*Johnseye's New 260g Build*

[Johnseye]

Two months without an update and a lot has been going on!

The biggest thing I've been doing is adding new fish. This has been tied with learning more about fish diseases and medications. My typical process is to do the TTM and use Prazipro. Here's how things progressed. I bought a larger sized Regal Angel which was eating but mysteriously died within 3-4 days. In the QT with it were 3 Bartlett Anthias. One died but the other two made it to the DT and are doing great. I then got another Regal Angel, this time it was a tiny baby, maybe 1-2". Sadly it died within a day. I still don't know why these fish died as there were no signs of any disease.

Because of what happened with the Regals I decided to try using CP (from Ebay) instead of TTM. In this attempt I chose a Mertensii and Saddleback Butterfly and 3 Dispar Anthias. Knowing the challenges with Butterflies from eating issues to the potential for eating coral I picked two lower risk, but still what I considered to be attractive. These fish would not eat anything. Nothing frozen, soaked in Selcon or garlic (which may be just a myth) or dry. I even tried fresh shelled clam, live tiny ghost shrimp and live black worms. The Mertensii would nibble for a moment but never really eat. I thought maybe there was an issue with flukes so I did a FW dip on the Butterflies and one Anthias. After the FW dip they went into a new QT without any CP. About a day later two of the Anthias died, the ones I didn't FW dip. Apparently there was something on these fish I couldn't see and the FW dip helped. I then added API General Cure to treat for what I thought may be flukes. After that round of treatment I moved them to a new QT with only CP. Things looked good for a couple days then I noticed some fin rot on a Dispar. The rot moved fast, eating away at his tail within a day. I added Kanaplex as soon as I noticed the rot. All fish were dead within two days. QT was heavily aerated with multiple air stones and circulation pumps.

My next attempt was with a Powder Blue Tang (PBT) and 3 Dispar Anthias. Given what I had read about PBTs, ich and flukes I decided to prophylacticly treat with CP right away, this time NLS Ich Shield, and API General Cure. All fish were eating like pigs and doing great for days. After the General Cure cycle I did a water change and added the CP back based on volume of water removed. The next day the PBT was dead along with a Dispar. In the end the other two Dispars survived and made it to the DT. The smaller of those two died as the Bartletts in the DT challenged the Dispars.

I got another PBT and this time went back to the TTM. At the end of the TTM cycle I treated with 2 rounds of Prazipro over a few weeks. The PBT did great, made it to the DT and has been integrating well, even with the Yellow Tang. She was eating frozen brine with spirulina in the QT, but now seems to just eat nori with only occasionally nibbling at the brine, Rods, or whatever other frozen food I use.

I currently have a Blue Star Leapord Wrasse and Ruby Head Wrasse in QT. They've nearly made it through TTM and are in their first round of Prazipro. They're both eating and doing well. I'll next be giving a Regal Angel a go with only the TTM and Prazi approach. Fingers crossed.

Here are some pictures of the PBT.

 

[Johnseye]

So that's where things are with my fish additions. Some progress, but it can be delicate and challenging depending on how the fish respond in captivity.

Lots of hardware changes to update on so...

ZEOvit! After several months of measuring higher than desirable nitrates and phosphates I decided to go the KZ ZEO route. I had used their products in the past, and although they are somewhat mysterious, I've found some benefit. As you read earlier in my thread I seeded the tank with ZEObak and was using KZ Aminos and Sponge Power. Unfortunately I had a dinoflagellates issue, but this appears to have been part of the tank cycle and was short lived. I did begin using KZ Coral Snow which I had luck with in the past for cyano. I'm still using it as more of a preventative but will stop when the bottle runs out.

So now I've gone to full ZEOvit. I first added the stones in a bag, and used up what carbon I had with my carbon reactor. I pulled out the GFO. Then I bought an Avast Vibe. What I love about this ZEO reactor is that I never have to shake the stones. Granted, I'm adding KZ something or other every day so shaking the stones wouldn't be a big deal, but it's nice to be able to put it on a timer with the Apex and forget about it. The carbon is now in a bag in the sump. I'm dosing ZEOstart daily along with Sponge Power and Coral Vitalizer every few days, but I have stopped Aminos for now.

And the result...Nitrates at 5 or less and Phosphates at .01. I have been battling phosphates for years and the fight is finally over. Thank you ZEOvit.

Here's a shot of the Avast Vibe reactor in the back. I'll take some better photos of it once I bring it out to change the stones. I built this one myself as opposed to Avast building it for me and saved about $100. It wasn't difficult. Also in the shot is my Tunze chiller and CO2 scubber (more on that later). Because the Tunze chiller is against a wall in the corner of this room I opened up the wall next to it to let the chiller's heat escape. There's nothing but my furnace and water heaters in the next room.

 

[dave.m]

Is it only heat escaping into the furnace room? If there is also humidity from the tank and sump you are setting yourself up for a lot of trouble as furnaces and their ducts can't deal with that much humidity for long.

Dave.M

 

[Johnseye]

Is it only heat escaping into the furnace room? If there is also humidity from the tank and sump you are setting yourself up for a lot of trouble as furnaces and their ducts can't deal with that much humidity for long.

Dave.M

Dave, I certainly hope humidity doesn't become an issue. The basement used to be very dry and this was my first summer with the DT and sump in the basement. It did get more humid in the basement than in the past. Every winter I always need to run the humidifier, we'll see how that goes this winter. The fishroom is separate and isolated by a door from the room where the DT is located. The furnace/water heater room is behind two doors, or a door and that wall. I have tops covering the sump to limit evaporation. What kind of furnace issues are you aware of with high humidity?

 

[dave.m]

Rust! Those galvanized sheets that make up most furnaces and ducts don't stand a chance against saltwater corrosion. Also any metal tools or appliances exposed will also start to deteriorate rapidly. Tanks should always be vented directly outdoors using plastic pipes.

Dave.M

 

[Johnseye]

Rust! Those galvanized sheets that make up most furnaces and ducts don't stand a chance against saltwater corrosion. Also any metal tools or appliances exposed will also start to deteriorate rapidly. Tanks should always be vented directly outdoors using plastic pipes.

Dave.M

Dave, thanks for the advice. I'll be looking out for any rust in my furnace area as well as looking to seal up the fish room even more, without defeating the heat escape from the chiller.

 

[Johnseye]

The next piece of equipment I put in was a co2 scrubber. Now that the tank is in the basement it doesn't get the same oxygen exchange as my old tank did. I noticed this with a slight reduction in PH from what I've been used to. PH would drop below 8 at night, then climb to just over 8 during the day. I wanted to get to that magic 8.3 and hold it there as much as possible. I do have a window well near the DT and during the summer I'll open up the top and slide the window open to let fresh air in. This in combination with the co2 scrubber got my PH to a fairly steady 8.3. Now that it's getting too cold to keep the window open I'll see how the scrubber does on its own, or if it was having any effect at all. It may have all been the open window.

So the scrubber is essentially a Two Little Fishies Phosban reactor filled with soda lime I got from Shopmedvet attached to my skimmer's venturi intake.

In the pictures you can see the soda lime is purple, it needs to be changed and I'm gauging when to actually change it based on PH levels. You can also see another shot of the Avast Vibe in the background. In the bottom picture of the skimmer is another improvement. I added a float valve to the top of the Lifereef skimmer. This is connected to an Apex breakout box. If the skimmate ever gets too high it will shut the skimmer off and alert me. I should never have a skimmate overflow. I just plugged the other end of the LR venturi tube going into the skimmer cup with paper towel. An inelegant solution but not sure what else to do with it for now. I suppose I could put a pvc cap in that hole.

 

[Johnseye]

Next up on the update list is the installation of a pair of Kessil A160 WE Tuna Blues into my Geissman Spectra. This was no easy task. It took the majority of a day to complete. I started the night before as I needed to minimize the amount of time the light was not on above the tank. That night I disassembled the Kessil lights. To do this I needed a very small hex key,or allen wrench. Home Depot didn't have one this small but I found one in a Kobalt micro electronics kit at Lowes. This kit also had some other tools which were helpful. Once I got the external can off I needed to separate the light and fan portion from the controller portion. These were held together by long screws. The electronics and wiring inside the Kessil are coated with clear rubber which is a great idea. This obviously helps with any moisture and it made working with the internals of the fixture much easier.

I did not remove the fan because of I would have had to disconnect the cable which was rubber coated. It would have been simple to do, but the fan didn't get in the way and I thought as long as it provides some cooling and doesn't cause problems I'll leave it. Now that it is all in place, there is a slight vibration from the fan to the glass and screen plates. As long as those plates are tight there's no noise. Depending on how they're positioned there can be noise. Easy to fix whether securing the plates, or going back in to remove the fans. I have the plates tight, so no noise.

With Kessils disassembled the night before, I was ready to pull down the Spectra. The next morning I did this and began figuring out how to run the cabling. I had an idea based on another person's experience with an Infiniti fixture posted in the RC Geissman "club" post. I had cut the Kessil power cords and attached them both to a terminal block, also from Lowes, the night before so I was ready to power both lights through a single power cord. This is the end power cord, not the power supply portion. I tried to run the power cabling through the T5 portion of the fixture, but the hole between MH and T5 was too small. I could have bored it but didn't want to mess with that, so I just ran the thin cabling of the power supplies behind the MH reflectors. I used cable clips to keep them from touching the reflectors or anything that could get very hot. I found these cables to be long enough so that I could run them all the way out the Spectra fixture itself and the power supplies themselves could be outside of the fixture. This helped a lot with the space constraints inside the Spectra and eliminated any heat concerns. I was also able to use new independent power cables instead of the ones I cut and connected to the terminal block.

The biggest problem was gluing the Kessil lights into the screens. With the 72" fixture there are two blank spaces between the halides in the middle, and two at the end. I wanted the Kessils in the middle spaces for spacing reasons. I tried to remove the halide reflectors so I could glue the Kessils to the screens outside of the fixture first. This was not easily done, they are very tightly pressure secured. I also tried sliding out the screen on the top to glue the Kessils in that way, but it was also pressure secured. The only way I saw to do this was to glue the Kessils in with the screens in place, but slid over. I cut the holes in the center of the screens outside of the fixture with a Milwaukee hole cutter. I think it was about an 1" or a little more in diameter. Larger than the glass lens for the LEDs so the Kessil reflector sat properly against the body, and no glue got on anything. I then inserted the screen back in, positioned the Kessil within the Spectra and applied 2 part, fast drying, Gorilla epoxy to the Kessil body. With the Spectra lights facing down, I then positioned the Kessil under the screen and had to hold it there for at least 5 minutes before the epoxy was cured enough to keep it without my pressure. Because the lights were facing down I had some flexibility, and it wasn't as hard to hold the Kessil in place. I secured the first Kessil with the lights facing up and it was much harder. Once the Kessil body was secured I epoxy'd the Kessil reflector to the outside of the screen.

Something I learned along the way was that the middle glass over the halide will be difficult to remove when time comes to change the bulb. I had the glass out when I glued in the Kessils. In order to put the glass back in I had to stretch the body of the Spectra a small amount so the glass would drop into place. I will need to do the same to change the middle bulb. This shouldn't be an issue, but will require two people and be a PITA. There was no way around this considering I wanted the Kessils in the middle blank spaces of the fixture.

 

[Johnseye]

I forgot to mention, both Kessils are 10v connected to my Apex.

 

[mpierce]

What color MH bulbs do you run? What setting on the kessil (apex) gets you a similar color to the MH? Just trying to get an idea what % = what K.

 

[Johnseye]

What color MH bulbs do you run? What setting on the kessil (apex) gets you a similar color to the MH? Just trying to get an idea what % = what K.

The MH bulbs are Radium 250w so 20k. I run them at 250 Super Lumens so I think that's like 280w. I will be bumping them up to 400w with the next bulbs. All my coral had been under Radion LEDs and I wanted to transition, not pummel them with 400w MH.

The T5s are a mix of actinic, blue plus and a coral plus.

The Kessils are there to provide the pop as well as a dusk/dawn effect. I already get good shimmer from the halides, but the Kessils do add a bit more. Right now I run them at a 0% spectrum and only for an hour at the beginning of the day and an hour at the end. That time may increase as I get the corals used to LED again. Right now I only run them up to 35% intensity.

I typically don't want the corals to "glow in the dark" but I want their florescence to stand out a bit. 0% makes them glow, and I'll tweak that up a bit to have it blend better. I have no need for the Kessils from a growth perspective, they are only to add color.

 

[mpierce]

Gotcha. I was jut wondering if you had tried to color match them out of curiosity to see what % color on the kessil is similar to a 20k halide. Or should I say, would you be willing to try and color match it because I am curious ha.

 

[Johnseye]

Gotcha. I was jut wondering if you had tried to color match them out of curiosity to see what % color on the kessil is similar to a 20k halide. Or should I say, would you be willing to try and color match it because I am curious ha.

I can definitely match the Kessils to the Radiums and let you know the spectrum percentage. Give me a few days as I'll need to sit down and spend some time tweaking. The Radiums are so over powering that it may be difficult, even at 100% intensity. This is part of the reason I don't bother running the Kessils except for dawn and dusk, they just aren't very visible even at 0% spectrum. They are present with the T5s and obviously light the whole tank on their own as you see in the one picture I posted.

 

[mpierce]

That would be excellent. Very nice looking fixture you have created.

 

[Johnseye]

I've always looked for ways to reduce the noise created by the system. My old tank had a Durso drain I converted to a Herbie which helped considerably. For this one I put in a Bean and it's been the quietest and easiest drain of them all. Even with the larger water volume and flow it's still quieter. It's also nice to have most of the noise isolated into the fish room. Now that the Lifereef is essentially silenced by the venturi drawing air through the co2 scrubber instead of the skimmer cup the loudest noise was the water falling into the filter socks.

As Advanced Acrylics made my sump I reached out to them for a solution. Looks like I wasn't the only one with this issue as they had already designed something they call the Diamond Filter Sock Silencer. This thing is great. it's essentially a disc with a lot of little holes allowing the water through. A larger hole in the middle has a pvc pipe stuck through it. If at anytime the little holes were to get clogged and the water level rises it can get through the top of the pvc pipe. Occasionally I'll get a larger chunk of food or some nori on top but I've never had the water level rise much above the disc itself. Flow doesn't seem to be inhibited by the discs. It's nearly silenced the noise created by water flowing into the socks! Now the loudest thing in the fish room is the water flowing through the sump which isn't loud at all.

http://advancedacrylics.com/collections/other-products/products/filter-sock-silencer

 

[lolgranny]

I have to ask, as im in the market for a new 8' tank. How do you like the miracles tank? Any input about the tank? i got a quote from them and a couple others and im on the line with who i want to go with. Im in naperville quite often as we have a DQ there / family is nearby. Id love to stop by and check things out one of these days.

Also, did you get the stand from them as well?

Im in naperville quite often as we have a DQ there / family is nearby. Id love to stop by and check things out one of these days.

Thanks! Dave

 

[Johnseye]

I have to ask, as im in the market for a new 8' tank. How do you like the miracles tank? Any input about the tank? i got a quote from them and a couple others and im on the line with who i want to go with. Im in naperville quite often as we have a DQ there / family is nearby. Id love to stop by and check things out one of these days.

Also, did you get the stand from them as well?

Im in naperville quite often as we have a DQ there / family is nearby. Id love to stop by and check things out one of these days.

Thanks! Dave

Overall I do like the tank. There are a couple minor issues which I've learned from, but considering the cost savings between Miracles and the others that make tanks this size, they made a quality product.

The stand is from them. Using their stand extends their warranty to 5 years if I remember correctly.

Happy to have you stop by. Just send me a pm and we can get in touch.

 

[lolgranny]

Overall I do like the tank. There are a couple minor issues which I've learned from, but considering the cost savings between Miracles and the others that make tanks this size, they made a quality product.

The stand is from them. Using their stand extends their warranty to 5 years if I remember correctly.

Happy to have you stop by. Just send me a pm and we can get in touch.

I read the whole thing at 3am lastnight when my little one woke up. so I saw some of the issues. I've got 4 quotes so far on a 96x30x30. Miracles, reefsavvy, A.G.E , and okeanosgroup (friend knows the owner in jersey otherwise I'm unfamiliar with them. Look like the do great work) all were pretty close except the ferrari company lol. I'm up in the air with who I want to do when I upgrade so checking one out would be nice. I'm back from Mexico on the 22nd and we will have to plan on coming down to check the setup out.

 

[mallard]

I read the whole thing at 3am lastnight when my little one woke up. so I saw some of the issues. I've got 4 quotes so far on a 96x30x30. Miracles, reefsavvy, A.G.E , and okeanosgroup (friend knows the owner in jersey otherwise I'm unfamiliar with them. Look like the do great work) all were pretty close except the ferrari company lol. I'm up in the air with who I want to do when I upgrade so checking one out would be nice. I'm back from Mexico on the 22nd and we will have to plan on coming down to check the setup out.

Check out SCA. My custom was significantly less than all of those.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[biecacka]

I love an AGE tank. They do great work. If you aren't in a hurry though I'm not sure there are nicer tanks than Reef Savvy

Corey