SkiCat's Dream Build: [Saving The] Planet 180 - The Making Of An Epic Aquacultured Mixed Reef

[SkiCatTX]

Not a whole lot going on with the tank this week as we wait for the cycle to complete. It's basically there now, but we're going out of town this week, so I won't start adding things until next Saturday at the earliest. That's when I'll put all the LPS and anemones in, and the fish all start their QT period.

One of my clowns is showing what looks like ich, which is interesting since I have seen no sign of this before, and I haven't gotten a new animal of any kind in over a year and a half. It must have been in there quietly all that time though, unless it is something else. Anyway, I'm going to separate the fish and corals and treat. I don't want to start off a clean tank with this.

I have also been doing a bit of printing. I found that the original 3D printed LocLine and RFG are restricting the flow a bit too much. I modified all the parts to have a larger bore and increased the scale from 3/4" to nearly 1". These are some PLA test prints, then I'll switch to PETG once I get them sorted out, as it takes way longer to print. PETG is safer in the water than PLA and a bit less brittle.

 

[SkiCatTX]

Oh, and the Trident has been working perfectly. Alk has leveled out at 8.5, Ca 440, and Mg 1430. It oscillates just slightly, but otherwise holding quite steady, way within the tolerances.

I'm adding just 3ml for each of the 4 Triton additives to hold it at that level. I assume the bacteria use up just a little even with no light or animals present.

 

[Takaki1980]

Dream Tank!
This is the best record of building I've ever seen or read. I'm even jealous every time I read it because of the amazing skill and passion in woodworking, electronics and 3D printing.You are a god. I hope one day I can come back and see you for reference when I build my dream tank.

Thanks for a really great thread.

 

[SkiCatTX]

Dream Tank!
This is the best record of building I've ever seen or read. I'm even jealous every time I read it because of the amazing skill and passion in woodworking, electronics and 3D printing.You are a god. I hope one day I can come back and see you for reference when I build my dream tank.

Thanks for a really great thread.

Wow, that is quite some praise! Thank you for following along. I only hope I can continue to do as well once I start adding animals...

I was just reading through your build thread the other day and I was also quite impressed by your clean build. I only hope my tank looks as good in a year or two once we have coral in it!

 

[SkiCatTX]

An interesting thing happened when we left the house for a few days. I am aware of CO2 affecting tank pH, but I have never had the opportunity to monitor it so closely, and remotely. I have no doubt this is one of the reasons why people's tanks have issues after they leave for a period of time after running perfectly in the weeks before.

This is a graph of Alk and pH in the tank as tested by the Apex (Alk on the left in orange, pH in blue on the right):

You can literally see the time that we left on the 2nd. The pH goes up from around 7.75 where it's been for days, so around 7.95. Still not great, but higher. Then, about 24 hours later, the Alk starts to drop from a constant 8.5 heading toward 8.0 over a couple of days.

When I logged in to check the tank yesterday, I increased the Alk dosing from 3ml/day to 6ml/day, which seemed to make no immediate difference overnight. Then today I increased that to 12ml, and after about 6 hours, the latest test showed a slight increase...or at least no additional loss.

Since there is nothing (that I know of) except starter bacteria and maybe a few pods I am surprised to see this. Maybe there is also some algae that I just don't see yet, but I'm surprised not only that it is using so much Alk, but that just the cycling tank, with no lights on, is using any at all.

It could be that the doser is actually dead, or is pouring the Alk supplement out not in the tank...I don't have a camera set up yet to know. Either way, it's certainly interesting to see now that we have automated testers for these things!

I can't wait until we have Nitrate and Phosphate tests automated as well!

 

[SkiCatTX]

And one more thing. I was curious about what the spikes are on the pH graph. I thought it was probably just noise due to the well known low quality of the Apex probes, so wasn't worried about it. Then I looked at the exact times of those spikes...

They are the dosing of the Alk solution, every 4 hours on the half-hour, then doubling when I increased the dose. The probes are in the same chamber as the dosing line so hopefully, the actual pH of the tank doesn't rise as much as it is reading here.

Fascinating!

 

[GlassMunky]

An interesting thing happened when we left the house for a few days. I am aware of CO2 affecting tank pH, but I have never had the opportunity to monitor it so closely, and remotely. I have no doubt this is one of the reasons why people's tanks have issues after they leave for a period of time after running perfectly in the weeks before.

This is a graph of Alk and pH in the tank as tested by the Apex (Alk on the left in orange, pH in blue on the right):

You can literally see the time that we left on the 2nd. The pH goes up from around 7.75 where it's been for days, so around 7.95. Still not great, but higher. Then, about 24 hours later, the Alk starts to drop from a constant 8.5 heading toward 8.0 over a couple of days.

When I logged in to check the tank yesterday, I increased the Alk dosing from 3ml/day to 6ml/day, which seemed to make no immediate difference overnight. Then today I increased that to 12ml, and after about 6 hours, the latest test showed a slight increase...or at least no additional loss.

Since there is nothing (that I know of) except starter bacteria and maybe a few pods I am surprised to see this. Maybe there is also some algae that I just don't see yet, but I'm surprised not only that it is using so much Alk, but that just the cycling tank, with no lights on, is using any at all.

It could be that the doser is actually dead, or is pouring the Alk supplement out not in the tank...I don't have a camera set up yet to know. Either way, it's certainly interesting to see now that we have automated testers for these things!

I can't wait until we have Nitrate and Phosphate tests automated as well!

So I watched this video yesterday, and it explains why that happens With the ph/alk really well in a way I’ve never heard before and makes a lot of sense. Check it out, it’s only about 30 minutes.

 

[SkiCatTX]

So I watched this video yesterday, and it explains why that happens With the ph/alk really well in a way I’ve never heard before and makes a lot of sense. Check it out, it’s only about 30 minutes.

Yes, that's awesome! I watched that last fall, and I just watched it again, good stuff. In fact, my wife just had me forward a link to her, as she's a microbiologist and wanted to use it for reference or something.

 

[SkiCatTX]

When I originally built the sump, I didn't plan to put a top over the refugium section, but now that I have it running, I decided to have Jeff at Lifereef make one after all. Since he had the CNC files it was simple, and fits perfectly!

This should lower the evaporation slightly, and reduce the trickle coming from the sock section. With everything else so quiet, even the trickle was audible with the doors off.

I will drill out a hole for the light. For the short term, I plan to use an extra AI Prime HD that I have. Ultimately, I'll probably get a Fuge Light, but hopefully, this will work for now.

 

[SkiCatTX]

Since I'm about to mount some LPS frags want to get a baseline for PAR. Note that I only have 2 out of 4 T5s and 2 out of 4-5 LEDs mounted so far, but that should be plenty for the LPS and Anemones for a few weeks until I order some more lights.

Most of these values are way too low for Acros, but I can still at least get a range of values for spots and how they relate to each other. The lights here are 1x Coral Plus, 1x Blue Plus, and 2x Radion XR-15 G5 Blues, all at max brightness.

 

[SkiCatTX]

I also set up the QT tank for my 3 fish that will need to go through a few weeks of Coper Power, as I found a few what I believe are Ich spots on one of the clowns recently.

This is a LifeGard 17 split into two sides, since the two clowns do not get along in such a small space and would kill each other in several weeks of no rock or anemones to hide in.

The other fish is a Lawnmower Blenny, who only eats algae and Nori. I'm a bit worried about him with no live algae to eat during QT, so I ordered several types of seaweed, and seeded some sacrificial rocks a while back in the starter tank with algae growing on them.

These are interesting and come in three different types and colors. It's different from sushi Nori in that's not completely dried, it's soft, kind of like dried fruit. I ordered red and purple, since I have green Nori and we'll see how they do. If nothing else, I'm sure tangs will eat them.

 

[GoVols]

This is a LifeGard 17 split into two sides, since the two clowns do not get along in such a small space and would kill each other in several weeks of no rock or anemones to hide in.

SkiCat,
Splitting that tank going "diagonal" with a sheet of egg-crate is genius.

Penciling that down...;Writing

 

[SkiCatTX]

SkiCat,
Splitting that tank going "diagonal" with a sheet of egg-crate is genius.

Penciling that down...;Writing

hehe, yeah, if you cut it just right you can bend it ever so slightly when installing and it fits tightly. Also, it required a rimless tank to fit snug. I guess with the rimmed QT tank you could make it slightly smaller, or cable tie two pieces together once inside the tank.

Warning though, even a 2" long clownfish can turn diagonally and wiggle through...so better for tangs or angels I guess. Pumpkin (daugher's name for orange n@ked clown) goes back and forth freely, so the barrier turned out to be completely worthless in this case...

Luckily, it seems to be fine because the two of them are total buds now, swimming together in formation and hanging out. A year ago they nearly killed each other, go figure.

 

[SkiCatTX]

Today was fragging day!

All the corals from the QT tank are now in the display. I went through each one, cut it from the plug, scrubbed any suspicious parts with a brush, dipped in both Revive and Coral Rx for 10 minutes each, with a bath in between, then remounted on new plugs. I was going to mount them today too, but decided to wait until at least next weekend and let them heal. They're pretty beat up from the QT and multiple dippings.

The Stylo is pretty brown, and there was some RTN on some tips that were starting to get algae on them, so I covered that with glue. I'll leave it on for a while and maybe break those off if they heal.

This one is a bit dark, as the lights were going off by the time I got this batch in the tank. I have ordered some filters for my wife's old 35mm, so I will try my hand at real pictures here soon!

All the Rainbow BTAs and Rock Flowers are in as well, but the light was too dark to get pics. I'll make sure to get some soon during the day, and when they're open.

 

[samnaz]

You sure have a nice selection of Euphyllia there. Can’t wait to see em in the tank!

 

[SkiCatTX]

You sure have a nice selection of Euphyllia there. Can’t wait to see em in the tank!

Thanks. Yes, and I sold off a bunch a few weeks ago even. Not sure if I'll have room for all this, because I want to leave a lot of room for future Acros...

 

[SkiCatTX]

I have the new LocLine and RFGs ready.

The new larger longer RFG nozzles are on the left. With these larger scaled LocLine segments, and the improved bore in the RFGs, the reduction in flow from the return pumps is only about 10%, which is much better than the originals I made, and they work great. I held my hand in front of them and felt the changing flow patterns.

Only problem is, the Venturi effect is so strong it's pulling air in from the surface in loud sucking tornados! I'm going to have to print one more segment for each side to put them farther down under the surface...

 

[SkiCatTX]

I went ahead and removed the barrier, as it was apparently pointless, and they seem to be getting along fine anyway. All 3 fish appear to be fine with each other...go figure.

If they do start fighting again, I'll have to put some 1/4" netting around the egg crate and stick it back in.

 

[SkiCatTX]

Added another round of pods today.

 

[Tom Stevens]

Not a whole lot going on with the tank this week as we wait for the cycle to complete. It's basically there now, but we're going out of town this week, so I won't start adding things until next Saturday at the earliest. That's when I'll put all the LPS and anemones in, and the fish all start their QT period.

One of my clowns is showing what looks like ich, which is interesting since I have seen no sign of this before, and I haven't gotten a new animal of any kind in over a year and a half. It must have been in there quietly all that time though, unless it is something else. Anyway, I'm going to separate the fish and corals and treat. I don't want to start off a clean tank with this.

I have also been doing a bit of printing. I found that the original 3D printed LocLine and RFG are restricting the flow a bit too much. I modified all the parts to have a larger bore and increased the scale from 3/4" to nearly 1". These are some PLA test prints, then I'll switch to PETG once I get them sorted out, as it takes way longer to print. PETG is safer in the water than PLA and a bit less brittle.

What printer do you use? I just got an Ender 5 Pro and been having a lot of fun with it.