My rendition of 300

[McPuff]

Holy cow Jimmy, it looks great! Already a nice assemblage of fish too. Let me know how your lawnmower blenny does. Sadly, I cannot keep one more than a few months.

Going to finally set up my peristaltic pump today. Really looking forward to it.

FTS please? :0)

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Looking good! I need you come over and redo my tank Your work is much better than mine!

Every time I come back to post in this thread, I have to scroll through and look through the entire thread to relive the transformation. At this point the build is still the highlight of this experience. I haven't, and I doubt I ever will add up all the receipts getting to this point... for this instance, ignorance is bliss.

Nice work Jimmy! That should definitely help those frags to get growing.

Thanks Bill, I just got the thumbs up to purchase an Alkatronics, once I get that on line stability shouldn't be an issue.

For those that don't know, Bill's tank has been an inspiration to me. I don't know how he has such amazing colors and growth on all his corals, I've never had the pleasure to see up close such a beautiful tank, he definitely has a blue thumb.

I guess I exaggerated a bit, when I say, "his tank is an inspiration" I mean that every time I visit, I'm suddenly overwhelmed with jealousy to the point that I want to come home and pour a gallon of bleach into my tank and walk away. Just kidding, I hope one day I can have such beautiful growth and success as him.

Is it normal for me to feel this jealous. The build was insanely incredible. Your skills are second to none. Please update with FTS. I’d love to see what the whole thing looks like with fish in it.

Scott,
thank you so much, I guess we just proved that the grass is always greener, no matter what type of success we have, someone else has done better. But it's a great motivational tool to get to the point that you're happy with the results.

I just took some FTS. Not much to look at because there's only a handful of tiny frags. I guess it doesn't hurt to show pictures just for prosperity purposes.

Oh man. I always envy reefers who hVe the opportunity to build their home around their tanks lol. But you sir, even have a moat [emoji23]. Omg.

How I missed this build I'll never know, that is some serious DIY skills you have there. Enough to start your own reefing business iid say. Come on when do we get to order lol.

I see a bedroom being taken over for a frag system soon [emoji16]. Or even an extension being added and turned into a shop [emoji106][emoji106]

I know it was already documented in an earlier post, but I bought this tank circa 2011-12 with the intention to put it in our house in California (it never made it off the trailer) then we moved to Wyoming, where I had the perfect spot to build a very nice fish room, but my wife claimed the spot for her office (It made it off the trailer and sat in the garage). When we moved to Arizona, I made darn sure that we bought a house that would accommodate the tank. We dwindled our search down to 2 places. From the perspective solely of the tank, the best house had a pretty big built in bar with stainless steel sinks, electrical and it was on an outside wall. Being that I'm not a drinker, it was the perfect place to construct a nice in wall tank. However the second choice was in the location away from all the snowbirds and it had the acreage we wanted. A lot more construction was needed which meant more hassle with permitting. But in the end, I finally got to set this big guy up!!!

As far as expansion... I don't know, I do have plans for a small frag tank in place of the QT, but outside of that, I just want to focus on maturing this tank. Not to say that in the future I will want to have a grow out tank.... it's just not in the peripherals right now.

You’re going to love the CA reactor. Tank looks great and love the fish. JP

Thanks JP, I recognize the name from RC??? I know I will love it, and in a few months I will be kicking myself in the rear for not doing it earlier.

Holy cow Jimmy, it looks great! Already a nice assemblage of fish too. Let me know how your lawnmower blenny does. Sadly, I cannot keep one more than a few months.

Going to finally set up my peristaltic pump today. Really looking forward to it.

FTS please? :0)

Damon,
Gramps (Lawnmower blenny) was one of the first fish we added to the tank, I just looked and I have pictures of him dated all the way back to August, so that's at least 10 months. He was one of the first to survive QT. Without any competition, he developed a fat belly in no time hehe.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

without further adieu:

 

[ScottR]

without further adieu:

Looks great. It takes forever for frags to take off. I like the rock work and it’ll be beautiful when the SPS take off.

But IME, when ppl come over, they only look at the fish. $5,000 worth of corals and they’re going nuts over a $5 “Nemo”.

 

[jporter17]

Thanks JP, I recognize the name from RC??? I know I will love it, and in a few months I will be kicking myself in the rear for not doing it earlier.

Yep thats probably me. C'mon over to the east side and I'll give you a frag to cover some of that rock with. JP

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Looks great. It takes forever for frags to take off. I like the rock work and it’ll be beautiful when the SPS take off.

But IME, when ppl come over, they only look at the fish. $5,000 worth of corals and they’re going nuts over a $5 “Nemo”.

You're not joking, I tell visitors that purpose of the tank is for the coral and I don't think they even get the fact that they're alive. Of course they're more impressed with the fish.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Thanks JP, I recognize the name from RC??? I know I will love it, and in a few months I will be kicking myself in the rear for not doing it earlier.

Yep thats probably me. C'mon over to the east side and I'll give you a frag to cover some of that rock with. JP

I'll take you up on that. Being retired means I can roam.... of course gas isn't cheap these days... hehe

 

[ScottR]

You're not joking, I tell visitors that purpose of the tank is for the coral and I don't think they even get the fact that they're alive. Of course they're more impressed with the fish.

I have only 2 blue chromis in my tank.... their only purpose is to keep nutrients in the water for the corals. When ppl ask me where Nemo is, I show them the toilet.

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Every time I come back to post in this thread, I have to scroll through and look through the entire thread to relive the transformation. At this point the build is still the highlight of this experience. I haven't, and I doubt I ever will add up all the receipts getting to this point... for this instance, ignorance is bliss.


Thanks Bill, I just got the thumbs up to purchase an Alkatronics, once I get that on line stability shouldn't be an issue.

For those that don't know, Bill's tank has been an inspiration to me. I don't know how he has such amazing colors and growth on all his corals, I've never had the pleasure to see up close such a beautiful tank, he definitely has a blue thumb.

I guess I exaggerated a bit, when I say, "his tank is an inspiration" I mean that every time I visit, I'm suddenly overwhelmed with jealousy to the point that I want to come home and pour a gallon of bleach into my tank and walk away. Just kidding, I hope one day I can have such beautiful growth and success as him.

LOL no need for bleach now Jimmy. The tank looks fantastic, and I'm as jealous of your tank and setup as you are of mine. We always want what we don't have . Thanks for the kind words... your check is in the mail

 

[Bnagle]

Being that this is my first time incorporating a CaRx I did a lot of research trying to use the most up to date practices to get it right. I leaned a lot on @TMB (Tom) experience, It didn't take much convincing to set it up so that the Vectra will pressurize the reactor and using the peristaltic pump on the backside to regulate the flow out the effluent.

Up there on the top is the DIY peristaltic pump. I calibrated it for this configuration and have it constantly running at 20ml per minute. I also programmed the Apex to control the pH inside the reactor to run between 7.03-7.08.

Why do you need the S1 to pressurize the reactor? Shouldn't the peristaltic pump be able to draw water through the calrx? Just by having the feed line directly in sump

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Why do you need the S1 to pressurize the reactor? Shouldn't the peristaltic pump be able to draw water through the calrx? Just by having the feed line directly in sump

that seems to be the common way to do it, however pressurizing the reactor enhances water / CO2 dissolution. Kind of like how a bottle of soda has the C02 trapped in the liquid until you open it and release the gasses.

 

[Jrod381]

All I can say is wow, this is an epic build, I even told my kids to quiet down as I read everything lol. I have tank envy sir because you my friend have a beautiful tank, and some very innovative features that I am sure no one else has. Awesome job I will continue to follow. I hope to build a fish room with a 300gal in the next couple years if the wife allows me to add an addition to the house to make my pool bath the fish room.

 

[Cell]

Wish I was handy...

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Wish I was handy...

just hone the natural skills that you have. hehe

All I can say is wow, this is an epic build, I even told my kids to quiet down as I read everything lol. I have tank envy sir because you my friend have a beautiful tank, and some very innovative features that I am sure no one else has. Awesome job I will continue to follow. I hope to build a fish room with a 300gal in the next couple years if the wife allows me to add an addition to the house to make my pool bath the fish room.

Thanks for the kind words. no one needs a bathroom just for the pool! Tracking water through the house is part of the fun of having a pool. is your pool bath attached to your house? Put a shower head on the outside and claim that sucker!! I waited until my wife was out of town on business and I started deconstruction, when she came back there was no turning back. I'm not giving you any ideas... but....

UPDATE:
Lately, I've been battling stability with my tank, my nitrates got out of hand and I had a dip in alkalinity, most of the corals didn't like that, I have a lot of burnt tips. As a result of the dead tips, algae would grow and smother the coral, I would cut the dead skeleton back only to have algae grow on the fresh cut.

Long story short, a few months back I was having a hard time getting N and P so I started dosing them into the tank, I got the dosing to a point where it was maintaining 10 nitrates and 0.02 phosphates, everything was happy. then I slacked on testing and before I knew it the corals were looking bad, Nitrates were hovering around 50 phosphates still at 0.02. I grabbed some chaeto from a local reefer and it started taking the nitrates down, I upped the light time on the macro algae and as of last night, nitrates tested at 20.

As a result of all that, my phosphates got down to 0.01 (too low for me) so I started in with dosing phosphates again and I will be watching that like a hawk to make sure it doesn't spike on me.

A bit of good news is that after the installation of the CaRx, my alk has been pretty darn stable. I'm about to incorporate an automatic water change system (I will try to document that as well) and things should start looking up again. This evening I will cut back all the algae growth on the corals and hope it doesn't come back.

There are 3 fish in QT,

Falco Hawkfish

Copper Band Butterfly

Hippo Tang

I had to feed the tank to get him to come out of hiding.

They are finishing up 6 weeks in hypo and will start the transition to 1.026 this evening which will take roughly 10-14 days. I can't wait to see how the rest of the tank mates welcome the new comers....

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I have been working non stop for the last 5 days trying to get the automatic water change system online, If you follow my DIY thread for the peristaltic pump, I made a version of the pump with a dual pump head, but due to the added drag of the extra tube the stepper motor wasn't powerful enough to rotate the head. What does one do? Ignores all DIY cost and get's bigger and better. Here's the first version.

Although the new dual head design is able to independently adjust the occlusion, I overlooked torque requirements needed for a dual head and reverted the black and white one back to a single head.

The next version is bigger and better!!! stronger motor, better heat transfer, a few changes to the electrical as well as added lines of code.

I present to you, "CreamCicle"

I know what you're thinking, why not just transfer the black parts over to the orange body? Well, I didn't want to have a halloween themed pump.. Besides, this color combination makes one want a creamcicle. Hehe.

I finally received the john guest fittings that will allow me to transfer from a rubber to a plastic 1/4" tube.

the smallest I could find was 3/16", while the ID of the tube was only 3mm (~1/8").

As you can see that's a pretty thick walled tube, there was no way I could get that tube to slide over the barbs.

So what do you do???? Boils some water!!

It still wasn't easy but I managed to get 4 of them on

You can see how the JG fitting works. Now time to put the pump in place and test accuracy.

and a short video of how it works:
""

after pumping 999ml this was the result:

Unfurtunately it's hard to tell from the picture but the water line in both containers are spot on. I will get more salinity change from the protein skimmer.

I would call this a successful side project. Now it's time to let it run for a few months and see how well it holds up.

The PeriPump on the CaRx has been running constantly for 3 weeks now, and I discovered a flaw in the code that made the pump shut off after 24 hours of running, that part of the code has been fixed and so far so good!!!

Thanks for viewing
Jimmy

 

[Epic Aquaculture]

Awesome job Jimmy! How many gallons per day are you going to do?

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Excellent question.... I was thinking 3 gallons (~1% per/day)... What are your thoughts?

 

[adrianr514]

Excellent question.... I was thinking 3 gallons (~1% per/day)... What are your thoughts?

Kick it up to 5 per day so after the sixth day you’ve done a 10% system change and that leaves you the seventh day to mix more salt and give it time to mix well and have the pH be stable.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Kick it up to 5 per day so after the sixth day you’ve done a 10% system change and that leaves you the seventh day to mix more salt and give it time to mix well and have the pH be stable.

That's a really good idea, it leaves enough water in the 55 gallon so that it doesn't run dry and it allows for the water mixing chore to fall on the same day.

Since I can have it run at any speed, the next question is... do I program it to run constantly? Or do I have it run in intervals? and if so how often in a 24 hour period???

If ran constantly at 5 gallons a day it would equate to 13.14 ml/min. The slow movement of the pump would prevent premature wear on the PharMed tube.

But if it's more beneficial to have it do it periodically throughout the day then that will be easy as well.

 

[crusso1993]

I have been working non stop for the last 5 days trying to get the automatic water change system online, If you follow my DIY thread for the peristaltic pump, I made a version of the pump with a dual pump head, but due to the added drag of the extra tube the stepper motor wasn't powerful enough to rotate the head. What does one do? Ignores all DIY cost and get's bigger and better. Here's the first version.

Although the new dual head design is able to independently adjust the occlusion, I overlooked torque requirements needed for a dual head and reverted the black and white one back to a single head.

The next version is bigger and better!!! stronger motor, better heat transfer, a few changes to the electrical as well as added lines of code.

I present to you, "CreamCicle"

I know what you're thinking, why not just transfer the black parts over to the orange body? Well, I didn't want to have a halloween themed pump.. Besides, this color combination makes one want a creamcicle. Hehe.

I finally received the john guest fittings that will allow me to transfer from a rubber to a plastic 1/4" tube.

the smallest I could find was 3/16", while the ID of the tube was only 3mm (~1/8").

As you can see that's a pretty thick walled tube, there was no way I could get that tube to slide over the barbs.

So what do you do???? Boils some water!!

It still wasn't easy but I managed to get 4 of them on

You can see how the JG fitting works. Now time to put the pump in place and test accuracy.

and a short video of how it works:
""

after pumping 999ml this was the result:

Unfurtunately it's hard to tell from the picture but the water line in both containers are spot on. I will get more salinity change from the protein skimmer.

I would call this a successful side project. Now it's time to let it run for a few months and see how well it holds up.

The PeriPump on the CaRx has been running constantly for 3 weeks now, and I discovered a flaw in the code that made the pump shut off after 24 hours of running, that part of the code has been fixed and so far so good!!!

Thanks for viewing
Jimmy

Outstanding work!

It looks like you're pulling old and pumping new into the same sump area. Was it set up this way just for testing and then you'll move the "pull" to a different area?