copeland118
New member
nice set up :bounce1::bounce1::bounce1::bounce1:
The_Rider - Zen Garden (~250g system)
- Thread starter the_rider
- Start date
the_rider
New member
So after a long long wait, my setup is finally running !! :bounce1:
Almost :uzi: lol, still missing around 20-30g too be able to loop the system but I'm almost there
So I began last week to fill my sump with RO/DI water to add salt but since I don't have my solenoid yet, I'm only filling it when I'm at home near the tank so it took way longer than I expected but today my sump was full and I was ready to finally close the sump on my current setup (110G+70G). So I remove the ballvalves I needed, bring down my skimmer, media reactor and rocks.
I finished my manifold today
From left to right
Outlet 1 : Skimmer
Outlet 2 : Media reactor
Outlet 3 : Future UV Emperor
Outlet 4 : Spare, maybe gonna use it for water change in the beginning
Outlet 5 : Low flow outlet, acclimatation station, and other uses that I don,t know yet lol
And here's the skimmer I'm using a Marinetech RC-8X, it's around the same dimension as the Deltec AP-851, a little taller 36" and a pump that was developing 1500 LPH. I LOVE this skimmer, even if i'm really low on livestock right now, 1 large foxface, 1 CBB, 1 sleeper goby, 1 cleaner wrasse and 1 chromis, it's skimming more then my old skimmer with a larger livestock, at that time I had 1 large goldrim, 1 small half-black mimic tang, 2 clowns, 5 chromis + the fishes I have now. And since I change my skimmer, I went from 25-35 nitrate to 2.5 nitrate in a week and been there since.
Here's an overall view.
The color is off because of the light bulb i have directly on top of my tank. It's still messy, I just litterally finish gluing and test the setup. My first impression is that I LOVE my marinetech 3200 GPH pump, this pump is so silent, i didn't ear a thing (except the water going in my tank) but for real, the seios pump I put in my tank make more noise than this pump, it's amazing :eek1:
The rocks are only separate in pile, small and big piece that I remove from my sump, they will go in the sump again For now, my sump is acting as a big mixing tank so I cannot put them in there yet.
I'm still missing water, so hopefully by tomorrow, I will be able have enough water to loop the system
There will be update soon this time
Thank for reading
Alex B
Almost :uzi: lol, still missing around 20-30g too be able to loop the system but I'm almost there
So I began last week to fill my sump with RO/DI water to add salt but since I don't have my solenoid yet, I'm only filling it when I'm at home near the tank so it took way longer than I expected but today my sump was full and I was ready to finally close the sump on my current setup (110G+70G). So I remove the ballvalves I needed, bring down my skimmer, media reactor and rocks.
I finished my manifold today
From left to right
Outlet 1 : Skimmer
Outlet 2 : Media reactor
Outlet 3 : Future UV Emperor
Outlet 4 : Spare, maybe gonna use it for water change in the beginning
Outlet 5 : Low flow outlet, acclimatation station, and other uses that I don,t know yet lol
And here's the skimmer I'm using a Marinetech RC-8X, it's around the same dimension as the Deltec AP-851, a little taller 36" and a pump that was developing 1500 LPH. I LOVE this skimmer, even if i'm really low on livestock right now, 1 large foxface, 1 CBB, 1 sleeper goby, 1 cleaner wrasse and 1 chromis, it's skimming more then my old skimmer with a larger livestock, at that time I had 1 large goldrim, 1 small half-black mimic tang, 2 clowns, 5 chromis + the fishes I have now. And since I change my skimmer, I went from 25-35 nitrate to 2.5 nitrate in a week and been there since.
Here's an overall view.
The color is off because of the light bulb i have directly on top of my tank. It's still messy, I just litterally finish gluing and test the setup. My first impression is that I LOVE my marinetech 3200 GPH pump, this pump is so silent, i didn't ear a thing (except the water going in my tank) but for real, the seios pump I put in my tank make more noise than this pump, it's amazing :eek1:
The rocks are only separate in pile, small and big piece that I remove from my sump, they will go in the sump again
For now, my sump is acting as a big mixing tank so I cannot put them in there yet. I'm still missing water, so hopefully by tomorrow, I will be able have enough water to loop the system
There will be update soon this time
Thank for reading
Alex B
stunreefer
Reef Hugger
Now you're getting somewhere Alex, congrats! :beer:
Crazyc_625
Member
great looking tank......
the_rider
New member
Thank you Austin, Leonardo and Crazyc_625
FINALLY, my system is able to loop
It took around 3 bin of water instead of one like I guesstimated lol it took 2 days but it seems to take WEEKS lol
I was temted this week to add a wavebox ... but after seeing my water level, I won't put one unless I wanna take a shower will looking at the TV lol. I was planning to had a water level at 1.5". I'm around 1" to 1.5" right now but the frag is not connected yet (valve closed) So I'm guessing when I would open it, I should be at my aim level
I gonna pick up some black tubing tonight, and would connect my skimmer and my media reactor.
I also have to adjust the height of my durso, they are too low and I have a waterfall sound going in the overflow but it's an easy fix
I would upgrade tonight or tomorrow with pictures and video soon
Thx
Alex B
FINALLY, my system is able to loop
It took around 3 bin of water instead of one like I guesstimated lol it took 2 days but it seems to take WEEKS lol I was temted this week to add a wavebox ... but after seeing my water level, I won't put one unless I wanna take a shower will looking at the TV lol. I was planning to had a water level at 1.5". I'm around 1" to 1.5" right now but the frag is not connected yet (valve closed) So I'm guessing when I would open it, I should be at my aim level
I gonna pick up some black tubing tonight, and would connect my skimmer and my media reactor.
I also have to adjust the height of my durso, they are too low and I have a waterfall sound going in the overflow but it's an easy fix
I would upgrade tonight or tomorrow with pictures and video soon
Thx
Alex B
the_rider
New member
D day is near
I just did my water test
Ammoniac : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 7.5
I don't wanna promise anything because my projet had SO MANY delay/setback but I will try to find time tomorrow to make my transfert, if not it will go to Thursday, friday. I can only promise that when the transfer will be done I will RIP THE SHUTTER (photographer slang lol)
PS : I will have a nice surprise for you guys this week that you never saw before on any tank Pretty happy about it ... (SUSPENSE)
Thank for reading
Alex B
I just did my water test
Ammoniac : 0
Nitrite : 0
Nitrate : 7.5
I don't wanna promise anything because my projet had SO MANY delay/setback but I will try to find time tomorrow to make my transfert, if not it will go to Thursday, friday. I can only promise that when the transfer will be done I will RIP THE SHUTTER (photographer slang lol)
PS : I will have a nice surprise for you guys this week that you never saw before on any tank
Pretty happy about it ... (SUSPENSE) Thank for reading
Alex B
the_rider
New member
A little update,
I run into a little logictic problem with my plumbing. The way it was, went the pump was off, the check valve did close but the connection to my frag was still open, so my DT drained into me frag which didn't leave me enough room for my return section in my sump. The marinetech is seriously powerful and even with 6" off water above, it was still creating vortech from time to time and this sound make me nuts so I had to change it.
I redid my frag's connection so that now the DT doesn't drain anymore but the frag does, which is around 3-4 gallons instead of 30-35g like before
I will do a little clean up and show you the new addition I was taking about.
Until then, here is a little test I did for color comparaison
I'm using
1 x Color Extrem
2 x High Blue
1 x 15 000K
for my frag tank, tomorrow (day off ) I will move my ATI down so I can compare BLAU VS ATI, maybe I will need to change all my tubes :S
Thanks for reading
Alex B
I run into a little logictic problem with my plumbing. The way it was, went the pump was off, the check valve did close but the connection to my frag was still open, so my DT drained into me frag which didn't leave me enough room for my return section in my sump. The marinetech is seriously powerful and even with 6" off water above, it was still creating vortech from time to time and this sound make me nuts so I had to change it.
I redid my frag's connection so that now the DT doesn't drain anymore but the frag does, which is around 3-4 gallons instead of 30-35g like before
I will do a little clean up and show you the new addition I was taking about.
Until then, here is a little test I did for color comparaison
I'm using
1 x Color Extrem
2 x High Blue
1 x 15 000K
for my frag tank, tomorrow (day off
) I will move my ATI down so I can compare BLAU VS ATI, maybe I will need to change all my tubes :S Thanks for reading
Alex B
André Silvestre
Reefaholic
Hello,
Congratulations on the project.
Very well thought and great attention to detail.
I´m crossing my fingers that your layout will correspond to the attention you gave to the overall project.
Regarding the comparison between Blau T5 lamps and ATI T5 lamps, you will soon see that there´s no possible comparison. There´s no quality in Blau T5 lamps ( yes, they really suck).
Regards,
André
Congratulations on the project.
Very well thought and great attention to detail.
I´m crossing my fingers that your layout will correspond to the attention you gave to the overall project.
Regarding the comparison between Blau T5 lamps and ATI T5 lamps, you will soon see that there´s no possible comparison. There´s no quality in Blau T5 lamps ( yes, they really suck).
Regards,
André
the_rider
New member
Thank you André
I hope I create an aquaspace that meet your expectation
Why don't you like BLAU ? I really like the 4x24W fixture, really well built and nice aesthetically also and the color that the bulbs are giving are really similar to my ATI.
I will post picture of my aquaspace really soon, I would really like to have your comment on it I followed your thread and your aquaspacing skill are just incredible !
I hope I create an aquaspace that meet your expectation
Why don't you like BLAU ? I really like the 4x24W fixture, really well built and nice aesthetically also and the color that the bulbs are giving are really similar to my ATI.
I will post picture of my aquaspace really soon, I would really like to have your comment on it
I followed your thread and your aquaspacing skill are just incredible !
the_rider
New member
A little/HUGE update
I finished transfering everything really late last night (4 am). Everyone is doing great for the short time that I had observe then (wake up 20 min ago). My foxface is still a little skiddish, but that was expected lol. I didn't saw my Sleeper Gold head goby yet, but I'm sure he's been digging a crazy tunnel system. My CBB is crushing the tank like nothing happen, looking for food with his sidekick aka cleaner wrasse. He even beg for food when he saw me so I'm really happy
All my coral, which is not much lol are all in my frag tank and all open
So I think my transfert really went well except that the funnel trick for sand doesn't work at all lol
I'm sure you are wondering where are those pictures !?!?! Water is still a little bit cloudy
But I'm gonna take picture has soon as possible
Thank you for reading
Alex B
I finished transfering everything really late last night (4 am). Everyone is doing great for the short time that I had observe then (wake up 20 min ago
). My foxface is still a little skiddish, but that was expected lol. I didn't saw my Sleeper Gold head goby yet, but I'm sure he's been digging a crazy tunnel system. My CBB is crushing the tank like nothing happen, looking for food with his sidekick aka cleaner wrasse. He even beg for food when he saw me so I'm really happy All my coral, which is not much lol are all in my frag tank and all open
So I think my transfert really went well except that the funnel trick for sand doesn't work at all lol
I'm sure you are wondering where are those pictures !?!?! Water is still a little bit cloudy
But I'm gonna take picture has soon as possibleThank you for reading
Alex B
André Silvestre
Reefaholic
Thank you André
I hope I create an aquaspace that meet your expectation
Why don't you like BLAU ? I really like the 4x24W fixture, really well built and nice aesthetically also and the color that the bulbs are giving are really similar to my ATI.
I will post picture of my aquaspace really soon, I would really like to have your comment on it
Hello Alex,
I hope I have not been misunderstood with my comment regarding the aquascape. The most important thing of all is that the layout meets the creator´s expectation and since I am not the creator, the most important thing is that you feel happy with the end result. My intention was just to strenghten the fact that this is an awsome build and to have a beautiful layout would be half-way to a spectacular reef tank. My apologies if my words had a negative conotation. :beer:
Regarding Blau, it is a brand that is sold here in Portugal very often to serve as a midbrand between cheap non-quality lighting material and expensive but quality material. The problem is that LFS sell the lighting fixtures and bulbs even more expensive than good, well-known brands such as ATI and the quality, comparing to that brand is very poor. The lighting fixtures are deficient in performance and active cooling; reflectors are made of cheap material and very narrow, the distance between lamp sockets are superior to the lenght of the bulbs, contributing to bad contact between the sockets and bulbs, the fans responsible for the active cooling are too noisy because of vibration between the fan itself and the aluminium exterior case and do not make any difference in cooling the bulbs since there isn´t a cooling circuit that forces the cool/hot air circulate through the bulbs to the exterior of the fixture like there is in ATI or Giesemann fixtures, for example. The bulbs are also very poor when it comes to color and burn very quickly ( in 6 months, the difference of the color and brightness of the bulbs is well noticeable to the eye).
I look forward to see and comment your aquascape. I am sure I will like it as everything else you made with this project but, as I said, it´s much more important that you like it.
As usual, tagging along...
Regards,
André
P.S.: sorry for the long text
the_rider
New member
Thank You André
I didn't want my answer to sound negative ... I did understand what you meant and I didn't take it negative at all
It's weird for the fans though, on my fixture it's incredibly quiet ... So quiet that at first, I though they didn't work lol maybe they change something for the 110V fixture ? For the tubes, only time will tell
Do you have any updates on your SW tanks ??
I didn't want my answer to sound negative ... I did understand what you meant and I didn't take it negative at all
It's weird for the fans though, on my fixture it's incredibly quiet ... So quiet that at first, I though they didn't work lol maybe they change something for the 110V fixture ? For the tubes, only time will tell
Do you have any updates on your SW tanks ??
the_rider
New member
Thank you Leonardo
I may have lost one or two peppermint shrimp ... I thought I remove them from the rock before putting the rock in yesterday but once the rock was in ... TADA peppermints was on it too ... My parameter weren't far apart so hopefully they will make it even if they did have a proper acclimatation.
Here's a picture of my new fixture I would take others picture once it clears out
I may have lost one or two peppermint shrimp ... I thought I remove them from the rock before putting the rock in yesterday but once the rock was in ... TADA peppermints was on it too ... My parameter weren't far apart so hopefully they will make it even if they did have a proper acclimatation.
Here's a picture of my new fixture
I would take others picture once it clears out
