jcolliii's IM25 Lagoon journey - MASTERTRONIC up and running!

[Calm Blue Ocean]

New inhabitant yesterday!

Blue tuxedo urchin. Approximately 1.25". Doing a great job seeking and destroying algae. Hoping that he'll keep coralline and hair down. Will augment his in-situ food with pieces of nori. Super fun little guy to watch!

One of my favorite inverts! Great addition.

 

[jcolliii]

Awesome addition to your tank, seems to be doing its job well. I almost got one of those back when I was having severe algae issues but ended up going the chemical route instead. Good thing too because right now an urchin would stave in my tank. What clip in filter kit did you get?

I got the orphek one. Price was right and amazon had a 20% off deal going, so it was only around 20 bucks - and I only need it for quickies when I don't want to go grab the camera, so it should be fine.

Yep, I don't have a lot of coralline or hair either, so I will supplement with nori maybe every other day. Put a piece in last night on a magnet and it was mostly gone this morning. It poops perfectly round little spheres, and you can tell it loves coralline because all of the poops are pink and they all fluoresce like coralline does sometimes. Funny ****. Literally! Right now he's cruising the back glass, which is perfect - I know there is some coralline back there already that I had not scraped off yet.

 

[jcolliii]

FINALLY got the last part for my auto water change system today. Was supposed to be delivered days before it shipped. Leaving a bad ebay feedback and initiating a return was all it took to get them to ship. Arrived in an old oil box that was tattered, barely taped together and with two seams opened up so I could see the motor cover. As a testament to how we used to build stuff here in the US, it arrived mostly unscathed.

So, I have the NSW container, dosing pump, two pump heads, the high performance platinum cured silicone tubing that I got very lucky to find for the price I did. And I have my smart outlets that have timers built into the ap. That is most of the parts. Will pick up the tubing this weekend and the push-fitting parts and start putting it together. Still not sure which ATO to go with for the low water shutoff so that I am not pumping water out of the tank when the NSW tank is dry - that would be bad. I will be disabling the entire system when traveling, and setting the time to push a water change only when I am typically here - evenings around 10pm or so.

Should be a fun project, will make sure to document everything!

 

[TheWB]

FINALLY got the last part for my auto water change system today. Was supposed to be delivered days before it shipped. Leaving a bad ebay feedback and initiating a return was all it took to get them to ship. Arrived in an old oil box that was tattered, barely taped together and with two seams opened up so I could see the motor cover. As a testament to how we used to build stuff here in the US, it arrived mostly unscathed.

So, I have the NSW container, dosing pump, two pump heads, the high performance platinum cured silicone tubing that I got very lucky to find for the price I did. And I have my smart outlets that have timers built into the ap. That is most of the parts. Will pick up the tubing this weekend and the push-fitting parts and start putting it together. Still not sure which ATO to go with for the low water shutoff so that I am not pumping water out of the tank when the NSW tank is dry - that would be bad. I will be disabling the entire system when traveling, and setting the time to push a water change only when I am typically here - evenings around 10pm or so.

Should be a fun project, will make sure to document everything!

Can’t wait to see it in action. Let us know what you think of the Orphek filters. I was underwhelmed but it was late, the lights were really blue and I’ve only used it the one time. Added bonus that those filters fit on your other camera, right?

 

[jcolliii]

Can’t wait to see it in action. Let us know what you think of the Orphek filters. I was underwhelmed but it was late, the lights were really blue and I’ve only used it the one time. Added bonus that those filters fit on your other camera, right?

No, the set that was on sale was the one with the small filters for the clip on phone holder, 37mm maybe? I think they'll be good for what I want - a quick set of cheap filters for taking quick pics when the camera is upstairs and I don't feel like going to get it!

 

[jcolliii]

BTW, if anyone is wondering why American-made precision metering pumps are so much more expensive than the Chinese stuff out there... here is the dosing pump I will be using for my auto water change system (AWaCS - LOL!!!)... the motor mounting brackets had shifted in the mail, so had to adjust and re-tighten - works super well otherwise.

Here is the pump with the housing removed. The motor and gearing assembly is most of the length of the housing and probably weighs 5lbs. The power supply is metal and is a quality unit, as are the remainder of the electronic components. The pump head mounts with four bolts, is driven by a hefty slot-drive arrangement with multi head stacking possible on many of the single drive units. The pump head rollers are steel, with a bearing on both ends of each roller, and a bearing on each side of the bracket that holds the three or four rollers - depending on the model of head selected. The molded head is THICK, robust polycarbonate, and the tubing is manufactured under exacting specs for extremely accurate volume per single pump revolution.

On the other end of the spectrum...

A Kamoer motor and pump head. The peristaltic roller assembly pinch fits onto the shaft, the three rollers are nylon, they are mounted onto a plastic bracket, and they rotate inside of a low-strength, thin plastic housing. Lots of ways to loose precision - shaft slippage, non-precision tubing, plastic deformation of either the rollers or the thin housing during a rotation cycle...

 

[jcolliii]

Couple updates...

Decided to grab one of the Mini Wifi GHL controllers. Now I feel like I need to go back to work to work out the frustration from my weekend attempting to set it up. Let's just put it this way... one of the instruments I use to do research for myself and with my students is a large UAV drone with several gimbals and a couple of different capture devices - a LiDAR scanner, a high res camera for photogrammetery, and soon, a multispectral sensor for chlorophyll coverage. I thought that package was complex to set up with dongles, FIVE different software programs for capture and workflow. I have three separate IP addresses to pipe into each time I do a capture run - I know my way around tech. NOPE. I have a non-working controller after an entire weekend. Have opened a ticket on GHL's website and have started a thread in the GHL subforum documenting my problem. Hopefully they can help out - but I suspect the unit I was shipped is defective.

he other thing is that my skimmer mod has just been too much of a PITA to deal with for now. I need to figure out a more rigid tube from the pump to the skimmer intake - keeps falling off. So I ordered a Tunze 9001. It will fit in the second chamber - I have comfirmation that it will. The only modification that need to be done for it to fit there is to remove the intake cover on the pump. The other thing is that it's black, and it will site low - not too much taller than the NuvoSkim! That gets here on Tuesday, so may do a quick couple of pics when that comes in. Can't wait!

 

[TheWB]

Couple updates...

Decided to grab one of the Mini Wifi GHL controllers. Now I feel like I need to go back to work to work out the frustration from my weekend attempting to set it up. Let's just put it this way... one of the instruments I use to do research for myself and with my students is a large UAV drone with several gimbals and a couple of different capture devices - a LiDAR scanner, a high res camera for photogrammetery, and soon, a multispectral sensor for chlorophyll coverage. I thought that package was complex to set up with dongles, FIVE different software programs for capture and workflow. I have three separate IP addresses to pipe into each time I do a capture run - I know my way around tech. NOPE. I have a non-working controller after an entire weekend. Have opened a ticket on GHL's website and have started a thread in the GHL subforum documenting my problem. Hopefully they can help out - but I suspect the unit I was shipped is defective.

he other thing is that my skimmer mod has just been too much of a PITA to deal with for now. I need to figure out a more rigid tube from the pump to the skimmer intake - keeps falling off. So I ordered a Tunze 9001. It will fit in the second chamber - I have comfirmation that it will. The only modification that need to be done for it to fit there is to remove the intake cover on the pump. The other thing is that it's black, and it will site low - not too much taller than the NuvoSkim! That gets here on Tuesday, so may do a quick couple of pics when that comes in. Can't wait!

Well hopefully it’s just broken and not just super difficult to deal with. GHL connectivity issues seem to be popping up a lot lately.

Too bad about your skimmer mod. At least you know the Tunze is pretty much rock solid. Too bad the Cadlights skimmer won’t fit. It’s ugly to look at with how far it sticks up above the tank but it skims like a beast.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

Couple updates...

Decided to grab one of the Mini Wifi GHL controllers. Now I feel like I need to go back to work to work out the frustration from my weekend attempting to set it up. Let's just put it this way... one of the instruments I use to do research for myself and with my students is a large UAV drone with several gimbals and a couple of different capture devices - a LiDAR scanner, a high res camera for photogrammetery, and soon, a multispectral sensor for chlorophyll coverage. I thought that package was complex to set up with dongles, FIVE different software programs for capture and workflow. I have three separate IP addresses to pipe into each time I do a capture run - I know my way around tech. NOPE. I have a non-working controller after an entire weekend. Have opened a ticket on GHL's website and have started a thread in the GHL subforum documenting my problem. Hopefully they can help out - but I suspect the unit I was shipped is defective.

he other thing is that my skimmer mod has just been too much of a PITA to deal with for now. I need to figure out a more rigid tube from the pump to the skimmer intake - keeps falling off. So I ordered a Tunze 9001. It will fit in the second chamber - I have comfirmation that it will. The only modification that need to be done for it to fit there is to remove the intake cover on the pump. The other thing is that it's black, and it will site low - not too much taller than the NuvoSkim! That gets here on Tuesday, so may do a quick couple of pics when that comes in. Can't wait!

If the Tunze 9001 is anywhere near the quality of the 9004 I think you'll be happy with the upgrade. It's now been 6 months waiting for IM to tell me they have skimmer pumps in stock (not that I need one anymore, in that much time I obviously moved on).

I totally hear ya on the tech thing. It seems like half the software I use doesn't work right these days. This stuff should not stump me, I'm a Software Engineer! Had to do a virtual doctor visit the other day and do you think I could get either of two phones or my laptop camera to work with their app??? Like wow. But you're definitely not the first one I've seen do battle with GHL connectivity. Hopefully it gets straightened out without too much fuss.

 

[jcolliii]

Well, it only took three computers, a smartphone, a tablet, a whole weekend and a few hours today to get the GHL Mini going, but going it is. No data logging functionality (if I had known this before purchasing, I probably - no certainly would not have bought it), but it is up and running. Have not played with timers or outlets yet - that is for the weekend after a grant proposal that I have to get out the door by Friday.

Anyhow, now that this experience is behind me, not sure I want to pursue the ION director or the KH director. So frustrating that it had to be that frustrating and that there are so few devices on the market for this at a decent price point.

 

[jcolliii]

The skimmer was delayed. No problems, the roads up here have been slick for the last 2 weeks.

Did get the orphek set of lenses today though, and they do the job - although with a bit of fiddling.

The yellow lens (they call it 20k) I think does the best job, but I had to adjust the white balance on my phone pretty high and dial the exposure back quite a bit to get something similar to what my eye sees. Still - that takes seconds, so I think that is pretty workable.

The 15k was a bit more difficult to get the colors right. I had to fidget with the color balance - set maybe around 8k in camera, and also had to set exposure compensation to like -.8. Still not too bad.

15k without adjusting w/b in camera and with compensation set to 0. Not a good result.

My phone isn't a high spec, it's an android, and it's not super high-res, but I think the 20k filter will work well. With minimal adjustment and just clipping the thing on, I should be able to grab quick snaps at approximately the colors my eyes see in just a few seconds. Will work great for those times when I can't be bothered to go grab the slr. Need to play with the close-up lens a bit and see what that can do.

Not bad at all for just a shade over 20 bucks!

 

[TheWB]

The skimmer was delayed. No problems, the roads up here have been slick for the last 2 weeks.

Did get the orphek set of lenses today though, and they do the job - although with a bit of fiddling.

The yellow lens (they call it 20k) I think does the best job, but I had to adjust the white balance on my phone pretty high and dial the exposure back quite a bit to get something similar to what my eye sees. Still - that takes seconds, so I think that is pretty workable.

The 15k was a bit more difficult to get the colors right. I had to fidget with the color balance - set maybe around 8k in camera, and also had to set exposure compensation to like -.8. Still not too bad.

15k without adjusting w/b in camera and with compensation set to 0. Not a good result.

My phone isn't a high spec, it's an android, and it's not super high-res, but I think the 20k filter will work well. With minimal adjustment and just clipping the thing on, I should be able to grab quick snaps at approximately the colors my eyes see in just a few seconds. Will work great for those times when I can't be bothered to go grab the slr. Need to play with the close-up lens a bit and see what that can do.

Not bad at all for just a shade over 20 bucks!

Looks like a workable solution. Nice photobomb by the Starcki in the last two pics. Speaking of Starcki’s, there a video on Reefbuilders right now of Jake’s 30 gal IM ext that he uses for a frag tank and there are two Aussie Starcki’s in it. I was hooked before but now I’m really hooked, I need a pair and soon. They look really good together.

 

[jcolliii]

Looks like a workable solution. Nice photobomb by the Starckii in the last two pics. Speaking of Starckii’s, there a video on Reefbuilders right now of Jake’s 30 gal IM ext that he uses for a frag tank and there are two Aussie Starckii’s in it. I was hooked before but now I’m really hooked, I need a pair and soon. They look really good together.

I saw that. They are pretty fish. Mine is an Aussie too - the Indo ones have a bit more yellow toward the back end IIRC and I paid $129 plus shipping from Bluezoo. Awesome little fish - super personable, interesting and interested - interactive. I think he could easily be trained to take flake from my fingers. Now that the clown is in the office, there is nearly no aggression at all in this tank. I think I saw a pair for sale once, but can't recall where. I think if they were not mated you'd have a lot of conspecific aggression and end up with only one. And, they are not the cheapest damselfish...

 

[TheWB]

I saw that. They are pretty fish. Mine is an Aussie too - the Indo ones have a bit more yellow toward the back end IIRC and I paid $129 plus shipping from Bluezoo. Awesome little fish - super personable, interesting and interested - interactive. I think he could easily be trained to take flake from my fingers. Now that the clown is in the office, there is nearly no aggression at all in this tank. I think I saw a pair for sale once, but can't recall where. I think if they were not mated you'd have a lot of conspecific aggression and end up with only one. And, they are not the cheapest damselfish...

Yeah, but…you know….I want them. Probably need to try and get someplace like TSM to get a pair and qt them. I’m not sure they actually take requests though. Website is closed at the moment so no way to check and see.

 

[jcolliii]

Yeah, but…you know….I want them. Probably need to try and get someplace like TSM to get a pair and qt them. I’m not sure they actually take requests though. Website is closed at the moment so no way to check and see.

I think I contacted Bluezoo about the Corazon's damsel a year or so ago, and they said they could pretty much get anything in that quality marine had, and that they could ask QM for a stock list. So, if anyone might be able to... QM looks like they have a bunch in stock right now - might be able to pull a pair together...

Starcki :: 15051

Quality Marine is the pioneer and leader of the trade—best collectors, holding facilities, animal care, and marinelife.

www.qualitymarine.com

 

[jcolliii]

Funny story.

I thought QM was open to the public, so I drove down there when I was in SoCal, and just walked in the door and looked around. No one said anything. Was there for like an hour... just wandering the aisles. Wondered why there were no prices on the tanks and so few customers inside. Googled them later to find out they were wholesale only. They must have thought I was a dolt!

 

[TheWB]

Funny story.

I thought QM was open to the public, so I drove down there when I was in SoCal, and just walked in the door and looked around. No one said anything. Was there for like an hour... just wandering the aisles. Wondered why there were no prices on the tanks and so few customers inside. Googled them later to find out they were wholesale only. They must have thought I was a dolt!

That’s hilarious. You’d think somebody would be like, hey, I don’t recognize that guy. You should have asked someone if your order was ready. They would have helped you to your car.

 

[TheWB]

I think I contacted Bluezoo about the Corazon's damsel a year or so ago, and they said they could pretty much get anything in that quality marine had, and that they could ask QM for a stock list. So, if anyone might be able to... QM looks like they have a bunch in stock right now - might be able to pull a pair together...

Starcki :: 15051

Quality Marine is the pioneer and leader of the trade—best collectors, holding facilities, animal care, and marinelife.

www.qualitymarine.com

I’ll check out Bluezoo, don’t really know anything about them. My thought with TSM was that they would quarantine and hopefully send out healthy fish. I wish Biota bred them, I was very happy with my experience ordering from them.

 

[Calm Blue Ocean]

The skimmer was delayed. No problems, the roads up here have been slick for the last 2 weeks.

Did get the orphek set of lenses today though, and they do the job - although with a bit of fiddling.

The yellow lens (they call it 20k) I think does the best job, but I had to adjust the white balance on my phone pretty high and dial the exposure back quite a bit to get something similar to what my eye sees. Still - that takes seconds, so I think that is pretty workable.

The 15k was a bit more difficult to get the colors right. I had to fidget with the color balance - set maybe around 8k in camera, and also had to set exposure compensation to like -.8. Still not too bad.

15k without adjusting w/b in camera and with compensation set to 0. Not a good result.

My phone isn't a high spec, it's an android, and it's not super high-res, but I think the 20k filter will work well. With minimal adjustment and just clipping the thing on, I should be able to grab quick snaps at approximately the colors my eyes see in just a few seconds. Will work great for those times when I can't be bothered to go grab the slr. Need to play with the close-up lens a bit and see what that can do.

Not bad at all for just a shade over 20 bucks!

Those lens filters are a lifesaver. Did you try combining the orange and the yellow lenses?

 

[Sean Clark]

Funny story.

I thought QM was open to the public, so I drove down there when I was in SoCal, and just walked in the door and looked around. No one said anything. Was there for like an hour... just wandering the aisles. Wondered why there were no prices on the tanks and so few customers inside. Googled them later to find out they were wholesale only. They must have thought I was a dolt!

Just acting like you are supposed to be somewhere that you are not can get you further than you think at most places.