Planet Aquarium 96x24x21 work in progress!
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Thanks for your posts and great pictures, I had a good time with my build as well, so much to do and such a fun time. If you have room I can recommend a 20 Gallon Husky Professional duty water container for a DIY RODI ATO supply. It has a sealing top and easy to drill but still plenty strong to hold 20 gallons.Hello everyone!!
Today I installed four float valves.
1) x2 5 gl. Buckets that will be used for for rodi ATO swaps. Set level at approximately 4 gl mark.
2) x2 32 gallon brutes that will be used for saltwater mixing. Set level at 25 gallon mark. I ran short of one 1/4 inch shutoff valve so have to pick up another.
I purchased two castors for the brute cans said they are rated for 250 lbs ea. So we shall see they work. If they don’t I’ll rig something else up. 25 gl of water weighs about 208 lbs and maybe 5 lbs for brute crosses fingers!
I also purchased a baby brute 10 gl depicted in picture below for maintenance while doing water changes. It may turn in to my ato tank if I get tired of swapping buckets every two days.Let me know your thoughts or if you have some other cheep solutions.
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Adrift
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Thank you for the compliments. Yes it has extremely fun thus far. Albeit very slowing in the making. I do believe I will take a look at getting a 20 gallon. I will measure it out for sure. The five gallon buckets need to be replaced to often when I was doing leak test.
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Adrift
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So I finally finished filling the tank today with another 52ish gallons. So that brings the grand total to 177 gallons of saltwater in a 241 gallon tank. I know such an odd number but that what planet Aquarium calls it. I added the last dose of Seachem prime. Don’t think I need it with RODI, but old habits die hard… So I’ve included some finally pictures before lights go off for cycling period. I’m sure it will take approximately 12-24ish hours for tank to hit temperature I’ve set it to, believe 78-78.6. Once temp is achieved I’ll add nitrifying bacteria.
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Adrift
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So I got home from work today and my tank was sitting at 78.6. So I added 4 bottles of 8.45 FL OZ Bio Spira. I also calibrated my Apex salinity and PH probes. Prior to calibration my salinity probe was pretty spot on with my Hanna Salinity probe. Now it’s almost 3.0 PPT off. So that just happened. Need to do some research on that I guess. Well that’s it for now I’ll probably through in some shrimp or something tomorrow
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MichaelReefer
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The Apex salinity probe is super inaccurate. Mine jumps anywhere from 20-40 all day long.
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Adrift
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Thank you I was starting to get worried. Hopefully the Hanna checker is more accurate.
The APEX salinity probe is super pesky to calibrate. The soak time, clearing bubbles, and changing the TC factor we’re the ways I got close. There is a good post here on the tc factor worth reading.
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Adrift
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So today still waiting for cycle to complete. I learned how to use the Hanna testers I purchased. Still waiting for nitrate and copper testers to come. For some reason my salinity has increased. At the beginning of the week I mixed it to 34.5 ppt and has creeped up to 37.3. Thought running ato would actually drop by salinity. Also don’t know if I trust my api test kit for ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite with everything bad that is said about them, but they are reading all 0ppm. I have two more days on jumbo shrimp, so I will retest those again tomorrow. I added a picture below of my journal in regards to test results
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Adrift
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So this morning I decided to some stand maintenance. Two of my hinges on one of the doors was getting loose. So I took off the door I put some wood glue in the holes installed wooden golf ball spike and hammered off.
I also was having issues with my return plumbing. Ever since I installed the plumbing for my UV and media reactor I was hearing a gush of water into my sump every 20 seconds or so. I routed the plumbing up and over the return conduit. I should of gotten some before and after pictures. But, instead I got some midstream and after pictures lol. So once I routed the ancillary plumbing under the return conduit the noise is gone. Yeah
I also was having issues with my return plumbing. Ever since I installed the plumbing for my UV and media reactor I was hearing a gush of water into my sump every 20 seconds or so. I routed the plumbing up and over the return conduit. I should of gotten some before and after pictures. But, instead I got some midstream and after pictures lol. So once I routed the ancillary plumbing under the return conduit the noise is gone. Yeah
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Adrift
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Hello everyone. So today I’ve add fish. We went down to Franks tanks in Fort Worth and took a look around I had my eye on a few fish and my son suckered me into clown fish. So we picked up two to start with and see how it goes. We got a Ocellaris and a Blacker Ice clownfish
Download them to youtube then upload.
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Adrift
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Thank you!
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Adrift
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Ok here we go. Here is the video of son adding the clowns. That sound you hear is me turning off the cot’s. Yes the did tell some jokes when they got in. Something about an anemone…. My son named the ocelleris Nemo of course and he is making us watch it on Disney plus as we speak. The blacker ice he name Cow Pow, lol.
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Adrift
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Well I got home from work and both clowns are still alive. So that’s a good thing. My two part from BRS should arrive tomorrow. I also ordered two DOS’s and various other apex equipment from my LFS Coralsfishandbeyond.com that all should arrive Friday. Two more leak detectors that I will put by my BRS media reactor and pentair UV sterilizer. I have one more optical level sensor I’m going to install below the ATK in the return chamber as an additional back up to shut down COR’s maybe or just alert me don’t know yet.
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Adrift
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I know it’s been awhile and most of notes have been written in my journal. I do believe my tank is fully cycled as my readings for Ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate are all zeros, yea. I had some issues with my UV flow went a little lower then required. Think I bumped it when I made a mess in my sump. I was breaking in my Nyos skimmer. Took the top off while it was running… oops. Well either way I believe both are dialed in. Man skimmers have come along way from 20 years ago! Never could get my skimmer to work right or produce skim mate. On Sunday I did a 25 gallon water change along with adding some critters and a fish that I got from Roberts Reef in Keller. I purchased 4 blue legged hermits and 1 red leg possibly a scarlet hard to tell they are so small. I also impulse purchased a wheeler gobby and tiger pistol shrimp. They were not on my list of fish, but they are beautiful pair. I saw the gobby a few times last night and first thing in the morning. Haven’t seen him since… The pistol shrimp I haven’t seen since I’ve put him in. But I hear the random click or two. I’ve attached a but load of photos since I know they are easier to digest.
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Adrift
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Got a bunch of cool stuff in the last week from BRS and Coralsfishandbeyond.com.
1) BRS 2 part starter kit
2) great white plus magnet for glass
3) Hanna HR nitrate tester
4) Hanna HR copper tester
5) salifert mag test kit
6) 3 ea 7 inch filter soak
7) Neptune afs
8) 2 ea Neptune dos
9) Neptune 12v power supply for control head
10) 1-link cables for dos
12) another optical float sensor wanted another sensor for sump to help protect cor-20’s
13) another leak detector. Using this by UV and media reactor outside cabinet
14) maxi jet 600 along with 2 vca vacuum attachments for sump maintenance
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