300 gallon oasis build in AZ

[1ocean]

ah coffee time outside while it is nice and cool out.72 degrees now. Got the new sump in on Sunday and the water recirculating from sump to tank with the first skimmer running. Today gonna work on adding the 20 inch tall stand in sump bio pellet reactor, which I modified to fit inside the sump so I can put a lid on the opening. Also plan to get the stand in sump air exchange(aerobic) reactor in and modified to fit. Hve to build a brace to hang the small reactors for carbon, gfo (when needed) so they stay out of the water but inside the sump. I wrapped them all so they are "Blacked out from light" but left a veiw window. Also have to build a prefilter tray (12x4) for felt, or cotton pad with a foam pad under it for extra filteration. . I am doing away with the filter cups(they clogged and reduced flow to much). The prefilter tray will be easy just take out the dirty felt etc, throw it away and replace. Waiting on new UV sleeve for the new Lifegard UV I got last week. While putting it together I cracked the top of the sleeve screwing on the internal cap with rubber fitting. Ordered two sleeves. I am totally happy with this new sump design, after building 3 and using them over the last 2 years, I finally have a design that totally works and easy to maintain and allows room inside to move stuff around with out all those chambers walls in the way. Also made the 3 chamber walls with adjustable walls for height changes if needed. Ah coffee is ready...

 

[1ocean]

New UV sleeve came. I ordered 2 just incase..So all went well and I have a spare. UV all plumbed in yesterday. Let the glue dry and today turn it on and adjust pump to speed ...UV is a beast...will post pic of new sump and uv once I get it all done. Working on final details to the patio and house addition so I can get a final inspection next few weeks. Have a great weekend everyone....

 

[1ocean]

New UV is all done and running/ also got the manifold made for the reactors . got the bio pellet reactor and a reactor with 2 large boxes of siporax in it hooked up and running. pushing 1664 gph.. last two reactors will be carbon and gfo both as needed.
Update 7/19/23 so after letting the reactors and bio pellet run for a few days I was not happy with the lack of water flow through the bio pellet reactor. So I have decided to do some research and rebuilt. New post coming.

 

[1ocean]

Well I got my hands on a used reef octopus bio pellet reactor 140. The 1/2 feed pipe and exit pipe are to small to handle the water I want to push through it to totally stir up the pellets the way I want. I noticed some of the bigger units made by other co for big tanks and have 3/4 inch feed and exit and some have recirculating pumps. SO tomorrow I am going to modify the one I have to up grade it to 3/4 to move more water for the 300. Will take some before and after pics and post. I think with the 3/4 inch upgrade I do not need to make a recirculating modification.

 

[1ocean]

Here is the Bio pellet reactor before I modified it from 1/2 inlet and outlet to 3/4 inlet and outlet. I am also going to replace the down tube from 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch. This should really turn the pellets and I believe there will be no need for a recirculating pump to help turn the pellets. Go a new Jebao DCQ-6000, which I am going to build a 4 valve manifold and have the Jebao feed the manifold. The manifold and the main water feed pipe will be 1 inch pipe from the Jebao. From there there will be 4 valves that will have screw in pipes unions from the valve to change pipe sizes. The bio pellet will be 3/4 inch pipe. The other pipes after the other 3 valves will downsize to 1/2 inch to feed water to the 3 reactors since they do not require the water volume the bio pellet will. A carbon, gfo (both as needed) and a reactor filled with 2 boxes of Siporax media. I am also building a air exchange tower with bio balls so that water can trickle over the bio balls. This tower will be feed with the water that exits the siporax reactor. ah coffee is ready. The a trip to Home Depot for parts...

 

[1ocean]

Got the biopellet reactor modified from 1/2 inch pipe to now 3/4 inch pipe inlet and outlet. This should produce some great biopellet turning.. Will be hooking it up tomorrow. Made the manifold with 1 inch feed pipe from a Jabeo pump to 3/4 inch pipe and valves. 4 valves total ..

 

[1ocean]

Picture of the modified Bio pellet, carbon (I wrapped in white vinyl to keep light out, with a view window) and gfo reactor. Should be hooking them all up today to the 1 inch manifold with four 3/4 inch valves I made which will be connected to a Jebao dcq 6000 pump just for this manifold.. Bio pellets have been soaking in Microbactor 7. Reactors are 21 inches and 13 inches tall

 

[1ocean]

300 been up a little over a year(Jan) and we just can't beat the algae or keep sps corals alive and now lps is becoming a problem.. so I did some reading and asked alot of questions and the feed back and what I learned is that it seems that the lace rock/lave rock whatever they called it when I bought it years ago and some last year is leaching all kinds stuff that the algae love and also alot of bad stuff metals etc. So started making new water,150 gallons in next few days then going to remove all the lace rock and do a 50% water change. Ordered some marco rock and motar set. We have a few places around here that we are going to shop for those key piece, flat and big marco rock etc. . What a major set back but has to be done. Guess this weekend we will be playing with dry rocks and glue..Then once new rock is in going to do 50 gallons every week with Brightwell salt for 6 weeks. So lesson learned, even though the lace rock looks nice and some people use it in tanks, the stuff we used is bad and more then 95% of the information out there says, lace rock etc bad for reef tanks. So I want to share this, in hope to prevent anyone else from having to experience what we did. Have a great day...

 

[Projects with Sam]

wow what a bummer! so sorry to hear but I am sure you're glad you figured it out!

 

[1ocean]

yep glad I figured it out and now just moving forward,,,

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

If only you were in a community that had a thriving group of people to help you along your way. I was just giving buckets of rock. From a tank tear down.

Something that you probably won't read is that a good treatment for used rock is an acid bath and then a soak in lanthanum chloride will help pull those phosphates out. But be careful because that's a double edges sword, because the rock will then want to absorb any new phosphates in the tank until it reaches a balance.

If you still need some rock, hit me up, I probably literally have tons from all the tank tear downs lately.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Oh, and some advice on the mortar for the rock, I wouldn't skimp. I ran out of emarco and needed another bucket and instead of waiting I tried that hydrolic cement from lowes/home depot and it lasted about 2 years before falling apart.

I would highly suggest the e marco 400 for bonding rock.

 

[1ocean]

Oh, and some advice on the mortar for the rock, I wouldn't skimp. I ran out of emarco and needed another bucket and instead of waiting I tried that hydrolic cement from lowes/home depot and it lasted about 2 years before falling apart.

I would highly suggest the e marco 400 for bonding rock.

yes I got the e marco 400 bucket system...

 

[1ocean]

If only you were in a community that had a thriving group of people to help you along your way. I was just giving buckets of rock. From a tank tear down.

Something that you probably won't read is that a good treatment for used rock is an acid bath and then a soak in lanthanum chloride will help pull those phosphates out. But be careful because that's a double edges sword, because the rock will then want to absorb any new phosphates in the tank until it reaches a balance.

If you still need some rock, hit me up, I probably literally have tons from all the tank tear downs lately.

Thanks for the advice, yes I did research about the acid bath and the bleach bath methods. I ordered new marco and carbisea rock. Carbisea is never good to acid or bleach methods for new rock I was told. Thanks for the offer of rock, we are trying to create as much open space as possible this time...

 

[1ocean]

started doing some building ideas yesterday....still a lot to play with before gluing. Using the old 140 tank stand modified with a piece of plywood to represent the base of the 300 for idea...going to try and build a arch or two...

 

[1ocean]

ah coffee time here and we spent most of the day having fun taking out all the rocks which were lace and lava rocks, from the 300 and replacing them with the new marco/caribsea rock build we did. Built it in sections to make moving and puting into the 300 easy without breaking the glued seams. Plus the two openings on the 300 are only 29x20. Also did a 50% (150 gallon) water change to help reduce all the bad stuff the lace/lava rocks leached into the water...Used instant ocean salt since it was cheap for this big change. for the next month will do a 50 gallon water change (using Brightwell) to help continue to reduce the bad stuff in the water along with chemipure, carbon addition as needed. All the corals and zoa's have been taken out of the 300 and moved to a frag tank to minimize shock and so we can continue to remove the algae that they got overrun with in two months.and make more frags of what we have.
I hate lace/ lava rock learned my lesson bad for reef tank, ok for fresh water and I never really had problem with it in NY in fish only. I guess where they get it from on the east coast is different from here in AZ. So different bad stuff in the rock ????...out here...???
Will also reduce the 4 Radions to 20% and keep the 3 Kessel's total blue at 50%...for a month or so..
And so the new journey begins for the 300. Will post pic after I am done rerunning the electric wires, as we did a complete citric acid clean of all the pumps, gyres etc and added some equipment..

 

[1ocean]

I got a new Lifegard UV for the 300 and picked up a used (the biggest) Lifegard bio pellet reactor. I was happy with the other reactor brand I had, I just wanted something shorter to fit inside (height wise) the sump. I like them both. I added (which I had from the 140) a Tunze 9430 to handle the output from the bio pellet reactor. I made a small acrylic box to put the Tunze in and have the output from the bio pellet reactor going into the box so that the Tunze can process as much as the output as possible. The box then overflows (all four sides) into the large chamber where I have a the main (huge Reef Octopus ) skimmer. Today going to hook up the new gfo and carbon reactors I made, which due to space limitations in the new large sump will be outside of the sump in their own overflow box with a overflow pipe incase they leak. The overflow (if they leak) pipe will drain into the sump if a leak should happen.

 

[1ocean]

Oh, and some advice on the mortar for the rock, I wouldn't skimp. I ran out of emarco and needed another bucket and instead of waiting I tried that hydrolic cement from lowes/home depot and it lasted about 2 years before falling apart.

I would highly suggest the e marco 400 for bonding rock.

Thanks for the advice...Yep...We only used the marco rick mortar. We totally this time went with LESS rock and more open space as you can see from the pictures..Made the left and right tall rocks into arches that are in the piccture.

 

[1ocean]

Well its Sept 17 and its been just about a month since taking out the old lava/lace rock and putting in the marco and caribsea rock structures. Did 150-gallon water change when we put in the new rock (Aug 12th) and took out all the zoa's and coral frags from the 300 and moved them to frag tank, We did not want to shock corals and also wanted to keep fighting the algae that the lace/lava rock caused by leching all kinds of nasty stuff. Used Brightwell Razor.
So far everything is good, went through about a 2-week run off a very small amount of algae growth on the new rocks, which is just about gone...Great thing is that algae growth is very minimum to almost zero on the glass and gyres, so it was worth the effort to do the rock exchange.
Since the 300 is bare bottom except for 20 pounds of sand in the far back left corner for the wrasses, I added a two small reactors with a large box of siporax in each which then the water that exits them goes into a basket with 10 pounds of caribsea "ARM" to help stabilize PH etc. The water flow is slow to help increase anerobic bacteria.
So far the water tests are getting better, but I did find out that my Hanna checker (phosphorus ulr) has given up..New battery and no mater what water sample I test it flashes 200...So ordered Hanna checker phosphate should be here soon. ...

 

[1ocean]

Yesterday we moved all the zoa's and corals back into the 300 since its been coming on two months since we did the lava/lace rock swap to marco/caribsea rocks. New rocks had a small bloom of algae for about 2 weeks which is all gone. Going to do 120 gallon water change this Wednesday. So far the water changes have helped alot in getting rid of the stuff the lace rock leached out and I can see the test numbers coming down to where I want them in line/ close to the Brightwell Neo salt number I am using.