Mountains of sawdust (360g plywood, LED, Arduino build)

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Month and a half, time for an update.

I haven't built the new scrubber yet, I'm basically in "keep it running" mode now, without enough time to switch to "tinker" mode. Maybe some time soon though.

Everything in the tank is doing well, more or less.

I'm going in on a group buy in my local club in the next week or two and will be picking up a handful of photosynthetic Caribbean gorgonians. And maybe a fish or two.

 

[Crazy_Beaver]

Nice tank bro!:thumbsup:

 

[Snorkel911]

First let me say that your daughter is a little doll! Love the toddler legs, pull up pants and long sleeve shirt. Enjoy every second! My children were that age just a minute ago. Now they are 12 and 10 years old-- going on 18.

My 10 year old daughter has a passion for fish like her Mommy. She bought her own 5 gallon at 8 years old. We sold that this year and she bought a 30 gallon to have brackish puffers which are doing great. My 12 year old son is wacky for fishing. He wants to be a professional fisher and own his own charter company. Lucky for me, he is beyond the age of fishing in my tank!

After reading through your post am surprised that you didn't build your own camera to get it to do what you want. :lol2:

IMO you are a nut to want to change after all that you have done. However life is all about finding a better way to do something after you get knocked down...which you definately were by this tank.

We are all chomping at the bit to see your progress. So either figure out that camera OR just post what you have with the promise of better shots down the road.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Heh. I HAVE built my own cameras. They're just simple pinhole cameras that directly expose paper though, nothing sophisticated.

I will go ahead and post some photos soon, I promise!

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Yeah I know, still no photos. I got the camera out and the battery was dead. I can't find the charger. I'm hopeless.

I took down the automatic water change system. I feel like it's not adding much value, in terms of being inefficient at getting the "really bad" stuff out of the tank. I can siphon for a few minutes and suck detritus off the bottom of the tank, or run a small skimmer extremely wet for an hour, and pull out all kinds of gunk. Meanwhile, the automatic system simply sucked "clean" water with no detritus or gunk out of the sump. I'm thinking about trying to find a way to do an automated change with this same small skimmer run really wet, but for now, I'm just gonna siphon detritus and do small water changes when I feel like it.

The gorgs are all doing well, so far, but they've only been here for a week.

 

[thebanker]

Now you owe us at least 38 pictures.


I've been using GIMP software on my Mac for a while, ever since Photoshop got harder to... um... get. GIMP is nice, a little cludgy, but nice. I wish it was called something other than GIMP though.

"Hey guys, check out my GIMP suit. What? It's just these sweatpants I wear while editing photos..."

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

So I found the camera battery charger, you can all revel in my terrible photography. I took these as raw and used Cannon's own software to adjust color levels, etc and convert. I think they came out OK, but there are still some inaccuracies.

Like, this one. Black sea rod gorgonian in the foreground, to the right is an acro that looks like crap in the photo - the color in real life is a more vibrant green:

Rack o' random frags waiting for me to decide on placement:

My favorite zoantid:

Purple plume gorgonian:

Yellow sea feather gorgonian:

I tried a FTS and there was a huge reflection from a window on the opposite wall. I will try again when the sun goes down.

 

[amcarrig]

I'd say "nice pics" but you've known me long enough to know that I was lying :lol:

Seriously though, would love to see a full tank shot so post one (that doesn't suck) when you can

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Yeah, I noticed AFTER I took all those and posted them that there was a big smudge on the lens. I really want to be a good photographer but it just doesn't seem to ever happen...

 

[amcarrig]

I really want to be a good photographer but it just doesn't seem to ever happen...

Me too but what I really want to be is a lion tamer

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Here are my horrible FTSs:

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I'd have to look up the date but the tank has been running for roughly 6 months. I'd post new photos but it looks just like the last set which didn't exactly seem to wow anyone.

Things are pretty much doing fine but I am continuing to have problems getting the scrubber to really "kick off." I'm following all the rules, and have made a bunch of adjustments over the last few months to try "different" rules but the result continues to stay the same - the scrubber just grows yellowish slime. The tank is OK, save for ever-so-slightly elevated nutrient levels and a constant slow growth of the same yellowish slime on the rockwork (dinos? not really sure, but it doesn't bother me too much as the tank is still fairly new).

If the scrubber doesn't wake up and decide to work some time soon I'm going to consider other nutrient export methods. I hate to say this out loud, but if it goes a few more months without obvious success, I might just go build a honking big skimmer...

 

[amcarrig]

Well crap...how did I miss the full tank shots! Is it too late to post a "looks great DWIZM?"

 

[thebanker]

I didn't see those before either. I like the glowing panels above the tank and the small slitty side, very modern.

I like it!

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

Ironic that you mention the panels, because they may be on the way out.

I really like them, but they look a little "weird" in person along with the rest of the styling inside the house. Plus, the way the color of the LEDs interacts with the color of the fabric isn't exactly pleasant.

We have some really subtle craftsman/mission/arts and crafts details in the house so I may go that direction with the doors and panels on the tank at some point in the future.

 

[Sugar Magnolia]

How did I miss those pics? I think the tank looks great - really like those gorgs.

Not sure about your yellow slime, but I feel your pain. My 40 breeder is about 5 months old now and I'm dealing with the inevitable cyano. Le sigh. Hopefully your turf scrubber will take hold and do it's thing soon.

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I'm really happy with the gorgs. They're all doing wonderfully. I have a purple version of the yellow sea feather pictured above - I fragged it a few weeks ago, which has allowed me an easy way to measure growth (since I can just measure the new "shoot" taking off from the wound). It's averaging more than 1/4" per week.

I'm fairly certain the "slime" is dinos. It's not out of control, just "present." For now I'm just siphoning it off every few weeks and hoping that it goes away, as part of new tank sydrome. If it doesn't go away in a few months I'll consider more active measures.

The ATS - I'm really split on. Why isn't it kicking off? My nutrients will read zero, so I'll up the feeding a bit. Nothing will change, except nutrients will barely show up on test kits. I'll back off feeding and they go back to zero. The scrubber doesn't react. I've changed lighting, changed screen size, changed photoperiod, changed flow rate, etc. The only thing I'm really left with is that my tank doesn't have the correct algae species, given that it was started in a completely sterile manner. And I would hate to introduce "pest" algae just to get a nutrient export mechanism working correctly. Plus, every few weeks I'll visit one of my local reef pals and see their awesome skimmer-driven tanks and think, "huh... maybe I should rethink my aversion to those things..." But then again, corals are (mostly) thriving and growing in my tank, and clearly nutrients are under control since I can get them to read zero at will, so do I really have a problem or am I fabricating one just to have an excuse for switching things up? I'm definitely the type of person who enjoys the tinkering as much or more than the end result, and sometimes I think I need to take a more hands-off approach and just sit back and enjoy things rather than think of reasons to completely change major parts of the system on a regular basis. After having been in "build mode" for ~2 years I'm having trouble switching gears to "run mode." At any rate, that's enough of my honest ramblings for now.

 

[terahz]

On the ATS all I'm gonna say is don't try to solve a problem you don't have. I find it crazy to have to increase your bioload just so that the algae can grow and help with the bioload. Next thing you see is people recommending chillers to others who say their heaters cycle too much...

Tank looks great. I whish I had your problem of ATS not wanting to grow .

 

[kcress]

I have to say I'm having the same problem trying to get my AS* "kicking off" too. Of course my sump divider exploded which stopped the water across the screens.. But still I look at the healthy HA in my display and wonder why it's not happening on the screens.

My tank is far from sterile too. I throw local ocean water in and have various natives present. I don't think that's your problems btw.

You're supposed to cut way back on light in the DT to assault the HA there and drive it onto the AS screens. But if you have coral going there and fish happy it's hard to bring yourself to a couple of weeks of gloomy DT.

I am using four CFL flood lights at the moment and while it looks four times as bright as my DT it might not be, (fickle eyes that we have).

I keep thinking about SMonica's "super scrubber" which has the four T5s(?) per side two inches from the screen and think "not bright enough"?

 

[der_wille_zur_macht]

I throw local ocean water in

Every time I see one of you coastal folk post comments like this I feel like writhing on the ground. SOME DAY I am going to live near an ocean. I hope you know how lucky you are.

I keep thinking about SMonica's "super scrubber" which has the four T5s(?) per side two inches from the screen and think "not bright enough"?

Have you read the various "new" guidelines in the scrubber threads over in the advanced forum? They get very specific as far as lighting requirements for different screen types. Since 99% of people seem to do the traditional two-sided vertical screen, I'm not really sure where/how they got the requirements for your style, but it might at least be worth checking out.

terahz, you make an excellent point. I'm probably trying to solve a problem that's not here. I can essentially run this system with zero detectable nutrients (using standard test kits, I don't own any of those fancy ultra-accurate meters). I have no serious pest algae problems. This weird slime will probably go away soon all on it's own. Most corals are doing great. The fish are all borderline obese (kcress, I think I could pit my female clown or starry blenny against your tang in a fatness contest!) I should stop worrying and just enjoy things for another 6 months.