Soulpatch's 150 SC build

[ReefWreak]

Ah, got it... Hmmm. Makes me wonder whether everything now has to go through TTM... CUC, corals, shrimp, anything that could be holding some ich eggs... I know they prefer substrate, but you never know...

I wonder if one could build something like a TTM workbench that made it really easy to TTM a bunch of critters at a time with little-to-no effort other than moving the inhabitants around, like a series of dump buckets or something...

 

[homer1475]

Only problem with that is you don't want the tanks directly next to each other, and you really don't want to cross contaminate by adding any water from the previous tank. Least that's the idea.

 

[ReefWreak]

Agreed, but I'm thinking of a setup over a basin or something that just makes it easy to dump, bleach, wash, and refill the tanks. Just brainstorming. I imagine having more TTMs going might be a PITA, so just trying to think of ways to make it easier.

 

[soulpatch]

Apex is off of the nano and on a board for the big tank. I need to finish mocking up the sliders to pull the panel in and out and test fit a couple things. I am a bit concerned with how the plugs will work when I slide it out as I do not have much slack on a few of them. I might have to buy some mini extenders though I do not intend on moving it much once it is set up. The apex display is on the outside of the tank and the RW4 controller will be on the back side of the panel so I can see it easier as well.

One thing I am upset about is the length of the apex Kessil cords. I dont have enough length to hit my canopy and I had wanted to run my large tank independant of the nano. This is no longer possible. The apex line will reach the nano and I will just run some 3.5mm audio cables as a jumper to the big tank canopy.

Going to also mount the ballasts and electrical boxes for the lighting on the wall behind the tank or on the backside of the stand. I will just use some simple heavy duty velcro to hold it in place. Saves space inside the stand by not having those in there and I dont see a need to have them in the stand anyway. I dont think I am too concerned with having it on the stand as i have euro bracing so the chances of water splashing and finding its way down the back of the stand is minimal I think. Still undecided at this point though.

 

[soulpatch]

Fish and cuc are in and taking care of business.

Decided to risk it with cuc. Some went into big tank but majority into the nano for now since plenty of algae in there.

 

[Devaji108]

ooooo a powered blue. just a gorgeous fish! does that naso have a bad case of ick?
sorry did not read much of the last page if you talked about it...

 

[soulpatch]

does not look like ich at all but stressed from shipping. It is it's coloring right now. Regardless they are all going through TTM at the moment so should handle anything...

 

[soulpatch]

Ok got done things done...

Apex fully moved and hooked up. Everything is running at this point. I have to mount the sliders to the stand yet but that can wait. Regardless it is all wired up (except float stitches)

I am going to flip the qt tanks tonight after dinner.

Regardless here are some pictures till I have more time for more in depth write up.

 

[mav3rick478]

Those dosing containers look awesome, contemplating getting on for kalk for my tank since it should fit just in between the stand and wall.

 

[soulpatch]

Building an obsession does incredible work

 

[homer1475]

Is the electrical in a different door then the sump, or in a totally different "stand" to the sump? Kind of hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like you have a third door in the cabinet?

 

[soulpatch]

Yes the larger stands have 3 doors. All one large open area inside the stand but there are three doors. The purpose of the panel I mounted everything to was to have the electrical stuff in its own compartment if you will. It will slide out as needed to make edits but in general will stay with the electrical in that small area. I just need to cut some 2x4 for the sliders to mount to and it will be done.

I also mounted the ballasts and such for the ATI and Kessils on the back of the stand with super duty velcro so I can remove as needed. There is also a power strip mounted back there as well that has the EB8s, Kessil power supplies, and network adapter plugged into.

I am thinking of putting a fan unit to extract air on the side of the canopy for a bit more air movement in the canopy. Though my Evap is already hovering around 1.5-2 gallons a day... Winter is always worse for me since the air is so dry in my basement.


As for my fish all seem to be eating pellet. I tried some nori last night which was ignored. I also tried a small bit of reef frenzy which was also ignored for the most part. I will slowly bring them up on it though as I anticipate LRS to be my main food staple in the tank with the AFS dropping in some pellet during the day.

I need to figure out my WAV setup and play around with them some more. Coming from the gyre and RW world having so many modes and the ability to be anti-sync and such is a lot to take in at once.


Goals for this week:
1. Continue to monitor numbers in large tank (have small portion of CUC in there now as well as the refugium started)

2. Start to remove corals from rock work in nano and put onto fresh plugs for those which I intend to keep. Start dips of both bayer and peroxide just to be safe.

3. Should numbers continue to hold in the large tank move my clown and tail spot over and those corals that I am ready to move after sufficient dipping

4. Figure out what I want to do with the nano. Right now I am inclined to leave it as its own tank instead of plumbing it in as I get the large tank up and running. I am torn on this as I would like the simplicity of a single unit but leaving it seperate with minimal rock and just my frag rack would allow me to use it as a sort of quarentine for new corals. I just need to remove the rock and sand as they currently have certain pests that I do not wish to harbor moving forward (mainly algae). Biggest concern running seperate is that I need another ATO and most likely a skimmer.

 

[ReefWreak]

Funny how after eating pellets for so long, the fishes take a while to go back to a frozen/more natural looking food. It took my fishes 3-4 feedings of frozen for them to start pecking at it, but now that they did, they're very happy. I've used half a sheet/bag of Rods food in the year I've had my tank set up with the same fishes, so I don't feed it often. Too much waste. I just want to make sure the fishes have a somewhat varied diet other than pellets.

I'm sure in the big tank they'll all go nuts for all sorts of food.

 

[soulpatch]

I prefer the frozen food it I think it broad feeds the tank better. I have no issues with waste typically as minimal finds its way into my overflows. And I get the flat packs so I merely cut off small chunks.

For this tank it will be a mix of LRS reef frenzy, herbivore frenzy, and mysis shrimp that will be mixed around through the week. Couple that with some fresh stuff I will blend myself and it should suit the needs great.

I do need New Era to complete their move so that their marine grazer comes back in stock. That is a great product with little waste in the tank.

 

[homer1475]

I found the same thing.

I mainly feed flake and pellet every day once a day, but twice a week I feed my corals and fish a mixture of mysis, LRS, and reef chili all soaked in selcon. At first they wouldn't touch it, now after a few feedings they all go bonkers trying to steal it from each other and from the corals.

 

[soulpatch]

I know it is the right thing to do but man how I hate TTM and QT. I changed the tank Sunday night and will do another change tomorrow night. The next tank is already cleaned and is drying. The heater will be put back in use to get some water up to temp and ready for the swap tomorrow night.

I feel as if I need to take a sick day to be at home by myself so I can start to break down the nano and move things over. With it being tax season right now I am daddy daycare for my almost 3 year old and she is a handful. My wife works late every night save for Friday and I have my daughter all day Saturday. She is draining so working on the tank Saturday night is a struggle. So I might have a migraine one day soon to have some time to relocate some of my corals after some dips.

The large tank is starting to have the pods flow up from the refugium. I need to get in some phyto to feed them some more but they are doing what they do at this point. The nice thing about my setup is that I can easily kill flow to the refugium part of my sump to feed them and let it sit for a while.



I know I just set this all up but I am starting to butter up the wife on a new sump setup. I have the trigger because I needed a smaller sump for my original build idea. Having the larger tank and the layout in the stand I want something different. I need to start messaging some companies to see what I can have built and costs but this is what I am thinking:

40 ish long sump.
Push connect fittings for ATO, dosers, and reactors
Probe rack
Wire management (I want a channel built in so the wires for each chamber are out of sight)
bulkheads for calcium reactor (I would want an acrylic tray for this to sit in just in case of a spill)
large refugium section plumbed into the main sump (similar to Life Reef set up) I just want it seperate so the lighting wont bleed as much and it looks cleaner
I want the option of filter pad or socks to be used. Similar to trigger emerald I guess
ATO container built in and with a minimum of 7 gallons like my current ATO
3 or 4 small dosing containers built to match sump but seperate
float switches in sump, ato, and dosing containers similar to what I have now in my standalone units.

Basically I want a mashup of BAO, Synergy, and life reef sumps into my own unique sump. I know it will cost a small fortune but I think it would make things better and cleaner in the stand.

 

[philly_rfa]

Looking great. Joining along for the ride.

 

[homer1475]

I would have bought a trigger system if the $$ allowed. As it is I'm waaaayyy over budget and my wife keeps yelling at me every time I need to order something else.

As it is I want to redesign the sump SCA sends with their PNP systems. It just doesn't make sense to have the return section twice as large as the fuge section. It also doesn't make any sense to me to have an under over baffle where the input is, but only have one over under baffle between the middle and return sections. I want to incorporate a built in filter sock section, and move the return baffles over, and add another over baffle before the return section.

 

[soulpatch]

My sump cost me around 300 I believe but add on the skimmer and return pump and I am over 700 (and that is with the skimmer being used)

I figure I will swap out my skimmer for the next build as I want a life reef with the flange top so I can open it. I might go all life reef but I wish his sumps looked better. Synergy and BAO have some sexy sumps (other companies like royal exclusive and such are also oon list but sooo expensive compared to the others).

I spend a lot of time in my stand and when I eventually move to the new house this will be in a room by itself so looks are very important to me. I dont know perhaps it woudl be wiser to wait till I move as I will be able to go larger for the sump and have more room in a fish room to have multiple things.

I am just impatient which is bad for this hobby. Though right now I can only look at some of my fish in QT tanks as they go through TTM so I have a ton of time to think about "upgrades"

 

[soulpatch]

Short and simple upgrade but I got an order in yesterday from Amazon which has some cables for my Kessils.

My apex is too far away for the Kessil Apex cables to reach. The cable is really just a 3.5 mm audio cable so I ordered some extenders. This allows me to have the big tank on a different Kessil schedule then the nano. I also ordered in a male to male cable so I could link my 2 kessils. Cheaper to go audio cable route then get the Kessil cables. Plus going non Kessil allowed me to get cables with right angle connectors since I have a tight space.

Of use to me was a large funnel I purchased to pour water into my ATO container. I will use this cheap solution for now but the intent is to use my MJ1200 to pump water from the bucket into the ATO container once I pull it from other duties.

Tonight is the third tank swap for my QT guys. Hopefully my daughter behaves herself and lets me do my job there so I can do it within the time required. She typically is in bed by 7:30 and i need to make the swap by 8 so fingers crossed on that one.

I got in my prazipro so I can do treatments starting next Tuesday when I will have made the final change from the fourth tank so covered there.

Really the only other thing I need to do at this point is to cut the screen top for the tank and get that on the tank. I have to play with the lighting schedules of the Kessils for the big tank some as well as the WAV settings though I will worry about those when I have the items in the tank.


Anyone think of a reason I shouldn't move my clown and tail spot over to the big tank before the tangs? I have never seen aggression from my clown though that doesn't mean he will not like my tangs and cardinals when they go in as he is about the same size as my tangs...I could wait to introduce them together but in doing so it delays my ability to work in the nano as I dont want to stress them out.