Following for this oneLong story short.. at least I will try.
I was reefing 15 years ago, 240G tank in the same spot my new ice cream container sized 65G will go.
A poor beaten man starting again in the shadows of greatness.
Last tank was run by a PLC with ATO, AWC using NSW. I used sensors hooked up to the home alarm zone 4 & 5 to monitor the tank sump level low and sump level high (pump off) and temp. The alarm company would ring me to say when those zones went off, it happened a couple of times when power went off, and saved my bacon. One outage was for 3 days.... After all we paid them to monitor all the zones on the house so there was no extra cost. No tank control systems in those days! I like to think I was ahead of the game...
The killer was the sump, stupidly (excitedly originally) mounted under the house where the wind blows hard in winter, Auckland NZ get to 0 to -2C in winter and no amount of insulation could stop $800 power bills as the army of heaters ran hard. Add new kids, 9.0% interest rates and my hobby was domed. I lasted 5 yrs but when i needed to upgrade equipment kids **** won. So tank went and a couple of book cases were installed.
To be honest it was a relief for the tank to go, no more worry, a weight was lifted. People under estimate the responsibly a reef tank creates.
But I look back fondly like when the misses looked good after 2 beers... not 12..Lol. My Fav fish was a massive ****** trigger, he was the man. Tank was LPS with a huge anemone being centre stage. No idea what it was, funny thing it just grew and never split. Test water nope... only salt level and MH's... like 4 x 250's. The wife loved the fish, hated that power bill!
Fast forward 2021... Can I have a new tank, NO.
So we start small and carry on and on and on until they give in.
What the F#ck it a tiny little tank, not like the last one....might get those ***** teenagers to lift their heeds from their phones.
So I win, like I do... enough time for pictures!
Stage one... wooden stand, and i m no wood worker, hated building this thing. Wood is expensive here even though it grows like a weed, all exported so we have to pay export prices!
Big wall, small tank... How we are a shadow of our once great self.
You can see the holes in the wall from the last overflow heading down to the sump chiller.
Following! This will be tough though I have my own build to consume most of my time. Oh well I can sleep when I’m dead.;DeadLong story short.. at least I will try.
I was reefing 15 years ago, 240G tank in the same spot my new ice cream container sized 65G will go.
A poor beaten man starting again in the shadows of greatness.
Last tank was run by a PLC with ATO, AWC using NSW. I used sensors hooked up to the home alarm zone 4 & 5 to monitor the tank sump level low and sump level high (pump off) and temp. The alarm company would ring me to say when those zones went off, it happened a couple of times when power went off, and saved my bacon. One outage was for 3 days.... After all we paid them to monitor all the zones on the house so there was no extra cost. No tank control systems in those days! I like to think I was ahead of the game...
The killer was the sump, stupidly (excitedly originally) mounted under the house where the wind blows hard in winter, Auckland NZ get to 0 to -2C in winter and no amount of insulation could stop $800 power bills as the army of heaters ran hard. Add new kids, 9.0% interest rates and my hobby was domed. I lasted 5 yrs but when i needed to upgrade equipment kids **** won. So tank went and a couple of book cases were installed.
To be honest it was a relief for the tank to go, no more worry, a weight was lifted. People under estimate the responsibly a reef tank creates.
But I look back fondly like when the misses looked good after 2 beers... not 12..Lol. My Fav fish was a massive ****** trigger, he was the man. Tank was LPS with a huge anemone being centre stage. No idea what it was, funny thing it just grew and never split. Test water nope... only salt level and MH's... like 4 x 250's. The wife loved the fish, hated that power bill!
Fast forward 2021... Can I have a new tank, NO.
So we start small and carry on and on and on until they give in.
What the F#ck it a tiny little tank, not like the last one....might get those ***** teenagers to lift their heeds from their phones.
So I win, like I do... enough time for pictures!
Stage one... wooden stand, and i m no wood worker, hated building this thing. Wood is expensive here even though it grows like a weed, all exported so we have to pay export prices!
Big wall, small tank... How we are a shadow of our once great self.
You can see the holes in the wall from the last overflow heading down to the sump chiller.
The Control center is key! Mine was all planned out until I saw the tank without a canopy on and scrapped the whole idea! Did I mention I had most of that cabinetry finishedDid I mention my plans for a control cabinet "Huston we have trouble" ..
Open the door, right hand door and there will be Huston's controls. What does one want in a Huston's control cabinet, not sure yet but that is work in progress.
But one must be able to access the crap behind the Huston control cabinet.
Now that is a door one could be proud of... what did it take to make. Enough wood to keep an Eskimo warm for a week. But that is my Huston door. Inside that door are the brains.
Like I said... life is not perfect. So when the sh%t hits the fan, we need to stick our head in to the matrix of wiring that will be controlling this tank. Opening the front door will not help, we need access.
Did I mention Huston... the end comes off.
Its a good feeling to pull the end off..LOL and in we go...
Yes the top is crap... its for my trailer...
Design and built the pendant now trying to figure out where to put the electrical bits so that they don’t get sprayed with salt water:mad:
