Maroun 150g Build Thread
- Thread starter maroun.c
- Start date
maroun.c
New member
Isn't the 20 K supposed to be Blue?
Do you think there wille be colours cast in the middle of the tank compared to the sides lit by the 150 W 14 K.
I was previously told that the 250 W 20 K and 150 W 14 K should not be very different to cause a visible colourcast but now that you say that there will be green and purple colours do you still think I should go for the 250 W 20 K?\
also I'm still not decided if I should supplement with White and Actinic T5s or just add white T5s and regular T8 actinic?
Thanks for the info
melev
Well-known member
It's tough to answer that since we are here and you are standing in front of your tank.
20,000K bulbs are very blue. A 250w 20,000K bulb will add some pop to some of the corals.
14,000K is less blue. 10,000K has virtually no blue.
Green and purple will be visible regardless of the bulb color, but the 20,000K will definitely enhance them.
For supplements, perhaps hold off for now and get the MH situation finished.
20,000K bulbs are very blue. A 250w 20,000K bulb will add some pop to some of the corals.
14,000K is less blue. 10,000K has virtually no blue.
Green and purple will be visible regardless of the bulb color, but the 20,000K will definitely enhance them.
For supplements, perhaps hold off for now and get the MH situation finished.
maroun.c
New member
Thanks for yor reply <elev,
I misunderstood Nicks answer and thought there was some green and purple colour in the bulb itself which was a bit weird to me.
I don't mind a bit more blue in my tank as I used to have 150 W 20 K halides in my tank which was way less intense and a lot more blue than the 14K. I do like the intensity of the 14K I have now but wanted a bit more blue.
I misunderstood Nicks answer and thought there was some green and purple colour in the bulb itself which was a bit weird to me.
I don't mind a bit more blue in my tank as I used to have 150 W 20 K halides in my tank which was way less intense and a lot more blue than the 14K. I do like the intensity of the 14K I have now but wanted a bit more blue.
Maroun.C, I followed your thread for almost half of it, but honestly I didn't make it to read it on full. I don't know if you are already comfortable with your drain system, if not, I would recommend this thread http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1310585&perpage=25&pagenumber=1 .It’s a long one, but first pages explain the system very well. I'm planning my new tank and I think will depoly that solution that seems to be the best available.
Regards,
Regards,
maroun.c
New member
Thanks for the link Alfonso.
Great info in there.
Fortunately my drain system was working from day one (no floods) I did have a minimal noise problem and some bubles going down the tubing but nothing my bubble tower or the bubble trap could not manage I never had any microbbubbbles in the display. Still till now I have not been in front of a quiet system so I had no idea what was the acceptable and what was not. My posts were only to optimize my drains if possible and it was. The key things that helped and which are worth noting:
-Elevating the drains which clearly silenced the water dropping sounds.
-adding the Teflon on the tubing which made it airtight and made tuning the air intake possible.
-Enlarging the Durso size as recommended by Melev made a big improvement, I wish I could go with 1.5 inch for the Durso but it did not fit in my overflow, so I settled with 1.25 which did silence the system and reduce the bubbles going down the tube.
-I just did the 1st water change for the system yesterday (Good start to be late on the first water change!!!) and as weird as it might sound I even reduced the airbubles going down too. Even before the water change the airbubbles going down did not exceed 4-5 inches in teh water so now it's even less. System is very quiet.
Things I would do differently if I could:
-Have more distance between the holes for the Bulkheads.
- have a wider overflow to fit 1.5 inch Durso
- I do'nt think I might necessarily go for larger drains size as the 2 1" drains are easily managing much more than I'm running through them.
More updates on the tank later
Great info in there.
Fortunately my drain system was working from day one (no floods) I did have a minimal noise problem and some bubles going down the tubing but nothing my bubble tower or the bubble trap could not manage I never had any microbbubbbles in the display. Still till now I have not been in front of a quiet system so I had no idea what was the acceptable and what was not. My posts were only to optimize my drains if possible and it was. The key things that helped and which are worth noting:
-Elevating the drains which clearly silenced the water dropping sounds.
-adding the Teflon on the tubing which made it airtight and made tuning the air intake possible.
-Enlarging the Durso size as recommended by Melev made a big improvement, I wish I could go with 1.5 inch for the Durso but it did not fit in my overflow, so I settled with 1.25 which did silence the system and reduce the bubbles going down the tube.
-I just did the 1st water change for the system yesterday (Good start to be late on the first water change!!!) and as weird as it might sound I even reduced the airbubles going down too. Even before the water change the airbubbles going down did not exceed 4-5 inches in teh water so now it's even less. System is very quiet.
Things I would do differently if I could:
-Have more distance between the holes for the Bulkheads.
- have a wider overflow to fit 1.5 inch Durso
- I do'nt think I might necessarily go for larger drains size as the 2 1" drains are easily managing much more than I'm running through them.
More updates on the tank later
maroun.c
New member
Alfonso,
My Overflow is 30x15 cm which should be around 12x6.5" Its not really small however with my Stand design I lose 4 cm along its side and another 4 along its deapth which is still ok. the real problem is a 7cm metalic triangle that they put joining the front and side bars which makes the aread to drill the holes a bit restricted. the worst part is that this traingle is thin metal and has no structural use except for a hole in it to pace a screw that will hold the wood top on it. I wish I removed it instead of craming my bulheads. I still have decent space between the 2 1 inch drain bulkhead and 1 3/4 inch return but it will not fit 1.5 inch bulkheads I'm afraid. also make sure to have the whole in the wood under the tank much bigger than the holes (my holes in the wood had a 10 cmdiameter and it's still a bit small.
Finally it did work out and taught me a few lessons for the next tank or for when I move this one.
Will try to take a picture showing the distance between the Bh if the camera can fit between the canopy and tank and still have a full view of it.
My Overflow is 30x15 cm which should be around 12x6.5" Its not really small however with my Stand design I lose 4 cm along its side and another 4 along its deapth which is still ok. the real problem is a 7cm metalic triangle that they put joining the front and side bars which makes the aread to drill the holes a bit restricted. the worst part is that this traingle is thin metal and has no structural use except for a hole in it to pace a screw that will hold the wood top on it. I wish I removed it instead of craming my bulheads. I still have decent space between the 2 1 inch drain bulkhead and 1 3/4 inch return but it will not fit 1.5 inch bulkheads I'm afraid. also make sure to have the whole in the wood under the tank much bigger than the holes (my holes in the wood had a 10 cmdiameter and it's still a bit small.
Finally it did work out and taught me a few lessons for the next tank or for when I move this one.
Will try to take a picture showing the distance between the Bh if the camera can fit between the canopy and tank and still have a full view of it.
maroun.c
New member
Ok some updates on the tank.
Everything seems to be running smoothly over the last period with few ups and downs.
checked my parameters twice so far (I'm always lazy on those) so far it's like this:
-Salinity 1.026 (dropping it to 1.025)
-PH 8.2 at day time and 7.9 before lights are on. I increased the lighting period of the refugium and frag tank so hopefully the shift will be less from now on (is it bad at current values?)
Ammonia 0
Nitrites Nitrates expired kits but gave 0 and 2
KH 12.5
PO4 1 mg /L ppm I have Caulerpa now in my refugium so hopefully it will not increase. also I will add soem phosphate remover today.
Ca 440
Mg 1260
So far I was not dosing anything to the tank except for one does (15 ml) of Purple up which seems to be maintaining Ca levels at correct values.
I am very lazy on oding the testing which is now more important as I have many LPS in the tank now and starting on SPS so a very important question do you keep on testing dosing and testing again or do yo ufigure out some need for Buffer and Ca addition and add that and check every 2-3 weeks?
All my livestock have been fine so far excpet for yesterday where my Coral beauty jsut disappeared. all 3 anemones had don't look like they had a meal and till now did not spit anything back!!! not in overflow or pumps partition. disassembled the tubing and it's not in there? I'm just hoping I don't have a fish killer in the tank as I'm hearing some clicking sounds at night and have seen a big clawed crab that I still have to manage to catch. I also lost one of my cardinals which for some reason are not swiming close to each other at all anymore.
From the fish I got from my last trip (in Q tank) I only have 1 purprle grouper, 1 cories wrass and 4 anthias one with Popeye Lost 3 gobies and 2 cories wrass and one two spotted wrass in the few first days without any visible sign of ich or any other disease.
My hyppo tang showed a few spots in the DT but its resolving now only with garlic.
my 2 very small SPS frags that broke of my SPS bleached in a matter of 3 hours few days ago which was very weird.
on the other hand my new corals additions ( on e more lobophylia, another big pagoda cup, a big sponge, Sarcophyton)are doing good. did one 20% waterchange 2 dyas ago and should be cleaning the glass for some pics today.
My fish that came from the 80 G are still OK but seem much more active and all the fish in the tnak have a begging for food attitude that I was not used to see that much in the 80g don't know if it's because of more space for moving in the 150 or if it's because of the added much stronger water movement to face now but those fish are hungry. My coperband butterfly is always at my hand when working in the tank and is the first one to jump at any food even at Nori...
More pics later on.
Everything seems to be running smoothly over the last period with few ups and downs.
checked my parameters twice so far (I'm always lazy on those) so far it's like this:
-Salinity 1.026 (dropping it to 1.025)
-PH 8.2 at day time and 7.9 before lights are on. I increased the lighting period of the refugium and frag tank so hopefully the shift will be less from now on (is it bad at current values?)
Ammonia 0
Nitrites Nitrates expired kits but gave 0 and 2
KH 12.5
PO4 1 mg /L ppm I have Caulerpa now in my refugium so hopefully it will not increase. also I will add soem phosphate remover today.
Ca 440
Mg 1260
So far I was not dosing anything to the tank except for one does (15 ml) of Purple up which seems to be maintaining Ca levels at correct values.
I am very lazy on oding the testing which is now more important as I have many LPS in the tank now and starting on SPS so a very important question do you keep on testing dosing and testing again or do yo ufigure out some need for Buffer and Ca addition and add that and check every 2-3 weeks?
All my livestock have been fine so far excpet for yesterday where my Coral beauty jsut disappeared. all 3 anemones had don't look like they had a meal and till now did not spit anything back!!! not in overflow or pumps partition. disassembled the tubing and it's not in there? I'm just hoping I don't have a fish killer in the tank as I'm hearing some clicking sounds at night and have seen a big clawed crab that I still have to manage to catch. I also lost one of my cardinals which for some reason are not swiming close to each other at all anymore.
From the fish I got from my last trip (in Q tank) I only have 1 purprle grouper, 1 cories wrass and 4 anthias one with Popeye Lost 3 gobies and 2 cories wrass and one two spotted wrass in the few first days without any visible sign of ich or any other disease.
My hyppo tang showed a few spots in the DT but its resolving now only with garlic.
my 2 very small SPS frags that broke of my SPS bleached in a matter of 3 hours few days ago which was very weird.
on the other hand my new corals additions ( on e more lobophylia, another big pagoda cup, a big sponge, Sarcophyton)are doing good. did one 20% waterchange 2 dyas ago and should be cleaning the glass for some pics today.
My fish that came from the 80 G are still OK but seem much more active and all the fish in the tnak have a begging for food attitude that I was not used to see that much in the 80g don't know if it's because of more space for moving in the 150 or if it's because of the added much stronger water movement to face now but those fish are hungry. My coperband butterfly is always at my hand when working in the tank and is the first one to jump at any food even at Nori...
More pics later on.
maroun.c
New member
Well it's due time for lots of updates.
Coral Beuaty did appear 3 after totally disappearing for 3 days it missed at least 2 feedings and just reappeard in one glance while I was feeding 3 days later. looked perfectly fine.
Alfonso sorry for the late pics but I had tons of problems with the tank that I didn't have anytime to take and post thepics of hte overflow earlier.
As you can see the overflow is big but a big part of it lies over the metalic structure and the holes had to be pushed very close to each other:
Coral Beuaty did appear 3 after totally disappearing for 3 days it missed at least 2 feedings and just reappeard in one glance while I was feeding 3 days later. looked perfectly fine.
Alfonso sorry for the late pics but I had tons of problems with the tank that I didn't have anytime to take and post thepics of hte overflow earlier.
As you can see the overflow is big but a big part of it lies over the metalic structure and the holes had to be pushed very close to each other:
maroun.c
New member
Ok so lets start with the problems I faced.
I'm now sure I have two crabs and not one, both are similr in shape (which give me fear of them reproducing in thet nak before I manage to catch them) both are red with big claws and I saw one once cleaning or maybe muncing on my brain coral and another time on some palys. I am placing 2 small bottles in the tank very close to their hiding places with a piece of mussel/shrimp in it but so far they have not approached them. Any suggestions on how to catch them would be greatly appreciated. Taking their rocks out is out of the question as I will have to take out more than half of the tank to rach those rocks. After staying awake till 3:00 Am this morning I was close to ordering an octopus just to get rid of them. Is it possible that they are reefsafe and I could let them in (although I know such claws cannot be reefsafe)
2nd big problem I'm facing is water temperature as we're having a heat wave for the last 2-3 days tank temperature has gone up to 81-83 at morning time it is at 81 then in the afternoon when the halides go on it goes higher, the maximum i've seen is an 83 and weirdly it was at morning time before lights on although the external fans are working non stop and the fans in the stand and canopy go on every other 45 min and work non stop at lights on till lights off. I expect to have similar temperatures for few days in the coming 2-3 months as summer is just starting. I can't add a split AC to this room as landloard conditions are not to drill the walls of the living room so if these temperatures cannot be tolerated by the reef I will have to add a chiller which will have to be in the stand (heat and sond?) as well as having to take out my frag tank. I am considering a mobile AC which will not need any drilling but then again how long do I have to cool down the room and which temperature should I ahve in the room to start cooling down the tank to 80? what is the real maximum temperature that I can have without any risk to the inhabitants?
I'm now sure I have two crabs and not one, both are similr in shape (which give me fear of them reproducing in thet nak before I manage to catch them) both are red with big claws and I saw one once cleaning or maybe muncing on my brain coral and another time on some palys. I am placing 2 small bottles in the tank very close to their hiding places with a piece of mussel/shrimp in it but so far they have not approached them. Any suggestions on how to catch them would be greatly appreciated. Taking their rocks out is out of the question as I will have to take out more than half of the tank to rach those rocks. After staying awake till 3:00 Am this morning I was close to ordering an octopus just to get rid of them. Is it possible that they are reefsafe and I could let them in (although I know such claws cannot be reefsafe)
2nd big problem I'm facing is water temperature as we're having a heat wave for the last 2-3 days tank temperature has gone up to 81-83 at morning time it is at 81 then in the afternoon when the halides go on it goes higher, the maximum i've seen is an 83 and weirdly it was at morning time before lights on although the external fans are working non stop and the fans in the stand and canopy go on every other 45 min and work non stop at lights on till lights off. I expect to have similar temperatures for few days in the coming 2-3 months as summer is just starting. I can't add a split AC to this room as landloard conditions are not to drill the walls of the living room so if these temperatures cannot be tolerated by the reef I will have to add a chiller which will have to be in the stand (heat and sond?) as well as having to take out my frag tank. I am considering a mobile AC which will not need any drilling but then again how long do I have to cool down the room and which temperature should I ahve in the room to start cooling down the tank to 80? what is the real maximum temperature that I can have without any risk to the inhabitants?
maroun.c
New member
3rd problem in the last 10 days (and more to come) is a weid and very frustrating electrical problem.
I had finished my electrical setup and everything was running fine for 2-3 days when all of a sudden my main GFCI started braking every afternoon and only when I was not at home. which caused me to come back home to see the tank at full stop since I don't know how many hours (4-5 max).
Thinking this would be one of my halides I got a second GFCI and started placing it before each of my lights for few days and each time the main GFCI will trip without the second one to indicate the fault. I could start up all items in the tank for hours and nothing would happen and it would only happen when I'm not at home.
Upon a check on all the plugs I was surprised to find this on the input of my skimmer pump with the skimmer working fine.
I contacted an electrician who told me it could have happened due to the plug not being very secure which I doubt because the plug was very secure.
I was happy that I finally fond out what was causing this and left home the follwoing day not worried about getting back to check the tank in the afternoon. Came back at night and tank was down. So this time I added to GFCIs after the main one (one feeding everything in the water and the 2nd feeding everything outside water) and after two days the main GFCI tripped without any of the secondary GFCIs tripping. the electrician told me it could be that the main GFCIs mmight be unable to handle all my load (although its a 20 Amp set to cut at 30mA difference) or I could have mino shorts happening and adding up so the main one is having big differences and the secondary ones are not tripping. so as you see in the picture I now disconnected the 1st GFCI and have a direct line feeding the 1st GFCI which supplies everything underwater and the second GFCI is fed by the same mainline in front of the first GFCI and supplying the lights and fans... so far it is working for the last 4-5 days. I plan to use the 1st GFCI I have to add a backup line for a 2nd return pump, one of the skimmers and only one heater and one T5 this way if any of the GFCIs trip while I'm on travel I will have a backup capable of maintaining the system for few days.
Do you think there is anymore testing I should have done or anything I should do differently?
Also I was always feeling a minor zip if I touched the tankwater and was in contact with the walls or barefooted... and this increased a bit so I got a voltmeter and measured 20-30 volts in the water I checked all my equipment and it seems that my return pump, and the 2 pumps of the closed loops as well as one of the skimmers pumps are all leaking very minor amounts which seems to be adding up. I added 2 grounding probes and it seems fine now. I measure 0 with the voltmeter but I sometimes feel a zip if I touch the water especially at a wound site. do yo uthink it's fine for the fish if the probes are sucking the electricity int he water or will this lead to problems in th future? all these pumps are brand new and I'm really amazed that they are all leaking electricity. should I also worry about this also leaching copper from the pump tubing in the water or does it ususally occur from inside the pump somehow?
I had finished my electrical setup and everything was running fine for 2-3 days when all of a sudden my main GFCI started braking every afternoon and only when I was not at home. which caused me to come back home to see the tank at full stop since I don't know how many hours (4-5 max).
Thinking this would be one of my halides I got a second GFCI and started placing it before each of my lights for few days and each time the main GFCI will trip without the second one to indicate the fault. I could start up all items in the tank for hours and nothing would happen and it would only happen when I'm not at home.
Upon a check on all the plugs I was surprised to find this on the input of my skimmer pump with the skimmer working fine.
I contacted an electrician who told me it could have happened due to the plug not being very secure which I doubt because the plug was very secure.
I was happy that I finally fond out what was causing this and left home the follwoing day not worried about getting back to check the tank in the afternoon. Came back at night and tank was down. So this time I added to GFCIs after the main one (one feeding everything in the water and the 2nd feeding everything outside water) and after two days the main GFCI tripped without any of the secondary GFCIs tripping. the electrician told me it could be that the main GFCIs mmight be unable to handle all my load (although its a 20 Amp set to cut at 30mA difference) or I could have mino shorts happening and adding up so the main one is having big differences and the secondary ones are not tripping. so as you see in the picture I now disconnected the 1st GFCI and have a direct line feeding the 1st GFCI which supplies everything underwater and the second GFCI is fed by the same mainline in front of the first GFCI and supplying the lights and fans... so far it is working for the last 4-5 days. I plan to use the 1st GFCI I have to add a backup line for a 2nd return pump, one of the skimmers and only one heater and one T5 this way if any of the GFCIs trip while I'm on travel I will have a backup capable of maintaining the system for few days.
Do you think there is anymore testing I should have done or anything I should do differently?
Also I was always feeling a minor zip if I touched the tankwater and was in contact with the walls or barefooted... and this increased a bit so I got a voltmeter and measured 20-30 volts in the water I checked all my equipment and it seems that my return pump, and the 2 pumps of the closed loops as well as one of the skimmers pumps are all leaking very minor amounts which seems to be adding up. I added 2 grounding probes and it seems fine now. I measure 0 with the voltmeter but I sometimes feel a zip if I touch the water especially at a wound site. do yo uthink it's fine for the fish if the probes are sucking the electricity int he water or will this lead to problems in th future? all these pumps are brand new and I'm really amazed that they are all leaking electricity. should I also worry about this also leaching copper from the pump tubing in the water or does it ususally occur from inside the pump somehow?
