Beginnings of the Acro Reef --- RS Reefer 425

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

Propeller Breeze, Propeller Control and temperature stability

It's amazing how helpful cooling fans can be, especially considering how little space they can take up. Prior to installing my two Breeze fans, my temperature use to peak above 82°F. After connecting two of these to the ProfiLux, the temperature has become much more stabile with daily swings of about 0.6°F.

In the ProfiLux, I set my desired temperature to 77°F and fans to control temperature via the 1-10v interface. If the temperature climbs above the desired value, the ProfiLux will automatically increase the speed of the fans. If the temperature reaches or exceeds 80.1°F, the controller will automatically run the fans at 100%.

Salinity monitoring: Stable as can be!
Aside from small deviations caused by differences in the salinity of the mixed SW, the tank's salinity has remained as stable as can be. The tiny fluctuations are a normal response to the varying temperature values throughout the day. The ProfiLux shows me values in PSU which is equivalent to the PPT value shown in handheld and digital refractometers.

According to the chart, in the past week my conductivity has hovered between:
32.8 ppt (1.0247 SG) and 33.4 ppt (1.0252 SG)

Looking at the chart showing my salinity in the past month, still stable and steady...no large changes or sudden spikes to report here.

Oh and don't worry about the seemingly drastic drop in the chart. In PSU or PPT terms, the level went from 34.2 (1.0258 SG) to 33.0 ppt (1.0249). In SG perspective it's only a difference of 1.001...just a miniscule change.

Overview of tank
So far the tank has done well and things are moving along nicely. If I ever need to get an overview from the controller, just a quick connect via the phone (Note 9), tablet (iPad) or cloud and I can get a quick glimpse from the dashboard.

More updates coming soon!

 

[Michael Gray]

New wifi update 7082??? I have 7078 I believe

 

[SkiCatTX]

Great build. Do you have your auto water change hooked up yet?

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

Great build. Do you have your auto water change hooked up yet?

Thanks!

Not yet, it's still one of the things on the to-do list.
I have to get a few parts together before getting that WC system up and running. The 2 sensors for the job are already installed, now its a matter of waiting for the necessary tubing to arrive so I can run the drain tube outside the house.

I'll definitely include that in an update once it's all setup and running.

 

[Larry J]

This is giving me great ideas as I mull over my configuration while I wait for my custom tank to arrive. I'm envious!

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

December 2020 update
AWC system installed, new corals added, stability remains...

AWC setup
Over the past month, the AWC system has been setup and is now managed by the ProfiLux. By utilizing the Doser Maxi which is placed in a cabinet right beside the display, I have setup my water change program to replace 3 gallons, 4x per week for a total of 12 gallons.

When it's time to refill the reservoir, I just connect the hose to the ball valve and turn ON the mixing pump in the SW mixing vat. All-in-all my it takes no more than 5 minutes of my time to refill the tank. No more carrying buckets.

New delivery of Fauna Marin goods
After having setup the AWC system, I started to run low on salt mix. Rather than ordering only the mix, I figured it would be a good opportunity to load up on some other goods too!

I picked up some test kits, trace elements, new batch of KH and Ca supplements, carbon, fish foods, PO4 remover and CO2 scrubber reactor with media. This should hold me over well into the next year!

Installation of Skim Breeze (CO2 scrubber)
Since the windows are now closed for much of the day, there will be an inevitable climb of CO2 levels in the room which means the tank will experience lower pH levels. To combat this, I've hooked up the Skim Breeze reactor to my skimmer. Over the next month, I'll be closely monitoring my pH levels to see what impact this has on my daily pH swings. As of now, I'm seeing a swing of 7.7 - 8.2. If I can minimize this to 8.0 - 8.2, I'll be happy.

KH Director: Control enabled
A couple weeks ago, I decided to hand over the KH control task to the KH Director. By letting the KHD do the adjustments for me and comparing it to my existing dose schedule, I am able to see by how much the KHD had to adjust each dose. This level of data has allowed me to further fine-tune my dosage schedule. Little by little, adjustments will be made to the schedule to tighten the day-to-day swings.

Of course as I continue to add corals, further adjustments will be necessary.

ATO average daily consumption
Lately, I have been keeping an eye on the average evaporation rate of the tank. By having the ProfiLux record the dosage events of my ATO pump, I've learned that my tank evaporates about 600ml per day! This figure also includes any skimmate pulled from the system and moments when fish and coral were added. At this rate the ATO reservoir (10 gal) lasts me about 8 - 9 days. I've set a reminder in the app to notify me when it's time to refill the reservoir.

Fish and coral photos
Here's a few photos of the tank.

 

[Aheinz]

Looking great

 

[Tristren]

Very nice indeed!

Could you talk a bit about the settings you are using for the KH Director and how you'll be using them to adjust your dosing?

The instructions and videos are clear on how to set and adjust the control. But it would be great to hear some thinking behind the why of picking different levels and types of control, when to adjust etc...


Tony

 

[MightyMO]

Everything is looking great!!! I am losing alot of water to evaporation currently myself... Winter months with heaters on is the culprit... Let me know if that device stabilizes your ph or not... Still am offering up my tank to be a GHL product test tank. If you all are intrested, let me know. Not running any form of controller on my tank other than the kessil lighting controller... spectralx... keep up the good work with your tank!

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

Very nice indeed!

Could you talk a bit about the settings you are using for the KH Director and how you'll be using them to adjust your dosing?

The instructions and videos are clear on how to set and adjust the control. But it would be great to hear some thinking behind the why of picking different levels and types of control, when to adjust etc...


Tony

Sure thing.

Since handing over KH control to the KHD, I've closely monitored the results of each test and kept a close eye on larger swings. By using the KHD history and comparing it with the current dose schedules, I was able to see whether the KHD was spending more time adjusting my dosages upwards or downwards. That info combined with any larger (0.4KH or greater) increases or decreases, helped me decide how my dose schedules should be adjusted.

As of now, these are my KH control settings:

In the past couple weeks, I decided to adjust my KH dosing schedule because I wanted to see how my KH levels would react to less doses per day vs. more doses per day. I went from adding 50ml per day (10 doses @ 5ml each) to 45.6ml per day (8 doses @ 5.7ml each). I also changed the time of the first dose to 1:00AM just to keep the dose event and test event separate. The change of the first dose time isn't as significant since the KHD takes a few minutes to run through the preparation cycle before it actually pulls a sample of water for testing...by then the dose will have happened and been mixed.

As of now, I'm still in the adjustment phase because my pH levels have gone up since adding the Skim Breeze media. The rising pH level has inevitably increased the KH consumption rate of the coral. I'll go into more detail on the next update.

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

December 2020 update (round 2)
Skim Breeze CO2 media is surprisingly effective! Because of it, I'm still at it with the KH dose adjustments. My goal is to maintain an average of 0.3°dkH stability. I was getting there, but then the pH levels went up...

Observation of Skim Breeze results
After installing my CO2 scrubber media (Skim Breeze), I ran into some slight hiccups. During the first week, I had to adjust my skimmer drain valve a few times because the cup kept filling up with nothing but water. Interestingly, this only happened after I started using the CO2 removing media so I'm going to say the media affected skimmer performance for some odd reason. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

Once the skimmer stabilized, I noticed that my daily pH swings were becoming more stabile. In the chart below, you can see how wild my pH swings were during the first week of running Skim Breeze. Prior to introducing SB, these were the typical swings I was getting. No improvements were noticed during the first week because of the skimmer issues mentioned earlier.

After week 1, you can see how the pH steadily climbed to where it is today. Overall, I am now getting 8.1 at the lowest and 8.4 at the highest. So far so good with the SB media.


To keep track of how long the media lasts, I recorded the SB start-date in the GHL logbook.

Skim Breeze's indirect impact on Alkalinity levels
Naturally when pH levels rise in a reef, Alkalinity consumption tends to go up with it. The result?
Lower KH levels

A view of the Alkalinity levels from Dec. 11 (SB media start-date) to today shows the impact rising pH levels have had on the tank. During this time no corals were added and no further adjustments to dosing schedules were made.

Taking a close look at the past 5 days (Dec 24 - 29), I can see the pH level has found a new average daily swing. Because of this recent change, the KH levels have dropped a bit below my target (8.5dkH). I'm going to keep my dosing schedule as-is for the next week to see how the coral responds to the elevated pH and lower KH. If the results look good, then I'll keep the schedule as-is and reduce my KH target to 8.0 so the KHD does not have to make more adjustments than necessary.

Dashboard overview
Tank is making steady progress...levels are stabilizing and salinity remains consistent.
More tank pictures will come in the new year!

 

[Michael Gray]

Is it most efficient for fans to blow straight across the top of tank. Basically at you or down at the water surface

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

Is it most efficient for fans to blow straight across the top of tank. Basically at you or down at the water surface

I'd say you'll get more effectiveness from pointing the fans directly at the water. The air flow will spread throughout a larger surface area and provide better cooling.

 

[bitwise]

What's your cadence for probe calibration? Can you set reminders for that too? I recently bought a Profilux 4e and a KH director, but have yet to set everything up (hopefully this weekend).

 

[Manny’s Reef]

Awesome build. I just went through every single post here in one sitting.

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

What's your cadence for probe calibration? Can you set reminders for that too? I recently bought a Profilux 4e and a KH director, but have yet to set everything up (hopefully this weekend).

Congrats on the purchase!

Yes, you can setup a reminder for basically anything that comes to mind, including probe calibration. All of this is done through the GHL Logbook which is accessible through the app and cloud.

Here's the current list of categories I have setup for the tank. As you can see, it's basically a collection of measurement logs, notes and reminders.

Specifically for my pH probe, I setup a reminder for every 4 months. When it's time to calibrate again, the ProfiLux will notify me through the Logbook. Once that task is done, I can record it as "Complete" and be reminded again in another 4 months.

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

Awesome build. I just went through every single post here in one sitting.

Thanks for checking it out!

 

[Vinny@GHLUSA]

Build update: March 2021
Since the last update, things have gone fairly well. I've had some coral losses here and there, mostly because the good ol' urchin decided to "bump" into the corals and knock them into the sand. With the flow and random "thunderstorm" events, the sand would cover those pieces and the coral would die because of that.

Ironically, the corals that have been added lately are more softies than SPS...but that will soon change once the tank ages some more.

Equipment update
Cabinet LED lighting upgrade
On the equipment-end of things, there was one detail I overlooked when I was planning the cabinet lighting...I didn't think to get waterproof LED strips.;Facepalm

It didn't take long for those little diodes to burn out one by one because of the humidity in the sump compartment. Rather than replacing the strips with more of the same, I found the waterproof version of the strips from the same brand. Since the originals were getting replaced, I thought it would make sense to add some more lights in there.

So far so good!

Pax Bellum N18 reactor installed
As you can see from the photo above, I have also installed a Pax Bellum N18 reactor for PO4 and NO3 management. As of now my NO3 stays around 20 - 25ppm. The goal will be to use this reactor for primary NO3 management along side the ProfiLux controller. By using the GHL flow sensor, I am able to monitor the flow rate going into the reactor. I've also setup an alert command within the flow sensor so the ProfiLux notifies me when the flow rate drops. This alarm will serve as an indicator for when it is time to "harvest" the chaeto.

Overall, this N18 is a chaeto growing machine! Since putting it online (Feb 1), I have harvested twice. Given enough time, I'm confident this guy will help keep my Nitrates and Phosphates until control.

ION Director in the wild
So far so good on the testing. A few more touches here and there and it'll soon be shipping.

Here's a couple photos to show it does it exist.
I think you'll like the option of having ZERO waste water...

More details will be released when appropriate.

 

[Manny’s Reef]

That starfish looks amazing! What a great compliment to an already amazing setup.

 

[revhtree]

Build update: March 2021
Since the last update, things have gone fairly well. I've had some coral losses here and there, mostly because the good ol' urchin decided to "bump" into the corals and knock them into the sand. With the flow and random "thunderstorm" events, the sand would cover those pieces and the coral would die because of that.

Ironically, the corals that have been added lately are more softies than SPS...but that will soon change once the tank ages some more.

Equipment update
Cabinet LED lighting upgrade
On the equipment-end of things, there was one detail I overlooked when I was planning the cabinet lighting...I didn't think to get waterproof LED strips.;Facepalm

It didn't take long for those little diodes to burn out one by one because of the humidity in the sump compartment. Rather than replacing the strips with more of the same, I found the waterproof version of the strips from the same brand. Since the originals were getting replaced, I thought it would make sense to add some more lights in there.

So far so good!

Pax Bellum N18 reactor installed
As you can see from the photo above, I have also installed a Pax Bellum N18 reactor for PO4 and NO3 management. As of now my NO3 stays around 20 - 25ppm. The goal will be to use this reactor for primary NO3 management along side the ProfiLux controller. By using the GHL flow sensor, I am able to monitor the flow rate going into the reactor. I've also setup an alert command within the flow sensor so the ProfiLux notifies me when the flow rate drops. This alarm will serve as an indicator for when it is time to "harvest" the chaeto.

Overall, this N18 is a chaeto growing machine! Since putting it online (Feb 1), I have harvested twice. Given enough time, I'm confident this guy will help keep my Nitrates and Phosphates until control.

ION Director in the wild
So far so good on the testing. A few more touches here and there and it'll soon be shipping.

Here's a couple photos to show it does it exist.
I think you'll like the option of having ZERO waste water...

More details will be released when appropriate.

Wow just amazing!!