New tank update and DC return pump first impressions

I finally got my new tank full and running. It took me longer than I'd hoped to get this far but life intervened.

First off I wanna say thanks to Andy for talking me through a noisy external pump. Once we figured out that the fan was a little wonky and I bunged it back in place the thing was purring away on my closed loop, moving water all over the place. Thanks also to craig xroads for the primer on how the closed loop would best flow back into the tank. It's all working now and the flow is good.

The big downside to a closed loop at this point: more stuff to leak. Took me the better part of two weeks to get everything reasonably water tight. The sump is drilled for an external pump and I'm running internal right now. The bulkhead, elbow and union ball valve that go to the external fitting are leaky right now. That will be the last thing I have to deal with. May have to drain the sump down to do it. We shall see.

As for the DC pump I for to use as my return: wow. This thing is powerful, flexible and quiet. Like I can't hear it quiet. If I didn't have the external running I would hear anything from the tank at all. I got a Speedwave dc 5000. It was $159 from fragtasticreef. Great deal for 1400 gph. The control is a nice touch too. It has a feed mode, so when I wanted to check my back siphon level, I just pushed a button. No pulling power cords. And it has 6 power levels. Right now I hav it in the middle and it is utterly silent. Amazing. If this thing is reliable dc pumps are the wave of the future.

I also wanna say I bought a bunch of stuff from fragtasticreef and the service was excellent and since they're in MN, everything arrived in two days shipped via ground. They we're out of the reef octopus dc pump I ordered so they emailed to let me know and I called. The subbed in the Speedwave, which was a stronger pump for the same money. Nice customer service.

Now I just have to get all the fish and coral from the tank in this house to the new tank in that house. Gonna be out of town most this week, So ill just let it cycle a bit for now.

 

It only has the feed timer. I've read that they are going to make versions that are controllable by Apex, etc. We shall see. But you're right, it would be cool to be able to ramp down. I have a set of Coralife dc powerheads that have a light sensor for nght mode. Wouldn't be too hard to build something like that into these pumps.

 

I haven't taken it apart to see. Overall the build quality is so-so. the plastic feels a little delicate and I would have liked more connection options in the box, but so far performance is good.

 

Not much to see at this point...

 

Got the tank running and filled with rock and fish. Fingers crossed. The only thing that went wrong was the Magnificent Foxface got caught in the net when I was putting him in the tank. A tense minute there when I tried to figure out how to get him loose without getting stung. Also, I seem to have lost my melanarus wrasse. I emptied the whole tank and it was just nowhere. Weird.


Here are a couple shots. I don't have the AIs in the canopy yet, so I just have a 24" T5 fixture that I'm using to be able to see while I work.





Side view:





More to come over the weekend.

 

Already sold. Got a fella coming to get it next weekend.