Haha omg, I was following this when you first started and just checked back. It‘s still not wet? What!
I know I am an exceptionally impatient person, but come on
Here is my thread https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/newbie-170-im-build-austrian-in-usa.1035356/
looks good to me. gonna need some baby locks on those doors though.Still chugging along
So far, we've checked if the stand is square and it is.
We then decided we need to try shimming the tank. We did our best, but we ended up chasing our tails because we were chasing perfection. The more we went around and tried to "perfect" the shimming, we would create greater gaps. We just had to call it after starting over and getting to a point that is acceptable. Will I still worry? Always.
It's not... PERFECTLY level. See pics below (it was filled with water for these last set of level checks). Taking measurements of the water line to the top of the glass, the biggest gap is between 15/16" and 1/8" from the left end to the right end. The front measures almost perfectly straight across (to my eyes) but is 15/16" off from the left and the right.
I might be getting too obsessive now and need to step back and chill.
Front (water line 1-15/16"):
Right end (water line 1-7/8" across):
Left end (water line 2" exactly):
Here's what we had to do for shimming:
It's not pretty, but we did our best to ensure any gap that could fit a shim would have a shim for support. A lot of the base was not totally touching the ground.
I lined the bottom of the stand with pond liner and secured with black duct tape:
And now we're ready to fill!
your sump is a bit high in water. How much higher does it get when you shut the pump off when the pipes drain back in? Will depend on if you want to run a fuge too. Mine runs at 8 and allows it to drain to 10 when the pump turns off. the flow in the back you'll have to adjust a bit between water changes and as socks fill. it's usually just slight. But yes, raise it till you don't hear the rush of water in the drain but keep it lower than the second overflow pipe. I keep the return nozzles up close to the surface to minimize the amount of water that would siphon back in. two faced at the surface for disruption and 2 facing down wards to create flow around the tank. My water change that's easy is 10 gallons so what I am now accustomed to is to raise the return nozzles above the surface then shut the pump off (along with skimmer and ATO). then I have a mark on the tank where 10 gallons is so I just pump it out to there and dump the new water in. Then just turn everything back on and lower the return nozzles again. This way I don't have to adjust the ATO or anything. At most just a slight tweak to the drain. Takes me probably a total of 5 minutes.
I do 10 gallons every week. She eats a lot and don’t want to risk a spike. I have about 1 gallon lost to evaporation per day.
Great seeing you figuring things out. Love the set up . Great seeing things moving on . This will be a stunning reef in the future can not wait
Is it a threaded joint if so could be leaking from the threads a bit of plumbing tape around the threads then tighten back up .I feel like I am losing sense of reality with this chasing perfection. I just wanted to post the last set of measurements for sake of documentation.
The level did not change after being filled, which is reassuring. I am still getting at most a 2 mm difference from the left end to the right end... so 2 mm across 4 feet. This has to be OK... right?!
Right now I am just dealing with a leak coming from the main drain line, apparently coming from the overflow fitting. It seems to only leak when the system is running so I need to take another look as I'm a little perplexed and had enough of the tank that day!!
My ONLY real concern (besides the leak) is I still have a little gap between the leveling mat and the stand in the front left and back right corners. Another email sent of to IM.
