Double or Nothing... AJ's 405-Gallon Reef Savvy Upgrade

[dgasmd]

I second what was said above. I wouldn't be ducting anywhere. I suspect all the electronics under the tank also generate a fair amount of heat, so putting a fan there moving air aimed at the sump and in an angle such that it allows the air under the tank to be blown to the outside (inside the house). Your ac should have no issue getting rid of the humidity generated so long as it is inside the house and it is not ridiculous amounts.

 

[jonnyu]

Wow tank looks amazing. Are you putting some furniture in the room to relax and watch the tank


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[Stylo328]

I second what was said above. I wouldn't be ducting anywhere. I suspect all the electronics under the tank also generate a fair amount of heat, so putting a fan there moving air aimed at the sump and in an angle such that it allows the air under the tank to be blown to the outside (inside the house). Your ac should have no issue getting rid of the humidity generated so long as it is inside the house and it is not ridiculous amounts.

Thanks for the advice. Right now I've got the front doors removed on the stand and the tank is reaching a daytime high of roughly 82°. The overnight low is just over 80°. I'm still weighing options and will likely address it during the week between Christmas and New Years while I'm off from work.

 

[Stylo328]

Wow tank looks amazing. Are you putting some furniture in the room to relax and watch the tank


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Thank you very much! We're trying to decide what to do with that room now. It used to house the foosball table but that has since been relocated. The space is a little awkward. A pool table would be awesome but the risk for the tank is too great.


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[McGee10]

Thanks for the advice. Right now I've got the front doors removed on the stand and the tank is reaching a daytime high of roughly 82°. The overnight low is just over 80°. I'm still weighing options and will likely address it during the week between Christmas and New Years while I'm off from work.

I Love what you have done! Thanks for sharing!
You may want to check the temp calibration, My Apex was off by over 2 degrees.

 

[worm5406]

Where are the heaters/vents in comparison to your tank?

Do you have a spare temp probe?

Place it outside the tank in the ambiant air, if you have a spare. See if it is that warm outside the tank.

On my tank I can see when the AC cuts on in the summer.

 

[jonnyu]

Thank you very much! We're trying to decide what to do with that room now. It used to house the foosball table but that has since been relocated. The space is a little awkward. A pool table would be awesome but the risk for the tank is too great.


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I say build a nice bar. You have a lot of options with that space.


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[Stylo328]

Double or Nothing... AJ's 405-Gallon Reef Savvy Upgrade

I say build a nice bar. You have a lot of options with that space.


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Thanks for the suggestion. I'll give that some thought and see what the boss says [emoji6]

I Love what you have done! Thanks for sharing!

You may want to check the temp calibration, My Apex was off by over 2 degrees.

Thank you very much! I really appreciate the kind words. I am going to go ahead and order a pair of thermometers to calibrate the Apex. Appreciate the suggestion.

Where are the heaters/vents in comparison to your tank?

Do you have a spare temp probe?

Place it outside the tank in the ambiant air, if you have a spare. See if it is that warm outside the tank.

On my tank I can see when the AC cuts on in the summer.

I just added a spare temp probe to the canopy to control the fans. Still thinking my best option is to open a vent between the back of the stand and the intake to the A/C closet. That should really help.



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[Stylo328]

Time for a long overdue update.

There's been a lot of tweaking going on over the past couple of weeks. For starters I installed a pair of polished aluminum shelves to organize food in the stand. They were ordered via Amazon and are of much higher quality than I had expected for the price. They installed easily and now all the food is up off the floor and organized on the shelves.

I also added a temperature probe inside the canopy to control the fans. This has been much more efficient than relying on the water temperature to turn the fans on and off.

We cleaned out all the media in the calcium reactor, installed the starboard underneath it, had the CO2 tanks filled and plumbed it all in.

In order to help with the microbubble issue, I relocated the skimmer to the left chamber of the sump. This along with additional tuning of the drains and adding a few additional filter pads has really improve the situation.

Also added carbon and started running one of the BRS jumbo reactors. I had to remove the second one in order to relocate the skimmer and will reinstall that for GFO over the next couple of days.

I also added a magnetic Frag rack to the back wall with wrasse caves. I don't have a photo, but it looks pretty natural given the placement.

Finally, we added a few fish to the tank today. A pair of Onyx Picasso clowns, a Japanese four-line wrasse, two reinfordi gobies, and a labouti fairy wrasse.



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[worm5406]

Nice update. Thanks for sharing.

 

[dgasmd]

Are you planning on filling that middle sump chamber with anything like rubble Rick for pods or chaeto?

 

[Stylo328]

Are you planning on filling that middle sump chamber with anything like rubble Rick for pods or chaeto?

I haven't decided yet. May make it a display for non reef-safe fish. Or if nothing else, a refugium. We'll see...

Nice update. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks.


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[Stylo328]

I hate micro bubbles!!!! I am losing the battle and the war!

As you can hopefully see from the photos, they are everywhere! I relocated the skimmer, tuned the drains, set the Vectra's low, then high, then somewhere in the middle, then a combination thereof. I have added filter floss to the baffles along with three layers of pond filter media and still the tank is filled with the bubbles.

I have undone and redone the true union ball valves, applied silicone to the PVC joints and still the bubbles persist. I am at a complete loss of what else to do. Living with them is not an option.

Add to that, I had an issue with the reeflink where the lights on the unit turned white and red and it stopped working. A quick phone call to ecotech and they walked me through reformatting the SD card and it seems to be working again. I had to disconnect two of the MP40s and reconnect them in order for the schedule to take.

This week the tank had caught me every step, still no regrets. Although I do miss how well tuned he 187 was. It was on complete auto pilot.

On a more positive note, all of the fish that were recently added seem to be doing well and everyone is feeding on hikari brine infused with metroplex and focus along with PE mysis (a few fish had whit stringy stools).

If you have any suggestions on the microbubbles, I am all ears.




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[Stylo328]

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[worm5406]

Can you take a video of the return pump intake. Lets see what is getting into it. I hate micro bubbles too.

 

[mike810]

Are you using two MP60s and one MP40 on the rear panel for flow in the tank? How is the flow and do you feel like you need more like on the side panels?

I'm starting a 8x3x2 and was planning to put four MP40s on the rear along with two tunzes 6255.

 

[Stylo328]

It's been a while since my last update and there are a few changes to note.

For starters, in an attempt to address the microbubble situation, I redid all of the intake plumbing for both Vectras. I took the pumps apart to check the impellers for any debris and to make sure that the o-rings were properly seated. I also removed several layers of the Matala pond filter pads, lowering the water level in the sump and increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the bubble traps. I also swapped the Vectras and plumbing from one return to the other to isolate if it is a pump issue. While not 100% gone, the bubbles are 90% better. And the ones that remain continue to come from the right side of the tank. I will take another crack at finding the air leak this weekend.

After manually dosing for a few weeks, I finally got the MTC ProCal up and running with the aquarium plants.com CarbonDoser. I chose to use reborn in the main chamber and ARM in the second chamber. I have the CarbonDoser set to 6 psi with 6 seconds between bubbles. I've been testing alk twice daily and it is holding constant. I tried adding a second PH probe to the Apex, but that was a fail. As soon as I plug the second probe in the second port, the main port goes out of whack. I'm going to give Neptune a call as I was unable to find a remedy online. Worst case scenario I will add a PM1.

Speaking of PH; with a full house, wife, kids, dogs, etc... PH has been ranging from 7.7 at night to a high of 8.1 during the day. Having had good results with kalk on the 187, I added a PM Nielsen reactor online with the ATO. Just got it plumbed last night.

I'm optimistic this will help. Also looking to add a refugium to the same end. I am evaluating lighting options now to maximize growth while keeping heat down. May end up going with a Kessil purple light, but also considering the radion fresh water version. Happy to hear your thoughts.

Here are a few pictures of the aquascape for the fuge.

I've added a few fish since he last update. Two rainfordi gobies, a pair of onyx Picasso clowns, a labouti fairy wrasse, blue sided fairy wrasse, Japanese four line wrasse, and a rosy scaled fairy wrasse. All are eating and I have seen no sign of disease. I had to trap and remove the four line as he was an absolute terror, attacking the rosy scale and mystery wrasse ceaselessly. He is now in the sump, pending return to the LFS.

Here are a few random photos, including one of the clowns who have chosen the orange galaxea as their host.

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[Stylo328]

Rest of the pictures. Sorry for the quality as they were taken with the iPhone.

Thanks for checking in.


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[worm5406]

Even though you used an iPhone, wont hold it against you, very good update.

I have enjoyed following this thread. I have a micro-bubbles problem to. I am getting ready to put in 2 Vectra L1 and maybe that will fix it.

 

[Stylo328]

Even though you used an iPhone, wont hold it against you, very good update.

I have enjoyed following this thread. I have a micro-bubbles problem to. I am getting ready to put in 2 Vectra L1 and maybe that will fix it.

Thank you very much for being part of the thread and your contributions. I will tell you that I have been impressed with the L1s and how powerful they are. With both pumps on and three MP40qd's in night mode at a constant 20%, that EB8 is drawing under 1 amp. And at peak with all pumps, it maxes out under 2 amps.

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