jemw's 90 gallon

[jemw]

Aquascaping in progress

Aquascaping in progress

Started my aquscaping yesterday. Here are some pics. Vertical is built on glass rods, but didn't want to go too high so I could add additional links between the pillars. The four pieces low and in front are loose, and may be taken out to add depth perception or moved to connect the pillars. Any suggestions before I super glue them together?

 

[jemw]

Water progress

Water progress

Making RO/DI water is slower than I thought it would be. I only have the three tubs (13 useable gallons each), but I only have two circulation pumps which puts me at 26 gallons twice a day. Estimate the tank and sump to be 103 actual gallons (measuring actual gallons put in as I go) based on displacements/overflow point/sump water height for effective movement. Looks like it will take me about 2 to 2.5 days for this.

 

[jemw]

Tagging along, excited to see this build! I actually just moved to Texas from Newbury Park. As soon as we get settled in our new house I'm looking into a very similar build.

If you go with the SCA90, you might want a smaller sump. I'm really pressed for space in the stand for equipment. Had to special order a 5 gallon for the ATO ($$), and it barely fits.

 

[jemw]

The water is in

The water is in

It took me the better part of 4 days to make the RO/DI water but I'm done this afternoon. The tank and sump only held 86 gallons which seems like a lot less than it should be for a 90 gallon tank and huge sump. I may have to add more as the rock soaks it up, it shouldn't as I cooked the rock for almost 7 weeks. Will let it settle in and test for salinity tomorrow. I have an emergency 1 gallon of water in case I need it. Fired up my MP40wQD and letting it "massage" the water. Even though I ran each tank of RO/DI overnight after adding salt, it can always use a good stirring. Trying to set the level in the sump so the skimmer doesn't "wet skim" all the time. I think I am close as the last adjustment did the trick. Assuming that I have stabilized the water level and reached the proper salinity level, I will install my ATO tomorrow. Sure wish I had my Apex. Thought there might be a dam burst of shipments since they had identified their problem, but haven't heard from BRS that they have shipped. Heavy sigh :sad1:

 

[jemw]

Sounds good!
Also it wouldn't hurt to read a little about TDs creep. Which is where for the first few minutes the RoDi is running the water coming out isn't at zero since water has been sitting in the unit. That is one benefit of having a TDs meter inline with your RoDi unit, so you know your water is at zero before you start collecting.
Not sure how much the first couple minutes of the non zero water matters, but something to look into!

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

I have a dual TDS - before the DI and after.

 

[jemw]

In last phase of setup

In last phase of setup

Spoke to BRS yesterday - I won't get my Apex until somewhere between the 5th and 12th of August.:sad1: In the meantime, I have finally resolved myself to not using the Tunze 5074 Calcium Dispenser. I should have done my research more thorougly. It's design is specifically for placement in the ATO reservoir. To put it anywhere else would be an "at risk" situation. The connections for the water tubes are not safe for external use.

I'm also having issue with Tunze ATO. The electric eye isn't sensing the water level properly, and it just keeps on pumping. Did some research and have two changes before I call it an equipment failure. 1) Clean the eye with warm soapy water. 2) Relocate it further from the skimmer. If these don't work I'll be contacting Tunze.

After fixing the gurgling from the overflow, it appears that the pump in the skimmer is too noisy. Will investigate alternative today.

As a side note: Since we are in the summer heat I wanted to know what heat to expect from the various pumps and lights of the system. I have left the heater unplugged and monitoring the tank temp find that it is a fairly constant 75.1 with about 1/2 degree.

 

[jemw]

Tunze Osmolator 3155 issue

Tunze Osmolator 3155 issue

The issue of the 3155 pump not shutting off has been resolved. Spoke to Roger this morning, and after following the two suggestions posted in the Sponsor Forums under Tunze and not having any luck. Roger inquired as to where it was placed in the sump. I had placed it in the middle chamber, and he suggested I move it to the chamber where the return pump is located.

I did, and walah - problem solved. And many thanks to Roger.:bounce1:

 

[jemw]

Starting the stabilization

Starting the stabilization

Now that I have the sump set up and working properly with the ATO functioning correctly, it's time to start stabilizing.

Measured salinity at 1.023 which is about what I expected with all the ATO pushes. Ran a salinity calcalator program which said I needed to add 3.93 1/2 cup measures to bring it up to 1.025. Mixed 3 1/2 cup measures mixed in two cups of RO/DI and poured into the main tank where it should get a good mix overnight.

I think I will initially raise the temp to 78º and see how the tests look.

Also cannot use the AquaMaxx BioMaxx BioPellet Reactor - too large a diameter to fit anywhere in the stand. Ordered a Two Little Fishes PhosBan Reactor 150 today. It will just fit under my stand.

Have limited space above the sump to place my Jabaeo dosing pump. Will measure size and have the local glass company make me up a 1/4" safety glass piece to sit the dosing pump on. My pump supports dosing 4 items, guess I'll be researching the most common requirements needed. Calc and Alk come to mind.

 

[jemw]

Processing

Processing

Salinity settled in and stable at 1.025. After three days of firing up the heater, the tank temp is at 78º - Would like to see at 79º to cover night time drops.

Set my Radion for a 1 hour sunrise and 1 hour sunset with 9 hours of daytime but only at 20% as I have no corals in the tank. The MP40wQD schedule is set for Constant Speed 20% between 10PM and 8AM with: Reefcrest 80% between 8AM and 1PM and Tidal Swell 80% between 1PM and 5PM, followed by Lagoon 75% between 5PM and 10PM. Interesting the effect that all modes other thatn Constant Speed affect the trickle flow in my herbie overflow.

Starting dosing with SeaChem Stability two days ago. Should be able to add some fish this Tuesday. Debating between 5 Blue Green Chromis or a pair of Percula Clownfish. I will eventually have both, but which should go in first?

Will fire up the skimmer when I add the fish. It REALLY adds a lot of bubbles to the tank. Not sure that is right, will do further research.

 

[jemw]

First water tests

First water tests

Did my first water tests this morning.
Salinity - Same as yesterday 1.025
Phosphates (PO4) - 0.04 PPM Not running any filtration just the return pump
Mg - 1360
Kalk - 7.8 dKH
Calc - 400 ppm
Ammonia - 0

I expected to see lower levels for Mg,Alk,Calc as I pumped a lot of water through my ATO before I got it dialed in.

No test for Nitrites or Nitrates as the tank is only 5 days old. Even with SeaChem Stability, I don't expect to see any. Especially since I won't put any fish in until tomorrow.

 

[jemw]

Setbak

Setbak

Had a bit of a setback yesterday. After turning back on my skimmer, I noticed bubbles galore coming from the base. Shut it down and removed it to find that the connection to the internal pump area of the shell was cracked in several places. I have had noise issues with this from the beginning. The pump being extremely noisy. I have to assume that the imbalance which probably caused the noise eventually caused the cracking.

Contacted Steve yesterday, and he had a new skimmer at my door by 10:00 this morning. Now that's what I call SERVICE!

 

[jemw]

Settling in

Settling in

Modified the MP40wQD to Reefcrest 90%, Tidal Swell 90% and Lagoon 80% to get a little more water moving. By the way, I am SOO impressed with how quiet the MP40wQD is.

It's been a full 10 days of SeaChem Stability will hopefully pick up a fish this weekend. The new protein skimmer is still in the micro bubble mode so that may cause a delay in adding livestock.

The Phosban 150 and attachments arrived day before yesterday. Configured and installed using my biopellets yesterday. Fit perfectly in the space I have at the front of the sump. Although the flow using the Sicce Syncra Silent 1.0 Pump (251 GPH) is perfect, the noise of the pump is unacceptable. I'll give it a couple of days to quiet down before replacing it.

After a little research, discovered I could totally submerge my UV on it's side, which I did yesterday. Not running it yet as SeaChem Stability instructions request turning UV off.

If UPS delivers on schedule, I will have my Apex on Monday.:bounce1: Guess it's time to delve into and document my installation and configuration of the device. I already have the Amazon Kindle Fire, but not yet configured.

Still waiting for a quote from local glass company for the piece that I will set my Jebao Dosing Pump on. It's been two days now. Looks like with so many other things I purchase, local retailers fall flat on their face and I end up purchasing through the internet. I still need to find a 4th storage container for dosing. I purchased a three chamber when I thought I would be able to use the Tunze 5074 in parallel with my ATO.

Inside the stand is pretty messy right now as I just have the wires hanging waiting for my Apex. One discovery I did make when I had the skimmer issue is that it isn't wise to strap items which require maintenance just to have it look pretty. Sometimes a little messy is necessy.

 

[jemw]

After much searching

After much searching

The SCA-302 skimmer does not function properly if just placed in the sump of the SCA 90 PNP. Micro bubbles up the ying yang. After several days of them and an inability to adjust out of the wet skim mode, I finally opted to go look at what others have found. I specifically ask Steve when I visited SCA before my purchase what height the skimmer would have to be at. He told me not necessary to raise it, just sit it on the bottom. Well, he was wrong about that. The sump partitions put the water level at 10.5 inches which is just too high. Today I picked up some egg crate and Schedule 40 plumbing to raise my skimmer up 4 inches. This will meet the requisite water level of 6 inches which according to what I have read is the optimum for the skimmer. Will install tomorrow.

 

[jemw]

On with the show

On with the show

Built my platform and installed to raise my skimmer to the six inch water depth. Seems to be happy with it. Still in break in mode with micro bubbles, but a LOT less than before.

Finally received my Apex. Installation didn't go well, but the tech support guy at Neptune worked his magic, and I'm in business. Just to put it on track, the main issue was that my WiFi connection was weak, and when I did the update, although it did update, a reboot left me without a connection. After analyzing what was going on with the tech support guy, we discovered that everytime someone walked between the Apex and the WiFi router, it would drop connection. Opted for adding a WiFi Extender which boosted my signal strength to 80% with 99% quality. As with my ReefLink hardware, I assigned a permanent IP address to the Apex so it won't have to request a new one each time it connects - this adds to the reliability of everything to do with networking the device. Added the probes, and configured the AC connection ports for my equipment.

I still have the dosing pump to configure, but not an urgent matter.

I reduced my MP40Wqd somewhat to:
ReefCrest and Tidal Swell to 73% and Lagoon to 66%.

Configured the Apex to run the UV filter for two hours a day. And set the heater to be controlled by Apex rather than itself. Temp set for 78-79º which should be great.

Not as much power being drawn as I thought. The Light is at 60 watts and the equipment connected to the Apex (with heater off) is about 111 watts. Heater when on adds 200 watts, but it's not on that much. In aquariums of the past, I was running 500+ watts.

Now that everything is in, I will give it two or three days to settle out before making water measurements and adjusting.

Also configured the $49 Amazon fire as described in the Apex video, and set it up as a run all time monitor next to the tank.

 

[jemw]

Full set of water measurements

Full set of water measurements

After all the ins and outs with the protein skimmer and the adjusting the water level in the sump for the platform under the skimmer, plus installation of the Apex, let the tank settle out for 24 hours and did my initial water parameter tests.

All tests performed with ReSea Pro. Not looking good yet.
Water temp - 78º
Salinity - 1.023/31%
Ph - 8.2 (Apex shows 8.19) Apex is verified at this point
Amonia (NH3/NH4) - 0
Nitrite (NO2) - 0
Nitrate (NO3) - 0 Verified with two different kits
Phosphate (PO4) - 0.08
Alk (Kh) - 9.1dKH
Ca - 390
Mg - 1160

Looks like I have some dosing to do.

 

[jemw]

Fish added

Fish added

Last Saturday (8/13) added 5 Blue Green Chromis and 2 Ocellaris Clowns. Day 4 and all are well.

 

[jemw]

Bye Bye biopellets

Bye Bye biopellets

Woke up this morning to an unusual hum coming from the tank. Looked inside the sump to see biopellet material scattered across the sump and a build up of it in the skimmer :thumbdown. Turned the biopellet reactor off and isolated the hum to the return pump. Looks like a cleaning or replacement is in order here. Not sure why the biopellets reacted this way, the flow in the chamber was slow and gentle as per the instructions. Either way, won't run this risk again - biopellets are bye bye. Looks like I'll be looking into Vodka dosing.

 

[jemw]

Better now

Better now

Removed the biopellets, did a water change and cleanup in the sump. Hum from return pump is gone and the tank as a whole seems cleaner.

 

[jemw]

Thought I was having an algae outbreak - but

Thought I was having an algae outbreak - but

Thought I was having an algae outbreak - but after removing the biopellet reactor and a couple of days of circulation, the brown on the rocks is gone. Question is did I have an outbreak and it cleaned itself up that quickly, or was there a deposit of biopellets on the rock which dissipated with a couple of days of flow? Either way, it's nice to see the rock back to it's light color.

 

[GfordQC]

Liking the progress you have been making. Going to be doing a 90 SCA myself and have enjoyed your insight. Got any pictures of the tank to show off?