My 280g Custom upgrade.....

[Dustin1300]

The tablet came with the light and it has an app on it to control the lamp.

Here's a cool article on it:
http://imagineanocean.com/x-touch-tabletandroid-based-controller-for-pacific-sun-led-lamps/

These fixtures blow any others out of the water IMO. The Radion/AI SOLs look cheap when comparing to these Always something bigger and better coming out!

 

[SPotter]

Lights and nitrates.....

Lights and nitrates.....

LIGHTS....

And they are offering 15% off right now too!!! The fixture is almost too bright with leds at 100% and t5's on. I can't wait until they release the upgrade for the dimming feature on the t5's.


NITRATES....

My nemesis the nitrate!!!! I am still hovering around 100ppm I thought it wasnt as red on the api and dark pink on the salifert but I think its just wishful thinking. 65g water changes arent doing so I will get my two 75g water storage tanks hooked up and plan on doing a 150g water change this weekend. Hopefully that will knock a dent in the numbers!!!

 

[MSHUR]

Steve,
it will take time for No3 to get down so dont stress to much buddy . is scrubber up and running yet?
what salt are you using?

mike

 

[SPotter]

Steve,
it will take time for No3 to get down so dont stress to much buddy . is scrubber up and running yet?
what salt are you using?

mike

I know I know I know. I was using Reef Crystals and decided to switch back to Tropic Marin Reef Pro. I really didnt like the way RC mixed and the brown sludge it would leave behind in my brute.

 

[Lam Ly]

Light

Light

Steve,

So you are ready for an upgrade Ha? OHoo that mean I am going to get your light for 50% off right? haha:dance:

 

[SPotter]

Steve,

So you are ready for an upgrade Ha? OHoo that mean I am going to get your light for 50% off right? haha:dance:

lol you'll have to buy my house in order for me to an upgrade.....this it. my one and only upgrade.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Lam Ly]

Tank

Tank

Steve,

Your set up came out very nice.
Hey, did the mover use the glass suction cup to move your tank in the house?
Or they just have a bunch of guys moving it?

 

[SPotter]

Steve,

Your set up came out very nice.
Hey, did the mover use the glass suction cup to move your tank in the house?
Or they just have a bunch of guys moving it?

The movers were 4 not so big guys that used suction cups and moving dollies to move the tanks. Once they got to my stairs to my basement it was pure muscle from them. I helped a little when one of the guys had to move from the topside of the tank to the bottom of the stairs and let me tell you....it was heavy.

 

[M007]

Not much has been going on over the last three weeks until last week when the cabinetry was begun and my light arrived on Friday. I ended up going with the Pacific Sun Pandora Hyperion T5/LED fixture. Here's a brief description of it....

Pandora Hyperion the most recent in the Pacific Sun lineup as it is the newest and only current product to offer the Hyperion 8 channel LED panels with T5 fluorescents in one modern, sleek and powerful lighting fixture. Pandora Hyperion incorporates fully controllable and dimmable T5 fluorescent technology into this series in combination with their powerful, 150W 8ch LED panels offering 9 LED chips including CREE XM-L (capable of up to 10 watts of power). Pandora Hyperion comes in two sizes, 49" and 65" with 3x150W and 4x150W LED panels respectively. 49" model houses 4x54W T5 fluorescents lamps, 65" model with 4x80W T5 lamps. These units are the widest available fixtures from Pacific Sun measuring in at 16.5", yet still only 2" tall. Pandora XM is perfect for extra wide reef systems (up to 36" wide) where the extra coverage provided by the T5s is necessary. Control with Bluetooth via PC or Android tablet featuring X Touch app.

I went with the 65" model and have been tinkering with it over the last few days. The fixture weighs 75lbs so I am making a new hanging kit for it that will me to raise/lower and slide it out from over the tank. I ordered channel struts and trolleys from mcmaster-carr and they arrived yesterday. Cabinetry is almost done....need some finishing touches on the molding and the door needs to put on the canopy.

Here are some pictures of the light.....

Droid touch tablet to control the lamp via bluetooth but also controllable with windows and they are launching mac software in the very near future!!!

Here's the very first full tank shot with lights on.....pictures are taken with cell phone camera. I get the big cannon camera out over the weekend and see if I can get some better shots!

LED only....all colors @ 100%

LED only... at 50%

T5'S only....

Now for the some quick par readings that I did last night......

Water surface 3" below the light..... 1950
20" below the light.....650
Sandbed 30" below the light....300

Growing coral wont be my problem....torching them will be!!!!

Cabinets are almost done. They had a problem with the hinges for the canopy door so waiting on replacement hinges to come in. Once they arrive I will post pictures of the cabinets.

I havent tested nitrates in a few days but my Algae Turf Scrubber arrives today and that will get put online asap!

Nice lighting, who did you purchase from? Love the cabinets, 1st class!

 

[SPotter]

Nice lighting, who did you purchase from? Love the cabinets, 1st class!

Thank you! We are very happy with the cabinets!

The light is made by pacific sun and purchased thru the only US distributor....Imagineanocean.com.

 

[SPotter]

Nitrates nitrates nitrates

Nitrates nitrates nitrates

So my nitrates are not budging from 100ppm so its time for monster water changes. By tomorrow I will have completed my water change for a total of 250 gallons. I turned off the main pump and have changed the water in the 50g water change tank and about 50g's in the sump. I will have another 150g's of water ready to go by tomorrow tomorrow morning. Thats when I will drain the dt about 50% and fill it back up with new water. Once that is done the pump will be turned back on and the system will be running again. The power heads in the dt will remain running and I have turned up the intensity on them so their is continuous flow in the dt. Finally, I tested the newly made up saltwater for nitrates and the test shows 0 ppm. My hopes are that after doing a 60% water change that my no3 level will fall significantly. If this works, I will do another large change in a few days.

 

[geaux xman]

Steve,

I was looking at your storage water tank in post #292.

Can you go into how you make your SW(in another container then transfer it into the storage tank?) and how you get it out of there to transfer it into your DT?

I was thinking about a 75g water storage tank like that, but to put a pump that deep to get water out via a hose might be difficult.

thanks.

 

[SPotter]

Steve,

I was looking at your storage water tank in post #292.

Can you go into how you make your SW(in another container then transfer it into the storage tank?) and how you get it out of there to transfer it into your DT?

I was thinking about a 75g water storage tank like that, but to put a pump that deep to get water out via a hose might be difficult.

thanks.

Here's a picture of the set up. I have both tanks plumbed so I can mix a total of 150g for salt water at one time if I need to....and I did this weekend. The tank on the right is where I have my float valve for the ro, heater and thermometer. Right now in the picture both bottom tank ball valves are shut off isolating the tanks from each other and the pump. Now, I could leave them both open and allow both tanks to fill up at the same time if I wanted to. Once that right side is full I will open the bottom right and upper left ball valve and turn the pump on. This will transfer all of the water from the right tank to the left. Once the water is moved over I close the lower right bv and open the bottom left bv to allow the water to circulate. Now I add salt and let it mix. While I am doing this, the right side tank is filling up with new rodi.

Finally, when I am ready to refill the dt with new water I close the top bv and then open the bv on the return line that has the barb fitting. Once the tanks are moved into their permanent home, I plan on hard plumbing a line to the tank.

 

[SPotter]

Update on the nitrates

Update on the nitrates

Ok, so I changed about 230 gallons between yesterday and early this morning. I took an no3 test before the change and it was darker than the 160ppm color sample on the API test kit. I waited a couple of hours before testing the DT and when I did I got a pretty solid reading of 80ppm. Now while thats still not good, I am pretty happy with that reduction. I will do another 150g wc on tues or wed with the hopes that will get me down around 40-50ppm. My ATS is starting to show signs of growth on the screen and hopefully that will contribute to some no3 export and reduction. So its back to the lfs for another box of IO...not using the TM pro reef for large wc's like this...too expensive.

 

[geaux xman]

thanks for the reply. thats a very clever water changing setup.. unfortunately i dont have the room for a system like that.

how much total net volume do you have? your sump dont look too big? i would've thought all the WC, your nitrate reduction should be much more than that..

 

[SPotter]

thanks for the reply. thats a very clever water changing setup.. unfortunately i dont have the room for a system like that.

how much total net volume do you have? your sump dont look too big? i would've thought all the WC, your nitrate reduction should be much more than that..

TWV is around 400g right now. I am guessing my no3 was higher than 160 so given that I did about a 60% wc and I got a 50% reduction in no3 I am pretty happy with the results. My sump has about 50 gallons of water running thru it right now.

 

[syedjilani]

Love the cabinets...

I wish I could take credit for these but I just can't do it. The pictures really don't do them justice.....

 

[SPotter]

Thank you SJ.

 

[troyholl]

Here's a picture of the set up. I have both tanks plumbed so I can mix a total of 150g for salt water at one time if I need to....and I did this weekend. The tank on the right is where I have my float valve for the ro, heater and thermometer. Right now in the picture both bottom tank ball valves are shut off isolating the tanks from each other and the pump. Now, I could leave them both open and allow both tanks to fill up at the same time if I wanted to. Once that right side is full I will open the bottom right and upper left ball valve and turn the pump on. This will transfer all of the water from the right tank to the left. Once the water is moved over I close the lower right bv and open the bottom left bv to allow the water to circulate. Now I add salt and let it mix. While I am doing this, the right side tank is filling up with new rodi.

Finally, when I am ready to refill the dt with new water I close the top bv and then open the bv on the return line that has the barb fitting. Once the tanks are moved into their permanent home, I plan on hard plumbing a line to the tank.

Love the design! I'll be doing something very similar!!

 

[SPotter]

Thanks Troy. It works great. the pump is a little big for the purpose but I got it as a back up to my main pump and decided to use it on this. the plumbing could be a lot cleaner and I will have to make some changes because I am getting some slow drips on both of the fittings for the bulkheads. I really messed up by not putting unions on after the fitting...oh well. I will make it work.

I tested my nitrates this morning and still holding at a solid 80 ppm so I am gearing up for another 150g change this time.