Thank you
Dentoid and
Goldenmean! Extra thanks for the Karma too.
Christopher, that "rare brain" arrived in a bag that was nearly empty...leaked all over. It stunk like rotten fish and was half-dead. I'm trying to nurse it back to health but it may be a losing battle. It doesn't look a THING like the photo on-line either.
Thanks for the ID
Anselth.
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Ok, here are the promised test results and photos of the "plumbing" work I did under the tank.
Temp 78
SG 1.0265 (slowly trying to lower it to 1.025)
Mg 1290 (learned to read the test results correctly)
Nitrate 0
pH 8.3
Nitrite 0
Ammon. 0
Phos 0
Ca 480 (getting better!)
dKH 10/179 ppm KH
Here is the underbelly of my tank "
before."
Here it is "
after."
It was getting too crowded in there so I completely removed the
wet/dry portion. I replaced it with 2 ft. of
PVC overflowing directly into the sump. I used a
T splitter to hook up a
UV sterilizer and the
carbon reactor to one small pump. They both require slow flow and this worked out really well. You can't see the UV because it is between the sump and the fuge. It overflows into the sump on the left. Another thing you can't really see is I replaced a
valve on the return pump because the tubing kept slipping off and spraying water everywhere. I used the "barbed" connector which is a much snugger and drip proof seal.
I also moved some stuff around so I'd have easier access to the skimmer.
Last but not least, I managed to find a way to NOT have a
daisy chain of power strips. Took some doing, but there is only ONE power strip per outlet now.
All of that (and the 10 gal. water change and tank cleaning) took about
8 hours yesterday. (with breaks included.) Whew, I was tired!