Mobile Bay Reef Keepers

Some pics of my new tank build, haven't ordered the tank yet, waiting on two price quotes but still plenty to do to get ready for it. The new tank will be a 48x30x25 Euro braced SPS tank. The stand is 6ft long and will have a quarantine tank on one end, if I am lucky in two years, a frag tank. Tank will have three AI Sol Blue LED lights over it. no canopy will have a light rack. Will also have 3 EcoTech MP 40s in it.

This rock is now in a tub, trying to get it to turn back into live rock


Sump Tank


Top Off Tank



The Stand

Plastic Tubs are the same height as the tank

Few of the Goodies











Also got the manifold made today, not glued, just pieced together

Looks like everything is coming together nicely. Decent, high-end equipment and sturdy craftsmanship on the stand--looking forward to see how it all turns out.

Got a few things done yesterday after I got the shed cleaned, sure is nice to be able to walk around in there and find things. Ok, I got the shelf for the dosing pump installed and have the dosing pump setting on it. I installed the shelf on the back wall behind and above the Top Off tank and have the 3 jugs for the Mag., Alk, & Calcium setting below the shelf between the Top Off tank and the back wall, the 3 jugs fit in there like the space was made for them. Read my Tunze Top Off system book, pretty much have that figured out and it will take 15 min. or so to set that up tommrow. Then the biggie The Apex Controller, shouldn't be that hard, I am not turning it on, just placing all the stuff in the stand. I wish the quotes for the tank would come in so that I can get it ordered, I will be out of things to do shortly.

Today I got the Tunze top Off system installed and the Apex Controller system installed. The Top system kinda had me confused a bit. They have two ways to mount the system, a one magnet system (which I used) and a two magnet system. Anyway, this might be my last update for awhile, have seem to run out of things to do.

Looks great !

Well, I guess this is an update of sorts, nothing done on the build but I did spend some money today. Went to the LFS and picked up new filters for the RO/DI water filter. Premium Aquatics got a nice order. Dosing pump hose holder, magnet probe holder, 5 bags of Tropic Eden Reeflakes Aragonite sand. Everything else on the order was water test kits, and med's for the quarantine tank. Tried to make a order to Bulk Reef supply, but couldn't. Wanted to order Magnesium, calcium, Akl for the dosing pump, all three were in stock but the 1/4 inch netting for the display tank and the quarantine tank wasn't, will wait till it is before I make that order. Almost forgot, ordered my third AI LED light, a 20g long tank for the quarantine tank.

Big News today the tank has been ordered. The tank is coming from DSA (Deep Sea Aquatics) have no idea on how long it will take to come in.

Wow dude the setup is coming together nicely. That is a lot of new equipment and I am sure it was not cheap.

The tank was the cheap part. I told someone back in my Harley days, they ought to just give you the Harley for free, they make so much money on everything else, starting a tank is the same way. I do have a question though, I have been putting this off as I have no clue, the drain pipe in the overflow box that drains to the sump. My old 125g tank I made a pipe, and most of the time it was pretty quite. What should I be looking at for a pipe? Oh, the tank is supposed to be shipped a week from next Wednesday.

I always like durso's. Made the Hofer gurgle buster one time too. But I like durso's over everything.

AddictedToReefs wrote:I always like durso's. Made the Hofer gurgle buster one time too. But I like durso's over everything.

Where can I buy the durso pipes? Found a link to build one pretty simple. UPS driver stopped buy the house last nite Got the 5 bags of sand, 2 boxes 400 gallons of of salt, Water test kits, probe holder, Dising pump hose holder and the meds for the quarantine tank.

You can find "megaflow" kits online, but just as easy to make it yourself.

I got the sand washed today and its soaking in RO water in two different tubs. I read some where, don't know if this is true or not that the sand will leech out phosphates into the RO water and that I need to stir the sand each day and replace the RO water, any truth to this? If so, guess that is what my plans will be each morning before work. I got everything done under the stand that I can do without the tank, hooking up to the drain and return lines is all I have left to do under there, and hope I have no leaks. Had to do something I really didn't want to do under the stand today, someone told me to mount the 2 Little Fishes reactors over or in the sump in case they leaked. With the two different type hoses that I had to hook them up, this wasn't possible. They are mounted outside the sump. I will look for some hose that might fit my needs better. One hose was just to flimsy and kinked when you tried to put a bend in it. The other hose I had, the one I used, was a braided clear hose. Its pretty stiff and to use that I had to mount the reactors out side the sump using the tank mount that comes on the reactors. I used the flimsy hose on the Bio Pellet reactor though, it was good enough for that. I also ordered a PH probe for the Apex today, figured this was something that I would really need. I thought I had ordered but didn't, so I ordered one today also, Ammonia test kit. Wasn't sure but figured I would need it for the cycle process in the tank and since I was ordering the PH probe, why not. Waste of money or I needed it? Also picked up the things I need to make a Durso pipe, won't make that till the tank gets here. Anyway pretty much have everything done that I can think of till the tank gets here. Maybe I can get a full nights sleep now.

If it is older, used sand, then phosphate dissolution is possible. If it is fresh, dry sand, then the possibility of phosphate dissolution, especially in a new tank with alkalinity supplementation, is very low. In an alkaline, CaCO3-saturated environment, calcium carbonate sands tend to bind phosphate to their surfaces (via precipitation). This effectively reduces the water column concentrations. Eventually, no more can bind and if pH drops enough, it can potentially redissolve and release phosphate.

While there will be some dissolution of phosphate into the RO water, it won't last for long unless you replace it regularly and often. Not particularly necessary and in the end/long run, it doesn't help much. Most of the initial phosphate concentrations will come from biological sources, anyway. If you plan things well, you can counter this from the outset with either plant growth, GFO, carbon-based additives, or all of the above.