Hi from North Carolina!

Ok, here are some pics as promised.

First, here's my sink and RO/DI area in the basement (it's actually 1 half of a garage that has been walled in and vented with A/C):



Below is my DIY sump/refugium. I have an Octopus NW-150 skimmer on the right hand side where water will come down from the main tank. The pump in the return area on the left is a Mag 24. It'll pump the water back up to the main tank one floor above. Notice I already have water in the sump and it's plumbed so that I can run the sump/refugium separate from the main tank. The fan is tied up and pointed down on the tank to keep it cool (especially needed with the Mag 24 in there.) The refugium is in the middle section, but empty at the moment.



And finally, below is the main display tank. I have a LifeReef overflow on the back and Odyssea 760W lighting system on top. I may build some kind of canopy to make the top look nicer. This tank fits perfectly in a section of the wall that juts in right over the center load bearing beam of the house. There's about 1.5 feet of free area behind the tank. The problem is that I will have no easy way to get to the back of it. We'll see how that goes! :-/ If one of the braces between one set of doors on the front was taken out, I'd be able to crawl underneath. I'm just hoping I can get things setup to where I won't have to do that.



My 4-year old is so excited. He actually asked if we could watch the tank tonight, so we just sat in the living room (there's no TV in that room) with the lights on over the tank until it was time for him to go to bed.

Anyway, that's my setup so far. Tomorrow night, I'm going to finish up the last bit of plumbing and start filling up the display tank so that I can test the circulation of water from the display tank to the basement sump. I'll probably just let it run like that for at least a week before doing anything else just to make sure everything is running as I want it.

 

welcome

 

Nice dude. And watching and empty tank with your kid is cool. I like that. K+

 

Welcome to 3reef!

 

I really like your tank set up... I like how its in set but not flat with the wall... I think it looks better like this than when the tank is flat built into the wall .. Its going to look so nice once you get stuff in it... I cant wait to see more!!! K+

 

Welcome!

 

Welcome aboard, Glad to hear that your gonna start over again. As Mission has stated, that light fixture that you have can be a pita when it comes to replacing the bulbs. Luna

 

I'll be experiencing it sometime in the near future since I may be replacing the bulbs with ones I like better soon. What is hard about it, by the way? (Just as a head's up.)

-Clayton

 

Howdy! and welcome to 3Reef