It did come with a black acrylic insert for the weir and that's in there already. The picture I took is from the back of the tank and I guess its hard to see with the glare and lights. Its removable but I am thinking about siliconing it in place.
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My 280g build....
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- Start date
It did come with a black acrylic insert for the weir and that's in there already. The picture I took is from the back of the tank and I guess its hard to see with the glare and lights. Its removable but I am thinking about siliconing it in place.
Busy week ahead of me....
Well, I havent gotten too much done with the tank but this week will be a busy one. I've decided to realize the limits to my abilities and have decided to call on some help for the plumbing work and that is scheduled for Saturday.
My to do list this week....
1. Paint the back of the tank black. I thought it was pretty funny when the kid at homedepot asked me what side of the glass I was going to paint and if I needed primer.
2. Get in the tank and clean the glass
3. Rinse the sand, rocks and attempt some aquascaping
4. Start filling it with water Thursday night hopefully.
LIGHTING UPDATE....
I have canceled my order with Sfiligoi because of delays they are having and estimate another 6-8 weeks before I received the light I ordered back on 11/16. So here are the fixtures/options I am considering....
1. Go with a MH/T5 fixture. Not high on my list because I know I wont be happy with it but they have been tried and proven for years.
2. 3 apollo reef dimmable leds. I love the price and the number of colors they have but dont like the multiple power cords, no control over colors other than white and blue in terms of dimming.
3. Radions...I like that they are local, broader spectrum. I dont like that I would need 6 of them, not mac friendly (yet) and I dont like the fact that ecotech hasnt come up with better hanging solutions for people that hanging multiple units and their attitude is basically this...."look around on the web and see what other people are doing". Just rubs me the wrong way.
4. Reeftech Prometheus. They seem to put out a nice spectrum but we are familiar with the person involved with this project and his reputation has some blemishes to it, their website is horrible and their software is non-existent.
5. Pacific Sun Pandora Hyperion R2. Packs a powerful punch of 4 x 150w led panels and 4 x 80w t5's for over 900w's of total light. They utilize the latest in cree technology with 8 ch control over 9 different colors and fully dimmable t5's. My concerns are the relationships between Reeftech and Pac Sun if any and I know they had some software issues in the past. Here is the fixture and a pretty cool video
http://vimeo.com/35737494
Thoughts and feed back will be greatly appreciated since I am back to square one with my lighting.
Well, I havent gotten too much done with the tank but this week will be a busy one. I've decided to realize the limits to my abilities and have decided to call on some help for the plumbing work and that is scheduled for Saturday.
My to do list this week....
1. Paint the back of the tank black. I thought it was pretty funny when the kid at homedepot asked me what side of the glass I was going to paint and if I needed primer.
2. Get in the tank and clean the glass
3. Rinse the sand, rocks and attempt some aquascaping
4. Start filling it with water Thursday night hopefully.
LIGHTING UPDATE....
I have canceled my order with Sfiligoi because of delays they are having and estimate another 6-8 weeks before I received the light I ordered back on 11/16. So here are the fixtures/options I am considering....
1. Go with a MH/T5 fixture. Not high on my list because I know I wont be happy with it but they have been tried and proven for years.
2. 3 apollo reef dimmable leds. I love the price and the number of colors they have but dont like the multiple power cords, no control over colors other than white and blue in terms of dimming.
3. Radions...I like that they are local, broader spectrum. I dont like that I would need 6 of them, not mac friendly (yet) and I dont like the fact that ecotech hasnt come up with better hanging solutions for people that hanging multiple units and their attitude is basically this...."look around on the web and see what other people are doing". Just rubs me the wrong way.
4. Reeftech Prometheus. They seem to put out a nice spectrum but we are familiar with the person involved with this project and his reputation has some blemishes to it, their website is horrible and their software is non-existent.
5. Pacific Sun Pandora Hyperion R2. Packs a powerful punch of 4 x 150w led panels and 4 x 80w t5's for over 900w's of total light. They utilize the latest in cree technology with 8 ch control over 9 different colors and fully dimmable t5's. My concerns are the relationships between Reeftech and Pac Sun if any and I know they had some software issues in the past. Here is the fixture and a pretty cool video
http://vimeo.com/35737494
Thoughts and feed back will be greatly appreciated since I am back to square one with my lighting.
Wow! First time seeing and hearing about the Pacific Sun Pandora Hyperion R2. That thing is nice. Have you considered the Orphek? I'm really not to happy with my AI's as I can only raised them about 6 inches from the water. Money is tight for me right now. But if I could afford it, I would get the Orphek. Stan (smcooler) has these leds and loves them. He's an sps hardcore guy. http://orphek.com/led/
I'm in Manasquan. I'll know for sure tomorrow but pretty sure I'll have 2 30lb bags of the grand select and 2 30lb bags of the aragonite flakes.
Let the cycle begin!!!! I got my salt level dialed in and I added some shrimp last night with a few pieces of live rock from my current system. Everything is running nice and smooth and the drains are extremely quiet. I picked up my new pro cal calcium reactor and spent a little time with Jeff @ MTC going over the operation of it. Now I get to sit back and wait!
Hey Steve
Is there a reason why you have a gate valve on one of you overflow? I thought that was frowned upon in the reef hobby?
Another question. Wouldn't it have been better to seed the rocks in a small tub other than in your tank? You will now have to change more water than if you did it in a smaller tub. No?
Good luck with the smell......
Is there a reason why you have a gate valve on one of you overflow? I thought that was frowned upon in the reef hobby?
Another question. Wouldn't it have been better to seed the rocks in a small tub other than in your tank? You will now have to change more water than if you did it in a smaller tub. No?
Good luck with the smell......
Hey Rich,
I've never heard anything about not using gate valves on the overflow. My overflow was set up to be like a beananimal overflow but its not 100% a beananimal. BeanAnimal uses a gate valve on the siphon drain so you can be very precise with the flow level in that drain line. This also helps with the noise level and has created a virtually silent overflow system. I dont hear any trickling water or gurgling, flushing sounds in the drain which was something I always dreaded with my durson drain on my 80.
As far as the rocks go, I have 75lbs in a brute for 2 months and another 75lbs in another brute for about 3 weeks. I rinsed them off thoroughly but I guess there's still a little die off left on them. I tested my p04 last night and it was at .068 so the skimmer and I have some work ahead of us to get them down as the cycle progresses. I am not too concerned with that level as long as it doesnt go any higher. What the left over is thats breaking down on the rock will hopefully help with the cycle.
Thanks Bax. Im excited to see it in action. what size media should I use in it....coarse or extra coarse?
would love a piece of that cyphastria if you are willing to frag it shoot me a pm thanks, mike