Mike's 360G Dream House, Dream Tank, Dream Box

[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.

 

[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

 

[McPuff]

[/IMG]

I like the background in this picture! :0)

 

[mike810]

I like the background in this picture! :0)

Yes, they sent me that to show case their two new models. The Aventador S and Huracan Performante. They're trying to get me to upgrade, it's very tempting! :fun4:

 

[mike810]

I'm having to drain my skimmer cup daily. Last night I drained the skimmer cup and tonight, this is how much skimmate has collected. This is probably the best skimmer I have ever owned.

The Dastaco carx has alarm features to notify of a co2 leak, water leak or empty co2 bottle. It sounds an audible alarm but also has the option to tie into a third party controller. The port is a regular RCA jack so I bought a 15 ft. cable to run it to the Apex's break out box. I'll have it send me a text and email when an alarm on the Dastaco occurs.

The Dastaco reactors are 34" tall. I originally had the effluent line running to the return section in the sump. This caused siphoning issues and noticed my PH really took a hit since bringing the carx online and stopping 2 part dosing. When I was dosing 2 part, my PH was running around 8.3-8.4 throughout the day. Ceasing 2 part dosing and running the carx, my PH dropped to 7.8-8. So I ran some clear vinyl tubing from the sump up to the return pipe and zip tied the tubing to the pipe. I took the effluent line from the sump and ran it up to the top of the vinyl tubing and stuck the line in there. This helped stopped the siphoning and also helps gas off excess co2. My PH is now steady at around 8.2ish.

 

[solitude127]

That's some nasty stuff considering you don't have whole lot of fish in there.

 

[mike810]

A couple weeks ago, my wife asked if I thought the tank was ready for corals. I said possibly, not sure as nitrates were around 25-50 and po4 was .08. She went ahead and bought some corals without my knowledge and this is what showed up.

Slightyly browned out strawberry short cake. It's improved a little in the roughly two weeks it's been in the tank but not by much.

This one came in completely brown. It now has a glowing teal green color. This one has shown the most improvement thus far.

This one also came in completely brown. It now has a slight purple tint and the branches are turning a creamy white color. Looking forward to seeing what this one does.

Some of the wife's gold torches and a green hammer

 

[McPuff]

I'm curious to know how aggressive your ruby head wrasse is. Mine is the "boss" of the wrasses in my tank. :0) And it's quite large.

 

[mike810]

I'm curious to know how aggressive your ruby head wrasse is. Mine is the "boss" of the wrasses in my tank. :0) And it's quite large.

Red head salon is currently the boss amongst the wrasse. The ruby and orange back tried to team up and punk the red head but damn that red head fought back against the two and now calls the shot.

 

[McPuff]

Red head salon is currently the boss amongst the wrasse. The ruby and orange back tried to team up and punk the red head but damn that red head fought back against the two and now calls the shot.

That's funny. My solon fairy wrasse was really resilient when I first added it. The ruby head pummeled it quite a bit. He came through just fine! But it has never chased another fish. I feel they are underappreciated and have such tremendous coloration as they get bigger/older.

 

[mike810]

So this came in the mail today.

Very good packaging.

This reactor is big! But it looks so awesome.

I'll be setting it up tonight.

 

[ReefKeeper64]

So this came in the mail today.

Very good packaging.

This reactor is big! But it looks so awesome.

I'll be setting it up tonight.

That's an awesome addition Mike! Those cooling vents have an intriguing design to them and the whole setup looks hefty. I've read nothing but good things about them here on RC. The entire Pax design looks heavy duty and from what I've read, extremely effective. How tall is it?

 

[mike810]

That's an awesome addition Mike! Those cooling vents have an intriguing design to them and the whole setup looks hefty. I've read nothing but good things about them here on RC. The entire Pax design looks heavy duty and from what I've read, extremely effective. How tall is it?

Thanks Chris, it's absolutely heavy duty. It has a good weight to it and it's very beefy. The heatsink seems to work really well as it does get warm when the leds are not but never too hot to touch. The leds are very bright, looking forward to see what it does in a week or two.

 

[mike810]

Reactor installed, I got a bit of chaeto to start off with. Hopefully it will fill the reactor in no time. This reactor has some weight to it and it just has quality written all over it. The heat sinks works really well as it gets pretty warm when on for awhile. It's super bright also, I'm thinking I won't even need any moon lights on my tank at night anymore. It pretty much lights up the entire corner of my living room. I'll open up the reactor in a week and see how much the chaeto has grown.

I think I finally got this Dastaco running perfectly now. It's been a trend with this tank that pretty much any equipment I buy, I have to trouble shoot it as there is always something wrong with it. Majority of the stuff has not been plug and play for me, not fitting of things in such a price range. The co2 reaction chamber would completely drain causing the ehiem pump to run dry. It would eventually restart on it's own but it shouldn't run dry in the first place. Even though it was delivering alk/ca to the tank, it was also wasting a lot of co2.

Well, this KHG got packed up and shipped back to CoralVue yesterday. Loved it when it was working properly but in the less than a month it's been running, it's been throwing errors left and right. I would be able to clear the errors and get it running again but it would throw an error again a week later. This time, there was an error I couldn't clear and one of the doser motors stopped turning. Hopefully it will be an easy fix and I'll get it back soon.

Some pics my wife took of the newly acquired corals.

 

[mike810]

 

[mike810]

The Dastaco has been keeping parameters rock steady since it's been set up, alk: 8, ca: 450 and mg hasn't budged (mg isn't dosed) from 1500 since the tank started up again.

Last couple weeks the rocks and sand have changed colors from green to brown. My gut is telling me it might be dinos but my mind is hoping it is not. It's slimey but not super stringy. It can grow maybe 1/8-1/4" off the rocks. It's most likely dinos so I've been skimming wet, dosing some zeobac and changing socks daily. I'm hoping the chaeto will out compete it once it grows in more.

The arid reactor has been online for about a week now. I started with a golf ball size of chaeto and this is how much it's grown in a week. Is this normal growth for a week or is it slower or faster than usual? I've never ran a fuge so I'm not really sure of it's growth rates.

 

[asonitez]

I love the build. Do you qurantine your fishes? If not how do you deal with disease?

 

[mike810]

I love the build. Do you qurantine your fishes? If not how do you deal with disease?

I do not. Once I am done adding fish, I treat the tank 20-24 days with polyp lab medic at triple the dose. After that I will treat the tank with prazipro.

 

[asonitez]

This is cool. I'm doing something similar. I hypoed the entire display for a month or 2 but I might try medic as well


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mike810]

Medic hasn't failed me yet. I use triple the dose though and treat longer than 20 days if necessary.