Mixed Red Sea Reefer 525XL

[DLHDesign]

9/23/2016 - Day 138 - More Gyre, Hosting, End in Sight, and a fully operational RO/DI station

So a while back (8/4 - was it REALLY so recent?!?), I replaced a Hydor <mumble, mumble> powerhead with a MaxSpect Gyre xf150 because the Hydor kept falling off it's mount and causing issues. I had it running on a pretty basic program - 40% forward for 5min, 20% backward for 5min, repeat. That was cool - I liked to see all the different movement and the corals seemed to be happy on that side of the tank. Once I got past the initial setup problems (see earlier post), two things bugged me;
The flow couldn't reach the other side of the tank. Not without blasting it higher, which would cause my return to overflow and get noisy - which was not an option. So this resulted in me leaving in one of my two original Hydor's to cover that side of the tank. Meh. Not the end of the world, but I was looking forward to seeing The Magic Gyre in my entire tank.
The other thing that bugged me was the simplicity of the programming available. My long-term plan was (is) to get an Apex, but as that's been downgraded to "someday" (read: xmas, most likely), I was hoping to be able to get something a bit more interesting going on until them...
So, if you've been following the various gear threads, you can see what's coming next. Yup; picked up a MaxSpect Gyre xf250. TL;DR - the pumps are basically the same, but the controller included was upgraded to be fully programmable in 24hr cycles, among other things. The new gear arrived today, so I went ahead and installed it tonight. First; I'd like to recognize (and thank) MaxSpect for improving their packaging. The new pump came shipped in a metal tin and fully padded; very well packaged, in other words. This showed right away as the new pump (unlike the "old") worked right out of the box - no need to disassemble/reassemble it in order to fix things bounced out of position during shipping. Much less frustrating, for sure.
I set up both pumps on opposite ends of the tank, aimed them to ripple the surface, and moved on to the new controller. The instructions could be a bit more clear, but there are only a few buttons and dial, so I was able to sort out what's what given the shiny addition of an LCD screen. I ended up using the "Oceanic Gyre Cycle" (OCG) with the pumps at 40%. This gives me a really random-ish pattern of water flow really easily. At 40%, that gives me 5300 * .4 * 2 = 4240 GPH max flow from those two. My return pump is the (omg quiet!) Vectra L1; which is running about 80% power, but 50% of that is diverted back into the Carbon/GFO and fuge via my manifold and doesn't really contribute to flow in the DT. So 3100 * .8 * .5 = 1,240 GPH. Rounding off, that gives me about 5,500 GPH of flow peak in a 108gal tank. Total peak system flow is 6,800 GPH for a ~150gal volume. Those are peak numbers, however. Best I can tell, the gyres spend relatively little time running full, so my average tank flow is likely a bit lower than that. This is certainly a pretty big shift, so I'll be sure to keep a close eye on the tank over the weekend (and beyond, of course) and may adjust the max flow out of the gyres down if needed; I can't imagine needing to go up...

One immediate result of the change was actually this:

Hosting! I'd never seen Marvin show even slight interest in hosting any of my four nems. The closest I'd seen was that he would zoom in close to one of the rock nems, but that was usually right after a feeding and I figured he was just snatching up a snack. But within minutes of the new gyre coming on, he dove into the "larger" of my two BTA's faster than my two-year-old decides to ride the ponies at our farmer's market (so - quick, is what I'm saying). As you can tell from the vid, he's actually too large to fit still, but that doesn't seem to bother either of them...
Not really sure what this means, actually... Guessing that he got spooked by all the new flow and the instincts kicked in? And once there, it was like an unexpectedly comfortable hotel bed? Whatever it is, he seems happy. Now just need the BTA to grow a bit so that Meridah can fit in too. Or else the one next to it to open up (you can see it in the photo in my last post) so she can have a pillow too...

Aside from all that fun stuff, I'm nearing the end of our QT run. Woot!
Here are a few shots of the final tank transfer, which occurred a few days ago. Things start off by doing a minor (8-9gal) water extraction from the DT. Here I am pumping in new saltwater from the garage. I've since added a shut-off valve to the outlet (and also extended the hose so I don't even have to roll the mixing bin closer any more). And hey - FTS bonus. Sorry the sump is dark; I was juggling many things and just snapped this off with the phone...

Once I've got the water extracted, it goes into my new QT Tank. I've got two sets of everything that goes into the QT - powerhead, heater, plumbing scape, and temp and ammonia meters.

I've learned to keep the old tank on the right to make draining it into the sink easier. I also now use the red colander to the left of the pic to pull the fish out - much easier/better for them than the net I used to use. And you can barely tell in this photo, but I write out all my key QT events (med additions, tank moves, etc.) on each tank with sharpie. It's kind of a pain to transfer all that over during the TTM, but better that than loose info I might need. And it cleans right off with a quick swipe from a Magic Eraser.
The QT crew is doing well. I lost the 2nd cardinal on the first day, but Gillian "Orange Chicken" (mandarin), Statler (hawkfish), and the as-yet-unnamed Baggai Cardinal have all handled the tank moves and QT time like champs. The plan is to given them another week in the final tank (for a 1 month total) and then move them over into the DT. I'm running low on the frozen copepods and we've got a four-day trip coming up mid-October, so I want to give them time to settle into the tank and make sure that Gillian will be able to find food. I've been seeding the DT for weeks now with various live pods, so I think he should be fine once he settles in. If not, I'll pick up a few bottles to pour in before we leave (and/or sooner if needed) and figure out a long-term plan when we get back. Everyone else will just get fed really well the days leading up to the trip. Only other thing to add will be a security cam pointed at the tank (or a temporary baby cam, at the least).

Only other thing that's really changed has been additions to the RO/DI system. I don't like wasting water, so my system is set up like a grey-water system (in that the RO/DI and "waste" water are both captured and stored). Obviously the waste tank fills up faster, and while both tanks have float switches to prevent an overfill, when the waste tank fills, the whole system backs up and nothing good happens. So the recent addition was to add a second auto-shutoff. The BRS kit came with one, which I plumbed (according to the instructions) into the RO/DI water line. Which was nice; except that I've yet to ever fill that tank, so it's never done a thing for me. The second one is now on the waste line, so now when the waste tank fills up, the whole system shuts down. As my system also includes a booster pump, I also picked up a second pressure switch - which was added to the waste line to complement the one on my RO/DI line. And because why not, I also picked up the auto-flush controller.
The net result of all of these changes are that I can now, in theory, just turn the booster pump on and open the valve, and the system will run until one tank or the other fills up, then shut itself down. If it's the RO/DI tank that's full, then it will keep itself topped off as the tank pulls it's ATO in. I'll still have to drain the waste barrel from time to time, but that's no big deal - we use that water to fill the kiddie pool and/or water the front lawn (CA has a tongue-in-cheek motto of "brown is the new green", so we let our grass die way back months ago - this water just keeps the roots alive). I still have to monitor the resin and other such filters, but the auto-flush should help those last longer and the system is easy to keep an eye on (high traffic area of the garage), so I'm not overly worried about forgetting to do that.

I'm likely going to sit tight on any major things until we get back from our trip. I keep mounting frags every so often (I have lots to mount), so at some point I'll get some new/better pics than I've been providing. I test my numbers nearly every night... Okay; call it every other night, usually. I'm getting all the dosing dialed in; alk, cal, mag, and nitrates. The fuge is working great, so of course I'm starting to think about V3... And there's still the pull-out power-bar/shelving to build to clean up my under-cabinet mess...

 

[DLHDesign]

10/05/2016 - Day 150 - Playing with the GoPro & [WIP]

Not a lot to report at this point. Gyre's are running great. I've had to move a few corals around to account for the new flow in the tank, but nothing major. I lost the rainbow monti I've had for a while, but that's not really a surprise - I've struggled to find it the right place since I got in and didn't give it as much attention as it needed recently. Reinforces that aquarium ownership is not a passive hobby...

Aside from that, I've just got a few projects in (slow) progress. The first is that I dug out a GoPro and fiddled around a bit with it. The result is a test of a tank time lapse:

I'm not really sure that I like the result. This is 1 photo every 10 seconds over about 3 hours. My eventual goal is to find a good spot in the tank and capture a full 24hrs, compressing it down to about a 2-3min video (or something thereabouts to match some music or other). The end of the tank clearly doesn't work - too much light splash and such from the stuff going on in the room. Also; everything is too small for what I was envisioning... I will likely forego the GoPro in favor of the regular camera. It'll be a bit more bulky to locate (the GoPro is on a suction-cup mounted to the side of the tank; camera will need a tripod), but I'll be able to avoid the GoPro fisheye and be able to frame it much easier. Someday, I think it would be cool to combine the time-lapse capture along with a motion track in order to get a full pan of the entire tank... Someday, perhaps. Biggest blocker is actually that my 2yr-old would likely find the motion-track rig (which would be in the middle of the living room, basically) irresistible to play with at some point during the day...

There's also this WIP project:

I'll just leave that there for you to puzzle over until my next update - it shouldn't be hard - it's not like it's just a cardboard box or anything... (<grin>)

 

[DLHDesign]

10/11/2016 - Day 156 - FTS, Love my acan, and Cubs Win!

Figured it's about time for a FTS. I spent a good 15 minutes doing some extra cleaning on the tank. Which, when you have a 2-year old and a 2-month old in the house, is the equivalent of spending hours on something. Like watching a movie. Oh man - I miss watching movies... All of my movie watching time is now taken up with cleaning fish poop or the results of fish poop. It's a good trade - I don't mind. But still - fish poop is not as good as movie watching. For one, it's hard to eat popcorn when handling fish poop. Don't try it, m'kay? It doesn't work.
Where was I... Oh yeah; cleaned the tank so I could get a nice FTS. Then I realized that if I spent the time to finish cleaning the tank like I wanted it, I'd be sleeping with the dog on the couch as my wife would be very mad at me. (As it was, I copped out on dinner and we had leftovers). SO; caveat - the tank is still dirty. Oh well. I loves it still.

(Click here for higher res)

I actually spent a bit of time to snap a photo of my favorite coral. It was hard to choose one (there are nearly 100 in there), but I narrowed it down to this Green Striped Micromussa, which was purchased from @WWC as a 4-polyp frag on 7/20. It has doubled in size - not just individual polyp size, but also in polyp count (more than doubled on that account, really).

And here's the "below bitz". The sump, which remains mostly unchanged. I've added a powerhead to the fuge to get some better flow; which has knocked down the red algae bloom I was getting. Yay for that. The chip-clip is used to hold my refill line when I pump in new water. I really should replace that with something better as it's been less than effective several times now...

And the "dry" side. Here, I've actually done a bit of work with all those canisters. I wanted equal-ish sized, stackable containers for all my dosing stuff, so I got some Oxo and knock-off-oxo brand containers from Amazon that sealed closed. I drilled two bulkheads in each and put a draw tube in one and a check valve in the other (draws air in, no liquid/air out). This has given me "airtight" (or at least highly spill-proof) containers. Not sure if that was really needed, but now I shouldn't be getting any evaporation that might concentrate my additives and cause things to get less consistent. Or so the theory goes - really my goal was to just get things stackable and organized...
Wires are a mess. That'll be "fixed" when I finish the project above. More on that below...

Aside from that, not much has gone on. OH WAIT - THE CUBS JUST WON THE NLCS!!! I'm a Cubs fan living in the SF Bay Area. I grew up a nominal Giants fan, actually - the kind of "fan" that only cared about a local team because it was easier than choosing someone else. But then I moved to Chicago when I finished culinary school to help open a sushi restaurant. While there, I saw a few games at Wrigley and fell in love with the Cubs - the lovable losers. My profile pic is from the second game my wife and I went to when I was randomly selected to be the "Old Style Drinker of the Game". Sadly, there was no free beer involved (wha?!?), but I did get my name on the (then tiny) scoreboard and got to stand on the field while my name was announced. So that was cool - more-so because my wife was there with me to see it all. Who knows, it may turn out this year or the next, could win it all for the first time in 100+ years. These times, they are exciting. (If you're into that kind of thing, at least.)

Aside from THAT, not much else has gone on with the tank. The pic above, in case you've not pieced together the "mystery", is of the new pull-out organizer and testing station I'm building for the "chiller" compartment. It's not gone any further than that picture above. Literally - it's still sitting exactly like that in the workshop. I blame that one on my 60+ hour work weeks lately (having two clients with deadlines is brutal like that, but as a contractor you take the work when it's there to take and no complaints). I also took advantage of the @Bulk Reef Supply group buy and order a T5 retrofit kit. I've told myself to finish the pull-out drawer before I start on building a hood, however, so I'm not sure when those will actually get installed. Perhaps before the tank turns 200 days. Perhaps.

 

[revhtree]

Looks good bro and GO CUBS!

 

[DLHDesign]

10/26/2016 - Day 171 - Steady As She Goes

Very little has changed - which is a good thing. The family recently took a trip down to Disneyland for four days. We had our babysitter house-sit for us so that we didn't have to board one of our dogs (she doesn't do so well in the kennels) and keep an eye on the fish. I cleaned everything up before we left and when we got home... everything was still pretty much clean. 4 days of grime on the glass, but I've let it go longer in busy times. All the fish looked good and the rampaging hoard (eg; my snails) only knocked off one piece of coral. Testing showed that my numbers had actually improved a little bit - likely because I had the house-sitter go conservative on the feeding in order to help avoid any nutrient spikes. For the record, these were my numbers last night (I always take readings around 9-10pm as that's about the only time slot I consistently have available):

1.025 SG
0.003ppm NH3
8.02 PH
8.0 dKH
5ppm NO3
400ppm Ca
1360ppm Mg
0.05ppm PO4

I've been slowly increasing my Alk dosing - I measured 7.3 dKH a month ago. I likely need to increase my Ca some, but that's been measuring stable for a few weeks now, so I've not wanted to increase it until I know that something would consume the increase... Not sure that my logic is sound there, actually. :-? My PO4 had likely elevated because the filter socks had 4 days of grime in them; fairly normal stuff there. The ammonia is from the SenEye, and I've noticed that it pretty much always reads something (generally 0.001-0.005ppm); even when I had it in new saltwater, it still read 0.002ppm. So I don't really worry about it unless I see >0.010ppm (and even then, I don't worry about it too much; that just triggers an investigation into a possible cause).

All-in-all, I'm happy with my numbers. They could be better and they could fluctuate less, but I'm not going to make any drastic changes to try and fix anything. At the same time, nearly all my SPS are struggling. Very little growth from most and the colors are all almost entirely on the brown scale. The only ones that are doing well are the birdsnest corals. They are deeper down and under the one light that's using the wide-angle lens. I'm almost positive that my problem, then, is that my higher-up SPS are getting too much light. LUX at the surface is 900,000, and they are about 6" under. IIRC, the PAR in that area is around 500? It's been a while since I actually pulled over the SenEye and measured it, so that could be off... For now, I'll just leave things as they are; I'm working on a canopy that will include 4x T5's and will mess with all my lighting when I get that installed. No reason to make the corals go through multiple changes. And all the others are doing fine; it's just the SPS that are more brown than colored. I can't seem to keep purples as vivid as I would like, but aside from that the coloration is good. Pretty sure that's the same issue - too much light (or too much white light, at least). As I said; I'll aim to fix my lights once the canopy is in place.

Here's some random phone pics, just because:
I guess it's cleaning time on frag rack #1:

Frag rack #2; mostly acans. The picture here does not do them justice; they all look loverly!

Update on the Zoa Garden. It's doing well - I can actually tell that growth has happened, now!

The birdsnest and octo are doing well. The goniopora; not so much (I likely need to target feed it more often). The monti on the tip of Star Destroyer Pinnacle is doing well - about doubled in size since it was mounted.

Looking down the tank. Includes a shot of all three anthias (Moe, Moe, and Moe) - which I'm happy to still have as one of them had a bloated eye issue that was healed without the need for QT! The male (bottom left) is noticeably more purple than the two females (whom I think may need to be renamed now that it's possible to tell them all apart... Moe, Flo, and Flo?).

 

[PlanB]

You still running the 3 x XR15's? I have same tank, and thinking about 2 x XR30's. What do you think?

 

[DLHDesign]

You still running the 3 x XR15's? I have same tank, and thinking about 2 x XR30's. What do you think?

Yeah; still just running three XR15's. I like them well enough and will keep them over the tank, but also plan on adding 4x T5 fixtures to complement them. I don't consider this a "must do"; just a "nice to have" - with a bit more knowledge and effort, I'm pretty sure that I could get the same spectrum output. But the T5's will provide that out-of-the-box while also helping to reduce some of my shadows and give me a better shimmer.

I think 2x XR30's could work, but it will really depend upon your aquascape as to how much shadowing you will get. The fixtures can put out more than enough light - I'm running mine about 40% - but you'll likely end up with "hot spots" directly under the fixtures. I would definitely suggest installing the wide-angle lenses right off the bat; they will help distribute that a bit more and you can compensate for the resulting lower PAR by bumping up the power a bit. Only downside to that, really, is that your fans will come on more often. And while they aren't really loud, they do have a noticeable hum to them. If you've got the tank drain dialed in and are using a quiet pump (ex; Vectra), then the light fans may just be the loudest thing you normally perceive on the tank (the sump noise is louder, but it's reduced by the cabinet when it's closed).

 

[stevo01]

@NHreefguy check this out!

 

[DLHDesign]

11/15/2016 - Day 191 - More toys, just no time...

So this happened:

FINALLY! A controller! With all the trips coming up for the holidays and the BRS sale, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the "minimal" Apex package. The only non-obvious thing in the pic may be the cable - which will control the two banks of dual T5's that I'm building into my canopy. I'm sure I could have built it out of CAT-5, but this just seemed easier...

The wife is not happy with my purchase. My rational of getting a discount was met with The Stare. My excuse of the trips resulted in The Eyebrow. I told her she could buy as much fabric as she wanted (she recent has taken up sewing). That got The Not-Good Laugh. So yeah; I'm in trouble. I expected that, to be honest...

So let's review the to-do list:
- Finish the pull-out organizer drawer. This has progressed no further than pictured. The next step is to dry-fit everything and then figure out how to organize the power switches and dosing pumps into the cabinet box that will top the current shelves (it'll sit like a "T" on the top; the cabinet face will attach to the front and the drawer slides will mount to the lower sides (and perhaps upper if needed for stability; which I doubt will be needed). My original plan was to just leave ample room for the Apex pieces, but now I can just build them in to start. It's more efficient this way...
So why isn't this done yet? A 3-month-old really saps your time and ability to do anything - especially when paired with a 2-year-old. This is in no way a complaint (said newborn is starting to smile and coo - which is happiness in a tiny bundle), just a reason. Finishing the cabinet will take a good weekend day to complete. And with me working during the week, the weekends are "my turn" (read: much needed time for my amazing wife to recharge her batteries from the absolute drain of caring for two kids). So the cabinet sits half-done.
- Build and install the canopy (with T5's and Radions). I've got the T5 kits, bulbs, and wood. Now I've got the Apex to control them (they are dimmable). I've got a plan for the wiring. The wife won't like it. It involves cutting open some of the drywall in one of the kid's bedroom closets. She won't like it, but I should be allowed as it's not a bedroom wall. Both bedrooms have hand-painted murals on the walls. If I suggest cutting into one of those... Er. No.
So why isn't this done yet? Again; children. But building the canopy isn't really all that hard; I could do it in a weeknight after the kids are in bed. But in order for me to do that, I have to clean up the workshop so I can get to the tools. We piled things up in there when we installed cabinets in the garage, but have not sorted through all the stuff to get rid of/put back in the garage. Included in this pile is all my no-longer-needed brewing supplies. Once I get rid of that stuff, I'll be able to move our dive gear into it's storage area. Then I can clean out/move the junk that's covering the tools. But the wife is also tired of all the sawdust and such that is created (even though I clean the main stuff up, it coats everything), so wants me to install a shop-vac system before we start any more woodworking projects. I have approval to buy it, but I need to figure out the workshop layout first. And we want to sub-divide the workshop so she has a classroom (or I have an office - TBD), so we need to plan out where that wall will go before I can sort out where the tools will be... Yeah; it's a rabbit hole...
- Water change. I'm due. Tonight, in fact, according to my reminder. But I don't have quite enough RO/DI made up and no salt at all, so that's not happening on time. I can make the water pretty quick (>100gal/day) and have the salt and such on-hand (of course), but I need to change out my resin first. And I can't do that until I clear out the clutter in the way. The "clutter" is all the T5 fixture boxes and bulbs, along with the two quarantine tanks that I'm not currently using. I was hoping that the fixtures being in the way would drive me to get the canopy done sooner, but that's not going to happen; clearly. So it looks like my task tonight is to move stuff around and change out some resin...
- Clean the sand. Again. I did this fairly recently (it feels like last month, but likely 2 months ago) and it needs it again. I'm not to the point where I want a bare bottom, but I can see the draw... I may take the opportunity to pull out the stuff I have - which is more along the lines of crushed coral than sand - and replace it with some actual sand. That sounds like a lot of work. I'll just clean it during the WC.
- Pump Cleaning. The older of my two Gyre's is almost completely covered in coralline algae. Yay for being able to grow it so well, but boo for needing to clean it off now. Not a huge task (soak in vinegar, clean off, dry I gather), but just something else that needs doing. I'll pull one, clean it, return it, then pull the other and clean that. May as well get them both...
- Frag mounting. I've got about a dozen frags that need to be mounted before they grow over my frag racks. Most of them I have ideas of where they will go. The rest, I'll just wing it. But I'm out of super-glue, so that'll have to be purchased first. Meant to add some to my BRS order for the Apex, but forgot... Ah well; I have points to use now, at least.
- Get the tangs. Four (hopefully), to be exact. We're holding off until we get back from Thanksgiving, however, as I want to make sure I can give them the full 30+ days in QT and leave plenty of time for acclimation into the DT. You can be sure the the first thing we'll be doing when we get back is placing that order, however. Which means that I'll need to find a way to TTM four 2-4" tangs at the same time with 2x 10gal tanks. I've got egg crate to divide them up into "rooms", so it's really just a matter of whether or not a ~2.5gal area is enough to QT a juvenile tang in... I think so, but would appreciate some thoughts on that.

So yeah; that's the "to-do" list. It's a wonder that the tank is doing so well, all things considered... But it is, so yay. I think I've got my feeding reduced down to the correct levels. My numbers have been stable - to the point where I'm only checking them every 3-4 nights instead of every night. I'm getting better at "reading" the tank based on what I can see, for sure.

One new thing to report is the addition of dosing in Vibrant. I must say - it works great. My tank was far from entirely overrun, but I did have two zoa clusters that were pretty bad with hair algae. I kept trimming it back and pulling it out as best I could, but it just came back because I couldn't get below the polyps with tweezers due to their position in the tank. After dosing in the recommended amount, I saw one of the areas decline after a few days time. The second dose took care of the second patch. I've not noticed any ill effects in either my numbers nor my growth - not even of my chateo. The tank - especially the glass - is staying cleaner with less maintenance. I like to think that the water has more "sparkle", but that could just be a result of the tank being cleaner (it's looked like this after a water change and tank clean, at least). Whatever; the stuff works in my tank for sure! Huge props to @UWC for providing such a great product - you can be sure that I'll be making room on my dosing pump to keep this stuff in my tank!

I also added in some pods to the tank. Okay; MANY pods to the tank. Someday I'd like to get another mandarin (ORA aquacultured next time, for sure) - perhaps even a mated pair. But I won't make the mistake of starving them again, so I'll spend the next year+ seeding in pods every other month or so. I've set up a subscription on AlgaeBarn, but I may cancel it in favor of just ordering them myself on a schedule; they always seem to have sales going on and that seems to reduce the price lower than the subscription... May not be true; I've not actually done the math...

All-in-all, I'm loving this "phase" of the tank. Despite the near total lack of progress on the construction projects and lack of daily maintenance, I still feel engaged with the tank. Our oldest (2, recall) now asks to be able to feed the fish. I defrost a dozen or so cubes in a squeeze bottle along with some VitaChem and tank water every few days (keep it in the fridge), so if I hold her up, she's able to squeeze the food in. Does a good job; stops when I ask her to and makes sure to watch that all the fish are eating. Earlier today, in fact, she was at the playground with her mom and was playing "feed the fish" with her water bottle. Wish I could have seen that one; she apparently knew what color they all were and seemed surprised that my wife did not when she asked. She also gets upset if we don't let her feed the dog and cat, so she may just end up being a vet or the like... Cool with me!

 

[DLHDesign]

11/29/2016 - Day 205 - Drawer, canopy, and - OMG - new fishes!

Now, how did I miss day 200?!? Oh right - I was driving back from LA and barely had time to swap out my filter socks, let alone do a full update. Ah well; here said update is... ;-)

- Finish the pull-out organizer drawer.

Mark that one (practically) done! I posted up the details in the Red Sea thread, but here's the gist of it:

Controller and storage side. (STILL need to add a finishing strip to that exposed part...)

Lower angle, showing all the stuff jammed in there, including the new Apex stuff above!

The dosing side. Eight pumps (7 in use currently - the 8th will come online soon), each with their own "zero-evaporation" container. Each container (which have sealed lids) has the outlet you can see, but also an inlet with a check-valve on the inside. Air gets in; nothing gets out.

I picked up an Amazon Fire. As we also have an iPad in the house (the kiddo uses it), I must admit that I'm underwhelmed by the Fire. I've barely touched it aside from getting Neptune in the browser, so it may get better. I'm turned off by the full-screen ads I get before I unlock the thing, to start. And I can't find the Neptune app in their app store... I suspect it's not available?
Anywho; that's just sitting on the drawer top for now. If I keep it, I'll likely mount it to the wall somewhere (if I can figure out how to use it as a picture frame, all the better...).

So far, I'm not overly impressed with the Apex. It's doing it's thing; was easy to set up - had pretty much everything ready out of the box - and is monitoring all the things it's supposed to monitor. I appreciate all that it offers. but as I've had a SenEye in the tank for a while now, the "out of kilter" alarms are something I just expect of my tank and there's a lot of overlap between the two. The Apex is obviously going to monitor more - power monitoring was a key feature, but I've not had time to set up those alarms. I'll also be needing the Apex to control the T5's I'm adding (see below), so I'll for sure appreciate it more then.
The WMX module is rather depressing - to the point where I'm not even using it. I wasn't sure if I needed a ReefLink or not to use it (don't think so?), but I got the ReefLink using the BRS points I had anyways. Now that I've got that set up and installed, I don't really see the need for the Apex to control my LEDs - especially not given that the WXM is more limited in what it offers, I think? I also just assumed that the WXM would be able to control my Vectra L1 (return pump), but no. That's my bad there; it clearly states that it does not. So that module (the only module I have) took me about 5 hours of trial-and-error to not use. It didn't help that the only instructions on how to set up the WXM are for the old version(s) of the Neptune system. At least; none of the directions I could find aligned with the menus/options I was seeing.
I was also hoping that the new MaxSpect Gyre would be able to talk to the Apex directly (eg; no IceCap needed). This may be possible; I don't know? After fighting (and loosing) to the WXM, I've not gone back to the Apex to see about hooking up my two Gyres.
So given all of that, the only real thing that the Apex has done for me so far is to give me a digital toggle to turn off my skimmer. Which is fun and all, but doesn't yet justify it's cost. I have high hopes and don't regret the purchase, however. It's one of those things I'm sure I will appreciate more as I use it more...

I also posted up a current "in progress" shot of my new canopy:

As I described in the post; the Radions will go in the three holes while 4x 4ft T5's will mount on the edges. The T5's will be run by the Apex, so that will likely be the tipping point for appreciating it more... I'll continue to get the canopy together in the days ahead. I also need to install security cameras around the house (kids make us paranoid, I guess), so that's something that will take time away from the tank project. I hope to have the canopy in-place before XMas, at least. Which reminds me - I need to also get the XMas lights up; no small feat as I am going to attempt to run a music-synchronized light show this year. (I tried it last year, but my relays burnt out my Pi due to something being cross-wired and I didn't have time to get another one set up.)

Something that DID happen on the tank's 200-day anniversary is that I ordered some more fishes! This will be the "final" batch to go in and is the one I've been looking forward to the most. It's TANG time! I ordered four small (1-2.5") tangs, one each of: Yellow Eye Kole, Naso, and Yellow from a Hawaii source and a Blue sourced from the Solomon Islands. I wanted to get the Blue and Yellow aquacultured, but I couldn't justify the oodles I'd have to spend on shipping from multiple vendors. In the end, I ordered all four from Blue Zoo Aquatics. This will be the third order of fishes from them and the other two were top-notch. They include the food they use, a drip acclimation setup, and some "no-shock" stuff along with the order - not to mention their packaging is great and I've yet to have any problems with their livestock. I'll still QT everything a full month (using TTM and then observation), of course. They all arrive tomorrow AM (in nearby Oakland right now) and I've already got the QT water mixing. As they are all still so small, I plan on just dividing up my 10gal QT into 4 chambers with some egg crate. As I get through the TTM process, I'll look into joining them all together in the final QT for group observation. Being tangs, I'm anticipating needing to solve at least a minor ich outbreak; if not worse. I've got all the meds on-hand I could imagine needing, however. So with the help and advice of R2R, I have high hopes of adding 4 tangs into my DT before next year!
I'll update tomorrow with pics of the little guys/gals.

 

[spscubed]

Just started reading this and all I keep telling myself is "Wow am I actually going to read everything this person types, instead of just skimming for the good parts? I am he makes the boring stuff interesting in a way!" So for that; thank you. Tagging along.

 

[DLHDesign]

So for that; thank you. Tagging along.

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you're following along; I'll be sure to keep the updates coming (and, hopefully, entertaining).

The fish came in - all seem alive and in decent shape! The first two are being dripped already:

 

[DLHDesign]

And the other two (also being dripped):

So far, I think the name of the Yellow Eye will be "Bandit". No reason why per-se; just popped into my head when it fell out of the bag into the Acclimator. The others are still TBD - as is the Coral Beauty that's been in the DT for a month now... :-|

 

[spscubed]

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you're following along; I'll be sure to keep the updates coming (and, hopefully, entertaining).

The fish came in - all seem alive and in decent shape! The first two are being dripped already:

Looking forward to it brother!

 

[adestafi]

Sweet drawer mod, i might have to do that with my reefer

 

[DLHDesign]

Sweet drawer mod, i might have to do that with my reefer

Let me know if you decide to give it a go and I can try and sort out a cut list.

 

[PlanB]

Let me know if you decide to give it a go and I can try and sort out a cut list.

Cut list!

 

[DLHDesign]

Cut list!

Will do. I didn't make one as I went, so I'll have to gather the measurements from the assembled unit. Which means deconstructing it a bit... I'll get it, though - will just take me a few days. Might even get the wife (structural engineer) to throw together a Sketchup of the actual finished product (she did an initial one that I didn't really follow at all...).

 

[PlanB]

Will do. I didn't make one as I went, so I'll have to gather the measurements from the assembled unit. Which means deconstructing it a bit... I'll get it, though - will just take me a few days. Might even get the wife (structural engineer) to throw together a Sketchup of the actual finished product (she did an initial one that I didn't really follow at all...).

You guys are awesome!

 

[DLHDesign]

12/21/2016 - Day 227 - Rouge Plans and Tank Bling

Cut list!

It's amazing how a second child really makes keeping up with everything so much harder... One of the things that I just haven't seem to had time for is writing up that cut list... And I told myself that I wouldn't update my thread without that bit of info. Net result: no update for 22 days. :-\
Well; today I decided to just get it done. (It's the holiday's, so people will understand if I don't get my actual work done, right?) My wife is also working hard to keep the children from tearing up the place as-is, so I'm not about to ask her to spend her ever-valuable time doing a Sketch-up drawing of my "fish drawer" (though, to be honest, she would likely enjoy the effort if she actually had the time, so it's still not out of the realm of possible...). So you all will just have to suffer through with my photo-based "plans". Here you go:

I didn't include the measurements for the power switch cut-out. I figure if you need one of those (and have the tools to make the cut-out), you can just use the device as a template - which is what I did, after all. The top section's height was based entirely on the need to fit my dosing pumps in there. So if you are using the Jebao pumps, it should work for you. If not, then you can alter the height accordingly (adjust the 3.5" measure on parts F and G). There's about 2.5" of clearance above the top (where my Hanna and refractometer boxes are sitting), so as long as you don't go more than that, you should be fine. If you do need more than that for some reason, then you'll need to reduce the riser height (reduce the 19.25" measure on part D).
I did not include location measurements for the rail slides. That's because I would not use the ones I have; I can already tell they will not work long-term. I "had to" guess at the overall weight and such of the final product and it came out heavier than I expected, which actually puts it over the recommended weight limit of those slides. And those are the most sturdy ones they make of that type that I could find... Were I to build this again (I'm not going to), I would look for an undermount style of slide (something like this; but not these - they aren't rated high enough and are too long to boot - 18" slides are needed). Obviously if you change the slides used, you change the mounting location of everything...
I also did not provide door-mount measurements for the same reason. If you change the location of the drawer, the door mounting location also needs must change. I made a bunch of measurements (height, side offset, gap allowance, etc.) before mounting mine on (using pocket screws from the bottom base (C) and top base (E). I was careful to get everything as square as I could, but in the end still had to adjust the position of the other two doors to get everything lined up. It goes without saying, I feel, that all the door mount hardware had been removed before the door front was mounted.
Only thing I did different from the plans was that I tried to use 3x top side braces (G) - one on the front (pictured), one on the back (not pictured, but marked as (G) in approx. location), and one in between the two pumps. I ended up removing the middle one as it didn't leave enough room for both my pumps. In the third picture, you can still see the little nub that remains from that effort (something I'll cut off someday). OH! I forgot to mention in the "Cut List" above that part G has a cutout - 3/4" x 3 1/4" (creates a 3/4" x 3/4" overhang). Either that, or reduce it's height to 2 1/2").
So there you go (sort of...). Feel free to ask any questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Oh; just to make sure it's clear: the back of the top is mostly open to allow all the power cables and dosing lines to exit, in addition to allowing a little airflow.

With all the holiday decorations out of the attic and in the garage, I've actually been able to move the new canopy into an area where I can work on it easier. Which I've been doing. Slowly. Usually at night. And by "night" I mean 1am when everyone else is asleep. But hey - progress has been made! It's still not hung up, but it's pretty darn tootin' close. Here are some current pics:

I've managed to get all the T5 wiring in place and have done the bulb burn-in. 50hrs takes a while to do when I only want to run it when the solar is paying for the electricity... Also; this is painted to match the room's trim - which is pretty close to both the tank stand and the cabinets that are all throughout the room.

I pulled down one of my three Radions and sorted out a way to mount it:

I still need to solder the wire loops to ensure that they won't slip out. The screws do a good job of trapping the wire, but I don't want these to fall into the tank (obviously). I may also dip the ends in plastic to help keep them in one piece.
The two cables do a pretty good job of holding the light in place, but allow a little bit of wiggle room so that I don't have to get them perfect.

For mounting this thing to the wall, my plan is to use three hinges attached to studs on the back side (I left a small gap to allow for this) and two (or more...) of the current Radion wire hangers for the front corners. That should get me something that is stable and appears to "float" above the tank. I'm still not sure what height to put it above the tank, but am thinking around 12" - which should give me enough room for general maintenance without having to lift it up. It's not overly heavy, really, but the less I have to move it, the better. I'm not at all concerned with being able to get enough light on the tank - I'm only running the LED's at max 40% right now, so it's mostly an aesthetic choice.
All the wires you see in the above pic (T5 power line, dimming cables, and 3x Radion power lines) will pass into the wall and down behind the cabinet (into the drawer side).
Once it's all wired up, I'll have to have a good sit-down with my APEX and Radions and figure out how to get all the lighting worked out...

Update on the Live Things:
All my DT fish are doing well. The coral-banded shrimp molted again. Everyone else is just swimming about; eating when fed and sleeping at night. I enjoy watching them for sure.
Only the Yellow and Yellow-Eye Kole have survived in the QT. They are through the TTM period and are now just under observation for another day or two before getting added in. We leave for vacation next week, so I want to give them at least a few days to settle in before we leave and a house-sitter is responsible for feeding them, etc. I've got no concerns about them; both are eating frozen foods well, swimming about strong, and show no signs of any disease.
Coral are doing well enough. Most of my SPS Are still more brown than anything else, so I still have some work to do. I've not done as good a job as cleaning as I would like, so my params are a little off-kilter. Which is making the LPS happy, so at least there's that. All-in-all, things are going well enough in the coral department.
Oddly; my chaeto all died over the course of a week. I'm not totally sure why, to be honest, but I'm pretty sure it's related to my reduction in maintenance. My params are under control (off-kilter, but stable), however, so I'm not in any big rush to replace it. I still run my fuge light at night, which I may not actually need to be doing, but I've not wanted to fiddle much with it...