Jason’s 185g Reef Savvy with Basement Fish Room

[inetjnky]

PJ, clown goby, lawnmower, and butterflies arrived today. 2 of the 3 PJs were DOA. Got a refund for those. Floated for 30 minutes and then followed the acclimation steps from the fish store and into my 55g QT they all went. Copper Power is currently at 1.0. I fed a little LRS reef frenzy, brine shrimp, and PE Mysis to see if I could entice a feed response towards the end of the day. I know I saw the PJ and lawnmower blenny eat, I believe the butterflies did but can’t be sure what they’re eating. Yellow clown goby I didn’t see eat at all unfortunateky yet. Hoping tomorrow I have better luck. Need to scrape the glass and hope to have better ones tomorrow.

 

[inetjnky]

Unfortunateky I woke up this morning and one of the triangle butterflies was dead. Did a freshwater dip but no flukes came out. No visible signs of infection. Perhaps it was just too stressed in shipping. Unfortunate but aquarium fish sale.com has not responded to my inquest about replacing the fish that didn’t even last 24 hours. I will not be buying from them again.

 

[inetjnky]

 

[inetjnky]

PJ cardinal passed yesterday. Everything else still alive. But this has been a humbling experience to say the least.

 

[mattgsa]

Love the all the new fish, and the build. Your tanks looks great.

 

[inetjnky]

Thank you. One thing I forgot to mention to be fair to aquariumfishsale.com is that they did get back to me late yesterday and refunded me for the butterfly loss within 24 hours so I was happy for that. Will put the $$ towards another fish or another pyramid butterfly for a vendor that has already completed the QT process.

 

[inetjnky]

I have two fish orders in… one from Ocean Devotion LA for 2 yellow triangle butterflies, one copperband butterfly, and 3 female lyretail Anthias. The only fish that made it in QT so far is the lawnmower blenny. He’s doing well. I also have a fish order from Dr Reef. 3 blue Saffire damsels (2 for the main display and one for the frag tank. Flatworm exit didn’t solve my issue so hoping these guys will). One royal gramma, 2 orchid dottybacks, 1 blue streak cleaner wrasse and two tomato clowns.

I also hooked up an energy monitor in my houses power panel to monitor power usage for my appliances and the tank.

With it hooked up we can see how many amps each of my 20a circuits is pulling

I inject this data into my local Hubitat Elevation hub which injects it into Node Red which injects the data into my local install of InfluxDB and I use Grafana to see historical graphs over time of power usage which will show me trends.

I intially bought this to monitor my Refrigerator and Outside Air Conditioning unit to know when it needed cleaned to maintain operational efficiency but found it useful to ensure I don’t exceed the 16a on each 20a circuit and alert me if I do.

 

[Mjl714]

Really enjoying the build, hoping for more success with the fish. Keep up the great work and thanks for the details.

I’m also interested in your comments on the effectiveness of your co2 scrubber.

 

[inetjnky]

Really enjoying the build, hoping for more success with the fish. Keep up the great work and thanks for the details.

I’m also interested in your comments on the effectiveness of your co2 scrubber.

I added a PH probe to the main display along with a temp probe that I’ve hidden in the overflow in the back box. I also drilled a hole in the cover and super glued in a float switch that I’ve hooked up to a break out box that when triggered turns the return pump off to prevent a flood. I’m hoping it never gets used but glad to have it as a safety feature just in case. As far as the CO2 scrubber, hard to say. I recalibrated my PH probe at the frag tank and it’s been reading higher since then. Now running between 7.75 and 8.0. I haven’t changed the media since I hooked it up. It’s not changed colors either like I was expecting. I may take it offline and see what, if anything it does to the ph values. Im in the middle of a kitchen remodel at the moment so stay tuned …

 

[dwair]

I can recommend TSM Aquatics and DR. Reef for QT fish that are going to come in healthy. Just a friendly tip.

 

[inetjnky]

I can recommend TSM Aquatics and DR. Reef for QT fish that are going to come in healthy. Just a friendly tip.

Thanks! I’m looking forward to getting fish I can place right into the display. Tired of it being empty!

 

[dwair]

Thanks! I’m looking forward to getting fish I can place right into the display. Tired of it being empty!

Yea you can get them fully QT from both, no QT from you needed.

 

[t5Nitro]

Really digging the equipment. Im looking at having a similarly sized display when I move again, around 60 or 66" x 36 x 18. Interested to know which specs you went with on the sump. It looks nice! Interested in something similar.

 

[inetjnky]

Really digging the equipment. Im looking at having a similarly sized display when I move again, around 60 or 66" x 36 x 18. Interested to know which specs you went with on the sump. It looks nice! Interested in something similar.

Thank you! The sump is 60x24x20 and was made by Advanced Acrylics. The sump originally was only to be 16” high but I increased it to allow back drain from the display and frag tank which are all plumbed in together. I didn’t want any check valves in the system to have to worry about failing or constantly cleaning. One thing I’d do differently for the main display for a 3/4” thick glass is ensure the height is 27” instead of 24”. More of a pain to reach the bottom but with using MP60s it would make spacing them and mounting them easier.

 

[t5Nitro]

Sounds great. Do the 6 drain bulkheads give you the flexibility for display, fuge and frag tank to each have 2 drain pipes coming back to the common sump?

 

[inetjnky]

Sounds great. Do the 6 drain bulkheads give you the flexibility for display, fuge and frag tank to each have 2 drain pipes coming back to the common sump?

Yes. I am running a bean animal drain on each tank, so two drains (full siphon and trickle) lead into the section before the sock section and an emergency drain flows to the skimmer section for sound effect if it flows water through it.

 

[strawberry_reef]

All I can say is WOW! 110% dream set up right there. Following along!

 

[inetjnky]

All I can say is WOW! 110% dream set up right there. Following along!

Thank you! Sure has been a dream of mine come true now for a few years.

 

[drtechno]

I have two fish orders in… one from Ocean Devotion LA for 2 yellow triangle butterflies, one copperband butterfly, and 3 female lyretail Anthias. The only fish that made it in QT so far is the lawnmower blenny. He’s doing well. I also have a fish order from Dr Reef. 3 blue Saffire damsels (2 for the main display and one for the frag tank. Flatworm exit didn’t solve my issue so hoping these guys will). One royal gramma, 2 orchid dottybacks, 1 blue streak cleaner wrasse and two tomato clowns.

I also hooked up an energy monitor in my houses power panel to monitor power usage for my appliances and the tank.

With it hooked up we can see how many amps each of my 20a circuits is pulling

I inject this data into my local Hubitat Elevation hub which injects it into Node Red which injects the data into my local install of InfluxDB and I use Grafana to see historical graphs over time of power usage which will show me trend bought this to monitor my Refrigerator and Outside Air Conditioning unit to know when it needed cleaned to maintain operational efficiency but found it useful to ensure I don’t exceed the 16a on each 20a circuit and alert me if I do.

OMG man. I just looked into iotawatt, absolutely amazing. I had no clue this existed and am ordering one right now. Thanks for a massive contribution to my house and tank build!

 

[inetjnky]

Have been getting a ton of micro bubbles in the display from water trickling out of the refugium from the secondary drain that emptied into the return section. Not sure what I was thinking when I plumbed it up however thank goodness for this PVC sump that is easy to drill holes where I need them. Rerouted the secondary drain to the skimmer chamber to give the bubbles time to settle out.