280g Inwall

[christyf5]

Woo look at that wave!!! Thats awesome Tony, you are so close now!!!!!

[michika]

That is a great wave!

[Delphinus]

Thanks - it's interesting how the wave will sort of crest and peak depending on the interference with the other Tunzes, so there is a neat variation to the flow pattern. It's not chaotic though, like how it was when I had the 6100's on the Wavysea's and they were pulsing away (it was random but TOO chaotic - it was nothing like the flow patterns you'd expect to see on a reef). So I'm glad I was able to get these 6080's for the Waysea's, it's much better like this. (Thanks again Jay and Christy )

When I turn the sump return off the water level drops down to the sweet spot of the boxes and the wave gets to be more like 3" or 4". As impressive as that sounds though I don't think I'd want that for real in a tank like this one, maybe in a 8' or 10' tank and assuming the tank had actually been built to accommodate that kind of weight shifting. I should try to get a video of it like that just for the novelty of it though - maybe tonight.

So tonight's task will just be to tidy up the cabling and get the Ranco and heater up and running. After that it's salt, then rocks, then sand and then I guess it's cycling time! Man .. it's actually starting to feel close now.

On a side note I swapped out my old Mak4 for Steve's Mak4 with the broken impeller. Steve's impeller was definitely kaput, it was missing at least one fin and another was mostly broken off too, but the motor is super silent compared to mine. So an impeller swap from the two and away we go. The Mak4 at full open is WAY too much flow for the skimmer so it's throttled down considerably (the valve is more than half closed). For curiosity, I took out the watt meter and the Mak4 is pulling 138w at fully open and around 85w where I throttled it down to.

What's weird is I can't tell why my old Mak4 is so loud. It spins quite readily and when I power it off it continues to spin for some time as it winds down. So you'd think it's not a friction issue. It is however somewhere in the order of 8 to 10 years old (I think I set up my 72g bowfront in 2001? I can't remember anymore, and that's where that pump was used for a few years) so I guess I could just be expecting too much of it. I was half tempted to take it apart to see if I could grease a bearing or a shaft or something but I guess without an intact impeller it's not much use as anything other than a spare motor in the event that the other Mak4 has a problem down the road. I'm not sure if you can buy replacement impellers for Mak4's anymore and maybe it's not even worth it if the bearing on this has gone (but you'd think it wouldn't spin so nicely if it was a bearing? I dunno, I guess I don't know much about motors).

Anyhow I guess I need to get on with the task of sourcing out some sand. I had originally planned on going BB in this tank but now that there's water in it, the silicone work on the bottom is really noticeable and it's .. just brutal .. to look at. Not the nicest silicone work I've ever seen (nicer than anything I could do but.. that might not be saying too much. ) So I think it needs to be covered up.

I'm thinking a mixture of a little Fiji pink, a little Bimini pink and a whole lot of plain white sugar sand. I dunno, what do people think of the pinker grains from Caribsea? I need to go look at the bags and see what I think in person but I do like the pictures.

http://www.caribsea.com/pages/produc...aragonite.html

(The Bimini pink seems to be only available in wet: http://www.caribsea.com/pages/products/aragalive.html )

[lastlight]

You are CLOSE now it's gotta feel good. Glad to see another Ranco user...was it being used on your other tank or was it in storage?

I think the sugar sand is far too fine for a SPS tank but maybe that's just me. I like the Aragamax Select personally but might go a bit courser next time so I can really move some water.

I find the sand looks far different under water and under lights so the bags are even a touch misleading to me anyways. I know that doesn't help much but...

[Delphinus]

Oh and the blue ribbed tubing leaks like crazy at the hose barbs. I have two metals straps at each end cranked down as hard as I can and it's slowed it down some but not eliminated the leaking. It also collapses down under its own weight when full of water. So I have to find a different feed line from the pump to the skimmer. This ribbed stuff must be for low-flow low-pressure applications and not meant to be used for carrying a pump discharge (too much flow and/or pressure I guess).

[Rbacchiega]

hmmmm weird....normal flex hose then?

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by lastlight

You are CLOSE now it's gotta feel good. Glad to see another Ranco user...was it being used on your other tank or was it in storage?

Storage - I bought two of them a couple years ago when one of my heater controllers let go (might have been a Won Bros brand? Can't remember.. and I guess it's not an important detail now anyhow) so I bought two off ebay. One is in use on my FW tank and this one has been waiting patiently...

I think the sugar sand is far too fine for a SPS tank but maybe that's just me. I like the Aragamax Select personally but might go a bit courser next time so I can really move some water.

That's a good point. I don't need anything too too fine for my own taste but for the sake of the wrasses and other fish who might like to bury themselves at night I don't want to go too big either. I'll check out Select too. The picture of it certainly looks promising.

I find the sand looks far different under water and under lights so the bags are even a touch misleading to me anyways. I know that doesn't help much but...

Heh, no worries and it's a good point. I dunno I'm trying to imagine what sand with smattering of pink in it would look but I've found that what I imagine something will look like and what it will "actually" look like in reality seem to be not all that close together... Guess I'm gonna have to make some decisions and then just take a leap of faith. I can't imagine any choice will look "bad" though - it's just sand. (Well, maybe that painted gravel would look bad. We can eliminate that option right off the bat! )

[Rbacchiega]

I've got about 40lbs sand from the Bahamas that came with the order from Marco rocks...looked nice and tan when it was dry and is a blinding white atm in the tank...which I don't mind...only problem is it's super fine...mini sandstorms aaaaaalllll the time.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Rbacchiega

hmmmm weird....normal flex hose then?

Maybe. The annoying thing is that the input to the skimmer is 1-1/4". To switch to anything else I'd need to buy a SCH80 union and thow away most of it and just use the one piece with a different size adapter. I could go this way and stick with 1" line since the pump puts out way more flow than needed anyhow but I was thinking if I ever replaced the Mak4 with something a little more miserly I may want the bigger tubing to restrict flow less. I guess I'm overthinking this, that's a problem that doesn't exist right now and I should only worry about if/when that day comes.

I'm going to look for some 1-1/4" vinyl tubing, if that's easy enough to get, then it's just a relatively easy swapout.

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by Rbacchiega

I've got about 40lbs sand from the Bahamas that came with the order from Marco rocks...looked nice and tan when it was dry and is a blinding white atm in the tank...which I don't mind...only problem is it's super fine...mini sandstorms aaaaaalllll the time.

I imagine that should get better as the sand gets coated in bacteria but yeah I totally understand why people choose BB and just not have to worry about those things. I'm guessing the sandstorms will be terrible for me too for the first little while.