Beware the Shallows! An 80g Reef Reboot

[jedimasterben]

All this

for this little thing

 

[R33 GTR]

waaaaaoooooo thats a reaaly cool clam i like the color blue is very deep

 

[jedimasterben]

Quick update - new sump is in place (good lord the old one was FILLED with detritus, had a 1/4" layer on the bottom of the chamber with the rock in it!!), Reef Angel is programmed put in! The overflow is silent now, but the noise instead is now the splashing as it hits the water, and good god, the microbubbles it makes! I put a mesh filter sock on it to try and help, but I don't have a sock holder, so it is not holding it in place and the water pressure just pushes it down and the bubbles return en masse. I'll be grabbing a 1" barb to slip converter so that I can use FlexPVC and it should help out with this issue.

Tadaaaa!

Controller is in place... and ultra ugly. I don't wanna put it inside the stand, even though I have a bit of room now, but I might have to, cause this is just ridiculous. The wifey is totally gonna kill me when she gets home from her vacation tonight

And a video of it all to show just how ridiculous the microbubble situation is.

[video=youtube;vYBSafnJLvE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vYBSafnJLvE[/video]



Also, please don't eat me, I has a sleepy. (two new chalk basslets, and a new ponape birdsnest on the top left)

Also, I just found out that there is now only one version of the Reef Angel controller as far as teh dimming ports. There is now a little switch you can change inside the box to change it from PWM (newer digital dimming for mostly LEDs right now) to Analog 0-10v (what all other controllers use for dimming only, also compatible with Tunze pumps). I can now control my two Tunze powerheads directly from my controller, so I don't need the Tunze controller that I JUST bought. UGH!

 

[jedimasterben]

Got it hung and up and running. My grandpa didn't put the eye bolts in the right places, so I was freaking out for a bit when I went to hang it up (my blood sugar also measured around 50, so that explains why I couldn't come up with a solution). My dad suggested just swapping around the non-eye-bolts and they'd line up properly and should hang without twisting. Got home ~30 minutes ago and BOOM!

The light is not perfectly level from front to back, but it is just a couple of degrees off, which I'm fine with.


As for looks, it's pretty **** awesome, but it shows how absolutely terrible I seem to be at planning and execution. Wires still running everywhere, not planning out where the power supply for the fans would go and where their wires would chill out, etc.


I also either didn't do my angle calculations correctly, or the angle of the heatsinks is farther off that I'm thinking it is, as the far left and right edges of the tank are dimmer than the center, and PAR is around 1/3-1/4

I changed the LDD that the arrays run on. PAR would have been astronomical with all 1000mA (700mA for the violet). I am running the four BXRA at 500mA each (in parallel on one 1000mA LDD), the 12 M at 700mA each (on three LDD), the cyan and blue Rebels at 1000mA (each their own LDD), and the HV at 700mA (on two LDD). I ended up only needing two LDD boards and only one 7.3A power supply instead of two, so that is nice.


As it is, with all the LEDs at 100%, it is a nice crisp white with a blue tint. The above pictures are danged friggin terrible. On top of that, I took the old lights down at 5:30 and didn't get these lights on until 9ish, so the corals were all closed and the fish were mostly asleep. Color banding is minimal, but shimmer is as expected with LEDs.


For PAR, measuring all LED strings at the same time, and not correcting, in the center 24" of the tank, it is an even 500 PAR, and the height of the sensor didn't seem to matter much, PAR only drops by 25 or so going from 3" under the water to 9" under. Going off-center from that 24" area, PAR drops off very quickly, going down to around 100-150 on the edges of the tank. The edges are noticeably dimmer, but edge-PAR is still better than most people's lighting

Overall, I'm happy, and it is definitely different and will take some getting used to, but I like it and it looks like a definitively positive change.

 

[jedimasterben]

Got an algae scrubber up and running again. Once I get the LEDs later this week, this will be at least a '3 cubes of food per day' scrubber.

 

[SeahorseKeeper]

Looking good!!

 

[jedimasterben]

Thanks!



Also going to start looking into HOB skimmers, I'm basically out of room where the skimmer I have is now. It really won't be THAT necessary once the algae scrubber gets up and running, but I'd like to run it for a few days per month.


My drain is very, very loud, as well. I tried various lengths of the tube, in the water by a bit, right above the water, and a few inches above the water, and each I would consider a failure. Durso drains do the 'toilet flush' when they have backpressure, so sticking in the water is out. Right above the water and a few inches above are both very loud, but just with the water splashing into the sump water. I have to use a filter sock AND fill it with floss to get it to be remotely quiet and keep microbubbles from being completely ludicrous. I really do not want to use a filter sock at all (unless I am 'cleaning' the system and stirring everything up), detritus is a great coral food. Any ideas what I can do? Maybe stack some live rock right under the drain?

 

[BattleAthletics]

Why not put a reducer at the end?

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 4

 

[jedimasterben]

Quite a bit to update

Why not put a reducer at the end?

What would a reducer do? It would put backpressure on the durso standpipe and would cause the 'toilet flush' noise. Even just putting the 1.25" ID tubing onto a 1" ID barb and converting it to FlexPVC caused enough backpressure to cause the toilet flush.



Ok, for a list of changes made to the system.

Tunzes are gone. I've now got two Vortech MP40wES and one blue box MP10, but today I got the wES driver to sync the MP10. One of the wet sides on the Mp40s was about toast when I got it, so I bought another from a member here, which that one was I guess only used for a short while, but it was basically toast, too, but between the two toast ones I got one wet side that was kinda working, so I ordered the parts to fix it and those came in today, also.

I took the algae scrubber offline yesterday. I guess I am now in the algae scrubber cursed group, I can't get anything to grow on it besides a bit of bryopsis, and that just won't do. I tried everything - increased light schedule, decreased, increased total light, decreased total light, quadrupled flow, even, to no avail.

I got a new skimmer, should be here next Monday. It's a Reef Octopus model, but instead of the OTP pump, it comes with a Bubble Blaster HY-3000, essentially turning it into an SRO-2000.

Lighting is changed again, this time to a custom LED/T5 hybrid. See my thread in the lighting forum for details on that.

All of that being done, I can't wait to sit back and stop touching this tank. I've gotta pull the fish out once and for all and treat them for ich, I've been fighting this strain for so long now, it's ridiculous. I'm trying now to secure chloroquine phosphate to treat with instead of Cupramine, I think it may be resistant to copper. I got an order from LiveAquaria last week, and out of six fish, I have one survivor, but at least two were lost from shipping stress. So i essentially paid $65 for a coral beauty angel.

I added three acan frags last Friday that are looking good so far. I didn't realize how fresh of a cut they were (less than 24 hours, grrr) but  are surprisingly well so far, open and fluffy and reacting to amino acids with feeder tentacle extension.

I lost a bit more of my remaining coral, all my euphyllias and a few other small pieces, some of which I don't even remember what they were. Oy. One of the euphyllias was my first coral ever At this point, I have no clue why I lost them, realistically. My alk was higher than normal, but other than that, now I'm doing more things 'correctly' (like having a 'proper' amount of light and flow, good skimming, temperature and pH monitored and within normal ranges, using RO/DI water for topoff instead of just RO, etc etc), but having less success. I hope this passes.

Current pic of the system:

 

[powers2001]

Like the goby video. How big do those things get?

 

[jedimasterben]

Around 2" long.

 

[jedimasterben]

Got my new skimmer last night. OH LAWD! It is a BEAST with the Bubble Blaster 2000!!! It is a tornado of bubbles! Unfortunately, since the pump isn't a direct fit replacing the OTP pump that was on it, it has an extra 6-7" of length and won't fit into my sump. I was able to get a special threaded street elbow to attach it with and put the pump behind the skimmer instead of right beside it with a straight shot into the body, but it's the only way possible to get it to fit in the sump. I will eventually be upgrading the sump, more than likely to one of the Trigger Systems sumps, they're beastly. Not the Ruby line, unfortunately, those are sexy, but a bit too pricey

I also do want a refugium for a place to have some pretty macroalgae. I have GOT to get a rabbitfish, unfortunately it's becoming a necessity. Bubble algae is already taking over again. I have removed two measuring cups full TWICE now, a couple of months apart, and it continues to come back en masse with a vengeance.

But, gonna order one today from LiveAquaria. They have the pretty one I've wanted

 

[jedimasterben]

Got a scribbled rabbitfish, powder brown tang, and three money cowries from Diver's Den today.

Also got a frag of a birdsnest and a JF stylo, got them cheap, but hopefully my SPS death days are all over. Skimmer is kicking in and pulling loads more skimmate, this thing is ridiculous.

 

[jedimasterben]

Check this out, pH over the last 7 days.

The tiny fifth hump is where the controller bugged out and stopped updating the RA portal, so ignore that. The most interesting bit is the last hump. Last night, around 10:00PM, I opened both the windows in my living room, where the tank is, until around midnight. Since it's not as hot as satan's knob outside, it didn't heat up the house any more than it was (78 degrees when I'm not home). pH didn't drop sharply like it normally does. Will be interesting to see it later today.

Also felt much better in the house. My house has a LOT of built-up CO2 in it since I run the A/C constantly since it's friggin south FL. I've noticed big differences in how I feel when I have windows open and there is less CO2, and it's pretty much in line with the data on how excess CO2 affects us.

Still planning on ordering some TLF CDX media to make a CO2 scrubber for the skimmer. I was literally talking to kat a week or two ago about ordering some soda lime (the media for the scrubber) and to get a gallon pail of it (37lbs) was $89 (so $2.41 per pound), which was already much more expensive than it used to be a year or two ago. When I went to order it the other day, it had jumped to $116 for the same amount (so $3.14 per pound). Yikes. I looked up a few more places, and then found that TLF sells some. They sell a 3 liter container of it, so should be around 28.5lbs of media, for $45 (so $1.58 per pound). MUCH cheaper than even the gallon pail was a few weeks ago.



Also, both fish and the three cowries all arrived safe and healthy. The rabbitfish is massive - I'm pretty sure it's bigger than 4", biggest fish I've ever owned. It's also the daintiest eater I've ever seen. Gingerly grabs mysis and chews them up for a second lol.

 

[powers2001]

What mode is your vortechs usually in?

 

[Splascorals23]

If your 80gal rimless is up for sale I would love to buy it please call me513-673-0499 thanks

 

[jedimasterben]

What mode is your vortechs usually in?

Either Tidal Swell or Nutrient Transport mode, whichever I forget and leave them in lol

If your 80gal rimless is up for sale I would love to buy it please call me513-673-0499 thanks

... wat?

 

[revhtree]

Any new FTS?

 

[Maximus]

How's the blue squamosa clam doing?

 

[jedimasterben]

How's the blue squamosa clam doing?

Lost it after being on a 26 hour 'vacation', along with the derasa! The reef gods are mad at me!

Any new FTS?

It's crappy and literally covered in cyano, but what I have in there is mostly surviving.

Gearing up to catch the fish in teh display to treat with chloroquine phosphate that I was FINALLY able to secure in small quantities, so that's why the glass trap is in there. They're all already used to getting food from in there, and it's only been there a week

New Discosoma sanctithomae and Palythoa grandis from Aquascapers.