Yesterday evening I could not wait longer. At midnight I needed about 40l of water to close the loop. That takes about 2 hours to make, so I decided to go to bed instead.

This morning I filled the remaining water and voila - everything worked. No leaks (touch wood). However my durso standpipe was not working. Water was oscillating up and down vigorously. I decided to remove the top and cut off a 4cm piece to lower it (it was too high). Since I dread leaks I cut it in place - and did not remove the pipe from the overflow.

Once cut, I placed the durso head back but no luck - same thing.

One aspect of autumn that really captures my attention is the spectacular scenes the combination of a changing sun and the falling coloured leaves of trees produce.

Some quick equipment shots from yesterday:

It is not every day that Microsoft comes out with something having awesome possibilities - Surface

Last week Tuesday Exotic Aquariums delivered the newly rebuilt tank to my house. It has 3 bases like I said, each 10mm thick. The side panels are all 12mm thick. The square tubing frame is much stronger too.

After the usual struggle it has been moved in to its old spot - over the sumps which I have joined together in the mean time.

The 85kg of coral sand I had was not nearly enough for a DSB, and I'd go broke if I were to buy enough. The standard price is about R40 per kg... So I purchased 150kg fine crushed coral sand and another 120kg coarser crushed coral. It took about 6 hours to wash all that sand, but eventually it was clean and ready to go in to the new tank.