The January 2012 The tank is wet updates.....
Jan 1, 2012
The tank is in the cabinet, I repeat, the tank is in the cabinet.
Electrical is mostly done today. Plumbing to the sump will be done tomorrow, and I might pump some water in and start on the scaping (trying to seriously limit die off, so not doing this dry), as I suspect that's going to be a long, pain in the ass process. Once I'm happy with that, I'll finish filling with water, and get the sump going as well.
Pics when I can be assed, which will probably be some time after I finish the plumbing.
Jan 2, 2012
Excuse the mess - long ways to go yet. Side panel is off until I've finished in the cabinet (fiddly stuff to do yet). Rockwork needs a tidy up. Sump has one bit of live rock in it, and the skimmer is having some fun.
Up the top you can see the hose I used to fill the tank, with some filter wool over it. The NSW collection was looking pretty gross in the IBC, so I thought I'd best try to filter out some of the gunk.
Jan 3, 2012
Found my first aiptasia on one of the rocks last night. Was a bloody monster - nuked it. Still not sure about the scape I've wound up with (changed since photo).
Jan 3, 2012
Productive day:
- Built the temp controller and wired in.
- Created a rather complex ATO and plumbed it in.
- Put the side on the cabinet
- Forgot to get a new door knob from bunnings despite two trips there just so I can get a screw for it.
Full shot:- desperate lighting until I get the LED built. Still not sure on the work layout. Want the front left to be more 3 dimensional given that I'll be walking past it a lot. Not stacking rock against the back wall seems to waste a lot of real estate. I want to be a little heavy on the rock, but I'm not sure how I feel about what I've come up with.
The side I'll be seeing most of. The overflow being in that corner takes a way from the look a bit, but it's a bloody awkward spot, and that's the only place I can have it should I ever need to be able to get down into it. Along the skirting you might happen to notice the PVC pipe that runs behind the tank in the right corner of the above shot, over to my ATO tubs.
The mess:- Crooked power points, sideways mounted downlights (with a hidden switch on the inside of the divider between the doors), and all round mess. The side panels are removable to allow the sump to be taken in and out. The RHS panel was made with an opening big enough to get some plumbing in there for the external ATO and all the wiring. Keeping some space to the left as I'll setup a board in there with the drivers and controller for the lights. Also want to fit a dosing pump in here at some point, and maybe some type of phosphate reactor.
Jan 4, 2012
First almost major failure. Came out this morning to hear the ATO pump running dry. The float valve was stuck on. Of course, I just happened to have 50l of RO/DI in it. No idea why that valve stuck now. It's been in use for couple of months and worked perfectly. Might need to dismantle and check its movement in case some gunk has jammed it. Might also revise the amount of RO/DI I hold.
The sump had the space for it, but the skimmer had decided to go off it's nut as well, and the bottle was full, and the cup was blowing crap out the top of itself. Not sure if it was the skimmer having a fit that caused the ATO to kick in, or if the ATO caused it (surprising given its just RO/DI). The SG dropped to about 1.022, which isn't really bad considering that this NSW has been normally reading as 1.024 anyway.
Starting to slowly dissolve some Red Sea Coral Pro in the water to see if I can get this up to my preferred 1.026.
Fixed the problems caused by the ATO madness. Dumped most of the water out of the return section of the sump as that was the worst affected area.
Been working on the crown - some parts have had their second coat of estapol.
Started loading the sand in. It's slowly moving itself around the rocks in the bits I can't get to.
Ammonia is reading at 0.25.
Jan 7, 2012
This is the scape that I've settled on, and I've used a couple of different putties to tack some of the bits that had some movement together to strengthen it up a little more. Most of the rock positioning in based on how it stacked, and I started with rock on glass, and added sand last.
The diagonal line in the water over on the right is the temp probe for the temp controller. I can't see a lot of point taking temp readings in the sump given that the warmest part of the system is closest to the heaters. At the moment it's just free floating - eventually I'll hide it so it isn't so obvious. Also do excuse the light cable running up the middle. Hopefully I won't be using the T5HO much longer.
The crown has been finished for the tank. I won't put it on until I've got the the LED build ready to go. The estapol seems to take a few days to harden up properly any way, so I'd rather keep it out of the way for the time being.
Jan 11, 2012
ATO jammed on again. I think it's time to ask for suggestions on a more reliable float valve relay I can stick in. Not a great time for it as my budget isn't geared for any more spending on this for a couple of months. Luckily this time it's only managed to dump in 20l. I've dropped the sump level back to where it was, as the return area is showing the lowest SG. Will let it even itself out, then do some top ups with NSW until I recover that SG I think. Not going to rush at it, as it won't have dropped much.
Jan 12, 2012
Picked up the aluminium channelling for the LED build today, the light kit arrived. I've drilled 3 out of the 4 runs, and the first two have been drilled for wiring and had the LEDs attached (using thermal adhesive rather than screws). At some point I need to strip the nano's LEDs back to 12, stick em on one driver and put it back on the old rapid LED controller. That will let me finish the third run of lights so I can at least get this fired up.
I may or may not ever get around to doing the fourth run. I'll have 48 LEDs on the first three, and the last run is short to work around the weir... really don't know if I'll ever even need it. If it seems not, I may just leave the other 12 on the nano. I can space the runs however I like, so I may be able to get away with 48 instead of 60.
Jan 13, 2012
First two runs are soldered up. Nano light stripped from 24 down to 12 LEDs and rewired. NFI if it will actually work - haven't tested it yet. Third row has had the LEDs attached. Drivers have all been adjusted to 750 mAh.
In the morning, first order of business will be to get the nano light working again - salvage one of the drivers, and pull the Typhon out of the set up, and replace it with the Rapid controller + a timer.
Wire up the third run, then start trying to work out how the hell this mess is going to hold together + hope like hell that 6 core alarm wire can cope with what I'm about to put it through.
Jan 14, 2012
First shots of the light. You can't see much, but you're not meant to. Just testing the setup before I install it. Want to see how it behaves when things get warm + check that alarm cable to make sure it's not getting hot.
Haven't put the lenses on yet - would really like to see how it looks on the tank before I do that.
Finally....
Wow, had this baby done just before 2pm. Started at 7am with putting the nano light back together (layout isn't balanced, and I can't control it how I like on the RapidLED controller, but anyway). By 7.30, the third run was being wired, then I started integrating them into the hood. Each run can be disconnected if needed, but otherwise can just be slid out of the way. The typhon has been configured with some rough settings. Will see what I think when the lights wind right up.
The lenses still aren't on. Job for another weekend. Time for lunch, pump some NSW into some containers and deal with the lowish SG after the ATO failure, and work on trying to get the new float valve working.
Jan 15, 2012
Still have some concern about the cycle, or apparent lack there of.
Not sure if it happened so quick I never noticed it, given that all of the rock curing tubs were essentially treated like running systems (ran for months, heated, top offs, water changes) then rock was just moved straight from tub to tank with water already in it, or if it just hasn't yet happened (after two weeks of being wet).
I did throw some mysis in there the other day, and didn't notice any water changes.
I have put one decent sized snail in there to feast on the algae that's starting to appear over the rocks - it's doing a sensational job. Don't want to put anything else in there if the cycle hasn't happened, but if it has, I do have a few more cleaning critters that I could move over and get rid of that damned kiddie pool off the kitchen floor.
Jan 17, 2012
Seeing some more interesting life forms in the tank. Last night I found something that I'm guessing is some kind of basket star - very strange tentacles that were moving with weird black bushy stuff on them. Also found some brittle stars, some fairly small bristle worms, fan worms, more pods and other signs of things running around all over the rock.
I've got a couple of snails and hermits in there, and they seem to be doing a stellar job of starting to clean up a bit.
Jan 21, 2012
Started on brewing Randy's Recipe today, using recipe 1 as my pH is a little low.
With the help of Synodontis yesterday, we did a magnesium test that came in about 400ppm, which is obviously way too low.
Other useful bits:
Calc 380 mg/L
Alk: 8dkH
Phos: 0.25
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html suggests at 400ppm, I probably need 9 litres of the mag component to get it up to where it needs to be based on 500 litres. Obviously I don't want to make ridiculous changes quickly and I don't want to add that much without verifying the result that low against another kit, so I may just slowly add the first 2l of mag over a week or so, then I'll wait until I can get my own mag test kit and see how things are looking. Thinking of going for a Red Sea kit, and then trying to fine tune this in before the tank starts to get any major inhabitants.
Jan 22, 2012
Interesting day tank wise.
Finished off a bread broad bracket to hold the float valve only to find that's behaviour works the opposite to MagicJ's, so I need to rotate the valve so the float can go up to keep the pump off.. when it goes back to level, it's then on. In trying to rotate it, of course, I managed to break one of the pins that holds in the float. A piece of plastic, some glue and some patience, and I managed to fix that.
Added 30ml of Seachem Reef Calcium to see if I can get the calc up a little higher. I do have the batch I made for Randy's recipe, but I'd prefer to hold on to the Calc and Alk from that until I start dosing together. I did an ammonia test straight after that came in at 1.0ppm. Just done another one at 0, so not sure if the earlier one was a false reading, or whether it was just the extra water I added this morning or the calc additive that caused it. I did dose 2 1/2 cups of the mag recipe yesterday - noticed an increase in the pH today after doing that. I might do some more in another day or so, and hopefully get a mag test kit on order by the end of the week.
There are a couple of additions I made to the tank yesterday - I had a couple of rhodactus that have been growing like mad, and were stuck on a rock a little close together. I pulled them from the nano, split the rock and mounted them in this tank. Probably a little soon, but these two were too big to keep in the nano.
Jan 28, 2012
Side shot from today. A little hard to balance the colour right. I can't get the white balance to cope with the blue as there is just too much of it. Not as clear as I would have liked.
FTS: Hard to see, but there are a few different frags with zoas on them thanks to Luke. Also an acro and monti that he sent me as well. Terrified of SPS, but trying my best. The rock down in the gully is a massive bit covered in zoas. I split the rock from my nano that my fluffy morph had split on and stuck one in here.
I'll consider turning up the whites so I can get some clearer, closer shots once everything starts to settle down a bit more. The big zoa rock has a few polyps that haven't extended as yet - I think a few of them might have suffered it landing on its head.
I put in some other smaller pieces from the nano over the past week or so, and everyone seems to have adjusted to the change well.
Jan 31, 2012
The elcheapo wave box I bought was just refunded, which has given me enough money to sort myself out some nutrient control I reckon. I haven't got much of a budget, I reckon I can afford:
- phosban reactor 150
- npx reactor screens
- npx bio-pellets 400ml
- cheaper power head to drive the above (maybe 700 l/hr).
The reactor is a little small to run 400ml in from what I've read, but then I've also read that I shouldn't hit it all at once, so it shouldn't matter quite so much.
The tank is in the cabinet, I repeat, the tank is in the cabinet.
Electrical is mostly done today. Plumbing to the sump will be done tomorrow, and I might pump some water in and start on the scaping (trying to seriously limit die off, so not doing this dry), as I suspect that's going to be a long, pain in the ass process. Once I'm happy with that, I'll finish filling with water, and get the sump going as well.
Pics when I can be assed, which will probably be some time after I finish the plumbing.
Jan 2, 2012
Excuse the mess - long ways to go yet. Side panel is off until I've finished in the cabinet (fiddly stuff to do yet). Rockwork needs a tidy up. Sump has one bit of live rock in it, and the skimmer is having some fun.
Up the top you can see the hose I used to fill the tank, with some filter wool over it. The NSW collection was looking pretty gross in the IBC, so I thought I'd best try to filter out some of the gunk.
Jan 3, 2012
Found my first aiptasia on one of the rocks last night. Was a bloody monster - nuked it. Still not sure about the scape I've wound up with (changed since photo).
Jan 3, 2012
Productive day:
- Built the temp controller and wired in.
- Created a rather complex ATO and plumbed it in.
- Put the side on the cabinet
- Forgot to get a new door knob from bunnings despite two trips there just so I can get a screw for it.
Full shot:- desperate lighting until I get the LED built. Still not sure on the work layout. Want the front left to be more 3 dimensional given that I'll be walking past it a lot. Not stacking rock against the back wall seems to waste a lot of real estate. I want to be a little heavy on the rock, but I'm not sure how I feel about what I've come up with.
The side I'll be seeing most of. The overflow being in that corner takes a way from the look a bit, but it's a bloody awkward spot, and that's the only place I can have it should I ever need to be able to get down into it. Along the skirting you might happen to notice the PVC pipe that runs behind the tank in the right corner of the above shot, over to my ATO tubs.
The mess:- Crooked power points, sideways mounted downlights (with a hidden switch on the inside of the divider between the doors), and all round mess. The side panels are removable to allow the sump to be taken in and out. The RHS panel was made with an opening big enough to get some plumbing in there for the external ATO and all the wiring. Keeping some space to the left as I'll setup a board in there with the drivers and controller for the lights. Also want to fit a dosing pump in here at some point, and maybe some type of phosphate reactor.
Jan 4, 2012
First almost major failure. Came out this morning to hear the ATO pump running dry. The float valve was stuck on. Of course, I just happened to have 50l of RO/DI in it. No idea why that valve stuck now. It's been in use for couple of months and worked perfectly. Might need to dismantle and check its movement in case some gunk has jammed it. Might also revise the amount of RO/DI I hold.
The sump had the space for it, but the skimmer had decided to go off it's nut as well, and the bottle was full, and the cup was blowing crap out the top of itself. Not sure if it was the skimmer having a fit that caused the ATO to kick in, or if the ATO caused it (surprising given its just RO/DI). The SG dropped to about 1.022, which isn't really bad considering that this NSW has been normally reading as 1.024 anyway.
Starting to slowly dissolve some Red Sea Coral Pro in the water to see if I can get this up to my preferred 1.026.
Fixed the problems caused by the ATO madness. Dumped most of the water out of the return section of the sump as that was the worst affected area.
Been working on the crown - some parts have had their second coat of estapol.
Started loading the sand in. It's slowly moving itself around the rocks in the bits I can't get to.
Ammonia is reading at 0.25.
Jan 7, 2012
This is the scape that I've settled on, and I've used a couple of different putties to tack some of the bits that had some movement together to strengthen it up a little more. Most of the rock positioning in based on how it stacked, and I started with rock on glass, and added sand last.
The diagonal line in the water over on the right is the temp probe for the temp controller. I can't see a lot of point taking temp readings in the sump given that the warmest part of the system is closest to the heaters. At the moment it's just free floating - eventually I'll hide it so it isn't so obvious. Also do excuse the light cable running up the middle. Hopefully I won't be using the T5HO much longer.
The crown has been finished for the tank. I won't put it on until I've got the the LED build ready to go. The estapol seems to take a few days to harden up properly any way, so I'd rather keep it out of the way for the time being.
Jan 11, 2012
ATO jammed on again. I think it's time to ask for suggestions on a more reliable float valve relay I can stick in. Not a great time for it as my budget isn't geared for any more spending on this for a couple of months. Luckily this time it's only managed to dump in 20l. I've dropped the sump level back to where it was, as the return area is showing the lowest SG. Will let it even itself out, then do some top ups with NSW until I recover that SG I think. Not going to rush at it, as it won't have dropped much.
Jan 12, 2012
Picked up the aluminium channelling for the LED build today, the light kit arrived. I've drilled 3 out of the 4 runs, and the first two have been drilled for wiring and had the LEDs attached (using thermal adhesive rather than screws). At some point I need to strip the nano's LEDs back to 12, stick em on one driver and put it back on the old rapid LED controller. That will let me finish the third run of lights so I can at least get this fired up.
I may or may not ever get around to doing the fourth run. I'll have 48 LEDs on the first three, and the last run is short to work around the weir... really don't know if I'll ever even need it. If it seems not, I may just leave the other 12 on the nano. I can space the runs however I like, so I may be able to get away with 48 instead of 60.
Jan 13, 2012
First two runs are soldered up. Nano light stripped from 24 down to 12 LEDs and rewired. NFI if it will actually work - haven't tested it yet. Third row has had the LEDs attached. Drivers have all been adjusted to 750 mAh.
In the morning, first order of business will be to get the nano light working again - salvage one of the drivers, and pull the Typhon out of the set up, and replace it with the Rapid controller + a timer.
Wire up the third run, then start trying to work out how the hell this mess is going to hold together + hope like hell that 6 core alarm wire can cope with what I'm about to put it through.
Jan 14, 2012
First shots of the light. You can't see much, but you're not meant to. Just testing the setup before I install it. Want to see how it behaves when things get warm + check that alarm cable to make sure it's not getting hot.
Haven't put the lenses on yet - would really like to see how it looks on the tank before I do that.
Wow, had this baby done just before 2pm. Started at 7am with putting the nano light back together (layout isn't balanced, and I can't control it how I like on the RapidLED controller, but anyway). By 7.30, the third run was being wired, then I started integrating them into the hood. Each run can be disconnected if needed, but otherwise can just be slid out of the way. The typhon has been configured with some rough settings. Will see what I think when the lights wind right up.
The lenses still aren't on. Job for another weekend. Time for lunch, pump some NSW into some containers and deal with the lowish SG after the ATO failure, and work on trying to get the new float valve working.
Jan 15, 2012
Still have some concern about the cycle, or apparent lack there of.
Not sure if it happened so quick I never noticed it, given that all of the rock curing tubs were essentially treated like running systems (ran for months, heated, top offs, water changes) then rock was just moved straight from tub to tank with water already in it, or if it just hasn't yet happened (after two weeks of being wet).
I did throw some mysis in there the other day, and didn't notice any water changes.
I have put one decent sized snail in there to feast on the algae that's starting to appear over the rocks - it's doing a sensational job. Don't want to put anything else in there if the cycle hasn't happened, but if it has, I do have a few more cleaning critters that I could move over and get rid of that damned kiddie pool off the kitchen floor.
Jan 17, 2012
Seeing some more interesting life forms in the tank. Last night I found something that I'm guessing is some kind of basket star - very strange tentacles that were moving with weird black bushy stuff on them. Also found some brittle stars, some fairly small bristle worms, fan worms, more pods and other signs of things running around all over the rock.
I've got a couple of snails and hermits in there, and they seem to be doing a stellar job of starting to clean up a bit.
Jan 21, 2012
Started on brewing Randy's Recipe today, using recipe 1 as my pH is a little low.
With the help of Synodontis yesterday, we did a magnesium test that came in about 400ppm, which is obviously way too low.
Other useful bits:
Calc 380 mg/L
Alk: 8dkH
Phos: 0.25
http://reef.diesyst.com/chemcalc/chemcalc.html suggests at 400ppm, I probably need 9 litres of the mag component to get it up to where it needs to be based on 500 litres. Obviously I don't want to make ridiculous changes quickly and I don't want to add that much without verifying the result that low against another kit, so I may just slowly add the first 2l of mag over a week or so, then I'll wait until I can get my own mag test kit and see how things are looking. Thinking of going for a Red Sea kit, and then trying to fine tune this in before the tank starts to get any major inhabitants.
Jan 22, 2012
Interesting day tank wise.
Finished off a bread broad bracket to hold the float valve only to find that's behaviour works the opposite to MagicJ's, so I need to rotate the valve so the float can go up to keep the pump off.. when it goes back to level, it's then on. In trying to rotate it, of course, I managed to break one of the pins that holds in the float. A piece of plastic, some glue and some patience, and I managed to fix that.
Added 30ml of Seachem Reef Calcium to see if I can get the calc up a little higher. I do have the batch I made for Randy's recipe, but I'd prefer to hold on to the Calc and Alk from that until I start dosing together. I did an ammonia test straight after that came in at 1.0ppm. Just done another one at 0, so not sure if the earlier one was a false reading, or whether it was just the extra water I added this morning or the calc additive that caused it. I did dose 2 1/2 cups of the mag recipe yesterday - noticed an increase in the pH today after doing that. I might do some more in another day or so, and hopefully get a mag test kit on order by the end of the week.
There are a couple of additions I made to the tank yesterday - I had a couple of rhodactus that have been growing like mad, and were stuck on a rock a little close together. I pulled them from the nano, split the rock and mounted them in this tank. Probably a little soon, but these two were too big to keep in the nano.
Jan 28, 2012
Side shot from today. A little hard to balance the colour right. I can't get the white balance to cope with the blue as there is just too much of it. Not as clear as I would have liked.
FTS: Hard to see, but there are a few different frags with zoas on them thanks to Luke. Also an acro and monti that he sent me as well. Terrified of SPS, but trying my best. The rock down in the gully is a massive bit covered in zoas. I split the rock from my nano that my fluffy morph had split on and stuck one in here.
I'll consider turning up the whites so I can get some clearer, closer shots once everything starts to settle down a bit more. The big zoa rock has a few polyps that haven't extended as yet - I think a few of them might have suffered it landing on its head.
I put in some other smaller pieces from the nano over the past week or so, and everyone seems to have adjusted to the change well.
Jan 31, 2012
The elcheapo wave box I bought was just refunded, which has given me enough money to sort myself out some nutrient control I reckon. I haven't got much of a budget, I reckon I can afford:
- phosban reactor 150
- npx reactor screens
- npx bio-pellets 400ml
- cheaper power head to drive the above (maybe 700 l/hr).
The reactor is a little small to run 400ml in from what I've read, but then I've also read that I shouldn't hit it all at once, so it shouldn't matter quite so much.
