the setup looks great man well done can you explain the water change part thou you just turn on the 75 gal and it will slowly do a water change for ya

excellent build thread. Halfway through!

Okay Mike,

I'll try to explain it clearly.

1. Get motivated to do water change
2. Turn valve off so the 75 gallon on top is off-line from entire system
2. Drain the top most tank (which is hooked up to my tank at all times running through the same salt water as everything else). To drain it, I just stick a siphon tube on and drain it to the toilet right next door.
3. Turn on pump from 75 gallon reservoir to pump all 75 gallons of fresh RO/DI water to that tank that I just drained.
4. Add salt and magnesium to that water and turn on powerhead to mix
5. Wait a few hours - then test parameters to make sure everything is good (the only parameter that will be off is the temp, my fresh water will be cooler)
6. Turn the valve back on and that freshly mixed water will be part of the system again, I just turn it on very little so the temp doesn't drop fast.

It's only a 75 gallon water change out of 325 gallons (about a 23% water change). Last night I put the freshly mixed salt water back into the system and my temp went from 79.5 degrees to 78.7 degrees overnight. So that's not bad for temp fluctuation. Everything seems to be happy with that new 75 gallons of water last night.

So now water changes will be super easy - no buckets. Just mixing and measuring parameters. This was the part of the whole system that I wanted to be easy was the "regular maintenance - aka water changes" part. I found that in the previous years I just dreaded hauling buckets and buckets of water just to do water changes and I found that I didn't do it frequently enough.

Hope you get it now Mike. :)

Great idea Dez that's pretty much how my system works but on a smaller scale. The 20 gallon tank under my stand next to the sump always slowly circulates. I turn a valve to isolate it, throw a switch that turns the pump on that is in the tank which drains the 20 gallons into my basement drain. Other side of wall I have previously drained 20 gallons from my topoff tank into the mix tank. change a few valves up and the mix pump now pumps through the wall into the 20 gallon under the tank.

You gotta love not messing with buckets anymore I hated that!

I know - if it aint easy, you'll tend not to do it. I think that's the most important part of keeping a long term reef is regular water changes - especially with sps. With a softy lps tank it can be more forgiving.

My tanks in the wall so I'm kinda stuck with it through thick and thin. It won't be easy to quit the hobby anymore unless I move. So I might as well make the regular maintenance easy!

Good call on the drain to your basement with your system. I was too lazy to jack hammer my floor to add a drain to my sump room. I could drain it into my sump pump, but then I'd have salt water all over my lawn/garden. I don't think my wife would be too happy with that.

So the hardest part for me is sticking that u-tube on the tank, and starting the siphon :). I guess that's one regret of the build so far - lack of drain in fish room. But if I ever have a flood, it all goes down to my sump pump, so I'm safe from floods at least.

PS - Brett, you better get some updates on your build. When I started my build, I thought Tony would for sure beat me. I thought my build was slow - but I'm almost done now. One day I'll clean up all my fish garbage all over the house!

Hey If I hadn't gotten laid off man I'd maybe have salt water in that tank by now! I'm trying my best to get things back on track trust me!

When we built the house I had an extra drain roughed in (besides the one for the bathroom) for my planned fishroom but I decided against that for this build. As sick as it may seem I have rough ideas of what I want my NEXT tank to look like already and those ideas will include a fish room down there! Of course my wife never hears about these ideas =)

Forget that siphon. Toss a cheap pump in there and put it on a switch! By the way great work on that added system there. You'll have quite a few gallons more than me now. Hmmm...

I don't think my wife will like the "perma - plumbing" from the fish room to the bathroom next door into the toilet........the white pvc down the hall running on the ground and up into the toilet definitely will not go with the pheasant balls.......

I think my U-tube idea with the flexible hose to the toilet will suffice. There will be no "next tank" for me if I want to stay happily married.

My wife thinks I have too many hobbies as is.

As for salt - find it used....ha ha. My last 3 buckets that were 3/4 full were from canreef members - all for about $25 - 30 bucks each.

As for text kits - get your water tested at the LFS for now - that's what I used to do all the time. Never owned a test kit for the first couple of years of the hobby.

You need to at least have your tank running for a couple of years before your next tank. Then build another house to accomodate your "next tank"..... Man, the things our wives put up with.

Wasn't aware it was a race ... :neutral: Congratulations on yet another win Dez! :p

Aw come on Tony, I wasn't trying to give you a hard time :). I earnestly thought that my build would be super slow. It's been 6 months since I actually started and over 5 years in the planning. It is really hard to get motivated when I'd much rather be playing with my kids and hanging out with my wife than plumbing......

Maybe when I'm in Calgary I'll come give you a hand with whatever you need with your build. I wouldn't mind checking it out in person and seeing your other livestock as well. As far as I remember, you've always had the healthiest and nicest livestock - I was always jealous!

Well, today I added a moonlight to my tank. It is a single LED light. I had to put it off center a little bit so that nothing was in the way. It is an LED bulb soldered to a resister in-line and then hooked to variable voltage adaptor.

http://i600.photobucket.com/albums/t...e/IMG_0120.jpg

Thanks for looking.