melev

Last weekend, I spent two days moving livestock and rock from the 215g into the 400g and the 60g tanks, both which were ready and waiting.

As I'd discussed previously, my original plan was to tie all three tanks together into the common sump so the water would be shared and all parameters would match. The 60g was plumbed into the sump already, but the 400g was running independently, not quite full enough to drain. It had over 300g of saltwater in it, along with sand and rock and was provided flow with a single Mp60. Wanting to make sure the water was good, I ran a skimmer in that tank for about two weeks which pulled out quite a bit of skimmate, surprisingly.

The drains were installed on the 400g tank, run to the sump and the glue was allowed to cure overnight. Then the next day, a large Mag pump was placed in the sump and soft tubing was run to the 400g as a temporary return. (A future blog will go into those details with pictures.) More water had to be added to the sump to finish filling up the display tank so it could begin to drain.

Fortunately a friend of mine volunteered to help move the contents of the 215g to the two new tanks, but it was slow going. Any bit of life was carefully placed around the perimeter of the reef because the big rocks revealed beneath the healthy reef had to transfer into the new aquariums. Without that type of forethought, corals would be crushed in the process. Pests were removed, critters were spotted and moved, and the light rack was taken down and installed over the 400g once more.

Late Sunday night, the anemones spawned as mentioned in my last blog entry. The livestock seemed fine, yet Monday night the anemones spawned again! While that was going on, I spent a couple of hours cleaning out all the sand and shop-vac'd the dirty water out of the 215g, mainly to stop the awful smell emanating from the shut down tank. It was posted up for sale and was sold within an hour. It will be picked up in eight days, which will finally give me walking room once more in the fishroom. I've been squeezing past it for 18 months, but with the 400g's plumbing installed, I have to do a limbo dance move every time I go into the room currently.

Tuesday, I caught a flight to Atlanta to speak to ARC, and when I got home Wednesday all was well. The skimmer had pulled out a lot of skimmate, caused by the Monday spawning event, to the point that the waste collector shut down one pump as programmed in the Apex. Last night, I was able to complete the return plumbing and remove the temporary rig. Here are the pictures of the new return assembly.

First thing I do is lay everything out and triple check all my connections for proper lengths and to verify nothing is missing.

Then I glued each connection, making sure everything was aligned perfectly. Using a solid surface covered with newspaper to avoid glue drips, I was able to twist and align each new section as it was glued into place. I have a Plumbing 101 article linked at the base of this page on ReefAddicts (check the footer area) that shows you step by step how to glue PVC. Each fitting was cleaned, then primer cleaner was applied followed by Oatey's Red PVC cement.

Once everything was completed, this is the final product. Each Flow Accelerator needs to be submerged enough to avoid creating an air vortex. With this layout, the jets are 3" beneath the surface.

Here it is installed on the tank. The end of the plumbing has a capped elbow, added to prevent the assembly from pitching downward over time. Beneath the end cap, a small piece of acrylic holds the plumbing up 1/2" to match the height of the opposite end, dictated by the grey union fitting. The union will allow me to remove the entire assembly for heavy cleaning from time to time.

The assembly rests on the tank's inner Euro-bracing.

For the most part, I have full access to the tank and can still reach over the end if the need arises.

Overall, I'm pleased with the clean look. The plumbing is 1.5", reducing to 1" as it heads down into the tank.

The return line was built with some sections from the previous plumbing that I had installed before. A few couplings and more black PVC were all that was required for that part. Interestingly, the union landed precisely at the perfect spot, just inside the black upper trim to rest on the euro-bracing -- as if I'd planned it that way. Another perk is that the cleaning magnet fits between the glass and the black vertical PVC pipe; it's not in my way.

The big change in this return assembly is the use of a check valve. Last time I used anti-siphon holes but the back pressure from the Flow Accelerators caused those holes to become jets of water that blew the sandbed beneath. I had to rig a blast shield under the holes and the hole thing looked messy. This time I'm using a check valve installed backwards.

When the pump turns on, the water pressure seals the check valve closed. This will be the normal running position. If any water were to spurt out initially, the small fitting at the end directs it into the tank. When the return pump shuts off, the vacuum created by the reverse siphon of water trying to flow back to the sump immediately pulls open the flapper and lets air vent freely into the assembly, breaking the siphon instantly.

I only had to test it once to see how well it worked. It's really impressive. When I restarted the pump, a big burp of air comes out the Flow Accelerators. I'll have to shoot a brief video when I have someone else here to man the power switch.

My tank is nice and quiet at last. Everything is flowing beautifully. Tomorrow is our club's Frag Swap, so I'd expect Sunday to be my first day to move some corals and rock around to their final placement. I'll be posting more pictures of the livestock and of both tanks soon.

The final task is the woodwork. I hope to get that done before the end of the year.