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Okay, so I didn't get around to building the sump until earlier today, but it's finally done! I'm still waiting for the silicone to completely set/cure, so I won't get around to leak testing until tomorrow night. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I won't have to do any resealing. Excuse the poor pictures, as well as the sloppy silicone job.

On another note, has anyone on here ever used vinyl tubing instead of PVC pipe for plumbing there sumps/overflows? If so, did you find it better or worse than PVC, or was there really no difference in performance? Any input is appreciated, thanks.

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When I used a sump, I had vinyl tubing, but I'm not sure if it makes any difference.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

So, I finally fixed all the leaks in the panels, and now the sump is sitting under the main tank ready to go as soon as I get the salt and rock. I'm a little behind schedule, but I think I'll have the tank starting to cycle within 2 weeks.

Stocking list poll is still tied 1-1.

So this weekend(hopefully tomorrow) I'm finally going to fill the tank! I'll get the tank up and running with salt and dry base rock for a couple of days, then on Monday I'll order my live rock from Dr. Foster & Smith. I was planning on ordering 35lbs of the "Fiji Foundation Rock", I thought this would be a good base for the nicer pieces I'll be adding to the tank later on. Hopefully I'll have some pics posted by Sunday night.

Score is still 1-1, only about a month left to get your vote in.

I just finished filling up the tank and getting the overflow running. I caught the flu and spent the last 3 days laying around doing nothing, so I'm glad I finally got the tank filled up. I'll post pics later tonight hopefully.

Hey, sorry for just disappearing for a couple months, I've been really busy with work and my personal life. It's good to be back on the site.

Well, I finished cycling the tank about 3 weeks ago, and have had a pair of True Percula Clowns for about 2. I haven't gotten a cleanup crew yet, but I'm getting them on Wednesday, so hopefully that'll cut down on some of the diatom/algae buildup on the rocks and glass. I haven't had any problems yet, but I am registering more nitrates than I would like. I'm reading 20ppm nitrates by the end of the week, which I don't think is too bad, but my protein skimmer(Aqua C Urchin) isn't really pulling anything. I'm running it with a Maxi-Jet 1200, but I'm not using the air tube, should I be? I can't really find any info anywhere on whether or not I should use it. Any info on this would be appreciated.

The air bubbles produce the foam that makes the protein skimmer work, so yes, you do need that.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

When I use the air tube all it does is shoot water out of it, it's still not creating any bubbles. I thought the problem might be that it was too deep in the water(about 8-9 inches) so I moved it up to about 2-3 inches from the surface, still not creating bubbles. Any ideas what I'm doing wrong here?

I've never had that problem...? Water shouldn't come out of the air tubing, air should go into the skimmer. Where is the end of the air tubing come out of the skimmer? If I had to guess, the tubing sounds like it is siphoning water out instead of sucking air in, so you should make sure the end of the tube is higher than the water level in the skimmer. If I recall from when I had a SW tank, my air tubing extended to the bottom of the skimmer.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Never mind, I overlooked the fact that the Urchin isn't a venturi skimmer, it's a spray injection skimmer. So apparently I'm not even supposed to use the venturi attachment for the Maxi-Jet.

Also, my cleanup crew got here today! I ordered them from Reef Cleaners, and so far so good. Most of them are already up and moving around, getting right to work on the diatoms in the tank.