Daplatapus's 77 Gal

[daplatapus]

Fell in love with this guy at the lfs so got him

[daplatapus]

Next addition was a starry blenny


A kenya tree. If you EVER think of getting one of these... STOPPP!!!! DO NOT GET ONE
They are constantly dropping arms all over and you'll never get it out

[gregzz4]

Nice lookin' setup. I'm happy for ya with that massive sump. Nothing like having lots of water

How's the algae doin' with the GFO and how long have you had the reactor running ?

[daplatapus]

Originally Posted by gregzz4

Nice lookin' setup. I'm happy for ya with that massive sump. Nothing like having lots of water

How's the algae doin' with the GFO and how long have you had the reactor running ?

Thanks. Yeah it's a pretty decent arrangement I think. I look at what I have in there and have NO idea how I would do it all in a 20-40 gal. My hat goes off to all who do it. It obviously takes some creative thinking. Like those guys who design some of these new cars and get all that stuff into limited space.

I think I still have algae problems. I've been running GFO now for probably 3-4 months, the high capacity stuff from BRS, and there's still stuff growing that I wish wouldn't. I have one rock almost completely covered in Halimeda which is cool. But I have others that have Dictyota dichotomy. It was ok at first but now it's spreading and from what I read, nothing really eats it regularly and I have to get in there and mow it every week or so. I may have to pull all the rocks with it on and cook it or something. Still not sure how to deal with it...
I'm pretty sure I'm still overfeeding and no doubt that plays a lot into it.

[daplatapus]

Well, I made the big jump to a good size pump last week. I bought a used hammerhead pump from grizz and plumbed it into my system. The pump I had was a bit small and I think was under performing given the fact it was pushing 9' of head from my basement sump to my living room display. I also wanted to add another tank in my dining room for a couple fish that seemed to be not getting along with my yellow eye hole tang and starry blenny. I ended up setting up a 25 gal cube tied into the main system. According to the flow chart, the hammer head was a bit much flow so I got reefflo to send me the barracuda impeller for $20. I also hot tapped my sump (talk about exciting). I drained the return section of the sump leaving the skimmer and refugium full and drilled the side of the tank for a bulkhead to feed the new pump.
Everything worked perfect. I plumbed in the new cube and new pump. I was still a bit concerned about how much water this thing was going to flow so I added 2 bypass valves. But after firing it up and waiting until the siphon caught on both tanks I was able to shut both bypass valves totally off. I figure my flow has increased in my main display to about 1400 gph from slightly over 1000. I figure the cube is getting about 350-400 gph. I'm also feeding my refugium and 2 reactors off the main pump. I'm getting a bit of vibration running up the main supply line and it's transferring a bit through my floor joists, so I have to work on that.
While I was plumbing the new bulkhead and line to the suction side of the pump, I also Y'd off and provided a valve for draining the system for water changes and plumbed it over to a floor drain.
I plan on taking the old Laguna pump and using it for a mixing station pump. Bought all the fittings yesterday, just got to find time to get it done.

[daplatapus]

Well my job for today fell through so I had the day to plumb in my mixing station and work on the vibration issue with the main return pump. Turned out some of the spa flex was a bit tight on my floor joist and the platform the pump was sitting on was resonating the vibration through everything. I had a chunk of 6" thick rigid styrofoam so sat the pump on that and shortened one length of spa flex and the vibration noise is now 90% gone

I plumbed in my original Laguna pump in between my RO/DI barrel and SW mixing barrel and plumbed it all into the main manifold for my reactors. I can now drain my sump by turning a valve and it goes directly into a drain. Then by opening a couple more valves and hitting a switch I can fill it back up from my SW mixing barrel. A couple more valves opened and closed and I can pump water from my RO/DI storage/top off barrel into my SW mixing barrel. Another couple valve turns and I can use the pump to recirculate the SW mixing barrel as I add the salt. Once it's all dissolved I turn the pump off and turn on my little Koralia 1040 I have in there to keep it moving.
In less than 10 min, I changed 30 gal in the DT, and mixed a new batch of SW. I never even got my hands wet I'm totally stoked. Pictures to follow...

[mseepman]

I love hearing about water change stations coming together...that is my most hated job in reefing and my new tank will work just like you described above.

[daplatapus]

Thought I'd throw up some recent pics.
FTS
















Weird how every time I pull out my camera the fish scatter. 90% of the time I turn the flash off but they seem to know the camera when they see it.