Jerrico’s DIY 44g AIO

[jerricolaboy]

Been a while since an update but everything has settled in nicely to the rescape. I’d honestly say it flourished actually. All the corals seem to be happier. The fish seem more calm and overall I think it was a great move.



Grabbed some red monti to fill in some space up top and a red digi to top one of the rock peaks. I’ve seen some good growth on them.

All for Reef dosing has been working great. Had to step it up to 9ml a day to keep up with consumption. Mag dropped a little so I supplemented that and course corrected, been steady at about 1350 since that.

Also dropped down from 10g water changes weekly to 5 gallons weekly since I’m not trying to keep up with consumption of elements through water changes anymore. Which is a good thing cause my nitrate and phosphate were dangerously low. Like .03ppm (phos) and sometimes undetectable. Now they’re about .1 phos and 10-15 nitrate. I’m happy with that, not too low…not too high and everything looks healthy.

Replaced my heater also today. My mixing bin heater broke and that made me think. This heater was from my 15 gal tank. And the 44g is a little over a year old now. So I should replace that heater and upcycle the display heater to my mixing bin. Solve 2 issues at one I guess. can’t be too safe on heater failures.

 

[TheWB]

Been a while since an update but everything has settled in nicely to the rescape. I’d honestly say it flourished actually. All the corals seem to be happier. The fish seem more calm and overall I think it was a great move.



Grabbed some red monti to fill in some space up top and a red digi to top one of the rock peaks. I’ve seen some good growth on them.

All for Reef dosing has been working great. Had to step it up to 9ml a day to keep up with consumption. Mag dropped a little so I supplemented that and course corrected, been steady at about 1350 since that.

Also dropped down from 10g water changes weekly to 5 gallons weekly since I’m not trying to keep up with consumption of elements through water changes anymore. Which is a good thing cause my nitrate and phosphate were dangerously low. Like .03ppm (phos) and sometimes undetectable. Now they’re about .1 phos and 10-15 nitrate. I’m happy with that, not too low…not too high and everything looks healthy.

Replaced my heater also today. My mixing bin heater broke and that made me think. This heater was from my 15 gal tank. And the 44g is a little over a year old now. So I should replace that heater and upcycle the display heater to my mixing bin. Solve 2 issues at one I guess. can’t be too safe on heater failures.

The tank looks great.

 

[jerricolaboy]

The tank looks great.

Thank you! I think it’s really starting to hit its stride.

 

[jerricolaboy]

Well I’ve been doing my weekly maintenance like always. But the past few weeks I’ve been noticing my alk has been super low by the end of the week. Usually my alk after a water change and a little correction is about 9dkh. I was fine with dosing a few mL of alk after a water change. I figured it’s almost impossible to get rock steady and I’d rather my alk trend down rather than trending up. I can see that leading to disaster. Regardless…by then end of the week I would be about 6.7dkh. 2 weeks in a row. I never thought to look at the doser. But last nite I decided to investigate further. That’s when I noticed it lost its prime.

I tried to prime the line and recalibrate it but I sat there for 5 mins and watched it. It slowly lost its prime again.

Took the versa apart but didn’t notice anything irregular. I think it needs a rebuild kit. I guess i probably should have done that from when I first bought it used but I forgot.

Today I’m gonna call around to a few shops local to see if they have a rebuild kit in stock.

Always something

 

[jerricolaboy]

So I tried and called 5 local stores general to my area that I’m willing to travel to and no one had any rebuild kits in stock. 1 had no idea what I was talking about…. The others all said they “could order them and it’ll be in on Monday or Tuesday”. And it’ll be 40 dollars. I figured having a EcoTech Versa (a popular name brand) would make it easy.

Even the more popular store with all the fancy equipment on the walls didn’t have it and don’t usually stock any at all. Honestly would’ve paid the 40 bucks to have it today

But I can order it online and have it for 28 dollars shipped to my door on Monday.

I mean to support my local fish stores but it kinda frustrating they NEVER have the things I need.

 

[KrankBait]

What a fantastic tank! Following along.

I'm planning to make a DIY AIO chamber as well but peninsula style tank.

 

[jerricolaboy]

Dosing pump has been rebuilt and back on track. Dosing all for reef probably has been the best thing I’ve done. Seen some serious growth and coloration these past few months. I’d recommend the product to anyone.

Thinking about upgrading my return pump to a AI Axis 40, maybe 2. Drill another hole in the AIO section and run 2 nozzles. Maybe at about 75% each one. Anyone ever use those pumps? I built the AIO box to accommodate the Axis 90 but I’ve heard they have issues with randomly shutting down…can risk that.

 

[jerricolaboy]

Noticed my original Ai Prime had burnt lens….id say it was time to change it. I probably should’ve ordered 2 and did both at the same time….

 

[jerricolaboy]

Went out with my 3 year old daughter to the LFS and she wanted to get some “stuff”. She chose a royal gramma or in her words “the purple and lellew fish”. She also picked out a Grogonian and a peppermint shrimp. All fine choices. But I knew I was gonna have to come up with something for a acclimation box cause some of the fish in my tank just aren’t that nice. So I also picked up a small critter box. This is what I can up with for dirt cheap.

So I superglued a old mag scraper to the box. Drilled like 10-15 1/4inch holes on the sides for flow and stuck it in the tank. Glued some spare rocks I had together to make it a small home. Then dropped her in. As soon as I dropped her in the Splendid Dotty back came over with aggression to check her out and the six line wasn’t far behind either. Safe to say the box is a good idea. And the gramma is eating so it can’t be that stressed out. I figure I’ll leave it in there a week so til the others get accustomed to their new tank mate.