Vinegar bath today, filled up tank to top, 65gallons and added 2 gal vinegar (thanks for the tip RyanG) soaking all non-electrical equipment. I also plugged in the heater to circulate the water/vinegar and I will scrub it later. No leaks so far. I also plugged in the heater to test it and possibly help loosen things up.
Plugged the external pump in and it sounded like a coffee can full of rocks. Only ran it 10 sec dry just to test it, might be fine once its pushing water but I am going to get another one in either case. Going with a 850 GPH or so for the height. Just sold the original MH lights on the bay for $250. Hope to find a used 60 gallon to make the sump and hopefully have some water circulating by mid august.
As a followup, the opening is drywalled, below that is ½ OSB plywood supported by 2x4’s on about an 18” span. I guess I should fill it up slowly? Watch for cracks or some indication it doesn’t like the weight? If I didn’t hate drywalling and texturing so much I could redo it, but I do so I hope not to have to.
Refuge which is to be replaced with a 60 gallon and look for this on ebay soon
Here are some pictures of the entertainment center being built. I think I mostly somewhat kind of feel all right about it holding over 700 lbs of damaging saltwater over a couple thousand dollars worth of electronics stored below. Yesh, I feel fine.
