monkiboy's 265g build thread

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monkiboy

monkiboy

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another beauty that is on the list of potential angelfish and has a much higher chance of making it...



angel_zpsa29ca182.jpg
 

revhtree

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This is such a great build!
 
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monkiboy

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i've been so tired lately with long nights and busy days so posting has been non-existent lately, sorry. i did pick up a 4x8 block of the marine pure ceramic media to try out. going to raise off the bottom and put a bunch of these in my sump and a couple in the nem propagation tank as it's really easy to peel nems off of it if they decide to attach their foot on them.



had very little dust but it is suggested to rinse over tap then with RODI prior to adding to your system. i swished it around in some water headed to the drain from the last water change and looked good to go. these things hold an immense amount of water which led me to believe it's "pore network" must be equally impressive so hopefully great result but that will be near impossible to quantify.



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was replacing the filter socks today and thought i'd grab a quick video of how pods are freaking taking over my tank, haha.



i removed the filter sock from my sump and tossed it into a bucket and when i went to toss the filter sock in the washer, i shake it a bit and this is what gets left behind
ohmy.png



[video=youtube;1Fpds_ae_P8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fpds_ae_P8[/video]
 
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monkiboy

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got some goodies today!



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i got two more marinepure blocks (8x8x4") that i added to the sump - these things are pretty neat and knowing i'm adding significant surface area for bacterial colonization makes me happy. also got a bunch of fittings for my reactors off my manifold, a dual DI resin upgrade, 150gpd restrictor (almost forgot that thing), ESVs 1-gallon containers of their 2-part + magnesium kit, an algae-free magnetic cleaner, two 150gpd membranes, and some other odds and ends.


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i got to work on my 150gpd RO/DI...thankfully i have great pressure to work with at home usually around 110psi or so if not throttled down and i make RO/DI easily but not fast enough to my liking and i figure on a 500g+ system i want to make it FASTER! i was averaging around 240gpd on the 150gpd system and instead of buying a commercial RO/DI unit i opted to go for the 150gpd dual membranes with the corresponding flow restrictor. this will put me at 300gpd and if my previous performance was any indicator, i should be closer to 350+gpd which will allow me to make water much faster, maintenance easier, and be able to respond to emergency situations quicker without having to worry about storing a large volume of water.


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the 150gpd flow restrictor is not an in-line type like the 75gpd but rather a capillary flow restrictor so it actually makes for a cleaner look as opposed to the above and allows for easier access to the flush kit valve, bonus!


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figured while i was pumping out RO/DI crazy fast might as well upgrade to the dual DI canisters as well. this makes maintenance easier and with the color changing resin now as one expires and turns brown i can swap with the other one and be good to go again. i really like that the dual di canister set comes with two canister pre-filled packed tight ready to go with resin!
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all RO/DI goodies installed! haven't tested performance yet but was getting the same 2-4TDS after the membranes prior to DI stage which is great to keep exhaustion of the DI resin at a minimum.


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then i set out to swap out reactors and get my GAC going off my manifold. i had temporarily been running it in a BRS reactor off a mag 3 which was driving me crazy but i didn't have proper fittings yet (90° barb and reducer to go from 3/4" cepex on manifold to 1/2" for line to reactor) to complete the change. well all that stuff came in today so time to get that beautiful synergy reactor working!


loaded up with BRS rox carbon...


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yes, i plan to swap the clamps with plastic ratcheting but all three of my sources were out of stock and i wanted to have it secured for the interim. also thinking about swapping out all tubing for black but not sure on that yet but think it would be more dramatic, prevent algae build up if any, and look a lot sexier than braided nylon. we shall see.


once i test out flow of the "new" RO/DI system, i'll post up specs but i'm pretty excited to make 0TDS RODI...fast! and now i can actually run the amount of rox that is called for on this system as i have the room for it as before i was filling the BRS reactor to the top and my portion was limited.


oh, and ordered two BRS dosing pumps to get my levels nice and stable for some sweet corals to go in!


thanks for following along!
 
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monkiboy

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ran into some trouble today. one of my RO DC10500 pumps failed. the controller was lit and unchanged. i simply woke up and went to go check on the tank and there was no flow through the fuge/macro and frag tanks or the manifold. thankfully it was not the pump for the return to the 265 display that failed in the middle of the night.

i took it apart removing the volute and inspected it and everything looked correct. when i plugged it back in inside of a test basin it worked like new.

i was about to place my order with saltysupply for a replacement (this time a second-gen waveline dc12000 which supposedly has fixed these issues) as they have the waveline dc12000 on sale when i went to go check on the reinstalled dc10500. twenty minutes later it has failed again.

i wasn't going to be able to wait for a replacement and didn't feel like dealing with replumbing things with the existing options so i called up QR and they had one dc12000 left. i paid online and picked up this afternoon, reinstalled and everything is back to normal.

there are some major differences in the hardware which i tried to photograph.

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there is a heatsink and small fan on the back of the waveline controller. the controller is about three times as thick as the RO controller. when mounted against a flat surface, the controller's fan produces a high-pitched loud whine. best to use spacers and mount spacers to surface to allow for airflow and increased cooling performance. this was kind of annoying
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the waveline controller has two screw-in water resistant connections vs the RO's one and a DC input that easily falls out when working around it. i really like that it has two secure connections like this.
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the waveline is about an inch taller and just larger everwhere. the input is 1.5" vs the 1.25" of the RO.
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the power brick/supply/adapter on the waveline is ridiculously large. about twice the size of the RO. larger even than some 400w ballasts i have. all for one pump this guy is going to take up some real estate for sure.
CAM00586_zpse956d2bc.jpg




having one waveline dc1200 and one RO dc10500 is kind of bothering me at the moment. i'm going to buy another DC12000 so i have matching controllers and will have what should be a much more reliable set up this way. i will put in my claim for a replacement under warranty for the RO diablo that failed, and update accordingly but i've never had issues working with jeremy at coralvue.



i also have two dc5500 skimmer pumps on the standard 12 grey seas skimmer so don't know if i should go ahead and replace those as well or wait it out as a skimmer failure isn't nearly as critical and i have a back up skimmer to hold me over if one or both should fail.



thanks goes out to quantum reefs for being open and available on a sunday. was a bit of a hike but they have one of the nicer stores i had been to in VA and it was awesome learning a bit about their setup and offerings!
 

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Sorry to hear about your pump but glad you're making it work out!
 

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Love your meticulously detailed build, already will borrow a few ideas for my build which is a significantly smaller.
 
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monkiboy

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wow, i haven't updated in a while. sorry!



thought i'd share some photos of the pretty spectacular frag rack synergy is building me for the frag tank in this system. love me some laser action, haha.



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monkiboy

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little video of the females of the m.bipartitus trio:

[video=youtube;hQErIU4meJI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQErIU4meJI[/video]
 
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monkiboy

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the male bipartitus is a little grumpy when he wakes up in the morning. once he finds his two ladies who wake up a couple hours earlier he is much more sprightly.

[video=youtube;n0-Tkf-uzx4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0-Tkf-uzx4#t=0[/video]
 
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Set it and forget it: Do you change your aquascape as your corals grow?

  • I regularly change something in my aquascape.

    Votes: 20 11.8%
  • I occasionally change something in my aquascape.

    Votes: 47 27.6%
  • I rarely change something in my aquascape.

    Votes: 80 47.1%
  • I never change something in my aquascape.

    Votes: 20 11.8%
  • Other.

    Votes: 3 1.8%
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