Sam's Oceanic 120 - DIY solutions

[Projects with Sam]

Working on a DIY PH meter. I have a 3" screencoming that I plan to make a realtime running graph of Ph that I'll have near the tank or in the stand. similar to this:

 

[Projects with Sam]

The two hippo tang with bad HLLE that I put in the tank are doing great. I did not expect to see improvement in their situations so quickly so I am happy to comment that at least 3mm of the large fish's fins and tail have grown in. you can tell the difference in the new fin vs. the old fin. And, his blues and blacks are getting deeper, filling in the translucent bits.
The little guy, whose head was completely clear is starting to take on a bluish tinge and for some reason, two blue patches on each side of his mouth have blued-up making it look like he has a moustache. he is pretty funny looking.

All his fins are still gone but I think there has been some growth of his pectoral fins making it easier for him to swim. He picked a spot on the glass cleaner as his nightly hammock where he can lay-down and sleep. I put a personal seaweed clip up there that he tucks behind to sleep and nibbles on from time to time.
I guess I should post some pics of these guys (sorry for the quality):

 

[Projects with Sam]

First tank murder! Wish I could figure out who done it...
I suppose his old shell got too small for him. Thing is, I don't know where it is.... it wasn't near his corpse. I need to put in more shells for the hermit crabs to use... maybe will 3D print some hilarious ones...

 

[Nebunu]

About 2 months ago I got an orange shoulder tang from a friend with HLLE, not as bad as yours but bad. As far as I know they dont make a full recovery, but in about 1 month with heavy feeding, especially with nori, this guy looks incredible again. Fins looking great, colours, apetite and so on. Still has some spots on both sides near the eyes. But probably this spots wont go away. So I am sure yours will make a nice recovery in no time.

 

[Nebunu]

Working on a DIY PH meter. I have a 3" screencoming that I plan to make a realtime running graph of Ph that I'll have near the tank or in the stand. similar to this:

Bro, you got some skills with PH/ Temp meter. Nicely done.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Bro, you got some skills with PH/ Temp meter. Nicely done.

Thanks! That's just for starters. I got a 2.4" touch screen I plan todo real-time & historic graphing of PH. This is a stop-gap until I get a Robo-tank... That is a $15 Ph sensor on Amazon... had the Arduino nano from another project. the 2.4" screen is $12.

Glad to hear about the HLLE recovery. Yeah; I knew thew little one wouldn't be a normal fish ever. his gill flap will not regrow, his top fin may be too far gone to have anything to regrow from. But he is getting his color back and not all my fish need to look perfect.

Checkout my other stupidity on my YouTube here: Random Projects with Sam

 

[Nebunu]

Not too much money for a DIY device. If would be closer to me I would order you one for my system :)

 

[Projects with Sam]

I've had my UV turned off and have not been running my protein skimmer for a few days because I added a bottle of the ARCReef Purple Helix Coralline Algae in a Bottle.
The result on my rocks are amazing... time to get those running again...


And I made a Zoa-rock!

 

[Projects with Sam]

I think I'm in the ugly phase! So far so good. These are older photos (with dirty glass.) I just took a pump and blew everything off and sucked out a bunch of loose sand from the bare bottom part. Wiped-down the sump too. I need some more CUC and probably a lawnmower blenny or two. The fish I have in QT will remain till I fatten the Coral Beauty up. After Presidents Day I want to get a lawnmower blenny and maybe three banggai cardinalfish.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Just printed and installed a skimmer carbon cap that I designed and posted here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5235342

"Looking good Mortimer!
Smelling good Lewis!"

 

[Projects with Sam]

I am unable to do the PH graphs (for more then a 10 minute or so period) with any accuracy given the limitations of my Arduino nano. I need more memory to store data. I was just going to write files to the SD card as a hack then use those for each data point but I don't even have enough RAM on the nano/Uno to load all the libraries (LCD,SD, RTC) and run the code. So, I am just going to do real-time PH display until I get a more powerful chip... I could do it with a Teensy but If I'm spending that much $$ I may as well get a Raspberry Pi.
I have been thinking about using my 3D printer controller for my reef controller... Its an old Intel NUC that I got a USB relay for that I can control via scripts. I have Raspbian running on it so I could put Reef-pi on it... way overpowered.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Emerald Crab molted! I thought he had died the shell was so complete. I saw him the next day so much bigger I thought It could have been a different crab.
I put the Coral Beauty and the Neon Dottyback into the tank last night before lights out; their QT time was up.
The Sailfin is a little jerk. I had to put up a mirror. The Dottyback disappeared. He swims out to great me when I come up to the tank but otherwise stays in the rocks. The Coral Beauty was harassed by the Sailfin; I think he is still ok. I'll try to catch and put the sailfin in a box if he is still being a meanie.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Things are quieting down in the tank... sort of. Sailfin is still being a jerk. the damsel has one mission - kill the dottyback; the hippo tangs don't care - try to stay out of it. Once in awhile the big hippo tang will step-up to the sailfin it seems in defense of the little hippo tang he came with but otherwise a quiet tank...

My wife and I renovated our upstairs this fall and I had a big piece of MDF that the vanity was shipped-in so I made it into a floating canopy... I'm pretty stoked with the result. I plan to migrate the light timers up there and change them so the blues are on a separate schedule.

 

[Projects with Sam]

I think I have coralline algae growing! Way sooner then expected! The ARCReef purple helix in a bottle hooked me up! I've been careful to keep my Ca and KH parameters within their specs and I raised the temp to 80.5-ish.

 

[Flameback Pair]

Following

 

[Projects with Sam]

Finished-up the lighting install.
moved the light timers into the hood and simplified the wiring down to the stand so it is super clean. Eventually I'll rip this all out and put in... probably T5s on dimmable ballasts...
Cost to get 4 t5 bulbs and ballasts would be comparable to 2 new black-box LED lights so I am still up in the air.
The nice thing about the T5s is that I could mount them high in the box so you wouldn't see them unless you right right at the glass.
I'd use the currently installed lights for coral QT once freed-up.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Just printed some brackets for my Skimmer waste and air lines. They just rest on the sump rim.

 

[Projects with Sam]

Ich! OMG I think I have it. Saw a spot on my big hippo tang 5 days ago and he was rubbing. Now I see one on the small hippo tang. I took them both out yesterday and gave them a Paraguard dip for an hour and I lowered my return flow and restricted flow to the UV so it'll be slow enough for protozoans. I ordered PolypLab Medic for treatment. (with the kids and wife and a week vacation starting tomorrow I want it on-hand for my cat/fish-sitter or for when I get back.) I am hoping everyone can hold-on for a week while I'm gone.

The vector was probably recently added CUC or Corals because I have quarantined my recent fish additions.

Guess I'll start copper treatments on QT fish as standard practice and make QT corals and CUC mandatory... Ich is no fun.

 

[Flameback Pair]

Ich! OMG I think I have it. Saw a spot on my big hippo tang 5 days ago and he was rubbing. Now I see one on the small hippo tang. I took them both out yesterday and gave them a Paraguard dip for an hour and I lowered my return flow and restricted flow to the UV so it'll be slow enough for protozoans. I ordered PolypLab Medic for treatment. (with the kids and wife and a week vacation starting tomorrow I want it on-hand for my cat/fish-sitter or for when I get back.) I am hoping everyone can hold-on for a week while I'm gone.

The vector was probably recently added CUC or Corals because I have quarantined my recent fish additions.

Guess I'll start copper treatments on QT fish as standard practice and make QT corals and CUC mandatory... Ich is no fun.

@Projects with Sam how did you catch these two fish?

 

[Projects with Sam]

If I catch the big one the small one swims into my hand. Its weird but I'll take it. They came together from the store - were in the same tank in the same condition. been through a lot together.
So I can take out a lot of the middle section of my rockwork leaving 3 large pieces. (the sandy beach(left), the YMCA(middle back) , and TheBigReach (right) - newly minted names) The big tang has some holes he can hangout in in TheBigReach - there is a finger hole I can use to get him to back out in to my net with.

I was so happy to find this all out the other day when I was trying to catch them.

I've been dosing their food heavily with metroplex, focus and VitaChem and given my UV adjustments and the ich lifecycle, I believe I have time to enjoy vacation and treat them after. Either with the Polyp Lab Medic treatment I have coming or with Copper and fallow-time.