Mike's 360G Build

[mike810]

Update Mike! Can't wait to see how the build is progressing

The tank has been in limbo since the eurobracing fiasco. Builder came by Friday to clean up the silicone. He suggested I wait until 7/14 to fill the tank back up so it will be two more weeks. I've kept my sump running with some rocks in it to cure since I drained the tank about 4 weeks ago. I did get some things done while waiting, didn't bother to update since it is just some minor things.

I bought a Bubble Magus doser bracket to mount my GHL Doser.

I had to cut out a notch so the GHL doser would fit.

Mounted behind the Apex panel.

I hung the two ATI PM Hybrid lights. They're heavy!!

I installed another netpune PMUP to the SW mixing container and ran a line to the sump. This will replace any tank water I remove to acclimate fish or corals. There is a solenoid on this line to shut off flow should the PMUP ever get stuck on. Also a float valve just in case they both fail. There is also a float switch in the SW container to turn off the PMUP , DOS and Panworld mixing pump when water gets low.

Got the Dos hooked up and ran a couple lines into the house and a line to the drain outside. I plan to do 1 gallon a day automatic water changes.

Here is the tank cleaned up again. Hopefully, no more eurobracing failure. Made two screen tops to keep fish from jumping out.

I have 150 gallons of RODI water in the shed ready to go. I will add salt and mix it up as the fill date gets closer.

A couple things on my want list. I'm looking at getting a ARID C30 to deal with nutrients. I've read plenty of post about pukani rock constantly leaching po4 for months to a year. I've got plenty of GFO in a 5g bucket but rather not constantly have to change out GFO. GFO is also harsh on the corals so the ARID is a toy I'm planning on picking up soon.

I've been doing a lot of research on calcium reactors and I'm thinking I might pull the trigger on a Dastaco A-3 when demand gets high. I've read nothing but good things about this reactor and it's ease of adjustment and maintenance. Turn a knob to set your alk, doesn't get any easier then that.

Question for you people who store SW on hand for weeks/months. How often do you run your mixing pump and for what duration? I use to simply leave a small powerhead in the container running 24/7 but I rather use the Panworld pump to mix instead.

 

[mike810]

Water is in the tank! Euro brace seams are holding. So glad to finally have water in the tank again but at the same time nervous after what happened the first go around. Tank has 348 gallons of water including sump, rocks and sand. This time I kept track of exactly how many gallons was going in the tank.

Trying to tune the skimmer.

When I drained the tank, I kept the sump going and added rocks into the sump. I got a good ammonia reading from the sump. Tested a week later and there was zero ammonia and nitrites. There was a lot of nitrates. I'll be testing the tank again for ammonia in a few days.

 

[mike810]

When I filled the tank, I dumped in five bottles of Bio-Spira. Next day, I went and purchased three pajama cardinals and a bristletooth tomini tang. All pretty small. Tested for ammonia and nitrites for the next several days and never got a reading. A couple days later I placed an order for seven green/blue chromis and a pair of frost bite clowns (for the wife). When I added the last chromis, it nose dived for the rocks and I haven't seen it since. Been a couple days, I've only seen six chromis at a time unless they're switching place and only six comes out at a time. I'll give it a few more days. I've been testing for ammonia and nitrites and never got a reading, not even the slightest hint of any of the two. I have to say bio-spira works great!!

I used fritz RPM salt and I have to admit, I'm kind of disappointed in the salt. My alk tested at 6.2 via hanna and salifert test kits. I had to dose 210ml of ESV over the course of a several days to bring up the alk to 8.

Calcium tested at 445
No test for magnesium yet.
No3 tested at 10
Po4 was .23ppm so I threw in some GFO a couple days ago. Tonight, tested at .08ppm with hanna ULR. Will keep an eye on po4. I thought the pukani rocks would be leaching a lot more phosphate or maybe that is a lot??

Tonight I seeded the tank with tisbe pods from algaebarn, I'd like to build a good population before adding some wrasse.

I relocated the doser to the wall. I didn't like the tubing go across from the dosing containers to the doser which was located behind the apex panel then going back across to the sump. I think this looks much better.

Had to install a fan, it's been a little warm and tank was getting up to 81 degrees. Now the tank is running at 79.5-80 with the fan.

Can anyone recommend me some gel filters to remove the blue when taking pics with an iphone?

 

[mike810]

Small Update

Small Update

I got some filters for the phone and took some pics, I think they came out okay. Some pics of the fishes that are currently in the tank.

I drained the skimmer cup on Monday and installed this quick disconnect valve. There is two valves. I'll be hooking up a container to drain the skimmate into. I'll see how I like this route, If I get tired of emptying the container, I'll hook up my GHL doser to the skimmer cup and run a line out to the drain. I'll have the GHL doser drain out once a day.

Got this valve so I can get water from the RODI water container without having to purge the pvc pipes of salt water. I have the PMUP in the RODI container pump out rodi water.

Now getting fresh RODI water is a breeze. No need to purge the pipes of the saltwater.

 

[mike810]

When I got home this evening, I tested the DT's alkalinity and it came back at 6.2. I dosed the tank to bring it up to 7.3, I will dose the tank again tomorrow to bring it up to 8dkh. I also tested the water in the SW container and the alkalinity also came back at 6.2, I dosed it to bring it up to 8DKH. Both the tank and SW container CA was 445, MG 1440. Seems like Fritz RPM has low alk, I've gone thru about four boxes of it and each time, alk has been low.

Tonight, I setup the KHG. It took me well over 2 hours to set it up and get it going. When you first setup the KHG, you need to calibrate the PH probe with PH 7 and 4 solution. Plug in the KHG, put the probe in the PH 7 solution and hit buttons 2 and 4 to set, rinse the probe with RODI, pat dry and put it in the PH 4 solution. Hit button 1 and 4 to set.

Your home's network needs to run on DCHP in order to connect to the KHG via it's web interface. I initially had trouble with this step. When you first plug in the KHG, it will try to obtain DCHP, once that happens, it will display the IP address assigned to it and the port number. You need to write down this info and plug it into the address bar in your web browser. I had to constantly reboot the KHG to try to get the IP and port number as the info went away quickly and sometimes it wouldn't get the DCHP. After I was able to log into the KHG, I then setup the timezone, DT water volume, where I like to keep my DKH (8), how much I will allow the KHG to dose a sodium bicarbonate solution at a time after each test.

The KHG will only dose a sodium bicarbonate solution of 1000ML of RODI to 65 grams of dry baking soda. The reagent uses 1500ML of RODI to dilute the reagent. I bought graduated cylinders for this process.

You also have to purge the saltwater in and saltwater out lines, this took awhile to complete. Then you have to purge the reagent in and reagent out lines, this took even longer as the doser only pulls up one drop at a time. Then you gotta purge the sodium bicarbonate in and out lines.

Coralvue recommends you run five test to break it in. See the pictures below of all five test. I also did two test with my Hanna PPM alkalinity tester and two test with salifert's alkalinity tester. Hanna came back both times at 7.28 DKH. Salifert came back twice at 7.3 DKH. The KHG thru all five test came back at 6.93, 7.04 and 7.05. I went with saliferts result and adjusted the KHG's DKH readings. The 6th picture is a test after the adjustment. There is also a picture of the KHG test log. I will post another snapshot of the log after a few days of testing. I have the KHG testing every four hours which is the max time between test. Overall, I'm happy with the KHG and it's repeat-ability.


First test

Second test

Third test

Fourth 5est

Fifth test

Final test after adjustment

Hanna test with the same results twice

Side note, this skimmer is kicking butt! It sure does earn it's name.

 

[mike810]

Forgot to post a picture of the KHG log.

 

[theMerchant]

Very Nice build! I was reading and noticed you mentioned the pukani was really dirty. I had the same experience with mine and ended up not using it. Did you do any acid baths or extra scrubbing of the rock? Are you concerned about future PO4 issues?
Im also using the DOS for AWC, Any reason why you choose 1 gallon a day?

Btw, you did a great job on the wire management and plumbing. Bery well thought out.

 

[mike810]

Very Nice build! I was reading and noticed you mentioned the pukani was really dirty. I had the same experience with mine and ended up not using it. Did you do any acid baths or extra scrubbing of the rock? Are you concerned about future PO4 issues?
Im also using the DOS for AWC, Any reason why you choose 1 gallon a day?

Btw, you did a great job on the wire management and plumbing. Bery well thought out.

I only pressure washed the rocks before going in. Po4 is sitting at .08 via Hanna ulr tester. I feed heavy, about 6 cubes a day and two sheets of nori. I'm not too worried about po4. I have an arid C30 reactor coming in next week so I'm hoping that takes care of any nutrients in the tank. I'm choosing to start with 1 gallon a day just to see how it goes. I haven't started the awc yet because I needed to bring the alk up in the new SW before it goes into the DT. My main purpose for AWC isn't so much as getting rid of nutrients, it's to replenish any trace elements I'm not dosing. That's my train of thought anyways..

Thanks, there was plenty of wires and that was probably the toughest part of the build. It took many hours to get them all hidden and out of sight. Plenty of wires if you look behind the dreambox though, lol.

 

[mike810]

Have you guys ever seen coraline stay purple on dead rock? I don't remember seeing any coraline on the dry pukani rocks I used to start the tank. I am see spots of coraline here and there and think it's pretty early for the tank to start growing it already. I haven't introduced any corals or cleanup crew that may seed the tank with coraline.

Another issue I'm having is something in the tank is using up my ALK. A couple weeks ago, the tank was at 6.2 DKH and I dosed the tank up to 8 DKH. Yesterday, the tank was at 6.2 DKH again and had to does to bring it up. What can use up ALK with no corals in the tank? I'll test for CA and MG and see if those are being used up also.

 

[ratienza80]

Very nice tank! Thank you for sharing your build with the community. I love how you took the time and planned it out every single detail.

I love your idea of doing 1gallon/day SW changes. Do you still do larger water changes along with that?

 

[mike810]

Very nice tank! Thank you for sharing your build with the community. I love how you took the time and planned it out every single detail.

I love your idea of doing 1gallon/day SW changes. Do you still do larger water changes along with that?

I'm going to try not doing any water changes unless I see an issue or want to clean the sand bed. With the Arid reactor, I don't see a reason to continue with large water changes.

I'm thinking I can just take a powerhead every other week and blow the rocks and sand to get it down into the filter socks before I change them out.

 

[mike810]

This afternoon, I checked on the KHG to find that it had an error readying. SW>ERR, basically telling me the KHG is not getting enough SW into the reaction chamber fast enough to before the test can begin. I did everything stated in the manual to try and correct the problem, no dice. I looked in the reaction chamber and found that the float switch in the reaction chamber was not able to move freely. I could manually remove it but when water filled the chamber, it did not float up by itself. I found there is a magnetic agitator below the float switch, it looks like a little white pill. I took this out and moved it lower down the reaction chamber. This fixed the problem and the KHG finally processed a test without any errors. Each test performed while I was home was double checked with the hanna alkalinity checker and salifert alk test. All test came out very close in results. I'm currently using the KHG to dial in my alk doses. I'm currently dosing 36ml a day of ESV alk even with zero corals in the tank, weird. The KHG is also dosing sodium bicarbonate to try to keep the levels at 8 DKH. Here is a log from today.

08/05 00:44:42 W.131 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.00
08/05 04:38:48 W.132 %0 AK.68.00 KH :7.89
08/05 08:56:23 W.176 KS=55D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :7.88
08/05 12:13:58 RESET !
08/05 12:14:51 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 12:15:53 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 12:16:23 RESET !
08/05 12:16:52 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 12:22:30 RESET !
08/05 12:32:43 W.176 KS=56D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :7.93
08/05 12:34:23 Test KH doser
08/05 12:38:57 RESET !
08/05 12:40:15 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 12:41:45 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 12:52:56 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 16:22:37 RESET !
08/05 16:25:53 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 16:30:01 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 16:34:42 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 16:40:24 RESET !
08/05 16:40:59 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 16:48:02 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/05 17:01:16 RESET !
08/05 17:15:10 W.130 KS=38D L%0 S%0 AC_ERR KH :5.52
08/05 17:19:27 RESET !
08/05 17:30:26 W.128 %0 AK.64.00 KH :7.89
08/05 17:53:07 Save New System Environment.
08/05 17:54:01 Save New System Environment.
08/05 17:55:16 Save New System Environment.
08/05 17:55:55 Save New System Environment.
08/05 18:07:15 W.128 %0 AK.95.00 KH :7.74
08/05 18:08:27 Save New System Environment.
08/05 20:41:29 W.129 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.99

 

[dodgerblew]

Beautiful build.

 

[mike810]

Beautiful build.

Thanks Rik!

 

[ratienza80]

I'm going to try not doing any water changes unless I see an issue or want to clean the sand bed. With the Arid reactor, I don't see a reason to continue with large water changes.



I'm thinking I can just take a powerhead every other week and blow the rocks and sand to get it down into the filter socks before I change them out.

Awesome man!! Keep it up man!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mike810]

Awesome man!! Keep it up man!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks!






Here is the KHG log for today. It's been very accurate and consistent in the result. I cross check the result. I will perform a test while the KHG is doing it's test and the values are always similar. This device makes dialing in a doser a lot easier. However, I'm up to 96 ml of alk and ca. I literally only have one SPS frag in there to see if it will survive and color up before I purchase more SPS. My rocks are turning green, does that algae uptake ca and alk like purple coraline does? I'm stumped on what is using up all my ca and alk. ca and alk are dosed one hour apart from each other 12 times a day. I don't see any precipitate on any of the pumps. At this rate, I'm going to have to move to a calcium reactor soon once I start adding corals.

08/06 03:16:16 W.129 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.94
08/06 03:24:23 Save New System Environment.
08/06 07:35:18 W.131 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/06 11:46:27 W.135 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/06 15:57:48 W.131 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/06 20:16:19 W.134 %0 AK.34.00 KH :7.89
08/06 23:38:10 W.132 %0 AK.95.00 KH :7.79

 

[mike810]

I took a trip to Unique Corals on Saturday. It was a three hour round trip, traffic the entire way. It was totally worth it though, Tim gave me a tour of the facility and it was awesome! The Dastaco they have setup there is ridiculously huge. Sunday I went to work setting up the reactor which took some time as this is my first calcium reactor. After everything was setup, I had a heck of a time trying to get the co2 reaction chamber to purge the water out so the float switch could do it's thing. I was never able to get it to work and found out that the outlet on the controller that controls the co2 solenoid is faulty. It was not providing any power to the solenoid to let co2 in. This took me quite some time to figure out. This morning, I call Joe at Unique Corals and he is having a new controller sent out to me. So for now, it's filled and ready to go but stuck in limbo. Hopefully I'll get it up and running tomorrow evening if the controller gets here tomorrow. Here are some pics of the calcium reactor, it's pretty big. Luckily, I left enough space at the end of the tank for this very reason. I did get to play with the controller a bit and I like that I only have to adjust a dial to increase alk/ca dosage. No fiddling with bubble counters, PH or effluent rate. You do have to setup the controller upon first start up to keep the CO2 solenoid open for a minimum of 2 minutes and a maximum of 3 minutes so it can purge the co2 reaction chamber of water. There is also an option to vent the reactor X amount of times a day to get rid of any air that builds up inside the reaction chamber. This is also adjusted with a dial.

Initially I planned to pick up a Avast Marine Davy Jones Skimmate locker but I didn't really have a good spot for it to make maintenance easy so I put this ghetto skimmate locker together using a cereal storage container. It does it's job but it stinks up the entire living room every time I drain it. I may just ditch it and run a line from my GHL doser to the cup and drain it outside to a drain. This will also cut down on maintenance which I'm all about. I'm a lazy reefer.

 

[mike810]

Got the new controller in this morning, set it up to see if it works and SNAP, the solenoid opened. It's pretty loud every time the solenoid opens, not so loud when it shuts off. After testing, I turned the unit off and went to work. Came home and fired it back up. I had to do the initial setup of fine tuning the regulator to pump in enough co2 upon start up and purge the co2 reaction chamber of water within 2-3 minutes. This took me some time to do and had to purge the co2 reaction chamber of co2 multiple times to get the regulator dialed in. The unit has been running for about 5-6 hours now. I have a 10lb tank and started at 100 PSI, I'm now down to about 91-92 PSI. I'm hoping this huge drop in pressure is due to me purging the co2 reaction chamber of co2 multiple times during initial setup, otherwise, this unit is a gas hog. I also completely shut off my GHL doser and set the KHG to test every single hour. Below are the test results after I shut off the doser.

08/15 18:57:14 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.15
08/15 20:06:58 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.14
08/15 21:23:59 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.02
08/15 22:02:48 Save New System Environment.
08/15 22:33:18 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.97
08/15 23:43:11 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/16 00:53:02 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98

I tested the effluent of the reactor for the heck of it and it maxed out the hanna checker at 300ppm.

 

[solitude127]

I think once it stabilizes, the gas consumption will be less.

 

[mike810]

Setting the KHG to test every hour makes dialing in the carx really easy. Here is a log from yesterday and today.


08/16 00:53:02 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/16 01:52:53 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/16 03:11:06 W.143 %0 AK.38.00 KH :7.89
08/16 04:29:33 W.142 %0 AK. 8.00 KH :7.94
08/16 05:47:30 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.03
08/16 07:05:20 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.22
08/16 08:23:53 W.143 %1 AK. 0.00 KH :8.25
08/16 09:41:58 W.147 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.30
08/16 11:00:41 W.146 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.40
08/16 12:19:23 W.146 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.54
08/16 13:38:02 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.63
08/16 14:56:49 W.141 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.67
08/16 16:07:00 W.145 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.67
08/16 17:17:22 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.66
08/16 18:35:07 W.146 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.57
08/16 19:36:34 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/16 20:38:12 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/16 20:56:56 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/16 21:02:46 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/16 21:19:34 RESET !
08/16 21:40:33 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.44
08/16 22:50:34 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.31
08/17 00:07:58 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.16
08/17 01:25:12 W.140 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.02
08/17 02:33:18 W.142 %0 AK.38.00 KH :7.89
08/17 03:51:36 W.143 %0 AK.42.00 KH :7.88
08/17 05:01:45 W.144 %1 AK.12.00 KH :7.93
08/17 06:19:07 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.99
08/17 07:36:44 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.03
08/17 08:46:47 W.141 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.07
08/17 09:56:47 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.12
08/17 11:06:49 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.11
08/17 12:16:53 W.141 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.12
08/17 13:26:44 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.12
08/17 14:36:44 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.11
08/17 15:46:46 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.11
08/17 16:56:45 W.137 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.11