907 Tank & Stand Build - 55 Gallon

[jmatt]

Getting trip #1 ready to go here, new totes, brutes + 10 extra new buckets cleaned, temporary housing equipment staged and 56 gal RO reporting for duty! More on the way. And a snowblower! Required. More work to go..

Holeee... I'm tired just looking at that.

 

[907_Reefer]

Trip 1 will be the easy part! Making more RO this week, want to get about 80 gallons in the truck since I won't be bringing the RODI setup itself on trip 1. Not sure where that's going at the new house so in between trips I'll pull it off the wall here and make a stand so I can throw it on the counter and hook to the sink there as needed..

Weather forecast for the middle portion of the part 1 drive looks good (no snow)!

Temps are F

 

[jmatt]

Weather forecast for the middle portion of the part 1 drive looks good (no snow)!

Temps are F

And that looks cold.

You seem to move around a bit... are you a rambling man?

 

[907_Reefer]

My wife just keeps finding cooler houses

We both work remote, and enjoy spending time in different areas of AK. Been an awesome experience, fingers crossed this will be our last move up here though - moving in winter is a pain!

 

[907_Reefer]

Made it down 300 miles to the new house below 0F most of the way with initial supplies, 2 brutes, 61 gal RO, salt, heaters, pumps, etc. Luckily justtt before we left our Tunze Osmolator 3155 ATO showed up! I've been not thrilled with leaving the tank for a week at a time and having the salinity increase from 1.024 to ~1.027 as the water evaporates. Little peace of mind!

As this will be a multi trip project, we also have an Avast Marine Plank auto feeder v3.5 on the way. Looking forward to running both after the move is completed also for a little more automation as well

From here we'll have RO and SW prepped to run back up and grab livestock and the tank. Weather is not behaving 100% however and will affect the move schedule..

No need for wire management yet

 

[Projects with Sam]

Balls

Made it down 300 miles to the new house below 0F most of the way with initial supplies, 2 brutes, 61 gal RO, salt, heaters, pumps, etc. Luckily justtt before we left our Tunze Osmolator 3155 ATO showed up! I've been not thrilled with leaving the tank for a week at a time and having the salinity increase from 1.024 to ~1.027 as the water evaporates. Little peace of mind!

As this will be a multi trip project, we also have an Avast Marine Plank auto feeder v3.5 on the way. Looking forward to running both after the move is completed also for a little more automation as well

From here we'll have RO and SW prepped to run back up and grab livestock and the tank. Weather is not behaving 100% however and will affect the move schedule..

No need for wire management yet

balls-out!

 

[907_Reefer]

Game on! And I did promise more AK scenery in this thread but have been slacking on it so far..

Sunrise today 12/23 at the new house, 10:40 AM local time. This will be the view opposite the tank

 

[907_Reefer]

One tank pic to add as we take a break for the holiday before continuing the tank move. After about 2 months of settling in our larger black Tubastrea has come fully to life

Merry Xmas!

 

[907_Reefer]

Moose alert, here to trim our yard algea

 

[jmatt]

Jeez, you really are out in the wilderness. Do they pose a danger in any way?

 

[907_Reefer]

Moose are common here but considered one of the most dangerous animals in Alaska, especially momma moose with her calves. You do want to keep your distance! Those photos were taken from the safety of our lofted deck

Stage 1 prepared at the new house, 2 brutes cycling ~31 gal RO and 31 gal SW with 200w preset 78 degree heaters and Jebao DCP 2500 return pumps. 80 lbs new Bahamas Oolite live sand also ready to roll as all sand will be replaced with this move, and thus reduced from the current 120 lbs to 80 for the new setup.

In more stressful news, the current tank location suffered a 6 hour power outage due to a blizzard while we were on this run. Prior to the outage the house was at 63 degrees, outside temp was 15F. I had not yet pulled the trigger on a MP10 pump battery backup and kick myself for not adding any of the 5 battery bubblers to the tank which are sitting on the table directly in front of it which I plan to use in buckets with livestock during the move. So, we'll drive all day in anticipation of how the tank handled that situation

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Moose alert, here to trim our yard algea

Crazy you got moose in your backyard, we get squirrels and birds. sometimes a neighborhood cat haha

 

[907_Reefer]

Crazy you got moose in your backyard, we get squirrels and birds. sometimes a neighborhood cat haha

Moose, black bear, wolverines, lynx are all common to find in the yard here. Plus bald eagles above. It's amazing, but you do have to check the yard quick before letting the dog out!!

 

[Gumbies R Us]

Moose, black bear, wolverines, lynx are all common to find in the yard here. Plus bald eagles above. It's amazing, but you do have to check the yard quick before letting the dog out!!

Wow!! that's awesome you get to be in the woods like that and see all those various animals that most people don't get to see on a daily basis

 

[907_Reefer]

It is amazing! One more for today:

 

[jmatt]

It is amazing! One more for today:

You're living in an episode of National Geographic.

 

[907_Reefer]

All day driving through snow and ice and we made it back to the tank - all are accounted for after the power outage (6 hrs w/outside temp at 15F) and a week fo travel! Only issue was that my new Tunze ATO optical sensor picked up a rogue salt patch and did not turn on any longer, dropping the water level almost an inch.. bah.

Trip was successful no thanks to my copilot who just slept the whole way!!

 

[907_Reefer]

FTS from today below! Did a little cleanup and gave her a hair [algae] cut.. Phosphates are definitely still elevated, lots of bubble algea as well which I'll scrape off when I move the rocks into buckets for their journey to the new house, within 2 weeks..

One note is unfortunately our yellow Watchman Goby has been appearing less and less. No show for a week, then he's out 1 day, then no show for the last week. Pistol shrimp is poking out feelers regularly but much less activity without Goby out front, so, monitoring that situation. No excavation has occurred yet.

When I was making SW last, testing against RO I realized my RO was reading less than 0 SG, BUT, I have calibrated with 35ppt Fritz solution repeatedly, same deal.. Posted a thread on it here, my brain still hurts trying to determine if my 35ppt solution has gone bad/elevated, or as Randy Holmes-Farley suggests, the refractrometer should always be trusted with 35ppt calibration, and can often read incorrectly with RO/distilled (depending the type of refractrometer), but my RO read 0 SG consistsntly initially, and is my 35ppt good or not, etc etc little rabbit hole.

RO Salinity less than 0?

Hey all, recently noticed when testing salinity on my RODI (BRS 4 stage, 8 months old), I'm getting less than 0 readings with a freshly calibrated Vee Gee Scientific refractrometer, where I used to get exactly 0 on my RO. Calibrated 3x now, same deal. All fluids at room temp ~68 F...

www.reef2reef.com

Our Avast Marine Plank Feeder is in! Looks great, tons of good reviews here. My timer (you supply) isn't in so no installation yet. Probably will install after the move, more to come here.

Also moved the new Tunze ATO sensor, which is pretty sensitive (which I like) towards the middle of the tank to increase flow to it as I have found out occasional floating salt build up and/or flake food can catch on there and block the sensor from triggering refills. Especially when I have it in the corner, and this 55g tank with no overflow/sump just increases junk on the water surface. Otherwise, this ATO is awesome so far.

Enough for now! FTS today w/orange filter (before ATO sensor move):

 

[907_Reefer]

Well my backup 35ppt calibration solution came in! But it froze in the mail and reads 1.019 after bringing to room temp #AlaskaProblems. But, I've determined that my other 35ppt fluid is good and that is the only way to calibrate a refractrometer, and we're definitely at 1.0245 currently.

Otherwise, it's a crap show around here getting ready to move the tank! But we're ready. Ish. *chewsnails*

 

[907_Reefer]

"Chews Nails", vs "Chew Snails"