[quote=medhatreefguy;519275]Plumbing is as complete as I can get it for now. Simple Herbie overflow and inlet through two 3/4" bulkheads with Loc Line. Hopefully tomorrow I can start the big move.





http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_0124.jpg


The emergency and the( overflow with the gate-valve) need to drain separately. You will get a loud gurgling sound.

Kevin

Believe it or not it works like a dream, dead silent. All I hear is a slight trickle of the water running into the overflow. I tried closing the gate valve until the emergency line kicked in and it does make a gurgling sound then. Whatever the logic it works fine. By the way Kevin, I'm very impressed with the tank. Nicely done.

The Tank looks awesome Rod!

Tank and stand look great man.......I agree with Kevin......I would seriously consider re-vamping the drain plumbing.....having the primary and emergency plumbed into one defeats the purpose of the emergency.....if anything gets stuck where you have the drain reduced(after the emergency) your tank will flood:wink:.....

Everything is in, finally! I still have to shift a few corals around but for now I left them on the rocks they were on before.

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/DSC_2050.jpg

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/DSC_2053.jpg

Tank looks fabulous! Love the rock work!

[quote=Red Coral Aquariums;519917]You were right Kevin. The two into one configuration causes the emergency line to suck air resulting in a hollow (not so much loud but annoying) gurgling. I separated the two lines and all is good.

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/DSC_2074.jpg

Glad you switched things.......not only for the noise but for the accident that was waiting to happen:wink:

Thanks for the heads up, I'm a "Herbie Virgin" (that just sounds wrong) having always used the Durso design and currently running Stockman on my 180, the two outlet overflow is new to me. My wife came home from work yesterday and asked if I had the return pump shut off because she couldn't hear water moving, now that's impressive!

Well it's been a whole year since I last posted on this tank journal. Tons of stuff has happened, a tank crash, lots of dead coral, and while I kept chugging along with the tank I didn't feel much like updates. I have changed pretty much all the hardware out, a new SWC 230 skimmer, new sump, the Koralias were replaced with Tunze and Vortech, all in an attempt to not repeat the previous crash.

One of the challenges with a 30" deep tank is good light coverage. I tried a combo of T5HO and MH fixtures, then on to a T5H0/MH combo fixture but the main problem was getting a reflector large enough to provide the coverage and to the best of my knowledge there is no combo fixture with large enough reflectors (not even Geisemann). My solution was extensive research and I came to the conclusion (and had some advice from a couple of buddies) that Sunlight Supply Lumenmax 3 was the best choice. For ballasts the obvious choice was the Galaxy Select-A-Watt electronic, I like the overdrive that exists in magnetic ballasts and these have the HQI setting which gives me the extra punch that I like. For supplemental lighting I chose the Vertex Illumina Marino Blu 48" fixture with the Cree 3 watt LED. I really love the blue look so I figured I would try one for starters and tweak the colour with a second fixture if needed. I ordered all the hardware from Craig at Red Coral in Lethbridge, he was so helpful and turn around time was amazingly fast!

The second challenge was mounting these pendants. One thing I was used to with the combo fixture was one fixture meant one set of mounting brackets, now I have three sets, and I'm a little particular how things look so the neat look was a challenge. To make matters worst the Illumilux doesn't ship with a mounting kit, a bit of a disappointment for a $500 light fixture.

All in all I couldn't be happier with the change. I finally have tons of light coverage, less heat input, and a much crisper look than supplementing with T5. I do have to say the Marino Blu fixture is way too blue by itself, there is definitely a Marino Bianco in the near future as a second LED just to whiten the colour temp just a bit. I do love the freakish blacklight look that makes my coral glow like they're radioactive, but I prefer something a little more natural.

Well on to the pictures...

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2002.jpg

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2003.jpg

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2004.jpg

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2005.jpg

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2006.jpg

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2007.jpg

Here are a couple with the Illumilux only...

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2008.jpg

http://i945.photobucket.com/albums/a...r/IMG_2010.jpg

Hopefully the next update will be quicker than this one, ha ha!