Stolireef--New SPS Build

[epon]

Just an idea for a a water making solution if you're looking for another in the future. I havn't tried this yet but in concept it should work. Using a JBJ auto top off, one float at the bottom of your water bin to turn on a 12v john guest type valve. The second float switch is at the top just below a backup float valve that the rodi feeds from. The second swicth up top will be set to turn the 12v water valve off. So until the jbj malfunctions the water making should be automated with as large a cycle as your water container is. Build is lookin good !

 

[Stolireef]

Day 5 of pure ammonia/Bio-Spira cycle. Ammo is undetectable, nitrites a little less than <1, Nitrates at around >100.

So far I'd say the Bio-Spira is working as advertised. Then again, this isn't a particularly scientific study where I had a control system cycling without Bio-Spira. That said, processing 2ppm Ammonia to 0 in less than 5 days is pretty fast and the way the nitrates are climbing, I can't complain.

 

[reefmutt]

That certainly went well!
Curious to see how long no3 takes to drop..
When will you add livestock?

Good to hear about your skimmer. Several years ago (3-4), my rlss db10i arrived with a cracked body and a loose Allan key in the box.. I'm still waiting for a reply.. I fixed the crack myself with methalyne chloride.
Should have bought it from Marine Depot! Nice to hear great customer service stories like that.

 

[Stolireef]

That certainly went well!
Curious to see how long no3 takes to drop..
When will you add livestock?

Good to hear about your skimmer. Several years ago (3-4), my rlss db10i arrived with a cracked body and a loose Allan key in the box.. I'm still waiting for a reply.. I fixed the crack myself with methalyne chloride.
Should have bought it from Marine Depot! Nice to hear great customer service stories like that.

I'm currently also cycling my QT tank (10 gallon) and expect to start QT'ing a black cap basslet and perhaps a fairy wrasse in about two weeks. So, I'd expect to add the first livestock around the second week of April.

As I mentioned earlier, I used the Bio-Spira more out of curiosity than because I was in a rush. I'm also picking up a few pieces of live rock from a trusted LFS today since I'm a little concerned that the Bio-Spira may not provide sufficient microbial variety.

 

[Stolireef]

Day 6 of pure ammonia/Bio-Spira cycle. Ammo is undetectable, nitrites a little less than <.5, Nitrates at around >100. Based on the last few days, I'm going to stop testing ammonia and keep testing nitrites until they are at 0 for a couple of days. I also added a piece of live rock to my sump. I'd like to see how long it takes to help with nitrates.

 

[Stolireef]

New Solenoid Valve

New Solenoid Valve

Just picked up this handy dandy solenoid valve. It will be installed on the feed line to my RO/DI unit and will allow me to completely automate ATO. High/low sensors in my reservoir connected to the Apex will open and close the valve. It also has a really cool feature that allows you to manually open the valve. I have to splice in some extra wire so the plug can reach the Apex but otherwise, it's basically plug and play. No more manually refilling reservoir.

BTW, it's great having Spectrapure right here in town. The owner actually did the entire setup of the valve for me. Great guy and great company.

 

[Stolireef]

Forgot to post the picture of the valve

Forgot to post the picture of the valve

Hi/Low sensors arrive tomorrow so goodbye manually refilling ATO. Also received and installed the Vertex Omega 180i skimmer today. Breaking in nicely. What a beautifully designed and built piece of equipment.

 

[Myka]

Fun thread so far!

If the dimensions of 48 x 30 x 24" are not a typo your tank is actually 150 gallons.

 

[Stolireef]

Yep. Typo. It's 20 inches high.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

 

[Stolireef]

Installed the solenoid valve for the ATO. Waiting on the breakout boxes and the high low sensors. For the ATO reservoir, I have three levels of safety for autoshutoff. First will be the high/low sensors on the Apex. Second, I have a pressure solenoid that will shut off flow of water to RO/DI unit if the water level in the reservoir gets too high. Finally, I have a float switch that will stop the flow before it overflows the reservoir.

I've ordered a third sensor for my sump so that if all else fails, and the ATO keeps feeding the sump, it will shut off the solenoid on the RO/DI feed.

 

[Spyderturbo007]

You might also want to think about leak detectors and the ALD. I have multiple layers of redundancy, but figured adding leak detectors couldn't hurt.

 

[Stolireef]

I forgot to mention those. I already have a couple.

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[Stolireef]

Well, in for a dime in for a dollar. Just pulled the trigger on a pair of Ecotech Gen 4 XRW30's and the rail mounting kits. I agonized over this for a while but between dealing with the heat from the halides and the size of the fixture, I decided my rimless tank deserved a cleaner solution. Love the wire management and the small footprint. Plus I get another toy to plug into my Apex.

 

[Hentz]

Great choice man! Your tank is the exact dimensions I'm dream building. Of course it will be a while and Ill need to be in my house for it lol. But got my quote yesterday from Crystal Dynamics! Toyed with the thought of a Reefer 450 or 525. But that 30" depth is amazing lol.

Let's see some more tank shots!

Are you going to run the SPS AB+ profile with your new Radions or just use certain Kelvin presets through your Apex?

 

[Stolireef]

I'm still wondering if I made a mistake not going with the XR30W Pros but overall, I'm very pleased with where things are going. I'm about to do my first water change of about 50 gallons. I'll post pictures later tonight. It'll still be with the metal halide fixture (waiting on Radions from Premium Aquatics.

 

[Stolireef]

So, with the exception of the breakout box and float switches and the BM doser, everything is installed. Now it's time for the big wire cleanup. First, the obligatory FTS. Note that the Radions don't arrive until Tuesday or Wednesday. I took this as kind of a reference shot for color and brightness.

 

[Stolireef]

Too many wires

Too many wires

Just looking at my 'control board' gives me a headache. Everything is labeled (thanks Dymo) but now I've got to tuck things away a little better.

 

[Stolireef]

Way too many wires

Way too many wires

Under the tank doesn't look much better and it's only going to get worse after I install the level sensors in the ATO and the doser. I've considered installing some wiring runs but they make life really difficult when you have to do things like swapping out probes or maintaining pumps. At least the Radions will hell a bit.

 

[Stolireef]

Since this tank is a bit experimental (for me at least) I'm thinking of picking up an AI 52 HD and parking it between the two Radions. I'd run them all perpendicular to the tank for best coverage. Sadly, the AI 52 HDs are not compatible with Apex so I'd have to manually control it but it would be cool to see the differences between the two types of light on a single tank. I'd also be able to see if there is a significant different in coral growth.

Any opinions?

 

[HuskerBioProf]

Since this tank is a bit experimental (for me at least) I'm thinking of picking up an AI 52 HD and parking it between the two Radions. I'd run them all perpendicular to the tank for best coverage. Sadly, the AI 52 HDs are not compatible with Apex so I'd have to manually control it but it would be cool to see the differences between the two types of light on a single tank. I'd also be able to see if there is a significant different in coral growth.

Any opinions?

Go for it. I had AI Hydra 26 HDs and they were a huge pain to me. They kept losing connectivity and would get stuck in "full on" sometimes. I had to reset them about once a week to avoid problems. The tech support was pretty shoddy, at best. I would have to really want to know the results of the experiment to force myself to mess with their app again.