Day 14, Not as planned..

Full tank shot to start it off..


As you can see, this is not a tank full of new aquascape, as was planned for today.  The wife was sick, and attempting to solo the rockwork wasn't realistic, so, it will be put off until next weekend.

I wasn't to be completely undone however..  I decided to fix some problems today.

First problem.  I wanted to unplug something to test it the other day, just one of the pumps.  I walked up to the EB832, and realized, I had no idea which plug was the pump.  I had to trace the stupid cable!  This is absolutely no good.  In an emergency, with water rushing everywhere, I do not have time to trace cables.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FD4V234/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04__o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Problem solved. Cable tags.  For every cable.  The problem became even more obvious, as I basically had to trace every single cable just to figure out what was what.  I'm actually still at it, as I have about 10-15 more cables to label.  But it's getting there...

So we come to the second problem.  It's actually a variety of problems, all with what I hope is one solution..

1. On the left sump (the Elite), the water flow through the refugium is pretty lame, and so is the growth over there.
2. Every time I dose vinegar (13ml) to the left side, the pH probe has a spaz.
3. The heaters are having trouble keeping the temperature stable.
4. The two sumps aren't staying at the same level.

This is all caused (I believe) by the COR15 I installed awhile back.  I installed it in the skimmer area of the right sump (where the water comes in from the drain).  It takes that water, pumps it up to the manifold.  From there it goes to carbon, GFO, the sponge bucket, and the surge.  What doesn't go into the surge, then comes back into the right sump in the pump area, so it bypasses the fuge there...

This means that the right side had to have the durso tuned to draw more water than the left side.  I feel that the left side just isn't getting the same flow.  Additionally, a ton of water is just bypassing the fuge.  The right side now gets less water movement, and all kinds of knock-on problems have surfaced.

Solution?  Tap into the crossfeed pipe, and draw from there for the COR15!  As astute readers will remember, to solve my sump imbalance issues, I installed a tube from one sump to the other, to allow water to flow across in case of a single pump shutdown.  All I needed to do, was cut that tube, and hook the COR15 to both ends of the tube, and then badda bing, it draws from both sumps equally!

So a manifold was built.

Now those of you who are astute viewers might notice.. I forgot to put the COR fitting on that pipe before I glued the tube into the flange.  Yes, I had to cut it off and re-do it.

So the idea of this manifold is simple.  Cut the tube that connects the sumps in half, connect each half to the T section. Then the pipe feeds down into the COR.  I used a large pipe here at the T, just so there wouldn't be any bizzare flow artifacts in that section.

The only annoying thing, is that I glued the valve on upside down, so, I couldn't plumb it quite how I wanted to.  Argh.

So, with much pain and grumbling, this whole mess was installed, and the pump relocated...

After fixing 3-4 leaks, it seems to be working as desired.  I've tested shutting the pump off a few times now, and it reacts correctly, and re-starts easily.   So far the flow seems much more even, and I feel like the left side is really moving more water.

It also let me re-adjust the dursos, and now I'm getting actual flow from the drain into the fuge area.  Chaeto growth here I come.

This whole mess took about 4 hours, not counting the 3 x 2 hour dry times for PVC cement screwups..  While I was at it, I also threw back on a flourescent fixture I used to have mounted under the sump, which was used to light the sump up when working down there.  I should have done that months ago.  So much nicer to be able to see what I'm doing..

Staring wistfully at the rocks waiting to go into the tank, I climb into bed..