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Author Topic: Miles' 150gal build  (Read 36810 times)

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Offline Miles

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Miles' 150gal build
« on: January 20, 2014, 16:06:50 »
I may be jumping the gun on this build thread, but I have the day of work so I figured I'd get it started. Updates may be few and far between, depending on how long it takes me to get all my stuff together.

The Story:
I've had a 75gal Mixed Reef set up for a couple years that I bought from cyberwollf before he moved to Florida, before that I had a mostly unsuccessful 75gal tank when I was in high school (around 2004). About a year and a half ago we bought a house, and have been wanting to upgrade ever since. My wife recently decided that she would prefer the 75gal in another room, and I used this as my chance to suggest upgrading. I was told if I could get something cheap, she would think about it. Today I bought a 150 gallon from njrdc.

 



When njrdc purchased the tank is was missing the rim, he purchased a new rim but never fitted it. He ended up picking up a 120 gallon that was already drilled and decided to sell the 150. Today when I picked up the tank, we discovered that the new rim wont fit.


Problem #1
The tank is 72 3/16" L x 18 3/8" W while the Rim is only 71 15/16" L x 18 1/16" W. So essentially the rim is 5/16 of an inch too small in one direction and 1/4 of an inch too short in the other direction.

I am open to suggestions as to how I can brace the top of this tank. Currently my thoughts are to fabricate my own frame out of some sort of hardwood, using lots of glue and screws, or Euro Bracing it. Any thoughts?

My ultimate plan is to transfer everything from my 75 gallon tank, livestock, equipment, etc....


Additional Equipment Needed:
1x EcoTech Radion Gen2
1x Hanging kit for Radion
1x return pump capable of a head of 15-20 (Currently thinking of using an Iwaki MD-55RLT)
2x Powerheads (I'd really like to get the EcoTech Vortech MP40w ES, but may end up setteling for Jebao WP-40s)
1x New skimmer (Thinking about the Avast Marine CS3)

Things that need to be done:
1. Top Brace
2. Build Stand
3. Drill Tank
4. Attach overflow
5. Water Test tank
6. Plumbing to Basement
7. Electrical to Sump (either add circuit, or extend already existing basement lighting circuit)
8. Brace floor under tank
9. Move Tank into house and set up equipment
10. Transfer livestock


Estimated Time to completion 6-8 months.
« Last Edit: December 12, 2017, 09:34:00 by Miles »

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2014, 07:56:23 »
I'm just going to leave this screenshot right here...


Offline Twizted1

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2014, 09:06:59 »
Looks good. Noticed you have an orp probe. Do you think that is a must have, or just a bonus?

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2014, 09:13:34 »
I picked up the ORP probe during Bulk Reef Supply's Black Friday Sale for cheap... I don't actually have any code set up to use it. Honestly its really just a bonus, I haven't quite figured out how it actually applies to anything, I've read a few articles and most of them seem to discredit ORP readings.  So really, its just fun to look at.

Offline METZCOOL

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2014, 09:41:09 »
I picked up the ORP probe during Bulk Reef Supply's Black Friday Sale for cheap... I don't actually have any code set up to use it. Honestly its really just a bonus, I haven't quite figured out how it actually applies to anything, I've read a few articles and most of them seem to discredit ORP readings.  So really, its just fun to look at.
I have used orp probe in the past to run ozone reactor to shut down ozone injection if orp gets to high, other than that not sure what you would use it for either.

Offline Twizted1

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2014, 10:21:53 »
It doesn't hurt to have it. Bonus!

Offline Viggen

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2014, 12:22:07 »
keep the updates coming.... :)

Iwaki 55 is a excellent pump, it will run 20+ years w/o needing anything done to it.  Totally worth the extra money vs Blueline, Mak4 etc.....

Check out reefcentral's classifieds if you are interested in used stuff.  Skimmers, lights, pumps etc pop up there almost daily.....
300g tub o fish

Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2014, 12:33:15 »
You got a lot of work ahead of you. Starting out right building a plan. Good luck.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2014, 19:16:41 »
Thanks for the responses, its good to know that people are actually following along....

I've spent the last two evenings investigating ways to brace the tank, and I'm back to the initial idea I had when I picked up the tank. I've had a hard time finding anyone that has done it, but have finally found a few people that have mentioned doing it, and I got one guy to explain in detail how he did it (but no pictures :( ). I made a quick Google Sketchup of it....

Wood Frame Rim

Still not sure if this is what I'm going to do for sure or not, but it seems like the cheapest way to do it.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2014, 19:28:00 »
sorry to interrupt your regularly scheduled tank build... but I'm going to deviate to another build for a minute.

I purchased a 20L at the Petco $1/Gallon sale to use as a frag tank. I ordered most of the plumbing that I will need from BRS the other day. The stuff came today, so I'm just about ready to put it together.



I need to get the bulkheads drilled, but at the moment I'm not completely confident in my abilities to drill the tank without cracking it. I have an old 10 gallon that I have been practicing on, and I have about a 50% success rate. I ordered a drill guide (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UGG55O/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1), hopefully this will help. I'm also open to accepting help from others who have done this before  :D.




Offline Bucknutz

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #10 on: January 21, 2014, 20:31:05 »
Looks like a fun build. What do you plan to grow in the frag tank?

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #11 on: January 21, 2014, 20:52:38 »
Pretty much just planning on using it to house all the unintentional frags I make while cleaning my tank. So mostly just Monti's and some LPS on frag plugs that look ugly in the main tank. I'll probably end up using it to grow out some zoa colonies...nothing too fancy.

Planning on using the 700GPH overflow from BRS and using a 10gal as a sump. Gonna throw my old CoraLife skimmer on it, and possibly a filter sock. Not only is it goign to be a frag tank, its going to be the semi permanent home for the Tomato Clown that my (Black Perculas can't get along with) and Tiny (the tiny Bangaai that has problems keeping up with the others in the main tank).

For lighting my eventual plan is to get a 30" 1400K LED fixture from BuildMyLED.com. In the meantime, I'll probably use a DIY led fixture I made a while back...

I just reconfigured the stand I build last week to accommodate the sump, so it still needs repainted, but here is a pic...

Offline Twizted1

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #12 on: January 21, 2014, 20:59:48 »
Love the enthusiasm. Thanks for sharing.

Offline joncat24

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #13 on: January 21, 2014, 21:27:29 »
I'm just going to leave this screenshot right here...


I wish I had that screenshot....I am eagerly anticipating Fusion
John

Offline Bucknutz

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #14 on: January 21, 2014, 21:28:55 »
I wish I had that screenshot....I am eagerly anticipating Fusion

I second this and was just thinking I should update.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #15 on: January 21, 2014, 21:45:21 »

I wish I had that screenshot....I am eagerly anticipating Fusion
Since I'm a nice guy... you can have this one too...




I'm not entirely sure how they decided who go into the Beta, but I'm pretty sure it had to do with prior Forum participation and if you had the WXM or AWM. They are really pushing to get the lighting features up and running well. Since this beta round has started they have made several lighting fixes.

Offline joncat24

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #16 on: January 21, 2014, 21:47:34 »
oh my...really rubbing it in...LOL. I have 3 Radion g2's, 2 mp40 and 2 mp 10 all running on WXM. I need this!!
John

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #17 on: January 21, 2014, 21:50:10 »
oh my...really rubbing it in...LOL. I have 3 Radion g2's, 2 mp40 and 2 mp 10 all running on WXM. I need this!!


lol... honestly, at this point you can get more function out of using profiles than you can out of the Fusion lighting graph....alot of the beta testers are disappointed that the coolest feature of the software is not as flexible as the old way of doing it.

Offline joncat24

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #18 on: January 21, 2014, 21:52:26 »
I mainly am wanting it for the internet access. I gave up on the port forwarding crap on my router...LOL
John

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #19 on: January 21, 2014, 21:55:26 »
that is by far the best part of Fusion...the old way of setting it up seemed pretty convoluted for a consumer product. I can't believe how many "I can't access my Apex from the internet" posts there are on the forums. I'm guessing that was the major push for them to create Fusion

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #20 on: January 24, 2014, 17:38:20 »
So I got to thinking last night.... A single center brace will ending blocking one of the radions, so I changed up the design and added a second brace.



In other news, I picked up a cheap pump for the frag tank (Rio+ 1400), and ordered a drill guide for drilling the tank. Still have a couple fittings I need to pick up during the BRS group buy.

Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #21 on: January 25, 2014, 23:07:11 »
Good call on the two braces. I am about to remove my stock center brace because it gets in way of lighting

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #22 on: January 29, 2014, 22:17:55 »
Quick Update on the frag tank...

I finally got a drill guide (which made drilling 10 times easier), and drilled the 20L.






I have almost everything I need for this build. I still need some Loc-Line, which I ordered form BRS this morning, along with a bunch of other random stuff, and lighting. My current plan is to use the DIY LEDs that you can see on the left side of this picture for a little while, I'm planning on buying another Radion for the 150 next month and will use the new Radion until the 150 gets set up, and the ultimate plan is to buy a 30" 1400k fixture from BuildMyLed.com. I dry fitted all the plumbing today, so heres a pic of what the mostly finished product looks like.



I still need to add the power-heads, and build the frag racks. I expect to have this all up and running by the beginning of next week.

Offline Twizted1

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #23 on: January 29, 2014, 23:21:43 »
Lookin good.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #24 on: February 02, 2014, 21:04:11 »
The frag tank got filled this weekend, and the Tomato Clown and my tiny Bangaii were moved to their new home.







Ignore the extremely ugly lights...

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #25 on: February 04, 2014, 20:20:15 »
Back to the 150gal build....

So I've been looking at the Reef Savvy Ghost Overflow.... seems awesome, but you can't actually buy one. Apparently they are in the process of a redesign which will change the manufacturing process in order to increase their profit margins (or something along those lines).  So I thought about it a little bit and decided that I could probably build my own and save some money.

Here is the current design. 24" of surface skimming. I'm thinking about possibly making two internal overflows at 24" long and then making a larger external box in order to get  more surface skimming, thoughts?
 


Offline JayMc

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #26 on: February 04, 2014, 22:06:17 »
If your drilling and fabricating your tank/overflow...have you looked into a coast to coast overflow?  Would achieve your goal of a lot of surface skimming but would be easier to do in my opinion

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #27 on: February 04, 2014, 22:11:26 »
I have a coast to coast on my 75. The thing I don't like about it is that is is so big, pretty obtrusive. I guess I could do a coast to coast with an external box, but that would require a lot of glass.


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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #28 on: February 12, 2014, 21:04:36 »
Picked up the third Radion that I'm going to need for the 150.



Set it up over the frag tank temporarily. Conveniently, the frag tank's location in the basement is very close to the Display tank upstairs allowing me to be able to connect the Radion to the WXM on the Apex.


Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #29 on: March 05, 2014, 21:59:25 »
Now back to the 150...

I've been working on getting all the equipment I need for this build. The main items that I have picked up are the Jebao WP-40s and the Iwaki return pump. I picked up the tubing and connectors that I need for the return. I also gave in and just bought a brand new 150 gallon, had John at Marine Solutions order me one, and then picked up a couple boxes of Reef Crystals when I was out there (and a few peppermint shrimp to try and tackle the aiptasia problem in my 75gal). I ordered 5 bags of dry sand from Premium Aquatics to add to the ~40lbs that I already had hanging around in my basement.

I also finally received my Apex Automatic Feeder, that I order back before Thanksgiving and was back ordered.

Here are some pics....




In other news....
Good News: I ordered the CS3 Cone Skimmer from Avast Marine (http://www.avastmarine.com/ssc/do/product/youbuilt/CS3-Cone-Skimmer-Kit) along with a Swabbie for it and another Swabbie for my ReefOctopus on the 75gal.
Bad News: The shipment disappeared before it ever reached FedEx. Avast created a shipping label, last Thursday with an estimated delivery date of March 1st. March 1st has come and gone, no package. I got in contact with Avast today and they said that they had a few packages disappear that day, they think that the new USPS guy picked them up by mistake. As odd as this situation is, they have had it happen before, in the past USPS somehow USPS got the packages to FedEx and the problem worked itself out. So we are going to give it a couple more days before any action is taken....



Now I'm working on coming up with an overflow solution. I stated before that I really like the ReefSavvy Ghost Overflow... ideally I'd like to buy one but ReefSavvy seems to have a much higher demand than they can meet. I contacted Synegy Reef about making one (they are the ones that actually manufacture them, but ReefSavvy sells them), I was told that Synergy Reef does indeed make them, but they won't sell them to anyone but ReefSavvy and suggested that I contact ReefSavvy. I shot ReefSavvy an email today, I don't really expect to hear back.... So I may just make one myself.

To Do List:
-Build Stand
-Add 2 additional circuits in the basement for sump
-Purchase Stock Tank
-Purchase new light for frag tank  (to replace Radion)
- Wire WP40s to work with Apex

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #30 on: March 13, 2014, 11:21:41 »
I received my Avast Marine order the other day. Took me two days to build the skimmer, still need to test it.

Anyone else have a skimmer with 4 electrical plugs? :)



I also started culturing phytoplankton, Tigger-Pods, and brine shrimp.


Offline Twizted1

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #31 on: March 13, 2014, 17:16:46 »
Wow. What a skimmer!

Offline Bucknutz

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #32 on: March 13, 2014, 17:25:39 »
Why does it have four electrical plugs?

Offline Boonjob

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #33 on: March 13, 2014, 17:55:32 »
Harvesting phyto, pods, and bs is a great project but I found it very labor intensive and hard to make sure the different strains of phyto didnt cross contaminate.  I eventually stopped but it was fun,  and fascinating... I dont think id do it again though


Skimmer looks awesome!
God is great, Beer is good, and People are crazy...

Life is a beach, I'm just playing in the sand.


http://www.ustream.tv/channel/boonjob-s-reef-tank

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #34 on: March 13, 2014, 20:05:10 »
Why does it have four electrical plugs?

1feed pump (not in pic)
2 recirculation pumps
1 swabbie (auto neck cleaner)


We'll see how how the phytoplankton goes, im really interested in using it to feed pods, but I read an article in CORAL magazine from a few years back that author had these same pods and only fed them flake fish food...so we'll see.

The skimmer was a DIY deal, so hopefully it works. I'm planning on setting it up in a big Rubbermaid container this weekend and letting it run. Hopefully it doesn't leak.

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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #35 on: April 15, 2014, 17:04:21 »
Finally figured out this overflow situation. I was just about to order the stuff to make my own Ghost clone, but decided to take a look on eBay and see if anyone was getting rid of one. While looking on eBay, I found a company in Texas that is making them for about the same price as ReefSavvy. I promptly ordered one. It came today, looks pretty good, the only real difference between this one and the ReffSavvy one is that it doesn't have a cover for the internal box.









My phyto cultures have taken off. If anyone is in need of phyto, let me know, I can probably make you a deal on more than you need.  :matrix-smiley-007:


And in other news, I busted out my old dry rock and set it up to cure in a 100gal stock tank I picked up from Rural King with my new skimmer and the WP40s.

« Last Edit: April 18, 2014, 15:10:38 by mil3sdavis »

Offline Westeri

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #36 on: April 18, 2014, 14:49:37 »
What type of phytoplankton are you culturing?

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #37 on: April 18, 2014, 15:09:56 »
I started my cultures with Phyto Feast (http://reefnutrition.com/phyto_feast.php) which is a blend of Pavlova, Isochrysis, Thalassiosira, Tetraselmis, Nannochlorpsis, and Synechococcus.

Offline delta1190

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #38 on: April 19, 2014, 08:06:39 »
do you feed your Mandarin the pods or just your corals ????

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #39 on: April 19, 2014, 08:12:16 »
The idea was to feed the pods to the mandarin, but I don't have a large enough pod population yet to start doing that.

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Offline delta1190

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #40 on: April 19, 2014, 08:25:28 »
what do you want for some phyto i need some tell me a price and how many oz it is also i have some phyto fertilizer i bought and did not use it is Gillian .

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #41 on: April 21, 2014, 20:13:26 »
Good news! My clowns which haven't laid eggs in 2 years just laid today!!






Offline bbtm64

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #42 on: April 21, 2014, 22:41:17 »
this is an awesome build!
Brent McCloskey

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #43 on: April 22, 2014, 21:11:06 »
this is an awesome build!

Thanks! Hopefully it will get much more exciting soon....

Offline Twizted1

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #44 on: April 22, 2014, 22:33:13 »
Sweet congrats.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #45 on: August 17, 2014, 14:42:48 »
After a long while of not working on this I've finally buckled down and started getting to work.

Last weekend I  built a stand. Right now its just bare and ugly...but functional. Some time in the future I'm going to make a nice skin to put on it.


This weekend, I drilled the tank and have started to dry fit some of the plumbing.







I bought some black paint for the back panel, hopefully I'll get that done tonight.

I'm going to put this in the wall behind the tank. The Apex is goign to be in the basement with the sump, so the USB port will be connected by a 15ft cable. The Ethernet Jacks will be for variable speed ports to run the Jebao powerheads.


Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #46 on: August 17, 2014, 21:12:59 »
Looks like a quality build in progress. Good looking so far.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #47 on: August 24, 2014, 20:27:45 »
Made a lot of progress this weekend on the build.

Back painted
Electrical circuit added
Support beam in place
Cat5/USB outlet installed
Tank Moved into place
Upstairs plumbing dry fitted and passed through the floor (I realized that I needed a few more connectors, so I ordered them online, so now I'm waiting for them to proceed)

I'm hoping to get water in the tank by Labor Day, so we'll see how that goes. I expect to have to end up ordering something else I forgot, so we'll see.


I almost made a disterious mistake with mounting the overflow box. I drilled the holes high on the tank so that the waterline will be as close to or above the rim line as possible. This worked fine for the inner box, but when I when to put on the external box, I realized that the box overlapped the rim creating an uneven surface making it impossible to seal. I solved this problem by buying a piece of quarter inch acrylic and puting two 3" holes in it to use as a spacer. You can see the spacer in this picture between the box and the glass.




I still need to add a gate valve on one for the drain lines so that I can silence it, but I realized that I didn't have the right connectors to get the job one. I can't find anywhere local that carries Schedule 80 PVC, so I had to order the pieces online. Hopefully I can get water in here by the weekend. 






Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #48 on: September 07, 2014, 16:28:03 »
I was hoping to get water in and start cycling the tank over Labor Day weekend. I almost made it, but have been fighting with this overflow box. I realized that even with the spacer, the rim was still slightly too wide, so I had to add another spacer. The outside box now sticks out past the rim which is good but I'm still having problems with it leaking. I know it is leaking from the outside box and then dripping down the back glass because it doesn't leak until water starts going over the overflow. If it was a leak from between the inside box and the tank, it would start leaking before the water level gets high enough to enter the box.

I made a gasket to go between the outside box and the glass out of some rubber sheeting I had laying around, which seems to have made a big difference. I also drained the tank and moved it about an inch because i realized the outside box was getting torqued by the plumbing a little. Now after moving it and filling it back up, I have a minor leak. I am losing about a drop every minute or two. This is really starting to drive me nuts. I think I'm goign to tray new gaskets in the outside box, and if that doesn't fix it, I'm going to go crazy and follow some terrible internet advice and silicone the gaskets and the nuts in.

Anyone have any other ideas before I do anything drastic?

 

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #49 on: September 15, 2014, 19:34:23 »
UP AND RUNNING!!!!

I ordered new seals for the overflow box, but that still didn't fix the problem. The outside box is now siliconed to the back of the tank and it has been up and running for a day and a half with no leaks. I ordered a couple goodies for the tank when I got the seals. I purchased the PM2 (Probe Module 2) and ALD (Auto Leak Detection) modules for the Apex. The PM2 is the Salinity module, I'm not sure if I'll actually use it for that, I actually got it for the extra temp probe. I'm planning on running 2-500W Finnex Titanium Heaters on the tank, one  in the sump and one in the main tank. With an extra temp probe, I am able to control the heaters independently of one another, allowing for better temp regulation. I ordered one probe for the ALD, but will probably end up getting a couple more later down the road. I also ordered the Dual Control Module for the Jebao pumps. After seeing the Neptune WAV, I've decided that that is probably the way to go, plus I've noticed that my Jebao pumps are really loud. So the Dual Control Module is a temporary solution to run the pumps instead of buy the ReefAngel cables and modifying them and ultimately not using them (the module is also cheaper than the cables).

Here's some pics....




Offline Wall_Tank

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #50 on: September 15, 2014, 20:15:26 »
I can make you a temp probe if you need.   <$10 in materials.....  I make them to get the length that I wanted.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #51 on: September 15, 2014, 20:16:47 »
I got one with the module... but I'll keep that in mind for the future. Thanks!

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #52 on: November 20, 2014, 12:49:33 »
I finally got a light for my frag tank so I can now pull the Radion off of it and transition everything over to the new tank.

Last picture of 75 Gallon reef before tear down.



Lights up on the 150.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #53 on: November 20, 2014, 17:03:48 »
I took a couple pics while in the process of moving my motipora capricornis and thought I'd share them.








Offline Steve

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #54 on: November 20, 2014, 18:08:52 »
Man that is a monster colony! Really nice growth pattern, it needs a 150 and maybe then some.

Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #55 on: November 20, 2014, 18:26:16 »



I don't think it is going to fit.   :th_doh:

Offline Travis8896

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #56 on: November 20, 2014, 18:58:17 »
Wow nice colony!!! And the new tank looks nice, I can't wait to see it full of Coral and fish.
"Not using a quarantine tank is like playing Russian roulette. Nobody wins the game, some people just get to play longer than others." - Anthony Calfo

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #57 on: November 21, 2014, 07:43:18 »
Here is a quick Pic I took before leaving the house this morning. The water is still a little cloudy... I stirred up a lot of sand last night. The aquascaping isn't final yet, it is the best I could pull off with limited visibility.


Offline Travis8896

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #58 on: November 21, 2014, 09:16:31 »
Looks like a great start to me!
"Not using a quarantine tank is like playing Russian roulette. Nobody wins the game, some people just get to play longer than others." - Anthony Calfo

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #59 on: November 21, 2014, 23:12:17 »
A couple pics from today after the water cleared.




Offline joncat24

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #60 on: November 23, 2014, 09:17:14 »
Looking good!
John

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #61 on: November 23, 2014, 09:29:44 »
I worked on mounting the electronics yesterday.




Had to order an extender cable for the WP-40s, which is why their controller is just laying there.


The blue tang likes to "hide"....



To many?

Offline Miles

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mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #62 on: January 18, 2015, 14:23:39 »
Was working on moving my Darwin Clowns out of their temporary 10 gallon home into a 20 gallon semi-permanent situation today and found this piece of rock. This is the first piece of rock I ever purchased back in 2004. It came with this clam stuck to the rock, originally it was wedged in a crack and I assumed it was dead. After a couple years I noticed it had moved. As I have moved this rock between several tanks over the years, I've checked in on it to see how it's doing.

In March, it will be the 11th anniversary of the setup of my first tank, and my first hitchhiker is still alive and kicking.




Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #63 on: January 18, 2015, 20:10:12 »
That is pretty cool, apparently they can live for over 100 years.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #64 on: March 05, 2015, 17:46:30 »
New Toys!!


Offline Wall_Tank

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #65 on: March 05, 2015, 19:01:57 »
So have you heard an old mp40 before?  Are they really quiet?

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #66 on: March 05, 2015, 20:18:22 »
I've never heard the original MP40s, but I can say that these are much quieter than the Jebao WP-40s that I was using. So quiet in fact, my wife commented that it felt like something was missing. I can't hear them unless I get within a couple of feet of them.
« Last Edit: March 05, 2015, 20:43:04 by mil3sdavis »

Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #67 on: March 05, 2015, 20:39:25 »
The original ones are really loud. The loudest circulation pump I have ever heard in fact. With tank on main floor, they annoyed me upstairs. They lasted about 2 days before I pulled them.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #68 on: July 13, 2015, 10:33:20 »
Just wanted to give a quick update on the 150..

Recently had a heater malfunction which killed off some long term residents of my quarantine tank. I lost my pair of Snowflake Clowns and my breeding pair of Banggais. This incident pushed me to finish a project that has been taking up space in my garage for the past couple months.




I was originally building this tank rack as a temporary home for my breeding fish and young before adding them to the display tank or selling them.The rack is plumbed into the main system, meaning that the Apex controls the water temp and it shares filtration with the 150 gallon. After the heater malfunction I decided to quit dragging my heels and finish it so that this problem doesn't happen again. I can use any of the tanks as a quarantine sytem simply by closing the feed valve, resulting in an isolated tank, then just throw on an HOB filter and heater.

Over the weekend, I scored a good deal at Jack's in Springfield. I had a "Buy one get one free" coupon that they sent to their rewards club members. I was able to pick up a pair of Snowflakes much larger than my previous pair for $80 (normally $160), and then I purchased all of their remaining Chromis. I'm not really expecting the Chromis to last long term, I tried them once before and they killed each other off one by one. I picked up 8 Chromis for $40 (normally $80). I also ordered a few more Banggai from Live Aquaria and a very small tomato clown. I hope to introduce the tomato clown to the one I already have who lost it's mate a few years back.


   

Offline TroyReeF

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #69 on: July 13, 2015, 12:58:50 »
kewl breeding station!!

Offline Steve

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #70 on: July 13, 2015, 16:29:54 »
Nice, good luck with the breeding.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #71 on: August 19, 2015, 08:56:36 »
Some weird stuff going on lately.....Besides my ich outbreak (talked about it in another thread... everything seems to be healthy besides a couple spots of ich), I've had a a few random leaks and electrical issues. A few weeks ago I came home to several gallons of water on my basement floor, I cleaned it up but was unable to figure out where it came from (it came out of the sump somehow, but I couldnt find a leak).

About a week later I came home to my GFCI having tripped in the basement, so the return pump was off along with everything in the sump/frag tank/breeding rack. There was some water on the floor but most of it had already dried. I didn't receive an Apex alert which I thought was strange (I quickly figured out why, at some point while attempting to clean up my electrical I had plugged the power monitor plug into a powerstrip connected to my battery backup  :-[). Luckly this time around I was able to check the Apex logs since it would have logged a power failure. Strangely, nothing had turned on for several hours before the GFCI had tripped. Also, it had tripped at 4:15 in the morning when I was home, but I didn't catch it until I got home from work 12 hours later  :-\.

After the second time I decided I was going to try harder to find the leak. I drained the sump and disconnected the threaded fitting on the bulkhead added some plumbers tape and put it back.... haven't had a leak since.

So this morning after getting to work (35 minutes away from the house) I got an Apex power failure alert  >:(. I checked the apex logs, nothing again. I gave my father in law a call and he went over to the house to check it out. No water on the floor... he couldn't figure out what happened. He reset the GFCI, and so far everything seems good.

This is frustrating..... 




The log for your viewing pleasure. (Line 12 is where the power kicked off)


Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #72 on: August 19, 2015, 18:38:57 »
Just got home from work a little while ago... was sitting at the kitchen table and got an Apex alert for power loss. Went down to the basement, water on the floor, GFCI tripped.... Still cant figure out where this waster is coming from. I felt all of the fittings, all dry as a bone. No water was touching anything electrical...and the outlets are in the ceiling.  >:(





And the log again.... Power goes off at line 39.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #73 on: August 19, 2015, 19:57:55 »
Mystery Leak Solved!!!!

The reason I couldn't figure it out based on the Apex logs is because it was almost entirely non-aquarium related. The former owners of my house were not home improvement experts by any means and have done many things to my house that make me shake my head. Today I learned that instead of actually getting a tube long enough to reach from the water softener to the drain in the floor, they kind of just rigged something up that included a zip tie and a 90 degree barbed connection. When the water softener would flush the brine it had a drop of a few inches to the drain in the floor. So either I or one of my cats must have bumped it so that it was dumping the brine on the floor (which explains why i was certain the sump was leaking.... it left a salt residue when it dried).

In all my infinite wisdom, I decided to let some of the wiring or my new breeder rack just kinda dangle behind the stand and I just told myself "I'll fix it later". It turns out that some of the time when the softener flushed the brine, it sprayed water on a connection between an extension cord and  power strip which just happened to be suspended about 3 inches above the floor drain, causing the GFCI to trip.

While attempting to figure out this whole issue, I noticed that connection was wet and thought "I wonder what would happen if I just dumped a gallon of water on the floor here?"  :hmmmm:

As it turns out, my basement floor is not quite level and if you dump water on the floor right by this drain, it pools around the sump and looks just like the pictures I posted above.

I have now wrapped all the excess wiring, and moved the salt reservoir for the water softener closer to the drain so that the tube actually goes down into the floor.   

Offline Wall_Tank

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #74 on: August 19, 2015, 20:22:08 »
Quite a few lessons in that story, Glad you found it

Offline Steve

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #75 on: August 19, 2015, 20:54:44 »
I think I have told that same story with different words! Glad it was nothing serious and all is well and SAFE.

Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #76 on: August 19, 2015, 23:57:47 »
I bet you were pulling your hair out after gfci trip number 2. Glad you found it

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #77 on: February 06, 2017, 20:57:41 »
I may have done a stupid thing after leaving the February club meeting... :hmmmm:


 I went to Petco and bought a Purple Tang for $99 and they threw in some ich for free. Justin (merlin3) beat me to the only one that didn't have ich  :crybaby.  While I was there, I also picked up 4 Banggai's and four Peppermint Shrimp for breeding stock (thinking about possibly hosting a meeting in the future and doing a presentation on breeding).

So now I have everything in separate QT tanks. That Purple Tang isn't going to see anything but QT until I am absolutely positive that it doesn't have ich.

I gave the Purple Tang a 10 minute freshwater dip and then put it in the QT tank. I then dosed slightly less than the recommended amount of cupramine. I then realized that the Seachem Copper Test kit is one of the most horrible things ever made, the process allows for so much variation between readings that it is practically useless. So I ordered an API kit (which is also probably junk but at least its easier to use). This morning when I got up I checked on the tang, and the ich cysts were much larger and looked like they were about to "hatch". When I got home from work, most of the cysts were gone from the fish, so I did a 100% water change and then cleaned everything with vinegar. Tang is currently eating both frozen mysis and brine along with nori that I soaked in garlic. So far so good....

Hope this doesn't turn out to be an exercise in how to waste $100....

(Sorry for the blurry pic... the combination of the color and movement make him near impossible to focus on)




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« Last Edit: February 06, 2017, 21:03:32 by Miles »

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #78 on: February 06, 2017, 21:34:27 »
Here's a better one...




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Offline Wall_Tank

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #79 on: February 06, 2017, 22:47:24 »
Good luck

Offline guynamedfleck

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #80 on: February 07, 2017, 11:19:22 »
Fingers crossed for you.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #81 on: February 07, 2017, 18:23:31 »
Got a few new goodies tonight.... Picked up a Kindle Fire for $40 for a display for my Apex and picked up a Vortech Battery Backup from a club member.




(please excuse the aiptasia... thats what the peppermint shrimp breeding is for)



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Offline thepipbull

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #82 on: February 07, 2017, 21:14:40 »
looks good
and your a brave man getting the tang after we talked about ich at the meeting
hope it is getting better

Offline Reef Tank 2.0

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #83 on: February 08, 2017, 09:13:53 »
looks good
and your a brave man getting the tang after we talked about ich at the meeting
hope it is getting better

care to elaborate on this, for those that didn't make the meeting?  Or was this a private convo?

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #84 on: February 08, 2017, 09:54:00 »
care to elaborate on this, for those that didn't make the meeting?  Or was this a private convo?

It wasn't really a formal discussion, we just talked about how tangs are very susceptible to it (especially Achilles Tangs) and were impressed that Brian hadn't had any issues.

IMHO, Ich isn't really a huge deal as long as you are very proactive about treating it and you catch it early.
Basically you need to make sure that you interrupt the lifecycle of the parasite. As soon as you notice that the cysts have dropped off the fish, do a 100% water change to ensure that you have removed as many of the free swimmers as you can. Doing this in conjunction with treating the QT tank with copper which is effective against the free swimming stage and you should be golden assuming that the fish is playing his part properly and continuing to eat and not getting stressed.

So far my tang seems to be doing fairly well, he'd eating and is active. He still have several spots on him but I am optimistic that he will survive. I played around with two copper test kits last night and determined that the dosage listed on the bottle of Cupramine is incorrect... it is way too little. It recommended 20 drops per 10.5 gallons. I am using a 20L for a QT with about 15 gallons of water in it, so I should use about 30ish drops to get to a concentration of about 0.5ppm. Using 30 drops only got me to about 0.25ppm... so I had to add about 15 more drops to get me in the correct range for treatment (this is the reason I thought my SeaChem test kit was bad).

I ordered another SeaChem test kit last night because I'm running low on reagent, but now I know it was working properly because it was giving the same results of the API kit. FYI... The SeaChem kit is more accurate than the API kit, it has a finer scale than the API kit.   

Offline thepipbull

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #85 on: February 08, 2017, 10:57:30 »
glad hes doing well...you must have missed the part where Brian brought a fish on sale from petco and got ich in his tank and had to quarantine them all.....

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #86 on: February 08, 2017, 11:06:43 »
glad hes doing well...you must have missed the part where Brian brought a fish on sale from petco and got ich in his tank and had to quarantine them all.....
Yeah... definitely missed that discussion. QT is the way to go. I usually try for 6-8 weeks.


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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #87 on: February 08, 2017, 22:15:08 »
Tang Watch: Day 4
Tang looked "clean" when I got home from work, no obvious cysts. Performed a 100% water change. Dosed Cupramine to ~0.5ppm.
Tang still eating very well. Eats frozen mysis/brine very aggressively and grazes on nori. Overall it seems to being doing very well.


I plugged the Vortech battery backup in yesterday and let it charge for 24 hours. upon unplugging both the battery charger and the Vortech connected to it, the pump does not continue to run. I actually kinda expected this... Upon getting the battery backup home, I noticed that the date of manufacture was Nov 2010. Since it was still in the original box I figured that the battery was probably shot. It's all good though because I can buy a replacement battery for it and still have less money invested in it than I would if I had purchased it new. I'll post some pics when I get around to replacing the battery in it.






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« Last Edit: February 08, 2017, 22:23:53 by Miles »

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #88 on: February 09, 2017, 16:48:45 »
Tang Watch: Day 5
Very little to report. The tang is looking great. I don't see any cysts today (that doesn't mean their aren't any). Tang is just crusin the QT. Still very hard to photograph. I topped off the dosage of the Cupramine and have no plans to do anything but that unless more cysts appear.




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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #89 on: February 10, 2017, 08:39:30 »
Started working on the battery replacement for the Vortech Battery backup last night. This thing is crazy stupid simple... I ordered a new battery for it for $31 (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A82A3RK/    odd... it seems the price has gone up since I ordered mine).  It turns out there was a voluntary recall in 2010 to replace the cables that run to the pump with ones with inline fuses. I emailed Ecotech this morning to see if they are still honoring the recall (the cables are dirt cheap on their site, but shipping is 3x the price of the cable, so I'm going to see if they can work some sort of deal).

The thing that puzzles me the most about this battery backup unit is that it doesn't seem to have any sort of charging circuit. It has a cheap AC/DC adapter that looks like a cheap one you'd by for a cell phone, but no circuitry in the box that would prevent over charging... anyone have any clue as to how that works without starting a fire?

I think I'll probably make my own unit for my Jebao DC Return pump on the breeding rack.... but I think I'll probably buy a float charger to charge the battery.   




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« Last Edit: February 10, 2017, 08:55:44 by Miles »

Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #90 on: February 10, 2017, 10:24:58 »
WHAT! That is all that is in that. WOW! That is nuts. I guess the device it is connected to has to manage the charging/over charging. Surprised they did it that way. Or maybe it is built into the battery itself? Thanks for sharing Miles

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #91 on: February 10, 2017, 10:53:15 »
WHAT! That is all that is in that. WOW! That is nuts. I guess the device it is connected to has to manage the charging/over charging. Surprised they did it that way. Or maybe it is built into the battery itself? Thanks for sharing Miles

It's definitely not built into the battery... I did some looking around on reef2reef and ReefCentral, it would appear that they used whatever 12v 18Ah battery they could find. depending on when they were manufactured, they use all kinds of different brands. I can't imagine that the Vortech is managing the charging either, I guess it is possible, but it seems a little far fetched. There are a ton of people that have build their own DIY versions and they all use some sort of Trickle/Float charger.... This whole thing just kinda boggles my mind... maybe if you have a pump plugged into it, it is always pulling half of its power from the battery (Vortech's run at 24v at max speed but run half speed when connected to 12v)  thus the battery is always being discharged so there no need for over charge protection?


Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #92 on: February 10, 2017, 11:54:43 »
I was just talking to someone at work about this, and he made a good point... the output on the power adapter is 12v @ 0.5A. So the battery only has 6W charging it. It probably isn't anywhere near enough power to do any damage to the battery.

Upon further research into batteries and how they work, I discovered what is call "Float Voltage". I assumed that a float charger had some sort of special circuit in it that keeps it from over charging a battery..... but all it does is put out a steady voltage that slightly below the rate required to charge the battery. It will charge it to max capacity and then do nothing because a voltage difference is required to charge the battery. I'll have to check the power adapter when I get home from work, but I believe it was ~13V.. and the normal float voltage for a 12v battery is 13.2-13.4v.

The More You Know♒♒♒★

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #93 on: February 10, 2017, 21:58:02 »
Just a couple pics I took tonight...







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Offline Wall_Tank

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #94 on: February 11, 2017, 09:04:44 »
Old battery tech is stupid simple.   For what it's worth,  I use deep cycle marine batteries for my 12v backup.  You have to do a little water maintenance occasionally, but more power storage than the small sealed batteries.

Offline guynamedfleck

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #95 on: February 11, 2017, 09:40:43 »
Holy montipora, Batman! You weren't kidding at the meeting, haha!

Offline Humphrey

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #96 on: February 11, 2017, 10:38:28 »
Love it when a fish gets better. How long you treating the tang?  30 days?

Offline Mussin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #97 on: February 11, 2017, 21:17:56 »
Man that monti is sick.. I'm jealous,  I can't even  grow any.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #98 on: February 11, 2017, 21:30:54 »
Love it when a fish gets better. How long you treating the tang?  30 days?

I'm going to treat with copper for 14 days (tomorrow will be day 8), then I'm going to keep it in quarantine for another 30 days.


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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #99 on: February 12, 2017, 22:35:24 »
Been trying to come up with a way to use filter socks on my drain line for a long time, and today while cleaning up the basement I found a lid and had a revelation....







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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #100 on: February 13, 2017, 22:09:12 »
I got the new battery for the Vortech backup tonight. 





Tang watch day 9:
The Ammonia alert badge was showing green (~0.25ppm) so I decided to do a water change...but just for kicks, I pulled out my API ammonia test kit and this was the result...  :not speak:

Other than the ammonia issue, the Purple Tang is still doing great. No sign of ich, it's eating well, everything seems great.  8)





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« Last Edit: February 13, 2017, 22:18:15 by Miles »

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #101 on: February 16, 2017, 11:02:04 »
A couple quick notes for today....

I noticed the other day that one of my pair of clownfish (these ones are in a 13 Gallon Fluval EVO in the baby's room) were developing black spots. I looked into it, and it appears that they are due to hyper melanization most likely caused by stings from LPS coral. There is some frogspawn, hammer, and trumpet coral in that tank. This doesn't surprise me since these clowns are fairly young and this is their first experience with coral. Usually these spots heal on their own, so I'm not going to worry about it. Hopefulyl they decided to make the toadstool their home and not try to use tha tLPS as a Host.



Next thing....
My Purple Tang has developed HLLE from the copper treatment. This also isn't a big deal, it is just something that sometimes happens. The blue tang I used to have had HLLE after copper and over time completely went away. I've already discontinued treatment because he has shown no signs of infection for over a week and I'm going to be going out of town soon and I didn't want my house/tank sitter to have to worry about copper dosing.



Final thing...
I ordered an Apex Jr that should be delivered today. I'm going to use it to run/monitor my QT tank. Eventually I plan on adding a PM1 module so I can have another temp probe and an EB8 and use it to run my Larva/Fry tanks when nothing is in QT.




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« Last Edit: February 16, 2017, 11:12:41 by Miles »

Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #102 on: February 16, 2017, 11:21:12 »
I have also noticed black spots on clowns like that relative to them coming to breeding age/desires. I don't think the HLLE is from copper. I treat tangs in copper and never see it. Some stay in it for 6 months. I think it is likely due to Ammonia/Nitrite levels. When my fish system was new and having trouble handling Ammonia/Nitrite some tangs developed it but it did go away in time.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #103 on: February 16, 2017, 11:23:42 »
I have also noticed black spots on clowns like that relative to them coming to breeding age/desires.

Interesting... I'll have to keep an eye out for the "mating dance"

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #104 on: February 16, 2017, 20:53:39 »
Here is the Apex Jr setup... it will expand eventually.




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« Last Edit: February 16, 2017, 21:02:26 by Miles »

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #105 on: March 04, 2017, 11:07:02 »
Had my first ever jumper last night. Clownfish managed to jump out of this hole in the top of my Fluval Evo. Found him next to the tank super crispy....




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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #106 on: March 08, 2017, 17:30:40 »
Got some goodies in the mail today!




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Offline Grymtooth

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #107 on: March 08, 2017, 17:44:00 »
Nice!

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #108 on: March 16, 2017, 13:27:37 »
Just a quick video I took the other night. Everyone was hungry... my cat included.


Offline mtamorrow

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #109 on: March 16, 2017, 14:22:09 »
Just a quick video I took the other night. Everyone was hungry... my cat included.


Awesome!


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It costs HOW much?!

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #110 on: March 17, 2017, 12:20:44 »
I decided that my Apex setup had become sufficiently complex that it needed a diagram....

Black lines are Aquabus or Sensors
Green Lines are network
Blue lines are wireless
Red lines are power




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Offline guynamedfleck

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #111 on: March 17, 2017, 12:33:30 »
That setup is mental! I love it!!!  ;D

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #112 on: March 17, 2017, 12:39:12 »
I decided that I might as well start a diagram for my QT system as well...




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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #113 on: March 17, 2017, 15:09:35 »
Here is both of them integrated into the same drawing. I noticed that I forgot to add some power items to the first one that are now fixed in this one.




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Offline thepipbull

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #114 on: March 17, 2017, 16:56:02 »
Great diagram miles
Hows the peppermint shirmp coming

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #115 on: March 17, 2017, 17:11:42 »
Great diagram miles
Hows the peppermint shirmp coming

Thanks!

I've got about 20 larvae left, which isn't surprising since normal survival rate is usually less than 10%. They are about halfway to settlement, 4 more weeks and we should have some real shrimp.

 

Offline lazylivin

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #116 on: March 17, 2017, 23:26:28 »
I think the first ones settled 32dph and the rest a couple days later when i raised them. 88dph the females began carrying eggs. How far along are you now? Nice job on the apex mapping. Looks well planned out

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #117 on: March 18, 2017, 09:51:43 »
I think the first ones settled 32dph and the rest a couple days later when i raised them. 88dph the females began carrying eggs. How far along are you now? Nice job on the apex mapping. Looks well planned out

Today they are currently 32dhp. April Kirkendoll's book states 6-8 weeks post hatch before metamorphisis (I believe last time mine we about 8, I'll have to see if I have a record written down somewhere) and sexually mature at around 12-16 weeks.

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #118 on: March 19, 2017, 22:35:27 »
Picked up some fish and coral from Lazy's Coral House on Saturday.








The original plan was to try to pair the Lightning Maroon with the other maroon, but then I found this....



So I'm going to let both of these guys mature in separate tanks, and then find them mates later.


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Offline Miles

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mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #119 on: March 19, 2017, 22:37:10 »
More info from the next page....




FYI... this is from Clownfishes: A Guide to Their Captive Care, Breeding & Natural History by Joyce Wilkerson.

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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #120 on: March 21, 2017, 22:15:10 »
FYI.... priming 1.1mL/min dosing pumps takes a really long time.


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Offline thepipbull

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #121 on: March 21, 2017, 22:16:27 »
should only take 10 to 15 min

Offline Miles

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mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #122 on: March 21, 2017, 22:35:26 »
should only take 10 to 15 min

Yeah... but it seems a lot longer when you realize that you hadn't actually been dosing Ca for who knows how long right about the time you were getting ready for bed.

My massive Monti Cap started to white out about a week ago, usually this is resolved with a simple water change. I did a water change at some point last week and it looked like it was getting better. I noticed that it looked worse today. I had just tested the Alk on Sunday and it was spot on so I decided to test my Ca level..... 352ppm
I usually average around 415ppm. I used the BRS calculator and dosed enough to what should get me to about 400ppm. I turned off Ca dosing for tonight and will turn it back on tomorrow. I'll test it when I get home from work tomorrow and see if it is back on track.


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Offline thepipbull

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #123 on: March 21, 2017, 22:41:33 »
LOL
Still fighting getting mine dialed in. I understand the struggle.

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #124 on: March 21, 2017, 22:43:22 »
LOL
Still fighting getting mine dialed in. I understand the struggle.

Yeah... that's pretty much the same boat I'm in. Hadn't been dosing for a long time and just recently set it back up. I think I have it pretty much dialed in at this point. I need to come up with some way of alerting myself when the reservoirs are almost empty.


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Offline thepipbull

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #125 on: March 21, 2017, 22:47:16 »
Im just adding to many SPS and they are starting to take off so gotta up the dosing

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #126 on: March 22, 2017, 08:02:20 »
Logged into my apex this morning to re-enable dosing and discovered that my Alk pump was dosing all night long...  :th_madboom: :banghead

So that was like 600mL of Alk dosed over about 9 hours....
On the bright side, it doesn't really seem like it has affected my pH. Looks like I have a water change in my near future....

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #127 on: March 22, 2017, 13:45:31 »
This is what a mistake looks like......
My pH was on the rise, I turned off my lights remotely and have kept it from getting too far out of control.






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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #128 on: March 22, 2017, 17:08:42 »
Damage Report:

Alk: 10.81dKH
Ca: 463 ppm

I did about a 45 gallon water change, going to do a water test later this evening and see if the Alk has dropped any, if not I'll do another 45 gallons.

I don't think anything really got damaged, bu tI do have a Bangaai that is acting weird... I think it' son its way out, can't tell if it is related to all of this though.

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #129 on: March 29, 2017, 09:48:05 »
Update time:

That water change in the last post did not significantly change Alki levels at all. I decided to just turn off the dosing pumps and wait for it to go down naturally.
Over the weekend I had a weird situation. When down to the basement and noticed that there was water dripping off my tank rack, but I couldn't find it's source. After about 20 minutes of head scratching  :hmmmm:, I discovered that one of my 10 gallon tanks had developed a small leak in one of the bottom seams. I think this may actually be my fault, I think I may have sliced through some of the silicon with a razor blade while cleaning the glass.  :-Opps

I then discovered that when I designed my tank rack, I left no way to take a tank out of the system and leave the rest of them running.  :banghead
So, that tank is currently drained and the livestock moved (It was housing two bangaai that looked like they were about to start breeding, but one of them developed a weird swim bladder issue last week and died).

I have known since the first day that I set up the tank rack that the plumbing design was a disaster, because it is possible to overflow the tanks from too much flow, so I've decided that this is a good time just to tear the whole system down and redrill all of the tanks and replace the 1/2" bulkheads with 1" bulkheads and then replace the main drain line with something much bigger. So I am now in the process of gathering materials for that project.

In other news, I had a bangaai in the 10g tank with my Lightning Maroon, and it disappeared. There is literally no trace of it...maybe it jumped and the cat got it?


The Purple Tang is still healthy, he is ready to leave QT but I'm planning on doing some tank modifications to a tank that  I bought from Patrick (guynamedfleck), more on that to come.

Offline guynamedfleck

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #130 on: March 29, 2017, 10:19:26 »
Awesome, I look forward to seeing how you plumb out the new tank rack and what you do with the custom tank! I've been knocking around the idea of doing a tank rack myself; slowly collecting plumbing bits here and there.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #131 on: March 29, 2017, 11:19:31 »
Awesome, I look forward to seeing how you plumb out the new tank rack and what you do with the custom tank! I've been knocking around the idea of doing a tank rack myself; slowly collecting plumbing bits here and there.

The plan for the tank I bought from you is to CNC my own acrylic tower overflow in the middle with bulkheads through the bottom (two 1" drain lines and a 3/4" return). I've got the bulk heads and the bits for the CNC, I still need to get some acrylic.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #132 on: April 22, 2017, 17:09:18 »
Today was an adventure in DIY fishkeeping. My tank rack in the basement has needed replumbed from day one. I didn't take into account the flow from the pump when I plumbed everything together and quickly realized that it was possible to overflow the tanks because the drain lines were too small. Originally the drain lines were 1/2" and after doing some math I figured out that if I made them all 1" and had them feed into a 3" pipe it couldn't overflow unless a pipe got clogged. So the plan was to redrill all the tanks, add new bulkheads, replace the PVC drain lines with flexible tubing, put strainers on the drain lines, and make a 3" return line....   

So I drained all the tanks....


Moved all the livestock to buckets....



Then the part where everything went off the rails..... I successfully drilled one of the tanks... and the rest ended up cracking either when i tried to pull the bulkhead off or while drilling. No big deal right... Petco is doing their $1 per gallon sale right now, I'll just go pick some up....WRONG! The Petco in Beavercreek has disappeared, but their facebook page is still active  >:(. So I went to Petsmart and they matched the Petco price, but only had three 10 gal tanks. I then went to Pet Valu, they had four 10 gal tanks, but they gave me some grief when attempting to match the price, they wanted a printed ad which I didn't have. I showed them the online ad for the Dayton stores and then the manager finally decided that they would have an employee call Petco and find out if they were actually running that kind of deal. When they went to ring up 4 tanks they realized that they were missing out on $20, and that I was getting the tanks at cost. They weren't very happy, but they let me buy them anyway.


Moving on... I successfully drilled 5 of the 7 tanks I bought. Ended up cracking one of them, and decided to hold off on the last one till I actually need it.


I got everything assembled and glued...


Here is the setup for each tank...


The drain lines....


And the finished product.


This project only took about 7 hours... 2 trips to Lowes, and a trip to 2 different pet stores.


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« Last Edit: April 23, 2017, 10:30:07 by Miles »

Offline thepipbull

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #133 on: April 24, 2017, 08:33:25 »
Looking good you've been busy

Are these gong to be breeder tanks and if so what the next project?   

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #134 on: April 24, 2017, 09:25:12 »
Awesome as always!

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #135 on: April 24, 2017, 10:17:36 »
Looking good you've been busy

Are these gong to be breeder tanks and if so what the next project?   

They currently house 3 pairs of clowns (top row) and a couple single maroons (bottom row.... one of the maroons has a bangaai roomate). The plan is for clownfish breeding, but I need to work on feeding them more high quality foods more often. I've got some Sustainable Aquatics hatchery diet, I just need to figure out the best way to ensure they get fed on a regular schedule multiple times throughout the day.

 

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #136 on: June 04, 2017, 22:36:45 »
Finally decided to just add the purple tang to the main tank. With the arrival of our first child back in December, I don't have a lot of time to work on projects, so who knows when I'm going to get around to making the overflow for the tank I got from Patrick. So today I made a quick fish acclimator/introducer out of some PVC and netting I had laying around. The plan is to let him sit here for a few days and let the other fish get used to him, then add the yellow tank that is living on the frag tank to see how they get along. Then finally introduce them both at the same time and hope that the sailfin tang and foxface welcome them with open fins.






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Offline joelbegt

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #137 on: June 05, 2017, 14:19:56 »
Jeez, how bigs that montipora?

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #138 on: June 05, 2017, 14:24:57 »
Jeez, how bigs that montipora?

Approximately 18" x 24"

It's been having some issues lately... it keeps slightly bleaching and then coming back. I need to tweak my dosing a little.

Offline joelbegt

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #139 on: June 05, 2017, 14:28:10 »
My old orange one was my canary for magnesium.  It would always pale out if it was getting low

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #140 on: June 05, 2017, 14:29:58 »
My old orange one was my canary for magnesium.  It would always pale out if it was getting low

That actually makes a lot of sense... I have problems keeping my Mg levels up. I'll have to see if that fixes it.

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #141 on: June 07, 2017, 17:16:44 »
Added the yellow tang yesterday, initially the purple tang attacked it, but after about 30 minutes they began to tolerate each other. They tend to keep to opposite sides of "the cage". My chromosome seem interested in them, but pretty much everything else is ignoring them.




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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #142 on: June 09, 2017, 07:30:21 »
Is that the $99 petco purple tang that came with the Ich included for free?  Working out so far! 

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #143 on: June 09, 2017, 09:37:21 »
Is that the $99 petco purple tang that came with the Ich included for free?  Working out so far! 

Yup... that's him. He is doing pretty well. Has some Hole-in-the-Head scarring which I read can be caused in Tangs by copper treatment.   

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #144 on: June 10, 2017, 16:26:29 »
Released both the yellow and the purple into the tank today. They were immediately harassed by my kohl tang. At one point the sailfin joined in and the purple tang was trapped in a corner. He made friends with the foxface very quickly and was able to use the foxface's spines as a defense. The yellow was mostly ignored until it ventured too close to the sailfin's territory. The sail fin trapped it in a corner and wouldn't let it leave.

After a few hours, everyone calmed down and everyone seems to be friends now.

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #145 on: June 15, 2017, 15:23:52 »
Started having some weird electrical problems. We've. Even getting brown outs lately when storms have been passing through. We've never had this problem before, but in the past 2 months, we've probably had 5 or 6 instances where the power has flickered or dimmed.

This morning I woke up to an Apex power outage alert. Strange since my alarm clock was still showing the correct time. I went down to the basement to find that the surge protector that one of my power bars was connected to had tripped. I reset the switch and everything seemed ok. The main return pump kicked on, but by time I made it to the top of the stairs, it had kicked off again and my UPS was beeping. I replaced he surge protector and everything was good for about 15 seconds, then the return kicked off for about a second and then back in again. 15 seconds later the same thing happened. I didn't have a lot of time to mess with it, so I ran an extension cord from across my basement from and outlet on a different circuit to the return pump. When I left for work everything was up and running. In the last hour I have received 2 alerts that that EB8 has lost power... I just checked the current draw on that EB8, something fishy is definitely going on. Check out the entry at 5:30am.




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Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #146 on: June 15, 2017, 18:47:25 »
Came home to the surge protector tripped.... so now I am unplugging items one at a time and waiting to see if it trips again... so far it is pretty predictable and will trip after being on for about 3 minutes.  I think I have it isolated to just one of my EB8s, but at this point, I think it is something plugged into it (heater or pump) that is causing the issues.

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #147 on: June 16, 2017, 10:08:02 »
So apparently... I had my UPS plugged into a surge protector... pulled the UPS off the surge protector and haven't had any problems since... I would have thought that I would have had this problem a year or so ago if that was truly the problem but, Hey my house hasn't burned down yet.

Offline thepipbull

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #148 on: June 20, 2017, 08:34:50 »
Glad you got it figured out. and that monti cap is crazy big.....
Did you get the peppermint going or holding off on that for a while 

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #149 on: June 20, 2017, 08:37:36 »
I ended up going out of town several weeks ago and separated out the shrimp into tanks on the rack to make it easier for my tank sitter. I was only able to find three of them when I moved them so I probably need to get some more before I retry.


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Offline thepipbull

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #150 on: June 20, 2017, 08:45:51 »
Gotta make it easy on the sitter....I just had to do the same with mine. Frozen food was to difficult for them so went with pellets and flake....
 A lot  of people are looking forward to the shrimp breeding. keep us informed when you start it up again 

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #151 on: October 02, 2017, 08:20:35 »
Have some bad news.....my massive moti is now gone. You can kind see in a pic that I posted a while back with the basket for the purple tank that it had some discoloration... well that discoloration I believe was the start of some sort of necrosis. No matter what I did (water changes, dosing, removing affected areas, etc) nothing seemed to stop the spread... over the course of about the last month it went from looking mostly alright to completely dead. Here's a couple pics. The first it form about 3 weeks ago, the second was taken last night before I took it out of the tank.






In other news, my Snowflakes are laying! My Darwin' s laid 2 clutches once the Snowflakes started up, but have since stopped. No I just need to get those Black Photons to start thinking about children....


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« Last Edit: October 02, 2017, 08:26:53 by Miles »

Offline AJ

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #152 on: October 02, 2017, 10:13:35 »
Man that is heartbreaking! Watching something just dwindle away no matter what you do to save it. Did you think of submitting a Triton test to see if you have any heavy metals in you system?

Offline Miles

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #153 on: December 11, 2017, 09:18:47 »
Man that is heartbreaking! Watching something just dwindle away no matter what you do to save it. Did you think of submitting a Triton test to see if you have any heavy metals in you system?

I hadn't really thought about it. I think the issue is related to poor husbandry honestly... Since having a kid last December, my tank has been pretty neglected.

I've currently got a pretty bad algae and aiptasia issue. Thinking about setting up a Cheato reactor (or maybe just throwing some cheato in my sump). At this point the aiptasia issue is so far out of control, I'm not even sure how to go about tackling it. I occasionally use Aiptasia -X  which seems to initially kill it off, but its all back within a couple weeks.  I wish I could find a Copperband that will eat more than just aiptasia.

Offline thepipbull

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Re: mil3sdavis' 150gal build
« Reply #154 on: December 11, 2017, 18:17:25 »
Sound like a good time to breed berghia nudibranchs. Im sure there are a couple people on here that would buy them if you were able to keep them going.

Offline Miles

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Re: Miles' 150gal build
« Reply #155 on: December 12, 2017, 09:49:42 »
Sound like a good time to breed berghia nudibranchs. Im sure there are a couple people on here that would buy them if you were able to keep them going.

Just read this.... http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2008/11/breeder

Might have to give it a try...

Offline Miles

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Re: Miles' 150gal build
« Reply #156 on: July 17, 2018, 10:20:05 »
Well... its been a while...

I ended up getting a file fish. It hasn't completely wiped out my Aiptasia problem, but it has definitely made a big dent in it. Since I got the filefish about 4 months ago, it has probably doubled in size.

So the other day my GFCI tripped several times, it took a little trial and error and discovered that one of the recirculating pumps on my skimmer was causing it. So here's the trouble, the pump is a Sicce PSK1000, when I bought it originally from Avast Marine with the CS3 skimmer it was $85 (The skimmer has 2 of them).... I don't know if this pump was discontinued or what happened but I have seen it listed online anywhere from $120 to $160. I'm not going to pay that much to replace it, so I'm probably just going to live with the one pump. 

Offline CoralBeauties

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Re: Miles' 150gal build
« Reply #157 on: July 17, 2018, 21:43:38 »
Well... its been a while...

I ended up getting a file fish. It hasn't completely wiped out my Aiptasia problem, but it has definitely made a big dent in it. Since I got the filefish about 4 months ago, it has probably doubled in size.

So the other day my GFCI tripped several times, it took a little trial and error and discovered that one of the recirculating pumps on my skimmer was causing it. So here's the trouble, the pump is a Sicce PSK1000, when I bought it originally from Avast Marine with the CS3 skimmer it was $85 (The skimmer has 2 of them).... I don't know if this pump was discontinued or what happened but I have seen it listed online anywhere from $120 to $160. I'm not going to pay that much to replace it, so I'm probably just going to live with the one pump. 
I had 2 sicce 2500 pumps on my skimmer and I finally got tired of constant issues with them and bought a bubble blaster 5000.  What a great skimmer pump, never regretted the expense.
Jeff

Offline Miles

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Re: Miles' 150gal build
« Reply #158 on: November 30, 2021, 11:43:34 »
After mostly taking a break for a few years... I'm back.

Since having kids, I've pretty much just had the tank on cruise control. And COVID didnt really help things.

My brother is just starting to get in the hobby, and that has reignited my interest... and opened my wallet. I ended up spending some money during the BRS Black Friday sale and bought some Gyre pumps and some other miscellaneous supplies.

Today I cleaned my Ca Reactor and added media for the first time. I had to look up when I purchased it because I was kind of amazed. I placed the order at BRS on 11/20/18... so I probably got it all up and running sometime in December of 2018. So I have been running it for 3 years without any issues. I got the CO2 tank refilled last spring, but that is it. I typically run it with a pretty high pH... like 7.3 which is why the media and CO2 have lasted so long, but it has made a huge difference when it comes to keeping Ca and Alk levels in check.

Other news... my female Black Darwin Clown passed away last November. I have been able to trace her age back to at least 12. I had her for 9 years, and the previous owner had her for 3, and he is unsure how old she was when he picked her up.

I'll post a tank pic soon once I make sure I've got Tapatalk setup on my phone.

Offline Steve

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Re: Miles' 150gal build
« Reply #159 on: November 30, 2021, 14:40:33 »
Welcome back, looking forward to the tank pics.

Offline Miles

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Re: Miles' 150gal build
« Reply #160 on: November 30, 2021, 14:45:18 »
Welcome back, looking forward to the tank pics.
Looks like it?s gonna have to wait until after dark, getting way too much glare from the windows?.

Setting a reminder for later?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline Miles

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Miles' 150gal build
« Reply #161 on: November 30, 2021, 16:31:46 »
huh... thats interesting... looks like Tapatalk is having issues and making all punctuation into questions marks....

While I'm waiting to get a good non glared pic of my tank... I figured I'd share my rant I had with my brother earlier about the Icecap Gyres I recently purchased and their Apex integration. Really the issue is that the Coralview Hydros App is not user friendly at all....







to make this work...
3:02
I have to define each pump as a separate output...
3:03
then you create a schedule for that output... the schedule defines the timing and the flow pattern
3:03
you define a mode to run different schedules
3:04
the apex can only trigger modes
3:04
image.png
image.png



3:04
this is my graph in Apex Fusion...
3:04
twice a day... at 4am and 4pm it runs Nutrient Export mode
3:05
the rest of the time it runs Gyre
3:06
the percentage on the left corresponds to a voltage output from the Apex... 0-100% maps to 0-10v in 0.1 v increments
3:06
each mode in the Hydros app is mapped to a trigger voltage
3:06
so Gyre mode is mapped to 5v and Nutrient Export mode is mapped to 6v

if i trigger feed mode on the Apex, it passes 2v to the pump which puts it in Feeding mode

« Last Edit: November 30, 2021, 16:51:37 by Miles »

Offline Miles

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Re: Miles' 150gal build
« Reply #162 on: November 30, 2021, 17:45:50 »



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Offline Miles

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Re: Miles' 150gal build
« Reply #163 on: December 01, 2021, 14:10:17 »
I had 2 sicce 2500 pumps on my skimmer and I finally got tired of constant issues with them and bought a bubble blaster 5000.  What a great skimmer pump, never regretted the expense.
Jeff

Just broke down and ordered on of those PSK1000 pumps... found one on sale at saltwateraquarium.com. I then discovered today while starting a deep clean on the skimmer that the pump that I thought was bad actually works. Turns out it needs new bushings, which is a pain because you cant just buy bushings, you have to get the whole impeller assembly for $50, so since I have already ordered a new pump, I'm not sure if I'll go ahead and order a new impeller.

Offline Miles

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Re: Miles' 150gal build
« Reply #164 on: December 01, 2021, 14:30:00 »
I forgot I had a another thread on this tank, So I'll be moving over to that thread.....
https://ohioreef.com/index.php?topic=22012.0

 

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