Swoop's 300g Deep Dimension Build

[Swoop]

Even the best laid plans fail sometimes.

So had a fuse on one of the ballasts decide to blow out. Only after this happens do I realize that, uh oh, there is no easy way to access the fuse and change it with the ballasts in the canopy. Unless of course I want to bug the neighbor to come help me take the canopy off.

Having a fuse blow this quick was all the added push I needed to rethink my ballast positioning. Anyway to make a long story short, the neighbor was called, canopy removed, Dremel tool activated and an hour later the ballasts are on top of the canopy.

Because I am currently not to interested in spending 100 bucks on new wire harnesses and not interested in rewiring anything I had to make do and essentially put each ballast exactly where it was inside the canopy only on the top now. So 2 on each end of the canopy. While I can hide them with some trim, that doesn't excite me a whole lot.

My biggest issue is the front part of my canopy no longer will lift up and go all the way over and rest on the top of the canopy. It now only goes about 3/4 of the way and ends up resting against the front edges of two ballasts. Once I get the canopy right side up and back on the tank I will see how the canopy front does. It doesn't appear that it will fall forward when not being held as it goes past the vertical but I'm not excited about all that weight resting on two ballasts.

I imagine that issue alone will eventually lead me to order new harnesses and rewire everything and then I will just line up all 4 ballasts on top of the canopy along the back and then my canopy front will tilt all the way over again. Plus I think it will just look better. But the current arrangement will have to suffice for a few months.

On a more positive note, tank is clearing more and more by the hour.

 

[Galantra]

Man issues with the ballast already... Mishaps are bound to happen. Can't wait to see a photo

 

[tor101898]

Thats one issue I had with my previous tank. one thing i try to keep in mind when setting things up is, If i'm going to be messing with it then I have to make it accessible.
just a tip on the wiring, you can go to home depot or the like and get the same gauge wiring as the harness and just do an extension yourself much cheaper than the extension harness. I believe it's 16 gauge.

 

[thejuggernaut]

Thats one issue I had with my previous tank. one thing i try to keep in mind when setting things up is, If i'm going to be messing with it then I have to make it accessible.
just a tip on the wiring, you can go to home depot or the like and get the same gauge wiring as the harness and just do an extension yourself much cheaper than the extension harness. I believe it's 16 gauge.

Yea...if you really want to get fancy get a soldering iron and some heat shrink. The lead free solder I think is harder to use..regular old rosin core 60/40 solder is the stuff to use.

 

[Swoop]

So wife and I mutually decided to remove some sand from the tank. Her idea really. I have to say it looks better. Probably removed about 35 to 40 lbs. Of course this clouded my water up again.

Perhaps tomorrow it will be clear enough again to take some pics and post them.

I've got some ideas on how to partially hide the ballasts that are now on top of the canopy and to also create some blocks for the part of the canopy that opens to rest on when its flipped up. Kill two birds with one stone.

 

[Swoop]

What a nice way to jump back into the hobby.

Reef Keeper PH Probe doesn't calibrate properly, who knows when Digital Aquatics will get back to me on that and to top it off, the Ice Cap Ballast that blew it's fuse over the weekend keeps blowing fuses. With our without bulbs installed it blows the fuse the second you plug it in. Who knows how long this will take to get replaced.

Not sure who I should call, Ice Cap or Premium Aquatics. One would think that Premium Aquatics would send me a replacement considering I just ordered the damn thing a few weeks ago. But I bet they say I have to call Ice Cap, I can imagine getting a replacement from them might take forever. I'm not gonna lie, nothing ****es me off more than buying something new and before you even get to really use it it breaks. Just lovely.

I'm almost tempted to see if my LFS has a 430 ballast I can get so I can at least get all my lights going then I'll haggle with Ice Cap or Premium Aquatics about getting a replacement or a repair, then I'll have a spare ballast cause who knows how fast the next one will go.

Side note, been moving sand around and getting it off the top of rocks. Ugh every time I touch the crap it clouds my tank. Most of the sand is decent size grains but I think that bit of Oolite that I mixed in is what keeps getting stirred up into the water column.

 

[thejuggernaut]

run down to your LFS and grab a 7 inch filter sock...i hang one around my drain every once and awhile when i move things around and the water really clouds up. It gets it clear in about an hour. I just use zip ties. I use 200 micron. they make smaller but those get my tank crystal clear and dont clog up as fast. Hope everything works out with the Icecap. I know its frusterating to spend good money one something like that and it not work. I would call premium aquatics and tell them your situation. I bet they will work with you.

 

[Bax]

I can tell you that if you have to go to IceCap they are top shelf at customer serverice.


Sweet build!

 

[Swoop]

And things can't get any worse, Oh they can :mad2:

The pump on my brand new Marineland 300 Insump Skimmer just died about 20 mins ago. Lovely :mad2:

I guess its a good thing I don't have any live stock in the tank yet. So lets see.

Tuesday morning to do list.

Call Digital Aquatics about my PH probe

Call either Premium Aquatics or Ice Cap about my shoddy ballast

Call DrsFosterandSmith or Marineland about my shoddy skimmer pump.

Guess I should have just gotten a Nanocube all in one.


Update: Just got off the phone with Fosters and Smith, they are sending me a new skimmer. So I guess its not all bad at the moment.

 

[Swoop]

Just got done doing a full battery of water tests. Here they are.

Temp: 77.2
SG: 1.028, used a refractometer, I know its a little high, working on bringing it down to 1.026. Just gonna remove a bit of saltwater and replace with RO/DI

Ammonia: .25
Trite: .1
Trate: 2.5

(Looks like some stuff in the sand is starting a small cycle. Probably add a piece of shrimp tomorrow)

ph: 8.2
Alk: 2.5 meq/L
Cal: 550 (A tad high, but other than some water changes not sure what I can do about that until I get something in the tank that consumes it. Also wondering if that high a cal number is causing some of my foggy water.)

Phosphate: 0

 

[reefmaster3024]

Swoop I can sympothize with you we do commercial heat and air, and nothing sucks worse than putting together a big project , for you your tank for us something like a big boxcar unit thats brand new and breaks or doesnt work on start up. Then you have to get on the phone with suppliers and manufactors that usually play a great game of pass the buck. Hopefully it goes good and you get all your stuff worked out right away. Good luck, im tagging along

 

[Swoop]

So called Premium Aquatics, they passed the buck to IceCap. IceCap said to send in the ballast and they will fix it. Thats all fine and stuff but it sorta sucks that on something that is 2 weeks old that I have to pay some shipping costs to get it repaired.

My LFS has a 430 in stock so I'm gonna grab that and then have the repaired ballast as a spare for the next ballast that goes on the fritz. Still haven't heard from DA about my PH probe.

Replacement skimmer from Fosters and Smith will be here Friday and my ATB 1500 return pump will be here tomorrow. Yay. My Marineland pump has been doing fine but its a little undersized to feed two returns.

Water is clearing slowly. Perhaps enough that I will get some pics and post. Some of my rocks still have sand on them from when I added it to the tank. I'm a little hesitant to blow it off for fear of starting another dust storm. Maybe I should clean 1 rock a day, lol. Gonna turn the Vortechs back on tonight since its clear enough to see if they stir up any of the sand bed. Maybe they will clean the rocks for me.

 

[emilio c]

Heck yea let see some pic's swoop! I have been down the same road with Ice cap I swiched over to ARO problem was fixed for me! But it sucks to have spent all the $$$ up front and careful planning and BAM somthing goes south!

 

[Swoop]

Man o man how I do love my ATB Flowstar 1500 return pump. Small, quiet and man that baby moves some water for how small it is. Hopefully it will be reliable.

My water continues to clear. My Vortechs and my new ATB pump are busy moving sand around so I have some loose particles in my water column, nothing big, eventually everything will settle into a nice spot.

I put a Vortech on each end of the tank about 1/3 down from the top of the water. One is a master and the other is a slave doing the opposite of what the master is doing. Based on how the sand particles are getting thrown about, I think it should be enough water movement. Gonna test my Amonia, Trites and Trates tonight, see how my cycle is progressing. Replacement skimmer comes tomorrow, hopefully my water will finally get crystal clear after it runs for a bit.

Family and I stopped by our LFS yesterday and my wife and son wanted us to buy everything and make our tank look like the LFS reef tank immediately. I had to backem down of course. Patience I told her, patience. I promise some tank pics as soon as I get my water nice and clear.

I did buy a spare Ice Cap ballast yesterday and put it in place of the bad one. Finally got all 8 lights on at the same time. I'm not gonna lie, its a tad bright. I shrugged it off to nothing being in the tank other than white sand and white rock. LoL. Hope I'm right otherwise I'll have to be getting ideas for a bulb setup that is a little less bright.

Oh also picked up 4 pieces of Live Rock from my LFS and placed them in the tank. Hoping they help to seed all my base rock. Still no call from DA about my bad PH Probe. Gonna call them right now.

 

[Swoop]

Quick side note. Just learned that IceCap mandates that all warranty issues and problems be addressed directly with them, this is why Premium Aquatics were unable to just send me a replacement ballast for my 2 week old one. So contrary to my prior post Premium Aquatics didn't "Pass the Buck". And I have to say they have been great with everything I have needed and their lighting advice was spot on.

 

[gtaylor67]

I am looking forward to seeing your pics soon. I have purchased this very tank and have not decided on what lighting to use on it. To be honest I haven't even though of going with T5 lighting. Lets see what you come up with to maybe change that... Great build and gonna tag along for a bit... Just wondering why you did not mount your ballast in the stand and space them off the wall on a rack .. If needed run a fan across the surface to cool...Thanks Gary

 

[Swoop]

Just never thought about putting under the stand. I do like them as part of the canopy even though I had to move them to the top. Just like the idea of if I take the canopy off my ballasts come with it. I dunno.

Ive already gotten used to having them on top of the canopy. I don't even notice them now. I'm sure guests will comment, but if the do I will kick them out, .

I still plan on moving them to the very back top, but probably not till I remove the canopy to do my bulb change in 6 months.

I did swap out one of the Blue Plus bulbs for another daylight bulb. 4 Blue Pluses were too blue for me. I suppose that could change once I get colors other than white in the water. But for now it was too blue.

I think I'll have some pictures to share tomorrow night. Oh and man I love the DA Moonlights. Just enough light at full moon to see things going on and it shouldn't be to distracting to the tank inhabitants. I like that the light intensity phases with the actual moon phases.

 

[chris55]

tagging along, love the tank, same exact one in the near future for me

 

[Swoop]

Update with Pics. Everyone loves pics right.

Pictures are more blue that in person.

Been doing water tests daily and everything is good accept Trites and Trates.

Ammonia appears to be 0. I say appears because my test kit doesn't have anything in between 0 and .25, it may be slightly above 0 but then my RO/DI water would have to have ammonia in it since the tank water and the RO/DI water read the same color. Perhaps my test kit for Ammonia is bad, I dunno. Gonna order another test kit tomorrow for a second opinion. But Ammonia was at .5 a few days ago.

My Trites are .5 and my Trates are 2.5. Trates have stayed level so far but my Trites have climbed. I assume its not out of the ordinary to have 0 Ammonia but have .5 ppm in Trites? Hopefully they start to come down. My Trites kit is definetly right has my RO/DI water tested 0 as I would expect.

I ran the lights as if I had the tank stocked with corals so I could observe Temp and Evap. Tank temp rises to 78 after a full light cycle but seems to drop back down to 77.4 give or take during the night. I think in the summer things will be more stable since the A/C will be running more. This time of year its not really hot enough to run the A/C but not cool enough to open a window or run the heat.

I'm currently evaporating about 1 gallon per day. I would say that is pretty good considering the water volume I have. I think the glass tops are helping with that to some degree. So far they are staying free of salt creep and condensation. As long as they stay that way and I only have to clean them once every month or so then I will keep them. If they start to become a pain in the arse then I'll chunk em.

I'll be leaving the lights off at this point till my cycle is over. Starting to see some algae growing on the rocks and a few brown spots on the sand. So lights off till its safe to add a cleanup crew.

Humidity inside the room where my tank is has been staying right around 52% humidity on average. It goes up to about 58% during the day but in the evening seems to come back down some. When I crank the A/C it drops down to the mid 40s. Considering this is winter and the A/C isn't run that often and I don't run the heat on this side of the house much in the winter I think my evap and humidity levels are pretty good.

In the summer with the A/C running more I imagine my average humidity level should come down some. My house is sealed pretty good so I don't really expect much of the summer time humid air to make its way inside, at least not to an extent that it raises the levels to unacceptable. However I am still prepared to install a dehumidifier if the tank starts to dump to much water into the air.

Okay enough rambling, picture time. Again the pics are a bit bluer than in person.

I think I'll probably leave all the pieces of Live Rock I am using to help seed the dry rock where they are except for the piece on the far left as you are looking at the tank. It doesn't really fit right over there but I put it there to help seed that side.

Yeah yeah, I know my Vortechs don't have the little safety thing attached yet. Was still playing with their position and I didn't want to waste a couple of the safety things yet. I think I'm happy at this point where they are so I'll get them put on soon.

The sand bed looks deeper than it actually is. I think its the trim on the stand that fools me. Most places its about 1.5" deep, 2" in some places and maybe 2.5" in a few places. Lots of places still for sand to end up under alot of the base rocks on the right hand side so once critters and fish get in there and start moving it about it will change.

 

[Swoop]

Couple more pics