Closeup tank shot:

Full tank shot with moonlights:

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.

How did I get it in there? well, to get it out, I slide it to the left a little, and rotate it clockwise 90 degrees, then i can slide it out the front. It only ‘just’ fits (by cm’s). anything longer and I wouldn’t be able to rotate it 90 degrees to fit it in.

Hopefully the hole is in the right spot. All I need now is some bodies to give me a hand to lift the tank off the stand so that I can slide the foam underneath it. Without it, I’m reluctant to put any extra weight in or on the tank.

I also have a photo of the newly positioned sump, and where it will end up sitting:

There are no divisions in this yet as I am still to determine where the plumbing is all going. I plan to place the skimmer to the left of the sump (external).

I’ve also got 2 x 150w heaters, but after doing some calculations I think they are a little on the small side, considering I have about 600L to heat up.

That’s all for now.

This was the biggest size I could fit. I would have loved to have a 36″x15″x15″ sump, but there was no way to actually get it in there without some major hacking to the cabinet. But the different between the 2 in terms of water volume isn’t really that big. Having the smaller but taller sump leaves the entire left hand side of the cabinet for other things.

I’m planning to get an external skimmer to sit next to the sump. I’m currently looking at the Reef Octopus Hurricane 800 shorty, which will fit quite nicely (and it looks good). The idea is to connect this directly to the input from the weir, and the output into the first chamber of the sump. Might have to wait until next pay day before I buy one of those.

What I need to work out now is how to divide up the sump into its different chambers. My current thoughts are 3 chambers: Input -> Refugium/DSB -> Return.

I’ll put up some photos when there is something more exciting to look at (it is just an empty glass tank at the moment).

When I cleaned it up, it looked a little small, so at a last minute panic, I re-checked my dimensions – phew.. its ok. It will fit (I’ve been checking every couple of days.. just to keep making sure).

Today, I took the day off work and waiting for the tank to arrive. Turns up after lunch, and after a quick shuffle around it is all setup. Big thanks to the guys at Wonderfish for coming around and giving me a hand with the setup.

Full frontal shot::

Exposure of the underbelly (empty, except for the glass lids – not sure if i’ll use them). Now I just need to work out what space I have for the sump, plumbing, wiring, etc…

Hood – I opted to go with an extra raised hood. I’m starting off with T5′s and I wanted the extended hood to allow for MH’s if I chose to go down that path. It also helps make the tank a little more cat proof.

Overflow setup – gives me options here for a silent durso/siphon setup.

A view from the top:

Underneath shot – Yes, there is no styrofoam here yet – I’m picking that up on Saturday. From left to right, they are 20,25,25mm pipes.

I know it is really bad to push fish in your tank without cycling it first, and I’m going against everything I’ve read, and have been told – BUT I really HAVE to have some fish in there, so I threw in my clown fish. I hope he survives  I don’t think it counts though.

Still Todo:

1. Styrofoam for the bottom.
2. Paint the back – I’m thinking black at this stage.
3. Go shopping for a skimmer and return pump, heaters, etc so I can work out how to config my sump.
4. Plumbing
5. Electricals (planing to put in about 2 powerboards for stuff – with a safety switch thingy of course) – the house also has a safety switch in the electric box outside – can never be too careful.
6. Some powerheads
7. Hmm.. this list is getting rather big

My wife bought me a really big bean bag (about 500 ltrs – almost as big as the tank) so the ultimate aim is to plonk down on that each night with a beer after work and watch the fish…..

The Adventure finally begins!

While practising my blender skills I updated by blender design and you can view the updated animation below.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JZYHLnlBSQ

The tank builder was given the all OK to start buildling about 2 weeks ago, so I should be seeing it turn up at home shortly (there will be pictures!).

Can’t wait!

This device is used to measure the salinity of water, which is going to become quite handy in my upcoming reef tank project. I decided to get this rather than a hydrometer as using a refractometer is far more accurate and only requires a few drops of water, where as a hydrometer requires quite a bit of water to float it.

Besides, it also looks all cool and scientific.