Building Big Bertha: 800G
- Thread starter bbrantley
- Start date
AquariumSpecialty
.Registered Member
How about that washing machine looking thing? In all seriousness, great progress Ben.
AquariumSpecialty
.Registered Member
I think that's an upgrade or something.
. mine do :lol:
The R/C Man
New member
Everything is looking great. I got a couple more ideas for my set up now. I was wondering how to vent the tank room and they way you did it is clean and efficient. Where did you get the fans and controllers? As soon as I return from this deployment I will be finishing my 3 year long project. 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=10185125#post10185125 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by The R/C Man
Everything is looking great. I got a couple more ideas for my set up now. I was wondering how to vent the tank room and they way you did it is clean and efficient. Where did you get the fans and controllers? As soon as I return from this deployment I will be finishing my 3 year long project.
The fans were from hvacquick.com, and the guy who runs it is super. You can call him up and he will compute what kind of flow you need based on your environment, power load, etc. I got the controller from some other random website; a lot of people sell that brand, though.
Unfortunately, I'm starting to fear that my ventilation is underpowered for peak summer days -- in other words, right now. I haven't gotten everything dialed in quite right yet, but I've been observing tank temps peaking at 82F lately, which is a touch hotter than I'd like. I'm hoping adding some evaporative cooling (i.e., "fans") will make a big difference and help me avoid having to use phase-change (i.e., "expensive") cooling.
The good news is that we'll only suffer a couple months of this "heat" each year. The bad news is that the corals still need moderation, so I might have to shell out for something that'll only see occasional use.
More to come after I give it a few weeks' observation and thought.
Thanks for the compliments, guys,
Ben
joshsreef18
New member
wow very very very very impressive i wish had the money to set up somthing like that.
joshsreef18
New member
wow very very very very impressive i wish had the money to set up somthing like that.
Howdy folks,
Just enough time tonight for a quick written update. (I'll post pictures maybe tomorrow if I can catch some while the lights are on.) The tank has enjoyed a round of red/brown algae that has already passed. At the peak of it nitrates were topping 60ppm, but by today all that algae has disappeared to be replaced with small tufts of the green hair algae that I know and love well. Chemistry looks pretty stable... unmeasurable NH4 and NO3 and about 5ppm NO4. I'm not sure where all that nitrate went; I guess the algae sucked some of it up and maybe some got skimmed out as well? (Can the skimmer pull out NO4 in solution? I kind of thought not.)
The good news continues because the tank is looking great.
First, I got a Mighty Magnets magnet that is just super sweet. I had a MagFloat that I used on my old 225G with mixed success. This Mighty Magnet has a much better design, with snappable plastic spacers to adjust the strength and velcroed, removable cleaning pads that can be washed off quickly in between panes. I'm also getting microscratching on the panels in my living room, but for the life of me I can't figure out where they're coming from! (These came to be before using the magnet.) I've been able to polish them all out, but it is weird. Some of them look like they could be inadvertent brushing with an abrasive fabric; others are like someone took a sharp implement and carved little circles into the tank. All are too high for the dogs to be guilty. I'll have to check and see if my housekeeper might be the culprit.
Second, the water clarify has improved. I've been running small amounts of carbon, and I think the tannins or whatever it is that discolors the water are pretty much gone for now. I'm getting good color fidelity through the 8-foot section.
All in all, things improved a lot in the last week or so. I was initially thinking I wouldn't be able to get any fish in by August, but now I'm cautiously optimistic that the harem of chromis will make it by then. We'll see!
Ben
Just enough time tonight for a quick written update. (I'll post pictures maybe tomorrow if I can catch some while the lights are on.) The tank has enjoyed a round of red/brown algae that has already passed. At the peak of it nitrates were topping 60ppm, but by today all that algae has disappeared to be replaced with small tufts of the green hair algae that I know and love well. Chemistry looks pretty stable... unmeasurable NH4 and NO3 and about 5ppm NO4. I'm not sure where all that nitrate went; I guess the algae sucked some of it up and maybe some got skimmed out as well? (Can the skimmer pull out NO4 in solution? I kind of thought not.)
The good news continues because the tank is looking great.
First, I got a Mighty Magnets magnet that is just super sweet. I had a MagFloat that I used on my old 225G with mixed success. This Mighty Magnet has a much better design, with snappable plastic spacers to adjust the strength and velcroed, removable cleaning pads that can be washed off quickly in between panes. I'm also getting microscratching on the panels in my living room, but for the life of me I can't figure out where they're coming from! (These came to be before using the magnet.) I've been able to polish them all out, but it is weird. Some of them look like they could be inadvertent brushing with an abrasive fabric; others are like someone took a sharp implement and carved little circles into the tank. All are too high for the dogs to be guilty. I'll have to check and see if my housekeeper might be the culprit.
Second, the water clarify has improved. I've been running small amounts of carbon, and I think the tannins or whatever it is that discolors the water are pretty much gone for now. I'm getting good color fidelity through the 8-foot section.
All in all, things improved a lot in the last week or so. I was initially thinking I wouldn't be able to get any fish in by August, but now I'm cautiously optimistic that the harem of chromis will make it by then. We'll see!
Ben
jnarowe
New member
wow, 60 ppm is a wicked cycle! glad to see it is progressing well. I would skip the chromis and find fish that won't kill each other off. I know they are cheap, but I think it is still a waste.
BTW, tangs will take care of the HA right quick, and some are fairly hardy. Lawnmower Blennies also do well, but starve when the HA is gone. Same thing with a Sea Hare...so the lesson I have learned is that fish like tangs and foxfaces will browse all day on algae, but also take prepared foods when there is no algae to eat.
BTW, tangs will take care of the HA right quick, and some are fairly hardy. Lawnmower Blennies also do well, but starve when the HA is gone. Same thing with a Sea Hare...so the lesson I have learned is that fish like tangs and foxfaces will browse all day on algae, but also take prepared foods when there is no algae to eat.
WhiskeyReefer
New member
All I can say is wow!!
Hey all,
Things are coming along... swimmingly? The water chemistry has continued to improve, so I am fairly convinced that the preliminary cycle(s) are complete. Of course, that means fish! I added 19 (of 20, 1 DOA) green chromis and a yellow tang today; I'm typing this while observing them settling in. I drip-acclimated the chromis and just stuck 'em straight in the tank, and I did the same over a longer span for the tang and then gave her a freshwater dip before also sticking her straight into the tank. In the future I'll be QTing and medicating as needed, but it seemed like overkill for the first set of cheap, relatively hardy fish.
I am having trouble getting help programming the Aquatronica. I think mine might have some issues, but I'm not able to get the power-cut functionality working (so it doesn't burn up my return pump if there's a brownout, e.g.) and I can't figure out how to write programs that depend on multiple variables the way I need them to for my auto top-off.
Since I went lights-out for the fish today, I again can't really get much in the way of pictures. Tomorrow, however, I will take a few full tank shots and post a couple thousand words worth of pictures here.
Ben
Things are coming along... swimmingly? The water chemistry has continued to improve, so I am fairly convinced that the preliminary cycle(s) are complete. Of course, that means fish! I added 19 (of 20, 1 DOA) green chromis and a yellow tang today; I'm typing this while observing them settling in. I drip-acclimated the chromis and just stuck 'em straight in the tank, and I did the same over a longer span for the tang and then gave her a freshwater dip before also sticking her straight into the tank. In the future I'll be QTing and medicating as needed, but it seemed like overkill for the first set of cheap, relatively hardy fish.
I am having trouble getting help programming the Aquatronica. I think mine might have some issues, but I'm not able to get the power-cut functionality working (so it doesn't burn up my return pump if there's a brownout, e.g.) and I can't figure out how to write programs that depend on multiple variables the way I need them to for my auto top-off.
Since I went lights-out for the fish today, I again can't really get much in the way of pictures. Tomorrow, however, I will take a few full tank shots and post a couple thousand words worth of pictures here.
Ben
