Jason's 300 gallons of frustration and fun

[Radman73]

No power thanks to Irma but house is undamaged. I also now have a big marine battery as the back up power source for the MP40. Works great and should allow me to actually go to sleep tonight. Now, just waiting on Duke and being told we'll likely have to wait a while.

They've seemingly fixed everyone around us but we're a small outage so lower on the totem pole. Only half of the neighborhood is dark. Lucky us! Cruising along on the generator!

 

[Jim Harrison]

No power thanks to Irma but house is undamaged. I also now have a big marine battery as the back up power source for the MP40. Works great and should allow me to actually go to sleep tonight. Now, just waiting on Duke and being told we'll likely have to wait a while.

They've seemingly fixed everyone around us but we're a small outage so lower on the totem pole. Only half of the neighborhood is dark. Lucky us! Cruising along on the generator!

Happy to hear everything is relatively good!

 

[Alexander serrano]

Did you get your power back? We did good luck with the build.

 

[Radman73]

Did you get your power back? We did good luck with the build.

Yes! Friday at 3:45pm. My home mad battery backup worked like a charm. Glad you got yours back as well.

 

[Radman73]

I really hate water changes. Watched as my orange back jumped during a water change today. Looks like he landed on a scrunched up towel behind the tank, so at least it was a softish landing. I was able to pick him up and get him back in the tank within 30-45 seconds. He immediately went to his sleeping spot and has hung out there looking to be breathing heavily. Sure hope he pulls through as I'm less than 2 weeks away from starting the TTM and getting him and the clowns over into the 220.

 

[Radman73]

So, wrasse came through just fine. Hid for a couple of hours but was able to entice him out with some food.

Even better news, finally got the remainder of the DT rock ordered. Should be here Thursday or Friday. Also ordered netting material to block all exits from the canopy. Should be able to prep rock and get it in the tank by the first weekend in October and fish through TTM and into the new DT by the second weekend of October.

 

[Radman73]

Got the new rock in yesterday. Props to BRS for delivering exactly what I asked for which was roughly volleyball sized pieces. Ended up with less shipping rubble too though that's probably just the luck of the UPS draw. Rock is currently enjoying a bleach bath today. Tomorrow or Sunday it will get a muriatic acid bath followed by a day soak in RODI before I start playing with the scape some more.

My current fish will go through TTM starting next week. I have 2 10 gal tanks, 2 HOB filters, 2 Koralia nano 240's(if necessary) and 2 lids. I also have mesh to help block any little escape routes that the fish might try.

 

[Radman73]

Today's the day! First TTM tank is up with a HOB filter and small power head. PVC homes are in place. Ammonia badge and temp gauge hanging out together. Screen netting is cut and I think at this point I'll just tape it in place. Only thing I was unprepared for was the water temp. Mixing station is in the garage. Should have factored that in but nothing an ice pack from the freezer can't fix. Plan on moving the fish in between 12-1pm. Nice thing is I work from home so I can keep a close eye on them.

Edited to add:
Ordered a small CUC as well that should be here Thursday.

 

[Radman73]

Fish are in the first TTM tank. Wrasse is freaked out, laying on the bottom, and breathing heavily. But then, he does that if someone sneezes loudly too.

 

[Radman73]

And almost exactly 1 hour and 15 minutes later the drama king started swimming around. Ate too. All is well.

 

[Radman73]

3rd transfer complete. Even the wrasse is taking it like a champ and not going straight into hiding. Should be in the DT next weekend.

As to the DT, I finally got the last of the rock cleansed and put into the tank. Not exactly thrilled with the rocks cape but in a perfect world it all gets covered in coral someday anyway and nobody sees it lol!

Got a small CUC in and, unfortunately, I ordered with hermits rather than without. Didn't even realize it until they were in the tank. For now, they stay. But eventually I'll start picking them out and relegating them to the fuge.

 

[Radman73]

Hard to tell in the pic but the rocks are just barely on the sand. I'm hoping this helps with flow around the rocks. Also gives plenty of places for fish to swim through, hide, and sleep.

Otherwise, it's just meh to me lol! Too much vertical space. Might still rearrange it some if it doesn't mess up too much of the rock work. At the end of the day, I'm not hung up on how bare rock looks.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

Hard to tell in the pic but the rocks are just barely on the sand.

Consider more deeply anchoring the rockwork in the sand. You are going to have a lot of wrasse in the tank and they could potentially dig and move around load bearing sections of sand. That could be disastrous for fish & coral, or in the worst case the tank itself...

 

[Radman73]

Consider more deeply anchoring the rockwork in the sand. You are going to have a lot of wrasse in the tank and they could potentially dig and move around load bearing sections of sand. That could be disastrous for fish & coral, or in the worst case the tank itself...

Thanks for the feedback. All load bearing points of rock, sizable ones anyway, are supported by 2" PVC couplings buried in the sand. Rubble pieces were used primarily to hide any PVC that was showing. Though I can see that I missed one.

 

[Radman73]

Last transfer complete! Well, last until DT transfer anyway. Feels good to be this close.

Second AP700 has been ordered. Picked up a supposedly slightly used one. Should ship tomorrow. Need to figure out how to hang them. I have a couple of ideas.

So, finishing up my Black Friday wish list. Whatever I choose will be based on the sales, though the Fluval will be impossible to beat price wise. Everything is in order of my preference, but I love a sale!

Return:
Fluval SP6
or
Reef Octopus Varios 8
or
Ecotech Vectra M1

Controller:
Neptune Systems Apex - Have to upgrade if I want the Trident in the future.

Power Heads:
Tunze Stream 3 x2
Ecotech MP60 x2 - If only my funds would have been available last month lol! Doubt they do the sale again, but maybe.
Neptune WAV x2 - WAV is a consideration if it's on a special bundle sale with the controller

Misc:
Maybe an ATS to go with the refugium?
I need a new CO2 regulator.

 

[Radman73]

So, slightly off topic but completely relevant to reef keeping. Energy. Did something yesterday that I always wanted to do but never thought I would/could. Signed a contract for a solar system to be installed that will replace over 110% of our current average electrical use. It actually made more sense to finance it than pay cash as it would have severely depleted our reserves. But that financing cost still comes out to less than what our average monthly utility bill is, spread out over the term of course, and will someday be paid off ideally resulting in a significant return at that point. Should be installed by the end of the year so the electrical hit of additional equipment for the new aquarium will be nill. Pretty excited about this. May not even need the chiller I bought except for power outages as we can run the downstairs AC unit at a cooler temp!

At some point, when the tech matures and cost comes down, I'd like to invest in a battery system so we can disconnect completely from the grid. Someday.

 

[Radman73]

Rearranged the rock work yesterday afternoon after work. I watched Hunter's Macna video about how many wrasses live in rubble zones and it inspired me to try the scape again. I'm much happier this time.

I think the 30" height really throws me off. When I went from the biocube to the 60 cube the 24" height seemed huge. But it's nothing compared to the 30" height. I kept trying to pile rock up to get closer to the top but have instead decided I'll leave the top more open for corals to grow into and fish to swim. When we dive, many fish are swimming just above the corals, maybe this will replicate that. Well, at least when I get corals lol!

At the hospital now, stayed overnight, watching my father in law suffer through a rare T cell lymphoma. He's had his first chemo treatment and is in very bad shape. Puts everything into perspective and just how much we take life for granted.

I'll take pics of the new scape when I get home.

 

[Radman73]

And the fish are in! Second AP700 should be here Tuesday.

Bought wood for the in the hood light rack and hardware to hang it.

Also noticed some fin rot on the wrasse. I'll treat with kanaplex mixed with focus. Ordered some Selcon as well

So happy to finally have the fish in there. Now I just need Black Friday to come so I can get the rest of the equipment. Well, need the fallow period for my 60 to finish so I can move the rest of the rock and CUC over as well as a couple of corals.

 

[Radman73]

So, I noticed the wrasse had torn up fins when I got him into the DT and thought the female clown must have gotten short on space in the 10gal TTM tanks. Then I noticed some discoloration on it's side. Bacterial infection. Near as I can tell, I likely didn't clean or dry some of the TTM equipment sufficiently and there was enough bleach left to do damage. Pretty upset at myself as I thought I had cleaned everything sufficiently. In any case, I created a slurry of ova, Larry's, pellets, focus, selcon, and kanaplex to treat the infection via food. There has seemed to be some improvement since Sunday. The discoloration isn't as bad and neither are the fins. The fish itself seems fine. He's eating very well and swimming all over the tank happily exploring every cave, crevice, and hole it can find.

Moving forward, I think I'll be using 4 separate 20gal tanks for TTM each with it's own set of equipment. It's really not that much money and I should be able to find a place to stack the aquariums in the garage when not in use. Plus, the 20gal tanks will give more room.

 

[Radman73]

Busy days the last couple of days. I didn't like how low the fuge was in the garage. It wasn't going to be able to serve as overflow capacity for the sump, and frankly wasn't needed, plus I wasn't able to get much flow into the fuge because the drains through the garage wall to the sump were so high. So, I built a much taller stand, drained the fuge almost all the way down, and enlisted the help of a visiting cousin and my daughter to lift the current stand and tank up, slide the new stand under, and place the old stand right on top of the new one. The old stand had 3" stubby legs that worked perfectly as guides and to help secure the old stand on top of the new. This also served as a water change for the DT.

Since BRS was having bonus rewards and 10x rewards on the Tunze Stream 3, I ordered two of those as well this morning. The 5 year warranty really wins me over as well as their reportedly great customer service and reputation for quality. I just can't see spending over twice the money on MP60's for a shorter warranty. I really love the Ecotech MP's but it's getting more and more difficult to justify the cost, especially when the default answer after a year now is to buy a new wet side. So, excited that I'll finally have some real flow! If I'm not careful I won't have anything left to buy on Black Friday...