project complete..

[nm reef]

After a full day and a half the sump/overflows are running and everything is starting to settle back down. Man what a major task that turned out to be.Some trouble with small leaks in the plumbing and a couple of minor electrical shocks...but the skimmer and return system is now functional.
So far then only thing I've lost is a couple of rather large pieces of LR that were transfered back to the refugium....simply wasn't room in the display after the overflows were in place. The reef looks very different but should stabalise and fill out in time. I did add about 35-40 more gal volume in the refugium and the sump itself holds about 15 gal....sounds wierd but I now have way more volume in my refugium/sump than in my display.
Now its time to leave the NMReef be and let it mature/balance out....maybe even add a few corals to fill out a few newly created open spaces. The only major plan now is to replace the 55 display with a 150...hopefully within the next 4-6 months. Already formulating plans to switch out the display.....*_^.
Thanks for all the help from ya'all....later I'll post a new pic of the filtration room.

 

[tjkohler]

Congrats. I'll check your website for pictures of the project *wink*.

 

[iechy]

Congrats. I bet you're glad to have that done

 

[jonthefb]

a weekwnd of fun, and troublesome work. good luck with everything. I KNow what you have ahead of you cause a while back i had to change from a 75 to a 135 gal tank, man was that and experience!
jon

 

[nm reef]

Website pics will be up in a week or so....I need a rest after this lil project. The work seems to be paying off...circulation is dramatically improved(minus several ugly power heads)...plus I went ahead and made the refugium larger. The corals all seem to be in good shape this afternoon...still need to re-arrange them a bit...but nothing died...so thats good...*_^
Golfish...the skimmer simply rocks.....at first there were millions of very small bubbles getting back to the display...but I set the overflow as low as possible and let it go. Just a few minutes ago I emptied about a inch of NASTY skim stuff....and late yesterday evening the bubbles subsided. Folks...a EuroReef skimmer is in my opinion well worth the expense.
Best part of the overall project is it basically sets up my filtration room for a "plug&play" transition from my current 55 display to a 150 in a few months...I've even got room in the refugium to start hand selecting LR and slowly cure it while I wait for the new display.

 

[iechy]

Correct me if I'm wrong - I may be missing something but won't curing LR in your refugium cause ammonia etc. levels to rise in your display? I am assuming that your display water is running through the refugium too of course.

 

[nm reef]

Yup...curing LR will cause a increase in ammonia....but......I'll hand pick pieces of cured or partially cured(maybe even uncured) and let them reside in the refugium....I'm confident the filtration capacity of my system can handle the additional load on the system with no problem. Keep in mind there is close to 100 gal volume on the refugium alone. In any case I plan to slowly build up some additional LR back there a bit at a time.

 

[iechy]

Yeah I'm sure with that much water volume any increase in ammonia from all but the most un-cured LR would be negligible. Just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something somewhere.