Loony's 4x2x2

[lunaticds]

I've had a 4x2x2 running since the start of 2012; it's moved house 4 times, so it's been through some things.
It was left with minimal maintenance for most of a year when my life changed (mostly travelling to see my now wife), I went through 2 years of trying to recover from the algae disaster this created, and we'd moved house, but never quite got it under control.
We moved into our own home finally, and the tank was empty for months, with the fish and rock in a spare tank in the garage somehow surviving woeful conditions while I searched for motivation to set this tank up, and do try to make a fresh start using nothing but the tank and my fish.

From memory, I started this tank up again in late 2018. I had a new sump built; a simple 3 section, with one section dedicated as the ATO reservoir. I bought mostly base rock, with only minimal live rock, and initially I put on a Mars Aqua 300w to get it going.
Essentially, I'd started from scratch.

Fast forward a few months, and the uglies had started, and hadn't improved. I eventually replaced the Mars Aqua with a pair of Kessil A360s. I had grabbed a few new corals from around the place; nothing dramatic - some zoas here, some morphs there. Basic stuff.
Alas, the uglies continued.

Fast forward to 2020, and the uglies are still a thing; a lot of hair algae, the periodic cyano outbreak, and general drain on my motivation. I could manually remove the bulk of the algae and run a filter sock to capture anything that's floating in the water.
I ran a Triton ICP test; alas, everything looks pretty good. No detected phosphates. Hmmm.. I've been around long enough to know that just means that they're being absorbed by this algae.

I decided it's time to move to the Triton method. It's got a lot going for it; I was once an NSW user, but sourcing it here is more challenging; the nearest source is over 100km away, so I've been using ASW. I don't have a lot of time, so I make it 600L~ at a time. I'm also frequently struggling to get a good window of time for doing a water change (one kid at the age where them helping is usually disastrous), so getting away from regular water changes sounds like a plus.

I rebuilt my original sump; I added a dedicated section for the ATO res, then built a fuge at the start much like the Triton method recommends, complete with overflow into the skimmer section. While I was at it, I fixed the rubber grommet thing on the bottom of my prehistoric Avast Black Pearl CS-1 that the pump was feeding into - it was loose, and the pump was never sitting right (which turned out to dramatically improve my skimmer performance).

Once the silicone had cured for a week, I installed it and got it running.

The challenging part being in Australia was getting hold of some macro. I'm not a big social creature, so I didn't have a lot of contacts to steal any from; alas, buying from the couple of places that had chaeto in stock, I spent $100~ just to start off my macro. It turns out that there aren't a lot of places selling much else here at the moment.
I put an old Comboray over the fuge; it was from an old frag tank and was handy.

I've just ordered a Mars Hydro light to put over the fuge. I'd have preferred a Kessil; but I can't justify the cost. The Mars light is cheap enough, and see to be reasonably popular as fuge lights. I need to push the growth a lot harder than what the old Comboray is going to do. I'm sick of the DT algae, sick of the motivational rollercoaster that comes with it, and I'm going after it with extreme prejudice while the motivation is high.

The next trick will be getting some Triton Core 7. There are plenty of shops here selling the test kits; not so many selling the actual supplements. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have them and get started on them.

In the mean time:
- Move the Jebao CP-40 gyre rip off down a little and between the bommies a bit more; figure it's time to see how changing the flow helps. Also added an old WP-20 wavemaker I had laying around into the back corner where a lot of algae was growing. Figure a little flow in a dead spot won't help (I had tried an old 60. but it blew the hammer in the opposite corner halfway across the tank).

- Work out how I'm going to mount the new fuge light so it's ready to go.

- Maybe even take a picture seeing as how I've started a tank journal again.

Gear list:
DT:
4x2x2 custom with crown/custom stand
Tunze 6033 (I think, had it nearly 10 years)
Jebao CP-40 gyre clone
Jebao WP-20 wavemaker

Sump:
Frankensteined 3x1.5x1.5 - 50~L ATO res, fuge, and tight spaces for skimmer and return
Avast Black Pearl CS-1 DIY skimmer
Media Sources Red Devil DC3000 skimmer pump
Waveline DC6000 return
ATO
I will be adding a Jebao 4 pump doser when the Triton core stuff arrives (yeah yeah I know.. it's Jebao. I do have a Kamoer, but it needs love, and its only 3).
Eheim 300w heater connected via Inkbird temp controller
Lit by a crappy USB powered strip light
Soon to be replaced Comboray on sump
Way too much electrical for my liking...

Pics when I get there. Just trying to brain dump everything while I can!

 

[Leiph86]

I've had a 4x2x2 running since the start of 2012; it's moved house 4 times, so it's been through some things.
It was left with minimal maintenance for most of a year when my life changed (mostly travelling to see my now wife), I went through 2 years of trying to recover from the algae disaster this created, and we'd moved house, but never quite got it under control.
We moved into our own home finally, and the tank was empty for months, with the fish and rock in a spare tank in the garage somehow surviving woeful conditions while I searched for motivation to set this tank up, and do try to make a fresh start using nothing but the tank and my fish.

From memory, I started this tank up again in late 2018. I had a new sump built; a simple 3 section, with one section dedicated as the ATO reservoir. I bought mostly base rock, with only minimal live rock, and initially I put on a Mars Aqua 300w to get it going.
Essentially, I'd started from scratch.

Fast forward a few months, and the uglies had started, and hadn't improved. I eventually replaced the Mars Aqua with a pair of Kessil A360s. I had grabbed a few new corals from around the place; nothing dramatic - some zoas here, some morphs there. Basic stuff.
Alas, the uglies continued.

Fast forward to 2020, and the uglies are still a thing; a lot of hair algae, the periodic cyano outbreak, and general drain on my motivation. I could manually remove the bulk of the algae and run a filter sock to capture anything that's floating in the water.
I ran a Triton ICP test; alas, everything looks pretty good. No detected phosphates. Hmmm.. I've been around long enough to know that just means that they're being absorbed by this algae.

I decided it's time to move to the Triton method. It's got a lot going for it; I was once an NSW user, but sourcing it here is more challenging; the nearest source is over 100km away, so I've been using ASW. I don't have a lot of time, so I make it 600L~ at a time. I'm also frequently struggling to get a good window of time for doing a water change (one kid at the age where them helping is usually disastrous), so getting away from regular water changes sounds like a plus.

I rebuilt my original sump; I added a dedicated section for the ATO res, then built a fuge at the start much like the Triton method recommends, complete with overflow into the skimmer section. While I was at it, I fixed the rubber grommet thing on the bottom of my prehistoric Avast Black Pearl CS-1 that the pump was feeding into - it was loose, and the pump was never sitting right (which turned out to dramatically improve my skimmer performance).

Once the silicone had cured for a week, I installed it and got it running.

The challenging part being in Australia was getting hold of some macro. I'm not a big social creature, so I didn't have a lot of contacts to steal any from; alas, buying from the couple of places that had chaeto in stock, I spent $100~ just to start off my macro. It turns out that there aren't a lot of places selling much else here at the moment.
I put an old Comboray over the fuge; it was from an old frag tank and was handy.

I've just ordered a Mars Hydro light to put over the fuge. I'd have preferred a Kessil; but I can't justify the cost. The Mars light is cheap enough, and see to be reasonably popular as fuge lights. I need to push the growth a lot harder than what the old Comboray is going to do. I'm sick of the DT algae, sick of the motivational rollercoaster that comes with it, and I'm going after it with extreme prejudice while the motivation is high.

The next trick will be getting some Triton Core 7. There are plenty of shops here selling the test kits; not so many selling the actual supplements. Hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll have them and get started on them.

In the mean time:
- Move the Jebao CP-40 gyre rip off down a little and between the bommies a bit more; figure it's time to see how changing the flow helps. Also added an old WP-20 wavemaker I had laying around into the back corner where a lot of algae was growing. Figure a little flow in a dead spot won't help (I had tried an old 60. but it blew the hammer in the opposite corner halfway across the tank).

- Work out how I'm going to mount the new fuge light so it's ready to go.

- Maybe even take a picture seeing as how I've started a tank journal again.

Gear list:
DT:
4x2x2 custom with crown/custom stand
Tunze 6033 (I think, had it nearly 10 years)
Jebao CP-40 gyre clone
Jebao WP-20 wavemaker

Sump:
Frankensteined 3x1.5x1.5 - 50~L ATO res, fuge, and tight spaces for skimmer and return
Avast Black Pearl CS-1 DIY skimmer
Media Sources Red Devil DC3000 skimmer pump
Waveline DC6000 return
ATO
I will be adding a Jebao 4 pump doser when the Triton core stuff arrives (yeah yeah I know.. it's Jebao. I do have a Kamoer, but it needs love, and its only 3).
Eheim 300w heater connected via Inkbird temp controller
Lit by a crappy USB powered strip light
Soon to be replaced Comboray on sump
Way too much electrical for my liking...

Pics when I get there. Just trying to brain dump everything while I can!

@lunaticds - Very interesting build post! I'm excited to see the pictures. And very interested to hear more about the Triton method as you get that. Feel free to check out my new build I'm putting together as well: My Build Thread.

 

[lunaticds]

Hey @Leiph86 - your build already looks tidier than anything I've ever built lol. Nice work so far!

 

[lunaticds]

Excuse the pigsty.. and algae... and messy sandbed.. and the reflections.. and the attempt at kidproofing the cupboard.
Still pretty low stocked in the coral department. It's a fair hike to my nearest LFS, and I decided when I started that I wouldn't really do much until the uglies go away properly.

 

[lunaticds]

Largely pointless update:
- Put the new fuge light in; turns out there isn't much space in the cabinet, and it was a bit of a trick to mount the light at a height that it wasn't being interfered with by the plumbing. Fuge is starting to get a bit of an algae coating on the glass. Not surprised, but probably need to look at shortening the cycle a bit as it's probably running 14 hours a day. Probably need to consider a divider too to reduce the other sump sections from getting so much light.

- Put in a couple of massive turbos, a spider stromb and a couple of peppermint shrimp yesterday. NFI where the shrimp went, maybe one day they'll clean up some aiptasia.

- Still seeing a fair bit of algae growth in tank; will need to just keep on keeping on with manual removal + running a sock for a couple of days after just to capture whatever starts free floating. Long road ahead. Looks worse when using a torch to look for the shrimp.. white light.. algae.. argh.

- Can't afford to order the Triton Core7 supps until next week. May try to get 6 months supply when I order, as it might get harder to come by soon. Our dollar has also turned to custard, so it's likely to get very, very expensive soon.

- Ordered a box of salt; was hoping to avoid this, but given the goings on in the world at the moment, it might be prudent to have enough handy to cover a complete water change just in case anything happens (esp if the Triton stuff becomes unavailable) as imports might start to become an issue + never know how long anyone will stay in business at the moment.

- Should have an Innovative Marine rack 102 appear today. Managed to import before the borders closed. Only have a couple of frags floating around, but it's something I want to get back into.

 

[lunaticds]

Another marginally pointless update:
- Core7 due sometime during the week. Couldn't really afford it; don't expect that the stores that are open will be able to continue that much longer, so treated it as now or never lol.

- Backup box of salt sitting on the shelf. Still hoping to not need it, but time will tell.

- The frag shelf went in a while ago; I made a couple of modifications with some decent magnets so it's sitting up on the back wall of the tank.

- Started checking my alk with a Hanna checker. System seems to like floating around with a dKh of 6.6. Been adding some alk (Randys) to bring it up to at least 7, given thats the Triton core7 target.

- Lots of manual algae removal; constant work in progress to keep whats in the DT limited. It seems to be slowing down a little. The fuge is a fair ol' mess. The walls need a scrub, and the chaeto is floating around in a few clumps. Been manually rotating daily. Definite signs of growth, and looks to be some other macros hidden within it (not entirely sure what yet). I've got a new magnet coming that will live in the fuge to help clean the glass. Need to look at blocking out the light spill, as the other sections are starting to get a little manky.

 

[lunaticds]

Officially started the Triton method yesterday. Turns out that the seller had the old details on their site for the 1L liquids, but was actually selling the 1L bulk powders, so I have a lot more than I thought. Handy given the current circumstances.
Dosing pump ready to go.

Trying to source some fluconozole here is a challenge - starting to believe the algae I have is infact bryopsis given I haven't been able to kill it (though it has slowed). A lot of it is growing in holes and crevices and just keeps coming back. Just a matter of doing that without killing the chaeto. Seems to be some mixed results on that. That will be on the list next.

 

[lunaticds]

A couple of days into the Triton Core 7 journey and things got interesting. Alk went from dKh of 6.1 to 7.9 after increasing the dosage from 10ml to 12ml each. Will monitor that for a few days. Not scary numbers, but big jump so quick.

Managed to get hold of a couple of bottles of fluconozole. Stupidly expensive, but meh. General plan at this stage will be:
Dose 12 tablets, will just let skimmer cup drain back to tank for a few days. Rotate some filter socks until the crap is gone. Maybe consider upping the lights a bit - seems to be some conjecture about whether this is good or not. Perhaps just if there are areas that aren't dying off?

Some of the posts I've read with others using Triton, they didn't bother with the suggested water changes. I may just play the wait and see. I'm not 100% its bryopsis instead of GHA, so happy to play a long game here.
Given the mixed results about impacts of chaeto, that might determine if I actually bother doing a WC - if the chaeto survives no, otherwise I will to deal with the increase in nutrients. That said, I've manually removed a lot of the algae already and been keeping it down to help the chaeto out, so hopefully that reduces algae die off.
Given the that there aren't any reports of anything bad happening by having this in the system long term, I can't see much wrong with not doing large WCs to export the flucon out when its finished. I may even consider doing maintenance doses for a while if I find the need to do a large WC. Wait and see job I guess.
Either way, once it settles down, I'll look to do another ICP test and see how that comes back. These take about 3 weeks at the moment as tests from AU go to Germany, and that was before COVID-19 started grinding things to a halt.

I'm going to put a small wavemaker in the fuge, on the baffle side pointing up - just want to see if I can get the chaeto that is floating to start rotating. There are a few clumps, and they're mostly congregating at the overflow. Theres also a great big clump that hangs around the bottom. Getting tedious having to manually get in there daily to rotate them around.
The fuge light is sitting funny - it's kinda big for the width of the fuge, and I can't position it properly as the piping from the DT is currently in the way. I'll need to rework this piping if I can find enough spare bits. At the moment the light is hanging a little out over the skimmer section, and I've had to resort to using some black material to cut the light creep down.. the skimmer is now green on one side. Once the light moves, I'll probably attempt to fashion a divider, and maybe find some black acrylic sheets to attach to the baffle as well.

 

[lunaticds]

Started with the fluconozole on Monday - dosed 2/3 of the intended dose of 2400mg, with the remainder on Tuesday.
Alk is a bit of a yoyo bouncing around the high 8s - I did notice last night that the Triton 3b containers hose was out. Fixed that. Some of the corals didn't look real impressed after I dosed the remaining 1/3 of flucon. My elegance had closed up, and a hammer sitting by itself had some stinger action directed towards nothing.

The dosing container seems to be down a bit more in 3a than 1 & 2, which makes me think that perhaps the pumps calibration is out of whack (and it lacks a calibration option). I've resorted to marking the containers and I'll measure after a couple of days and just see if there is a difference, I'll pull the hose and measure how much it's actually pumping and reduce as appropriate.

Should have some black acrylic arrive in the next day or so, so I can start to deal with the light bleed issue from the fuge into the skimmer chamber.

 

[lunaticds]

I was able to confirm that the dosing of Triton 3a is definitely out of whack. The Alk is now at 9.1 after two days at 8.8. Far bigger gap in the dosing container to the rest. Happy to blame the Jebao dosing pump. It was cheap and feature-less, and being a couple of ml out when dosing Randys was never much of an issue.
I will attempt to pull it out today and drop it down to maybe 8ml and see if that starts to get it under control.

I ordered a Kamoer F4 Wifi Dosing pump yesterday - a little extreme, but it's kinda painful in my cabinet to get to the dosing pump to make minor changes (literally up on a stand to get it above the dosing containers on same shelf, right at the back), so this should take away a chunk of that pain and simplify being able to make changes.
I did just remember that I also have 2 other dosing pumps floating around, but given their age and lack of maintenance I'm not sure I care to use them for really fine dosing like I need at the moment - one was really cheap and was never great at being accurate, the other was an old Kamoer of 2013 vintage - probably fine, but still a pump less than I need now, and still painful to get to in order to change. Still a good backup unit in a pinch.

Black acrylic has arrived. Not as easy to install as I'd like; need to replace the piping from the DT as the current setup is taking up a heap of space, and stopping me mounting the fuge light properly. Also have issues with the comb setup from fuge to skimmer section. I have a modified comb on comb setup that attempts to stop any of the macro from migrating to the skimmer section if the return turns off. I'm short about 3 cm, and part of the plastic that joins the combs never quite bonded, so that needs to be fixed. I also need the piping to be changed to allow me to move the heater to the opposite side of the fuge, put in the acrylic and mount the wavemaker in there in a more appropriate position to get some rotation. Everything requires something else to move first. A bit to do all at once, but it's Easter. With some luck that'll happen this weekend.

 

[lunaticds]

The journey continues...

I stopped dosing everything a few days ago to let the Alk start dropping down. It's getting there. I've been throwing in Randy's calc daily to bring that up. Once it gets back into range, I'll stick the new Kamoer F4 pump in, and start with low doses and bring that up slowly. Mag is still reading sky high.

It's about day 12 of the fluconozole treatment. I've gone through the tank a couple of times with a toothbrush - the algae is definitely coming out easier - especially the stuff that didn't look healthy. There are still a few patches in difficult to reach places that look a little too healthy. Debating dosing what I have left to see if I can get the remaining bits to die off.
Certainly the tank looks a lot cleaner now, but there are still little patches.

I've also moved the cross flow to the side of the tank, and have an old wave maker pointing at it. I'll probably replace that at some point with another cross flow.
I've increased the colour and intensity with the Kessils just to get a bit more light lower in the tank (where a lot of the algae was). My Seneye would at least say that I have a lot more PAR than I did before (of which I never thought I had much).

I did put the black acrylic in on the side wall of the fuge to cut the light hitting the skimmer. Seems to be working.

Starting to look forward to a time when I can actually start getting some more coral in the tank. As soon as the COVID-19 restrictions ease up a little here, that might be possible. Shipping has slowed to a crawl, and freight straight from collectors to the LFS aren't much better. Still, a few weeks ago I wouldn't have considered putting more coral in there.

 

[lunaticds]

Tank still has some algae hiding in crevices and what not. Certainly haven't been able to kill it off completely, but it's not growing back like it was. Some of my zoas still aren't entirely happy.

I do need to get in with the tooth brush and have another crack at trying to get rid of some of it. That said, if it can stay as it is now, I'd be happy with it.
It's probably time to think about letting the skimmer export crap again too.

Alk is finally down in the 7s, so I'll need to put the new F4 pump in sometime soon and start dosing the Triton method again.

My RO/DI unit is currently housed outside on the side of the IBC I used to make my NSW in. My shoulders are a bit dodgy and I have enough arthritis in my fingers already that it's getting increasingly difficult to lug around containers of RO/DI to load up the ATO res. Thinking it's time to run a feed from the RO/Di unit through the ceiling, down the wall and into the res. Hook up a pressure sensitive solenoid on the RO unit, and put a float valve in the reservoir, and should be done. I think I can get away with running a single piece of hose from outside without too much drama. The biggest trick will be trying to snag the hose when I feed it in through the ceiling. I need to get it 15 feet in before I'll be able to get close enough to grab it. Still.. there will be a way.

 

[lunaticds]

Pointless update 102:
Gear ordered to automate filling the ATO res. Even ordered a set of cabling running rods to assist with getting the piping through the hard parts of the ceiling (these will be handy for other things too).

Decided to replace the skimmer yesterday; the current one has a tendency of just not playing ball every so often, it's big, and I'm over the noise the pump makes. I've ordered a Tunze DOC 9410 DC. Smaller footprint should help and the DC pump should make things a bit quieter (I hope). Didn't really need this expense, but over the problems.

Also decided to start work on redoing the electrical side of my cabinet. It's cramped and it's a mess. Since I changed sumps, I can move the board back a few inches and claim some space. Will redo the whole board with new outlets - half of which will be UPS protected, and should have enough space to fit in a UPS. It'll have space for cable management this time, and will accommodate power supply bricks in a better way.

A not-so-LFS I use frequently has a bracket they fabricate for the Kamoer F4 doser, so I have one of those on the way too, as that should help me mount it in a much tidier way, and let me get rid of the egg crate box I current have to use to keep the pumps above the dosing container.

I'll probably grab another cross flow pump at some point soon too, just so I have one on both sides instead of a cross flow one side, and a wave maker on the other, as it looks a little unbalanced. Not a super priority at the moment. Would rather get everything else sorted out while I'm stuck at home lest they never get done.

 

[Vakko]

Nice tank.
Cure for algae... more tangs.

 

[lunaticds]

Nice tank.
Cure for algae... more tangs.

Heh thanks. The tang I've got won't eat it, adding another one will just be two tangs that won't eat it ;Yuck
I did try a second tang once.. didn't work out so well. Most of my fish are around a decade old, so not sure how many new friends I want to introduce them to these days.

 

[Vakko]

Any bristletooth basically... they're small and not super vibrant but they are always looking for algae.

 

[lunaticds]

Big changes during the last week:
- Tunze skimmer in. I like it.
- Electrical board rebuilt with cable trays. Still need to strip all of the cables out and re-manage that, but I've got a cold that's knocked me around for the past week, so no big jobs.
- Added a AI Prime 16HD and put it between the Kessils.. which have moved over a bit. I've noticed that I'm seeing a lot of algae still in the areas that aren't getting much light. This change lights up a lot more of those areas. I'd have liked to have stuck with Kessil, but the Prime was half the price. A bit of tweaking, and it's on the same schedule and the spectrum looks close enough. The moonlight lets me get rid of an old 4 foot cheapo LED set really low, that is causing some shading as well.
- Added a 1KvA APC UPS I picked up cheap on eBay. Have a new set of batteries for it.. a couple of self tests suggest that the existing batteries aren't likely to hold for the hour they should, so I'll swap them when I do the cabling job.
- Waiting on the new cross flow to arrive.
- Waiting on float valve for the ATO res automation. Everything else is here; once I'm healthy enough I'll get that done.
- Kamoer F4 now installed in its custom bracket, and back to dosing Triton again.. my alk dropped down to 6.5. Dropped down to 2ml/day, as 10ml/day brought the alk up way too far too quickly. My mag is too high, though what my manual tests read vs the last ICP test, I tend to wonder if my test kit is a bit off kilt.
- I did get a Hanna Ca tester. So far, I've managed to hit the 600 error both times I've used it. My Ca should be low still. Still not entirely convinced its not user error. I see I'm not alone in the universe with such a problem.

I'm feeling a bit like it might be time for a small WC; despite the massive load of fluconozole in the tank, I'm starting to see algae coming back up again in my zoas and random holes in rocks.

The chaeto isn't growing too much; but its there. Honestly expected it would have taken off quickly, but perhaps the flucon has been limiting its growth. My fuge is very much in the uglies stage - all kinds of gross-ness. Debating dropping its photo period down a couple of hours. Having been without a functional skimmer probably didn't help that so much either.

 

[lunaticds]

End of the month update:
Well, it's crap.
I've had pneumonia now for most of a month, and just getting to a point where I'm mobile again. The tank looks like it too.

A lot of algae growth all over the place. Really need to get in there and scrub the crap out of it. Not quite fit enough to do this just yet. Same for the fuge; a lot of crap in there that isn't chaeto. I realised earlier that the water was sitting above the comb height from the sheer amount of crap caught in it. Really need to get the chaeto out, clean all the crap out, and put it back. Definitely not quite fit enough for this effort just yet.

My Smart ATO unit lost its second pump. That one isn't that old - I've got a new ATO unit on order - a unit designed by an Australian company, so I'll see how that goes when it gets here. In the mean time, it's been manual top offs with an old pump in the res. Making RO/DI has been quite simply hard work while not well.
I've got all the bits to automate refilling the ATO res, so it's been really frustrating not being well enough to plumb it, and no well enough to be lugging containers of water around. With a bit of luck in a few days I've almost got the energy to handle an hour in the ceiling and it of fiddling around.

My RO/DI unit is also in need of a rebuild.. a few leaks, and some of the tubing is cracking up (been outside for a while). It let go on a freezing cold, wet miserable day recently when I was desperate for water; and let go all over me while I was coughing up a lung. Tempted to just replace it. I've had it for 8 years. Not sure it owes me much.

Lost the blue tang about 2 weeks ago; he was old when I first got him in 2011, so might be age. Might be just over it. Not much fun pulling his remains from the back of the tank in the middle of the rocks.

 

[lunaticds]

Stage 1 of the RO/DI automation is complete:
- Piping up through ceiling, down wall and into the ATO res. This was a bit of a mission, and didn't quite go to plan, but is roughed in enough to use.
- The float valve leaks enough that it's effectively useless. Will need to pull out and investigate.
- Works well enough at the moment to get water in if monitored.

Stage 2 to do:
- Fix float valve/replace if necessary.
- Waiting on a Tunze RO controller (8555); stupid expensive, but so is flooding. Ultimately I'd like this to be the primary method of stopping fill, with the other float valve being a backup.
- The John Guest tubing running up the roof needs a tidy up rather than left hanging down over the guttering.
- Replace hose from tap, and all new fittings as existing ones are all dripping.

Stage 3 to do:
- Still considering replacing the whole RO unit. UV hasn't been kind to the current unit and there are a few minor little leaks around it that aren't going to get better.

In other news: road trip planned to my nearest LFS tomorrow - time to find some new corals.

 

[lunaticds]

Some time between June 2020 and now, I managed to finish the RO/DI automation.
I managed to knock over the algae issue in Feb 2021. Other than making a single batch of Triton, glass cleaning and occasional skimmer cup cleans, I have NOT done a single thing to the tank since beyond replacing the two cross flows with some other model of Jebao wavemaker that I can't recall (crossflows were getting noisy and too much flow).

The algae hasn't returned. I haven't done a water change since. Not even sure the last time I did any major testing (beyond testing the salinity a while ago.. which was bang on). The fish are healthy. The few bits of coral I have are healthy. The aiptasia are healthy (lol.. I did try to nuke some big ones a while ago... so now I have quite the collection).

The only major drama I've had since happened the other day when the AutoAqua ATO seems to have lost the plot and my attention was drawn to the sound of the skimmer running dry. A quick reset, that chamber (and the return) refilled and things carried on.

All that said, my nutrient levels are probably pretty low since the tang died a couple of years ago. 6 small fish, reasonable sized tank.. I did run out of Triton supps in the tank a while ago and I haven't gotten around to making up a new batch. Looking at the macro, I probably should. One might think it's starting to starve - though it's never really grown a lot, it's always just kinda stayed alive and done its thing.

I've become the very thing I always said I'd never be as a reefer: Lazy. Yet, leaving the dang thing alone on Triton, automated ATO, on battery backup, keeping it low stocked and really not getting in there constantly adding coral has made it more stable in the last year than it's been in the 10 years that I've had that tank.

It ain't pretty. Mostly because there's a lot of rock, and no where near enough coral (though the morphs have taken over)... and the sand bed is all over the place given I haven't been in there fiddling with it to tweak the flow to keep it flat. But.. I haven't seen algae in a long time, it smells clean, the skimmer cup will take a few days to fill even with wet skimmate and it's otherwise not taking up a lot of time or money.

Which right now is great because I have other things I need to put time and money into (like the house).. and if it will keep on like this, when I have the time and money to come back to it, it'll be sitting there waiting for me. Which seems to be a far better place to be in that selling it all off and having to start again in the future (which would probably never happen).