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Start of my Oceanic 215 build
- Thread starter harryk
- Start date
Well not much going on except that i picked up my return pump this weekend. I went with the Blueline 70D. My new rock is all cured, and I'm still waiting on my sump from Aquariumsforyou.com. It's been about 3 weeks now and i do not have an ETA on when it will be done and i was told they needed about 3 weeks. I did read that they had a spotty reputation but thought i'd give them a shot. I will hold judgement until i get the sump. As soon as i get the sump i can get my tank put together and running I'm getting super antzy. I'm hoping this week but i'm not holding my breath.
Harry
Harry
OMG - what a dream tank! 
How did I miss this earlier? (...wipes smudge out of eyes...)
Harry, when I sat up my tank last April I got all my rock from Bernie, too. LOVE it! He really is a great, great guy.
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Wendy
How did I miss this earlier? (...wipes smudge out of eyes...)Harry, when I sat up my tank last April I got all my rock from Bernie, too. LOVE it! He really is a great, great guy.
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Wendy
JerseyWendy said:OMG - what a dream tank!
Harry, when I sat up my tank last April I got all my rock from Bernie, too. LOVE it! He really is a great, great guy.
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Wendy
Yea Bernie is great. He's the only place i'll ever buy rock from. Very reasonably priced and no shipping because he's local. I might have to make another trip to see him for rock after i use what i have.
Harry
Well just an update.
I'm a little peeved. My new sump isn't ready yet. I was told it would have been done by last week. It's been over 30 days since i finalized the specs and i only received 1 vague update. I was told it would take about 3 weeks originally. I sent the company a nasty email and am waiting on an answer. Needless to say i am very frustrated and my wife is starting to give me hard time because everything is sitting in the middle of my foyer
Harry
I'm a little peeved. My new sump isn't ready yet. I was told it would have been done by last week. It's been over 30 days since i finalized the specs and i only received 1 vague update. I was told it would take about 3 weeks originally. I sent the company a nasty email and am waiting on an answer. Needless to say i am very frustrated and my wife is starting to give me hard time because everything is sitting in the middle of my foyer
Harry
Well i finally picked up my sump yesterday. I found it funny that it was ready the day after i sent a nasty email. I am not very happy with the the sump. The seams are very sloppy looking and it was supposed to be 3/8 material but the bottom is 1/4". I'm hoping it does not leak.. Oh well i learned my lesson and not ever use this company again.
Hopefully i will start putting my tank together next weekend.
Harry
Hopefully i will start putting my tank together next weekend.
Harry
Just an update after some serious complaining i had a new sump rebuilt. The first one was built incorrectly. this past weekend i finally had time to actually put my new tank together. I am using spaflex tubing (flexible PVC) very easy to use and pretty flexible. I ran into a problem with my new sump. The sump intake chamber which houses my insump skimmer is not designed very well ( i will post pics as soon as i can). The reason being that it has a 1.5" drain bulkhead which i enlarged to 2" because 1.5 was too small. I was told it was enough. I originally wanted 2 1" incoming drains but was talked out of it (my stupidity). I will never in the future compromise for something that i want.
Well anyway, they have a long piece of acrylic which hold the drain hole and below it 2 pieces of acrylic which hold a filter sock (very bad design) it is about 5" wide and the length of the skimmer section 14" and my sump is 18" wide so i have like 13" front to back to fit my skimmer. the skimmer standpipe is facing the back of the sump and the skimmer pump is in the back. It was the only way that it fit because the piece that holds the drain bulkhead and filter sock take up too much room. If anything every happens to the skimmer pump i will be in a world of hurt trying to get it out. Even if my sump was out and not under my tank it would be almost impossible to get to because of the skimmer section design.
Anyway enough rambling. I actually dremiled away most of the filter sock support so i could manage to situate my skimmer in the sump. I wasn't thrilled with having to modify a new sump that i had built. Anyway it is now under my tank and 95% of the plumbing is complete. I need about 5' of 1" spaflex tubing and i will be 100% done. I will be picking it up early saturday and will fill it up and do a water test and hope that there are no leaks.
I will post pics tomorrow so you can see what i am talking about with the sump.
Thanks for humoring me with the rantings.
Harry
Well anyway, they have a long piece of acrylic which hold the drain hole and below it 2 pieces of acrylic which hold a filter sock (very bad design) it is about 5" wide and the length of the skimmer section 14" and my sump is 18" wide so i have like 13" front to back to fit my skimmer. the skimmer standpipe is facing the back of the sump and the skimmer pump is in the back. It was the only way that it fit because the piece that holds the drain bulkhead and filter sock take up too much room. If anything every happens to the skimmer pump i will be in a world of hurt trying to get it out. Even if my sump was out and not under my tank it would be almost impossible to get to because of the skimmer section design.
Anyway enough rambling. I actually dremiled away most of the filter sock support so i could manage to situate my skimmer in the sump. I wasn't thrilled with having to modify a new sump that i had built. Anyway it is now under my tank and 95% of the plumbing is complete. I need about 5' of 1" spaflex tubing and i will be 100% done. I will be picking it up early saturday and will fill it up and do a water test and hope that there are no leaks.
I will post pics tomorrow so you can see what i am talking about with the sump.
Thanks for humoring me with the rantings.
Harry
OMG - That tank looks like a beast. I cant wait to see this filled up and running. ASM are great skimmers.
SOrry to hear about all your sump troubles, but it sounds like your overcomming them!
I have a G4x and I'd urge you to do the gate mod (as it's a baer to tune otherwise), and a mesh mod (that will nearly double your air intake), if you can gravity feed it too then definitly a recirc mod as well (cause it'll kick but!).
I have a G4x and I'd urge you to do the gate mod (as it's a baer to tune otherwise), and a mesh mod (that will nearly double your air intake), if you can gravity feed it too then definitly a recirc mod as well (cause it'll kick but!).
Here is a pic of the top of my sump where the drains will flow into the skimmer chamber before i cut out the filter sock holder so the sump can fit. As you can see the piece that hold the bulkhead goes across the filter chamber 14" and it about 5" wide. it is such a bad design, the bulkhead holder takes up too much space. If i had more time i would have routed most of it out and drilled a new hole on the right side
After i cut it out, i had to do the other side too.
Pic of entire sump
Pic of skimmer in the sump under my tank. see where the standpipe is facing the back. The skimmers pump is n the back under where the filter sock holder and bulkhead support are
Pic of my return pump. It's the blueline 70D 1750GPH but with the head loss it will probably be returning about 1200-1300GPH maybe more.
Here is a full shot of the sump with the pump and skimmer connected under my tank
Here is a pic of the drain lines coming into the sump. I had to remove the bulkhead and just place them thru the hole so it would work. Not ideal but it will work and the drain lines are fairly snug so they will not move and besides i will zip tie them together as a safety precaution
Well i just need to connect 1 more return line. I ran out of flex PVC which i will be picking up tomorrow and i will finish the plumbing, do a water test, turn on the return pump and hope there are no leaks.
Harry
After i cut it out, i had to do the other side too.
Pic of entire sump
Pic of skimmer in the sump under my tank. see where the standpipe is facing the back. The skimmers pump is n the back under where the filter sock holder and bulkhead support are
Pic of my return pump. It's the blueline 70D 1750GPH but with the head loss it will probably be returning about 1200-1300GPH maybe more.
Here is a full shot of the sump with the pump and skimmer connected under my tank
Here is a pic of the drain lines coming into the sump. I had to remove the bulkhead and just place them thru the hole so it would work. Not ideal but it will work and the drain lines are fairly snug so they will not move and besides i will zip tie them together as a safety precaution
Well i just need to connect 1 more return line. I ran out of flex PVC which i will be picking up tomorrow and i will finish the plumbing, do a water test, turn on the return pump and hope there are no leaks.
Harry