Lowboy frag tank addition to shaky's reef

[shakygator]

Worked on the electrical this weekend so I could get the lights running but I ran into issues with my ReefAngel. Everything is working locally, it seems, but I can't connect to it to control it, which is a pretty big deal. Trying to work through the issues but sadly I think it may be time to retire the RA. I will keep messing with it but it is almost a decade old. I may have jumped the gun and ordered a Hydros 2 with an extra power strip. I spent most of the weekend reading about them and I like what I am reading about the platform. Very open and affordable. Especially think the WaveEngine and ability to power and control some pumps like Gyres or Icecaps is super cool. I don't have any of those pumps or a WaveEngine but will definitely keep that in mind for future builds. Hopefully the Hydros gets here this week early so I can get this tank warmed up and lit.

Will have to redo some of this...

 

[shakygator]

Received a new toy today...

 

[Cwentz758]

Received a new toy today...

Nice, I love mine. Plug and play super easy in my opinion

 

[shakygator]

You were not kidding. First revision of wiring, etc. Easy to get going.

She's got heat and lights now.

 

[spideybry]

You were not kidding. First revision of wiring, etc. Easy to get going.

She's got heat and lights now.

Looking great, love the job on the control board too. Where'd you get those rails for the Noops? This is really making me want to add sand to my frag tank lol.

 

[shakygator]

Looking great, love the job on the control board too. Where'd you get those rails for the Noops? This is really making me want to add sand to my frag tank lol.

I built them from the aluminum stock from hardware store. Probably $30. This was my second one of the same design - the other is over my nem tank.

 

[spideybry]

I built them from the aluminum stock from hardware store. Probably $30. This was my second one of the same design - the other is over my nem tank.

Ah, gotcha. Welded? I would love something like that lol. Even a single rail.

 

[shakygator]

Ah, gotcha. Welded? I would love something like that lol. Even a single rail.

You could braze aluminum if you have MAPP gas. I actually have some aluminum brazing rods. However, I just drilled some holes and used some small hardware to make these.

Like this

 

[shakygator]

So after finally doing some testing last few weeks the LR I had cycling in a brute for years wasn't as good as I hoped it was gonna be. I suspected it might not have been live anymore since I never fed it and seems that's the likely scenario here.

Having said that, I think the tank is almost cycled now. Been using Dr Tim's ammonium chloride to add 2ppm and it's disappearing within 2 days. Added some more yesterday and need to check levels today. After 2 days I've been reading no ammonia and 1ppm nitrite so will be interesting to see if we have ammonia today (24 hours after last dose).

Interesting story about the bacteria though. I had originally dumped in some fritzyme 9 when I filled the tank but I didn't feed it so that bacteria is either working now, which I'm not sure because I didn't really do anything to the tank for weeks, or believe it or not I bought a $4 bottle of topfin nitrifying bacteria at petsmart and I think that actually worked. I had also bought a bottle of brightwell start xlm because I honestly didn't expect the topfin bacteria to work but I never used the xlm. Maybe it was the frtizyme from weeks ago(?), maybe it was the topfin bacteria. Either way, we're on our way.

 

[shakygator]

And because everyone likes pictures, current state of affairs. I lowed the lights and took PAR readings. Ranged from around 100-120 on the sand bed up to around 200 near top of water. The edges of the tank had more like 50-75. Considering adding more, or I'll just keep lower PAR corals near the edges.

 

[shakygator]

Uh oh

But on the bright side:

 

[shakygator]

Finally added the skimmer.

I also ran into some stray voltage. I have a small cut on my thumb that was burning like a mother when I put my hand in the water and then I realized there was a little tingle too. Lots of testing later I'm not 100% but it no longer zaps me after removing the heater. I do seem to get about 10v from my return pump and another 10v from my skimmer. With nothing powered on I read ~12v? Induced current? It's odd since my other tank shows near 0v and has a lot more devices in the water. Either way - BRS is replacing the heater but I also ordered a Finnex since they've always been good to me. Got some new grounding probes coming too.

 

[User]

+1 on the lowboy
+1 on the Noops

Great combo

but how on earth did you manage to drill the bottom of the lowboy? My bottom panel is tempered so I’m going through the side.

I have it as a temp holding tank right now in my new QT holding area as I build out my system in my new house. I’ll be running twin drains - just main and backup- using pvc pipe, no box, going to my main sump 5 feet away.

 

[KarlsReef]

I love the look of the Lowboy tanks, tricky in the UK but found a couple of stockist so may add a frag system to my main system on day

 

[shakygator]

but how on earth did you manage to drill the bottom of the lowboy? My bottom panel is tempered so I’m going through the side.

I had read the lowboys were not tempered at all so you could drill wherever you wanted. I didn't even check to see if it was tempered with polarized glasses/screens. I just drilled it and it didn't explode. I didn't want to go through the side cuz I needed that space and I'd probably bump it and break the tank.

 

[User]

I had read the lowboys were not tempered at all so you could drill wherever you wanted. I didn't even check to see if it was tempered with polarized glasses/screens. I just drilled it and it didn't explode. I didn't want to go through the side cuz I needed that space and I'd probably bump it and break the tank.

Mine had a tempered sticker on it

 

[shakygator]

Mine had a tempered sticker on it

Are there different brands of Lowboys? I thought zoomed was only one but I thought I saw someone mention another brand once. Maybe that's the difference?

 

[User]

Are there different brands of Lowboys? I thought zoomed was only one but I thought I saw someone mention another brand once. Maybe that's the difference?

This is a legit zoomed, but they were out of frag tanks for like 5 months and were subbing in the reptile tanks. Maybe that’s the difference. I heard they had a glass shortage and had to use other stuff for a
While.

I haven’t checked it, but I also kinda want to drill the short edge- fits my fishroom better like that

 

[shakygator]

No real progress yet. The algae is annoying. Week or two ago no3 was at 50ppm and po4 was at .19. I've manually been removing the algae and doing about 50% water changes. New tests this week showing no3 at 5ppm and po4 at .06. Did another round of manual removal, started skimming wetter, and am trying vibrant for the first time. I understand it is mostly bacteria and vinegar for a carbon source, so I am interested in how well it works compaerd to just vinegar (which I dose on my other system).

 

[shakygator]

Still kinda battling this algae. I started with the vibrant last friday. I think I saw some die off but it still grew very thick which I manually removed for the third time yesterday. Talking about 500ml of whatever this is in a painters cup. I did a little rock scrubbing with a toothbrush too. Hoping we see some real improvement shortly as I'd love to start putting stuff in this tank.

A few new equipment acquisitions lately. I had gone back and forth on whether I wanted to do hybrid lighting on this tank but I found a used 48" aquatic life with new bulbs for cheap so I picked it up. Waiting on an extra bracket for my noops before I hang it, but I'm excited to go hybrid. I know LEDs work, I've always been a big proponent of them but I think T5 bring something LEDs just can't - wide spectrum. Not looking fwd to replacing bulbs but let's see how they do the first year.

Lastly, I added one of them Sicce voyager nano powerheads. I needed more flow but was worried sand would blow around at this tank depth. So I chose something very low flow. This one does like 530gph, is super small (like 3x2x2), and was relatively cheap. Sicce are great pumps too, I ran Sicce returns on my main tank until I recently went DC. And I've pretty much never had issues with them - still keep them as backups today.

Pics from today - as you can see it's still pretty dirty.