Gareth’s 40 Gallon Breeder of Learning

[Gareth elliott]

Was running out of alkalinity test reagent. So ordered a hanna checker. Was with .5 dkh of my salifert test.

Also discovered my phone case is actually waterproof. Did a water change and knocked my phone into the bucket.

Phone completely dry lol.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Ordered something with no reviews lol.

Ordered an iLonda wifi controlled automatic feeder. Arrives wednesday will write up a first impression after its hooked up.

My work hours have been going towards the longer end recently and this is just to ensure i dont miss a feeding than replacing my frozen food.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Feeder, probably a waste of money...

controls are a timer, but on my phone [emoji23]

But this skimmer stand is pretty nice.

Has a circle level as part of it to ensure its installed properly. Screws have silicone feet for vibrations.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Almost out of salt, purchased a bucket of live aquaria salt as its close to my current DD mix and $30 cheaper.

 

[NY_Caveman]

I use it and I like it. Right where I want my parameters. I let it mix for a while though. Did you get the free T-shirt?

 

[Gareth elliott]

I use it and I like it. Right where I want my parameters. I let it mix for a while though. Did you get the free T-shirt?

Yes [emoji23]

Really ordered the bucket because dislike boxes of salt lol

 

[NY_Caveman]

Yes [emoji23]

Really ordered the bucket because dislike boxes of salt lol

I got the box last time and it was a real pain. I ended up putting it in a 5 gallon bucket anyway.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Ordered an open box AutoAqua AWS from BRS. Probably wont hookup till we move. But a savings of $30 was hard to pass up [emoji23].
Thought is this plus the cheaper live aquaria salt coupled with switching back to BRS 2 part will be a slight cost saver over ATI essentials, plus a huge time saver. Of course will have the upfront cost of a mixing station, but again cost/time spent is the main goal.

 

[Gareth elliott]

I dont like opening or closing this bucket [emoji23] pain in the buttocks.

But at $30 cheaper than my DD h2ocean small concern.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Very simply hooked up the aws.

Its not set to do automatically but made 5 gallons of water. And have the sensor marked at ~1 gallon. Tap a button it removes the water, beeps tap another button refills stops. 5 days ill make more water and dump what was taken out. When this is a permanent install will use a drain instead of a bucket. And have the fill be a permanent mixing station. Will be about ~14% volume a week this way instead of the $10 i was doing. But should be more stable this way as there were weeks i skipped bc of work. And caught up by doing 2 10% a day apart. will need a bigger scale when i set up the mixing station so its always x(water) to y(salt).

Current scale wont weight that much at once.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Well ordered a frag pack from a company never heard of. Pic of what was included.

Will post some frag pics once i actually light them [emoji23].

Was packed well nothing leaking. And heat pack was sufficient for the overnight trip from WI to NJ.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Temporary auto water change setup. When we move will be larger containers and my ro/di setup to fill the new water tank.

But till then this at least saves the hassle of siphoning.

 

[count krunk]

Well ordered a frag pack from a company never heard of. Pic of what was included.

Will post some frag pics once i actually light them [emoji23].

;Dead;Dead waiting for those pics!

Could you give some more info on your AWC set up?

 

[Gareth elliott]

;Dead;Dead waiting for those pics!

Could you give some more info on your AWC set up?

https://www.bulkreefsupply.com/auto...aMEM2Hy2AeG2lwFWZ3pD0UA8EPp87ElxoCEl0QAvD_BwE

Bought this as an open box from brs.
It has 3 pumps and 2 sensors. 1 pump drains the water, one pump refills and one pump is the ato pump. One sensor is the drain level one is the refill level for both the awc and the ato.

I am not using the ato function yet. As didnt have room to move my trigger reservoir till i scooch some furniture.

Will take some frag photos after my dslr charges

 

[Gareth elliott]

Been awhile since i updated,
Took a promotion the day of my last post. Was about my last day off. As my tank was still running dinoflagellate control from my outbreak over the summer, was still dosing phosphate and nitrate, but now i wasn’t able to test, but never remembered to turn off my doser over a month phosphate shot up to .6ppm nitrate upto 50ppm.

Lost nearly all my coral again, went on a reverse course as my schedule hasnt relented.

Ordered enough ati tests to do bimonthly testing for 2 months.

Put gfo in my empty biopellet reactor and added purigen for the nitrate.

Only corals left were the photosynthetic gorgonians(thrived as a matter of fact lol)

-using the aws to do 1 gallon a day water changes.

-twice a week dosing vibrant for the bubble algae. With the vibrant also dosing microbacter 7 and waste away.

-cleaning my sand bed with a gravel vacuum once a week.

So far nitrate down to 30ppm, phosphate hasnt moved that much yet, sure there is some rock and sand binding that needs to be broken before this starts to drop drastically.

Not adding any stony corals till my schedule improves might do some more gorgonians to help with the nutrients, but after the cyano starts relenting.

Have seen improvements with the bubble algae, there was a lot, now its here and there.

Also added a few different species of pods.

Daily been removing algae from my fuge.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Waiting on plumbing to be delivered to install a manifold pn my reactors. All 3 Will run off a stand alone dc pump that just supplies the reactors instead of individual pumps. Also did not want a clogged reactor effecting my return flow.

Bigger sump, same violet pvc, silicone tubing and fittings.

With this redesigning the order of compartments.

Instead of going fuge -> skimmer -> return

Will be skimmer -> fuge -> return and reactor pump.
Thought process will be less chaeto getting to my skimmer, and fuge no longer have some areas blacked out by filter socks. Will see how this works in reality [emoji23]

 

[Gareth elliott]

So on a lighter note to my coral and algae issues.

My clowns have decided to switch their hosting spot, no longer my overflow but a dying portion of cyan that grew on the back wall and fell over [emoji23]

 

[Gareth elliott]

Details of changes:

Manifold, powered by a jebao dc return pump. Honestly i went this route since the alternatives were more than 3x the price or more. And this is only supplying reactors. Fails, nothing overflows, the rest of the tank is unaffected.

Went with 1” silcone tubing to connect to 3/4” violet pvc. Buying the fittings at home depot as is hard to know exactly what you need till installing.

New sump:
Trigger amethyst 26.
Will fit my eshopps x160 skimmer matches the color scheme of purple and white.

New reactor for the purigen is a brs mini. With an extra canister, when exhausted, replace and recharge in bleach.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Ok some of the odds and ends ordered. To try and attempt a color scheme for the most part.

Sump

Manifold valves
Going spray paint the black white, at least the parts not covered by hose anyway.

For hard plumbing the tank.

Reactors might also get a make over but not right away. Like spray painting the bracket of the brs reactor purple. Or perhaps just the white hose havent decided.

Also mixed up 20 gallons of water so this easier to switch just empty the current sump, replumb, let cure a day and refill turn on.

 

[Gareth elliott]

Corals that arrive next week,

2 more photosynthetic gorgorians from Pacific East Aquaculture. Algae has pretty much been defeated theres still some residual bubble algae here and there but the vibrant has gotten rid of 90% of it. The cyano with the gfo has all but disappeared. Did do a dose of chemiclean yesterday as i will be doing a large water change with the sump change out anyway.

What i ordered.