A Living Room Reef: 90 Gallon Mixed Reef Build
- Thread starter troubadour11
- Start date
Bello
New member
Now you tell me that you've got the bypass's fitted all over the place 
. That should serve you well, provided you test regularly.
Agreed, the Hanna Checker is the number one piece of equipment you need now :thumbsup:
I don't know about the pH effect on fish much, I've kept my old guy regal tang at 7.0 before, not by choice, but by ignorance. Guess he was used to it....dunno... Still, better to be safe than sorry :thumbsup:
. That should serve you well, provided you test regularly.Agreed, the Hanna Checker is the number one piece of equipment you need now :thumbsup:
I don't know about the pH effect on fish much, I've kept my old guy regal tang at 7.0 before, not by choice, but by ignorance. Guess he was used to it....dunno... Still, better to be safe than sorry :thumbsup:
troubadour11
Member
Now you tell me that you've got the bypass's fitted all over the place
Agreed, the Hanna Checker is the number one piece of equipment you need now :thumbsup:
I don't know about the pH effect on fish much, I've kept my old guy regal tang at 7.0 before, not by choice, but by ignorance. Guess he was used to it....dunno... Still, better to be safe than sorry :thumbsup:
Yup... I built the by-pass valves in when I ordered and first set up the RO unit. The handheld TDS meter came as an extra since I ordered a big unit. So I didn't feel the immediate need to spend extra $ to upgrade to the in-line reader. I'll survive for now with the handheld tester. It's a good quality one... I can't remember the brand. I can check it out later if you want to see what it is.
Outside of any purchases to help getting these lights up and finished, the Hanna Checker for Po4 is definitely tops on the list of new pick ups. Although if the lights are running... a coral or two may come first ;-) LOL
I haven't had much time to watch the tank with lights on lately. Lots of hours at work right now. But the wife was telling me that "it looks like that stuff you put in is doing the trick!" Referring to the 1/2 cup of GFO I add a week or two ago. She said she's witnessed some of the "red stringy stuff" breaking loose and floating around. And I've been told there looks like there is something like 10% less of it. So that sounds like some good news that I'll start to get rid of some of that ugliness for now.
I hunted around and did some light :reading: on PH when I was researching Hypo in QT. As I mentioned. In my experience, it's stayed really stable throughout the process. The only time I notice changes was dropping and going into hypo. But on this last fish purchase. I acclimated the purchase straight to hypo in the QT. I didn't QT at regular DT levels and then drop to hypo. They came home and got a 1/2 hour acclimation to the hypo-QT and straight in with no visible issues.
And so far... (***knocking on wood***)... the surviving Orange Firefish is hanging in there on the ride back up to DT levels. This morning when I woke up, he was tucked up in a pvc tube sleeping with a SG of 1.016. I've been dripping 1 gallon of 1.025 water from morning before work until it runs out around 10 or 11 pm. Then I let it sit over night at whatever level it reached and start a new gallon in the next morning.
And the broken driver is off getting a repaired SVR2 screw. It was received earlier today and should take 3 days or so and then will get shipped back to me. I can't wait to get that back! I'm trying to straighten out this dimming % and power set up on the other drivers while I wait. :reading:
troubadour11
Member
Well, so far today I've managed to keep the SG going up on the QT. This is a slow process. It takes a lot more water then I thought it would as well. But we are getting there. I just tested it at 1.019. So I'm about to start dripping a bit more hoping to get it up to about 1.021 by tomorrow morning.
I just added 2 cups of carbon into a mesh bag and hung it in the sump too. We've been running 1/2 cup of GFO in a sock for about a week or a little longer now.
Now I'm off to fiddle around with the lights and other associated projects for a bit.
Oh... I'm also running some new RO/DI top off water :thumbsup: Getting 0-tds reading in the ATO barrel now! Maybe that combined with the carbon/gfo will help get me ahead of this cyano. It seems like it's growing slower, but just moving around the tank. LOL So not that there is more of it. I think there is actually less. But it's just spread all over from me trying to get it removed. :strooper: hahaha. All well... slow and steady. I have a feeling we're on the right track with everything and it'll start to sort itself out different as soon as these new lights and fish hit the system.
I just added 2 cups of carbon into a mesh bag and hung it in the sump too. We've been running 1/2 cup of GFO in a sock for about a week or a little longer now.
Now I'm off to fiddle around with the lights and other associated projects for a bit.
Oh... I'm also running some new RO/DI top off water :thumbsup: Getting 0-tds reading in the ATO barrel now! Maybe that combined with the carbon/gfo will help get me ahead of this cyano. It seems like it's growing slower, but just moving around the tank. LOL So not that there is more of it. I think there is actually less. But it's just spread all over from me trying to get it removed. :strooper: hahaha. All well... slow and steady. I have a feeling we're on the right track with everything and it'll start to sort itself out different as soon as these new lights and fish hit the system.
biggles
Premium Member
Right i've had enough of this crap. It's bloody 2014 now Troub - 2014! If you don't pull your finger out and get some #^&$%# fish and corals in that &*&$#^ display soon i'm going to go right the &%#$ off !
This is the reef discussion forum so you better make one appear soon or i'm gonna lose it - can't put it any clearer than that. I don't care if it's a goldfish wearing a bloody snorkel - i want to see some action !!!! :angryfire:
Anyway, how are things progressing Troub, good news on the speedy driver repair. :thumbsup:
I was just messing with you, take your time and don't rush things. I've rang a retirement home and they have WIFI so i'll be able to follow the addition of your first fish hopefully........:beer:
This is the reef discussion forum so you better make one appear soon or i'm gonna lose it - can't put it any clearer than that. I don't care if it's a goldfish wearing a bloody snorkel - i want to see some action !!!! :angryfire:
Anyway, how are things progressing Troub, good news on the speedy driver repair. :thumbsup:
I was just messing with you, take your time and don't rush things. I've rang a retirement home and they have WIFI so i'll be able to follow the addition of your first fish hopefully........:beer:
troubadour11
Member
Bwa-hahahahahahaha!!!! :fun2:
Now that's funny. Usually such hatred is reserved for the dreaded PM from Bello you're always warning me and ranting about. :clown:
:strooper: And in my defense from this assault :twitch: I do TECHNICALLY qualify for reef discussion. :dance: Just barely...I'm just a 1 piece flubber and 2 piece zoa reefer currently. Oh, and lets not forget about my gold plated Neil and Buzz! And I'm pretty sure my dwarf ceriths, nassarius, 3 Tongan conchs, and assorted worms and micro-creepy-crawlies are fairly happy. I'm not so sure on the larger snails. The Astrae and banded Trochus have seemed to slowly fall on their backs and die I think. I haven't seen to many of them around lately.
And don't forget! I'm AMAZING at growing diatoms and cyano!!! :headwally:
troubadour11
Member
And now on a more serious note (or better yet... excuses, excuses). I've been super busy with my current contract. I've been on 12 hour days all of 2014 so far. And we've also had my parents, and now my wife's best friend and her young son visit since the year started. These 2 things have left me with little time to work on the tank. I have managed to do a few small things though to try and keep moving forward.
Here's one thing I've been working on. I'll see if I can derail myself a bit with linking away from my own thread :facepalm: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2367502&goto=newpost
- I started that up on the side trying to straighten out a few last disco light wiring / set up questions.
- Oh, and I got a shipping notice this morning. So it looks like my driver is patched up and on it's way back to me.
I installed a self-peircing saddle valve onto a pipe next to my Ro/Di unit. Thinking... this will be PERFECT. I hung the unit about 1.5 feet from the pipe. I can pierce the pipe with a 1/4 inch compression valve and run a short little line right to the Ro/Di unit. I tested the pressure with a pressure tester on the exterior faucet that the pipe terminates at. I was getting around 60 or so PSI. Just like on all my other faucet tests. I install the valve, hook it up to the Ro/Di unit, turn the valve on and I only get about 45 or 50 psi out of it. But I get 60ish out of the faucet still at the end of the line about 2 feet lower. So I'm left confused how that works...
And a little annoyed. Because the stupid piercing valve won't shut off all the way. It has a VERY slow drip. Slow enough I can put a plastic cup below it and the water evaporates out before it can puddle. But still a drip non-the-less. So now I have a useless dripping valve to figure out what to do with. So let me know if anyone has any thoughts on why that sucks! LOL :sad2:
I added 2 cups of carbon recently. I'm trying to suck nutrients out of the water. How quickly do you guess I'll burn through GFO? I put 1/2 cup into a sock about 2 weeks ago now. I currently have no way to test for Po4... But I'm still dealing with cyano, so I know there's Po4 in there. We're now getting 0tds top off water after I installed the DI cartridge. Hopefully that helps over the next couple weeks too!
It's been killing me going so slowly on the fish side! Two QT failures setting us back almost 2 months was a rough first go at QT. LOL. And I don't want to curse myself, so everyone KNOCK ON SOME WOOD with me right now please! But so far we're moving along smoothly. The remaining Orange Firefish is still in QT and eating. We've successfully moved the SG up from Hypo at 1.009 to 1.023 as of this morning. I took 1 gallon out and started a new gallon slowly dripping in this morning before I left for work. So if all goes well, we might be hitting tank SG by tomorrow morning! :bounce3:
And seeing as how we've observed zero signs of any symptoms of diseases.... this Firefish may have a new home VERY shortly!
Most of that has taken my attention so far in 2014. But there's still more I'm fiddling with.
- For now, here's a FTS from back on 1/4/14. -
- Cyano isn't quite as bad now. I think the GFO, maybe the carbon, and adding a filter sock (mesh, not felt) and turkey basting the sandbed and rocks every other day is starting to thin it out. It still re-grows on the sand bed, but is LOTS slower with less and less on the rocks each time.
- EWWWWWWW - I keep basting it loose and lightly stirring the sandbed with a rod so it doesn't solidify. One day soon I'm going to have to get more aggressive with it. -
You'll have to humor me on this next section. I don't have all the pictures to make this clear. In order to get more space beneath my canopy, I'm going to build an extension/lift. I picked up some red oak 1x6 and a 1x2 strip to start trying to modify the canopy.
I'll get better pics later, but the way I was going to do this was to finish and attach the 1x6's beneath the current feet of the canopy. Thus giving me approximately an additional 6 inch lift. Then I will need to measure the gap between the bottom edge of the canopy (which used to overlap my plastic frame on the tank) down to the bottom edge of the plastic frame. I can then attach new face boards to the 1x6 lift all the way around the front 3 sides of the tank leaving the back of the canopy open. We'll see if that makes sense to you... But here are a few pictures of the process.
- A couple cut 1x6's and a cut 1x2. The 1x2 is going to go across the length of the tank on top of the current feet. This will give a bar to loop things over, attach hooks to, etc. -
- Stained boards -
- Closer up -
While all the wood above looks beautiful, unfortunately it doesn't match our stand! :mad2: I got the correct wood stain from the local cabinet maker (asked the LFS we bought the cabinet through to get us the proper matching stain to do "touch up repairs" after modifying and setting up the system). I even tested the stain on 1 of the interior feet of the cabinet that only had 1 coat. After the test, it matched the outside EXACTLY. So I went ahead and stained the new boards. And wouldn't you know... IT DOESN'T MATCH!!! GRrrRRRRrrrr.
I'm not super experienced in matching finishes. I can start from scratch just fine though. But I'm guessing 1 of 2 things... 1.) Maybe he pre-treated the wood with conditioner and it didn't absorb the stain the same way. OR 2.) I only have access to RED Oak. Is there White Oak, and other colors that may finish differently with the same stain? This will be left to test this weekend. I'll grab some conditioner and see if that matches it. I wouldn't think he clear coated it first, then applied an oil based stain, and then clear coated again? I don't know if the stain would even work that way.
Anyway, that is mostly what I've been up to. On the bright side, I'm thinking we'll have a fish on the reef very soon! I've got to get back to work now. I've been rambling on about this on and off throughout the day so far.
Let me hear what you're thinking on it all lately. :beer:
Here's one thing I've been working on. I'll see if I can derail myself a bit with linking away from my own thread :facepalm: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2367502&goto=newpost
- I started that up on the side trying to straighten out a few last disco light wiring / set up questions.
- Oh, and I got a shipping notice this morning. So it looks like my driver is patched up and on it's way back to me.
I installed a self-peircing saddle valve onto a pipe next to my Ro/Di unit. Thinking... this will be PERFECT. I hung the unit about 1.5 feet from the pipe. I can pierce the pipe with a 1/4 inch compression valve and run a short little line right to the Ro/Di unit. I tested the pressure with a pressure tester on the exterior faucet that the pipe terminates at. I was getting around 60 or so PSI. Just like on all my other faucet tests. I install the valve, hook it up to the Ro/Di unit, turn the valve on and I only get about 45 or 50 psi out of it. But I get 60ish out of the faucet still at the end of the line about 2 feet lower. So I'm left confused how that works...
And a little annoyed. Because the stupid piercing valve won't shut off all the way. It has a VERY slow drip. Slow enough I can put a plastic cup below it and the water evaporates out before it can puddle. But still a drip non-the-less. So now I have a useless dripping valve to figure out what to do with. So let me know if anyone has any thoughts on why that sucks! LOL :sad2:
I added 2 cups of carbon recently. I'm trying to suck nutrients out of the water. How quickly do you guess I'll burn through GFO? I put 1/2 cup into a sock about 2 weeks ago now. I currently have no way to test for Po4... But I'm still dealing with cyano, so I know there's Po4 in there. We're now getting 0tds top off water after I installed the DI cartridge. Hopefully that helps over the next couple weeks too!
It's been killing me going so slowly on the fish side! Two QT failures setting us back almost 2 months was a rough first go at QT. LOL. And I don't want to curse myself, so everyone KNOCK ON SOME WOOD with me right now please! But so far we're moving along smoothly. The remaining Orange Firefish is still in QT and eating. We've successfully moved the SG up from Hypo at 1.009 to 1.023 as of this morning. I took 1 gallon out and started a new gallon slowly dripping in this morning before I left for work. So if all goes well, we might be hitting tank SG by tomorrow morning! :bounce3:
And seeing as how we've observed zero signs of any symptoms of diseases.... this Firefish may have a new home VERY shortly!
Most of that has taken my attention so far in 2014. But there's still more I'm fiddling with.
- For now, here's a FTS from back on 1/4/14. -
- Cyano isn't quite as bad now. I think the GFO, maybe the carbon, and adding a filter sock (mesh, not felt) and turkey basting the sandbed and rocks every other day is starting to thin it out. It still re-grows on the sand bed, but is LOTS slower with less and less on the rocks each time.
- EWWWWWWW - I keep basting it loose and lightly stirring the sandbed with a rod so it doesn't solidify. One day soon I'm going to have to get more aggressive with it. -
You'll have to humor me on this next section. I don't have all the pictures to make this clear. In order to get more space beneath my canopy, I'm going to build an extension/lift. I picked up some red oak 1x6 and a 1x2 strip to start trying to modify the canopy.
I'll get better pics later, but the way I was going to do this was to finish and attach the 1x6's beneath the current feet of the canopy. Thus giving me approximately an additional 6 inch lift. Then I will need to measure the gap between the bottom edge of the canopy (which used to overlap my plastic frame on the tank) down to the bottom edge of the plastic frame. I can then attach new face boards to the 1x6 lift all the way around the front 3 sides of the tank leaving the back of the canopy open. We'll see if that makes sense to you... But here are a few pictures of the process.
- A couple cut 1x6's and a cut 1x2. The 1x2 is going to go across the length of the tank on top of the current feet. This will give a bar to loop things over, attach hooks to, etc. -
- Stained boards -
- Closer up -
While all the wood above looks beautiful, unfortunately it doesn't match our stand! :mad2: I got the correct wood stain from the local cabinet maker (asked the LFS we bought the cabinet through to get us the proper matching stain to do "touch up repairs" after modifying and setting up the system). I even tested the stain on 1 of the interior feet of the cabinet that only had 1 coat. After the test, it matched the outside EXACTLY. So I went ahead and stained the new boards. And wouldn't you know... IT DOESN'T MATCH!!! GRrrRRRRrrrr.
I'm not super experienced in matching finishes. I can start from scratch just fine though. But I'm guessing 1 of 2 things... 1.) Maybe he pre-treated the wood with conditioner and it didn't absorb the stain the same way. OR 2.) I only have access to RED Oak. Is there White Oak, and other colors that may finish differently with the same stain? This will be left to test this weekend. I'll grab some conditioner and see if that matches it. I wouldn't think he clear coated it first, then applied an oil based stain, and then clear coated again? I don't know if the stain would even work that way.
Anyway, that is mostly what I've been up to. On the bright side, I'm thinking we'll have a fish on the reef very soon! I've got to get back to work now. I've been rambling on about this on and off throughout the day so far.
Let me hear what you're thinking on it all lately. :beer:
Bello
New member
I'd siphon off as much cyano as possible asap, Troub. Really need to get the Hanna :thumbsup:
Progress may be slow, but it's happening....You've got more patience than I do at least. So the firefish in yet? Honeslty, Troub, in 10 years, I've only ever dealt with 2 instances of fish disease outbreaks, since I never QT. It all varies on the type of fish, IMO. Never seen a sick wrasse or damsel personally.
I've no clue about wood staining, since I'm lazy and got my stands laminated
Things are coming together, Troub :thumbsup:
Progress may be slow, but it's happening....You've got more patience than I do at least. So the firefish in yet? Honeslty, Troub, in 10 years, I've only ever dealt with 2 instances of fish disease outbreaks, since I never QT. It all varies on the type of fish, IMO. Never seen a sick wrasse or damsel personally.
I've no clue about wood staining, since I'm lazy and got my stands laminated
Things are coming together, Troub :thumbsup:
troubadour11
Member
All righty. Here's a quick update of what I messed with yesterday...
- Here's the ugliness - FTS -
- and a close up -
-
- Hey Buzz and Neil... Say CHEESE!!!! -
- I built some new screen tops for inside my canopy! Does anybody know what this means!?!? -
-
- Here are some POST siphoning pictures. I followed the recommendation to try and siphon as much of the cyano as I could. I took a 5 gallon bucket and siphoned about 3-4 gallons at a time through a filter sock and then dumped the filtered water back into the sump. I did this 3 or 4 times.
- I also tossed the 1/2 cup of GFO I had put in at the beginning of the month and added a freshly rinsed cup.
-
-
- And we will hit our picture limit with one last shot. Here are the Rics enjoying the tank as it settles out after the cleaning. -
- Here's the ugliness - FTS -
- and a close up -
-
- Hey Buzz and Neil... Say CHEESE!!!! -
- I built some new screen tops for inside my canopy! Does anybody know what this means!?!? -
-
- Here are some POST siphoning pictures. I followed the recommendation to try and siphon as much of the cyano as I could. I took a 5 gallon bucket and siphoned about 3-4 gallons at a time through a filter sock and then dumped the filtered water back into the sump. I did this 3 or 4 times.
- I also tossed the 1/2 cup of GFO I had put in at the beginning of the month and added a freshly rinsed cup.
-
-
- And we will hit our picture limit with one last shot. Here are the Rics enjoying the tank as it settles out after the cleaning. -
troubadour11
Member
Now to see if you guessd what those screen tops meant!? :thumbsup:
:eek2:
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/E8LRBRWk6BE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EHQYVPjwUds" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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:dance::thumbsup::beer::bounce1::smokin:
Oh. And the screen tops already came in handy. It jumped and bounced off them already once when I stood up to walk away from the tank. Glad I built them!
The fish was awesome, out chilling in the current and exploring the whole tank! Then the lights went out. We haven't seen much of him since. We saw his nose peaking out of a cave area back by the overflow this morning. But he didn't come out when the lights came on.
Right now I turned the lights off for a bit. I'm going to shorten the hours by a lot that I'm running them. At least for the sort term. Maybe try to starve out some more of the cyano after siphoning and adding in the fresh cup of GFO.
:eek2:
<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/E8LRBRWk6BE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EHQYVPjwUds" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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<iframe width="1280" height="720" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/c6e0R9X-v1k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
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:dance::thumbsup::beer::bounce1::smokin:
Oh. And the screen tops already came in handy. It jumped and bounced off them already once when I stood up to walk away from the tank. Glad I built them!
The fish was awesome, out chilling in the current and exploring the whole tank! Then the lights went out. We haven't seen much of him since. We saw his nose peaking out of a cave area back by the overflow this morning. But he didn't come out when the lights came on.
Right now I turned the lights off for a bit. I'm going to shorten the hours by a lot that I'm running them. At least for the sort term. Maybe try to starve out some more of the cyano after siphoning and adding in the fresh cup of GFO.
troubadour11
Member
I've got some sweet news!!!
I just got done re-testing all of my drivers for my LEDs. It was a tedious process... but I'm happy to report that all 4 drivers are set up to their specific LED string and can dim 11%-100% and each string maxes out at 680mA!!!
:celeb3:We're going to be partying under some disco lights on my reef soon!:celeb3:
Now, if I can get this stain to match (the LFS is calling the cabinet maker to see what wood he used and if he treated it before/after staining). So hopefully I should be able to match that up this week. Because once the canopy is stained, these lights are going in!!! SQUEEK!!! :lmao:
At least we have a fish in there now though! I dropped a little food in about an hour ago because I had only seen him peek out of a cave all day. He came out and swam around some before going back to hide. :fish1:
I just got done re-testing all of my drivers for my LEDs. It was a tedious process... but I'm happy to report that all 4 drivers are set up to their specific LED string and can dim 11%-100% and each string maxes out at 680mA!!!
:celeb3:We're going to be partying under some disco lights on my reef soon!:celeb3:
Now, if I can get this stain to match (the LFS is calling the cabinet maker to see what wood he used and if he treated it before/after staining). So hopefully I should be able to match that up this week. Because once the canopy is stained, these lights are going in!!! SQUEEK!!! :lmao:
At least we have a fish in there now though! I dropped a little food in about an hour ago because I had only seen him peek out of a cave all day. He came out and swam around some before going back to hide. :fish1:
Bello
New member
First off..........yaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy
I just saw your first post last night, and was wondering "Is he finally gonna put the fish in?" or did he misplace his fly swatter ?
Good work on the cover, looks pretty slick. I may have to do one like that for one of my excess tanks. Did you DIY it or got it custom? Fits like a bloody glove, I'm jealous :thumbsup:
Good job on the cyano, it helps :thumbsup:. Still need to get that kit though :deadhorse:, and since your ric is looking spiffy, he needs company...Neil and Buzz are bored. Time you added more life 
. Get a couple cheapo pieces, brown or whatever....doesn't matter right now.
Good going on the lights :thumbsup: :blown:
I just saw your first post last night, and was wondering "Is he finally gonna put the fish in?" or did he misplace his fly swatter ?
Good work on the cover, looks pretty slick. I may have to do one like that for one of my excess tanks. Did you DIY it or got it custom? Fits like a bloody glove, I'm jealous :thumbsup:
Good job on the cyano, it helps :thumbsup:. Still need to get that kit though :deadhorse:, and since your ric is looking spiffy, he needs company...Neil and Buzz are bored
. Time you added more life . Get a couple cheapo pieces, brown or whatever....doesn't matter right now.Good going on the lights :thumbsup: :blown:
troubadour11
Member
YAAAAAAAY!!!! So far so good on the Firefish. It's been hiding in a little dug out cave it made between the overflow and the back of my rocks :thumbdown: LOL Basically right where you can't see it at all.
But at least it's in there and alive :thumbsup: He came out yesterday for about 1/2 hour when we put some food in.
And those screen tops I did it myself. They were super easy! I picked up a screen kit from Home Depot over here. It had 4 long lengths of frame with the spline already in the groove and 4 corner pieces. I grabbed a spline roller, some gray fiberglass screen, and 4 extra corners.
Other then that, I did use my miter saw to cut the frame. I opted to use that for ease of use, but a hacksaw or anything would work. I pulled the spline out of the track, measured the inside lip of the tank frame, subtracted 1.5 inches (for the corner brackets) and cut just a smidgeon short of that length.
No problem... if you can build a rats nest LED light that grows your awesome corals, then I'm sure you can handle a screen top! :strooper:
The one thing I did notice after completion that might have been a good modification. I cut the front to back length of the screen tops to be an exact fit light the width. I didn't think about running powerhead cables through anywhere. I might have cut the front to back lengths an 1/8th inch shorter, just so there was a slight gap for things like that or to slide it and fit my fingers in to pick it up.
But it still works just fine. The screens just sit on the power cables and there's no issue. And I can always glue a little plastic piece on as a handle to pick it up.
Hopefully we'll slowly start to win the cyano battle. I'm worried about fueling it with fish food now though. But that is why I raised up to 1 cup fresh GFO and tried to siphon it off some before adding the Firefish. Will keeping the lights off on the tank help at all with the cyano?
And yes... I need to be able to test for PO4 :deadhorse: But I might be spending just a bit more money to finish up these lights and so I have to pick and choose where the $ goes right now. I just finished up my contract and am looking for new work. So I have time to get work done, but limited $ to accomplish upgrades. But I'll get there :hmm2:
I think we're heading to the LFS in a day or two. :spin1: My lovely wife cleaned out and dried the 10 gallon QT and all the equipment. SOOooOOooOOOo... I'm going to run some new water so it's ready to accept a new fish in the QT. I've had a filter pad floating and establishing in my sump since we started QT on the Firefish.
So we're definitely going to be getting something new (probably). I think we're set on what fishy we're looking to add next. That's really what the trip is for. But who knows what will be in their frag tanks. As you mentioned, we'd like to get another color of Ric down there on that rock. My wife really wants to add a "mo-hawk" of some other crazy Zoa color down the middle of her back Zoa rock garden. So we may look at what they have in that department. And maybe see what else...
I just don't know if we have anywhere near enough light to keep any type of SPS healthy right now. I'm hardly seeing any green algae at all. We scrap the glass of brownish algae once a week or so. And we have plenty of cyano. But I'm guessing our water conditions are still a bit off. I really was not happy with my Ca, Mg, Alk readings when I took them last weekend. I still need to test a barrel of fresh mixed salt water to "calibrate" my testing ability. But I haven't done a large water change since last time. It seemed like my cyano issue kind of doubled down and got worse after the water change.?.
I've got a couple thoughts... I probably should look into getting limewater going in my ATO. That may help with my Alk and Ca. Mg has more or less been testing in line. Anywhere from 1200-1400 typically. So it goes up a down slightly, but I feel like I'm always testing in the 6.2ish range for Alk and the low 300's for Ca.
Next time I get salt, I'm also thinking about buying 1 Red Sea Regular and 1 Red Sea Coral Pro and mixing them 50/50. Since I feel I'm constantly low on Ca and Alk, maybe it's best for my system right now to mix my salt water with slightly elevated levels? Based off the numbers on the side of their buckets, a 50/50 mix should give me Alk around mid 9's if I remember correctly.
Then again, I don't want to drastically change to many parameters. I'm expecting things to go out of wack with the new fish in there and these lights (hopefully) going up soon!
Do any of you use dimming signals for things other then lighting? On my lighting side, I'm still finalizing the rest of the set up. The plan has always been to get the dimming expansion for my Reef Angel. I currently have 2 PWM signal slots... the expansion adds 6 additional dimming slots. However, those 6 slots can be my choice of signal. 0-5V Analog/PWM or 0-10V Analog/PWM.
We want 4 PWM slots for my current LED build... then we could use 1 or 2 slots possibly for moonlights at some point (or a 3rd similar light fixture if we upgrade tanks ever, or add a driver to each of my current fixtures because I have 12 open LED spots on each heat sink). So we could potentially count 6 slots for LED lighting I think. What could I use the other 2 dimming slots for... and what type of signal would be a good choice in your opinion?
I do have an R2 Solutions 36" Blue LED fixture from my old freshwater set up. I was thinking I could mount this up high in the canopy and it would make an acceptable moonlight to start. But I'd like to dim it. They used to sell an R2 Moonlight Controller that got poor reviews and is mostly listed as "discontinued." But if it was as easy as picking up the correct driver and splicing the =/- to the power cord... could I easily get a nice dimmable moonlight for the cost of a driver. Any ideas on how to accomplish this? It only has 1 plug port on the fixture where the power cord goes in. I know it's a 12v DC power supply.
Otherwise, if it's not easy to hook that up to a dimmer... then I might just add a small blue/uv circuit to my current set up as moonlights down the line. I could always set the 36"R2 up on a timer without dimming it and upgrade to dimmable in the future. But it'd be cool to set it up on a dimmer that mimics the moonlight cycle :inlove:
WOAH!!!! I hope you enjoyed the 1st draft of my book! See what happens when I'm off work and doing this over a cup of coffee in the morning. Ramble, ramble, ramble... ramble... ramble... More COFFEE!!! :thumbsup:
But at least it's in there and alive :thumbsup: He came out yesterday for about 1/2 hour when we put some food in.
And those screen tops I did it myself. They were super easy! I picked up a screen kit from Home Depot over here. It had 4 long lengths of frame with the spline already in the groove and 4 corner pieces. I grabbed a spline roller, some gray fiberglass screen, and 4 extra corners.
Other then that, I did use my miter saw to cut the frame. I opted to use that for ease of use, but a hacksaw or anything would work. I pulled the spline out of the track, measured the inside lip of the tank frame, subtracted 1.5 inches (for the corner brackets) and cut just a smidgeon short of that length.
No problem... if you can build a rats nest LED light that grows your awesome corals, then I'm sure you can handle a screen top! :strooper:
The one thing I did notice after completion that might have been a good modification. I cut the front to back length of the screen tops to be an exact fit light the width. I didn't think about running powerhead cables through anywhere. I might have cut the front to back lengths an 1/8th inch shorter, just so there was a slight gap for things like that or to slide it and fit my fingers in to pick it up.
But it still works just fine. The screens just sit on the power cables and there's no issue. And I can always glue a little plastic piece on as a handle to pick it up.
Hopefully we'll slowly start to win the cyano battle. I'm worried about fueling it with fish food now though. But that is why I raised up to 1 cup fresh GFO and tried to siphon it off some before adding the Firefish. Will keeping the lights off on the tank help at all with the cyano?
And yes... I need to be able to test for PO4 :deadhorse: But I might be spending just a bit more money to finish up these lights and so I have to pick and choose where the $ goes right now. I just finished up my contract and am looking for new work. So I have time to get work done, but limited $ to accomplish upgrades. But I'll get there :hmm2:
I think we're heading to the LFS in a day or two. :spin1: My lovely wife cleaned out and dried the 10 gallon QT and all the equipment. SOOooOOooOOOo... I'm going to run some new water so it's ready to accept a new fish in the QT. I've had a filter pad floating and establishing in my sump since we started QT on the Firefish.
So we're definitely going to be getting something new (probably). I think we're set on what fishy we're looking to add next. That's really what the trip is for. But who knows what will be in their frag tanks. As you mentioned, we'd like to get another color of Ric down there on that rock. My wife really wants to add a "mo-hawk" of some other crazy Zoa color down the middle of her back Zoa rock garden. So we may look at what they have in that department. And maybe see what else...
I just don't know if we have anywhere near enough light to keep any type of SPS healthy right now. I'm hardly seeing any green algae at all. We scrap the glass of brownish algae once a week or so. And we have plenty of cyano. But I'm guessing our water conditions are still a bit off. I really was not happy with my Ca, Mg, Alk readings when I took them last weekend. I still need to test a barrel of fresh mixed salt water to "calibrate" my testing ability. But I haven't done a large water change since last time. It seemed like my cyano issue kind of doubled down and got worse after the water change.?.
I've got a couple thoughts... I probably should look into getting limewater going in my ATO. That may help with my Alk and Ca. Mg has more or less been testing in line. Anywhere from 1200-1400 typically. So it goes up a down slightly, but I feel like I'm always testing in the 6.2ish range for Alk and the low 300's for Ca.
Next time I get salt, I'm also thinking about buying 1 Red Sea Regular and 1 Red Sea Coral Pro and mixing them 50/50. Since I feel I'm constantly low on Ca and Alk, maybe it's best for my system right now to mix my salt water with slightly elevated levels? Based off the numbers on the side of their buckets, a 50/50 mix should give me Alk around mid 9's if I remember correctly.
Then again, I don't want to drastically change to many parameters. I'm expecting things to go out of wack with the new fish in there and these lights (hopefully) going up soon!
Do any of you use dimming signals for things other then lighting? On my lighting side, I'm still finalizing the rest of the set up. The plan has always been to get the dimming expansion for my Reef Angel. I currently have 2 PWM signal slots... the expansion adds 6 additional dimming slots. However, those 6 slots can be my choice of signal. 0-5V Analog/PWM or 0-10V Analog/PWM.
We want 4 PWM slots for my current LED build... then we could use 1 or 2 slots possibly for moonlights at some point (or a 3rd similar light fixture if we upgrade tanks ever, or add a driver to each of my current fixtures because I have 12 open LED spots on each heat sink). So we could potentially count 6 slots for LED lighting I think. What could I use the other 2 dimming slots for... and what type of signal would be a good choice in your opinion?
I do have an R2 Solutions 36" Blue LED fixture from my old freshwater set up. I was thinking I could mount this up high in the canopy and it would make an acceptable moonlight to start. But I'd like to dim it. They used to sell an R2 Moonlight Controller that got poor reviews and is mostly listed as "discontinued." But if it was as easy as picking up the correct driver and splicing the =/- to the power cord... could I easily get a nice dimmable moonlight for the cost of a driver. Any ideas on how to accomplish this? It only has 1 plug port on the fixture where the power cord goes in. I know it's a 12v DC power supply.
Otherwise, if it's not easy to hook that up to a dimmer... then I might just add a small blue/uv circuit to my current set up as moonlights down the line. I could always set the 36"R2 up on a timer without dimming it and upgrade to dimmable in the future. But it'd be cool to set it up on a dimmer that mimics the moonlight cycle :inlove:
WOAH!!!! I hope you enjoyed the 1st draft of my book! See what happens when I'm off work and doing this over a cup of coffee in the morning. Ramble, ramble, ramble... ramble... ramble... More COFFEE!!! :thumbsup:
Bello
New member
So the firefish is up and about? Go to the LFS yet? Corals? I think as far as corals are concerned, listen to your wife ..... Mohawk zoas sound good, either way, a couple cheap picks would do well also. What fish you getting this time around?
Excellent work on the screen, looked Custom to me :thumbsup:, Damn, you guys are good with tools. Me?....nevermind
As far as mixing the salt is concerned, I'm not convinced its a good idea. Simply because it may prove to be even more inconsistent than you observe right now. I believe Pro has some powder inserts that take longer to dissolve and I'd guess, that getting the mixed ratios correct would lead to more problems. Better to just get the hang of test kits. If you do go SPS, based on the number of frags/colonies you keep, WC's won't suffice anyway. May as well get the hang of it now :thumbsup:
I've never dosed kalk, so no clue, and you already know that I failed miserably when setting up my dimming...:lol:
BTW, I think you had too much COFFEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
..... Mohawk zoas sound good, either way, a couple cheap picks would do well also. What fish you getting this time around? Excellent work on the screen, looked Custom to me :thumbsup:, Damn, you guys are good with tools. Me?....nevermind
As far as mixing the salt is concerned, I'm not convinced its a good idea. Simply because it may prove to be even more inconsistent than you observe right now. I believe Pro has some powder inserts that take longer to dissolve and I'd guess, that getting the mixed ratios correct would lead to more problems. Better to just get the hang of test kits. If you do go SPS, based on the number of frags/colonies you keep, WC's won't suffice anyway. May as well get the hang of it now :thumbsup:
I've never dosed kalk, so no clue, and you already know that I failed miserably when setting up my dimming...:lol:
BTW, I think you had too much COFFEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
troubadour11
Member
Yeah, the Firefish is staring at me right now from the corner of the tank! Which is cool. Because the lights clicked on about 45 minutes ago and he came out on his own. The last few days, he's stayed hidden until I put food in the tank. Then it came out and explored and stayed out till lights out. But here he is, out and about already today!
It definitely has a little burrow/den behind the rock wall by the overflow. I don't know if you remember back when I was doing the rocks, but I built that little "pistol shrimp condo" section. Where I took a flat shelf rock and put some LR stilts on it to make a burrow with a solid roof right at the sand level. I think it's living back under there. It's dug quite a bit of sand out and is always peaking out from under the back of the rocks.
No work, coffee, and dabbling with my reef day!!! Oh, and I just finished my coffee. So here we go again :headwally:
No LFS yet. I actually think that's today! :celeb3: It will depend what time my wife gets off work this afternoon. But we're hoping to head into our 35 mile away LFS.
HA, If my wife had her way, the tank would be a fully stocked dying reef by now! But I think we could potentially expand our selection on this trip. The mohawk of alternate colored Zoas could be a simple addition. So that is on the radar I think. Same with an alternate color Ric Yuma for that bottom front rock. We always look at the other LPS and SPS too. I bet an LPS would be ok under this lighting if Rics and Zoas are looking good. I want to add one of everything! If my lights were up, I probably would try too :worried:
If I was to add something else, it would have to be something that is a little more tolerant of water conditions and lower light. Do you have a suggestion from your keeping experience for SPS that is a little more hardy and forgiving that I might start with? Lets narrow my selection field a bit to a type of SPS/LPS that would have a better chance of success as I transition the lighting and work on stabilizing the Alk, Ca, and nutrients where we want it.
You never know... maybe I'll come home with something you suggets if it's the right price... :beer:
The whole purpose of the trip though is to find a new fish to get started in QT. I believe the next step on the list that we're looking for will be some type of Shrimp Goby. There's lots of options we have access to. But I think we're planning on a Yellow Watchman Goby. We still aren't sure if we'll do a Yellow Tang or any other all yellow fish. So the YWG might be a good splash of yellow. Either way, we're hoping to end up with a Shrimp/Goby pair in the DT.
And I appreciate the :thumbsup: on the screen tops. It's always nice to hear that my DIY work is up to snuff.
Good thoughts on the salt mix. It was just ideas I was throwing out there and rambling on about it. The simple solution is: :deadhorse: TEST A BARREL OF FRESH MIXED SALT WATER SET TO SG=1.026!!!! :deadhorse: That would answer a lot of questions I bet.
Because if I get close to what I'm testing on the tank... either I have bad salt (but I'm on my 2nd bucket of 3), I have bad tests, or most likely; I can't test worth a crap and everything is about where it should be and I need to give myself a curve on my test results. :headwally: LOL
I don't think there is much to dripping Kalk from what I've read. It seems pretty straight forward and pretty difficult to completely foul up. I was thinking it would be a great way to try and stabilize my systems Ca & Alk demands until the reef is to big and top off water can't keep up with the draw. Which I would guess wouldn't be for a decent amount of time. I thought I'd start with a low amount to see if it registers a difference.
Ok. Now back to the coffee and canopy. Let me hear any of your votes before I head off to the LFS later :beer:
Bello
New member
Good to hear about the firefish, looks like he seems to have settled in nicely :thumbsup:. Lol, I do remember the burrow, a pic of him in there'd be cool.
YWG sounds good, but if you're gonna compare it to a yellow tang...well, then you do know that I have one YT in every tank right? I'm biased :lol:
IMO, pretty much any soft coral/lps would do fine in your system in terms of water quality. You would however, have to remember to be careful in terms of their placement, with respect to light and flow. My 2 cents, low flow/low light is best to begin with... unless you buy a leather type coral....so don't
For sps, I'd recommend you start with an encrusting monti...you know, the rainbow, sunset, superman yadda yadda yadda... they're tough guys :thumbsup:
With salt, I don't remember when I last tested newly mixed saltwater, but I doubt they matched the figures exactly as advertised on the box.... think it was a 10% difference, not a big deal.
Everything else sounds good, so remember, be a good husband and let your wife buy whatever she wants :lol: :blown:
YWG sounds good, but if you're gonna compare it to a yellow tang...well, then you do know that I have one YT in every tank right? I'm biased :lol:
IMO, pretty much any soft coral/lps would do fine in your system in terms of water quality. You would however, have to remember to be careful in terms of their placement, with respect to light and flow. My 2 cents, low flow/low light is best to begin with... unless you buy a leather type coral....so don't
For sps, I'd recommend you start with an encrusting monti...you know, the rainbow, sunset, superman yadda yadda yadda... they're tough guys :thumbsup:
With salt, I don't remember when I last tested newly mixed saltwater, but I doubt they matched the figures exactly as advertised on the box.... think it was a 10% difference, not a big deal.
Everything else sounds good, so remember, be a good husband and let your wife buy whatever she wants :lol:
:blown:troubadour11
Member
I do remember the burrow, a pic of him in there'd be cool.
YWG sounds good, but if you're gonna compare it to a yellow tang...well, then you do know that I have one YT in every tank right? I'm biased :lol:
IMO, pretty much any soft coral/lps would do fine in your system in terms of water quality. You would however, have to remember to be careful in terms of their placement, with respect to light and flow. My 2 cents, low flow/low light is best to begin with... unless you buy a leather type coral....so don't
For sps, I'd recommend you start with an encrusting monti...you know, the rainbow, sunset, superman yadda yadda yadda... they're tough guys :thumbsup:
Everything else sounds good, so remember, be a good husband and let your wife buy whatever she wants :lol:
- I'll grab a pic of where the Firefish is living as best I can next chance I get. It's a tough spot to see, because you can only see the dug out burrow from the back of the tank looking to past the overflow base. But I'll give it a shot.
- Yeah, I'm not comparing the YWG to a YT. But we're not 100% convinced of having one yet. We want 1 or 2 "larger" fish to finish off our tank and I want an algae grazer. But we haven't settled on what it will be in the end. This is where you'll get into abusive PMs with my wife. :-D You say to be "be a good husband" and let her do her thing. But she's the one that isn't convinced on a YT. :debi: LOL. So you and her will have to butt heads on that one. Hahaha.
But in case we don't got with a YT, a YWG will at least be 1 mostly Yellow fish in the tank.
- I've been thinking about adding an LPS now. How about one that stays somewhat compact? Something I could put growing off the vertical left tower towards the side/corner maybe. We are thinking the bottom left of the display will be LPS/shrooms. Maybe 1 or 2 Zoa rock rafts. Then up top on the left and almost all of the right can be SPS style and a clam.
We are keeping the middle/front area for some type of Hammer or Frogspawn or something to mimic an Anemone for the future clowns. So I had tossed around the idea of a Duncan or Trumpet Coral lately. It seems like Trumpet are fairly hardy and typically have shorter sweeper tentacles. So I was thinking that could be a good candidate for that left tower in the corner.
- I'll have to check out some Montis. Do people typically keep encrusting Montis on their own rock so they don't grow out and sting the bases of other corals? Or will they eventually overgrow an entire rock tower if I put one on it? They are still a prime candidate for attaching to the overflow box up top. Because even if they shadow a little when they grow out, we're currently planning LPS on the bottom left of the display. How difficult are they to frag if it starts to overgrow and shadow the bottom of the tank to much? Is that something that can be done in-tank?
Anyway. All good stuff to check out when the wife gets off work today. I'm looking forward to heading in there. :dance:
troubadour11
Member
Ok, ok, ok... :wave:
1.) We got the stain to match! The big dark board is the first try, the little nubbin is my 2nd try. So I can get to building this canopy extension!
... and other things... :-D
2.) I couldn't catch hi in there, but you can kind of see where he's dug out a little pit. Right at the base of the overflow and that rock, the sand level drops about 2 inches as it goes in front of the overflow and under that rock.
- I'll try to get another shot with his head poking out for you.
... and I wonder what ^^^ he's going to think about living there when...
3.) This Yellow Watchman Goby guy moves in!
- That's the best I could get. He's into just hiding by that pipe in the QT for now. Lights out and let it relax for the night.
And to round out the night...
4.) See the spot light about 1/3 of the way up the tower ... can you tell what's there? This is to show you the placement.
- and a little closer... from the recliner beside the tank... dead center...
- and some close-ups...
-
-
-
HOO-RAY!!!! There's more to the reef!!!! I looked at some Monti's and they had some REALLY cool looking Rics. We were about to only get the YWG and a Ric, but decided to go with a different type of coral just for diversity with only a couple pieces. We found this Trumpet and it was opened up more when I bought it at the store. I asked if they had a smaller frag and they didn't. So they knocked $15 bucks off the price if I wanted it. It was looking a little upset after about a 10 minute dip with turkey baster jets in some Revive. Then I popped the frag plug off and glued it to a piece of LR rubble I had in my sump.
For now it's wedged into place there to see how it settles in. I'm very much a noobie when it comes to judging flow and tolerances. So maybe some tips to watch for when it comes to flow whether it's liking it.?.
Anyway... dinner is served :=)
1.) We got the stain to match! The big dark board is the first try, the little nubbin is my 2nd try. So I can get to building this canopy extension!
... and other things... :-D
2.) I couldn't catch hi in there, but you can kind of see where he's dug out a little pit. Right at the base of the overflow and that rock, the sand level drops about 2 inches as it goes in front of the overflow and under that rock.
- I'll try to get another shot with his head poking out for you.
... and I wonder what ^^^ he's going to think about living there when...
3.) This Yellow Watchman Goby guy moves in!
- That's the best I could get. He's into just hiding by that pipe in the QT for now. Lights out and let it relax for the night.
And to round out the night...
4.) See the spot light about 1/3 of the way up the tower ... can you tell what's there? This is to show you the placement.
- and a little closer... from the recliner beside the tank... dead center...
- and some close-ups...
-
-
-
HOO-RAY!!!! There's more to the reef!!!! I looked at some Monti's and they had some REALLY cool looking Rics. We were about to only get the YWG and a Ric, but decided to go with a different type of coral just for diversity with only a couple pieces. We found this Trumpet and it was opened up more when I bought it at the store. I asked if they had a smaller frag and they didn't. So they knocked $15 bucks off the price if I wanted it. It was looking a little upset after about a 10 minute dip with turkey baster jets in some Revive. Then I popped the frag plug off and glued it to a piece of LR rubble I had in my sump.
For now it's wedged into place there to see how it settles in. I'm very much a noobie when it comes to judging flow and tolerances. So maybe some tips to watch for when it comes to flow whether it's liking it.?.
Anyway... dinner is served :=)
biggles
Premium Member
Hey Troub, things are going well i see mate
Those vids of the firefish were cool - always wanted to keep some of those especially the purple ones, have you seen those ones.
The new goby looks great, do you have to put a bowl of sand in there for him to sleep or is that a different fish species i'm thinking of. That cyano is ugly stuff but keep at it and it will be a distant memory. I had it in a DSB tank during the cycling stages so i know how annoying it is and how fast it appears lol.
The shrimp look very active, love those guys. rather than say anything unkind i have chosen not to comment on that last coral. I find it unfair that i always have to be the one to speak up about weird coral purchases so i will leave it to my good mate Bello to critique that thing - don't you lie Bello..........:wave:
Those vids of the firefish were cool - always wanted to keep some of those especially the purple ones, have you seen those ones.
The new goby looks great, do you have to put a bowl of sand in there for him to sleep or is that a different fish species i'm thinking of. That cyano is ugly stuff but keep at it and it will be a distant memory. I had it in a DSB tank during the cycling stages so i know how annoying it is and how fast it appears lol.
The shrimp look very active, love those guys. rather than say anything unkind i have chosen not to comment on that last coral. I find it unfair that i always have to be the one to speak up about weird coral purchases so i will leave it to my good mate Bello to critique that thing - don't you lie Bello..........:wave:
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