The Kiddie Pool - Reflective's 225ish

Reflective · Apr 30, 2015

Got the light mounted a while back. I definitely can not move it by myself vertically, but I have about 8" of space behind the tank from the wall, and that lets me push the light far enough back that it's really easy to work under it. So I will probably buy a couple more brackets from Faztek and remove the option to move it vertically. Maybe something like a corner bracket to give the horizontal bars a little more stability/strength because they tend to angle down a bit when the light is moved towards the front of the tank.

I am using the Pacific Sun Pandora S for my lights. 4x145 w LED & 4x80w T5. I love the way the tank looks with them on. Hard to get an accurate picture of it... I'll have to play with my camera a lot more. The lamp was kind of confusing to set up because there is a lot of firmware/software to search through. I found it easier from the .eu site. I'm definitely not a fan of the bluetooth. I have to be within 3 feet of the tank otherwise it drops the connection. I wish they had an ethernet option. I do like their software a lot. Pretty easy to use once it's all set up and connected.

Reflective · Apr 30, 2015

Working on my controller set up now. It's hard to imagine how many cords you have to deal with until you start trying to make them all come out of the same place. Here is what I have so far.

Acrononomus · May 2, 2015

Wow really clean setup! Looks great! Love the open aqua scape! One recommendation, I noticed your check valves are on an angle, u might wanna position them closer to the pump verticle ....

great job tho!!

Reflective · May 11, 2015

Acrononomus said:
Wow really clean setup! Looks great! Love the open aqua scape! One recommendation, I noticed your check valves are on an angle, u might wanna position them closer to the pump verticle .... great job tho!!

Thanks for the tip. I know the valves said they could be mounted horizontal or vertical so I thought they could work at an angle as well. So far they work fine, but I will definitely keep an eye on it. That's why I am glad they are clear so it's easy to see everything.

Breakthecycle2 · May 11, 2015

My only suggestion for this great build will be to get rid of those reef flakes ASAP. In about 6-8 months, your nice clean white sand will turn brown, similar diatoms and never go away. Do a Google a search and you will see Im not crazy.

Reflective · May 11, 2015

Nitrites and ammonia are 0! Super excited to have that part over. All my pretty white rock is now turning brown *bittersweet*

I finished my controller box. Not quite as pretty as I would have liked, but I'm still happy with the concept. I will working on paint touch ups later when I work on the stand facade.

Before organizing *cough*cramming*cough* tons of wire into tiny spaces:

Covered & Open:

Closed:

Reflective · May 11, 2015

Breakthecycle2 said:
My only suggestion for this great build will be to get rid of those reef flakes ASAP. In about 6-8 months, your nice clean white sand will turn brown, similar diatoms and never go away. Do a Google a search and you will see Im not crazy.

Are you saying sand in general or the specific Tropical Eden brand?

Breakthecycle2 · May 11, 2015

No, specific to Tropic Eden. I have no idea why. I loved it when I started my old tank, but around the 6 month mark, the sand constantly turned brown. I thought it was flow, phosphates, everything. I checked it all. I had triple the required flow. So finally when I started planning for my new tank, I searched around the internet and found out I wasn't the only one by a long shot.

Reflective · May 11, 2015

K thanks. Googling it now.

bairdimusprime · May 12, 2015

amazing and innovative!!! i love it great job!

Reflective · May 28, 2015

Got my first fish in the tank! Yellow Flanked Fairy Wrasse from Pieces of the Ocean. Super colorful. Took me a ton of photos, camera settings, forum tutorials and youtube videos to figure out how to take a good picture of it! You can see a couple learning pictures at the end.

Figuring out how to focus on the fish and not rocks:

Bad custom white balance:

Reflective · Aug 7, 2015

So much has happened! Some good, most not... I stocked my tank with a pretty good mix of corals and they had all been doing well for about a month. I had some SPS sticks, a couple encrusting montis, a torch coral, ricordeas, acans, a couple chalices and zoas. I also started using the Triton Base Elementz with no water changes. My refugium was fully stocked with different algaes. I added several more fish: Banggai Cardinalfish, Black Cap Basslet, Clownfish and a female Flame Wrasse (was supposed to be a pair but I'll get to that in a bit).

Then I had to take a trip. Worst idea ever. My husband was staying home so I tried to simplify everything as much as possible for him. He wouldn't have to do water changes which was good. So his basic duties were feed the fish, change the filter socks, empty the skimmer and refill the dosing containers. If he felt like it, he could scrape the glass and stir the sand but I left that as an optional thing.

The first weekend I'm gone - "record" rainfall in San Diego and a crazy thunderstorm and the power goes out. The ups backup we have can only run the pump for 90 minutes. That comes and goes quite quickly. So then he is scooping out water from the sump with a bowl and dumping it back in the tank. After doing this every 15 minutes for a couple hours he is pretty annoyed with my tank. I suggest making a quick trip to the store and buying another ups. Well that quick trip took almost 2 more hours because most of the street lights were out and apparently people around here don't know what to do when there are no lights. He charged the new ups in the car on the way home. He sets it up, plugs in the pump and it runs for 30 seconds and dies. So I ask him to dump some more water with the bowl and suggest he put both ups in my van since it has a couple outlets. He is now saying "I'm over this fish tank.". I start crying. I didn't think I would cry but I was pretty upset at the thought of losing everything and I didn't know it at the time, but I was pregnant so I'm sure those hormones helped the tears. He definitely felt bad I was crying so he set everything up in the van. He stopped complaining as much when he realized he could sit in the van with the AC running while the ups charged. Luckily he didn't have to sit in the van long and the power came back on.

So then I figured as long as there are no more power outages, the tank should be good. A couple weeks after the power outage, he tells my my Green Birds Nest isn't doing so well. Looks like something is eating it and he sends me this picture:

I have no idea and I assume all the parameters are ok because of the doser. He did say the temp on the tank got up to 81 because he forgot to turn on the AC so I figure that is the problem.

I come home a little over a week later and look in the tank and notice many corals are dead or 90% dead, and there is cyano everywhere. I also notice the dosing containers are empty. My doser is supposed to have an alarm when the liquid levels get below 5%, but apparently it didn't work or he just turned it off without thinking about why it was going off. I never asked. Figured there was no point. Damage was already done.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Reflective · Aug 7, 2015

The cyano ledge:

It almost looks pretty and rainbow-y... almost. It was covering 90% all of the sand as well. Although after only a few days of the doser being back on, most of it has disappeared. I haven't had the desire to siphon it all out yet. Honestly when I first got home and looked at the tank, I was ready to just post the remaining stuff for sale and quit. But I'm glad that was only a brief thought. At least the tank hadn't been running for years like some peoples have when a disaster hits. I can't imagine how heartbreaking that is.

Some of my corals are actually fine. The zoas, ricordeas, torch, and 1 or 2 SPS don't seem to have any tissue damage.

My rock flower anemone looks happy and bigger.

The fish are all doing great as well. A couple weeks before I left, I saw a pair of Hawaiian Flame Wrasses for sale online. There was also a coupon for 25% off any purchase so I went for it and bought them. Well when I got them, I actually only got the male, and he was DOA. So after a phone conversation with the vendor, I was still going to get the female and I would get a refund for the male. I got the female and she was fine. They actually gave me a credit for their store instead of a refund, but I didn't think it was a big deal.

Right before I got back, they had another male for sale. I wouldn't be able to get the 25% off, but I didn't worry about it and bought it using my store credit and a credit card for the rest. I also had to pay shipping even though the total was over the free shipping requirement, because of the credit. Still didn't worry about it. Got the fish, and looked in the bag... the fish was upside down and not moving so I thought it was dead. Then it moved it's gills just a little bit. So I did a temp acclimation and never saw him move again. I tried adding some cups of water to the bag after I opened it in hopes that he would somehow come back, but no go. I contacted the vendor and learned that there is no guarantee for fish bought with store credit. So now I'm out $355 and the fish didn't even get into my QT tank. They told me they'd give me a break on my next purchase... but I'm pretty upset.

Lesson learned - always ask for a refund on your credit card.

Mike&Terry · Aug 8, 2015

Wow! So sorry to hear about the losses, but glad that your fish are doing well, some corals survived and your rock nem looks quite healthy. Seriatopora is one of those corals that can thrive under many conditions, but it is extremely sensitive to alkalinity swings.

C. jordani (Hawaiian Flame Wrasse) males are stunning and one of my favorites. So sorry to hear about your ordeal. I learned the hard way with store credit as well and will never do it again. At least you still have the female and you will get to watch her as she grows up and transitions into a gorgeous male.

Just a suggestion... You might want to take a look at these:
http://www.petmountain.com/product/...m_medium=cpc&gclid=CIj9g7TxmccCFcQUHwodfzAPOQ

We keep them on all of our tanks as a "first line of defense" in case of a power outage. They run on D batteries and will AUTOMATICALLY turn on when power is lost. You'll get about 48 hours of continuous operation before the batteries need to be replaced. The air line tubing and air stones that come with the unit were not adequate for our situation, so we elected to buy separate air line tubing and larger air stones. We also added an air line check valve to protect the unit.

We have several friends in our area that have relied on battery air pumps to keep their reefs going for up to a week during a major power outage with no other backup and they suffered no losses. It is amazing how resilient fish and coral can be.

Harold Green · Aug 8, 2015

It's hard but most of us see losses as a learning experience so we know what to do or not do the next time. How did the storage behind the tank work out? When I did my build I bought an unfinished oak pantry cabinet and set it next to the tank, finishing stand and cabinet the same. What ups did you purchase? I'd like to have one that would run my return pump for at least an hour to give me time to crank up the generator in the event of an outage. You might want to consider a small 12v pump that you can run off a car battery to move water for an extended time. I don't remember ever reading an article mentioning how long the bacteria can survive in the sand bed or on the live rock without water flow and oxygen so I'm always concerned if the power goes out.

Reflective · Aug 8, 2015

Mike&Terry said:
Wow! So sorry to hear about the losses, but glad that your fish are doing well, some corals survived and your rock nem looks quite healthy. Seriatopora is one of those corals that can thrive under many conditions, but it is extremely sensitive to alkalinity swings.

C. jordani (Hawaiian Flame Wrasse) males are stunning and one of my favorites. So sorry to hear about your ordeal. I learned the hard way with store credit as well and will never do it again. At least you still have the female and you will get to watch her as she grows up and transitions into a gorgeous male.

Just a suggestion... You might want to take a look at these:
http://www.petmountain.com/product/...m_medium=cpc&gclid=CIj9g7TxmccCFcQUHwodfzAPOQ

We keep them on all of our tanks as a "first line of defense" in case of a power outage. They run on D batteries and will AUTOMATICALLY turn on when power is lost. You'll get about 48 hours of continuous operation before the batteries need to be replaced. The air line tubing and air stones that come with the unit were not adequate for our situation, so we elected to buy separate air line tubing and larger air stones. We also added an air line check valve to protect the unit.

We have several friends in our area that have relied on battery air pumps to keep their reefs going for up to a week during a major power outage with no other backup and they suffered no losses. It is amazing how resilient fish and coral can be.

Definitely going to by those battery powered air pumps! Very cheap and easy to replace the batteries if needed.

Maybe I should just buy another female wrasse to get a pair if one will turn into the male.

Reflective · Aug 8, 2015

Harold Green said:
It's hard but most of us see losses as a learning experience so we know what to do or not do the next time. How did the storage behind the tank work out? When I did my build I bought an unfinished oak pantry cabinet and set it next to the tank, finishing stand and cabinet the same. What ups did you purchase? I'd like to have one that would run my return pump for at least an hour to give me time to crank up the generator in the event of an outage. You might want to consider a small 12v pump that you can run off a car battery to move water for an extended time. I don't remember ever reading an article mentioning how long the bacteria can survive in the sand bed or on the live rock without water flow and oxygen so I'm always concerned if the power goes out.

I like the storage behind the tank a lot, but it doesn't slide out as easy as I would like and I'm not sure how to fix that. Right now it just has two cabinet slides mounted to the bottom. I don't open it very often so it's not a huge priority to fix right now, but definitely something on my to do list.

This was the UPS he bought: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00429N18S...lid=1GU8IDJOWQN81&coliid=I2JMV6GISMXRRW&psc=1

Never really got to test how long it would power the pump since the power came back on. Maybe I should do that today just to see....

Harold Green · Aug 8, 2015

Thanks for the info. I was actually looking for a ups that I could tie in a 12 volt marine battery to, to provide several days of backup power. The few I've found so far require a factory battery pack as an add on.

Reflective · Aug 10, 2015

I really want to clean my glass but I have tons of little cerith snails all over. I'm tempted to just scrap them off as I'm going, but I am restraining myself because I do like the work they do in the sand. When they are in the sand...

Sorry for the extreme blue photo! Used my phone for the pic

Reflective · Aug 25, 2015

So I am already going to get a new sump. After using it for a few months, there is a few things I wish I did differently with my DIY sump.
1. Wish I had used my original design to make the drain pipes empty into their own section, and make the filter socks their own section. The reason I didn't end up doing this was because I didn't plan for the black lip/frame around the top of the tank that I used for the for the sump. So I ended up making the drain pipes go into the filter socks, and plumbed unions to remove the last section of the pipes so I could change the filter socks. This has become rather tedious to do every day. And the more preggers I get, the less likely I will want to do it.
2. Wish I added more baffles. I wanted to give the refugium section as much room as possible so I decided to skimp on the baffles. I figured since the water level in the return area was going to be high, it wouldn't be a problem. Very wrong. Air bubbles galore. I've put a band aid on the problem by forcing the water from the refugium to the back part of the return, but a decent amount of bubbles still make their way to the return pumps.
Otherwise I was pretty happy with it. But now that I'm doing the Triton method I would like an even bigger refugium area. So this is the design I sent to Elite Aquatics: