The Hermit and Wife's Ocean

jasonamyers · Aug 26, 2017

So I made my first water changes with tropic Marin reef pro salt today. It feels much finer than the other salt. I followed the same process I did with all the other salts I tried. I rolled the new bucket around for a while to mix up anything that might have settled during transport. Then it recommends 1/2 cup per gallon when mixing. That was 100% accurate. It mixed up wonderfully in just under twenty minutes. Very happy with both the mixing and the resulting measurements. This is my favorite salt with Red Sea blue bucket right behind. I've tried Red Sea coral pro, Fritz, aquaforest and both instant oceans.

pelphrey · Aug 26, 2017

Going to check the video out shortly! Excited, I love watching videos!!

jasonamyers · Aug 27, 2017

I got a few days off work coming up so I ordered some things to keep my busy while I'm off.

OctoAquatics:
- Custom Skimmer Stand adjustable from 1-3"
- The Shu (acclimation box)

BulkReefSupply:
- New Orange Piping (wanna make it all Neptune Systems on both sides of the wall) and PVC spigot fittings
- 1Link cables to replace the Aquabus and Power bricks on the two DOS dosers

PVCFittingsOnline:
- Valves and fittings for redoing everything including some reducing Ts! Last time I had to use reducing couplers

FlexPVC:
- BSTP fittings for the 1/2" flow meters

pelphrey · Aug 27, 2017

You know you can get colored fittings, the same orange as the pipe?
http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/parts-plumbing/pvc-parts

jasonamyers · Aug 27, 2017

pelphrey said:
You know you can get colored fittings, the same orange as the pipe?
http://www.aquariumspecialty.com/parts-plumbing/pvc-parts

Yeah I wanted the orange and grey to match all my apex gear on the other side.

pelphrey · Aug 27, 2017

jasonamyers said:
Yeah I wanted the orange and grey to match all my apex gear on the other side.

Can't wait to see it!!

jasonamyers · Aug 27, 2017

I'll try and make another video

jasonamyers · Aug 30, 2017

Started https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/varios-8-flow-gph-seems-wrong.322949/ to figure out what I need to do to fix my return flow...

jasonamyers · Aug 31, 2017

All the parts to redo the plumbing arrived along with some 1link cables so I can get rid the huge power blocks for my DOSes.

pelphrey · Aug 31, 2017

You going to reuse the 3/4 threaded adapters going into the reefer plumbing?

jasonamyers · Aug 31, 2017

pelphrey said:
You going to reuse the 3/4 threaded adapters going into the reefer plumbing?

I bought several extra when I bought my original supplies.

jasonamyers · Sep 2, 2017

So it was quite the night. I got my OctoAquatic Shu acclimation box, and I switched out my DOSes to the 1Link cable! However, I tried to do my plumbing and hit a snag. I knew the 1/2" flow sensor had BPST; however, I thought (hoped?) I could use the unions on the 1" sensor by mating them with the opposite of another 1" union. Well my friends, the answer to that is just straight up no... So off to order some more stuff... Anyway here I a video of the OctoAquatic and 1Link.

pelphrey · Sep 2, 2017

So what is the solution if the supplied unions have been used?

jasonamyers · Sep 2, 2017

pelphrey said:
So what is the solution if the supplied unions have been used?

I used flexpvc.com to get the half inch fittings, however, I can't find the 1" size so I ordered another 1" flow sensor from BRS... I've been thinking hard about a reefer nano for the bedroom as well...

pelphrey · Sep 2, 2017

Someone had a nano for sale on craigslist not long ago. It was very tempting!

jasonamyers · Sep 7, 2017

So a lot has happened and not happened this week. I didn't get my plumbing done as the 1" flow sensor requires a special kind of union. I was planning to leave the SBPP side on the 1" sensor and replace the other side of the union with a standard 1"; however, the tightening part of the union also has to be a special threading. They are sold on neptunes site. I just decided to order another flow sensor, and that got here today. BUT!!! This is a blessing in disguise as elite aquatics is building me a new triton method style sump! So I'm going to hold off on the plumbing until that gets here.

I've still got an algae breakout on the sand bed that is making me sad, but I think it's just part of the tank maturing. Today while I was getting fish food I also picked up the Neptune Systems AFS, so enjoy a short video here of it and my setup of it.

pelphrey · Sep 7, 2017

Looks great! Probably helps that you right code for work haha. I used a similar setup on my gyre pumps

If Output Feeder_4_1 = ON Then OFF
Defer 001:00 Then ON

The food doesn't last long so I adjusted my defer down to 1 minute. I don't shut my skimmer down, just my preference. I would suggest loading food in the feeder and running it once off of the tank to see how much gets dumped out. I also make that a "best practice" technique when I pull the feeder off to reload food. I've had it dump a large amount of food into my tank because I didn't check the slider and test it before I put it back on the tank. Mine feeds at noon and 4PM, if we aren't home in the evening a quick swipe of the phone let me know I can feed the fish! For awhile I had my gyre pumps setup as an alert so I knew they went off and back on, just to make sure before I removed the alert.

jasonamyers · Sep 7, 2017

I totally did some testing after the video to make sure I understood how much food was dropped etc. I'm on the second from lowest click. Being a coder does have it's advantage in places for sure