Dane's 175 Gal in-Wall Tank Build

[TulaneDane]

The cycle has begun! :bounce1:



You can see the 5 lbs live rock I picked-up from the LFS in the bottom right. Hope that's enough to get the seeding started:


Decided to run all three Koralia 1500s as well as the 1050.

Focus now is:
1) Dialing in the skimmer (immediately started producing foam, but is way too wet)
2) Heat (I'm at ~82* and my heaters say they're not running).

 

[Cymonous]

What is the temp in your house? You can feel your heaters and see if they are putting out any heat. Do you have any thermometers or other temp probes?

 

[TulaneDane]

It's finally warming-up here, so temp of the house is currently ~76* (and that's about where I typically keep it in the summer).

In the winter (up till about last week), I keep the house at ~68*.

One digital temp probe in the display tank reads ~82*
Three Cobalt Neo-Therm heaters (two in sump, one in emergency overflow) also have LED temp readouts showing ~82*

Cymonous, good call on feeling them to ensure one is not stuck. Will check when I get home tonight.

With the house at 76*, I imagine it is not too hard for the lights & pumps to add another ~6*?

 

[Cymonous]

I would say it is possible the pumps and lights could be adding the extra heat. You may want to get a clip-on fan to blow across your sump to help keep the temp down. 82 is starting to push it.

 

[G_Sanab922]

Went through your whole build! Just in time for the exciting part lol. Love the aquascape! and good suggestion by Cymonous ^^ +1

 

[malawi]

Nice, nice, nice build, you took your time dude and did it right, ,, awesome. I love the scape you did on the live rock you did a great job top notch.

 

[Fish lover]

Your tank looks amazing !!! Loved the setup..

Good Luck

 

[TulaneDane]

I pulled one of my heaters from the sump and set the remaining two to 76*. I also pulled one of the smaller covers to the sump off to let the air circulate a bit more. Tank is holding around 79* now.

Can't tell if I've truly fixed the heat issue as outside temps have fallen below the 70s again (house now around 68*). Will have to wait and see.

Still tuning the skimmer. It's either too low or too wet. More work to be done here.

One thing I definitely fixed though was my Auto Top Off. My reservoir is higher than my sump which was creating a syphon once the ATO pump turned off and water would continue to pour into my sump (almost didn't notice, that would have been bad!). So I cut ~2 feet of 1" PVC and clipped the feed hose to the top, then clamped the top of the PVC above my reservoir. No more syphon.


Still waiting for the first bacterial bloom...water is still crystal clear. Cycle now started about a week ago. :fish1:

 

[TulaneDane]

Was finally able to tune the skimmer. Pulling out a decent amount of brown gunk. :celeb1:

Heat continues to be an issue though. My prior 'fix' on heat did not cut it. All lids to the sump have been removed. Two remaining heaters are indeed off. House is at 76* and tank is holding in the 82*-83* range. :angryfire:

Cymonous, going to purchase a clip-on fan for the sump like you suggested to see if that gets me the ~2* I need.

And a big THANK YOU to all the positive feedback! :wave:

 

[TulaneDane]

So I started my cycle / curing the rock on April 3rd. I've tested for ammonia twice since then:

• 4/13/14
• 4/17/13

Still no real readings. My skimmer is pulling plenty of nasty out of the water, so it would seem bacteria is at work in there. I'm just surprised that after two weeks there my readings are ~nill.

Should I be concerned? :hmm4: Or am I just being impatient?

 

[mrpergo]

did you throw a raw shrimp in there to start the cycle or pure ammonia ?

 

[rfgonzo]

Make sure you ghost feed or drop a raw shrimp in there. If it's only been around two weeks it's very normal that you're not seeing any signs of ammonia yet.

 

[trinidiver]

Very nice build

 

[ntrlsur]

Since you only started the cycle with the live rock then you shouldn't see any readings yet. I suggest dropping a small shrimp or picking up some nutrafin cycle or MB7.

 

[TulaneDane]

Took another ammonia reading last night:

• 4/3 Cycle Start
• 4/13 ammonia <0.25 mg/L
• 4/17 ammonia <0.25 mg/L
• 4/21 ammonia <0.25 mg/L

20 days into the cycle. Based on everyone's feedback (thank you!), it sounds like it's still early...but it wouldn't hurt to drop something in there to jump start things. So, in went a raw shrimp (along with a PVC anchor in a mesh bag):


Also installed a fan above my sump last night to help cool the tank down a bit. With the house at 76* the tank is running 82*-83*. I hope this fan is enough to give me 2*-3*...

 

[TulaneDane]

The battle against heat continues. :angryfire:

I'm beginning to think it's due to the in wall setup of the sump. There is just no where for the air to go. When I leave my sump cabinet doors open, in about a day, the tank will drop to 78*-79*. Close them, and I'm back to ~82*.

No heaters are plugged-in and I'm not even running my lights yet.

Obviously leaving the cabinet doors open is a suboptimal long-term solution. :headwally: So I purchased a couple of these guys last night:

http://www.frozencpu.com/products/1...705_-_High_Speed_103_CFM.html?tl=g36c435s1104

Plan is to drill a couple holes into the sump space and mount these low-profile fans. My hope is they will be able to pull enough heat out of the sump while the cabinet doors are closed. :eek2:

 

[Indymann99]

@ Dane,

I installed the cabinet doors so that they are about 1/4 - 1/2 inch away from the frame ( I didnt want to put vents in the doors if at all possible for looks). This lets cooler room air enter at the bottom, a fan (inside) directed up toward the top of the doors helps exhaust hot air.

I had to do the same thing to mitigate heat above from the lights.

My tank is in the basement so I do have the advantage of general cooler temps.

 

[Kingsixx]

Love the transformation man. Beautiful setup you have. Can't wait till its established.

 

[TulaneDane]

Indymann99 - Wish I had thought of that when I built my sump cabinets. Would definitely prefer the clean cabinet front like what you have. :sad2:

Not sure I can mod them at this point, but will ponder further. :idea:

If nothing else, I think I can disguise one or two fan holes somewhat. :facepalm:

 

[TulaneDane]

Weather has cooled off again, so taking the added time to contemplate my approach to tackling the heat issue.

So...how about a water chemistry update! :wave:

4/8/14 - Cycle start
4/13/14 - ammonia <0.25 mg/L
4/17/14 - ammonia <0.25 mg/L
4/21/14 - ammonia <0.25 mg/L
4/21/14 - raw shrimp added
4/27/14 - filter socks switched out and skimmer cleaned
5/3/14 - ammonia <0.25 mg/L
5/3/14 - Nitrate at ~16 ppm (had to high-range my tester)

In other news my QT made progress recently. On 5/3/14 ammonia was ~0.5 mg/L and on 5/5/14 it fell to zero.

...wish I had something more exciting.