Episode three of aquifers presents.
We're just going to show you and then set up all of the hardware for the reef,
octopus Lux 93 things before we get started,
number one is I'm one of the co-sponsors of a
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What the host is calling the largest saltwater aquarium giveaway of all time.
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Isn't your thing. If you're interested, check the link below,
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links to all of the items you see in this video today are in the description
below. Let's just start in the summer and let's install everything that
belongs in the sum, including all of the filtration.
The first thing was the summer baffle.
This system really is kind of like an old school Berlin style,
where you basically just have a large second aquarium,
like a 20 gallon aquarium directly below your display tank.
And you plop a huge overpowered protein skimmer in there.
It is a slight upgrade as it comes to the baffles.
So you can have your primary protein skimmer compartment and then your secondary
return compartment.
You can really put the baffle on the left side or the right side.
One of the frustrating things is that there aren't any directions for this part.
So I'm okay with that because I've set up so many tanks,
but if you're a true beginner is going to be very confusing.
So you might actually have to jump on the phone with coral view or reef octopus
to get it explained to you.
But I went ahead and decided to put that baffle on the right hand side,
which means that my return pump is going to be on the right hand side.
It's not really that hard to install the movable baffled.
All you have to do is just put it where you want it.
And then there's a couple of screws.
You just tighten them in and it's not totally secure,
but it's going to be secure enough.
It also came with this other piece that was nowhere in any of the
descriptions online at reef octopus at coral view at Marine Depot.
And I sat there for the longest time trying to figure out what it was.
It turns out it's just an additional pro Boulder.
So you just have to screw a couple pieces together and then you can choose where
you're going to put that.
I did have a few issues when trying to install the plumbing.
If you know what you're doing, and you've done this before,
then it's rather self-explanatory,
but there are no directions besides telling you which pipe
goes where for a real beginner, they're going to need more than that.
They're going to need directions on. Am I supposed to use the plumber's tape?
Am I not supposed to use the plumber to tape? How hard can I turn it in?
You know, because you can so easily break a bulkhead and a beginner might do
just that.
And then you have three pieces of flexible tubing and which ones connect with
which pipes and where do those pipes go.
It would have been really helpful for overall some set up diagram.
So beginner would know exactly what pieces of flexible tubing go with.
What pieces of PVC. Also,
I did notice that there weren't any plastic hose clamps.
I had a couple of hose clamps laying around,
but I didn't have enough of the right size.
So I'm going to go ahead and purchase that.
I'm not overly concerned that there aren't those plastic hose clamps for a
beginner because the flexible tubing does go on white snugly.
In my opinion, in my world,
I would never run a system without plastic hose clamps,
because it just gives you an extra piece of redundancy and peace of mind,
just in case over time, the pressure pulls those apart.
So you don't flood your whole house.
So I had a screw in the PVC to the bulkheads several times
just because I didn't think through it all.
So the first thing you want to do is there is that plumbers tape included apply
the plumber's tape to all three and then screw them in.
Obviously you don't want to overtighten these, because if you over-tighten them,
you can snap the PBC and you can snap the bulkhead.
And if you snap the bulkhead,
I'm not sure how you're going to take care of it because it's not one of those
systems that you can just replace the bulkhead.
You have to pull out the entire slim flow and then re silicone it.
So it would be a, it'd be a much bigger deal. So don't overtighten.
I also found it to be a lot easier.
If you unscrewed the unions first,
before trying to screw in the PVC, into the bulkhead,
after you screw in the PVC to the bulkhead,
you can go back and attach the parts that go with the unions.
You're going to have to make a decision pretty early on about where you want
your return company.
You could put the return pump on the left hand side or the right hand side.
It's really up to you, but whatever side you choose for the return pump,
your primary and secondary drain line are going to go on the opposite.
End of the summer, there really is no pro or con here.
The flexible tubing that is included is enough or either of those decisions.
So I went ahead and installed the return pump onto the right hand side.
There are two different types of flexible tubing.
There's just your standard vinyl, flexible tubing, it's much heavier duty.
And that one goes with your return pump.
And then your two other pieces are just a flimsier piece of acrylic.
I think I don't even know what material they're made out of,
but those are the ones that look like accordion.
The first one I installed was the return line with the more
solid, clear acrylic tubing, you have to break out the return pump,
and then you have to install a couple of things on the return pump.
One sort of surprising thing about this return pump is that the barbed end that
comes out of the return pump, isn't actually secured into the pump.
It's just pushed in with pressure.
So make sure you push that piece in really, really hard,
because it would be awful if that worked pop out over time.
If you don't have a plastic hose clamp, you can just go to Amazon.
You can go to Marine Depot and just buy a whole bunch of them for your
two drain line. Do you have your primary and your secondary?
This is really pretty simple,
but I found it almost impossible to attach the according,
like flexible tubing to the PVC without detaching the PVC at the
union and pushing it in that way.
You're going to notice that you have way more of the accordion flexible tubing
than you need. So for your primary drain line, the drain line,
that's going to go into the filter sock,
make sure you cut that line right at the bottom of the filter sock for your
emergency drain line.
What I would do is I would cut that line just above where the
water line is going to be that way,
if there's ever a problem and you need to adjust your primary overflow,
which is a Herbie style,
you will be alerted to that because the emergency line will be dropping water
and it will be making a loud splashing sound to install the filter sock holder.
It's probably the most self-explanatory part.
Although I screwed it up the first time,
there is a darker black piece and I lighter white is a white,
a lighter shade of white gray piece, right?
The black piece is obvious the piece that has to go on the edge of the sun.
And again,
you're going to have to put this on the opposite end from where the return pump
is.
Then the off white piece is the piece where you actually attach the filter sock
into the mistake I made at first was I tried to thread the white filter sock
through the black piece. Don't make that mistake. Number one, it won't fit.
And number two,
it's a terrible idea because that black piece sits high enough that you could
end up flooding your whole house.
It's made in such a way that you attach the black piece to the acrylic sump.
And then the off white piece is detachable and you can thread the filter
sock through there and then easily put it right back.
And then just take that primary drain line with the accordion piece of flexible
tubing and place that into the filter sock by no means,
do you have to run a filter sock in the system?
And I actually don't think I'm going to run a filter,
SOC at least not at first because the protein skimmer is so big.
I mean,
it is giant and it's so overpowered that I just don't think I'm going to need
that extra mechanical filtration that a filter sock offers.
The integrated auto top off system is gravity fed and it uses a
simple plastic float valve as its mean of turning on and off.
It's not that hard to understand,
but this system comes with blue R O tubing,
and you connect that blue aro tubing into,
I don't even know what you call the piece.
There's one piece that comes with the aro tubing.
And then you have to take that piece and you thread it up where the bulkhead is.
And then to set up the actual float valve. It's not that complicated,
but the way the float valve attaches to the black pieces
is a little confusing because it's actually two pieces.
The first piece clamps onto the edge of the sump.
And the second piece is what adjust the height of the float valve.
But the confusing thing is at least in my case,
the screws were installed backwards. And I think that was on purpose.
So you have to unscrew those screws and put them in the other side so that
everything's facing the right direction.
And then you have to install the actual float valve to the mounting arm.
So you just have to unscrew a couple parts and re screw them,
put it right back in there. Next I set up the protein skin.
This protein skimmer was actually surprisingly easy to set up and probably one
of the easiest ones I've actually ever set up before,
because this is the first protein skimmer that I've owned that has an external
pump and not an internal pump.
When the pumps internal it's a little bit more complicated because you have to
open up the skimmer body itself in order to insert the pump into.
But for this one, you don't really have to do any of that.
You just take the external pump that's included with the kit and you attach it
on to the body sideways. There's a union there.
So you just screw on the union and it's pretty much done.
It seems a little awkward because it's just going to be hanging there in midair,
but the body is strong enough to support the weight.
So the only other piece you have to add to the pump after you install it to the
body itself is the Venturi of interior is the piece that adds the air into the
protein skimmer, which basically makes the whole process work.
So you just have to push on the Venturi as hard as you can.
And then you take the white flexible tubing that came with it,
attach it to the end of that Venturi.
And the other end attaches into the silencer, the silencer, again,
not that hard, it's just two pieces. You have the clear silencer itself,
and then you have the Mount that screws to the side of the body.
So just screw it into the side of the body and then gently slip in the
silencer into the Mount and then attach the other end of the flexible tubing
into the bottom of the silencer.
The kit includes a red piece of PVC and then a ball valve
for adjusting the water level in the chamber itself.
Those just pushed together and it's pretty clear.
There's only one spot it goes on.
So just push it into place depending on what type of heater you bought will
depend on how you install it. I bought the Phoenix titanium heater,
which is meant to be installed horizontally along the bottom of the sump.
So I actually placed it in the primary chamber, not in the return chamber,
but I may end up changing that because the one thing I have found is you want to
place your heater in a high flow area or else all that happens is the heater
heats up the water directly around it.
And then the rest of the tank stays a little bit cooler. So wherever you put it,
follow the directions of your heater and place it in a high flow area.
Before installing the lights today,
I was honestly a little bit hesitant that they weren't going to be the right
size, but we ended up going with the max SPECT,
our five lights and the size was perfect.
I couldn't have asked for a better size.
It's a really cool light that I've never used before.
So I'm curious to see how it's going to work over time with the livestock.
And what I like about it is it doesn't have like a single led puck that spreads
out. It has three pucks.
So you're going to get a much better spread to install this light.
All you really have to do is first of all, install the legs really easy,
just undo the screws, place it on the edge and tighten those screws back in.
You're good to go. And then you just have to plug it in.
Basically you take one plug, you plug it into the light.
You take that other end of that plug and you plug it into the ballast and then
you plug the ballast into your outlet. That's about it. I turned it on.
It was running almost completely silently, and it was really easy to adjust.
Hopefully this light is going to be as good as it looks and you can see it
behind here.
A really sleek looking fixture that I'm hoping will be perfect for what I'm
going to be using it for the last piece of hardware.
We have to install worthy to reef octopus, Octo Polse twos.
I have never used these before either. I love reef octopus products.
I don't believe these two pumps can be synced together in a primary,
secondary relationship.
How I'm going to use these two Octo pulse twos is I'm going to place them as
high as I can without getting any sort of air sucking in.
And I'm going to place one on the left side in the back and one on the right
side in the front. So we kind of get like a cross current going like this.
I'm going to really try my best to fight the urge,
to make changes in the system.
I'm hoping to set it up right from the very beginning and not make changes
because I really think consistency is what's going to make this build thrive.
So I've decided on my stocking plan and it's going
to be controversial. It is it's going to be controversial.
But I think regardless of what side of the controversy you're going to come out
on, you'll be curious to see whether or not it works.
I don't know if it's going to work.
I honestly have no idea if it's going to work,
I'm hopeful that it's going to work,
but I have a backup plan in place in case things go South.
I'm not going to give you any more details about what I'm going to do yet.
So stay tuned for the future episodes to see what exactly I have plans again,
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The links to everything you've seen today are below coming up next week in
episode four of aquifers presents. And yes,
I'm aware that there were no Aqua forest products in this video, but next week,
for sure, AHCA forest products,
because episode for the escape and brief everybody, we'll see you next time.