Off To The Build! Continued Guidance!

So here is where I am currently at with my build:
Beginner Tank Setup Guidance Needed.

Tank is In position, floor supported, sump in the mail and will arrive Tuesday, gravel should be here by Thursday.

So I figured it was time to move out of the beginner section and start up in the build section now that I have enough sound advice, information, and some actual direction as to how things should be and so on...

Currently I am just waiting on the mail so I can do a cleaning run of 1:25 of ammonia to water to clean the tank really well. A recap for those who haven’t seen the other thread I have going, I have a 150 gallon tank that was salt water before I got it and I will be doing fresh water in it, so I need to get a lot of the salt residue and growth out of it before cycling the tank.

More to post once everything comes in!

 

White vinegar and water will take care of most of the problem.

 

White vinegar and water will take care of most of the problem.

Vinegar, ammonia, it all will work as long as it not a chemical lol

 

i'd would do vinegar over ammonia, just because of the fumes.

 

i'd would do vinegar over ammonia, just because of the fumes.

Oh darn true story lol never thought about that, fumes don’t bother me, but the gf would lose her mind lol

 

What did you end up doing for your gravel? I ended up getting 250lbs of gravel from lowes for like $13, took awhile to clean but better than spending hundreds on "aquarium gravel" that isn't even more suited for plants.

 

Oh true story lol never thought about that, fumes don’t bother me, but the gf would lose her mind lol

Now that would put you in the dog house

 

What did you end up doing for your gravel? I ended up getting 250lbs of gravel from lowes for like $13, took awhile to clean but better than spending hundreds on "aquarium gravel" that isn't even more suited for plants.

PFS or BDBS work good for a planted tank

 

What did you end up doing for your gravel? I ended up getting 250lbs of gravel from lowes for like $13, took awhile to clean but better than spending hundreds on "aquarium gravel" that isn't even more suited for plants.

soo I found a bulk distributor and I spent 140 on the gravel shipped to my door. yes it was high but the GF wanted green so here we are.....

Now that would put you in the dog house

funny thing is I like to keep my hands busy in what free time I do have so this past winter I built a very nice snake rack and wanted to stain it.... long story short I stained in the house because it was too cold for it to dry in the garage... stunk up the house BAD, she was furious and stayed at there mothers for a week and I stayed at the house and slept with a respirator on for a week LMFO, I guess gas mask drills in the military paid off LOL

 

soo I found a bulk distributor and I spent 140 on the gravel shipped to my door. yes it was high but the GF wanted green so here we are.....



funny thing is I like to keep my hands busy in what free time I do have so this past winter I built a very nice snake rack and wanted to stain it.... long story short I stained in the house because it was too cold for it to dry in the garage... stunk up the house BAD, she was furious and stayed at there mothers for a week and I stayed at the house and slept with a respirator on for a week LMFO, I guess gas mask drills in the military paid off LOL

I love Florida winter means I have to put on long pants for a couple of weeks out of the year. If I go to the woods I have plenty of BDU's still and they didn't cost me a penny.

 

I love Florida winter means I have to put on long pants for a couple of weeks out of the year. If I go to the woods I have plenty of BDU's still and they didn't cost me a penny.

Ya I wish I had enough bdu’s to do that, and yes I want back to warm weather year around lol

 

Ya I wish I had enough bdu’s to do that, and yes I want back to warm weather year around lol

I think the Marines bought me about 10 or 12 sets over the years, and then the Navy supplied me about the same amount of flight suits and flight deck gear.

 

I think the Marines bought me about 10 or 12 sets over the years, and then the Navy supplied me about the same amount of flight suits and flight deck gear.

I have flight deck gear out of the gills, but they would never give us new bdu’s, uniform allowance was what we were suppose to use to get new ones

 

I have flight deck gear out of the gills, but they would never give us new bdu’s, uniform allowance was what we were suppose to use to get new ones

For us HM's that where FMF if you where away from the Marines for over 3 years and returned they gave you a whole new issue of Cami's and Marine reg uniforms if you went Marine reg. I highly recommend Marine Reg to the younger guys, somehow the women love those uniforms.

 

I was an AD for 6 years before getting out, and my last duty stations was with Marines.... wouldn’t ever recommend getting stationed with them to anyone....

 

I was an AD for 6 years before getting out, and my last duty stations was with Marines.... wouldn’t ever recommend getting stationed with them to anyone....

The Marines are great to be stationed with as a Corpsmen, I did 3 years at Mag-24.

 

The Marines are great to be stationed with as a Corpsmen, I did 3 years at Mag-24.

No flippin way!! I was at MAL-24 on Kay bay. 2014-2016 lol loved Hawaii, hated marine mentality ( meaning the GOB club)

 

Sorry for language y’all.....

 

I was the Aeromedical Safety Corpsmen at HQ from 2000-2003. Yes and the Marines can be different, then again MALS was a very unique situation as it was, being one of the only combined I level maintenance operations in the Navy.

 

I was the Aeromedical Safety Corpsmen at HQ from 2000-2003. Yes and the Marines can be different, then again MALS was a very unique situation as it was, being one of the only combined I level maintenance operations in the Navy.

Ya that’s true but I don’t think it helped I told them “I wasn’t a marine so stop treating me like one”. The navy in the command didn’t have a spine to them when it came to there sailors.

 

tomorrow my sump will be dropped at my door and I want to make the install fairly quick so here is my question.....

what do yall recommend for plumbing on a sump system? should I go hardline PVC pipe or can I use hoses of sorts? I do know that I will need to make a Y hook up to the sump due to having two different overflow pipes in the box, I figured I would make a PVC hard line y setup, the from there have a flexible hose of sorts to the sump.

 

I gave both in my sump flexible hose from the pump and the rest is hard pvc.

 

I gave both in my sump flexible hose from the pump and the rest is hard pvc.

so the return from the sump to the tank is hose, while the tank to the sump is hard lined if I am understanding correctly?

 

Yes. My tank has only one hole drilled so the return pipe is in the drain pipe. Its a weird setup but its how theyre all done in china.

The water level is low in the sum because my daughter decided to wake up as I was draining it so I haven't finished my water change.

 

Yes. My tank has only one hole drilled so the return pipe is in the drain pipe. Its a weird setup but its how theyre all done in china.

The water level is low in the sum because my daughter decided to wake up as I was draining it so I haven't finished my water change.

thank you for the pictures!!!!

Well today is a big day yall, hopefully ill get the sump installed and water in the tank for the trial run. I didnt mess with the plumbing yet due to knowing ill need more pieces with the sump arriving today, I was looking at lowes website last night and I am going to try to do a much flexible line as humanly possible with the plumbing, I think ill be able to get something rigged up with ease.... just need to write down all my connection sizing and ill be good to go!

 

Alright y’all tank is full of water, sump is installed ad lines are ran!!!!

Here she is in rough form for this cleaning week!

So I have no media in the sump due to it being water and vinnager at the moment, but I would have though the sump would be a little fuller with water, I did have it filled as high as it could go like aqualink tells you to but it never really stayed high on just the water box side. The water would stay level across the sump box and if the media were to be in it, the lower foam pad would be submerged and same with part of rolled foam or bio balls depending on your preference..... so my question is, should the Lower foam pad be submerged or no? Or what’s going on that I need to fix?

 

So I have found that the pump for the circulation chamber in the tank is dead... it’s an pj2000 from what the sticker says, but I have no clue cause that pulled up pond pumps and I know that’s not what this is..... I’ll post pictures of it latter but I do know I need to get a new one in there...

 

So got home from work early and I went to town on the tank with a sponge to see if any of the old growth was starting to break free and it all came right off!!! So that’s a good bonus and win for me today! Hopefully here in a few more days I’ll drain the tank with the water/vinager mix, then thoroughly rinse and fill in hopes of starting to get a cycle going.

On to the pump delema, so the pj200 is a “pond” pump, I went to town trying to clean it more and the bottom of the sticker literally said pond pump.... when I pulled it apart to see if it could be rebuilt, the sucker was completely locked up with corrosion... so I am currently seeing if anything will break free and it may be salvageable. The pump does click on when plugged in and hums, I did get the impeller and assembly out and a lot of the corrosion garbage out but the magnet will not spin in it, I don’t know if that’s due to it being bad or if there is still too much corrosion in it. At this point I don’t know if it’s worth my time to rebuild or if I should replace it.

Here are pictures of the pump as well

 

HI there Scherf - good to see you making progress.
The sump is looking good - empty but good.
As far as the pump goes, the build is simple. A coil with a capacitor (that makes generates the phase difference in the coil to ensure that the pump turns the right way and spins). So if you have it open and rotor spins when you turn it with the pump plugged in, the capacitor is gone (watch your fingers, an impeller can chop them off or do other damage!). The tricky part is that the capacitor is usually in the sealed part that is watertight.
If you want to play around, you can replace the capacitor - if not then just get a another pump.

 

HI there Scherf - good to see you making progress.
The sump is looking good - empty but good.
As far as the pump goes, the build is simple. A coil with a capacitor (that makes generates the phase difference in the coil to ensure that the pump turns the right way and spins). So if you have it open and rotor spins when you turn it with the pump plugged in, the capacitor is gone (watch your fingers, an impeller can chop them off or do other damage!). The tricky part is that the capacitor is usually in the sealed part that is watertight.
If you want to play around, you can replace the capacitor - if not then just get a another pump.

thanks! I have gotten busy and slightly side tracked, but its coming together, I have finally scrubbed most of the saltwater growth out out if it over the past two weeks, so now I need to drain it down this weekend, rinse and set up for cycling.... draining it out is going to be a pain so I need to get a small sump pump to drain it, I have one of the python setups, but it sucks to truly drain a tank with..... for small water changes it great....

 

thanks! I have gotten busy and slightly side tracked, but its coming together, I have finally scrubbed most of the saltwater growth out out if it over the past two weeks, so now I need to drain it down this weekend, rinse and set up for cycling.... draining it out is going to be a pain so I need to get a small sump pump to drain it, I have one of the python setups, but it sucks to truly drain a tank with..... for small water changes it great....

Thx for the update.
Looking forward to seeing your next step!