you have small hand. I don't.

Here is the final product. After trip to LFS tomorrow for water I'll see it in action.

Also I will be constructing the enclosure for my 250Watt MH! I little black acrylic, heat strip and that should do it. Yeah right. Easy as that. HA!

Ordered and waiting for the following. Remora Nano skimmer, Coralife digital power strips, 2 65Watt 10K Power Compacts and last but not least my ATO!

Here is a shot of live rock "curing" and DIY 250W MH.