Zach’s 180 mixed build

zbryant91 · Mar 25, 2023

Mostly photos of the tank today because I was taking photos for grow out contests. Tank is doing really well. Added quite a few fish over the last couple months and just letting things grow. New royal exlusiv skimmer is really nice. Also added in a giant co2 scrubber. added in a 24v ball valve that opens and closes with my PH level to keep it more stable. so far, it's staying between 8.2-8.35. Could easily go higher but am trying to keep an eye on the media life. Just made it recirculating last week as well.

Dinos are pretty much non existent now after removing the sand. haven't verified with the microscope but don't really care since everything is happy. Cyano is rearing it's head again though so may run chemiclean again soon.

zbryant91 · Mar 25, 2023

Here's a weeks worth of my PH now. Very happy with how this is going.

c_healy · Mar 25, 2023

Tank looks really good. Following along.

zbryant91 · Mar 25, 2023

I know I don't need one yet, but I got a good deal on a calcium reactor a few months ago. Finally have all the parts I need, so got it setup in the garage to leak test today. Went and got 2 - 5lb co2 tanks yesterday.

Going to attempt feeding it with a versa and see how it goes. This is very uncharted territory for me. If everything is still dry in the morning I'll put it in the closet and plumb it in. Which should be as simple as running 2 ro lines and filling it up with media and water.

zbryant91 · Mar 29, 2023

glad I tested the CR. both of my threaded fittings busted. walked out to the garage to the dreaded sound of the pump running dry. Ordered some parts with the intentions of rebuilding the schedule 80 on the intake side but half the union is glued into the acrylic. And of course the new union doesn't match the old. So I watched some videos and used some heat to remove the busted fittings and glued on some new ones. Everything is now replumbed and testing again.

The break

surprised I was able to do this

and all better. i hope.

zbryant91 · Apr 1, 2023

Calcium reactor is running. apex is programmed to turn off the co2 when the ph hits 7.1. going to creep it down over the next week or so until I find where my demand is. regulator is set at about 7lbs and the carbon doser is set at ~7 seconds/bubble. Versa is feeding 25ml/min. Was very surprised that it only took a few minutes to bring the ph down in the reactor.

Also setup another eb832. I got it from neptune a couple months ago at a discount because my power monitoring on a eb8 went bad. Wasn't really planning to use if for this, but was much easier than running extension cords.

Kalk is still doing most of the leg work so I expect demand to be pretty low. But this is my 1st time with a reactor and wanted to be able to get it running before I needed it so I can learn it before it's an issue.

zbryant91 · May 5, 2023

Still figuring out the Ca Reactor. Ph is is down to ~6.60-6.70 and still not seeing an increase in alkalinity or calcium. Running my versa at 35ml/min. And regulator set at ~7lbs. Not sure if I just haven't lowered the PH enough to start melting media or if my flow rates are not appropriate.

Here's some overall photos of the tank, sump, and closet. Been getting the itch to rearrange the closet to make it a little easier to work on things, but it would be a several day long process. I do need to pull my salt bin for cleaning so that would be the best time. Just need to decide on shelving and rebuild my mixing station platform as I want it on the back wall.

zbryant91 · Jun 24, 2023

upgraded to a larger pax bellum today. BRS had a open box for a decent price so figured I'd give it a shot. N24 and it's a tight squeeze and will not be much fun harvesting Chaeto.

Also picked up the calcium reactor adapter that they make to hopefully boost ph a bit.

zbryant91 · Sep 1, 2023

I've been struggling with zoas and duncans for the last couple months after I added a aiptasia eating filefish. This week I finally made the time to setup my fish trap and I finally caught him this morning. Have been trying with a net at night every few days but he's been too quick and my rockwork is a nightmare to work around.

I know for sure he has been eating my zoas after he ran out of aiptasia. hoping he was the culprit for the duncans as well. just tossed him in the sump for now.

Now if I could catch my green clown goby... I haven't caught him killing anything lately, but he was picking at newer sps for a while. mostly only when they're on the frag rack, but I have a lot of pieces all over the tank that have little to no polyp extension and suspect he may be the reason.

and to add insult to injury, I'm highly contemplating adding a emperor angel. Mostly just worried about him going after my gonis and anemone. If it weren't for those, there'd be no question.

zbryant91 · Nov 11, 2023

finally decided on a backup power system and got it all setup a couple weeks ago. Went with a mpp solar inverter and 2 12v 100ah lifepo4 batteries. Waiting on my apex power supply so I can detect when the wall isn’t supply power to setup some profiles to extend runtime if needed. But as is, should keep the tank fully functional for 2-3 hours. But I’ll likely turn the lights down/off and reduce the number of pumps running and should get much more runtime if needed.

Also got another glass cages tank used that is mostly housing the stuff that came with it, but plan will be to use it as a frag tank. Setup the 180 to send its auto waterchange to the frag tank and then another doser is removing water from it so both tanks get ~5 liters of water a day.

zbryant91 · Dec 24, 2023

New stand for the frag tank was the project for this month. Just need to get some panels cut to mount the controllers and I'll worry about exterior panels in the spring/summer.

used framing tech again but I ordered precut sticks without the machining done to save some money. Drilling wasn't too bad with the jig they sell, but tapping the threads for the feet was a little challenging due to the profile of the extrusion. still made it work though and am happy with the result.

zbryant91 · Jan 2, 2024

Around the time the tropic marin salt debacle happened, I bought a couple of boxes of the bio actif salt as I was also fighting high nitrates. Did not know at the time that it isn't stable for sitting in a mixing bin which is on me for not researching. During that time, I started getting some build up on everything inside the bin, I scrubbed it in place a few times but could never get everything out. also started running a filter every now and then but didn't really help. Finally over the holidays I got around to cleaning it out.

I'll have to get an after picture since I don't seem to have taken one but it's so nice having everything clean again.

ended up finding some rusty particles attached to some of the magnets. Both of my optical sensor mounts had the soft layer peeling up, but couldn't see the magnet. and the octo pulse power head magnet looked to be the culprit, so I haven't put the sensors or the powerhead back in. I did see some higher zinc levels on an icp that may have been from this.

Also setup some pipe to clean out my 35" LLS as the gunk was inside the plastic as well. just filled it with some of the citric acid mix that I used to clean everything else. oddly enough, i've had 2 of these go bad in my RO bin and 1 in a secondary ro container, but this one hasn't missed a beat even with all the gunk on it.

Before:

zbryant91 · Jan 2, 2024

Here’s the after.

zbryant91 · Feb 11, 2024

did some water tests on the frag tank today... have a trident on it so the alk 8.6 cal 440 mag 1320 were not huge surprises. hadn't checked nitrates and phosphates since christmas... po4. 0.66 and nitrate 25.9. nitrates were not a surprise but the phosphates definitely were. guess that's what happens when you do a water change with old tank water and feed too much. I'll use phosphate e to bring it down and probably setup another doser with bactobalance since that's what I'm using on the 180 and it's working really well. Maybe too well. nitrates on it are down from ~50 to 6 over the last year or so.

zbryant91 · Mar 15, 2024

zbryant91 said:
Still figuring out the Ca Reactor. Ph is is down to ~6.60-6.70 and still not seeing an increase in alkalinity or calcium. Running my versa at 35ml/min. And regulator set at ~7lbs. Not sure if I just haven't lowered the PH enough to start melting media or if my flow rates are not appropriate.

Here's some overall photos of the tank, sump, and closet. Been getting the itch to rearrange the closet to make it a little easier to work on things, but it would be a several day long process. I do need to pull my salt bin for cleaning so that would be the best time. Just need to decide on shelving and rebuild my mixing station platform as I want it on the back wall.