Progress on Bright Reef

I haven't posted in a month, but we've seen a lot of changes here with Bright Reef. Here's the highlights...
1. In preparation to move the small reef into the larger tank, we matched water conditions as closely as possible, then basically did a water change in increments over the course of a day. We removed water from the 20 gallon tank, and replaced it with water from the 125, then replenished the 125 with fresh seawater. The water from the 20 gallon went back into the 125 too, as we had ...

Actually, we really are making improvements!
Our plan for Saturday:
1. Raise the water level in the sump.
2. Raise the skimmer and TC bubble trap higher in the sump to improve functionality.
3. Install skimmate drain line on the skimmer.
4. Install standpipe on sump drain.
5. Run sump water level checks with pump shut off.

We originally intended to use as much of the volume of the sump as was safely possible. The current water ...

Saturday morning, we started out bright and early. We went to the box store and came home with cinder blocks and a whole bag of pvc fittings to finish the plumbing of the sump to the tank. This is Brian's department, I'm the go-fer. He drew out the plan on paper so we could get the right fittings for the job.
Once we got the sump positioned, cutting and gluing the pipes didn't take long at all. Of course there was a leak, where the sump drain hole was. We ended up replacing the fitting with ...

Okay, I'm a little slow on the uptake with things this morning...Saturday I added a bunch of photos and descriptions of how we got started with the best Christmas present ever, all the way to where we're at now with it. And just this morning, following the second cup of coffee, I figured out that the "Create new post" button would allow me to post images in the blog format, which would have worked better. So, please go look at photos through my profile...
The plan is to have the ...