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[cjdevito]

I got the parts for the stand unpacked last night. No scratches or dings, and higher quality than I was expecting. More Crate & Barrel than Ikea, if you know what I mean. Unfortunately it came with no instructions for assembly whatsoever. Although considering the quality of the english translation for the instruction manual for the tank, they might have been good primarily for entertainment value even if they existed. Checking on youtube I found an instructional video for the stand assembly, though...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZo6BkE7ybo

I'll go pick up some wood glue this morning (they didn't include that, either) and get the stand built later on. Photos later.

[cjdevito]

emptyonstand.jpg (52.63 KiB) Viewed 985 times

[cjdevito]

So the tank and stand are here, but I'm still waiting for pretty much everything else to be delivered. Salt and misc supplies from Fosters & Smith should arrive today, as will the elos osmoscontroller from Marine Depot, but I'm not sure just when the LED fixture + moonlight will be showing up. Those were being dropshipped direct from Elos. Hopefully they'll make an appearance in the next few days. My hope is to have all the hardware here this week and get it all set up on the aquarium this weekend. Then I'd fill the tank and arrange for a live rock order to be delivered the weekend following. Once all the hardware is here I'll take a series of photos of all the bits, as well.

The Elos stand is interesting. The top shelf only extends over the front 3/4ths of the tank footprint, with the last quarter being completely open to accomodate the plumbing. The back 1/4th of the tank is only supported by the sides of the stand, which gave me a bit of pause, but I checked with Jesse at Elos USA and he says that's how it's supposed to be. The door is in their wenge finish... doesn't show up well at all in the photo, but there is a dark wood grain to the finish.

The sump is well made from a quality standpoint, but really very tight on space and it has some questionable design choices which likely contribute to the microbubble issues some owners have reported. Interestingly it has removeable top and bottom trim itself.

The NS-100 skimmer is a strange beast. It's state of the art... for 1996. A simple venturi injector design, complicated by two different adjustment valved (one on the air intake line, and one on the outflow for adjusting water column height in the skimmer body). I'm curious to see just how it performs. I suspect that just based on it's size (it's substantial) it will do an adequete job on a tank this small. If not there's plenty of room in the sump to replace it with a 9010 tunze.

I'd originally planned on using a black background on this tank but now I'm leaning towards leaving it bare. I can route the power cords from the lights behind the overflow so no cables show behind the tank. If I added a vortech I think I'd have to add the background though... wouldn't be a good way to hide that cord without one. Going to see how well the flow from just the return works and I'll make a final decision on the vortech from there. If I remember correctly the return pump is rated at just below 600 gph; considering the tank is just 20 gallons and will contain almost exclusively softies, it may be sufficient even with the head loss.

[The Escaped Ape]

Interesting to hear your impressions of the Elos tank. I kind of think them as being the Macs of the aquarium world. Great to look at, with passionate fans, but not necessarily best for everything. I'll be intrigued to see if you indulge in any mods or to see how you optimize its aesthetic advantages.

In other news, most of my Premium Aquatics order arrived today in good order (with the bonus that there was very little import duty to pay - looks like hobby stuff only gets hit at 5% of 60% of the retail value if it's for personal use). Now just waiting for the Giesemann Infiniti light, which is also being drop shipped. I'll then have to order salt, sand, light rack and live rock locally and get the RO/DI plumbed in by someone who knows what they're doing. Build thread will get going at some point (probably the weekend after next when the tank finally arrives).

[cjdevito]

Interesting to hear your impressions of the Elos tank. I kind of think them as being the Macs of the aquarium world. Great to look at, with passionate fans, but not necessarily best for everything. I'll be intrigued to see if you indulge in any mods or to see how you optimize its aesthetic advantages.

The Mac analogy is a good one. One of the things I've heard over and over again in posts while I researched the tank was raving about the build quality; how the tank construction was better than anyone elses. And, well, it's nice and professional and looks very nice... but I've seen tanks constructed just as well from a number of other sources. Sure, the silicone work is just about flawless - but a custom tank from, well, anyone other than Glass Cages is too. ADA's off the shelf tanks are definitely in the same league as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm not regretting my purchase. This size tank is only stock from one other company (Mister Aqua), and that one doesn't have low-iron glass or a drilled overflow. But the second coming of Christ incarnate in aquarium form it is not.

In other news, most of my Premium Aquatics order arrived today in good order (with the bonus that there was very little import duty to pay - looks like hobby stuff only gets hit at 5% of 60% of the retail value if it's for personal use). Now just waiting for the Giesemann Infiniti light, which is also being drop shipped. I'll then have to order salt, sand, light rack and live rock locally and get the RO/DI plumbed in by someone who knows what they're doing. Build thread will get going at some point (probably the weekend after next when the tank finally arrives).

Good news. I need to test my tap water and see how it is in the new apartment; assuming it's the usual decent NYC tap water I'll be skipping the RO unit and just using two DI cartridges in a line for my water. Not as economical as RO, but faster, easier and with the same quality end result

[cjdevito]

Now that it's getting closer to the time that I'll need to order some rock.... I'm finding I'm still completely up in the air about what to get. My favorite rock was always marshall island but that's not available any longer. In fact, what is available really isn't thrilling me. Photos of the offerings on various dealers' web sites are largely unappealing; either largely bare rock or rock covered in macro algae. It's complicated by the fact that I don't actually need much rock; I'd probably only order 20-25 lbs worth, which knocks out of the running several offerings that are only available in full box lots. Right now my leading contenders (in no particular order) are:

Southeast Asian rock from Pacific East
http://www.pacificeastaquaculture.com/D ... 2%23T+2001
Haven't found any threads of anyone who has actually used this stuff, but it's attractive with some fairly nice shapes. It's also flown in, which is a distinct plus.

Haitian rock from Live Aquaria
http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod ... catid=1669
Bob's stuff from haiti. Supposed to be nicer than the usual carribean boulder rock, and the representative photo looks promising.

Dry rock from Marco Rocks
http://www.marcorocks.com/index.asp?Pag ... &ProdID=40 or
http://www.marcorocks.com/index.asp?Pag ... &ProdID=64
Yeah, I'm still somewhat considering using dry rock. As I mentioned previously, I do like the eco friendly aspect of it, the no pest aspect, and I positively love the idea of being able to dry aquascape. I could introduce pods, worms and coralline on my own, but the biodiversity would still be very lacking. I'd miss the fanworms, microstars, forams, etc quite a bit though.

Anyone care to weigh in, by all means do so.

[cjdevito]

Elos E-Lite LED fixture arrived yesterday. As seems usual for Elos there were no written instructions, but setting it up was very simple and quick. The unit is much more solid than I was expecting. While definitely streamlined and minimalist, the actual LED housing is quite hefty.

The color temperature of the LEDs is, IMO, absolutely perfect. A lot of posts out there have criticized it for being too yellow; now that I have one myself I figure the folks making those comments have to be people who think 20000K halides with supplemental black lighting is the way to go. When I lived in LA the 60 gallon I had there was lit with 2 250w 10KK halides and 2 110w VHO actinics.... the color output of the E-Lite looks almost exactly like the color output from that fixture did. White, with just a bit of blue shading to it. (The fixture has 18 LEDs, 12 white and 6 blue).

There are no fans in the fixture. Cooling seems to be accomplished by using he anodized aluminum housing as a heat sink. The housing definitely gets hot during use (though not so hot as to be painful to the touch), but interestingly if you hold your hand even an inch below the LEDs you feel absolutely no heat whatsoever.

There is no on/off switch for the fixture, so running it with a timer is mandatory. Also the blue and white LEDs are all on the same circuit, you can't switch on just the blues if you're so inclined.

I'm still waiting on the moonlight to arrive. Hopefully in the next few days.

[cjdevito]

My internet at home has been down since last thursday, and the wonderfully efficient cable company won't be fixing it til next saturday. When they finally restore my home connection I'll be able to post a bunch of pics.

Over the weekend I hooked up all of the equipment and plumbing for the tank and then filled it with water yesterday. No leaks Overflow was a bit noisier than I would have liked, but they included a flow reducing inset that I made use of and now it's virtually silent. Tonight I'll add salt. I'm hoping to be able to arrange for rock and sand to be delivered next saturday.

[cjdevito]

Added salt (Reef Crystals) last night. Had been interested in using the new ESV 4 part salt mix, but couldn't find anyone who had it in stock when I was ordering.

After the SG came up to sea water levels I turned on the NS 100 protein skimmer for the first time. This thing is loud. Partly because of the injection method, partly because the return dumps water 3" straight down in free fall after exiting the output tube. The question of how well it performs may very quickly become entirely moot; if it doesn't quiet down in a day or two it's going to get drop kicked in favor of a tunze.

[cjdevito]

Ordered the rock. I decided to go with the southeast asian rock from Dr Mac. I've ordered 30 pounds for delivery this saturday. 30 lbs will end up being a lot more than I need, but will let me pick and choose which pieces I want in the display. Some of it will end up in the sump as well.

[The Escaped Ape]

Really looking forward to seeing pics of this up and running. It sounds a really promising set-up.

My aquarium gets delivered on Saturday! The build thread starts this weekend, all things going to plan...

[cjdevito]

Very cool, Tom. I'll keep an eye out for it.

When I ordered the rock tuesday I found out that the dealer I ordered from doesn't stock live sand, so yesterday I went out to one of my local shops and picked up 20 lbs of caribseas bagged "live sand", their bahamas oolitic. It was convenient, and the sand looks gorgeous. Only put in a 1" deep sandbed, it's there for looks mostly.

Interestingly enough, adding the sand was what it took to get the NS100 skimmer to actually produce a little bit of foam for the first time. It also got a bit quieter once foam head production started. I think I'm going to cautiously continue to use it rather than replace it with a tunze 9002. I'll give it a chance.

[cjdevito]

Just got a phone call from Dr Mac's, asking if I wouldn't mind waiting a week on the rock. Seems they have a large shipment coming in on monday and suggested getting my rock after they have the new stock. I agreed, so now the rock will be coming next weekend instead.

[Lawdawg]

can't wait!

[cjdevito]

I have working internet at home again, so time for a photo update.

Full frontal, with flash

1 full tank flash.JPG (55.05 KiB) Viewed 861 times

This one is without flash. Gives a pretty accurate picture of the color rendition from the E-Lite.

2 FTS no flash.JPG (48.78 KiB) Viewed 858 times

The LEDs

3 LEDs.JPG (52.2 KiB) Viewed 858 times

[Lawdawg]

wow I like the look of that fixture...I wants!

[cjdevito]

More....

[cjdevito]

And one last one, an overhead schematic of the Elos stock sump layout I threw together.

[Lawdawg]

How much water is the sump holding? It looks bigger than I'd credited it

[cjdevito]

How much water is the sump holding? It looks bigger than I'd credited it

It's not Outside dimensions are 14" x 12" x 14.5"

The freshwater reservoir holds about 3 gallons when full. The rest of the sump has maybe 3.5-4 gallons in it only. It could hold 7 gallons or so in the sump proper, but only if you filled it up all the way. The walled off chambers are only 9" tall, so 3.5-4 gallons is about all it can practically hold without being above their level.