Ted_C's 320 Build

[Ted_C]

Have you had any problems with spectrapure UHE unit? mine isn't doing its flush nor is the booster pump turning off after the water level is reached.. spectrapur has already sent me out a new controller for the booster pump but having the same issue :/ could you take a pic of how urs is wired? I know some of these plugs could go to the wrong area and im wondering if they wired mine backwards or something

Surprisingly - it's probably due to the valves on top of the solenoids. Both spectrapures I purchased shipped with the valves in the wrong position. The pic below is when they are wrong!

From my emails with them:

I am having troubles with the UHE 100 - after both float switches are in the open position (floating - container is full) - the unit continues to make water. We tested this by plugging the transformer directly into the solenoids - the left one made no indication. The right one did go into flush mode when power was applied.

Question. Regarding this issue with the 1st solenoid not working - should the first valve be pointed down like the 2nd valve? This close up pic (attached) is taken from behind the unit.

Yes. That is why its not working.

Indeed - the system shuts off now as expected with the valve turned. Just so you know - I followed the instructions implicitly. I did not touch this valve when I was installing the system. It may have come from Spectrapure like this.

 

[Ted_C]

The tank has cycled much faster than I expected it to. Complex multi-celluar algaes are coming into play now. I'm in the process of loading up the bottom to middle biologicals. Fish will be transferring next weekend I think (or sooner). The live rock I transfered over from my quarantine has tons of life in it (Mostly feather dusters).

I've added: 10 Trochus (LFS), 5 margherita and 5 spiny star astrea snails, one rock boring urchin and a whole mess of copepods (Aquariumn Depot). From the quarantine I transferred over 4 emerald craps and one other rock boring urchin. I have an additional order of Pods coming from Algae Barn today. Once those setup and find a home - I'll be able to start transferring the fish from my quarantine (2 spawning Ocellaris clowns, a spawning set of firefish - Helfrichi and purple, a brown tomini tang, a blue hippo tang, a female swallowtail angelgish and a male bangaii cardinal ). Then I can move on to my next round of quarantine. I'm thinking maybe a single copperband butterfly so I can get it trained to eat frozen mysis in a free flowing environment.

Here are some shots of the algae:

The featherdusters:

and after speaking to a friend who came over to buy some spare equipment - my rockscape was too high and too dense to support the future SPS colonies I would eventually want. Thined out the aquascape and re-arranged.

 

[Maritimer]

Lookin' good!

Be aware that the copperband you have in mind may decide that your featherdusters look tasty . . .

~Bruce

 

[Ted_C]

Lookin' good!

Be aware that the copperband you have in mind may decide that your featherdusters look tasty . . .

~Bruce

Indeed. I like em - dont get me wrong on that point. There are some reasons why it doesn't concern me too much though. I didn't really buy these featherdusters - they are all the result of hitchhikers. Really excellent hitchhikers to be honest. The copperband will only go after the ones he can get to. there will be thousands more within the rockwork eventually. He can't get to the ones in the sump so I'll probably always have a source.

As long as the copperband can be pre-trained to eat mysis in the quarantine - that's really my big concern. I had one before in my quarantine at the same time I had troubles with dinoflagelletes. He wasn't trained correctly and once the feather dusters he could get to ran out (or when I blacked out the tank for the dinos) - he didn't make it.

I have an acclimation box ordered from ZoaCollector that should allow me to properly train the next one

I'm going to be following this thread (from another forum) on trying to train the copperband (Courtesy BigZMan):

Getting ready:
1. slow drip acclimation.
2. introduce with lights off into QT tank. do not trouble feeding until the next day when lights turn on.
3. feed every food available to (Including nori) on one dump. (So far blackworms and bloodworms seem to be a winner including a morish idol).
4. carefully watch behavior to see what they pick at (***stop all water movement for 15 minutes to watch).
5. Now that a baseline food was established, vacuum left overs and try again the next day at the same time 1 hour after lights turn on and confirm that is the chosen food again.
6. Repeat for one week
7. Week 2: no longer turn off water movement and let him chase the preferred food around. This can take over 2 weeks or as short as a few days with twice a day feeding. They should be pretty plump and chase their preferred food around before moving proceeding to the next step.
8. Morning Feeding: start to introduce other foods together but this time with your choice of long term foods. Evening Feeding: feed their preferred choice with a bit of your preferred food.
10. Do this part for a short period of time until they start picking at your choice of food (mysid, etc.) on those first feedings.
11. After a week of same schedule and of them picking (and/ or eating) your preferred food, stop feeding their preferred food on the second cycle
12. This is the part that is a pain. Stick to the schedule and do not feed the worms or their preferred even if they continue to pick buy not eat. incorporate enticements like selcon / garlic (if needed).
13. After they are eating your preferred food for a few days I would now incorporate an extra third feeding cycle. make sure they are chasing the preferred food and not leaving much behind. to keep him plump I would re-introduce his preferred as the third feeding in small amounts.

 

[Ted_C]

My Journey continues. I transferred all the fish in Quarantine over to the 310.

The clownfish seem to be "re-bonding" in the new tank even though they were spawning together in Quarantine. They are pretty much the last two fish to relax into the new environment (staying in the corner, female chasing male)

Also have a new fish in quarantine - the copperband.

 

[Toomnymods]

Surprisingly - it's probably due to the valves on top of the solenoids. Both spectrapures I purchased shipped with the valves in the wrong position. The pic below is when they are wrong!

From my emails with them:

so both red valves need to be hortizontal or vertical? not really sure what I'm supposed to change?

 

[Ted_C]

so both red valves need to be hortizontal or vertical? not really sure what I'm supposed to change?

Both valves should be in the vertical position. From the Pic - the one on the left is correct. The one on the right needs to be pointing down.

 

[Toomnymods]

Both valves should be in the vertical position. From the Pic - the one on the left is correct. The one on the right needs to be pointing down.

Thanks again, mine is having the same excact symptoms as yours, boost pump stays on constantly even when float switches are telling it to shut off and flush.. will check soon as i get home

 

[Toomnymods]

Mine has no valves or grey thing like yours.. mine has some electric solenoids and a control box with 4-5 wires coming out of it

 

[wowkingjames]

Following....;Smuggrin

 

[revhtree]

Sweet!

 

[Ted_C]

Mine has no valves or grey thing like yours.. mine has some electric solenoids and a control box with 4-5 wires coming out of it

Pics?

 

[Ted_C]

Mine has no valves or grey thing like yours.. mine has some electric solenoids and a control box with 4-5 wires coming out of it

Nevermind - I think I see the confusion here - based on the pics and description in your build thread, you don't have a UHE unit like mine - you have the Performance Plus system. You'll need to deal with spectrapure support on your issue.

 

[Ted_C]

My bi-weekly update is due. The 310 is coming along nicely. Corralaine is starting to take hold on the bottom and the rocks are developing a nice "hue."

Added 11 Anthias (10 female, 1 male) - really beautiful fish! Lost one of the females after acclimation - she swam right into the MP60 when I was releasing her. I decided against quarantine since the 320 is a better environment for their behavior style and needs. I only do this when I know the LFS I buy from has a really good handle on their quarantine methods and medications.

I think I have some bryposis. Its weird though as it's only growing on the return pipes and one speck on the back glass. Since the tank has only been running two months, I'm hesitant to perform any treatments at this time while the biologicals are still setting up.

One new addition to the quarantine - a Desjardin Tang. Three more weeks for the copperband and desjardin to move to the main tank. The copperband has started to eat prepared (frozen) foods and getting used to the feeding schedule. It's plumping up nicely.

Next week - I'll be getting my hands on possibly 6 reef barrier chromis.

My quarantine is having some troubles keeping SPS alive. I am getting a mix of bleaching in some frags and RTN in other frags. I think the 145W LEDs might be causing them issues. I've lowered the lights down to 30% intensity and have lowered Red (50%), Orange (50%) and Green channels (100%) down to 10%.

Anthias:

More Anthias

Bryposis?

Bryposis?

Bryposis?

Corralaine:

The rock hue has changed due to corralaine starting to take hold.

The copperband and Desjardin in quarantine:

 

[Ted_C]

Probably not Bryposis. I just caught the tomini mowing down the algae that's growing up on the return pipes in the tank with the angel and the blue hippo in tow.

 

[Ted_C]

Added an additional 6 barrier reef chromis - those are going to color up real nice.

Here's a video of the reef tank at the 3 month mark - it's really starting to look like a reef!

 

[Ted_C]

It seems the 6 barrier reef chromis have been wittled down to two.

Those two now are showing what looks like clownfish/damselfish mating behavior. I've recently purchased some corals and such as well (one of them is in the below vid).



I'm currently working on setting up a Pacific Sun AC4 CalcFeeder - it should be arriving sometime this week as it just cleared customs according to Deepwater Aquatics / my LFS.

 

[Ted_C]

6 Month Update. Sheesh - has it only been 6 months?

Hurricane Irma blew through the area and I had lost power from 3:30 PM Sunday to 8:30 PM Friday (125 hours). I kept the fish alive with air bubblers (3 of them) and two ecotech battery backups . Battery backups would last 36 hours. Bubblers with fresh batteries lasted 72 hours. I also drastically changed my feedings. I stopped the evening feeding sunday night and didn't d feed the tank monday. Tuesday I started with a Pinch of Baby Daichini int eh morning and a thawed mysis cube in the evening. I lost all the colonies I had purchased from WWC - but many of the frags survived. I think this is directly related to the tempertures the tank experieinced. I took some measurements - Monday / Tuesday the tanks were running around 76 degrees (2 degrees below normal) and when the power came back on they were upwards of 84 degrees.

The forced blackout and the power loss wiped out all the cyano I had going on in the tank. Both tanks look absolutely awesome.

 

[Ted_C]

I also have added some new equipment now that I am trying to grow some SPS. I've added the Pacific Sun Calcfeeder AC4 to the system. It took some work to get it up and running and to get it stabilized - put it looks like it's running good now.

 

[Maritimer]

Sorry to hear about the WWC colony loss, but delighted to see that you made through Irma in pretty decent shape!

~Bruce