Charley Diesing
New member
Hey just wanna say I'm a long time follower of this tank! I love it! And also I'm subscribed to BRS. And totally recognized your setup! 
drummereef's 180g in-wall build
- Thread starter drummereef
- Start date
Krazie4Acans
New member
I would agree. My experience with bio balls is that they only produce NO3 when they get full of detritus and debris and then get stirred up. So there wouldn't be any really immediate change for you unless you had someone with an old sump that was dirty and full of bio balls that you could pull from.
Krazie:jester:
drummereef
Team RC
Thank you cr2jones, and...
<img src="/images/welcome.gif" width="500" height="62"><br><b><i><big><big>To Reef Central</b></i></big></big>
Crazy man. I was doing some more reading again last night and quite a few people advocate dosing Aminos to raise NO3. They were saying any unused Aminos in the water column will break down into Nitrate. I have some here that I haven't dosed in quite a while, so maybe I'll do some experimenting to see what happens now that I'm running GFO to offset the PO4. Basically a really expensive way to dose Nitrate if that makes sense... :lol: I'll report back.
Hey just wanna say I'm a long time follower of this tank! I love it! And also I'm subscribed to BRS. And totally recognized your setup!
Ha! Thanks Charley.
Gotcha. Thanks for the input Krazie.
Thanks dahay.
cromedogg33
Member
I've heard of the amino acids, but like you said a fairly expensive solution. I've started dosing amino's about 3 days ago trying to raise mine as well.
I have been throwing food in like crazy but that just seemed to raise my p04 and never touched my nitrates.
I normally do 10-20g water changes weekly to keep my ritteri happy, so I'm sure that has something to do with my nitrates staying down.
As far as bryopsis....don't even let that stuff get onto your rockwork. I would dry out your overflows if you have any of it. That crap will be the death of me.
I have been throwing food in like crazy but that just seemed to raise my p04 and never touched my nitrates.
I normally do 10-20g water changes weekly to keep my ritteri happy, so I'm sure that has something to do with my nitrates staying down.
As far as bryopsis....don't even let that stuff get onto your rockwork. I would dry out your overflows if you have any of it. That crap will be the death of me.
drummereef
Team RC
Yep, sounds like "sterile system" syndrome. What I've noticed is any TINY change in anything can set off a chain of events that leads to a bacterial, algae, dino, etc bloom. I definitely think there's something to the RedField Theory and the inability to manage PO4 because of the lack of available NO3. Any minute change in this kind of system will cause PO4 to release and cause issues rather than the system being able to cope with short term nutrient load - like when you re-scaped the back wall. Le me know how things progress for you, interested in hearing your progress.
How much and what brand Aminos are you dosing? I've been alternating between Zeo Aminos and Brightwell. Doing 12 drops of Zeo alternating daily with 40 drops of the Brightwell. Seems like a lot but that's about a 1/4th the recommended "broadcast" dosage of the Brightwell AA's. I think it's far less concentrated than the Zeo AA's. No substantial changes so far but yesterday water clarity was incredibly clear. Hope that's a step in the right direction.
cromedogg33
Member
I just ordered the brightwell to try those....been to cheap to pay for the zeo amino. Right now I'm using the fuel by seachem...the aquavitro line. It's a bit more of a complete product, but I'm nervous about all the added vitamins as I've heard you can do some bad stuff with those.
drummereef
Team RC
Sounds good. Let me know how you do with the Brightwell AAs. I don't think they are as concentrated as some other products so let me know what you think.
drummereef
Team RC
UPDATE:
As you might recall, my LED drivers were running a little on the warm side. I tried swapping one of the old drivers for a new one but the temps still ran uncomfortably warm at 100%. So I decided to add a couple cooling fans to help cool them down. I feel fairly confident I can now run them at 100% for the 10 hours they are programmed.
This was technically my first "real" attempt at fabricating acrylic. I researched quite a bit about line-bending but was always put off by the expense of commercial tables. So I set out to build my own. There's quite a bit of information on how to build a DIY line-bender on the interwebs. One good site is http://www.wa4dsy.com/robot/hot-wire-plastic-bender So without going into great detail, I'll just show you the overview and what I made with it. Here we go!
Here's an overview of the line-bending table. Basically it's a 24"x24" table made from MDF. There is a Dado that runs the width of the table. Inside the Dado is 1/2" Aluminum U Channel. A length of 24 gauge Nichrome Wire is stretched between two screws. A small spring keeps tension on the wire to keep it from sagging when heated.
To heat the wire I built a simple power supply. It consists of a 12 volt / 8.3 Amp tranformer, a fuse, and a lighting dimmer. This allows variable control over the power to the wire. An excellent resource for Transformers and Nichrome Wire is http://www.jacobs-online.biz/index.htm
You can see here, the two leads from the power supply connect to the wire with small alligator clips.
Once powered up, the Nichrome Wire heats up red hot. Nichrome (resistance wire) is the same stuff used in hair dryers and toasters. There's a brilliant calculator on Jacobs-Online website that calculates voltage, temperature, wire length etc necessary to heat the wire. I'm running 12 volts over 18" of 24 gauge wire. That will heat the wire to an approximate temperature of 1140F. This will heat acrylic for bending up to 3/16" easily. For 1/4" stock, a heavier gauge wire would be needed for more heat or heating both sides of the piece by flipping it would likely work.
I also built a simple 90 degree jig so my bends would be accurate. It bends inside and outside corners by flipping it upside down.
The reason I went to all this trouble is because a line bender makes incredibly clean, tight radius corners. Much more accurate and distortion free than using a heat gun or other "wide" heat source. With my setup it takes 3 minutes to heat the 1/8" acrylic hot enough for bending.
Here's the finished mounting bracket. Once the bends were made I cut holes for the fans with a hole saw and also drilled holes for the mounting screws. I used 1/8" Matte White Acrylic from Tap Plastics for this project. Super clean look, I love the matte finish.
To be continued... :fish1:
As you might recall, my LED drivers were running a little on the warm side. I tried swapping one of the old drivers for a new one but the temps still ran uncomfortably warm at 100%. So I decided to add a couple cooling fans to help cool them down. I feel fairly confident I can now run them at 100% for the 10 hours they are programmed.
This was technically my first "real" attempt at fabricating acrylic. I researched quite a bit about line-bending but was always put off by the expense of commercial tables. So I set out to build my own. There's quite a bit of information on how to build a DIY line-bender on the interwebs. One good site is http://www.wa4dsy.com/robot/hot-wire-plastic-bender So without going into great detail, I'll just show you the overview and what I made with it. Here we go!
Here's an overview of the line-bending table. Basically it's a 24"x24" table made from MDF. There is a Dado that runs the width of the table. Inside the Dado is 1/2" Aluminum U Channel. A length of 24 gauge Nichrome Wire is stretched between two screws. A small spring keeps tension on the wire to keep it from sagging when heated.
To heat the wire I built a simple power supply. It consists of a 12 volt / 8.3 Amp tranformer, a fuse, and a lighting dimmer. This allows variable control over the power to the wire. An excellent resource for Transformers and Nichrome Wire is http://www.jacobs-online.biz/index.htm
You can see here, the two leads from the power supply connect to the wire with small alligator clips.
Once powered up, the Nichrome Wire heats up red hot. Nichrome (resistance wire) is the same stuff used in hair dryers and toasters. There's a brilliant calculator on Jacobs-Online website that calculates voltage, temperature, wire length etc necessary to heat the wire. I'm running 12 volts over 18" of 24 gauge wire. That will heat the wire to an approximate temperature of 1140F. This will heat acrylic for bending up to 3/16" easily. For 1/4" stock, a heavier gauge wire would be needed for more heat or heating both sides of the piece by flipping it would likely work.
I also built a simple 90 degree jig so my bends would be accurate. It bends inside and outside corners by flipping it upside down.
The reason I went to all this trouble is because a line bender makes incredibly clean, tight radius corners. Much more accurate and distortion free than using a heat gun or other "wide" heat source. With my setup it takes 3 minutes to heat the 1/8" acrylic hot enough for bending.
Here's the finished mounting bracket. Once the bends were made I cut holes for the fans with a hole saw and also drilled holes for the mounting screws. I used 1/8" Matte White Acrylic from Tap Plastics for this project. Super clean look, I love the matte finish.
To be continued... :fish1:
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drummereef
Team RC
The fans I used are Arctic Cooling F8, 80mm case fans. Nice looking, quiet fans. I removed the label from the center of the blades for a cleaner look.
I also purchased a 12 volt Molex power adapter to power the fans. I opted for this because it will make it easy to swap out a fan in case one dies. I also picked up a 4-pin Molex to 2x 3-pin fan adapter cable to connect the fans to the 12 volt adapter.
Here's the finished product with the fans mounted to the bracket.
The bigger picture. Seems to be working great so far. The wire management is temporary as I'm running the fans off a simple outlet timer at the moment. I need to run another line from my EB8 this weekend and then I'll be able to program them from my Apex.
And a few new coral pics...
I also purchased a 12 volt Molex power adapter to power the fans. I opted for this because it will make it easy to swap out a fan in case one dies. I also picked up a 4-pin Molex to 2x 3-pin fan adapter cable to connect the fans to the 12 volt adapter.
Here's the finished product with the fans mounted to the bracket.
The bigger picture. Seems to be working great so far. The wire management is temporary as I'm running the fans off a simple outlet timer at the moment. I need to run another line from my EB8 this weekend and then I'll be able to program them from my Apex.
And a few new coral pics...
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igot2gats
Deeeetroit Basketball!
And a few new coral pics...
Hey Brett,
Do you start your corals on the substrate, and work them up your rock structure, or do you just start putting them on the rocks right from the get go, of where you want them?
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110galreef
New member
Man that fan gizmo is super pimp! Not sure if the mechanicals are cooler than the tank! :spin3:
Hey do you have a PAR meter? I just made one with the apoge sensor and multi meter. ~ $175 said and done and it is the coolest tool around. Now i know what my corals are getting where in the tank and also when the bulbs are truley going bad, not just guessing and replacing! Probably a better purchase than my ph probe or orp probe, which are just cool readings and really not meaninful for me once tank is established...unless you have a Calcium reactor.
Hey do you have a PAR meter? I just made one with the apoge sensor and multi meter. ~ $175 said and done and it is the coolest tool around. Now i know what my corals are getting where in the tank and also when the bulbs are truley going bad, not just guessing and replacing! Probably a better purchase than my ph probe or orp probe, which are just cool readings and really not meaninful for me once tank is established...unless you have a Calcium reactor.
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drummereef
Team RC
Thank you JM.
I bought both the 12v Molex Power Adapter and the 3-pin Adapter from FrozenCPU. http://www.frozencpu.com/ Decent prices for quality stuff. It's like a modder's candy store in there!
I considered buying on eBay but some of the stuff you find is a little shady - like not UL listed. And for electronic stuffs that's always something I look for. I have moved a couple corals around but for the most part I just put them in the tank and hoped for the best. That said, a lot of my coral frags came from fellow reefer friend's tanks. So I know roughly what lighting they were happy under in their tanks, and I can somewhat duplicate the same placement in my tank.
I will definitely look into that PAR meter setup. I've wanted to get some reading on my setup for a while but haven't had a resource for a good meter. Thanks for the heads up!
Ha, thanks Dennis.
DIY Acrylic Bender? Now you're just showing off
Haha. Next up for the bender will be a custom probe holder.
