One Cubic Meter of Ocean

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Well I have a plan but who knows if it will work. Planning on keeping a few butterflies and angels along with whatever corals they don't eat. Probably SPS and soft corals for the most part. I've already purchased 2 golden butterflies and 1 empire angel so quite a bit already invested in the fish part. One thing I thought I could keep for certain was anemones like maxi and rock anemones. However the goldens ate those pretty quick so not a great start Hammer coral is also out and pretty much any kind of zoa/paly. The empire seems to be fairly well behaved but the butterflies are trouble for sure despite them supposedly being more on the reef safe side.

And thanks to all for the nice comments.

think they will eat acans or favias or even chalices??


if not i got some ill put aside for you for when your here next

[sphelps]

Acans for sure but I'm hoping I can get away with chalices. I have one frag I'm going to try but I'm going to wait a bit until they are better established on frozen.

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Acans for sure but I'm hoping I can get away with chalices. I have one frag I'm going to try but I'm going to wait a bit until they are better established on frozen.

ok cool well when they learn to behave themselves lol i got for you


chalices:


riddler chalice
cotton candy
watermelon
hollywood stunner
orange dotty back

and favias:

aussie reverse prism
aussie prism favia
bubblegum
purple and blue
confused warcoral


yours whenever you want them or are ready for frags

[sphelps]

Sweet thanks man, I still want those blue polyps btw

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by sphelps

Sweet thanks man, I still want those blue polyps btw

got a chunk put aside for you of that as well , actually a couple chunks lol

[sphelps]

Awesome!

[sphelps]

Originally Posted by The Grizz

Oh sure!!! I had to wait weeks to get my pumps and now it seems like EVERYONE is getting them like going to the store for bread

Are you going to run them externally Steve? When I read the instruction manual it only said submerged

Yeah I'm using them external, everything I've seen online suggests external/internal use and they appear to be properly sealed so I guess we'll see. Would kinda suck if they are internal only.

[Skimmerking]

Steve looks great man well done. always love the way you bring things
together.

[sphelps]

Another hole





The hole will be used for the return line/manifold, already partially built and painted black. Both pumps will tie into the same line for now.



Here's a quick look at the cabinet work above the tank so far. Doors will be put on later and the ceiling will continue out in this style. Either some drywall painted white or some white melamine will be cut to fit into each opening. They will be screwed in place and made to be removable for any needed future access. The screws will be covered with some kind of finishing trim which will also be removable. Also contemplating a cove style light concept for accept as well as pot lights in some areas which is still TBD.

[sphelps]

Got the overflow box remade and installed the other day. Big thanks to Dave again for rushing that through the shop for me.







Looks like I forgot to turn the light when I took those pics
Anyways the overflow is pretty big but for good reason, one so I have access being that it has to protrude through a wall and the other relates to volume needed for the two pumps. The idea here is rather than running a traditional return pump I run a large return pump direct from the overflow to to the tank for circulation, the head loss here is very minor. Then I run a second smaller return pump from the sump to the overflow. Sort of like an overflow in an overflow or something you might do as a mod to an AIO tank. My reasoning for it is as follows;

• Take advantage of external pumps for circulation without adding an actual closed loop.
• Being able to separate the sump system from the tank without effecting the actual tank flow, good for maintenance and/or future additions or changes.
• Separate control of sump turnover rate.
• Possible gains in efficiency and lower noise levels.
• Possible gains in simplicity and reliability when compared to closed loop.
• Double surface skim effect (water from tank skimmed at high flow, then overflow skimmed at low flow and fed directly into skimmer intake).
• Possible to add variable pump control if later available.

I'm running two pumps just for redundancy, if one fails then I still have circulation. Also being DC pumps I figure someone will release a module for external control with 0-10V so having two pumps will allow alternate flow patterns.