Build Thread: TKERacer619's 600gal SPS Tank

[Sisterlimonpot]

Tesla makes some great cars!! The 3 looks really good.

I have to upload the video I made of the 0-60 time in the model X. After driving the tesla, it was hard to drive anything else....

 

[tkeracer619]

Tesla makes some great cars!! The 3 looks really good.

I have to upload the video I made of the 0-60 time in the model X. After driving the tesla, it was hard to drive anything else....

Right? My wife's Subaru feels like a slug, my '13 Grand Cherokee feels like a bus, I haven't driven the Integra recently (getting head work) but it's a different kind of fast than the Tesla (it will spank the Tesla). The Tesla is a ridiculously smooth application of power and the Integra is the exact opposite. There is something about the weight distribution that makes the Tesla feel so planted even though it's a sedan. I'm in love man, if I didn't need a larger vehicle I would have punted the Jeep and gotten the P3D. All this anti Tesla stuff is nonsense, lots of money being pumped into misinformation by the shorts. They're going to lose their pants.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

All this anti Tesla stuff is nonsense, lots of money being pumped into misinformation by the shorts. They're going to lose their pants.

My take on that is the big manufacturers see that Tesla isn't a fly by night company, they finally see them as a threat and they're going to allocate resources to bring them down.

It's not like they don't have an opportunity to manufacturer a full electric, they just can't see past the initial expense and I'm sure there's a lot of politics involved (but lets not digress to that). Most car manufacturers are just keeping with "business as usual". The writing has been on the wall for a long time and they refused to do anything about it.

There's still a need for internal combustion engines for the foreseeable future, and they're not going down without a fight, but in my mind it's a losing battle. Hopefully other car manufacturers get on board and start investing heavily in R&D or else they're going to be left behind.

I can go on and on, but I hate that I derailed your 600g build thread... hehe, seems like there's a lull in tank builds at the moment anyway....

 

[tkeracer619]

Spent a little time this week re-organizing my peristaltic pump shelf. I have several additional console drives that need to be added as time progresses. Next step will be a drip tray that goes to a drain in case of a tubing rupture.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Looks very organized. Did I miss it? what type of parastaltic pumps are those?

 

[tkeracer619]

Looks very organized. Did I miss it? what type of parastaltic pumps are those?

Thanks!

They're Cole-Parmer Masterflex L/S peristaltic pumps. This is medical/laboratory grade hardware so unfortunately they can come with sticker shock. You can usually find good used hardware at surplus shops or ebay.

The small square drives are Fixed-Speed Drives, Model# 07540-20. I use these exclusively for auto top off systems. They last 10-15+ years. You can get them in many rpm ranges and vary the tubing size to give almost any flow range. My oldest one of these I've had running about 10 years and I got it out of a trash can because the person thought it was the end of it's life. It's probably 20 years old, I've just recently retired it for normal use but will keep it for a rainy day.

The large console drive is a 0-100RPM Brushless Digital Drive. I use these for Calcium Reactors or Auto Water Change Systems. They're continuous duty and can last 10-15+ years without ever turning off. This one currently has two heads mounted on it and is changing 10 gallons a week out of my coral/sunburst tank.

The small clear heads are Standard LS17 Pump Heads w/Stainless Rollers.

The large black heads are Easy-Load Pump Heads w/Stainless Rollers

I'm using LS17 Pharmed BPT tubing which is rated at more than 10,000 hours.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

Wow!! You're not kidding about sticker price! I like the idea that you can get it and not have to ever worry about it failing.

 

[tkeracer619]

Wow!! You're not kidding about sticker price! I like the idea that you can get it and not have to ever worry about it failing.

Yeah, you really need to be patient not to get taken to the cleaners :lol:

I've had one of the console drives die after 12 years... still trying to find the part. It' sucks when they croak. If you want one I can always help you try to find a good one. Just lmk.

 

[tkeracer619]

BigBlueTang came over today to help me with the new fish QT setups. When I purchased them it was rainy and cold so I couldn't get them painted. Funny thing is when he got here and we got the tanks outside... it started raining and snowing :lol:

So we moved into the garage to put two layers of black paint on the tanks. Thanks dude!

We masked off the viewing panels and butted the two viewing panels together in the middle of the garage. One light coat followed by a thicker coat 45 minutes later. We used Rustolium 2x gloss black.

These tanks are not easy to get in their home but they fit and look nice when in place. I had bad luck with my last setups, mainly because I was unable to effectively clean them. This go around they are both new 75gal glass tanks. Each will have a canister filter located at the bottom of the rack for easy maintenance, a powerhead, heater, heater controller, the same LED lights the last setup used, and a bunch of PVC pipes. Once fully medicated and in observation mode they will feature an AWC system and HOB carbon filter to keep water quality at its best.

Back in place, ready to be cleaned, and filled with water!

 

[tkeracer619]

So... my last attempt at treating crypto in the system with Chloroquine phosphate also failed. I purchased the equipment necessary to measure CP in saltwater and figured out why it wasn't working. The more I dosed the faster it degraded. It appears bacteria was metabolizing the drug and populating faster than I could dose. I abandoned the attempt and started hypo.

That was a little over 2 months ago... As of this past thursday all fish were spot free for over 30 days. I switched over from topping up with RODI to New SW. I knew it was going to take a while to raise salinity with top off, turns out a while is 87 days :lol:. I need to dump about 9 bags of salt in to bring it back in line. So about a bag a day. I'm thinking about moving my midnight clowns from my frag tank to an overflow. That way I can mix the salt in the frag tank for a while before adding it to the tank. Otherwise this is going to take a LOT of individual buckets.

Edit: Yup, that was the solution. Added a pair of MP40s, moved the clowns to the display's overflow box (they're like 15 gallons each), turned off the flat's vectra, and added a bag of salt. I'll let it mix until I head to bed then crank the vectra back up.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

I did whole tank hypo once, that was the best decision I ever made! None of the fish ever had a problem with disease, parasites etc. And raising the salinity wasn't that bad. I wasn't in a hurry to fill the tank with corals which gave the fish ample time to acclimate to their surroundings.

 

[tkeracer619]

I did whole tank hypo once, that was the best decision I ever made! None of the fish ever had a problem with disease, parasites etc. And raising the salinity wasn't that bad. I wasn't in a hurry to fill the tank with corals which gave the fish ample time to acclimate to their surroundings.

Yeah, so far so good. I'm just hoping I'm past the crypto... I also was feeding metroplex medicated food for the 30 day hypo in an effort to further impact the crypto.

It's not that I am in a hurry to add coral, that would be silly at this point. That said... My coral tank isn't going to hold in there forever. The growth is rapid at this point and I am quickly running out of space and constantly dealing with snails pushing stuff into each other. I would love to transfer most of these corals to 4" tiles and set this tank up solely for Sunburst nems like it was intended.

 

[biecacka]

Yeah the Tesla is a great car. No doubt about that at all.
Oh yeah, the set up is looking goood too :lol:

Corey

 

[tkeracer619]

Yeah the Tesla is a great car. No doubt about that at all.
Oh yeah, the set up is looking goood too :lol:

Corey

Thanks!

Tank is back up to 1.025. I'm going to let it sit for a few days, do some testing/correcting, and then going to add a coral to see what happens.

 

[biecacka]

Sounds like a great plan

Corey

 

[tkeracer619]

Today must have been my lucky day. Beyond the hell day at work the wife decided to come home for lunch... at which point she called me frantically that the house was smokey...

I raced home and found this.

The power strip had a mere 150w max plugged into it. When I came home everything was still powered up through it except that socket... which had a tiny nano power head plugged in.

Will be going through electrical tomorrow and finishing up all of the dedicated circuits. I have a bunch of these cheap power strips and want to get rid of them asap. Not exactly sure what happened here but I know this time I was lucky. Don't want to deal with this again.

 

[IUfan]

Holy crap, that is terrifying. So glad that you caught this in time.

Could water have splashed onto the outlet? Strange for it to suddenly do that right?... I think I will have nightmares now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[tkeracer619]

Holy crap, that is terrifying. So glad that you caught this in time.

Could water have splashed onto the outlet? Strange for it to suddenly do that right?... I think I will have nightmares now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yeah, not cool at all. It could have been devastating!

I suppose it could have but I've been pretty careful not to have splashing water with this build. I didn't have bags running because I just added a bunch of pods so maybe something freak happened and it slung enough water to cause the issue.

I suspect the power head maybe shorted out and this cheap power strip is weaker than the pump wiring. I may never know the answer to this one...

 

[biecacka]

I just had one do that to me last month. Had my mag 5 pump for my salt water mixing station on it. Was scary but thankfully nothing else was damaged.

Corey

 

[tkeracer619]

I just had one do that to me last month.

Yikes! Fun with sparks :worried: