Okay...lots of effort but not a lot to show for it today. Kids were home sick so I was off and trying to get some tank work done.
Here's my skimmer getting its first workout. My daughter really wanted to help (be in the way) and so she jumped in the pic.
http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps1300d5e2.jpg

Yeah :lol:
Hope you find a way to calm down that return pump

Today I dosed the tank with 30 ampules of Prodibio Startup. That actually took a long time!! Glad I don't have to do 30 ever again at the same time. Hoping that with some proper attention to the stats, in the next few days I will be able to add my limited live rock and two little fish that have been living on their own for a long time prepping that live rock.

Current numbers for the tank are:
Ammonia: 0
PH: 8.0
Temp: 79
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0

I have used prodibio twice now for tank startup and it works as it says.

Good to hear considering that I have bought enough Prodibio for the coming year already. :-)

Got the APEX up and running, updated the firmware and then started working on getting my lights on. Voila, here we go. This is them set at about 70% and the lights are about 14" off the water. This is a phone picture and it seems way more blue than when you see it in person.

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...psacb47974.jpg

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps677a26d4.jpg

My water hasn't fully cleared up yet. I know my pumps are blowing the sand a little and I'm thinking this is contributing to the problem but how quickly should I expect the water to clear? It's been mostly filled for about 5 days and the sand was well rinsed before it went in.

Run a 50 micron mesh sock or stuff one of your baffles with filter floss


The filter floss works best due to its density. I use the method to catch carbon and gfo fines when I don't properly rinse the stuff.

This is really looking fantastic. I'm eagerly following this keeping a little log of what I'm going to do on my next build!

FWIW, I have never been happy with the noise level of my Reeflo pump. I've got the dart, and from day one it sounded like someone was using a hair dryer in the next room. I got replacement bearings from Reeflo and swapped them out myself, but it didn't help at all. Shortly there after the seal went (why, oh why can't they make the metal components on pump seals out of stainless?) and it started to leak, so I ordered new seals from Reeflo, but this time I went with my dad to one of the high end transmission/bearing places and bought the highest end bearings of that size that they sold. The pump is still louder than I think it should be, but it's reduced to more of a hum that fades in to the background as compared to the high pitch whine that made it hard to talk on the phone in the office before.

I don't think the bearings that come with the pump, or that Reeflo will send you as a replacement are necessarily the greatest quality. If you can't solve the noise issue any other way, I would try sourcing your own, much higher quality bearings and see if that helps. I'm not sure about your model of pump, but the swap on the dart was relatively painless to do, you just need a bearing puller (super cheap) and the right deep socket to help tap the new bearings in place. I found a photo tutorial online showing exactly how to take the dart apart and do the swap.

Hey thank you so much for the info. I bet I could source some high quality bearings from my buddy at BC Bearing. The pump has settled a tiny bit...and if we close the fish room door, then it's just a hum that you can hear through the livingroom and kitchen upstairs. I think it comes from the pipes coming up to the tank.
Tonight I added my liverock and the one little Chromis that's been making it "live" for the last year. He's hiding right now and the tank looks quite different. Not sure where I stand on it still, gonna have to get used to the extra rock. I will get a new picture up shortly.

Here's some terrible phone pics as promised. :)

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps18d2f519.jpg

http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/r...ps51106497.jpg