The Late 2012 to Mid 2013 update...
Because so much happened in that period. No, really. I moved house. Reefers hate moving house!
Nov 4, 2012
Decided moving a tank is a bad idea lol.
Stock started going back in today as the water was too cold. It's a little murky atm, but it's not too bad,
One fish loss. Blue tang is also on it's side, but that's hardly uncommon when he's a bit stressed. Most of SPS don't look good, but everything seems ok.
Nov 12, 2012
Everything is starting to come back to life except for the SPS. The fish seem settled, and I noticed yesterday that the tank seems to be starting to colour back up.
Dec 23, 2012
I might get to posting some new pics soon lol.
The monti has come back to life. The rest of the SPS never recovered after the move :(
Everything else is largely OK. Added a few more additions to to the tank (and no I'm not saying what, someone will call the tang police lol).
The alk is still quite low, which has always been a problem, but back to working on getting it levelled out again.
Have been more focussed on @Loony's Frags lately than anything else. I need to do a lot more fragging, but I'm out of space already with the frags I have.
2013 Objectives:
- Dosing pump. Time for the calc, alk and mag to get under control properly.
- Decent wavemakers.Current ones are too noisy, and I want some control.
- Replace return pump for the DT. The Red Devil I use doesn't quite have enough head for my liking.
- Replumb the frag tank. Largely using hoses right now, but they're a problem when there's air in them, so I need to something a little more permanent.
Jan 15, 2013
First 2013 update. Woot!
Object one achieved - finally have a dosing pump in. Grabbed a Kamoer 3 channel from @K&J Aquatics gave it a test then rigged it up.
Need to get a pipe holder to hold those pipes in the sump.
This was a pretty easy set up, but I did need a bit more hose than what comes with it. No big deal - I used some air hose I had for the outlet pipes. I kept the inlet pipes using the supplied hose as it's a little narrower and should stop the hose sucking in air and otherwise stressing the pumps.
My mounting job is a little average just at the moment. I really need to re-work my entire cabinet as it's really not doing it for me, so in the mean time I've gone with a quick solution with bits laying around the house.
Currently programmed for 72ml calc/alk a day over 24 doses, and 20ml mag a day over 24 doses. All are a bit low at the moment, so this should help get them back up to a reasonable level, then I'll start trying to fine tune. My dosing calcs were based on the Maintaining calc/alk guide in the Wiki, converting to litres (I worked off 550l) and rounded down for calc and alk. The mag I just took a stab in the dark with as I'm too lazy to do the maths just yet, but the mag is low, so this might help work its way up.
Mar 24, 2013
New toy from @K&J Aquatics. Running Reef Octopus biospheres.
Almost out of NPX biopellets in the TLF reactor and never been super happy with the movement in it regardless of hiw big a pump I hook up. The Avast MR5 holds more media and gets better movement. Got it fired up while the TLF reactor is still going given the new pellets will take a couple of weeks to work.
Once its empty I might run GAC in it.
Ken mentioned he is going to get me a new return pump which will be good. Decided to rig up something in the sump with PVC that the reactors can all connect to so I can cut down the number of pumps. Will use the old return for that and put in a ball valve tap setup so I can connect a hose and use it to drain the sump as syphon is a pain and I like to flush it every couple of months.
Mar 25, 2013
Um, it's not really a scape as much as just where everything landed after I moved house. Things just kinda stayed in the same spot after that. Apologies for shitty photo. My tripod blew to pieces yesterday so I had to take that handheld.
You can see a few zoa colonies that I keep up in the top left to get the out of the way and otherwise let them grow out. Not really planned and not easily scapable given I'm moving stuff up there a bit. The rest of the colonies are elsewhere :p
You will notice the makeshift frag rack up the back. It's for real strays that I just throw up there and forget about.
Waiting on a Tunze 6095 to replace the JVP on the left as it makes a fair racket. Eventually both will be 6095s.
Been mentally revising the plumbing for this tank and the frag tank as it was largely hoses thrown around because it was quick and long term thought wasn't high on the agenda at the time. Decided my current return pump when it's moved to handle reactors can do the frag tank as well, which is good.. gets me down to two pumps running for it. I've been debating halving the return section of the sump once it's plumbed properly then stick in a little refugium and get some macro going.
Also been strongly debating solutions for frag grow out systems as space is a problem (just like the money to build this stuff). I keep thinking about it. Luckily my wallet isn't facilitating such things right now :p
Mar 28, 2013
So, I've had the Avast Marine Works MR-5 Reactor from @K&J Aquatics for about a week, so time for a bit of a review I reckon.
Situation: Tank previously had a TLF150 running NPX Biopellets. Under rated for a system my size, so I won't judge it on the effectiveness of its purpose - just its ability to function. Running about 100ml of pellets in this reactor works well for a while but the pellets clump up and after a while they just stop moving despite me having a 1200l/hr pump on the end of it.
Not sure that its short comings were either the fault of the reactor or the specific pellets or a combination of both.
Given the increasing bioload on my system and some minor increases in phosphate I decided I really needed to move up to a reactor that could hold enough media for my size system (around 600l with the DT, frag tank and sump). I decided on the Reef Octopus Bio-Spheres as the media as these are marketed to reduce both nitrates and phosphates. They are quite large compared to the NPX bio pellets, and I'm hoping as they start to do their job that their size will help keep them tumbling better.
Reactor: I have to admit, I'm a fan of the Avast gear. The name is cool, they make some cool looking stuff, they do a lot of DIY year, and their stuff looks solid. I grabbed the MR5 which can hold up to 7 cups of media. The unit comes with a couple of pads to use depending on your choice of media. For bio-pellet use, there is a Biopellet nozzle that can be purchased that helps increase the pellet movement and reduce clogging. This nozzle requires a slight modification to the centre pipe in the reactor but is nothing that a ruler, marker and about 15 seconds with a hacksaw won't fix.
The first thing I love about this reactor is how damn solid it feels. If you squeeze the TLF, you feel like it's going to break. The acrylic is thick and reasonably heavy. The top is also different to remove. It's held down by 4 nylon screws, and with clear acrylic you can see the seal to know when you've got it sealed up properly. The inlet and outlet are screwed into the reactor and have hose fittings that allow for nice secure fittings to be made; the TLF models seem to just sit there and don't provide a lot of confidence in their ability under pressure.
I find it easier to open, though the acrylic screws are a little hard on the fingers when sealing the unit back up.
It does have a fair foot print given the solid base when compared to a TLF reactor, but on the upside, this unit can stand on its own.
A week after installing it, so far the media - all 500mls of it are bubbling up and down all around the reactor. Using the same pump that under 100ml of biopellets in the TLF150 can barely move. Not sure if it'll be the same story in 8 weeks, but so far, so good.
Things I don't like:
- Lack of HOB. A cool feature the TLF reactors have is a bracket to mount their reactors on the side of the sump. The current version of the MR-5 doesn't have this. I knew this in advance, and it wasn't a deal breaker, but it would be nice. I have it propped up on a box so the hoses are a little tidier.
- Thumb screws can be hard on the fingers. A benefit of the clear acrylic is that you can see if it's not sealing. Trying to seal it tight with those screws is a little hard on the finger tips (my finger tips are pretty tough) at times.. especially if you've been playing with them for a while.
Overall: The Avast MR5 is what I expected it to be - a solid reactor that could hold the amount of media that I wanted, and actually keep it moving, and to do that with a price tag that was exceptional. It retails for only a little more than my TLF150, but it looks and feels like a far superior product. I love these products and it's great that someone has them in Oz so we don't have to deal with the otherwise prohibitive shipping costs.
Jun 2, 2013
Long time between updates. Really haven't done much with the tank for a while as I've been working on a frag grow out system so most of my money has vanished into that.
Once it's up and running, I'm going to steal some space in the frag tank to move some of the corals out of the DT that haven't been quite right since I moved so I can give them some extra TLC to get them looking nice again. When I get the sad bits out, then maybe I'll actually have a crack at aquascaping it. I noticed the other day that I really don't have that much in the tank, it's just the way it's laid out. So eventually, that will change.. and at some point I'll actually buy more coral for it.
I did make a change to the lights today - I've known that the near-UV LEDs in it had perished - they were quite dull and the dome of the diodes themselves has basically disintegrated. I replaced the 4 of them with 2 x 420nm and 2 x 500nm LEDs. They're still running at 500mA.
Jun 23, 2013
Managed to source a new shelf piece a couple of weeks ago which is now in. Scape isn't finished... want to add some rock on it, then deck it out with corals that I don't have. Possibly I'll buy a few bits for myself on the Vic crawl lol. Not much is where I want it yet.
The pump on the BM-150PRO has been flaky for a few months, and finally died the other day. I've been debating replacing the skimmer for a while as I've never been that impressed with it. I tried a couple of mods with bits laying around to resurrect it as none of the pumps I have spare would fit straight into it. Didn't really get a usable result, so I grabbed an Avast Marine CS-1 Skimmer kit from @K&J Aquatics and spent a few hours assembling it while Ken played Xbox and kept my caffeine drip running. It's certainly not a beginner kit to put together - it does take some time, and if you read the instructions in order you'd spend a week putting it together. I did a dry run to work out the logistics then starting gluing bits together and moved on to other bits while some dried. Ignoring the instructions to wait for 24 hours, we had it in a container of vinegar and water a few hours later with my old Red Devil D3000 shoved up its backside with a custom venturi, and well, it bubbled. A couple of glue touch ups, and it was basically a fully functional skimmer with an awful lot of pump under it.
My really shitty gluing skills withstanding, it's a decent looking skimmer. It has some quirks in it's design that are kinda cool. In the attached skimmer pic that doesn't let you actually see much of the skimmer, you can see that the silencer and waste control gate are wrapped around the front...they don't recommend permanently sticking that pipe together which is quite handy when you have limited space as you can move things around to suit. This is workable for me - I can control the gate valve easily, I can see the pump intake, and I can make sure that the biopellet reactor outlet pipe is nice and close to the pump inlet.
For anyone noticing the egg crate under it - the pumps basically fit into a rubber gasket. The pump isn't quite large enough to sit flush on the bottom and still fit snuggly into the gasket, so the egg crate sits across the opening in the base plate with the pump on that, and it's just enough to hold it up.
So far so good. I'm about to go away for a week, so it's really not the ideal time to be breaking in a new skimmer :(
Nov 4, 2012
Decided moving a tank is a bad idea lol.
Stock started going back in today as the water was too cold. It's a little murky atm, but it's not too bad,
One fish loss. Blue tang is also on it's side, but that's hardly uncommon when he's a bit stressed. Most of SPS don't look good, but everything seems ok.
Nov 12, 2012
Everything is starting to come back to life except for the SPS. The fish seem settled, and I noticed yesterday that the tank seems to be starting to colour back up.
Dec 23, 2012
I might get to posting some new pics soon lol.
The monti has come back to life. The rest of the SPS never recovered after the move :(
Everything else is largely OK. Added a few more additions to to the tank (and no I'm not saying what, someone will call the tang police lol).
The alk is still quite low, which has always been a problem, but back to working on getting it levelled out again.
Have been more focussed on @Loony's Frags lately than anything else. I need to do a lot more fragging, but I'm out of space already with the frags I have.
2013 Objectives:
- Dosing pump. Time for the calc, alk and mag to get under control properly.
- Decent wavemakers.Current ones are too noisy, and I want some control.
- Replace return pump for the DT. The Red Devil I use doesn't quite have enough head for my liking.
- Replumb the frag tank. Largely using hoses right now, but they're a problem when there's air in them, so I need to something a little more permanent.
Jan 15, 2013
First 2013 update. Woot!
Object one achieved - finally have a dosing pump in. Grabbed a Kamoer 3 channel from @K&J Aquatics gave it a test then rigged it up.
Need to get a pipe holder to hold those pipes in the sump.
This was a pretty easy set up, but I did need a bit more hose than what comes with it. No big deal - I used some air hose I had for the outlet pipes. I kept the inlet pipes using the supplied hose as it's a little narrower and should stop the hose sucking in air and otherwise stressing the pumps.
My mounting job is a little average just at the moment. I really need to re-work my entire cabinet as it's really not doing it for me, so in the mean time I've gone with a quick solution with bits laying around the house.
Currently programmed for 72ml calc/alk a day over 24 doses, and 20ml mag a day over 24 doses. All are a bit low at the moment, so this should help get them back up to a reasonable level, then I'll start trying to fine tune. My dosing calcs were based on the Maintaining calc/alk guide in the Wiki, converting to litres (I worked off 550l) and rounded down for calc and alk. The mag I just took a stab in the dark with as I'm too lazy to do the maths just yet, but the mag is low, so this might help work its way up.
Mar 24, 2013
New toy from @K&J Aquatics. Running Reef Octopus biospheres.
Almost out of NPX biopellets in the TLF reactor and never been super happy with the movement in it regardless of hiw big a pump I hook up. The Avast MR5 holds more media and gets better movement. Got it fired up while the TLF reactor is still going given the new pellets will take a couple of weeks to work.
Once its empty I might run GAC in it.
Ken mentioned he is going to get me a new return pump which will be good. Decided to rig up something in the sump with PVC that the reactors can all connect to so I can cut down the number of pumps. Will use the old return for that and put in a ball valve tap setup so I can connect a hose and use it to drain the sump as syphon is a pain and I like to flush it every couple of months.
Mar 25, 2013
Um, it's not really a scape as much as just where everything landed after I moved house. Things just kinda stayed in the same spot after that. Apologies for shitty photo. My tripod blew to pieces yesterday so I had to take that handheld.
You can see a few zoa colonies that I keep up in the top left to get the out of the way and otherwise let them grow out. Not really planned and not easily scapable given I'm moving stuff up there a bit. The rest of the colonies are elsewhere :p
You will notice the makeshift frag rack up the back. It's for real strays that I just throw up there and forget about.
Waiting on a Tunze 6095 to replace the JVP on the left as it makes a fair racket. Eventually both will be 6095s.
Been mentally revising the plumbing for this tank and the frag tank as it was largely hoses thrown around because it was quick and long term thought wasn't high on the agenda at the time. Decided my current return pump when it's moved to handle reactors can do the frag tank as well, which is good.. gets me down to two pumps running for it. I've been debating halving the return section of the sump once it's plumbed properly then stick in a little refugium and get some macro going.
Also been strongly debating solutions for frag grow out systems as space is a problem (just like the money to build this stuff). I keep thinking about it. Luckily my wallet isn't facilitating such things right now :p
Mar 28, 2013
So, I've had the Avast Marine Works MR-5 Reactor from @K&J Aquatics for about a week, so time for a bit of a review I reckon.
Situation: Tank previously had a TLF150 running NPX Biopellets. Under rated for a system my size, so I won't judge it on the effectiveness of its purpose - just its ability to function. Running about 100ml of pellets in this reactor works well for a while but the pellets clump up and after a while they just stop moving despite me having a 1200l/hr pump on the end of it.
Not sure that its short comings were either the fault of the reactor or the specific pellets or a combination of both.
Given the increasing bioload on my system and some minor increases in phosphate I decided I really needed to move up to a reactor that could hold enough media for my size system (around 600l with the DT, frag tank and sump). I decided on the Reef Octopus Bio-Spheres as the media as these are marketed to reduce both nitrates and phosphates. They are quite large compared to the NPX bio pellets, and I'm hoping as they start to do their job that their size will help keep them tumbling better.
Reactor: I have to admit, I'm a fan of the Avast gear. The name is cool, they make some cool looking stuff, they do a lot of DIY year, and their stuff looks solid. I grabbed the MR5 which can hold up to 7 cups of media. The unit comes with a couple of pads to use depending on your choice of media. For bio-pellet use, there is a Biopellet nozzle that can be purchased that helps increase the pellet movement and reduce clogging. This nozzle requires a slight modification to the centre pipe in the reactor but is nothing that a ruler, marker and about 15 seconds with a hacksaw won't fix.
The first thing I love about this reactor is how damn solid it feels. If you squeeze the TLF, you feel like it's going to break. The acrylic is thick and reasonably heavy. The top is also different to remove. It's held down by 4 nylon screws, and with clear acrylic you can see the seal to know when you've got it sealed up properly. The inlet and outlet are screwed into the reactor and have hose fittings that allow for nice secure fittings to be made; the TLF models seem to just sit there and don't provide a lot of confidence in their ability under pressure.
I find it easier to open, though the acrylic screws are a little hard on the fingers when sealing the unit back up.
It does have a fair foot print given the solid base when compared to a TLF reactor, but on the upside, this unit can stand on its own.
A week after installing it, so far the media - all 500mls of it are bubbling up and down all around the reactor. Using the same pump that under 100ml of biopellets in the TLF150 can barely move. Not sure if it'll be the same story in 8 weeks, but so far, so good.
Things I don't like:
- Lack of HOB. A cool feature the TLF reactors have is a bracket to mount their reactors on the side of the sump. The current version of the MR-5 doesn't have this. I knew this in advance, and it wasn't a deal breaker, but it would be nice. I have it propped up on a box so the hoses are a little tidier.
- Thumb screws can be hard on the fingers. A benefit of the clear acrylic is that you can see if it's not sealing. Trying to seal it tight with those screws is a little hard on the finger tips (my finger tips are pretty tough) at times.. especially if you've been playing with them for a while.
Overall: The Avast MR5 is what I expected it to be - a solid reactor that could hold the amount of media that I wanted, and actually keep it moving, and to do that with a price tag that was exceptional. It retails for only a little more than my TLF150, but it looks and feels like a far superior product. I love these products and it's great that someone has them in Oz so we don't have to deal with the otherwise prohibitive shipping costs.
Jun 2, 2013
Long time between updates. Really haven't done much with the tank for a while as I've been working on a frag grow out system so most of my money has vanished into that.
Once it's up and running, I'm going to steal some space in the frag tank to move some of the corals out of the DT that haven't been quite right since I moved so I can give them some extra TLC to get them looking nice again. When I get the sad bits out, then maybe I'll actually have a crack at aquascaping it. I noticed the other day that I really don't have that much in the tank, it's just the way it's laid out. So eventually, that will change.. and at some point I'll actually buy more coral for it.
I did make a change to the lights today - I've known that the near-UV LEDs in it had perished - they were quite dull and the dome of the diodes themselves has basically disintegrated. I replaced the 4 of them with 2 x 420nm and 2 x 500nm LEDs. They're still running at 500mA.
Jun 23, 2013
Managed to source a new shelf piece a couple of weeks ago which is now in. Scape isn't finished... want to add some rock on it, then deck it out with corals that I don't have. Possibly I'll buy a few bits for myself on the Vic crawl lol. Not much is where I want it yet.
The pump on the BM-150PRO has been flaky for a few months, and finally died the other day. I've been debating replacing the skimmer for a while as I've never been that impressed with it. I tried a couple of mods with bits laying around to resurrect it as none of the pumps I have spare would fit straight into it. Didn't really get a usable result, so I grabbed an Avast Marine CS-1 Skimmer kit from @K&J Aquatics and spent a few hours assembling it while Ken played Xbox and kept my caffeine drip running. It's certainly not a beginner kit to put together - it does take some time, and if you read the instructions in order you'd spend a week putting it together. I did a dry run to work out the logistics then starting gluing bits together and moved on to other bits while some dried. Ignoring the instructions to wait for 24 hours, we had it in a container of vinegar and water a few hours later with my old Red Devil D3000 shoved up its backside with a custom venturi, and well, it bubbled. A couple of glue touch ups, and it was basically a fully functional skimmer with an awful lot of pump under it.
My really shitty gluing skills withstanding, it's a decent looking skimmer. It has some quirks in it's design that are kinda cool. In the attached skimmer pic that doesn't let you actually see much of the skimmer, you can see that the silencer and waste control gate are wrapped around the front...they don't recommend permanently sticking that pipe together which is quite handy when you have limited space as you can move things around to suit. This is workable for me - I can control the gate valve easily, I can see the pump intake, and I can make sure that the biopellet reactor outlet pipe is nice and close to the pump inlet.
For anyone noticing the egg crate under it - the pumps basically fit into a rubber gasket. The pump isn't quite large enough to sit flush on the bottom and still fit snuggly into the gasket, so the egg crate sits across the opening in the base plate with the pump on that, and it's just enough to hold it up.
So far so good. I'm about to go away for a week, so it's really not the ideal time to be breaking in a new skimmer :(
