125 build

[Kalen]

Before I put the baffles in my sump I was thinking of blacking out the sides. I still am thinking about doing it however I am wondering if it would ultimately serve any purpose?

I would really appreciate a answer from someone before I do it and find out that its not really needed and that I wasted the money and time in spraying the sump.

 

[Kalen]

Tested nitrates and ammonia today

No3 = 10ppm
Nh3 = .25

 

[evo.howard2010]

I don't think blacking out the sides will do much! I mean I guess if u have cords for heaters and pumps and skimmers that you don't want to see behind there it would be worth it!

 

[Kalen]

I don't think blacking out the sides will do much! I mean I guess if u have cords for heaters and pumps and skimmers that you don't want to see behind there it would be worth it!

That's what I thought. Thank you for answering before I spent the money on paint.

 

[Kalen]

Now this morning I tested my nitrates again after my 24 gal wc and my nitrates where zero

Nitrates = 0 undetectable so that seemed a little weird to me. Didn't think nitrates could disappear in less then a day

 

[truthdesigns]

Great build!! A+++

 

[Kalen]

Great build!! A+++

Thanks much appreciated.

 

[Kalen]

I am interested in possibly trading a hydra 52 standard not the hd with two mounting kits, the remote, and original box for a 60" 8 bulb fixture preferably the 8x80w sunpower t-5 lighting system.

I am tired of my hydra 52 and it seems like I'm always dealing with something in my little 30 and with this upgrade to the 125 I would need to replace the hydra 52 anyways since I'm upgrading to a 6ft tank.

The two mounting kits I have is the factory tank which puts the light front to lengthwise. The other one I have is from LeRusso Designs which mounts side to side across the tank. Your power cord runs through the tube hiding it from view.

I owned the hydra 52 unit for 1 year and 7 months.

 

[Kalen]

Well this past weekend I decided to to transfer everything from the 30 to the 125. Everything was a success. Was struggling at first so at first I was making sure all my live stock was covered by light. I moved my hydra 52 over all the live stock. But I wasn't happy and I've been tight on cash so after going down to epic ocean's and talking to will Sunday I decided to use a 48" 4 bulb ho t5 fixture that I had laying around. Will even gave me a nice deal on two ho actinic bulbs that he had as well as some real reef rock. So I couldn't pass it up. After I got home I set the light I had put the bulbs in and i decide to take the hydra 52 down. I have a little shading on both side but it works for the moment.

For power heads I used two rinse Turbelle Nanostream 6025 and a cobalt mj1200. I mentioned all this to will and he told me that, that should be enough flow for the moment. I was thinking about adding a hydor evolution 600 the old model. Haven't decide yet.

I've been keeping a eye on my parameters the big three.

As if this morning
Kh = 8.3
Mg = 1350 ( which I'm still in the process of raising )
Ca = 420 ( as of Sunday )
St = 1.024 ( tested yesterday ).

So in the picture the hydra 52 is not plugged in. I haven't had the time to take it down off the tank. Between breaking down the 30 and cleaning all the equipment for the 30 I have been busy plus. I have doing a little rearranging. The cabinet for the 30 I plan to re use to house my American Dj power strips.

Also this weekend since I was breaking down the 30 and this tank is going to be mainly a sps tank. All my zoas that I had I sold to will at Epic Ocean's, which I will be using the credit he gave me toward more rock.

 

[Kalen]

I'll post more pictures this weekend and better quality pictures when I pull out my camera. I still need to straighten a few things up first.

 

[Kalen]

Here are some picture of my tank, corals, and my modified power center ( still in the works )


All pictures were taken with a Olympus Stylus camera.

 

[Kalen]

My sump pictures

 

[Kalen]

My little power center. I reused my stand from my Jbj 30 gal winless tank and add a board on the back so I was able to mount my heater controllers and top off controller.

 

[Kalen]

Misc pictures of my corals

 

[Kalen]

Misc corals

 

[Kalen]

The rest of my corals.

 

[Kalen]

Well last weekend I noticed that my tds meter was reading .003 so I contact Jeremy at spectrapure and he told me it was probably my sediment filter and carbon filter, which I figured but it didn't make since that I burned through them in less then two months. I expressed all this to Jeremy as well as the possibility of the filters being a knock off or a different brand. So he asked me to bring the unit in so he could test it out.

After Jeremy tested the unit out he told me what I already knew and then some. My sediment filter and carbon filters where shot. Both those filters were not spectrapure brand. Then he told me that the tds dual in line meter was shot that it was giving out false readings.

Now to back up for a minute, I bought the unit from will the owner of epic ocean's. He built this system a while back cleaned it and and sold it to me as a max cap 90 system. Used a cheap filters in unit. The tds meter I got from him as well.

Now Jeremy told me all this as will use to work at spectrapure.

So I got everything switched out and working properly. New filters and tds meter. Water waste ratio is 4:1.

So I get home and get ready to mount the unit back up on the wall. And it falls from the top of the dryer. Oh yes there was damage to the unit.

The new tds meter that I just got swapped out is done shattered the LCD display, cracked side, and the slide button to view in and out broke off. I chipped three of my canisters and now have a leaky elbow going into the unit.

So I just placed a order with spectrapure for 3 canisters, 25 ft of black ro tubing, dual tds in line meter and a 1/4' bulkhead push fitting. All for 130.87

The initial replacement parts before the unit fell was $50.00

All I can do is shake my head and laugh.

 

[Kalen]

My ordern that I placed with spectrapure aarrived at my house Wednesday evening. I had to have it shipped me due to the fact of my work schedule. I had no free time to go pick up what I needed. However everything arrived. Well package.

3 new canisters
1 dual inline tds meter
1 25 ft of black ro tubing

However I did receive my 1/4 to bulkhead. So I sent Jeremy from spectrapure a message. And he told me to bring in my unit, which I did so he could look at it. And we found that there was a brass fitting between the sediment filter and the carbon filter. He gave me the piece as well as the bulk head I was missing. While I was the I picked up a second bulkhead and a three way ball valve as well as 25 ft of yellow tubing.

He told me that since I am extending my waste line I should test the water ration between waste and product

5 cups of waste water
1 cup of product water

He said that it was good and to check it again in the summer.

Everything turned out good and I'm happy with it.

 

[Kalen]

Now during the week I noticed that some corals were not opening up. So this weekend I begin to tackle that problem.

Last weekend I decided to hang my light that I have over the tank. Its a cheap light but its working for now. Its a 48" 2 bulb ho t5 aquatic life link fixture. During the installation of the hanging the light I decided it was a good idea to do most of it over the tank, bad idea. I had to remove some screws from the fixture and replace the screws with eye hooks. Well during this process I dropped screws. Yes they fell into the tank. I found every screw except for one. It just blended in with my black sand. So I gave up in looking for it. Then this past week I noticed my purple frilly, my green goblin acan, and my purple tip frogspawn were not opening up as the normally do.

I did a fully system test.

Everything was normal except my po4. It was ridiculously high. I didn't under why. I am careful not to over feed with rods frozen fish food as well with my reef roids. I then realised the problem.

I went down and talked to will at Epic Ocean's for two hours. Yes I spent two hours talking to him. In conclusion I got a bag of chemipure elite, the 46 oz one.

I added that to my tank and then will told me I need to find that screw that feel into the tank. So I spent probably a hour or two just feeling through my sand after I removed half my rock. I did find it and since I added the chemipure I have noticed my corals opening up little by little.

So that been my adventure.

 

[Kalen]

After a week I was ready to test everything and do a wc on my tank again. So I tested my big three and no surprises. I test my po4 and found out that it was still high. I tested it four times.

Po4 results:

1st test = .039858
2nd test ( different vial ) = .024528
3rd test ( same vial as 2nd test ) = .036792
4th test ( same vial as 2nd test ) = .033726

After that I decided to go down and talk to will and see what he has to say. Which I did and I took a sample of water with me and so he tested my po4 and my no3 which both came up zero.

We came to the conclusion that it was my Hanna checker regiments. They went bad cause of where I stored them he said. They became warm or hot at one point. So he recommended not using digital except for sg lux meter or a heater controller just because in testing things can fail or give you false readings. However I am paraphrasing.

Now with that said I did pick up a macro algae pack and 5 trouchus snails, 1 emerald crab, 9 blue legged crabs, 5 peppermint shrimp.

So I did remove the chemipure elite since it was not needed and removed the all the bleach birdnests I had.

Got my replacement tunze 3155 auto top off unit and hooked it all up then I had to go do some running around and when I got back I found that it was running when not needed and that it had dumped 10 gallons of water into my display tank. So I unhooked and over night did a dry run without it hooked up to my tank and it ran perfectly.

So I am not working on correcting my sg issue since I removed the excess amount of water. Now I am slowly raising it up back to normal so I wait and see how that goes