Stephen Sturges

I will be there

I live in the same area as DaveO so I suffered same outage. Got my generator running but with the house temp being around 46, my two 300 watt heaters could not keep up. I wrapped the tank in quilts even to keep it warm but was still losing the battle with the sump being downstairs the water running through the pipes acted as a chiller. Dave was kind enough to lone me a spare 600W heater he had as his generator was not working. Things all pulled through. Thanks Dave!

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So here is my initial plan for the filtration system which is located on the first story below the tank location. This is room which refer to as the lab. It use to be my shop until I built a separate building. The next image is of the rough placement. The filtration system frame is built of an 8020 product called ready tube. I make an drip tray out of HDPE which the filter system sits in. Leak detectors on the APEX get alarmed if there is water in the tray and they system takes corrective actions. I do not like having equipment in the sump for serviceability reasons. This does increase the risk for leaks but I have alarms for that and other protections. The sump is just a 40 breeder which I drilled for the external pumps. If with this between heaters a few submersible pumps for UV, Chiller... and the roller mat the sump is pretty full, Enough room to add a algae scrubber however should I need one.

Well the first problem to be overcome is that there is a wall in the way Goodby wall

So I have been putting in an effort to get back in the hobby. I had a 375 Gallon reef in the 90's. Things have changed a bit in the hobby and I am hoping to have an easier path to success. Bubble Algae was my former dark neminis. I just did not have the time to manage a 375 gallon bubble algae infestation in my past life. Metal Halides and the chiller also results in a pretty steep monthly bill. Technology has progressed at lot so I hoping for success this time. I am retired now so I have a bit more time to invest. Going smaller this time, the tank is custom roughly 180 Gallon peninsula. The tank is custom by Crystal Dynamics. The tank also sits right behind were my office chair sits to I an enjoy the tank all day long. The former tank was in it's own room, some days I would not even see the tank. Like my old tank the filtration system will be remote. Sturges Reef Tank Design Page 1 of 2 V1.00.pdf

No one has pointed this out yet here and you most likely know but I will say it anyway, your Ph is what I would consider to be getting on the serious low side. It could be your calibration on your probe if you not calibrated. If you had corals in your tank this would be bad, they would stress and have a hard time building skeleton. Fish less so, but still a stressor to the biology. If you have coral best to keep that low number no less than 8.0 at night. You might want to try one of the above suggestions to bring it up and level it out. It can be frustrating.

I am impressed your selling something

I am using 4040 for my stand. Wanted a bit of extra heft. Using 2020 in black for my light rack. One thing I noted is true 8020 from from 8020 is quite a bit heavier duty that the generic stuff off Amazon. Did not have any method of structural analysis of the 2020 vs 4040. Most tubular steel stands are more on order of 4040. Plus the aluminum has a lot of internal structure over tubular steel. I should note that my tank is 48x34x27 so a bit bigger. Are you to have panels on or something to give some shear resistance?

I will be there

Can be scratched and beat up just needs to hold water.