drummereef's 180g in-wall build

[SantaMonica]

I am a little suspect of the Brute container as I said above

The thing that gets you with plastics is the mold-release, which is an organic coating that non-reef people don't care about. When filled with 0 TDS water however, the organic coating feeds carbon to the bacteria until the coating is used up. Solution? Scrub the insides of new containers with soap and water and rinse well.

 

[drummereef]

I checked back to the beginning of this thread and I'm a solid 4 years behind you. Sigh. Well at least there's still a trail to follow still.

LOL fishcatdog. I feel like I'm playing catch up everyday.

+1

I need to finish one last detail and I'll get some new equipment shots posted up.

The thing that gets you with plastics is the mold-release, which is an organic coating that non-reef people don't care about. When filled with 0 TDS water however, the organic coating feeds carbon to the bacteria until the coating is used up. Solution? Scrub the insides of new containers with soap and water and rinse well.

Thanks for posting SantaMonica! Is this the same for a ~3 year old Brute that has already had numerous RO/DI and saltwater fillings? BTW, I follow your scrubber products on the LA Fish Guy's YouTube show. Good stuff!!! :thumbsup:

 

[drummereef]

Latest FTS. I desperately need to calibrate my monitor. I think that's the missing link with the color representation from Lightroom to Photobucket. But anyhow, here's my best attempt tonight.

 

[shaggss]

Thanks shaggss. I am not dosing anything at the moment. I had been dosing AAs to see if I could raise nitrate but no such luck. I've heard good things about the Red Sea products. However, I'm not sure the Energy A/B is going to help with browning. That sounds more like a PO4 issue to me. Typically corals start fading if they are nutritionally deficient, at least in theory they do. But when corals start browning all things point to nutrient excess of some kind, usually phosphates.

Thanks Brett for your insight. I test with the Hanna Phosphorous and it is 0.03 most of the time. I have very little visible algae in the tank so I believe it to be a relatively accurate reading. NO3 is zero using Salifert. I run a small amount of GFO/Carbon and dose a small amount of vinegar. I am slowly raising the intensity of my GHL LEDs. I think I was too scared of bleaching and had them too dim, which I have read is a cause of browning too.

I used to use Reefers Best Salt which is widely used by the Zeovit guys and I was shocked when I got a high reading of PO4 too. RHF replied to my questions about it and he explained why, though I can't remember! I will try to find the info for you.

Here is one of his posts:

No, you misunderstood his distinction. Water at room temperature does not degrade polyethylene plastic (as in a Rubbermaid Brute can). Zero. Nada. Absolutely positively zero degradation.

But impurities on or in the plastic, added intentionally or from a bird in the store crapping on it, those are what can come off.

Most of those will be readily removed by a single cleaning, if you are concerned, and that is a fine plan. Such impurities cannot and will not provide a substantial ongoing source of problematic phosphate.

my emphasis...

And another thread.......

Great FTS BTW!

 

[summitwynds]

Great full tank shot!

 

[SantaMonica]

Is this the same for a ~3 year old Brute

Ahh... probably not; would have been consumed a while ago.

 

[d2mini]

Looks great, brett!

If you are noticing a big color difference (looks fine to me) make sure the jpg has the srgb color profile embedded, not regular rgb.

 

[drummereef]

Thanks Brett for your insight. I test with the Hanna Phosphorous and it is 0.03 most of the time. I have very little visible algae in the tank so I believe it to be a relatively accurate reading. NO3 is zero using Salifert. I run a small amount of GFO/Carbon and dose a small amount of vinegar. I am slowly raising the intensity of my GHL LEDs. I think I was too scared of bleaching and had them too dim, which I have read is a cause of browning too.

I used to use Reefers Best Salt which is widely used by the Zeovit guys and I was shocked when I got a high reading of PO4 too. RHF replied to my questions about it and he explained why, though I can't remember! I will try to find the info for you.

Here is one of his posts:

my emphasis...

And another thread.......

Great FTS BTW!

Thanks for the info on the PO4 issue Shaggss, makes sense. As for your browning issues, I really think there's something to be said for the balance between NO3 and PO4. You and I both ran ULNS for quite a while, you having the upper hand on feeding corals in a low nutrient system when you ran Zeovit. But outside of a ULNS I'm on the side that NO3 needs to be at least in low concentrations for the corals to uptake and utilize. When the system is NO3 deficient, which is easy for imbalance to occur in a ULNS, the corals look for "food" somewhere. If the only available nutrient in the water column is PO4, even at trace amounts, they will use it as a food source which in my opinion/experience is a bad thing as it leads to malnutrition. NO3 is essential for overall coral health and the general nutrient balance of the tank. I've noticed a significant difference in the health/appearance of my corals since I've been proactive about raising NO3. I'd look into doing that if you are getting away from the ULNS. I need a little more time for the corals to do their thing but I plan on doing a full review of what I've been up to in regards to "rebalancing" my tank in the near future. In the mean time, here's a couple interesting articles to read.

http://www.coralscience.org/main/articles/nutrition-6/how-corals-feed

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2012CorRe..31..207C

Great full tank shot!

Thanks summitwynds.

Ahh... probably not; would have been consumed a while ago.

Gotcha, thanks SantaMonica. Appreciate the help.

Looks great, brett!

If you are noticing a big color difference (looks fine to me) make sure the jpg has the srgb color profile embedded, not regular rgb.

Thanks Dennis. I'm using a Canon XSi and editing in Lightroom 3. Is this something that needs to be done on exporting the jpeg? The pic looks great in Lightroom, but the color tone shifts from purple to blue after exporting. I had read something about Lightroom using your monitor's gamma to calibrate RGB when exporting thus the shift in color/hue. Honestly it's WAY beyond my photo skills. :lol: Just wish I could get my exports to look like they do in Lightroom. :headwally:

FWIW, I use the sRGB color space setting in the Export function of Lightroom. But like I said, the export always looks drastically different than the image in the Develop window. :uhoh3:

 

[shaggss]

Thanks Brett, great reading, much appreciated! I think I will cut back slightly on the feelings and increase the light intensity (slowly!).

Cheers

 

[drummereef]

Thanks Brett, great reading, much appreciated! I think I will cut back slightly on the feelings and increase the light intensity (slowly!).

Cheers

Sounds good to me. Good luck my friend. :thumbsup:

 

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


I wanted to update you guys on my Electrical Panel Rebuild project. It's finished! Well, finished for now at least. Like I said before I wanted to route the wiring for a clean, organized look that incorporated elements of custom PCs - like custom sleeved wiring. I need to clean up a couple things on the back of the panel wall, but I will post some pics of that side asap. Here's how it turned out.


I used a variety of rubber grommets and plastic hole plugs for the project. I bought all the necessary supplies from McMaster-Carr.

The soft plastic hole plugs work perfect for making custom grommets. I drilled a hole in the center then made a cut on one side with a straight razor. That way I can easily remove the grommet from the wall/panel when adjusting the electrical cords.

You can see here they work great for both the power cords from the Apex EB8 Modules and the Aquabus cables. I used a 1" hole saw to cut the hole for the grommets.

I even used them to route the plug ends from the EB8 Modules through the drywall. The cord on the top right is for my fuge LED. That is the next project to complete... More updates on that soon.

More to come... :fish1:

 

[drummereef]

And now for the "glamour shots". LOL

More to come... :fish1:

 

[drummereef]

 

[summitwynds]

Love it!

 

[bmullikin1]

If my tank were 1/2 as organized id be in heaven, do you make house calls.

 

[silentscream]

Amazing work Brett! Where do the cords go once you route them into the wall?

 

[Saltydrip]

Beautifully clean. I love it. You and Dennis are are total inspiration.

 

[aquaph8]

You realize if my wife saw that I can keep aquarium stuff that clean it would give her ideas about other stuff around the house, right? Amazing man, like a work of art.

 

[fishcatdog66]

Well that's it then.I was going to ask you to look at my sump room progress but now...Wow!:hmm5:

 

[rickcasa]

God's in the details. Impeccable finishing touches!!