ChukeeR's 266G Reef Savvy + Synergy Reef Build / Upgrade

[tgp4274]

did you clean off the back part of the flange??? sometimes it has a ridge of plastic from the mold almost looks like a seam. I always scrap them off with a knife so the back side of the bulkhead against the rubber gasket is smooth. I then whipe the back side and the gasket with achole before I install them..

 

[dan40b]

When I got my overflow kit from glass holes the included a tube of aladdin magic lube for the gaskets. Seemed to help make a good seal. My tanks been running for a little over 2 years with no drips. Good luck and don't give up!!!

 

[booth2010]

What if you take pvc cement and put it inside the bulkhead to fuse the crack back together? Think that would work? Such a small crack just doing it on the inside as to not mess with the threads might fix it.

 

[HiddenUser]

Going to see if Sch 80 bulkheads will work...They may not, but I figure I'll try since I've put very small hairline cracks in a couple bulkheads...It's worth a shot.

 

[bschowa]

Did you drill your own overflow holes or did reef savvy drill them? Have you contacted them at all? Perhaps they drilled them too big and some water is sneaking around the gasket? Otherwise you could always put Teflon tape I use blue monster it's a lot thicker around the threads when you screw on your bottom peice. Only other thing I can think of that I have seen before (just a suggestion please don't take offense as I am only trying to help) is people will put the rubber gasket on the outside of the tank vs inside the overflow where the water is which causes slow leaks

 

[HiddenUser]

4th time is a charm?? 2 hairline cracked bulkheads (I only hand tightened them) and a presumably bad seal (bad gasket or something preventing a good seal)...I've had the overflow box filled for 2 days now and still dry.

We'll see if I just jinxed myself or not.

 

[HiddenUser]

I think we're finally in business!! Everything is running smoothly and everything is still dry! Raw shrimp has been added to the sump and I threw in some DrTims Nitrifying Bacteria to hopefully speed up the cycle. I got some schedule 80 bulkheads from Coralvue this week, but I have not swapped them into my plumbing system as everything seems to be working now. I did some comparing between the ABS bulkheads though and it looks like these should fit fine with the holes that were pre-drilled by Reef Savvy, should I ever need to use them.


Lots to be done yet...

- Decide whether or not to add some chaeto or other macro algae to my 125G reservoir tank.

- Migrate over my Apex, arrange all the cables and re-program if needed. Waiting for the tank to be cycled though so I can transfer over my livestock from my 90G system which is currently using the Apex.

- Need to get my ATO setup, but my 90G system is currently using my Tunze Osmolater so kind of waiting until I can tear down that system for this as well.

- Figure out if I'm going to actually make the switch from Radions to an ATI Powermodule or not. I'm partially nervous that if I go and buy some additional Radions for my tank right now that Ecotech will be releasing something new and improved shortly thereafter.

- Need to pick up some Ecotech MP60's or something else to get some decent flow going through the tank. Leaning towards these because I HATE seeing wires inside of my tanks.

- I'd like to pick up another Royal Exclusiv RD3 Speedy 230 watt DC pump so that I can have 2 returns for redundancy purposes in addition to more flow. Right now I have to split the 1.5" line coming off the pump into two 3/4" lines, then the two 3/4" return lines get split again to feed my four 3/4" return outlets. Three of the outlets have pretty decent flow, but one of them just barely has water coming out of it. I plugged one of the other outlets and the flow increased out of the outlet that was barely flowing so I know there wasn't something clogging my return line...So if I get another pump I'll have a pump per two return outlets and I should get more even flow out each of the return outlets.

 

[HiddenUser]

Not much to update...Everything is still running smoothly. Started working on the panel which I'm going to mount my Apex onto...Raw shrimp is in the sump...just wanting for this thing to cycle.

 

[booth2010]

Looking good man.

 

[KingTriton]

Following

 

[HiddenUser]

Got my some Salifert test kits delivered (The ones I had expired) and I did some testing last night...0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrite, and 10 Nitrate. I've also been tracking the ammonia spike with a Seachem AmmoniaAlert. I saw the ammonia spike peak out around .05ppm.

Looks like DrTims nitrifying bacteria and some raw shrimp cycled this thing much faster than I anticipated! Tank has had water and raw shrimp in it for about 2.5 weeks now.

 

[booth2010]

Im sure you will but I would still wait till at least a month has gone by.

 

[HiddenUser]

Multi RMS was delivered yesterday so I moved over my current 2 Radions from my 90G to my new tank. Planning to pick up another 2 or 3 Radions in the future and then rotating them 90*, but I'm going to make due with two for the time being.

I'm still undecided if I really like how the tank looks with the RMS opposed to hanging the lights. Doesn't look bad, but I'm not sold on it 'looking great' either...I might just need to get use to it though as I've had previously had my Radions hanging from the ceiling for the past 3 years or so.

Oh - and my pair of snowflake clowns and magnificent foxface moved into their new home as well. Still have a Blue / Green Chromis pair, Gold Head Sleeper Goby, Starry Blenny, and Blotched Anthias to move...but I'm taking my time with that as I'll most likely need to tear down the other tank in order to get them out.

 

[Laredo300c]

first of all , congratulations on your reef savvy tank. Everything is looking great...

as for the lights, i , personally love my Kessil a360w with goosenecks. I use vinyl wrapped cord to hide my wires and in my honest opinion, both the kessil goosenecks or the ecotech individual rms mounts look more attractive than your multi light mount. looks to me like a side to side railing mount is not up to par with the quality of your tank.

 

[TUSI]

Beautyfull. Build with detail

 

[HiddenUser]

Started tearing down my 90G tank...Got all the remaining fish moved out into the 65G tank that's been running for the past few months along side of my sump. Eventually they'll make there way to my main display. Had to frag some of my corals as that tank had become overrun with Aiptasia as I've neglected it since I've been working on my new build. I have those frags in a separate tank so I can keep an eye on them and make sure they don't grow anymore Aiptasia. Moved my 2 Ecotech MP40s to my main display. I think I'm going to need to order a new wetside for one of them as I cannot get it to stop rattling no matter how much I move it around. Hoping to have these tie me over until I get some funds to upgrade to 2 MP60QD pumps.

Have a 3rd Radion Pro showing up today too. My LFS has a pretty successful mixed reef that has similar dimensions as my tank and they are only running 3 Radion Pros so hopefully this will be sufficient to get me started. I know that if the tank becomes very full of SPS I'll probably need to get at least another one. I assume by then Ecotech will have a whole new line of Radions though.

Also seeded the 'refugium' section of my sump (the one with all the rubble rock) with about 6000 Copepods that I got from @AlgaeBarn. Hopefully I can get a ton of these established so that I can get a mandarin the future. One of the fish I've always wanted.

Going to see if I can set aside some time this weekend to get my Apex moved over and reprogrammed for my new tank. I figure that shouldn't take to long though.

That's about all I have for now...Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!!

 

[BigDaddyD]

I might be repeating myself...but I love that rock work!

 

[HiddenUser]

I might be repeating myself...but I love that rock work!

Thank you. I'm not an artsy person at all and amazingly it actually didn't really take me to long. A bunch of Tonga branches as the bases, then Pukani and a shelf. LOTS of little caves and crevices and what not for the fish to hide in.

 

[HiddenUser]

One month FTS and a shot of one of the new inhabitants...

 

[HiddenUser]

It might be time for me to find some different heaters to run. I originally thought that three 300 watt Finnex HMO-300s with Digital Controllers would do the trick, but I feel like they're having a hard time keeping up. With about 360 gallons of total water in my system and a sump in the basement where the ambient temps are int he mid 60's I figured 900 watts would be sufficient.

Additionally the temperature controllers on all three of them is about 10* off. My Apex, a glass thermometer, and another digital thermometer read 77-78 and the controllers on the heaters read 87-88*, so it doesn't appear that I need to re-calibrate the Apex temp probe. This makes me somewhat uncomfortable as I prefer that the heater controllers be within their advertised +/- 2 degree mark as I intend to use their controllers as backups to the Apex should the Apex ever lose it's communication with the EBs.

I have the controllers on each of the heaters set to 90*. Then I have my Apex set to keep the heater outlets on until 78*. Once the water temp is 78* the heater outlets turn off. When the water temp drops below 77.6 the outlets turn back on.

Another weird thing I observed is that the Apex is reporting that the EB8 which I have the heaters plugged into (nothing else plugged into the EB8) is only using 3.7 Amps at max...I would have thought that three 300 watt heaters consume closer to 8-9Amps? Maybe my EB8 isn't monitoring the Amps correctly? I read some articles about potentially needing to calibrate the EB8s for Amp monitoring. OR the heaters really aren't 300 watts? I'm thinking I'm going to try my 'Kill-A-Watt' meter tonight when I get home from work to see if each heater is actually drawing the advertised amount of electricity.

Doesn't look terrible when looking at Fusion...



But when I look at the Apex App on my phone it definitely seems like it struggles to meet the 78* temp in the overnight hours. I'd prefer to see a more consistent and predictable increase to 78* then drop to 77.6* and repeat, similar to what happens between 2PM and 8PM.



I wish the Cobalt Neo-Therm heaters came in larger sizes; I really like them. I had two 200 watt Neo-Therms on my 90G and they worked perfectly for over 2 years. I'd probably need at least five 200Watt Neo-Therms at a minimum to heat my system.

Not sure which heaters I'm going to try next at this point...Might go with some Ehiem Jagers. Other recommendations are appreciated as well!



UPDATE - Just ordered three 500 Watt Finnex Titanium Heating Tubes. Going to control them with the Apex as I've already been doing, but hopefully these are sufficient for the rest of the winter. I imagine in the spring / summer I can take one of them offline.