Mr. Brooks
MASVC Member
Wow I remember going over this thread months ago. Amazing build my friend. Seems to be coming along very nicely.
Building Big Bertha: 800G
- Thread starter bbrantley
- Start date
:uzi:
Why, of course she is.
Quite happily, I might add, though I have not added or improved anything from what you've seen above. The tangs are all still happy and healthy, and Bertha has still yet to enjoy even the most partial of water changes. (The chemistry, interestingly, is still quite good as well.)I run carbon, empty the skimmer, feed the fish occasionally (there is a decent amount of algae growth that does most of it for me), and scrape. Mostly scrape.
We had a sand-sifting star propagation event this winter that was quite a sight -- dozens and dozens of tiny white stars all over the rocks! I think the handful of crabs ate most of them for snacks.
The master plan most certainly includes adding more coral and truly growing the tank out, but circumstances have conspired to delay that process for some time. For a while there I thought we might have to move, and I didn't want to proceed any further just to have to take everything down and sell it all shortly thereafter. That possibility has shrunk, so probably later this year I'll pick back up in earnest. When -- and, hopefully, if -- I do, you'll see more action in this thread.
Ben
leslie hempel
Member
wow so happy i stubbled onto this puppy. awsome..
Hello again everyone,
Wow, it's really been a while since a legitimate update!
Bertha has been in a "stable, but unimproved" zone for almost the last 16 months. This is mostly because I became aware of the possibility of needing to move, and I decided not to make any more investment (particularly in sensitive livestock) when at any moment it could be necessary to pack up and go.
It appears that likelihood has passed, now, and I am entering a quieter period with work finally such that I can really buckle down and get back to making some progress with Bertha. I've never been in a real hurry, fortunately, so this slow pace kind of suits me in some ways. Nevertheless, I do want to really knock out some critical improvements so I can get started with the "reef" part of "reef tank."
The first thing I've been doing is scraping, cleaning, and cleaning some more. After over two years of uptime, there is a lot of accumulated detritus, especially in areas that are hard to access... behind the sump, around some of the denser nests of plumbing, up on top of the light rack, etc. I've been slowly cycling through my immense pile of "fish room towels," soaking up gunk and a LOT of salt creep.
I've also really got to get down to business on water chemistry. Bertha has been remarkably stable given that she's had ZERO water changes in two years, but nitrate and phosphate growth are starting to become a measurable factor now -- and I don't need a photometer to measure it; I can see it in the algal growth directly.
I've slowly been vacuuming out grungy parts of Bertha's sand bed over the last few years, so what was a 1.5-inch shallow bed is now more like a couple of patches of 1-inch bed with "bare-bottom" acrylic in between. I've been directly removing a large amount of algae and some aiptasia there in preparation for re-seeding the bed in the coming week or so. Also, the lack of a true DSB contributes to the aforementioned nitrate problems; I'll finally be adding some algae to my sump's grow-out area to help absorb some of that.
I finally changed Bertha's light bulbs, and that's unleashed a new stream of broken things that need costly replacements. It appears that two of my six ballasts are dead, so new ones are on the way. I also had a couple of XM 10Ks to try next to my regular XM 20Ks... and they're just way too yellow for my taste, even if they'll juice the coral growth (one day when I really have corals!). I'm going back to the tried and true.
Tunze finally got their act together and released their new, more powerful powerheads with magnets that are supposed to be strong enough for 1-inch acrylic. This is the 6305 Stream model. I've got two coming this week to test out; if they work really well, I'll need to order probably 4 more to complete the setup. If they work REALLY well, I might only need two more to create the gyre I'm looking for.
I really never finished building the water change and top-off mechanism of my dreams, though I have it about 50% done and 100% drawn out on paper. I need to sit down, pull out my PVC weld, and knock that out. Then it needs to be tested with freshwater (there are 300g of capacity in the support system, none of which I would prefer to have gushing sticky saltwater all over my fish room if something is messed up) and THEN I can really start building huge reserves of prepped SW for true water exchange.
In fact, the ability to make big water changes is actually a major roadblock in my ability to move forward at this time. I need to plumb extra stuff into my sump's auxiliary bulkheads, but I can't do that without draining the sump. I can't drain the sump without having about 100G of replacement SW ready to go... so you can see the dilemma. Unless I want to manually and tediously make up batches of SW by hand, I really can't finish the plumbing! So a reasonable water change mechanism is a top priority for the month of August. I'll post pictures once I have it working.
I'm seeing a little bit of rusting in places I didn't expect it after two years of blasting the room with salty air. Also, the humidity has basically destroyed my nice window casings, though I kind of knew that was going to happen. They'll have to be replaced some day when we sell the house. I'm a little more concerned that the moisture is warping the DOOR to the room... if it gets much worse, it's going to get hard to close, and that won't fly with the tank being adjacent to the living room. We'll see.
I'm a little antsy about the redundancy of the lovely BK 500 skimmer. It's really the lifeblood of the system, and if it were to fail, I worry about how much trouble the tank would be in. I'm considering purchasing a second, smaller skimmer that can act as a stand-in in an emergency. The BK does have two pumps, but I'm not sure if it can produce enough bubbles with only one pump to actually skim stuff. I'll have to test that out.
I've got a healthy stand of aiptasia growing on one of the rock piles in the tank. I'm pretty sure I can grow enough of it to feed a hungry CBB, so I'm thinking of adding one to the tank in a few weeks. I know a lot of people have some difficulty keeping CBB's happy after they eat up the available aiptasia, but I have such nice farm of them. (Interestingly, guests and visitors find the aiptasia to be almost the most interesting thing in the tank.)
Finally, and I think I might have posted this earlier, we had a sand-sifting star procreation event a few months back. For almost two months, all three stars were stacked on top of each other every time we looked at them. Then, a few months after that, we spotted what must have been hundreds of tiny stars all over the rocks! I think a couple of hermits probably ate most of them for snacks, but we are still left with maybe a couple dozen that are more like the size of a fingernail now. They're cute when they're so tiny with those stubby arms. It'll be interesting to see if any can grow to be full size (and then start being productive in that sand bed, thank you very much).
I'll post some more updates over the next few weeks unless I get dragged away to unexpected real work. I'm looking forward to getting back in the aquarium hobby, however!
Wow, it's really been a while since a legitimate update!
Bertha has been in a "stable, but unimproved" zone for almost the last 16 months. This is mostly because I became aware of the possibility of needing to move, and I decided not to make any more investment (particularly in sensitive livestock) when at any moment it could be necessary to pack up and go.
It appears that likelihood has passed, now, and I am entering a quieter period with work finally such that I can really buckle down and get back to making some progress with Bertha. I've never been in a real hurry, fortunately, so this slow pace kind of suits me in some ways. Nevertheless, I do want to really knock out some critical improvements so I can get started with the "reef" part of "reef tank."
The first thing I've been doing is scraping, cleaning, and cleaning some more. After over two years of uptime, there is a lot of accumulated detritus, especially in areas that are hard to access... behind the sump, around some of the denser nests of plumbing, up on top of the light rack, etc. I've been slowly cycling through my immense pile of "fish room towels," soaking up gunk and a LOT of salt creep.
I've also really got to get down to business on water chemistry. Bertha has been remarkably stable given that she's had ZERO water changes in two years, but nitrate and phosphate growth are starting to become a measurable factor now -- and I don't need a photometer to measure it; I can see it in the algal growth directly.
I've slowly been vacuuming out grungy parts of Bertha's sand bed over the last few years, so what was a 1.5-inch shallow bed is now more like a couple of patches of 1-inch bed with "bare-bottom" acrylic in between. I've been directly removing a large amount of algae and some aiptasia there in preparation for re-seeding the bed in the coming week or so. Also, the lack of a true DSB contributes to the aforementioned nitrate problems; I'll finally be adding some algae to my sump's grow-out area to help absorb some of that.
I finally changed Bertha's light bulbs, and that's unleashed a new stream of broken things that need costly replacements. It appears that two of my six ballasts are dead, so new ones are on the way. I also had a couple of XM 10Ks to try next to my regular XM 20Ks... and they're just way too yellow for my taste, even if they'll juice the coral growth (one day when I really have corals!). I'm going back to the tried and true.
Tunze finally got their act together and released their new, more powerful powerheads with magnets that are supposed to be strong enough for 1-inch acrylic. This is the 6305 Stream model. I've got two coming this week to test out; if they work really well, I'll need to order probably 4 more to complete the setup. If they work REALLY well, I might only need two more to create the gyre I'm looking for.
I really never finished building the water change and top-off mechanism of my dreams, though I have it about 50% done and 100% drawn out on paper. I need to sit down, pull out my PVC weld, and knock that out. Then it needs to be tested with freshwater (there are 300g of capacity in the support system, none of which I would prefer to have gushing sticky saltwater all over my fish room if something is messed up) and THEN I can really start building huge reserves of prepped SW for true water exchange.
In fact, the ability to make big water changes is actually a major roadblock in my ability to move forward at this time. I need to plumb extra stuff into my sump's auxiliary bulkheads, but I can't do that without draining the sump. I can't drain the sump without having about 100G of replacement SW ready to go... so you can see the dilemma. Unless I want to manually and tediously make up batches of SW by hand, I really can't finish the plumbing! So a reasonable water change mechanism is a top priority for the month of August. I'll post pictures once I have it working.
I'm seeing a little bit of rusting in places I didn't expect it after two years of blasting the room with salty air. Also, the humidity has basically destroyed my nice window casings, though I kind of knew that was going to happen. They'll have to be replaced some day when we sell the house. I'm a little more concerned that the moisture is warping the DOOR to the room... if it gets much worse, it's going to get hard to close, and that won't fly with the tank being adjacent to the living room.
We'll see.I'm a little antsy about the redundancy of the lovely BK 500 skimmer. It's really the lifeblood of the system, and if it were to fail, I worry about how much trouble the tank would be in. I'm considering purchasing a second, smaller skimmer that can act as a stand-in in an emergency. The BK does have two pumps, but I'm not sure if it can produce enough bubbles with only one pump to actually skim stuff. I'll have to test that out.
I've got a healthy stand of aiptasia growing on one of the rock piles in the tank. I'm pretty sure I can grow enough of it to feed a hungry CBB, so I'm thinking of adding one to the tank in a few weeks. I know a lot of people have some difficulty keeping CBB's happy after they eat up the available aiptasia, but I have such nice farm of them. (Interestingly, guests and visitors find the aiptasia to be almost the most interesting thing in the tank.)
Finally, and I think I might have posted this earlier, we had a sand-sifting star procreation event a few months back. For almost two months, all three stars were stacked on top of each other every time we looked at them. Then, a few months after that, we spotted what must have been hundreds of tiny stars all over the rocks! I think a couple of hermits probably ate most of them for snacks, but we are still left with maybe a couple dozen that are more like the size of a fingernail now. They're cute when they're so tiny with those stubby arms.
It'll be interesting to see if any can grow to be full size (and then start being productive in that sand bed, thank you very much).I'll post some more updates over the next few weeks unless I get dragged away to unexpected real work. I'm looking forward to getting back in the aquarium hobby, however!
If "that long" equals "never," you've nailed it.
Yeah, the system is effectively FOWLR, so water parameters can be pretty, um, flexible. That and they really stayed in pretty good shape for a long period of time. Only recently have I started to see them degrade in a way that would work me trend-wise.
Ben
What a difference a ballast makes!
Today I replaced two dead ballasts with new Vertex electronic ballasts. The new ballasts themselves are half the volume and weight, the quick-disconnect plugs are much easier to work with, and the actual light output... well, it's significantly brighter.
Also, I accidentally put one of the XM 10K bulbs into one of the fixtures connected to the new ballasts. It looks completely different from the crummy yellow light coming out of the old ballast.
This has me thinking that I should probably just go ahead and replace all the other ballasts.
By the way, I read the comparison and did the careful looking at contenders: the SLS, the Lumatek, and Vertex. At the end of the day, though, these guys are $50 less than the next competitor and probably just as good. I'm no lighting wizard, but I can vouch for these so far.
Today I replaced two dead ballasts with new Vertex electronic ballasts. The new ballasts themselves are half the volume and weight, the quick-disconnect plugs are much easier to work with, and the actual light output... well, it's significantly brighter.
Also, I accidentally put one of the XM 10K bulbs into one of the fixtures connected to the new ballasts. It looks completely different from the crummy yellow light coming out of the old ballast.
This has me thinking that I should probably just go ahead and replace all the other ballasts.
By the way, I read the comparison and did the careful looking at contenders: the SLS, the Lumatek, and Vertex. At the end of the day, though, these guys are $50 less than the next competitor and probably just as good. I'm no lighting wizard, but I can vouch for these so far.
"Umm fish?"
Premium Member
Dang. I just saw your thread again. My subscription to it must have messed up. Now I have lots of back-reading to do tonight. Sorry I haven't been around.
Sorry I haven't been around.Today I did a boatload of cleanup. I took apart and put back together my "home made hybrid" RO/DI system (6 stages) and mounted it on the wall. I'm trying to get a bunch of the loose components off the ground and into their permanent resting places, if only so I have more room to move around in the room. I also replumbed the RO/DI so that I can control it remotely from two different outputs (I have two cisterns to fill) and so that I can manually obtain some RO-only water for cooking and making drinks.
I also consolidated a whole bunch of plumbing parts, PVC, old aquarium gadgets, and plain junk. It's almost time to have a massive aquarists' yard sale.
I also consolidated a whole bunch of plumbing parts, PVC, old aquarium gadgets, and plain junk. It's almost time to have a massive aquarists' yard sale.
