Glb's 40g upgrade!

[glb]

Update. I bought a small bathroom sink cabinet from Ikea and am using it as an electrical cabinet. Here’s some pics:

I’m going to build a lid where the sink would have gone. I liked the cabinet because it was less than 10” deep and since it’s for a bathroom it should last. I’m putting legs on it to protect it from water. I have an EB8 coming and I’ll be mounting it below the Jr. by mounting a sheet of plywood on the back. It’s so nice to have all the electrical out of the tank stand. It’s big enough to hold any additional modules, equipment, etc.

As far as wiring, I drilled another hole in the back of the stand and put a grommet in it. Now all the wires are under control and it looks so much better.

My next project is converting a gfo reactor to an algae reactor to help with excess CO2 in the house and hopefully raise ph a little. More pics to come!!

 

[samnaz]

Love the cabinet! Looks great.

 

[kschweer]

Update. I bought a small bathroom sink cabinet from Ikea and am using it as an electrical cabinet. Here’s some pics:

I’m going to build a lid where the sink would have gone. I liked the cabinet because it was less than 10” deep and since it’s for a bathroom it should last. I’m putting legs on it to protect it from water. I have an EB8 coming and I’ll be mounting it below the Jr. by mounting a sheet of plywood on the back. It’s so nice to have all the electrical out of the tank stand. It’s big enough to hold any additional modules, equipment, etc.

As far as wiring, I drilled another hole in the back of the stand and put a grommet in it. Now all the wires are under control and it looks so much better.

My next project is converting a gfo reactor to an algae reactor to help with excess CO2 in the house and hopefully raise ph a little. More pics to come!!

Perfect fit!

 

[glb]

Perfect fit!

I know, right? I'll only be opening the doors when I put it out to work on it. I love that it has bead board like the stand. I'll probably buy another one for the right side for test stuff, etc. Since it won't have wiring attached I may put it on cabinet slides so I can slide it out and back.

 

[glb]

Love the cabinet! Looks great.

It would be great in a small bathroom too!

 

[glb]

Here’s a thread describing how I finished converting the stand:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/h...sink-cabinet-into-an-electrical-stand.424919/

 

[glb]

Rock and roll

Open box special from BRS. 4 bulb Sunpower. Now if I can figure out how to hang it.

 

[glb]

New ATI 4 bulb t5 fixture hung. I am a happy reefer.

 

[kschweer]

New ATI 4 bulb t5 fixture hung. I am a happy reefer.

Looks great! You’re going to love the fixture. What bulbs did you go with?

 

[glb]

Looks great! You’re going to love the fixture. What bulbs did you go with?

1 coral plus, 1 purple plus, 1 Odyssea white and 1 Odyssea blue actinic (already had last two). I’ll change them over to ATI lights eventually. I’m so happy with how it looks.

 

[glb]

Here’s the latest. I have an Icecap 1k Gyre on the way. It’s adjustable and I think just one will be plenty of flow for my LPS tank. The electrics stand is more organized, I’ve added one acan and the tank is going through it’s ugly stage since adding the T5's. I’ll take some pics tomorrow when the lights are on. After I get the gyre going, equipment wise I’ll be set as far as the big things. I hope to add automatic water changes, an algae reactor, and maybe a CO2 scrubber if the reactor doesn’t do the trick with the ph. This whole process is so much fun. There’s something to be said for adding equipment little by little. Looking forward to it is half the fun!

 

[glb]

Look what came in the mail today...

 

[glb]

Right now the flow is set at 50%, which is 500gph. The return pump flow is about 250. The fish were blowing all around the tank right after I turned the gyre on. I know I shouldn’t laugh but it was hilarious.

 

[glb]

Hi everyone! It’s been a while since my last update so here goes.

A few months ago I had a massive outbreak of brown furry growth in the tank:

I think it might have been chrysophites. I started reading zero nitrates and phosphates because the growth was consuming it. I treated with Reef Flux and that took care of the growth, but the nitrates and phosphates were still zero. Dosing with Brightwell Neonitro and their phosphorus additive is helping. The nitrates are now 10ppm but the phosphates are still zero. I’m dosing 10ml/day of the phosphorus with a dosing pump until there’s po4 that’s measurable. My acans didn’t make it and the torch is struggling. There’s a lot of cyano right now but that’s just the ugly part of cycling since lights were added. Green slime algae gets on the glass so I have to clean it daily.

I’m down to 5 fish right now and am planning to add a few more. Until all this is sorted out, no more coral. I’ll take a pic of the tank once the light comes on. It looks so much better than it did!

 

[glb]

Here’s the algae I still have:

Looks like cyano on the sand. It’s encrusted and I can lift it off. I already removed a bunch.

It’s hard to see, but this is short and green. I think it’s just garden variety green algae. I’m going to post on the algae forum to be sure. The phosphates still read at 0ppm. Nitrates after a 5g water change are 5ppm.

I’m planning on some cuc’s to help clean up this mess. I’ll introduce them once they’re in the tank.

 

[glb]

Meet my two new Mexican turbo snails. What should I name them?

 

[Diamond1]

Jake and Elwood.

 

[glb]

Here’s the latest. I’ve switched to daily water changes. 1352ml daily equals 2.5g/wk. It is so much easier than the big changes, and my tank loves it! My torch coral is coming back and the rocks are starting to get coralline:

Here are my latest parameters with some notes:

Alk 9.9. I am dosing daily, will try 1ml/day so it doesn’t go any higher.

Ca: 340ppm up from 325 last week. I was dosing 5-10ml daily. I will go up to 20 this week. My guess is the coralline growth is lowering it.

No3: 2.5. This is holding steady. I’m going to dose nitrates for a week to get it between 5-10. It stays super low even with frequent feedings.

ph: 8.05. Up from 7.7 last week. I’m thinking the alk dosing is helping. I may add a CO2 Scrubber. I have the media. I’m going to buy a scrubber from BRS. They’re not expensive.

Temp: 77.6. Very stable with heater kicking in only at times. House temp is 73.

SG: 1.024. This is still low and I’m not sure why. I’ll adjust it up with extra saltwater slowly.

I have two new fish, a royal gramma and a diamond goby. Oscar the goby is going to town on the sandbed. The sand is totally clean now. It’s hard to see in this pic but he’s chowing down.

The tank has finally turned the corner. It’s been a ton of work but I think it’s ready for more coral. The next thing on my wish list is the salinity module, then a DOS for auto water changes. I have 2 BRS 1.1ml dosing pumps. One is dosing po4 right now. Eventually I’ll use them to dose alk and ca. This is so exciting!

 

[glb]

Coral! I’ve had the torch a while and it’s starting to grow again. The acan colony is new. So is the other single polyp. The guy at the lfs said it was an acan but it’s tissue seems firmer and the feeder fingers look different. Any guess on what it is?

 

[glb]

Here’s the latest. I added a co2 scrubber to help with the low ph. I used an old TLF 150 gfo reactor to save some money. It’s getting the ph up to 8.2 now during the day and the corals seem to like it. I have more alk and ca uptake. I drilled a small hole in the skimmer cup for the air line that goes to the scrubber. This feeds humid air to the scrubber and helps the media last longer. Here’s a pic:

So far the media is lasting and I’m very happy with the results. For a tank this size, the scrubber media is affordable.