Soulpatch's build thread (ongoing)

[soulpatch]

Well the shrimp has lived through the 6 hours. About to do a water change and call it a night. See what tomorrow brings.

I am a bit worried that my shrimp made it though. Perhaps I went too small of a dose. I did about 15% of the pill which should have been enough but who knows. NExt week I wil probably do a 1/2 pill to be safe and see what that does.

 

[soulpatch]

Well my tank is having some temp issues given that I turn down my AC during the day and we are in a heat spell. It has been climbing up to 81/82 during the day when I want to keep it around 78. It is not high enough of a temp to worry about but at the same time the acans grow better at a lower temp (really they like things closer to 75/76).

So I ordered some fans today to clip on the back of the tank. Should be here tomorrow and I will wire them into the apex to turn on when temps rise. Might increase my evap a bit more so I will have to keep an eye on that as well...

 

[ReefWreak]

Yeah, I've been letting my tank get to 81.5. My wife keeps bugging me to set up the chiller but ughhhh... I guess I should. Maybe tonight I'll swap out my cable modems and also set up the chiller. I want to run a gallon of vinegar through it before its in the tank though.

I leave the house at 76 and the tank is usually fine. it swings about a degree to 1.5 degrees (F) per day. I'm okay with that. In a week it might swing 2.5 degrees. But I guess if acans like cooler temps, then that's a priority. Acros just like consistency.

 

[soulpatch]

I dont have a chiller but a set of 3 fans blowing onto the sump portion should ease temps. At least I am hoping or else I might be looking at chillers this weekend... I prefer to keep the temps stable within .5 degrees or so. I had no trouble in winter but am now. If the fans work then I am set else I need chiller and wife will not be happy.

Though for the cost of a chiller I could get a 93 gallon cube tank almost (lets just forget about the other items I would need like sump, pumps, lights, rock, ect.... lol)

 

[soulpatch]

I just turned my heater off in the tank to see how the temps move throughout the day. I think the only time the heater comes on right now is at night.

Glad I am running LEDs or else I would have a real issue with heat...

 

[homer1475]

2 PC fans blowing down and across the tank with the front door open, drops my temps nearly 10 degrees. You can see how I mounted them in my build thread. I used to just leave them plugged in and let the heater run to make up for the colder temps, but with the apex I can have them controlled via the chiller option. My temps only fluctuate between 78 and 77.5(how I have the fans setup in the apex).

 

[soulpatch]

I will mount them in the back above my cutout. I have the AFS on the front so it would have potential of blowing food otherwise.

 

[homer1475]

I don't think the way I have mine mounted it would blow food around, but maybe? It's not hard enough to have any effect on water surface, but just enough you can barely feel it coming out of the front lid.

Its a great way to cool these biocubes with still having that stock look(yeah I know, yous looks nothing like stock anymore. ). If you use egg crate like I did, its best to mount them from the underside. I noticed a huge difference in temps when I had them blowing the same direction but on the top of the egg crate.

 

[soulpatch]

Well right now I am running a generator for power as we had massive thunderstorms roll through. This big generator is finally getting some use. I have both tanks running, fans to keep me cool, internet, and cable tv. Oh and my fridge is running as well

 

[homer1475]

Better go catch it.

 

[soulpatch]

I only run to my car when it is raining.

 

[ReefWreak]

At least you're prepared. I've got the vortech backup just in case. It would suck to lose power for a day or two with no backups. Apparently the area I'm in didn't even lose power in Sandy.

 

[ReefWreak]

Hope you're back up online!

Also, you should check out that manhattan reefs for sale forum again... So many corals for <$30, and everyone is coming out of the woodwork to meet up and sell at RAP...

 

[svynx]

We had the same storm roll through as you did. There was a small tornado a little east of me. I haven't heard if there was any damage or not from it. Luckily, all we had was heavy rain and wind.

 

[soulpatch]

I got power again around 4:30 am. So running around shutting things down and plugging things back into the sockets. Either way one of the better purchases I have ever made (I actually have 2 gennys lol) I just need to wire in a transfer switch now so I can power up my home AC off of my bigger genny and everything else. It will make things MUCH easier.

 

[soulpatch]

Well had my gyre 130 flashing at me when I got home today. Turns out a dwarf cerith climbed in and snapped a prop. Thankfully it comes with a spare set but not too happy abouyt needing it within first 3 months. Probably my fault for letting get dirty so the snails wanted in there to clean it.

Thankfully reefapalooza is this weekend so I will grab a couple more props just in case.

 

[ReefWreak]

Glad you caught it. I always worry about that happening. Guess it's an upside of only adding 6 astreas and 6 blue leg hermits. Unlikely that any of them will get stuck in my vortech.

Pump maintenance is definitely something I've never been good about. I should do a vinegar bath soon...

 

[soulpatch]

I will probably start yanking out my dwarf ceriths as I have asteria and other snails in there that can not get into the powerhead.

 

[ReefWreak]

Great seeing/meeting you at RaP! Hope your drive home was uneventful, and hope you walked away with lots of stuff from the raffle.

Im just here, acclimation away. So far so good. Too many new goodies. I'll post pics later or tomorrow, or once things are settled in.

 

[homer1475]

Glad you guys had fun! Wish I had been there too. I did pickup a nice black sun coral from my LFS after work today though.