have the same tank. you will love it.perfect dimensions for a "small" big tank!why not use the net gear wireless adapter for the apex? i use it and it works great.for updates i bring out the 50' cable.ive used the net gear adapter for almost a year now.never dropped signal or randomly disco. yet.gl on tank build!
190 Gal build
- Thread starter EagleFF
- Start date
EagleFF
New member
chiller arrived today, but did not come with all the connections, well, as far as number of connections was correct, but as far as what was suppose to come with it was not, it was suppose to come with 2 3/4 connections 2 5/8 connections and 2 1/2 connections, it came with 1 3/4 connection 3 3/4 connections and 2 1/2 connections, I contacted BRS, in turn they gave me JBJ's number, I called them, they promptly sent me a request form, I filled that out, sent it back, called them on the phone, they are sending me a connection, fast service both ways, we'll see how long it takes to get here, I have it sorta running right now just to check it out and to make sure its working, so far so good,
footyreefer
Member
Quick question. What size bulkheads for the returns and drains?
EagleFF
New member
the drain inside the tank are 1 1/4 coming out of the bottom they are 1", the return is 3/4"
iced98lx
New member
Looks like the cycle is finished, all the ammonia was converted to Nitrite which was converted to Nitrate, which you now have in spades!
Another few water changes will knock that right down, what goes in the tank first?
EagleFF
New member
first I'll move most of my cleanup crew and a yellow anthias,flame angel, orange stripe prawn goby, I'll leave my corals in 61 gal tank for another month or 2
I'll mix up another 50 gal and test in the morning. see if I can knock the nitrates down some, new to using the dry rock, didnt grow the algea that normally goes with cycling the tank so I didnt get to go through the "ugly stage", I know 50 gal wont do much for the nitrates, I added 2 of my filter pads from 61 gal tank to sump as well.
I'll mix up another 50 gal and test in the morning. see if I can knock the nitrates down some, new to using the dry rock, didnt grow the algea that normally goes with cycling the tank so I didnt get to go through the "ugly stage", I know 50 gal wont do much for the nitrates, I added 2 of my filter pads from 61 gal tank to sump as well.
EagleFF
New member
I decided to re plumb the 3/4" hose from regular silicone to braided silicone, and clean up the wires, I moved the pump to the right side of the stand and re plumbed as well to give me more room and access to the sump area without having to fight around the manifold
I also cut around 15' off the electric cable going to the UV sterilizer bulb, just way to much cable to try and wrap,hide, make it look good under stand, the plug came apart with minimal effort, but knowing now what I didn't know then is you dont need to take apart the plug, just slide a thin strong wire beside the wire going into the plug and release the shark tooth holding the wire, so I put the plug back together, cut the wire, stripped about 1 1/2" off the wire, soldered, slipped the wire into the plug and all is fine, now I don't have to fight 15' of wire, I temporarily mounted a surge protector above the fuge as I want another electric bar 8 to put on left side.
all in all, I think the tank is looking pretty good now that I am running lights now, I stole a radion program from a thread on RC, I'll judge it more when I can place the corals in the tank, I hadn't tested today but I did ghost feed another cube of shrimp, I began on the refit around 9am and finished up around 7pm, its looking way better under stand now.
old placement of return pump
new placement of return pump
I also cut around 15' off the electric cable going to the UV sterilizer bulb, just way to much cable to try and wrap,hide, make it look good under stand, the plug came apart with minimal effort, but knowing now what I didn't know then is you dont need to take apart the plug, just slide a thin strong wire beside the wire going into the plug and release the shark tooth holding the wire, so I put the plug back together, cut the wire, stripped about 1 1/2" off the wire, soldered, slipped the wire into the plug and all is fine, now I don't have to fight 15' of wire, I temporarily mounted a surge protector above the fuge as I want another electric bar 8 to put on left side.
all in all, I think the tank is looking pretty good now that I am running lights now, I stole a radion program from a thread on RC, I'll judge it more when I can place the corals in the tank, I hadn't tested today but I did ghost feed another cube of shrimp, I began on the refit around 9am and finished up around 7pm, its looking way better under stand now.
old placement of return pump
new placement of return pump
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EagleFF
New member
for giggles I ran a high nitrate test, using the red sea nitrate test kit it says to dilute 1 ml of tank water with 4 ml of ro water and multiply by 5, it was between 10 and 20 so I am guessing some where around 15 so that gives me a nitrate of 75, I am waiting on some DI resin to show up to do another big water change, I may go ahead and get some cheato just to help bring the nitrates down,I'll get a handle on it then go check the phosphates, I hear this dried pukani will leach out phosphates for a long time, I am reading a great thread someone posted about using these rocks and he cooked them for a long time, months, time will tell.
EagleFF
New member
I'm beginning to see some brown spots on the rocks,Diatoms, a good sign I'm just about to the end of the cycle, hoping nitrates should go down now. I'll wait to do a water change now that I am seeing this. Glad to actually see something going on inside the tank, I am ready to put some livestock in this tank....
EagleFF
New member
I went ahead and did a 100 gal water change last night, knocked nitrates down to around 15 or so, test is between 10 and 20 so close to 15, I added 2 Mexican Turbo snails and 2 large astraea snails, as of right now they are going at the diatoms heavy, I had about 70% dotted rocks last night knocked down to 40%, may run to Lubbock this weekend to get some more cleanup crew as don't want to take all of them out of my 61 gal tank yet, may get a fish or to as well, add them to 61 gal tank after taking out the current fish and rocks, I'll have to leave a couple rocks in there for current corals, also will pick up some copopods and if they have any some cheato
EagleFF
New member
the beginning of the diatom outbreak...
I picked up a 6 puck under counter lighting system with a touch pad on-off,dimmer switch, I mounted the dimmer switch in the center above the 2 center doors, I was going to make this a when the door opens lights come on but couldnt pass up the switch, its simple and works well, the stand has 2 cross members running under tank and I mounted the 6 pucks 3 on each now I can see what is going on in sump, this weekend I am going to get some more CUC and some cheato for fuge,
I picked up a 6 puck under counter lighting system with a touch pad on-off,dimmer switch, I mounted the dimmer switch in the center above the 2 center doors, I was going to make this a when the door opens lights come on but couldnt pass up the switch, its simple and works well, the stand has 2 cross members running under tank and I mounted the 6 pucks 3 on each now I can see what is going on in sump, this weekend I am going to get some more CUC and some cheato for fuge,
EagleFF
New member
I went with 3 because of the canopy isn't high enough to get the light to spread, I had a dark V in the center of the tank, so far I am pleased with the outcome of the light setup, I cant wait to see corals in this tank, should be around the end of the month.
EagleFF
New member
Picked up 2 jars of tiger copepods,and a hand full of cheato , when the tank cools down I'll add the pods, I was messing with some settings on manifold,guess I turned down too much, also picked up 2 conch snails, 6 astrea, 4 turbo snails, I also picked up a yellow tang and a blue tang, man he had some good looking open brains I wanted to get, soon baby soon......I put the 2 fish in my 61 gal tank, I'll Quarantine them in that tank for now.
