The Upgrade Build... From 110 to 180

[Dj City]

Hello R2R members,
I need to pick your brains. I have a SCA 180 gallon display tank. It has an internal overflow box (weir). Their are water intake slots on the bottom of the overflow and teeth on the top.
The overflow is drilled with only 2 holes. 1 inch return and 1.5 inch drain. I have a Jeabo DCP 15000 return pump and a Clarisea SK-5000 auto filter roller.
The water level when full is too low for my liking. I have Random Flow Generators on my return lines and I have to point them down so they don't suck in air.
I have the return pump turned down as much as it can go down to prevent excess noise (toilet flushing) and to prevent my filter roller from being overwhelmed.


Whither what I have going on, how can I raise the water level in the tank?

 

[Dj City]

I was advised to raise the durso.
I was advised to close off the bottom of the weir.
I was advised to convert to a Herbie and run the return up and over the back of the tank.
Here is a link to the thread on this topic

How to raise water level in Display Tank?

Hello R2R members, I need to pick your brains. I have a SCA 180 gallon display tank. It has an internal overflow box (weir). Their are water intake slots on the bottom of the overflow and teeth on the top. The overflow is drilled with only 2 holes. 1 inch return and 1.5 inch drain. I have a...

www.reef2reef.com

I won't close off the bottom of the weir.
I can't come up over the back of the tank due to the canopy.

I raised the durso by about 2 inches. The water has less distance to fall now. I also made the hole at the top of the durso bigger.
The noise I get (got) was from the water falling in the overflow and/or the flushing if I ran the return pump at high volume.
I had my pump on 30% power giving me a about 430gph through the return pipe according to neptune flow monitor kit.
With me raising the durso, I have turned the pump up to 50% which is about 670gph. That is better than the 430gph I was getting before. The water level raised slightly and the ClariSea filter roller is not getting overwhelmed.
I put very coarse filter sponge inside the weir to stop the waterfall noise.

So far, so good.

 

[Dj City]

The tank has been filling with RO/DI water since yesterday at 2pm. according to my calculations, it will take just about 30 hours to fill the tank and sump. I will add salt after it's full and the water is heated. Straight RO/DI water is measuring at 51 degrees. I know the salt will still dissolve in water that cold but warmer water will make the process faster.
After the salt has been added and dissolved, I will start the cycle!

The Apex is all hooked up and the cabinet is complete. I still have to get my Trident up and running but I have a ways to go before I'm there. My Dos is also not up and running but again, I have a ways to go before it's needed.

Apex Trident and Reef Kenetics ReefBot
Testing is gonna be so automatic and through.

 

[Dj City]

THE TANK IS WET AND SALTY
​

 

[Dj City]

I added two 8.45oz bottles of Bio Spira and about 100ml of Microbacter 7 to start the cycle off. I also added another 4L of Sachem Pond Matrix to the sump. On top of that, I added a bag of ceramic bio rings that I've had in my holding tank for the past 9 months along with a bag of Sachem Matrix that I've had in my 15 gallon Nano for the past 2 years.
This should help the cycle along.

I received my Maxspect Gyre 350 pumps today (yeah... I upgraded from the 150).

I just put then on the tank and plugged them in. No wires run to the cabinet yet. No positioning yet. No programming done yet. I just wanted to make sure they work. (They do).
I have to learn the programming for these pumps.

Im going to be selling my never used Tunze Stream 3.
I just don't have a place for it to go and with the 4 Wav's plus the 2 Gyres, I really can't use the Stream 3.
I feel bad because it never saw water.

I also added another 40lbs of sand. I may have too much now. I have about a 3 inch sandbed now. I will post pics and ask opinions.

 

[Dj City]

New day, new issues to solve.

I got the bacteria bloom of a lifetime! Woke up to a very hazy tank with a bad smell.
I've never had this happen with a new build and the tank is not even 24 hours into the cycle.
I've turned the skimmer on and I now have the filter roller activated. Both were off yesterday when I added the bacteria. I also added carbon and purigen to combat the smell.

My sump is super sensitive! VERY slight changes to flow within the sump changes the water line in the return section. This is going to make using the ClariSea and my auto top off more difficult than I thought it would.

My Lumenbar is missing screws. I can't mount it till the screws arrive.
Shout out to Logan of Reefbreeders. Super excellent Customer Service as always! My screws are on the way to me.

My ReefBot needs new valves. It has been sitting unused for close to a year. Ever since I broke my leg in the motorcycle accident last year. The test chamber will not fill we with water. Found out the valves went bad from sitting in stagnant saltwater for close to a year. Reefkinetics is taking care of me though. They are sending me new valves free of charge!
I really and truly appreciate Reefkinetics and my ReefBot. Great company with a great product.

Last but not least for today...
I am trying to tame my flow. I installed my Gyre 350's last night and programmed them today (kind of). I choose lunar tidal cycle. I don't get too much from them but where the Gyre flow meets the Wav flow... Problems. I don't get a sandstorm but I get too much action at the surface of the water. If I point the Wav's down a bit, it does not take action away rom the surface. It just causes bare spots in the sand over time. On top of that, the Wav to the far left side of my tank just wants to be more powerful than the other 3 even though they all have the exact same programming.

2nd day of the new reef started off with a bang but I'm up to the challenges.

 

[Dj City]

Tank is clearer today but not clear enough for me. I've still got a bacterial bloom from starting the tank. Funny enough, I had only put Microbacter 7 in once. I am supposed to put 40ml in everyday for the 1st 2 weeks.
I will start today as day 1 and add the 40ml everyday for the next 13 days.

It looks like I evaporated at least a gallon since yesterday so I hooked up my ATO. Everything is nice and neat but the controller is under the tank instead of in the Apex cabinet. The cable just did not reach that far.

I ran the wires for the Gyres today. Everything is nice and neat but again, the controller is under the tank instead of in the Apex cabinet. The cable just did not reach that far.

I also added a 2nd heater. It's an old 400w heater that I had hanging around. I tested it for 3 hours in the sink to see what temp it turned on and at what temp it turned off. Having the heater set to 71 degrees turns it on anywhere under 77 and it turns off at 81 degrees.
I have this heater along with the other one hooked up to the Apex for redundancy.

Last but not least for today was hooking up my algae reactor. I just have it plugged into the Apex but i'm not using it yet. It is ready when I am ready to use it which will be soon.

I still have to hook up my UV Sterilizer, my Sulfur Denitrator and my Ozone Generator. I probably won't be using the sulfur denitrator or ozone generator for some time but it would probably be good to have them hooked up and ready to go for when I might need them down the line.

I guess I will be building my manifold soon.

 

[Dj City]

Good, bad & ugly...

So I had a power outage. No problem since it was only like 5 minutes right?
Wrong.
Power comes back on but 3 of the 4 Wav pumps do not come back on. They say "Missing" in fusion.
My trident is disconnected in fusion.

I put in a ticket to Neptune.
I hope this is an easy no money fix.

 

[Martyd]

I am seriously thinking of a roller mat.
Seriously looking at the Bubble Magus filter roll or the Theiling compact roller mat.

Get the Rollermat!

 

[Dj City]

Get the Rollermat!

Thanks.
I purchased the ClariSea SK-5000. I have it up and running as the tank cycles. Im trying to decide on how much I like it.
It changes the water level in the sump as it clogs and then advances. It's only a slight difference but it's enough to trigger the ATO.

I am not running it exactly as the instructions say.
My tank only has two holes drilled. A 1 inch return andI a 1.5 inch drain. The drain pipe is going straight down the middle of the unit between the rollers. The intake tube that was provided is capped off.
I set it up like this because I did not want to reduce the 1.5 inch drain to a 1 inch being that I have a 1 inch return.
I may have to put a gate valve on it and play with flow into the unit from the 1.5 inch drain.

 

[Dj City]

I disconnected then reconnected the Wav's and the Trident from the EB32's.
The Trident came back up but 3 of the 4 Wav's are still not working and showing as "missing" in Apex Fusion.

I contacted Neptune. I am still waiting for help from them but I would love to get this resolved sooner rather than later.

 

[DS204]

I disconnected then reconnected the Wav's and the Trident from the EB32's.
The Trident came back up but 3 of the 4 Wav's are still not working and showing as "missing" in Apex Fusion.

I contacted Neptune. I am still waiting for help from them but I would love to get this resolved sooner rather than later.

Try powercycling your Neptune box maybe? Not the powerbar, but the control module. I'm no expert, but it helped me in the past.

 

[Dj City]

Try powercycling your Neptune box maybe? Not the powerbar, but the control module. I'm no expert, but it helped me in the past.

Thank you.
I tried that but no bueno...

I believe I have 2 dead Wav's.

 

[Dj City]

I have my Wav's situated in a certain way in the tank. They are also named so I know which one is which.

Left High
Left Low
Right High
Right Low

Here's what I found out.
When I unplug them 1 at a time, things happen.
Left High and Right High both seem to work but only if Right Low is unplugged. If Right Low is plugged in, Left High still works but Right High does not work.

If Left Low is plugged in, both Left High and Right High still work.

Neither Left Low or Right Low seem to work.

 

[Dj City]

I went into the modules page in Fusion.

My Dos was showing as disconnected along with the 2 bad Wav's. I reloaded the update for the Dos and got a notification that I had a new tile.
It was a Dos tile. I dragged it down into fusion and It seems like I'm good to go on the Dos. It has a different address but it's working.

I tried the same thing with the Wav's but it did not work.
The Right Low Wav is clearly bad. If plugged in, it takes out the other 1link ports.
Left Low does nothing.

I have a phone consultation with Neptune schedule for today at 5pm

 

[Dj City]

I forgot to tell you guys that I received the valves from Reefkinetics for my ReefBot and the screws for the Reefbreeders lumenbar.
Excellent Customer Service!

Neptune called me.
They did whatever it is they do in troubleshooting via teamviewer.

They said I have 1 Wav that appears to be dead and the other has a short.

They want me to send both problem Wav's in so they can do whatever they do to repair or replace.
Don't know yet if it's on them (warranty) or me.

 

[Dj City]

I'm a little confused or it's been too long since I've set up a new tank.

I added 200 drops of Dr Tim's ammonia, just over 16oz of Bio Spira and about 100ml of MB7 bottled bacteria 10 days ago and have been adding 40ml of MB7 everyday since for the past 10 days.
I test my ammonia and get zero. I test my nitrite and get zero. I test my nitrate and get zero.

I've added 200 drops of Dr Tim's ammonia a few times. The ammonia comes back to zero within 24 hours.

Where are the nitrites?
Where are the nitrates?

 

[JPK_Esquire]

Holy crap man! And I thought I had issues. I'll gladly take my low salinity and PH over your issues any day. I also used the Dr. Tim's ammonium chloride in my 180g. After doing some reading, I came to the conclusion that MB7 isn't the best for cycling the tank at the beginning as it has different kinds of beneficial bacteria from those used to setup tanks. MB7 (from what I've read) is more of a maintenance additive (I'll try to find some of the links I was reading talking about how the bacteria is different than the bacteria in MB Start XLR, DR Tim's One and Only, BioSpora, and Fritz 900). Below is the schedule I followed:

2/17 - Tank delivered and setup
2/18 (morning) - I added 400 drops of Dr. Tim's Ammonum Chloride (about half the bottle).
2/18 (evening) - I added 15 ml of Microbacter Start XLR (its all I had left) and 35 ml of Microbacter 7. Ammonia was a solid 2.0 for three days or so.
2/21 (evening) - I added 8 oz. (two 4 oz. bottles) of FritzZyme TurboStart 900
2/24 (evening) - Ammonia at zero
2/25 (evening) - Nitrites .5
2/26 (evening) - Nitrites .2

On the thread below, Dr. Fish tests all of the major cycle starters, and concludes multiple times that Fritz 900 is the best. I used it when I setup my Biocube and it was great this time on the 180g as well

Bacteria in bottle, busting myth, Seneye style.

As some may know I started a study on this subject. I am old school (kick start cycle by adding deli shrimp) and didnt think bacteria in bottle could survive packaging and transportation along with temperature variances etc. Too many people reported great success with the bottles and soon i was...

www.reef2reef.com

Per the instructions from the guy I am buying my quarantined fish from, I am going to add another round of 2 ppt Ammonia and let that come back to zero before adding any fish.

Also, I am leaving the lights off for a solid two months (except for a 2 minute fidget here and there).

Hope this helps!

 

[Dj City]

Yeah. My lights are primarily off and will remain off for the next 2 months or so while the tank cycles and settles out.

I am about to buy a few bottles of Bio Spira to add to the bacteria population.
Hopefully this helps. I know it can't hurt.

The 1st livestock I plan for this tank is copopods! I plan to add a good amount along with some plankton to feed them.
With no predators, their numbers should explode in no time.
Just have to wait for my cycle to "do" something.

 

[Dj City]

I added 4 small bottles and 1 large bottle of Bio Spira last night. Enough for 195 gallons. That's just short of the water volume I have but should still help.
Let's see what my ammonia and nitrite tests reads today.