ryancmatchett

Rearranged the rock a little, to get a little depth in the tank. It is kind of hard to show the depth with a picture like this, but the left side rock actually is too close to the front glass, and goes all of the way back to about an inch from the back....

RO/DI is installed, and we ran it for a couple of hours last night. Made about 8-9gal.
We chose to install in way up on the wall, about halfway between the water valve and where the mixing barrels will be, so that we have no risk to damage by kids, but also so that eventually, if we decide to add a drinking water link to the fridge or sink in the house, we just have to go through the wall behind it.
And I got the fans all wired, and running. Woo Hoo!!
Gonna work on more tonight...see what happens.
Need to get a couple of pieces at OSH tonight, and hopefully get some more progress.
So we had to do a little fixing on the canopy last night. When we bought the tank it appeared that there may have been an issue with the piano hinge on the door, seems it was not installed all of the way across, kinda offset to the right side, so when we open the door, it is lopsided, and not connected completely on one end. Added a couple of screws and several L Bend metal plates to help support the door. Got it fixed. Much better.

Also, finished with the plumbing for the RODI, and ran it for about 10 hours. We have more than 40 gal of water, so we will be putting the BRS Dry Rock into a trask can for a while, using the RO water, and getting the rock ready. We will also start to test and run some of our equipment. We still have yet to actually plug things in, like the pumps, skimmers and powerheads. And all of it needs to be cleaned.

So in the next week, we will be getting more water made, equipment cleaned, a continuing to work on the electrical. Found out we have an issue with our American DJ PC-100a, the 8 plug switch just inside the doors of the stand. For some reason, it does not work....at all. Does anyone have one of these? know where I can get an owners manual (their website does not have one, that I can find) or know how to change a fuse? When it is plugged in, only 1 switch at a time will show a light....but nothing works when you plug it in...nothing. Going to test it at work, see if it is more likely the wiring in our house. I really think having one of these would be great, but honestly we could get by with a power strip if we have to.
Thanks for any help.

Thank you guys, installed the bypass last night, now ready to position the barrels and start with the water.
We are going to run some water, some for the washing of our rocks, and some to use with some vinegar to clean equipment.
Plus make sure the RODI unit works, as well as get used to what the TDS meter reads.
Kinda frustrating though, because we are still stuck on the cabinets...Not sure how we want to build...or buy..with or without the countertop...etc, you get the idea. And we can finish the plumbing till the cabinet is done, nor fill nor run the tank....
Thanks again for the water info.

Thank you all for the kind words, and all of the information....

So I wanted to update a little, we have been working and working, slowly, but surely.
First is that we finally got the new TDS meter from BRS, the one that came with the RODI was missing the wires....anyways, the new one came in, hooked it up, and have been checking, running water, and keeping track of the TDS. Here is what we have noticed: if the water is off for several hours, then turned on: After RO, before DI...400-435, after about 10 min, about 35-40. After 10 min, hook up the DI, I get 12-14, then after about 2 min, I am down to 2-3. I will be keeping track of the TDS pretty closely.

Also, We removed the rock from the tank last weekend, and put it all in a trashcan. Added RO water, a pump with a piece of tubing and a powerhead to circulate the water. It has been in the tash can for since Saturday, and we are already getting a little bit of slime on the surfaces of the can and tubing, etc. and notice that there is a little cahnge in the color of hte rock, a little less white color. Remember that we started with the BRS mined dry rock, so it was REALLY white. Will be taking the rock out this weekend, changing all of the water, and will reload the can. We will probably be running the can like this for several weeks.
Just wanted to leave a little update.....

8/4/10
Yeah about the cabinets, wanted to give an idea for what we are planning. And why it has not been done yet. First, is that we are looking to add about 9-12 feet of cabinets, countertop and storage. Basically, we are going to have 3 different sets of things in the garage. (maybe I can figure out how to do a little sketch to help picture it...)
1. The first item is a 4' wide X 3' deep X 40" high cabinet. Basically a very simple box, with a few areas for cords to run, fans to be installed, and space to expand if needed. This will be the DT sump cabinet. We are hoping to have a "countertop" so that we can work with wet equipment on top, as well as use the counter for other tasks. Our sump is only 36" long, but we may eventually need to go to an external pump, add a calcium reactor, etc, so we need the space. We are also planning to add a 10g refugium into this cabinet, so there will be a little shelf, next to the sump, for this to be gravity fed. In this cabinet, we do not plan to move to a 4' sump, so we should have plenty of space, and the height gives us space to work inside, and since we are both pretty tall, an easy countertop to access.
2. The next item is a cabinet, or shelves that match the width of the below cabinet, above the DT sump cabinet. This will be for storage, equipment, etc. This part is easy. Just shelves, or shelves with a skin to make a cabinet.
3. The last item is a 5+' cabinet. It will probably be 5' wide X 3' deep X 40" high. This cabinet will be for the frag tank, frag tank sump, as well as the table top to hold the fresh water barrel. We have a 55gal barrel that will hold our fresh water, and based on the existing plumbing, this will sit on the top of the cabinet, and be plumbed to allow it to drain into the Salt barrel which will be sitting on the floor next to it. We need this cabinet to be tall enough to allow the plumbing to work, match the first cabinet, and be able to hold a 4' sump. If we ever needed to change to a 4' sump, this cabinet would allow it. However, because of the way that the plumbing works on the frag tank and sump, the frag tank will be plumbed so that it sits on the top, with a hanging light, and the sump will be below. This should also give us more storage, and access to clean, modify etc.

I know it is hard to picture, I will try to sketch something....Any suggestions would be helpful. But we have found that we would have to modify too many things on pre made cabinets, new or used, although we are looking for someone who is remodeling their kitchen, if we were to be able to find cabinets, that would still be good. But based on what I am able to calculate (haha), it will only cost us less that $150 to build all of this, so anything more than that on actual cabinets does not make sense. We have done really well so far, on how much we have spent on what we have gotten, it would be a shame to ruin that on the cabinets.