Some Kinda Bonita's 40 gal breeder

[somekindabonita]

So excited that we finally own a place and get to drill holes in the wall for the fish tank!

 

[somekindabonita]

We've finally finished running all the lines and cables for auto water change, and to make filling ATO reservoir easier. Unfortunately internet is still out so can't set up DOS!! Have appointment Friday to get slower internet installed from different company, hoping it's at least more reliable.

 

[somekindabonita]

Mounting board in progress to clean up some of the Apex wiring

 

[somekindabonita]

Mounting board is almost complete - started adding the screws today. Found out there's no mounting holes for the Tunze ATO... 3d printer to the rescue! Print is currently in progress for the mounting bracket by VE2YTQ on Thingverse.

 

[somekindabonita]

First tank shock tonight. Found our powerhead had caused a pretty good zap in the water. Guess this means I'm shopping for new powerheads tomorrow - thinking of upgrading to a wavemaker type of setup!

 

[somekindabonita]

Have decided to dive into dosing as the small auto water changes haven't been enough to keep up with consumption lately. Tropic Marin All-For-Reef powder mix is on the way, with a BRS 1.1 mL dosing pump. Also have a bag of kalkwasser coming for ATO - figured I'd give both methods a try over the next couple months and figure out which works better for our tank!

Couldn't bring myself to ditch the auto water changes to use the DOS for two part, and not sure I want to purchase a second DOS at the moment.

 

[code4]

First tank shock tonight. Found our powerhead had caused a pretty good zap in the water. Guess this means I'm shopping for new powerheads tomorrow - thinking of upgrading to a wavemaker type of setup!

Which did you go with? Hope no losses occurred.

 

[somekindabonita]

Which did you go with? Hope no losses occurred.

We ended up with the Vortech MP10 - absolutely love it! Maintenance is so simple, and I never realized how much I hated seeing the bulky powerheads inside the display. I am going to pick up a second wet side at some point as I saw some people swap them out for easier cleaning.

I did keep one small hydor powerhead in the tank that kicks on with our battery backup only during power outages. The reviews for the vortech specific battery backup had me a little worried, looks like a lot of people have them fail after a year so we didn't go that route yet.

We'll actually be moving over to a 180 gallon tank soon, and I'd love to outfit it with the MP60s - keeping my eye out for some used ones.

Very happy that we found a WXM module though - was not a fan of Mobius. I like that we can control them with the apex, so I'm steering away from gyres for the new tank.

 

[code4]

I hear lots of good things about the vortech ones. I have an older gyre. Still runs strong. So no reason to replace it. Keep an eye on the wet side. I have read where 2 have split allowing rust to begin. Swapping them out for cleaning might slow that issue down.

I have a 140 fish only that I may someday upgrade to a 220. Fish could use more room. Good luck with the move.

 

[somekindabonita]

Hoping for some return line maintenance help! Looks like I'll be tearing apart the return plumbing for some long overdue cleaning tomorrow. Unfortunately not as far into the upgrade as I had hoped by now, so I'm going to be redoing the plumbing on the 40.

Got an alert from the apex late this evening that power usage was wonky with my return pump. I think it's just gummed up from neglect over time, but I noticed my return lines have a ton of snails living in them!! Anyone encounter this before? I never would've thought to clean out my plumbing before.

Glad I upsized all the lines on the upgrade - I had planned for every blockage of my drain lines, but never thought about the returns getting snails.

 

[somekindabonita]

Quick update on the plumbing issue - return pump had died. I have no idea how I wasn't having more issues!! I pulled it to clean, and the motor housing had air bubbles coming out when I put it in the cleaning bucket.

Thankfully I had a spare on hand. Lesson learned - once a year is not enough for pump maintenance, no matter how much you hate doing it. It was manufactured in 2014, so I'm impressed at how long it lasted.

As frustrating as the apex can be some days, I'm thankful to have it.

 

[somekindabonita]

Well, I'm only on year 2 of not moving to the big tank! Have to totally remodel the basement before setting it up, so things have been slower than expected. Finally caving and setting up some of the new toys on the 40 gallon instead of waiting for the 180 to be ready.

Latest improvement is sorting out the ATO reservoir filling. Programmed the apex so I can switch the fresh water fill pump on, and it'll automatically kick off the outlet for me after 20 min. It will stop the pump if the high limit switch is made up, but typically it will time out and require a manual restart of the fill pump. Which is exactly what I wanted - no flooded basement if I forget it on and the float fails, but I can’t miss a system leak because I'm still involved with the reservoir filling each time.

A low level switch sends me an alarm when I need to fill the bucket.

Apex Programming:
Fallback OFF
Set OFF
If ATOhig OPEN Then ON
If ATOhig CLOSED Then OFF
When On > 020:00 Then OFF