DIY projects

Just a quick update, since the tank is doing well and nothing really to report I though I'd share some success with my other hobby. Last Sunday I made the first flight in my Challenger II. This is a kit plane that I've been working on, off and on, for the last 5 years.

As many of you know, I've been slowly upgrading my 50 gal long reef. It's been plagued with algae issues since I inherited it nearly 5 years ago. Last year I added a deep sand bed and upgraded from 2x55W PC lighting to 4x54W T5HO. A couple months ago I added a sump, but no refugium. Due to limited space, I decided to try an Algae turf scrubber. So here's the construction photo's and updates on how it's working.

...

As most of you know, after adding a sump to my existing tank, my only SPS is dying, and now my frogspawn is looking very unhappy. Someone just told me that I should have let my PVC glue joints cure for 48 hours before adding them to the system. Since I had to make several of the joints in place, I only gave them a couple hours. Could that be what's poisoning my corals?

At long last my tank has a sump!

the sump is a 20 tall tank, with 3 baffles forming a bubble trap. This gives me a 2 section sump, equipment and return. I'm not planning to use this for a refugium. My original plan was to add a refugium as a separate tank above the sump, but now I think I'll try a turf scrubber first and see if that does the trick. Now for pictures.

First I mocked up the system in the shop using an old 29 gal and stand. It ran like this for several ...