Philbywhizz

Finally, after spending 2 weekends and going through 3 revisions I have completed my auto topup unit.
It basically consists of a float valve where the water level isand as the water evapourates it is replaced by fresh water supplied and powered by gravity. Hopefully there are some photos of it here (using my iPhone to blog this for the first time).
Construction consists of acrylic cut to size. It is held there by a clamp (so it is easy to adjust if needed). It has been running for a few days now and my water level has remained constant. Quite impressed with my handywork actually.

Finally after nearly 18 month, I’m adding salt into the tank. Aiming for a 1.025 salinity.

No pictures as of yet as it is far too cloudy. More details later.

Spent today installing my new moonlights. I only have 1 for now, and depending on how it looks with everything else in the tank, I can always opt for a 2nd one.

Closeup tank shot:

Full tank shot with moonlights:

Big day today on the tank – Finally completed all the plumbing last week, and wired up all the power boards into the stand, so there was only one thing left to do – “Fresh water test”.

Big moment of truth, would my plumbing and sump design work? Was I going to have an angry wife with 600+ liters of water all over the floor? Only one way to find out.

Started by testing the workings of the sump, first the skimmer, then the baffles and the return pump plumping, and that there was enough pressure to make it to the top of the tank. Check!

Now lets add some more water and get this think really flowing. The picture shows a watering can, but this was just so I could make sure everything was working ok before I got the hose. Because filling up a 600L tank with an 8L watering can would be silly right? (shh – hopefully no one will notice).

Fingers crossed and wait……..

Success!!

Here is a shot with the tank full of fresh water, hard to tell that it is full but it is.

Finally a nice picture of the working sump, with pen marks in the return chamber for power out conditions, running max, minimums, etc.

Big day today – so as a reward, I went and bought myself a few new goodies online. Watch this space.

I have to thank a mate of mine ‘Matt’, who has kindly loaned me a return pump, lights and a vortech to get me going (I’m sure he was frustrated with how long this has taken).

Now I just have to get this water OUT of the tank now, in preperation for the good stuff.