troubadour11
Member
And here finally for the day are the few things I've been kicking around lately in regards to my system that I'd be interested in hearing other reefers thoughts on.
If anyone out there has any input or thoughts they'd like to throw my way on one of 3 subjects I'd be interested in ideas discussing ideas on:
1.) dialling in my fuge and carbon dosing and nutrient levels
2.) Your modern lighting thoughts or experiences with brands, mounting, etc. I'm 50/50 whether I want to spend the $$$ to buy the light I've wanted from the start (the one I based my DIY layout off of) or just finish filling in my DIY system and supplementing it with a T5-fill if it needed.
Personally, I'd like to buy now 4-5 years later. But I'm afraid to spend that money on a name-brand fixture that dies in 1.5-2 years just after the warranty expires like I see a lot of. It seems like many heat-sinks and cooling isn't up to standards and some brands are burning out at the 2-3 year mark. I don't have the cash to update a $900-$2000 piece of equipment every 2-3 years for lighting. Hence why in 2010, I researched and decided to DIY my own. Which is still all working perfectly 100% fine. But could use me finishing the build.
What I've learned is I should have filled in the whole heat-sink from the start! Over the years of trial and error and coral losses, I've tracked down that most SPS can only be placed under certain spots (mirrored on each side of tank) where the spectrum is hitting the sweet spot. This is not a par issue as I tested and laid that out long ago. I could have some higher hot spots up near the surface (300-450 par if memory serves me well). But from 1/2 way down my rock-scape to the bottom is perfectly fine par levels. I run DIY (local big-box store standard screen door style) screen tops I built. So that cuts the upper par levels quite a bit as well. Also, I needed to hang my fixtures up higher. 8 inches or so that I have room for in my canopy isn't enough to get proper spectrum blending. I could maybe solve this by removing my 90 degree optics or raising the fixture. I would first like to raise up the fixture to ~15 inches, finish filling in the heat-sinks with diodes, then recheck par with optics on and optics off to compare what levels I can hit in the tank and the blending of the light. (lights will always be in some type of canopy). Which should work, but requires time & energy from me which is what I'm short on now with a family. So light buying or finishing building is a required part of the 120 upgrade.
3.) Then typical brainstorming conversation for a transfer/upgrade: "If you were building a system out again... what would you want to do different or do "right"?
- The stand / canopy / light rack system? -
Both in the style or look-of category and practical reefing functionality of them. What ideas do you have for improving things there if any? This will probably be a major expense and focal point in the upgrade. I want to turn it into a show-piece in our living room from a hodge-podge collection of inexpensive sale items that don't quite fit together. Depending on the estimates I get back, I will either be building or commissioning a cabinet maker for this. So call out your dream stand/canopy features you always wished you had on your systems.
- Plumbing design -
I originally set it all up with see-through braided tubing. This was supposed to be temporary for a few months to a year while I was cycling my system. It's still the same... lol
- Everything generally will be hard plumbed in 120 transfer in the modern "correct" fashion. I'll probably be over-using unions to help facilitate the design changes to the plumbing. Hopefully this will allow me to start building out some parts of the hard plumbing on the system now while it's running. I'll first set up the start of any hard-plumbs to a union with the correct size hose barb. Then I can switch my current running hoses over to them. I'll plumb the transfer back through the wall (in a new spot) to barbed unions. Then on transfer day it's get the main tank moved and circulating with the powerheads; then into the closet, drain/clean/reposition filtration & do the final short hard-plumb runs to connect the unions and remove the hose barb ends.
- although since I live in a heavy and "active" earthquake zone, I've considered leaving short 1 or 2 foot section of black vinyl hose bridging the hard plumbs to any fixed point (through the wall or to the sump). Anyone feel there's validity to doing this? Or I don't need to worry about the tank being connected hard from the bottom bulk-head ---> to the wall ---> to the sump in an earthquake. I guess my worry isn't anything moving so to speak. But torquing enough to crack a pipe or fitting and causing a blow out or leaking on the runs outside of the tanks.
The places I expect to spend $ on for the update. Stand/Canopy - Plumbing - Lighting. Outside of those areas, the gear is in good order I think. A long way off may be a controller update. But I have that covered and running for now. So it's the feather in the cap update if it ever happens. And really, the only reason for a controller update is so I don't have to spend time writing my own code any more. I've run short on DIY time with the Family. Now I think I need to buck up and spend the money in the right spots after learning to manage a reef system.
So there you have it. I think you really are all caught up outside of any pics now!
Please chime in and join the conversation. I only get the 1 chance to do it right when upgrading to the 120.
If anyone out there has any input or thoughts they'd like to throw my way on one of 3 subjects I'd be interested in ideas discussing ideas on:
1.) dialling in my fuge and carbon dosing and nutrient levels
- I originally started carbon dosing because I started out with dry-rock,sand,etc. A pretty sterile system and was having trouble sustaining my inhabitants and keep nutrients in the ideal / stable range. Carbon dosing definitely helped me up my bacterial load and stabilize my system in the first few years and I feel it was useful, helped with less parameter swings as I learned, and still is a useful tool that I'm glad I have a general understanding of.
- Since then, my tank has matured over the last few years and I'm not sure if carbon dosing is still needed. At least all the time, or if it is... maybe in a MUCH lower dosing program then I am currently running.
- Now that the over-all system is more mature. I feel cutting back the carbon source and slowly letting my cheato bin take over is the better option. And this was always my initial plan and goal long term.
- And my reasoning behind this is A.) system is mature with bacterial count and no longer establishing. In fact, I may have hit an old-tank-syndrome style cycle recently with it considering my filter lapse. Right now I seem to be going through the same ugly phase I went through when initially starting to carbon dose. B.) a 1 pint ball of cheato grew to 3-5 times the amount in 3 months of a new fuge-brute-barrel. Now at the 4-5 month mark, the outer portion of the cheato is starting to pale and die-off pretty quickly. Hence I feel my carbon dosing has reached a balance of driving back towards ULN and the cheato up-take.
- Now I think I'd like to start dropping my carbon source some and letting the cheato really take off.
- a side note to this method talk. In the re-design to the 120-DT, I will be splitting my fuge from the 75 gallon tank (being removed) with DSB and raised rock work growing macro over to a 20gal brute cheto fuge AND a 45gal brute cryptic fuge. This is being done because I want to split out my lit macro filtration system from my excess rock/sand filtration system. Combining the 2 concepts worked, but led to really inconsistent cleaning and functionality as the macros would clog up the one tank, etc, etc.
- This is also another reason I feel my carbon dosing regime will be slowing potentially. If I can process primarily with the cheato barrel that would be the preferred goal. A small amount of carbon could still be useful to establishing the crypitc fuge. Once that is changed over, my hope is the cryptic fuge will replace the carbon as food source for the DT via sponge growth, reproduction, etc. Maybe a carbon source will be kept to help feed and grow this area if needed or to establish it. But I'm hoping in the long run, the established split fuge fills the void without the needed addition of carbon. And then I can keep the carbon dosing in my back-pocket in case the fuge collapses or I need to drive nutrients levels back down for some reason.
2.) Your modern lighting thoughts or experiences with brands, mounting, etc. I'm 50/50 whether I want to spend the $$$ to buy the light I've wanted from the start (the one I based my DIY layout off of) or just finish filling in my DIY system and supplementing it with a T5-fill if it needed.
Personally, I'd like to buy now 4-5 years later. But I'm afraid to spend that money on a name-brand fixture that dies in 1.5-2 years just after the warranty expires like I see a lot of. It seems like many heat-sinks and cooling isn't up to standards and some brands are burning out at the 2-3 year mark. I don't have the cash to update a $900-$2000 piece of equipment every 2-3 years for lighting. Hence why in 2010, I researched and decided to DIY my own. Which is still all working perfectly 100% fine. But could use me finishing the build.
What I've learned is I should have filled in the whole heat-sink from the start! Over the years of trial and error and coral losses, I've tracked down that most SPS can only be placed under certain spots (mirrored on each side of tank) where the spectrum is hitting the sweet spot. This is not a par issue as I tested and laid that out long ago. I could have some higher hot spots up near the surface (300-450 par if memory serves me well). But from 1/2 way down my rock-scape to the bottom is perfectly fine par levels. I run DIY (local big-box store standard screen door style) screen tops I built. So that cuts the upper par levels quite a bit as well. Also, I needed to hang my fixtures up higher. 8 inches or so that I have room for in my canopy isn't enough to get proper spectrum blending. I could maybe solve this by removing my 90 degree optics or raising the fixture. I would first like to raise up the fixture to ~15 inches, finish filling in the heat-sinks with diodes, then recheck par with optics on and optics off to compare what levels I can hit in the tank and the blending of the light. (lights will always be in some type of canopy). Which should work, but requires time & energy from me which is what I'm short on now with a family. So light buying or finishing building is a required part of the 120 upgrade.
3.) Then typical brainstorming conversation for a transfer/upgrade: "If you were building a system out again... what would you want to do different or do "right"?
- The stand / canopy / light rack system? -
Both in the style or look-of category and practical reefing functionality of them. What ideas do you have for improving things there if any? This will probably be a major expense and focal point in the upgrade. I want to turn it into a show-piece in our living room from a hodge-podge collection of inexpensive sale items that don't quite fit together. Depending on the estimates I get back, I will either be building or commissioning a cabinet maker for this. So call out your dream stand/canopy features you always wished you had on your systems.
- a note to remember for my build. I've got the sump/fuge/filtration/ato in the remote closet. I keep stuff like food/tests/ BBS hachery / 10 gal QT under my stand currently.
- Plumbing design -
I originally set it all up with see-through braided tubing. This was supposed to be temporary for a few months to a year while I was cycling my system. It's still the same... lol
- Everything generally will be hard plumbed in 120 transfer in the modern "correct" fashion. I'll probably be over-using unions to help facilitate the design changes to the plumbing. Hopefully this will allow me to start building out some parts of the hard plumbing on the system now while it's running. I'll first set up the start of any hard-plumbs to a union with the correct size hose barb. Then I can switch my current running hoses over to them. I'll plumb the transfer back through the wall (in a new spot) to barbed unions. Then on transfer day it's get the main tank moved and circulating with the powerheads; then into the closet, drain/clean/reposition filtration & do the final short hard-plumb runs to connect the unions and remove the hose barb ends.
- although since I live in a heavy and "active" earthquake zone, I've considered leaving short 1 or 2 foot section of black vinyl hose bridging the hard plumbs to any fixed point (through the wall or to the sump). Anyone feel there's validity to doing this? Or I don't need to worry about the tank being connected hard from the bottom bulk-head ---> to the wall ---> to the sump in an earthquake. I guess my worry isn't anything moving so to speak. But torquing enough to crack a pipe or fitting and causing a blow out or leaking on the runs outside of the tanks.
The places I expect to spend $ on for the update. Stand/Canopy - Plumbing - Lighting. Outside of those areas, the gear is in good order I think. A long way off may be a controller update. But I have that covered and running for now. So it's the feather in the cap update if it ever happens. And really, the only reason for a controller update is so I don't have to spend time writing my own code any more. I've run short on DIY time with the Family. Now I think I need to buck up and spend the money in the right spots after learning to manage a reef system.
So there you have it. I think you really are all caught up outside of any pics now!
Please chime in and join the conversation. I only get the 1 chance to do it right when upgrading to the 120.
