Rocknut's 150 Envision

[rocknut]

Uuggghhh, so I was trying to dial in the return flow yesterday evening, and noticed this hose clamp in the external overflow:



This is the clamp that holds the flexible return line tubing onto the hard fittings/bulkhead inside the external overflow. I managed to pull off the top two (one at the top of each return line), but still need to figure out some way of getting the bottom ones. Short of doing some sort of Tom Cruise/Mission Impossible harness thing, not sure how I am going to reach these. Especially the middle return line that is about 2 1/2 feet from the edge, at the bottom of the overflow.

Anyway, I replaced the two I removed with good quality zip-ties, and used a zip-tie "gun" to tighten them up about as strong as the stainless steel hose clamps I took off.

It was against my better judgment to leave these on, but I know that my builder uses these regularly, so didn't think it would be an issue.

Other than that, tank has been running for three weeks, and a basic clean-up crew was added (30 snails, 20 hermits), and I'm getting a nice green algae bloom. :lmao: YAY!

 

[rocknut]

So, decided to remove the stainless steel hose clamps yesterday from the external overflow, and replaced them with some heavy duty zip-ties. Also used a zip-tie "gun" to clamp them down. Only one of the four hose clamps showed any signs of rust, but better safe than sorry.

Also, set up my QT tank this weekend. I decided to use a 20 gallon long tank, and hooked up my old Reefkeeper 2 controller to regulate the temp, using a clip on fan. Also used a Fluval hand on filter, and will add a sponge filter that has been in my sump for close to three weeks once the new fish arrive. Speaking of new fish, I have a Lieutenant Tang, and a Melanurus Wrasse coming in from Blue Zoo on Wednesday, so pretty excited about that!

Also, in preparation of the new Wrasse, built a screen top for the tank using standard aluminum screening frame, and bird screening.

Finally, here is a shot of the rocks after being in the water for one month. I have a pretty nasty green hair algae bloom going on the rocks, but I still rarely have to clean the glass, or anything else.

 

[rocknut]

So the first inhabitants are in! Picked up a Lieutenant Tang locally that had been in a one of the local stores for about a month, and was fat and happy.
Still on the shy side, but he has been tearing up the purple nori sheets.

Also got a Hoeven's Wrasse from Blue Zoo Aquatics. Put him in QT tank for 2 weeks, and treated with Prazipro for any worms, etc. I would have kept him in the QT for longer, but even with daily water changes, I was still having issues with ammonia, so decided to move him over to the display last night.

 

[greech]

Congrats on the 1st editions! The wrasse is beautiful. They will go after your crabs and snails so you may need to replenish your CUC every so often. They will also try and eat more than any other fish in the tank. So much so that their bellies look like they're going to explode, lol.

 

[rocknut]

Congrats on the 1st editions! The wrasse is beautiful. They will go after your crabs and snails so you may need to replenish your CUC every so often. They will also try and eat more than any other fish in the tank. So much so that their bellies look like they're going to explode, lol.

Yeah, he is a crack up. The Tang was hanging out at the Nori clip, and the Wrasse was carefully watching, obviously trying to figure out how he could go about joining in. :lmao: After a few minutes, he was over there trying to pick at the Nori as well!

 

[zibba]

Rocky! I just saw your thread here. Awesome new tank and, as expected, you've planed it out so well. Great equipment, love the rock work and nice first additions! I'm a fan of melanarus wrasses too -- beautiful fish and great for pest control. I'm sure mine has picked off a few snails, however, I've never personally seen him attack anything except the food I throw in the tank.

Great pictures too! I'm going to be following from here on out.

Are you still having issues with your Elos top-off? I'm running the Tunze ATO in my skimmer compartment and it's working well -- no complaints. I've read the Spectrapure is also very accurate.

From the last pictures of the fish, looks like the tang took care of your hair-algae bloom!

Keep it up!

 

[rocknut]

Rocky! I just saw your thread here. Awesome new tank and, as expected, you've planed it out so well. Great equipment, love the rock work and nice first additions! I'm a fan of melanarus wrasses too -- beautiful fish and great for pest control. I'm sure mine has picked off a few snails, however, I've never personally seen him attack anything except the food I throw in the tank.

Great pictures too! I'm going to be following from here on out.

Are you still having issues with your Elos top-off? I'm running the Tunze ATO in my skimmer compartment and it's working well -- no complaints. I've read the Spectrapure is also very accurate.

From the last pictures of the fish, looks like the tang took care of your hair-algae bloom!

Keep it up!

Eric,

Great to hear from you! Thanks for reading thru my thread!

The Elos top-off has been working, but it is surprisingly tempermental for such an expensive piece of equipment. What I figured out was that if the top off container is filled up beyond the halfway point (so about 6 inches), I can almost count on the sump getting too much water, and getting filled past the sensor's set point. Maybe too much head pressure on the pump that sits in the top-off container causes it too stay on too long? I have no idea why, but if I just keep the vessel half full, it works flawlessly. Anyway, I agree with you on the Tunze ATO, I had one a few years back before I got the Elos, and it worked perfectly. Another option would be to get the sensor to work with my Profilux.

Also, the Tang went nuts and took out every last bit of the hair algae in about four days. What he didn't actually eat, he tore off and sent into the water column, and the skimmer pulled it out. He did a great job, that is for sure.

I absolutely love the Melanurus Wrasse. I had prepared the kids for "hermit crab/snail apocolypse" once he went in, but so far he hasn't touched any of them. He has been tearing up the nori sheets for the tang, however. Didn't expect this, that is for sure...

Also decided to not go with a chiller with this tank, thinking that the Sunpower T5 wouldn't produce enough heat to make it necessary. This has been true to a point, but the tank was getting close enough to 83 degrees that I still needed something. So, I ordered one of the five fan GHL Profilux PropellerBreeze fan units, with the speed control module. At first, I thought I got ripped off honestly, because the fan wasn't pushing nearly as much air as I had anticipated. However, it has been holding the tank between 80.2 and 80.8 (79.8 lowest at night, and 80.8 highest during the day) whenever the lights are on, so it is definitely doing the job!

 

[zibba]

Very strange on the ATO situation, but I'm glad you found a way to make it work -- even though I'm sure you'd like to have a full ATO when you go out of town for a few days. I'm not savvy enough to give any advice on what might be causing that.

Funny your melanarus likes nori too. I put nori in my tank just for my melanarus wrasse -- I don't have any other fish that really go after it but he does and loves it.

Those are some nice looking fans! I need to get some fans myself. I added a chiller without even trying fans after getting such a good deal on a chiller in anticipation of the AZ summer heat. I think fans would work for my house too. Definitely better on the electricity consumption and pocket book.

What's next? Going to hold off on corals for a bit longer or do you have some tester pieces in queue?

 

[Benson0219]

The Wrasse is beautiful... I may have to get me a couple next weekend.

 

[rocknut]

Very strange on the ATO situation, but I'm glad you found a way to make it work -- even though I'm sure you'd like to have a full ATO when you go out of town for a few days. I'm not savvy enough to give any advice on what might be causing that.

Funny your melanarus likes nori too. I put nori in my tank just for my melanarus wrasse -- I don't have any other fish that really go after it but he does and loves it.

Those are some nice looking fans! I need to get some fans myself. I added a chiller without even trying fans after getting such a good deal on a chiller in anticipation of the AZ summer heat. I think fans would work for my house too. Definitely better on the electricity consumption and pocket book.

What's next? Going to hold off on corals for a bit longer or do you have some tester pieces in queue?

Well, I had decided to wait for at least another month before testing the waters with something like a Montipora, and seeing how things went. I am dosing Alk/CA/MG using my Profilux now, but have been considering putting a calcium reactor back online. Either way, want to be sure everything is stable chemistry wise. I bring this up, because I guess an equal concern is making sure all the equipment is working right. :headwally:

So, Sunday afternoon all of a sudden the light fixture shuts off (ATI Dimmable Sunpower). Within a few seconds it comes back on, but I notice that the lights are automatically cycling from 0% up to 100%, then back down to 0% again. Then the fans do the same thing, then the whole cycle starts over again with the lights. The keypad is basically locked up, and just reads "Test Mode".

After speaking with ATI customer support, their original recommendation was to leave the fixture completely unplugged for 24 hours to allow the internal battery to die, and then allow the internal controller to reset itself, and come out of Test Mode. That hasn't worked, so it looks like the actual ATI build-in controller itself has to be replaced. They offered to go over the whole fixture, or just send out the controller unit for me to install. Although I would rather have them go over the entire fixture, I know that I would be looking at a 2 week process, so I am going to try to just get the controller that I can install myself. This isn't a huge deal because I don't have a dark tank loaded with corals or anything, but the Melanurus Wrasse is not staying out for long before heading back into the sand because the tank is so dark, and I don't want to run into any issues with him not getting enough food.

 

[rocknut]

So I finally got the controller issue with my Dimmable Sunpower fixture resolved. Basically needed to have the actual controller board replaced. ATI shipped out the controller and I was able to switch this out myself, and all is working well again.
Here are a few shots of my Lieutenant Tang from today:

 

[Benson0219]

That is a very nice fish!

 

[zibba]

So I finally got the controller issue with my Dimmable Sunpower fixture resolved. Basically needed to have the actual controller board replaced. ATI shipped out the controller and I was able to switch this out myself, and all is working well again.

Missed these last two updates. Good to hear that the light is figured out. The tang is looking great. How's the rest of the equipment doing in "test mode?"

Going to the auction this weekend? If so, I'll see you there!

 

[rocknut]

Yes, I think I might check out the auction this week. I haven't been to one in like 5 years, so it might be time to have a look again. I have had two pieces of Monti Cap in the tank for a few weeks now, and so far, so good. Might be time to pick up a few more pieces, and see what happens. For the most part, levels look good:

Alk - 7.9 dkh (Salifert) - this hasn't fluctuated more than 0.3 in about three weeks
CA - 430 ppm (Salifert)
MG - 1350 (Salifert)
Salinity - 35 (I calibrate my refractometer with each use)

Now, here are a few strange ones. I used my Hanna Phosphate checker over the weekend and came up with a reading of 0.07, but tested again last night and got 0.00. Now, it has been almost exactly one month since I restarted my Warner EcoBak pellets, so maybe they started to kick in again, but that reading is strange...
Also, NO3 is sitting at 4 ppm using the Red Sea test kit. This has been fairly consistent, so I think that level is accurate. Other than that, I'm starting to rethink the whole "fans only" approach as the tank has been getting up to just under 82 during the day. May have to try to pick up a chiller this winter and get that running before next summer.

 

[zibba]

Cool, we'll see you there.

Strange on the PO4 reading. Doesn't make sense for them to be 0.07 at this stage unless they were leaching from something and the 0.00 result makes me think that couldn't have been the case. Maybe it was just a false positive?

I added a chiller early this summer and I'm hoping to take it off-line once the temps drop because it's ugly and I don't have a great solution to disguise it since it was an add-on.

 

[rocknut]

So over the past few weeks I have added a couple of SPS frags, just to test things out, and so far so good. I added a really nice Green Slimer, and an Orange Monti Cap, as well as a Frogspawn Coral to the sand bed.

I also think I worked out my weird test readings from a few weeks back. I remember reading on the Zeovit forum that some of the members were keeping their PO4 test vials in a jar of RO/DI water to avoid contamination. That seems to have done the trick, and my test readings seem much more consistent. Here is what I have been getting:

Alk - 8.2 DkH (Salifert)
CA - 440 ppm (Salifert)
Mg - 1375 ppm (Salifert)
Salinity - 35 ppt (refractometer)
PO4 - 0.00 (Hanna)
No3 - about 4 (Red Sea Pro kit)

Seems strange to me that the nitrates are still showing up, and the PO4 has zeroed out. From what I have read it is usually the reverse when using biopellets. Either way, those seem like manageable numbers. It also seems to check out because I have only needed to clean the glass about every five days, so it would seem that the nutrient levels in the water are fairly low.

Speaking of nutrients, I feel like I need to do something about the refugium compartment in my sump, but haven't quite decided yet. Currently, I am feeding the refugium compartment of my sump with water from my return pump manifold, and this water in turn drains back into the return pump chamber of the sump. I am running the refugium bare bottom with live rock, and some chaeto. Just getting a TON of detritus building up in the refugium (looks like a shallow sand bed), and then in turn back into my return chamber. Also, a lot of red cyano building up on the walls of the refugium (I'm assuming this is because of the low flow inside the fuge). Anyway, I feel like I have two options: a) get some egg crate and lift the live rock a few inches off the bottom of the refugium, then stick a big powerhead on the bottom to blow under the egg crate and have the controller turn it on for maybe 15 minutes, four times a day, just so nothing settles? Obviously, this would just blow the detritus into the next chamber, but it would easier to vacuum out from there. Or, b) remove all the live rock from the refugium, and put it in the display, and then maybe just continue to grow the Chaeto in this chamber? I guess there would be a third option as well: just not run a refugium at all. Maybe between having a big skimmer, biopellets, and running GAC it isn't necessary?

I would love to hear some thoughts on this. Honestly, this is always the problem I have had with refugiums, but maybe this is how they are supposed to look (lots of detritus, and some cyano)?

 

[zibba]

Are you soaking all of your test vials in RODI or just the PO4 test vials? I should be better about cleaning my vials afterwards too -- I give them the rinse, shake, rinse, whip down with a paper towel, and call it good.

As far as the refugium goes, I absolutely hear your frustration. It feels like a constant detritus time-bomb. How/if you set it up ultimately comes down to your purpose. There are older threads (probably newer ones too) discussing the validity of refugiums as a safe-haven for pod growth. If it's nitrate/phosphate removal, just focus on the chaeto growth and pull the rock and keep the detritus suspended. Between a quality skimmer, biopellets and chemical filtration I think you'll be fine without the additional rock in the system.

I did things slightly differently and regret it. Fed from a "T" off a drain from the main tank and spills into the return section. Chaeto, rock and a deep-ish (4-5") sandbed. I think it's a pain and a nutrient sink. I swoosh the chaeto in fresh saltwater during water changes and usually give the rocks a shake while siphoning out the gunk that comes off of them. Poor design but ultimately I'll work my way to a zero sandbed, zero rock and chaeto. I'll just siphon out the detritus that settles rather than adding a powerhead. So I guess that would be your option "b."

Honestly, it probably doesn't make a huge difference. Just changes your maintenance protocol a bit.

 

[rocknut]

Couple of updates, some good, some not so good...

Tank continues to move along, water levels have been very stabile, and I have been seeing some decent growth from some of the SPS frags that have been added to the tank. Still seeing PO4 levels of between 0.03 and 0.06, and Nitrates around 4 even with the biopellets running, and dosing Probidio Biodigest. I haven't used any GFO at this point because I know that the biopellets need some PO4 in the water in order to work and lower the Nitrates. Honestly, I have had to remove the media from the reactor a few times, and although I kept the pellets in tank water, and only had them out of the reactor for a few minutes, this might well have reset the clock each time. Skimmer continues to skim like a beast, and I do 10 gallon water changes each week, make sure I always have 0 TDS water, etc, so I have no doubt that the PO4 and NO3 will come down.

Now the bad news: one of the three Monti pieces that I have added to the tank over the past few months, a green Monti Cap frag, went from looking great, to horrible in the matter of about a week, and I eventually threw it away. Chocked this up to too much light, or some unknown variable. Anyway, noticed that my orange cap frag that had been growing very well, had a "pocket" of tissue right around the point where the base of the coral has encrusted over the epoxy putty, and onto the live rock, that was not growing. Got out the flashlight last night, and sure enough, found this little bugger:

I posted on the SPS Forum earlier, and hope to get some advice on this. Since I only have two Monti frags at this point, it might make the most sense to just remove them from the tank and throw them away, and then just wait for 6 months before adding any Montis again, and just starve them out? On the other hand, because there are only two frags, it wouldn't be that difficult to just pull them once a week for a dip, and try to kill the little buggers that way. Wish I had the option of setting up a QT for the corals, but I already have two tanks in the living room (the display, and a 20 gallon fish QT), so adding a third just really isn't an option.

 

[rocknut]

Are you soaking all of your test vials in RODI or just the PO4 test vials? I should be better about cleaning my vials afterwards too -- I give them the rinse, shake, rinse, whip down with a paper towel, and call it good.

As far as the refugium goes, I absolutely hear your frustration. It feels like a constant detritus time-bomb. How/if you set it up ultimately comes down to your purpose. There are older threads (probably newer ones too) discussing the validity of refugiums as a safe-haven for pod growth. If it's nitrate/phosphate removal, just focus on the chaeto growth and pull the rock and keep the detritus suspended. Between a quality skimmer, biopellets and chemical filtration I think you'll be fine without the additional rock in the system.

I did things slightly differently and regret it. Fed from a "T" off a drain from the main tank and spills into the return section. Chaeto, rock and a deep-ish (4-5") sandbed. I think it's a pain and a nutrient sink. I swoosh the chaeto in fresh saltwater during water changes and usually give the rocks a shake while siphoning out the gunk that comes off of them. Poor design but ultimately I'll work my way to a zero sandbed, zero rock and chaeto. I'll just siphon out the detritus that settles rather than adding a powerhead. So I guess that would be your option "b."

Honestly, it probably doesn't make a huge difference. Just changes your maintenance protocol a bit.

Hey Eric, could have sworn that I responded to you. :/ I only keep the NO3 and PO4 test vials soaking in RODI. Of course, I had a PO4 reading of 0.06 on Saturday, and 0.00 on Tuesday, so who really knows if that helps anything.

Also, I did pull about 90% of the live rock from the refugium. I left two small pieces, and the chaeto, and so far this seems to be working, as the detritus has been reduced to almost nothing. Of course, now I have some beautiful red slime algae forming because of the low flow in the fuge compartment. I added a Tunze Stream to my skimmer compartment to keep any detritus from settling, and that has worked great, and I have noticed that the skimmer has certainly been pulling more junk from the water column. Might have to add a small powerhead to the fuge compartment as well.

 

[Dbondaruk]

Great build and nice tank. How is pluming done from your tank to the sump, I see the one 90 on the drop to sump. Do you have any noise problem?