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JoJosReef
One tang per gallon
Reef Tank 365
Photo of the Month
Reef Pumpkin Carver
R2R Secret Santa 2023
My Tank Thread
My Aquarium Showcase
TL;DR: Long night to work on the tank and didn't even finish the control board, but made up for it today and got the control system running + water and sand and MP4.
Last night was summarily awful. I had 3 hours at night to work on the tank with GOALS. Finish the control board. Add the rest of the sand. Fill up the tank. Nuke more Aips in prep for rock transition. Salvage a few ailing corals. Yeah, I set myself up for failure.
4 hours later and a billion tiny cuts and scrapes from M3 screws:
As luck would have it, I couldn't slide the control board all the way into its section of the stand--something (cables bunched up and sticking out) was blocking it. On top of that, the CurrentUSA retun pump has the shortest little stubby cable ever that runs from the pump to the controller. It's really silly. So I abandoned that. The two power strips and Orphek power supply were very difficult to mount. I just can't get to the inside-back of that small compartment and get any purchase on the M5 wood screws to screw them in. I also didn't want to over tighten them. Thus, after about an hour of trying to blindly fit an allen wrench into wood screws and doing 1/8th turns with my arms at a backwards angle, I left the strips and power supply spaced off the stand by a few mm. Still feels solid as a rock. Then I abandoned the rest of my plan and left for home at 1:30am.
BUT.
Rocked it this morning and afternoon. Got the control board sorted by using my new diamond cutting wheel to get a few squares out of the pegboard to run the return cable through the front to the controller, got the leak cable plugged in, everything tightened down, and, while the board still won't sit flush against the back of the stand, it's in far enough to close the stand doors.
After doing a respectable amount of work-work, dumped the rest of the sand into the tank, raised the water level almost to the overflow box, added the MP40, set up the Hydros and sensors, put up the Orphek, and flipped the switches. No disasters yet. I'm leaving everything except the LEDs running over the weekend and then wil try to get the return going to test the plumbing on Monday.
Last night was summarily awful. I had 3 hours at night to work on the tank with GOALS. Finish the control board. Add the rest of the sand. Fill up the tank. Nuke more Aips in prep for rock transition. Salvage a few ailing corals. Yeah, I set myself up for failure.
4 hours later and a billion tiny cuts and scrapes from M3 screws:
As luck would have it, I couldn't slide the control board all the way into its section of the stand--something (cables bunched up and sticking out) was blocking it. On top of that, the CurrentUSA retun pump has the shortest little stubby cable ever that runs from the pump to the controller. It's really silly. So I abandoned that. The two power strips and Orphek power supply were very difficult to mount. I just can't get to the inside-back of that small compartment and get any purchase on the M5 wood screws to screw them in. I also didn't want to over tighten them. Thus, after about an hour of trying to blindly fit an allen wrench into wood screws and doing 1/8th turns with my arms at a backwards angle, I left the strips and power supply spaced off the stand by a few mm. Still feels solid as a rock. Then I abandoned the rest of my plan and left for home at 1:30am.
BUT.
Rocked it this morning and afternoon. Got the control board sorted by using my new diamond cutting wheel to get a few squares out of the pegboard to run the return cable through the front to the controller, got the leak cable plugged in, everything tightened down, and, while the board still won't sit flush against the back of the stand, it's in far enough to close the stand doors.
After doing a respectable amount of work-work, dumped the rest of the sand into the tank, raised the water level almost to the overflow box, added the MP40, set up the Hydros and sensors, put up the Orphek, and flipped the switches. No disasters yet. I'm leaving everything except the LEDs running over the weekend and then wil try to get the return going to test the plumbing on Monday.
