Second Time Around

[ihavecrabs]

So as I was admiring my skimmer stand handiwork i made the mistake of looking up....



By the staining of the plywood its not a new problem either

What did it turn out to be? Leaky bulkhead?

 

[Todd Black]

What did it turn out to be? Leaky bulkhead?

Firstly i just wanted to say i was having a craptacular day at work when I saw the "your thread has been updated by ihavecrabs" notification come through on my phone and I burst out laughing, that was not the notification i was expecting to see. You made my day

I think (and dearly dearly hope) that the problem might have been caused by water from the return splashing onto the bracing and then wicking over the edge of the tank. I looked today and the wet area is lighter in colour so i have decided to give it to the end of the week and then make a decision then.

 

[ihavecrabs]

Firstly i just wanted to say i was having a craptacular day at work when I saw the "your thread has been updated by ihavecrabs" notification come through on my phone and I burst out laughing, that was not the notification i was expecting to see. You made my day

I think (and dearly dearly hope) that the problem might have been caused by water from the return splashing onto the bracing and then wicking over the edge of the tank. I looked today and the wet area is lighter in colour so i have decided to give it to the end of the week and then make a decision then.

Glad I could help improve your mood! Haha.

Makes sense. Honestly it could be as simply as that or a bulkhead and it usually is. Keep us in loop!

 

[dowsetts101]

I made a skimmer stand to sit my skimmer on top of my marine pure plates. I'm going to have too remove the rubber feet on the skimmer base or make the cross brace a bit narrower.

Like the skimmer stand idea Todd...completely different approach to my eggcrate/perspex concept but I like it.

 

[dowsetts101]

So as I was admiring my skimmer stand handiwork i made the mistake of looking up....

By the staining of the plywood its not a new problem either

I can’t see from the photo,but is the plywood sealed at all? I’m getting paranoid for my build, about many many coats of paint to seal, and then going to use sealant at each interface/joint.

 

[Todd Black]

I can’t see from the photo,but is the plywood sealed at all? I’m getting paranoid for my build, about many many coats of paint to seal, and then going to use sealant at each interface/joint.

No, the plywood base is the only thing that wasn't sealed. It is marine ply though.

 

[Todd Black]

Things have been going along slowly. Some days the wet area on my plywood base appears to me to dry out, other times it looks wet again. I don't know what to think.

My first piece of live rock seems to be enjoying the conditions



It has been joined by a second piece



Brown algae appeared on the substrate fairly quickly but has not gone crazy yet

 

[Todd Black]

 

[dowsetts101]

Nice one Todd...looking good. The live rock is looking happy and nice to see the fish in there. How’s the cycle coming along? Sounds like you’ve had it going for just over 3 weeks now??

 

[Todd Black]

Nice one Todd...looking good. The live rock is looking happy and nice to see the fish in there. How’s the cycle coming along? Sounds like you’ve had it going for just over 3 weeks now??

Cycle is coming along nicely. The tank had been going along for three weeks at the time of that video, with the base rock cooking for 3 months prior.

I now have a nice covering of brown and green algae on the sand, so on the weekend I added 2 strombus's

I've also noticed that my return pump, a vectra M1, appears to have dropped the slightest amount of flow.

The water level sat un-moving from where the red line is for about 3.5 weeks, and is now sitting where it is in the photo. The M1 is only running at approx 16% of maximum, I think perhaps I should have got the S1 instead.

But that's about it for the moment. I'm patiently waiting out the cycle and tidying up the mass of cables i have accrued.

 

[Todd Black]

Things have been progressing nicely, with 1-2 fish added every couple of weeks.






I was away for a week with work and i think the tank was overfed a little, but everything survived ok. I now also have an evo4 to hook up

 

[Todd Black]

I picked up a small cupboard from ikea in the hope of housing the dosing system. I've got one hole left to drill before i start the test fit and the battery in the drill has died.

 

[dowsetts101]

I picked up a small cupboard from ikea in the hope of housing the dosing system. I've got one hole left to drill before i start the test fit and the battery in the drill has died.

Obviously a sign to not work too hard on ANZAC!!!

 

[Todd Black]

Well, it looked nice and neat (I think)

but the doser refuses to work properly as the motors can barely turn the pump heads. I managed to pull pump1 apart and try and clear the blockage, it was better but still not great. It has a calibration program where you pump 100mls of water so i gave that a go. When the calibration program timed out it had managed to pump 25 mls. So it will go back to the shop on the weekend where it will be picked up by the distributor for inspection

 

[Todd Black]

I picked this guy up yesterday I believe it is a Macrodactyla doreensis, aka long tentacle anemone or corkscrew tentacle sea anemone. I've not seen one before

Overnight he managed to squeeze himself under the biggest rock in the tank and my misbar clowns were hosting in him

 

[Todd Black]

After returning the doser to the shop last weekend it was picked up by Aqua Medic for testing. They could find nothing wrong with it and gave it a clean bill of health. So i picked it up yesterday, hooked it all up and had exactly the same problem I originally had

 

[Todd Black]

After an hour or so of scratching my head I stumbled on the solution to the problem.

In an effort to be neat and tidy, i only uncoiled as much cable between the controller and the doser as i needed and I guess this was scrambling the control signal. Uncoiling the entire cable fixed the problem. So now its mounted on the door to the cabinet

 

[dowsetts101]

Well, it looked nice and neat (I think)

but the doser refuses to work properly as the motors can barely turn the pump heads. I managed to pull pump1 apart and try and clear the blockage, it was better but still not great. It has a calibration program where you pump 100mls of water so i gave that a go. When the calibration program timed out it had managed to pump 25 mls. So it will go back to the shop on the weekend where it will be picked up by the distributor for inspection

It does look good...I’d take a photo of my spaghetti-like mess...but I’d be too embarrassed.

Interesting to hear about how sensitive the doser is to the cable being unrolled, but good that you got to the bottom of it.

 

[Todd Black]

I'm really hoping to eventually get this tank to the point where I can keep a mandarin. One of the steps to get there is to get a functioning refugium in the sump. As my current sump doesn't have one i went about getting a replacement...... and well, ended up with two.

Sump number 1. Built locally by the guy who built my tank.

Sump number 2. An Eshoppes ADV-300

The Eshoppes is a more current design with a bigger refugium but uses (as far as I can tell) filter socks that are a custom Eshoppes size, the emergency overflow from the filter sock chamber would dump straight onto your probes and the level of the sump would need (as far as i can tell) run pretty high to make use of the media compartment (bottom left)

The locally made sump would slip straight in and uses generic filter socks, but the refugium is a bit smaller.

One needs to go no the second hand market, just need to choose which one

 

[dowsetts101]

I'm really hoping to eventually get this tank to the point where I can keep a mandarin. One of the steps to get there is to get a functioning refugium in the sump. As my current sump doesn't have one i went about getting a replacement...... and well, ended up with two.

They are both pretty good options from what I can see Todd...much better than my home made job...tiny fuge in the corner.

I have been drooling over the mandarins as well, but I can’t really see myself getting pods sufficient to cope with them.

The better half is having a new refrain of “this is all getting a bit bigger than I had thought it would” so I’ll be happy to get a top notch lighting unit and then consolidate.

Look forward to see which way you land with your sumps.