So, the tank has been running for about 4 days now, no major issues. A couple of things/notes.
Still need to make the wood blocks to cover the light brackets.
Want to make a shelf for the "fish closet" which is a tiny little closet in the basement under the stairs (( most of it is behind a panel, and is a crawl space that has the sump/pump, and not the fish kind
)). That will hold my RO/DI water, made up salt water and the like. Would like to be able to use the closet to hold a few coats too.
It is behind the old 75, pretty much ends where the overflow begins, if that makes sense.
From when we were painting.
I plan on making this shelf/stand after Xmas, when I get my table saw stand -- at least I am hoping that I do.
Right now, I have the ATO container out in the open (( on a piece of 1" wood )), and plan on having a stand made for it -- will make the tank's stand, hold the container in the bottom, and have room on top for a 20 gallon QT. I will have to make sure that the ATO container doesn't get any higher off the ground. As it is right now, if I fill it all the way (( 10 gallons )), a siphon will start for about 0.5 gallons, which with my water volume isn't a huge deal, but....
I have a clip on fan attached to the canopy to help keep the canopy temps down when the lights are on. Working great -- dropped the canopy temps by 20 degrees. However, the water is evaporating too quickly and it is cooling down the tank too much. Going to be a fine line of keeping the canopy temps down, but not have the fan running too much. The fan only runs when the lights are on, think I will set up the APEX to run it for 5 minutes, and than off for 2. Will track the temps, and evaporation to see how that works out. If it works out, I will leave it be until the springtime, and will have to reevaluate it -- with warmer outside temps, and the air not being so dry.
Want to dig deeper into the APEX moonlights, right now I just have the moon raising in the evening, and setting in the morning, with no variation in intensity on a day to day basis. Want it to follow the true moon phases, but only at night time, at least I think that I do.
Moved a baseball sized rock from the 75 over to this tank, and added a few clams on the half shell -- will test the water this weekend. Might pick up a few small pieces of live rock to help seed things. Ignoring the bacteria levels for a second... want to have some seeded rocks in there for my 2 dwarf angels (( Centropyge acanthops and Centropyge venustus )) to pick at during the day. Both are eating prepared foods, but want to make this an easy switch over for them. Plus, not in a huge hurry to take down the 75, but would like it down come March, so can make some changes to that room.
Looking at the amp usage, I most likely would have gotten away with one 20 amp circuit, but still glad that I went with 2 -- gives me plenty of leeway. The condx probe is still settling in -- jumps from 35 to 40 over the course of the day. Have read that that is normal for its first week. The pH is running between 7.90 and 7.98, but I still need to calibrate that probe. The 2 150 heaters seem to be keeping the temps in check, but may switch one of them out for a 250 watt one -- have it already. Will make this switch for 2 reasons --- so they don't both have to run so much, and I need one of the 150s for water change bucket #2. Plan on doing weekly 10 gallon changes on this tank, using 2 5 gallon buckets -- remember that fish closet is small.
