Barely made the club but time for my 180 upgrade (Warning: Progress may be slow)

[nightOwl]

General - Updates

Water Testing - New Tank

I got my water test back and seems I am still in the cycle. I went ahead and had them test for more than just ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. Below are the results. So far I have only performed one 20 gallon water change with the new tank since 4/6 so other levels seem pretty low. I have only been topping off the water with RODI so I am wondering where I am getting the phosphate from so early.

New Tank
Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 50+ ppm
Nitrate = 8 ppm
Alkalinity = 2.4
Calcium = 384
Phosphate = 0.10
Magnesium = 1110


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Apex

I sent the display unit back to Curt to have them upgrade the firmware as I was having some issues. They should have received it yesterday. Right now the whole system is dead in the water. I am running it the old fashioned way with just a power strip. While trying to clean up my modules I deleted the wrong module and now it is not a happy camper. I feel so archaic having used a controller on my larger tanks for so long. As I was trying to configure things I am running into cases where there is functionality that is available on the display, but not on the web interface. I find this to be very annoying and frustrating. I.E. not being able to change the administrator credentials, changing clock format from 12 to 24, reset the system, etc. I was thinking that I would be able to free myself from making adjustments at the tank but I am finding out that is not the case.
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New Kid - UV Sterilizer

There are boxes and then there are boxes. When I arrived home on Friday I thought I had ordered a mini rocket launcher by looking at the size of the box. The packing was pretty good and I am awaiting a couple of questions to be answered by Emperor Aquatics before I install the unit. The unit ships with a bushing that reduces the input down to 3/4" before the busing is installed it has a 1-1/2" input and output. This thing is huge! The measurements are 43.75" x 3.5". I have not decided where I will mount it. I am thinking redoing my plumbing and putting it on the back of the tank plumbed in with the return.

Hopefully this will keep ich and algae outbreaks at bay during the new tank start up. I never like any of them in the first place .

UV

What's in the Box

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VHO Installation - Main tank - Complete

So I finally got around to completing the addition of VHO and moonlights to my lighting rig. I am loving the rivet gun. I had to order some new cords so I placed an order on Sat and the should be here Friday.

Rivet Gun

Rivets

Initial Wiring

VHOs Installed

Moon Lights

Moon Light Holder

Moon Light Installed

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[nightOwl]

I had too many pictures for one update so here is part two.

General Updates- Frag Tank

Lighting Rig - Frag tank

My new area in HD is the aluminum section. I brought a couple of pieces of aluminum came home and did a few quick sketches and created a new lighting rig. The lighting rig is 40" x 18" and will hold a ARO ballast, 250W spider reflector, and two VHO's. I may eventually create a reflector but for now this will work. The next part is deciding how to mount it.

Aluminum Parts Cut

Quick Link

Eye Bolt

Empty Rig

Dry fit Without VHOs

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Wiring

I also finally got around to wiring the sockets that will be controlled by the controller for the frag tank. My tank not set up and I am already out of sockets...LOL. I will have to buy a new EB8 soon. The new cords that should be here friday will allow me to finish the wiring for the 6 individual sockets.

Sockets

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[nightOwl]

General Updates - Apex

One of my "kids" returned home after a stint in rehab...LOL. Welcome home Apex Display...hopefully he has put crapping out after a power failure behind him! Within 5 minutes I had resolved the issue of none of my outlets showing up. The Apex is now back to my good graces :spin1:. I did not have much time to play around with it last night but hopefully this week I can find some time to actually program a few outlets.​

General Updates - Wiring Frag Tank

Last Friday my cords arrived for the frag tanks individual outlets, Moonlights, and two VHO ballasts. I was not able to play with the frag tank this past weekend (Mother's Day ). Last night however I was able to finish wiring the 6 individual outlets for the frag tank. Using butt splices and shrink wrap is time consuming but should be fine around water now.

New Cords

Butt Splices

Shrink Tubing

General Updates - Tank Cycling Complete!!!!

I had my water tested on Friday to make sure all my levels were fine and thanks to the bottle of Nite-Out-II the process was painless. Nite-Out-II basically accelerates the process by adding beneficial bacteria to your tank. I had used the product once before and I am glad the results are the same. While at the LFS I picked up some live sand to add some diversity to the tank.


New Tank
Ammonia = 0 ppm
Nitrite = 0 ppm
Nitrate = 0 ppm

Description from website

"Nite-Out IIâ„¢ acts within a day or two to lower ammonia nitrogen and nitrite nitrogen levels naturally. Specially formulated to eliminate ammonia via a natural biologic process. Nite-Out IIâ„¢ is a liquid nitrifying bacteria additive that contains select strains of nitrosomonas, nitrobacter, and nitrospira. Nitrosomonas convert ammonia to nitrite while nitrospira and nitrobacter convert nitrite to nitrate, thus making the ammonia less toxic to your fish and other aquarium inhabitants."​

Nite-Out-II

Live Sand

General Updates - New Kids on the way

Since I am out of outlets even before I started I ordered another EB8. My single 250 watt heater was not keeping the temp in the tank up so I ordered a new heater as well. I probably would have put some fish in Monday but the temperature was 74 degrees . I ordered a 500 watt titanium heater this go around. While I was at it I also ordered a breakout box, Apex to Stream cable, and two Tunze 6055's. I plan to put the Tunze's behind the rock along the back wall to get some more random flow in the tank. Oh yea all of this should arrive tomorrow or Thursday.

First schedule fish arrival may be next Tues . I want to get the light schedule down and make sure the temp stays consistent.​

 

[dahenley]

on your previous test, it shows that your ALK is 2. something...
was that in a different measurement or its actually 2 dkh?

and what salt did you use if its that low? just curious.
thanks

(how do you like the new dart/snapper hybrid? just as quiet? any pos or negatives at this point in time?
thanks
david

 

[nightOwl]

on your previous test, it shows that your ALK is 2. something...
was that in a different measurement or its actually 2 dkh?

and what salt did you use if its that low? just curious.
thanks

(how do you like the new dart/snapper hybrid? just as quiet? any pos or negatives at this point in time?
thanks
david

dahenley,
It may have been really low. I will test the levels this week if I get a chance. A couple of issues may have contributed to the low numbers. I added salt on 4/6 and since that date I think I may have performed one water change the rest of the time I just added fresh water. That would be almost a month with no additional suppliments or water changes. Also initially when I mixed the salt water the salinity was low as my main tank needed a water change . I use Instant Ocean Reef Crystals and my main display never that low. The tank also no have a lighting schedule .

The new dart/snapper hybrid is still in the corner. I have yet to install it. I plan on doing the install when I install the UV sterilizer. I picked up some plumbing parts for that yesterday. Once I have it installed I will report back. Anything at this point has got to be quieter than my existing pump.

 

[BowieReefer84]

Henry, why do you take your water to the store to get tested, and not do it yourself? Do they do it for free?

I have been focusing on getting a good set of test kits together. I am happy with the salifert for Nitrate, Mag, and Alk. I use api for calcium, but I don't test that nearly as much as Alk.

BUT, I recently picked up a ULR Phosphorus HANNA Checker, and it is amazing! It is extremely accurate and measures in PPB. You can convert the phosphorus reading to phosphate with a quick calculation. The reason I mention this is b/c my nitrates are <5, but I just tested phosphate, and I am at .103 which is HIGH. I am going to start some GFO slowly.

Not trying to jack your thread here, just trying to get an understanding of the tests you run?

 

[nightOwl]

Henry, why do you take your water to the store to get tested, and not do it yourself? Do they do it for free?

I have been focusing on getting a good set of test kits together. I am happy with the salifert for Nitrate, Mag, and Alk. I use api for calcium, but I don't test that nearly as much as Alk.

BUT, I recently picked up a ULR Phosphorus HANNA Checker, and it is amazing! It is extremely accurate and measures in PPB. You can convert the phosphorus reading to phosphate with a quick calculation. The reason I mention this is b/c my nitrates are <5, but I just tested phosphate, and I am at .103 which is HIGH. I am going to start some GFO slowly.

Not trying to jack your thread here, just trying to get an understanding of the tests you run?

Mike,
You are not jacking my thread at all. I carried the water to the store to get it tested since I did not have any Nitrate, Nitrite, or Ammonia test kits that had not expired. The testing is not free but cheaper than me buying the kits that I do not use often . After a tank cycles I hardly check for Ammonia or Nitrite. My Nitrate kit had expired a while back. The kits I do keep on hand are Alk, Mg, Calcium and I also have the Hanna Phosphate checker. I love the Hanna product. I test with Salifert as I find them to be pretty reliable. Since I was at the LFS I had them test all my levels. From from time to time I let them test so I can gauge how far off my kits are. I guess for Nitrates I don't test that often as I can tell the they are high depending on the color of some of my corals. Alk, Mg, and Calcium I test frequently . I am always fine tuning the dosage of these based on my corals needs. I find that as my caps grow bigger my Alk levels drop pretty fast.

dahenley - I will perform the water test and install the new pump before Tuesday of next week. Sorry for the delay on this.


General Updates - Apex, New Pumps, UV Sterilizer

Apex
The Apex is configured and seems to be working fine. There is still some fine tuning to do but the heavy lifting is now over I think. I have to update the new EB8 I added for the frag tank with new outlet names. I went through and renamed all other outlets and started modifying the profiles for the Tunzes. I am pretty sure everyone knows about this user guide but just in case they don't I highly recommend using "The Unofficial New User Guide". This may the best thing I have seen in a while. This will have your Apex up and going quickly.

Tunze 6055's
Neptune is drop shipping my Breakout Box and Tunze to Apex cable so I was not able to configure the to new 6055's. I did however place them in the tank and turned them on to get a feel of how much flow they put out. They rock! To be so small they put out a lot of flow. Currently I have them hidden behind the rocks that are in the center of the tank.

UV Sterilizer
I finally finished installing the UV sterilizer and it passed the mandatory water tests. Basically they have you roll up some paper towels stick them in the chamber where the bulb will go and check for moisture.

General
I installed the heater in the sump. The new heater is much smaller than my old 250 watt heater. I checked the graphs this morning and the heaters are coming on about every 2 hours or so with no lights. I am sure once the MH are actually running it will build up heat fast. Current setup for the heaters is on < 77 off > 77.9. I will keep tweaking as I start to run the lights. The lights are scheduled to come on in a phased approach with the VHO's being on the longest.

Order of lights

• VHO Front and Back
• Center MH
• Right MH
• Left MH

I also started a thread in the reef fish forums for information about the Spotted Bristletooth/Indian Gold Ring Bristletooth (Ctenochaetus truncatus) Tang. I do not see many in tanks and thought it would be a cool bristletooth to have. If anyone has any actual first hand experience with the fish please let me know. I am mainly looking to find out if they maintain there spots and if the blue line around the fins stay as the fish matures.
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[nightOwl]

General Updates - Pictures and more

I forgot to post pictures of my new kids the other day so I am posting them now. I am still waiting on the Breakout box and the Apex to Tunze cable so that I can control the new pumps.


Tunze 6055

EB8

New Heater

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Apex

I was able to configure the remote access of my Apex and several alarms for the tank. I have confirmed that the tank temperature alarms are working very well. Both sent text messages and emails in the wee hours of the morning. So over the weekend there were some adjustments made .
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Reeflo Pump

I installed the new pump and this things is silent! I had to touch it to see if it was on. Now the loudest part of the tank is where the water comes in the sump. I am very happy with the new pump.​

Alk Test

I did not perform a water change on the new tank but was able to perform the Alk test. The levels were not as high as I want them to be but I have lots of time to tweak the levels. My Alk 2.17 and dKH was 6.1.​

Tank Critters

I performed a water change on the old tank and instead of just throwing the filtersock into the filtersock bucket like I normally do I checked it for critters. I was able to put 5 new mini brittle starfish and about 15 amphipods into the new tank. For the next few weeks I will check the filtersock every so often to help seed my new tank.​

Frag Tank

I started working on hanging the lights for the frag tank and ran into an issue with the current outlet placement. I had to relocate the outlets to the framing and will finish the light install sometime this week.​

 

[nightOwl]

General Updates - Critters

I stopped by one of my LFS today and picked up 4 Emerald Crabs. Slowly but surely I will start assembling my clean up crew.
The owner was also gracious enough to give me a bag of pods to help seed the new tank.

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[SPotter]

so cute...i can see the resemblance

 

[nightOwl]

so cute...i can see the resemblance

Yes and one is lighting fast!

 

[nightOwl]

General Updates - Fish Added

And then there were fish!!!!!! My shipment came in today and I received one DOA and by the looks of another one in the tank it will not make it till tomorrow. Looks like a bladder issue for the one that I am expecting to kick the bucket tomorrow. He/she is struggling to stay level and seem to keep floating up. As the lights were going out the others moved away and the fish was left alone. I purchased 8 Glass Cardinals/Threadfin Cardinal/Longspine Cardinalfish (Apogon leptacanthus) and so far they are sticking together except one loner.

The UV is fully installed and working tonight. I also finished my drain strainers to keep the fish from going down them.

Supplemental Feeding

Casualty of shipping

Acclimation

New Kids

The one in the back with the more pronounced strips is the soon to be floater

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[nightOwl]

General Updates - Fish
I checked the tank this morning and I can not find the "floater" I am thinking he may have become fish cakes last night for the crabs. I am not sure if healthy fish can sense a sick fish or not, but last night I noticed the group he/she was with kept trying to swim away. The "loner" has joined the group now so there are 6 healthy looking fish in the tank. No signs of fin damage and no more floaters. In three weeks or so I will move over the other fish. I will try to get the fish to feed on pellets and flakes in the coming weeks as well. The mysis shrimp I fed last night may be a bit large for them so I will need to purchase mini mysis. Each of the remaining fish are about 1" in total length and skinny. A bit smaller than the three I already have so I am hoping there are no issues when I add the existing fish.

 

[Didac]

The tank is coming out nice. I just got the same pump. And I am glad to know the you are happy with pump..

 

[nightOwl]

The tank is coming out nice. I just got the same pump. And I am glad to know the you are happy with pump..

Didac,
Thank you for the compliments and welcome to the build party. The pump is so silent I have to touch it from time to time to make sure its still on.

 

[nightOwl]

General Updates - Fish

Day 3 of fish and the 6 that are left are still looking pretty strong. No signs of ich or major damage to the fins. They are all still thin but seem to have great appetites. I had to reduce the power of the powerheads drastically. The current was too strong for the little group. I could see them working really hard to stay in one place. They are now more comfortable in the tank and have found a spot where the flow is not as heavy. Feeding time is still a little chaotic but I think they will settle in. Only one is eating pellets two others have tried them and spit them out. Hopefully more will eat pellets in the coming weeks. So far they eating two things for sure and that's mysis shrimp, and brine shrimp.​

General Updates - Apex to Tunze control and Break Out Box

I forgot to mention both arrived Wednesday of this week. I have installed the Apex to Tunze cable and the 6055's are doing really well in the tank. I still have some tweaking to do. I have learned that without anything in the tank the flow is not as chaotic as I would like it be but still very powerful. Reducing the intensity of the pumps seems to work for the fish and the current is still sufficient to keep food suspending during feeding.

I will be ordering things for the break out box soon. I am just not sure what I should install on it besides a water sensor.
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[BowieReefer84]

Do you have any freeze dried cyclopeeze you can try feeding them? It drives my fish crazy.

 

[nightOwl]

Do you have any freeze dried cyclopeeze you can try feeding them? It drives my fish crazy.

BowieReefer84,
I have some Whole Freeze Dried Cyclop-eeze and that is on schedule to try for today. Tomorrow is flakes by New Life Spectrum then the Sunday the veggie flakes. Monday will be my own home blend . I am trying to expose them to as many things as possible. Each feeding is also dosed with garlic and selcon every other day. I like nice plump fish .

 

[tclipse]

Henry, nice progress man.. good to see you're back on wamas too. Gotta post up an FTS so we can get the full before/after effect

 

[nightOwl]

Henry, nice progress man.. good to see you're back on wamas too. Gotta post up an FTS so we can get the full before/after effect

Teddy,
It has been a long journey to get to this point. I now have fish so it actually looks like a tank to me. I will warn you it is looking pretty bad right now. I will get some pics posted tonight hopefully.

General Updates - Fish

Day 9 - Everyone is looking great. They are eating and will eat a few times a day if I feed them. They seem to be catching on that when the pumps stop its feeding time and it is a good idea to head to the side of the tank with man and turkey baster...LOL. So far they seem to like the following:

• Mysis Shrimp
• Cyclop-eeze
• Freeze Dried Mysis Shrimp
• Brine Shrimp
• Shaved Shrimp- Thanks Pampered Chef Cheese Grader

Not fond of

• Flakes - They spit these out but try different colors
• Veggie Flakes- They spit these out pretty fast
• Pellets - They spit these out shortly after entering mouth

I will keep working on giving them flakes and pellets. Hopefully they will come around.

I will move my other three Glass Cardinals over in a week or two.
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General Updates - Tank

I am going through the normal diatom/Dinoflagellates outbreak so there is brown stuff everywhere and since the little group is not fond of of the powerful current I am not moving as much water as I would like to. Today I will adjust the pump profiles to increase past 60% in the hopes of moving more water. I also turned the lights off this morning so I am going to try two days or no lights and see what happens. I added 1 giant turbo zeba snail and two nerite snails a few days ago and they seem to be eating some of the algae. They were from my old tank. You can actually see the path of the little monsters. I need to add some more snails, but these were the guinea pigs to see if the tank was stable enough.​