Lil Elroy’s 30L Build

[LilElroyJetson]

Nice nice! What are the white things on your dosing lines? And what do they do ?

Thanks! They’re check valves, they make sure the liquid only runs in one direction. Typically they’re used on pumps to make sure a back siphon doesn’t occur, thus draining water from the tank (or on the other side, draining all your additive into the tank). That large, bulky, dark grey plastic piece on the flexible tubing of my return pump is also a check valve that does exactly that, only a much larger one . The ends of my dosing lines are actually above the water level (unless I temporarily shut off my return pump and the sump fills up), so I don’t necessarily need to worry about a back siphon. For my application, I used them to try to prevent air bubbles from forming in the primed dosing lines.

 

[Hemmdog]

Thanks! They’re check valves, they make sure the liquid only runs in one direction. Typically they’re used on pumps to make sure a back siphon doesn’t occur, thus draining water from the tank (or on the other side, draining all your additive into the tank). That large, bulky, dark grey plastic piece on the flexible tubing of my return pump is also a check valve that does exactly that, only a much larger one . The ends of my dosing lines are actually above the water level (unless I temporarily shut off my return pump and the sump fills up), so I don’t necessarily need to worry about a back siphon. For my application, I used them to try to prevent air bubbles from forming in the primed dosing lines.

Ah I see ! Thank you!

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Ah I see ! Thank you!

Just went through your build thread and saw you’re putting together a 40 breeder good luck! I’ll be following along. My advice is leave ample space in your sump area if possible! As you can see, I can barely fit my arms in mine lol.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Got this Deep Abyss Torch Coral from Unique Corals a couple weeks back, it was a 1.5” frag when I got it. It took about two days to get settled and now it looks double the original size!! The pattern on the arms and the atomic green center got me the second I saw it. This photo doesn’t do it justice but wanted to share anyway.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Some quick Friday night tank shots. The coral color I was seeing tonight looked great. I did dose Brightwell Replenish (trace elements) in between water changes for the first time, may or may not have had something to do with it. The sand’s dunning up a bit so I may have to turn down the flow or redirect just a bit but it’ll get figured out.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Unfortunately, my Bubble Magus C3.5 is falling apart on me. These are the legs to the bottom of the skimmer that came off.

Granted it’s an easy fix, but in general the skimmer has been finicky and I’m not entirely satisfied so I’m making a change.

Just ordered the Reef Octopus BH-50. Due to space constraints and placement, this seemed like the best option. The listed footprint is cutting it close for the space I have in the skimmer section of my sump, but it is advertised as a “multi-mount” with a little bit of flexibility as to how it’s used, so hopefully it fits and works well! Would be great to hear from anyone who’s used one. A little disappointed there’s no drainage tube from the collection cup, wondering if Reef Octopus has another collection cup that will work that does have the drainage tube.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Going to begin dosing minor and trace elements via Brightwell Aquatics Replenish twice a week in between water changes. Considering adding a conservative dose of Brightwell Coral Amino to my ATO water reservoir as well.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

First attempt at the plumbing was with parts laying around. After considering how I wanted to plumb an emergency drain and backup safety measures for the plumbing, with the help of some good folks on Reef2Reef, picked up a new backside for the overflow and will be replumbing this weekend, also added a schedule 80 check valve to the return (a crucial $20 investment to prevent catastrophe).

The power strips on the stand are the WiFi strips from amazon. I don’t have any plans for a controller at the moment, but it’s nice to turn things on and off as necessary from my phone for cleaning/maintenance/etc., it’s nice to be able to do it for $40. I’m not sure whether I’ll get a controller. The monitoring and control are obviously great, but I don’t think I care to monitor when I can’t get there to do anything about it, and the rest of the tank should be automated enough from my other equipment, and AI or powerstrip apps that I can control things as necessary to leave the tank for a couple days and not have to worry too much.

Love the idea of WiFi controllable power strips. Just about everything in my house is controlled by google home. I'll have to get a couple of these. Normally I just use Smart Plugs and then plug a regular power strip into that.

 

[BiGGiePauls33]

Things are coming along!! Here’s a shot of the tank I took tonight (I need to learn how to take photos of the tank and it’s inhabitants with my DSLR...the photos will get better I promise!) :

You and me both. I bought my daughter (lol, who am I kidding, me) a nice Sony mirrorless for xmas. I use it a lot more than her to practice until I have the funds for a Sony A7iii

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Love the idea of WiFi controllable power strips. Just about everything in my house is controlled by google home. I'll have to get a couple of these. Normally I just use Smart Plugs and then plug a regular power strip into that.

For how cheap they are, they’re great! Gives me the ability to turn them on and off and set timers from an app on my phone, only shortcoming to a controller is not being able to gauge voltage decreasing over time due to deteriorating equipment or getting alerts when something stops working, but I have other alarms in place for that. They’re definitely sufficient as a replacement to an expensive controller in the meantime for me, especially coupled with the Seneye.

You and me both. I bought my daughter (lol, who am I kidding, me) a nice Sony mirrorless for xmas. I use it a lot more than her to practice until I have the funds for a Sony A7iii

Haha we’ll get there! Thanks for stopping by!

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Got the Reef Octopus BH-50 Multi-mount up and running! I’m already skeptical of this thing, but it fits in my sump, and unfortunately, that’s my most important criteria given my situation. The Reef Octopus brand is typically reliable but this model feels a lot cheaper than other skimmers of their brand that I’ve handled. We’ll see how it holds up, but for now, the break in period begins. I’ve essentially been running skimmerless for a couple weeks now since the Bubble Magus fell apart on me, I just kept it running to keep aerating the water to keep my pH up, so hopefully this thing starts doing it’s job in the next couple days, although for now I’m not too concerned considering the tank has been fine without skimming. Another concern is that it’s in my return chamber (it wouldn’t fit in the skimmer chamber). I’m running an ATO so hopefully the water level doesn’t fluctuate too much and cause the skimmer to bug out. Only time will tell. I’ll update once it’s been running for a while with my review of it!

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Thought I’d post here just to say...I just hit 500 posts on R2R...I officially have an addiction. ;Bookworm

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Mounted the frags that had been on my frag rack for a few weeks to the rockwork tonight. Polyps are already back out and things are looking good. Almost made it out casualty free but snapped one of the branches off my Hawkins Echinata. It was already my smallest frag and looked like it was just about to start growing another branch so a little disappointing but lesson learned. Still got a lot of space to fill in here.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Polyps!!!! ;Woot ;Wideyed

 

[cracker]

Just perused this thread . Great job !

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Just perused this thread . Great job !

Thanks, @cracker! I appreciate it! Just trying to do the best I can.

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Happy Easter! ;Chicken

(iPhone XS + PolypLab 20,000K Filter. No post editing.)

 

[LilElroyJetson]

These photos really get compressed when they are uploaded on here don’t they?? These shots look 10x better on my phone. I wonder how I can maintain the quality when I upload. Any tips are appreciated!

 

[LilElroyJetson]

C O L O R S. ;Droid

 

[LilElroyJetson]

Finally found some free time and took care of my cord management as best as I could given my stand situation. I used these cable boxes and put the power strips and excess cables in them. Not my ideal solution but a lot better than the mess of cables I had before!

Before:

After: