Mrpontiac80 ‘s 180 gallon build

[leepink23]

The lights just kicked up so it’s pretty blue, but I got a great price on a new bounce mushroom yesterday so I had to get it.

Sunkist? Looks good

 

[mrpontiac80]

Sunkist? Looks good

I really don’t know. A lfs in Tulsa OK had a bunch of them priced from 40-100 bucks depending on size. This one was $50 and a little bigger than a US quarter. Here are my daytime lights

 

[leepink23]

I really don’t know. A lfs in Tulsa OK had a bunch of them priced from 40-100 bucks depending on size. This one was $50 and a little bigger than a US quarter. Here are my daytime lights

That’s nice!

 

[mrpontiac80]

New resident getting acclimated to the group

 

[mrpontiac80]

 

[mrpontiac80]

I finally decided to get a controller. I went with a hydros x4 pro pack and will be adding to it in a couple more weeks with a wave engine.
Since everything needs to mount to something, I threw together a controller board with materials already on hand. It’s a bit crude, but it will work.
I basically built an open door medicine cabinet. The idea is to remove the side door of my stand with the cabinet installed behind the stand opening. I threw up a panel on the backside just to simply hide wires passing through and also power bricks until the wave engine arrives. That will eliminate a couple.
Like I said, materials on hand were used, so the front side is spray paint in a dark blue and the back I sprayed in an automotive rubberized undercoat. The AFR dose container will sit in front of the rear panel and the doser on top of cabinet.
Not real pretty or cool but hopefully not real cruddy and ugly either

 

[leepink23]

I finally decided to get a controller. I went with a hydros x4 pro pack and will be adding to it in a couple more weeks with a wave engine.
Since everything needs to mount to something, I threw together a controller board with materials already on hand. It’s a bit crude, but it will work.
I basically built an open door medicine cabinet. The idea is to remove the side door of my stand with the cabinet installed behind the stand opening. I threw up a panel on the backside just to simply hide wires passing through and also power bricks until the wave engine arrives. That will eliminate a couple.
Like I said, materials on hand were used, so the front side is spray paint in a dark blue and the back I sprayed in an automotive rubberized undercoat. The AFR dose container will sit in front of the rear panel and the doser on top of cabinet.
Not real pretty or cool but hopefully not real cruddy and ugly either

I have been happy with the wave engine

 

[mrpontiac80]

I have been happy with the wave engine

That’s awesome to hear! I’m pretty excited for this new controller stuff. I’ve been doing a lot of research on it and hope to get it installed today. I’m a creature of stability and put things off because I don’t like interrupting what I have going.. like my flow pattern. I hope things don’t change too much eliminating my gyre controllers but at the same time I know it will be fine.

 

[leepink23]

That’s awesome to hear! I’m pretty excited for this new controller stuff. I’ve been doing a lot of research on it and hope to get it installed today. I’m a creature of stability and put things off because I don’t like interrupting what I have going.. like my flow pattern. I hope things don’t change too much eliminating my gyre controllers but at the same time I know it will be fine.

You won’t notice a change in flow with the gyres but there is a learning curve with the wave engine

 

[mrpontiac80]

Well I got the cabinet installed and gear ran through it…. What a super duper pain in the rear. I’m taking a break now and going to my LFS to see what’s new and this evening I’ll try to power up the hydros and figure out the ph probe. I’ve never had one before. After that is moving some power plugs to the XP8.

 

[mrpontiac80]

So the Hydros is pretty awesome. I’m loving this thing and barely have it doing much so far. Now that I have a ph probe to constantly monitor the tank, my hand held tests seem to have been fairly accurate with a reading of about 8.0 Today i threw an air stone into the sump for the last 4 hrs of the peak light cycle and saw a .4 increase almost immediately.

I have a friend that sells coral “SeaCo Corals” that lives very close to me and we were talking about my future upgrades I want to add onto the hydros collective, and it turns out he had some new in stock things I want, so he hooked me up with a Wave Engine and battery backup! Thanks @SeaCo Nico !

 

[leepink23]

So the Hydros is pretty awesome. I’m loving this thing and barely have it doing much so far. Now that I have a ph probe to constantly monitor the tank, my hand held tests seem to have been fairly accurate with a reading of about 8.0 Today i threw an air stone into the sump for the last 4 hrs of the peak light cycle and saw a .4 increase almost immediately.

I have a friend that sells coral “SeaCo Corals” that lives very close to me and we were talking about my future upgrades I want to add onto the hydros collective, and it turns out he had some new still sealed up things I want, so he hooked me up with a Wave Engine and battery backup! Thanks @SeaCo Nico !

I run the battery backup as well, I just have it cut 1 gyre on at 60% continuous

 

[Fish Styx]

So the Hydros is pretty awesome. I’m loving this thing and barely have it doing much so far. Now that I have a ph probe to constantly monitor the tank, my hand held tests seem to have been fairly accurate with a reading of about 8.0 Today i threw an air stone into the sump for the last 4 hrs of the peak light cycle and saw a .4 increase almost immediately.

I have a friend that sells coral “SeaCo Corals” that lives very close to me and we were talking about my future upgrades I want to add onto the hydros collective, and it turns out he had some new still sealed up things I want, so he hooked me up with a Wave Engine and battery backup! Thanks @SeaCo Nico !

Awesome!

 

[mrpontiac80]

I run the battery backup as well, I just have it cut 1 gyre on at 60% continuous

I plan to get a 2nd to daisy chain them and do the same…. Just in case we get one of those ice storms or something.

 

[mrpontiac80]

By the way, anybody reading this, if you’re looking for fair prices on nice coral, you should really give SeaCo Corals a look! All my torches and gonis come from him.

 

[leepink23]

I plan to get a 2nd to daisy chain them and do the same…. Just in case we get one of those ice storms or something.

Good plan. I have an inverter generator that runs most of my homes so if power is out an hour or so I flip it on. 2 would be nice in case I was out of town.

 

[SeaCo Nico]

Thanks man! Your tank is looking amazing!

 

[mrpontiac80]

I got the wave engine running this past week and still trying to figure out the flow that I prefer but it’s pretty awesome having different modes to easily switch to vs programming one up on two different gyre controllers!

Today I did a water change and just because, here are a few pics

 

[mrpontiac80]

@SeaCo Nico that red monti cap still shows some green but it’s light.

 

[SeaCo Nico]

@SeaCo Nico that red monti cap still shows some green but it’s light.

O man that's the same coral?? Looks good