The sump with skimmer, skimmer pump, and return pumphave been bench tested and installed in the cabinet

Collecting all of the hardware and dry goods for my reef aquarium.

Robert
I finally collected all of the hardware and dry goods and spent the better part of this past holiday weekend putting everything together for the reef aquarium. I installed the RO/DI unit this morning and it should be run in by tomorrow evening so that I can begin producing water and fill 'er up.
The sump with skimmer, pump, and return pumphave been bench tested and installed in the cabinet. The sump also holdsa "3.5" x "14" The sump with skimmer, pump, excellent ... sounds like lot of work. I have my rock rack built, but need to get hold of some sheet acrylic to build the sand dam. Only the front half of the tank will have a sand bottom, leaving the area under the live rock open for water circulation.
I sent you the drawings a while ago on how I'm doing this. By using only the front half, there will be a minimum of sand and allow for the maximum of live rock and still keep within the 1.5 - 1.75 lbs/gal.

Yes I saw that. I'm always amazed at folks taking an idea a step further. Looks good 

I still have to purchase the lighting equipment: VHO ballast, end caps, lamps, etc., but I will DYI the lighting hood. In the meantime, I'll use the NO hood that came with the tank while the live rock bakesand the systemcycles. I'll take pictures of the whole thing, from dry setup through introduction of rock and so on.

Excellent! You have some time I suppose, with the lights, because of the cycling period. So there is no real rush. I'd love to see the pictures

Robert, do you have any recommendations for a good reference book on corals? Inverts?

One of the mandatory books on coral id is "The practical Guide to Corals by Putterbaugh and Boreman" As far as inverts or that matter other id books the problem is they contain *all* inverts and inverts. Most which we never come in contact with. The descriptions in these "Atlas" or "Encyclopedia" book is very general concentrating mostly on the -family- behaviors etc.

A few on my shelf include

Encyclopedia of Marine Inverts by tfh about 730 pages

Dr Burgess Atlas of Marine fish about 700 pages

Invertebrate Zoology Barnes about 300 pages

Both volumes of the reef aquarium by Sprung and Delbeek. which vol. 2
is actually is a decent id Book although not in depth.

My opinion is as far as inverts, what is available to us in very limited and for the most part domesticated enough so as not having to go off the deep end with identifying books.

The best book I've see is The practical guide to corals... That's a nice book. Other than that, I wouldn't spend any money on trying to find information on our domesticated inverts.

In the meantime, I'm working on the critique of the 2nd edition as promised. I'll also us both of the tankdata programs from the disk while I run in the tank and send you a copy of the results.

Great! don't sweat it though I know you have a lot to do. I'm in no hurry. Take your time with your tank.

All the best

Robert