Triple-S Fish Ranch - 1700gal 164†x 48†x 56†SPS peninsula build
- Thread starter pmrogers
- Start date
triggreefer
New member
Absolutely stunning! I want one just like it when I grow up.
prop-frags
SPS Slave
Great update and please do continue to share your problems - self-inflicted and otherwise! It is what makes this such a benefit to the larger community. You've probably already solved for this, but you can easily mix your baking soda and soda ash together to yield a more friendly solution that elevates (or maintains steady) pH. We've found that a 30% ratio of soda ash to 60% baking soda is best for our system; ymmv.
ddanis60
New member
After 5 days of reading when i can, I've finally reached the end. At around Jul 14, I was really hoping that by the time i reached present day, there would be life in the DT. I was actually surprised to see that happen early this year, with how slow and amazingly patient you are.
I look forward to many more years of updates. Amazing work.. truly inspiring.
I look forward to many more years of updates. Amazing work.. truly inspiring.
August Update: HVAC, UV, pump rebuilds, yet more RO/DI fun
Busy few weeks. Since the last update:
Hydro Wizard is bullet proof after all
The Hydro Wizard was one of the victims of the great soda ash overdose. After using pliers to force the impeller to turn a few times, was able to get the pump running in a pure vinegar solution for several hours to clean it. It initially seemed fine after reinstalling, but then started making a disturbing grinding noise about a day later. Since it is a sealed assembly with the only user-serviceable part being the propeller blade, I resigned myself to removing it from the system to mail back to the manufacturer for repair. Removing it was quite the production as it was installed before the cabinetry was built, and everything was either zip tied or run in cable channel from the controller mounted under the tank up to the pump.
I went straight to full removal because the timing was just too coincidental for it to be anything other than the soda ash incident. There was no way it could be a snail in the housing since I'd only seen a snail on it twice in 8 months of running and besides all of the snails are too big to fit through the slats of the shroud. You're probably guessing what I found after removing the pump and controller. Yep, so much for "no way". The skinniest cerith snail in the tank had almost managed to fit through the slats in the housing. He couldn't quite make it, but did get stuck with his long skinny end in just far enough to catch the prop and break one blade mostly off. The grinding noise was just the mostly detached prop blade flapping around whacking the snail.
In other words, no need to go through the full removal hassle. All I needed to have done was lift the pump out of the water to install a new impeller prop. And the moral of this story is: always check the simple stuff first, even if you "know" what the problem is. All the more annoying since I had learned this lesson several times over back in my programming days.
Installed skimmer wash down pump
As you may recall from an earlier post, the integrated wash down pump that came with the skimmer was defective. MRC had experienced too many failures of that pump model, so they sent a new BlueLine pump that required new plumbing bits and an adapter for mounting it to the skimmer body. With the new pump weighing substantially more and given that there is already a slow leak around the manifold box to which the old pump was mounted, I decided to floor mount the pump and do my own plumbing.
An open question from the last update on the wash down was whether it would spray only the inner neck or also clean the collection cup. It sprays the entire cup. Great in that everything gets clean; not so great in that it sends about 5gpm of system water straight to the sewer. Time to add supplemental dosing of NSW to the display. Fortunately, this should be fairly straightforward as only 17 of the 18 Liter Meter channels are in use.
Temperature spikes, junkyard cooling efforts, further coral loss
Getting the new HVAC spec'd, ordered, electrical prep work done, and HVAC installed took a couple of weeks. A few days in to the problem, I picked up a portable 1.2 ton AC to help bring temps under control while waiting for the new system. In the mean time, tank temperatures had risen to 87F. The fish seemed fine with this, but several more corals started bleaching.
The high tech appearance of the fish room took a decided turn for the disorderly with 4 fans and a hacked up portable AC install.
HVAC Upgrade
While upgrading capacity, decided to also add redundancy. The 3 air handlers in the room, plus 2 other zones, all ran off the same 4-ton split system condenser. I didn't love having a single point of failure in that condenser, but was somewhat okay with it for 2 reasons:
Prior to the upgrade, aquarium HVAC consisted of one 1-ton air handler for the aquarium canopy, two 1/2 ton wall mounted units in the fish room, and a 1.5-ton dehumidifier. The upgrade replaced the 1/2 ton units with a 2-ton over the sump and a 1-ton over the QT tanks.
Installing the new system was nerve wracking as it involved routing new copper and electrical through and around all of the aquarium system wiring and plumbing. Access for the two wall units was especially problematic, with the 2-ton over the sump being the most worrisome given all of the high-leverage plumbing that could snap off a fitting or bulkhead with a relatively gentle nudge and unleash a 100gpm flood. To improve access I built a small platform to place on the sump, with rails underneath to keep load on the edges of the sump and off the think acrylic lids.
HVAC Before and After
UV Filter for Display Tank
Decided to add a UV to the display because algae is growing too quickly on the viewing panels. Also, the display started to turn slightly cloudy for a few days, making me paranoid that it might repeat the algae bloom from heck that plagued the coral QT a few months back. Initially thought to use the Emperor Aquatics 150W UV from the previous tank, but I could not find a way to make it fit in the fish room. I continue to be amazed by how cramped everything is in this fish room that I thought during design would be nearly twice as big as necessary.
To get a footprint more manageable than the 6" diameter 6 foot long tube of the Emperor, went with an Aqua UV 114W unit. The UV is inline before the skimmer.
Because there are so many possible leak spots on this UV, have placed it on the floor next to the skimmer to run for a week where it is accessible for troubleshooting. After a week of trouble free operation, will mount it to the wall between the skimmer and RO/DI reservoir. Miracle of miracles, zero leaks on the first hookup. Of course it would have been an entirely different story if I'd started out mounting to the wall. . .
Temporary UV position
New Round of Fish for QT
Released the Chocolate Tang, Blue-eyed Kole Tang to the display. The Naso tang died in QT-- never ate. New batch of QT fish consists of a new Blond Naso Tang, 8 Yellow Tangs, Midas Blenny, Coral Beauty angel. Everyone is eating, the angel and blenny voraciously, all of the tangs somewhat indifferently, not yet taking pellets, only kelp and frozen mysis.
More RO/DI Woes
The booster pump on the RO/DI stopped boosting. It was running, but no change in water pressure. Disassembly revealed a plastic coupling which mates the motor to the pump head. This had wallowed out inside, and was no longer able to spin the head. SpectraPure was very quick to ship the new coupler, though still somewhat annoying that this was entirely due to poor assembly at the factory. When the filter first arrived I was surprised to see the pump head sagging downward. But it had just passed factory test and was working fine so I didn't give it further thought. Seeing the coupler, it was obvious that the pump head needed to mount flush with no sag. The root problem was that when first assembled, the upper braided hose in the image below was cut about 1/4" too long, forcing the pump head to bend downward. At least it was an easy fix.
Booster Pump Coupler. On the old coupler, the slot you see here was wallowed out to a perfect circle; couldn't even tell that that there had been a slot.
Booster Pump Before and After Fix:
Busy few weeks. Since the last update:
- Removed Hydro Wizard to mail off for service only to discover that mailing it off wasn't necessary
- Removed, cleaned, reinstalled 5 Tunze Streams and closed loop Abyzz pump
- Installed Skimmer wash down pump
- Wired up skimmer cup float switch, programmed Apex
- Tank temp spike to 86F, more losses in coral QT
- Upgraded fish room HVAC
- Installed UV filter on display tank
- Released round 3 of fish QT to display
- QT round 4 stocked
- Reworked Tunze power mountings
- Built 'advanced' kelp feeding solution
Hydro Wizard is bullet proof after all
The Hydro Wizard was one of the victims of the great soda ash overdose. After using pliers to force the impeller to turn a few times, was able to get the pump running in a pure vinegar solution for several hours to clean it. It initially seemed fine after reinstalling, but then started making a disturbing grinding noise about a day later. Since it is a sealed assembly with the only user-serviceable part being the propeller blade, I resigned myself to removing it from the system to mail back to the manufacturer for repair. Removing it was quite the production as it was installed before the cabinetry was built, and everything was either zip tied or run in cable channel from the controller mounted under the tank up to the pump.
I went straight to full removal because the timing was just too coincidental for it to be anything other than the soda ash incident. There was no way it could be a snail in the housing since I'd only seen a snail on it twice in 8 months of running and besides all of the snails are too big to fit through the slats of the shroud. You're probably guessing what I found after removing the pump and controller. Yep, so much for "no way". The skinniest cerith snail in the tank had almost managed to fit through the slats in the housing. He couldn't quite make it, but did get stuck with his long skinny end in just far enough to catch the prop and break one blade mostly off. The grinding noise was just the mostly detached prop blade flapping around whacking the snail.
In other words, no need to go through the full removal hassle. All I needed to have done was lift the pump out of the water to install a new impeller prop. And the moral of this story is: always check the simple stuff first, even if you "know" what the problem is. All the more annoying since I had learned this lesson several times over back in my programming days.
Installed skimmer wash down pump
As you may recall from an earlier post, the integrated wash down pump that came with the skimmer was defective. MRC had experienced too many failures of that pump model, so they sent a new BlueLine pump that required new plumbing bits and an adapter for mounting it to the skimmer body. With the new pump weighing substantially more and given that there is already a slow leak around the manifold box to which the old pump was mounted, I decided to floor mount the pump and do my own plumbing.
An open question from the last update on the wash down was whether it would spray only the inner neck or also clean the collection cup. It sprays the entire cup. Great in that everything gets clean; not so great in that it sends about 5gpm of system water straight to the sewer. Time to add supplemental dosing of NSW to the display. Fortunately, this should be fairly straightforward as only 17 of the 18 Liter Meter channels are in use.
Temperature spikes, junkyard cooling efforts, further coral loss
Getting the new HVAC spec'd, ordered, electrical prep work done, and HVAC installed took a couple of weeks. A few days in to the problem, I picked up a portable 1.2 ton AC to help bring temps under control while waiting for the new system. In the mean time, tank temperatures had risen to 87F. The fish seemed fine with this, but several more corals started bleaching.
The high tech appearance of the fish room took a decided turn for the disorderly with 4 fans and a hacked up portable AC install.
HVAC Upgrade
While upgrading capacity, decided to also add redundancy. The 3 air handlers in the room, plus 2 other zones, all ran off the same 4-ton split system condenser. I didn't love having a single point of failure in that condenser, but was somewhat okay with it for 2 reasons:
- It is a very common commercial split system with lots of emergency service options and good parts availability
- an identical split system condenser was spec'd for the media room and installed 1 foot away in the equipment building. In the event that parts were unavailable, the coolant lines for the aquarium and garage could be swapped over to the media system condenser temporarily.
Prior to the upgrade, aquarium HVAC consisted of one 1-ton air handler for the aquarium canopy, two 1/2 ton wall mounted units in the fish room, and a 1.5-ton dehumidifier. The upgrade replaced the 1/2 ton units with a 2-ton over the sump and a 1-ton over the QT tanks.
Installing the new system was nerve wracking as it involved routing new copper and electrical through and around all of the aquarium system wiring and plumbing. Access for the two wall units was especially problematic, with the 2-ton over the sump being the most worrisome given all of the high-leverage plumbing that could snap off a fitting or bulkhead with a relatively gentle nudge and unleash a 100gpm flood. To improve access I built a small platform to place on the sump, with rails underneath to keep load on the edges of the sump and off the think acrylic lids.
HVAC Before and After
UV Filter for Display Tank
Decided to add a UV to the display because algae is growing too quickly on the viewing panels. Also, the display started to turn slightly cloudy for a few days, making me paranoid that it might repeat the algae bloom from heck that plagued the coral QT a few months back. Initially thought to use the Emperor Aquatics 150W UV from the previous tank, but I could not find a way to make it fit in the fish room. I continue to be amazed by how cramped everything is in this fish room that I thought during design would be nearly twice as big as necessary.
To get a footprint more manageable than the 6" diameter 6 foot long tube of the Emperor, went with an Aqua UV 114W unit. The UV is inline before the skimmer.
Because there are so many possible leak spots on this UV, have placed it on the floor next to the skimmer to run for a week where it is accessible for troubleshooting. After a week of trouble free operation, will mount it to the wall between the skimmer and RO/DI reservoir. Miracle of miracles, zero leaks on the first hookup. Of course it would have been an entirely different story if I'd started out mounting to the wall. . .
Temporary UV position
New Round of Fish for QT
Released the Chocolate Tang, Blue-eyed Kole Tang to the display. The Naso tang died in QT-- never ate. New batch of QT fish consists of a new Blond Naso Tang, 8 Yellow Tangs, Midas Blenny, Coral Beauty angel. Everyone is eating, the angel and blenny voraciously, all of the tangs somewhat indifferently, not yet taking pellets, only kelp and frozen mysis.
More RO/DI Woes
The booster pump on the RO/DI stopped boosting. It was running, but no change in water pressure. Disassembly revealed a plastic coupling which mates the motor to the pump head. This had wallowed out inside, and was no longer able to spin the head. SpectraPure was very quick to ship the new coupler, though still somewhat annoying that this was entirely due to poor assembly at the factory. When the filter first arrived I was surprised to see the pump head sagging downward. But it had just passed factory test and was working fine so I didn't give it further thought. Seeing the coupler, it was obvious that the pump head needed to mount flush with no sag. The root problem was that when first assembled, the upper braided hose in the image below was cut about 1/4" too long, forcing the pump head to bend downward. At least it was an easy fix.
Booster Pump Coupler. On the old coupler, the slot you see here was wallowed out to a perfect circle; couldn't even tell that that there had been a slot.
Booster Pump Before and After Fix:
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August Update, part 2
August Update, part 2
Reworked Tunze Stream Drivers
Pulling all of the Tunze Streams to clean reminded me of an annoying bit of sloppiness in their install. The driver power modules for the streams were mounted to a board above the overflow using industrial strength velcro. The weight of the drivers was too much for the velcro adhesive, though, and the drivers would slide down over the course of a week or two, resulting in the mess you see here:
The cable channel to either side prevented the drivers from falling off completely, and this is not something I see during daily or monthly maintenance since the overflow divider panel hides this area from view, but it still bothered me knowing it was back there. My solution was to use 3" stainless steel screws and zip ties. Didn't come out quite as neatly as envisioned, though still an improvement
Nori Feeding Solution
The tangs go through a lot of nori, and this will only go up as the tank gets populated. Standard tricks like rubber banding sheets to a rock, or using a cleaning magnet to pin to the glass don't work so well at this size, plus I don't like having to put my hands in the water every day. The solution: a piece of PVC with 4 clips zip tied to it. This can grow to 8+ clips over time.
The last challenge was a way to secure the pipe while making it easily removable. This was my ever so elegant answer to that challenge. Actually, while the execution is a bit hacked up, I do think the design is a good one, allowing for easy removal and replacement of the pipe.
August Update, part 2
Reworked Tunze Stream Drivers
Pulling all of the Tunze Streams to clean reminded me of an annoying bit of sloppiness in their install. The driver power modules for the streams were mounted to a board above the overflow using industrial strength velcro. The weight of the drivers was too much for the velcro adhesive, though, and the drivers would slide down over the course of a week or two, resulting in the mess you see here:
The cable channel to either side prevented the drivers from falling off completely, and this is not something I see during daily or monthly maintenance since the overflow divider panel hides this area from view, but it still bothered me knowing it was back there. My solution was to use 3" stainless steel screws and zip ties. Didn't come out quite as neatly as envisioned, though still an improvement
Nori Feeding Solution
The tangs go through a lot of nori, and this will only go up as the tank gets populated. Standard tricks like rubber banding sheets to a rock, or using a cleaning magnet to pin to the glass don't work so well at this size, plus I don't like having to put my hands in the water every day. The solution: a piece of PVC with 4 clips zip tied to it. This can grow to 8+ clips over time.
The last challenge was a way to secure the pipe while making it easily removable. This was my ever so elegant answer to that challenge. Actually, while the execution is a bit hacked up, I do think the design is a good one, allowing for easy removal and replacement of the pipe.
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No plans for now other than keeping an eye on it to make sure it doesn't start increasing. Waterdog engineering signed off on the deflection as being within tolerance.
Hey Steve,
Thanks for the note. I am a huge fan of Mighty Magnets, especially the Algae Dozer which is an absolute miracle worker on coraline. On our 750 I fought a miserable battle with viewing pane coraline algae for over 2 years before discovering the algae dozer. I honestly don't think I would have signed up for another large tank if I hadn't found a decent solution to keeping coraline off the glass. This goes doubly for acrylic tanks: on the 750 I was stuck using soft plastic scrapers out of fear of further scratching the viewing panels.
I do have a couple of quibbles with the Mighty Magnets proper, though.
- With the 3 I've purchased, I find they under size the magnet strength by about 2 sizes. I had to go all the way up to their magnet rated for 2.75" to get one that wouldn't fall off all the time on the 1.5" thick display tank glass.
- For whatever reason, the inner magnets don't track smoothly with the outer magnets. If I'm pushing at a constant pace down the length of the glass, the inner magnet will hang until I get about 2 inches ahead, then jump to mate up, then hang, then jump, and so on. More annoying, the inner magnet won't retain it's orientation, sometimes orienting perpendicular to the outer magnet, and often performing a full spin in the course of one push down the length of the tank. Perhaps this is due to the size difference between inner and outer, or perhaps due to the floating inner magnet. Are you running F-12's on any of your maintenance tanks, and have you observed similar behavior?
Thanks so much, prop-frags, great tip! I did not know it was safe to mix baking soda and soda ash together. This will be much more convenient.
Of course, Dmorty217. Note my latest update: the Hydro Wizard did prove to be bullet proof even in the face of a full calcium lock-up. I was wrong when I speculated in my previous update that the internals of the pump had been damaged.
Hi hobbzz, It's hard to say with certainty since that pump is running at the same time as the 2 sea swirls, Abyzz 420 closed loop, and 5 Tunze Streams, but I'm fairly confident it could throw the full 14' length of my tank. If I were starting over on this tank, I would replace the tower of 5 Streams with a single ECM-63. Might need to add a second one in the column due to the extreme height of the tank, but wouldn't surprise me if one did the trick by itself.
I'm enjoying the updates Paul. If I may, I have a suggestion on the nori feeder, one that I implimented myself.
I found that using clips resulted in most of the nori being ripped off and finding its way to either my overflow or stuck to a powerhead and in both situations it results in a waste of food that serves no benefit to the tank and ultimately just directly adds nutrients, especially PO4.
To solve this I simply took plastic gutter guard from Ace Hardware, cut two sheets and zip tied three of the four sides together leaving the forth wide open to stuff nori. The benefit here is most of the nori that is pulled by a fish is only bite sizes which are consumed rather than wasted. It also allows me to stuff as much or as little nori into the holder as I want without making any modifications.
For you, I imagine you could simply zip tie the gutter guard feeder to your current extension pipe.
I found that using clips resulted in most of the nori being ripped off and finding its way to either my overflow or stuck to a powerhead and in both situations it results in a waste of food that serves no benefit to the tank and ultimately just directly adds nutrients, especially PO4.
To solve this I simply took plastic gutter guard from Ace Hardware, cut two sheets and zip tied three of the four sides together leaving the forth wide open to stuff nori. The benefit here is most of the nori that is pulled by a fish is only bite sizes which are consumed rather than wasted. It also allows me to stuff as much or as little nori into the holder as I want without making any modifications.
For you, I imagine you could simply zip tie the gutter guard feeder to your current extension pipe.
o2manyfish
o2manyfish
Paul,
I like the nori clip and holder concept!
I have a different view than Cuzza regarding the Nori going to waste. Having a nice tang collection (9 yellows, purple, 2 Hippo, Chevron & Achillies) plus a collection of angels - No Nori is wasted or lost in the tank.
I don't recall what your recent tank population is, but with the next batch of yellows coming out of quarantine you shouldn't have any issues with the bits of Nori that are torn off not being gobbled up.
I don't know how much you fold your nori up. But I keep folding mine in halves until its about the size of testube. Sometimes I fold up a couple of sheets together to make it thicker.
Build and detail is amazing. Thanks so much for taking all the time to photograph and post your build. Some of us really appreciate it, and get motivated to clean up some of our own systems a little bit more.
I have some experience with the Hydrowizards and the Abyzz pumps. That Abyzz 400 is amazing. Have you played with the pulse mode yet? With the Abyzz return if you pulse the water you can build a wave in the tank... I know it's worked on tanks as big as 500g with just an Abyzz 100. It might be worth pouring a glass of your favorite libation and spend a little bit of time playing with the pulse settings and see what wave you might be able to create.
Dave B
I like the nori clip and holder concept!
I have a different view than Cuzza regarding the Nori going to waste. Having a nice tang collection (9 yellows, purple, 2 Hippo, Chevron & Achillies) plus a collection of angels - No Nori is wasted or lost in the tank.
I don't recall what your recent tank population is, but with the next batch of yellows coming out of quarantine you shouldn't have any issues with the bits of Nori that are torn off not being gobbled up.
I don't know how much you fold your nori up. But I keep folding mine in halves until its about the size of testube. Sometimes I fold up a couple of sheets together to make it thicker.
Build and detail is amazing. Thanks so much for taking all the time to photograph and post your build. Some of us really appreciate it, and get motivated to clean up some of our own systems a little bit more.
I have some experience with the Hydrowizards and the Abyzz pumps. That Abyzz 400 is amazing. Have you played with the pulse mode yet? With the Abyzz return if you pulse the water you can build a wave in the tank... I know it's worked on tanks as big as 500g with just an Abyzz 100. It might be worth pouring a glass of your favorite libation and spend a little bit of time playing with the pulse settings and see what wave you might be able to create.
Dave B
Pickupman66
New member
Paul. A third take on the nori, big tangs will tear it off at the clips. I like to cut mine into strip and then put in the clips. They eat it like spaghetti.
Here is a video I did. https://youtu.be/MZPV_23CA8o
Here is a video I did. https://youtu.be/MZPV_23CA8o
WrassePains
New member
A few Innovative Marine gourmet grazers placed around the tank would also work well for feeding nori. You can place those in the tank without having to stick your hands in too. And they're great for putting a lot of nori in without it getting shredded everywhere.
I've been following along with your build and I'm definitely jealous of the setup! Great work!
I've been following along with your build and I'm definitely jealous of the setup! Great work!
JuicemanATX
New member
I mount My Nori Clips to Fishing Line and just clip it to the top of the tank. I never put my hands in the water if I don't have to. It would probably be easier to load and move than the PVC also.
DarthReefer27
New member
Just read through this entire thread in the last 4 hours (skimming through and mostly looking at the pics while picking my jaw up from the ground several times). Unbelievable! Subscribed!
scubadan206
Member
I also use fishing line tied to clips for nori. A few small pieces cut in strips and every fish gets some. Some slurp it up like spaghetti some chew it up. My tangs wrasses, clowns, and even the cardinal fish eat it.
PMRogers. You are too dedicated to some brands. If I had a piece of RODI that failed like that more than once, it would be gone. I would suggest you ditch spectrapure....at least in some form.... Maybe find a pro in your area to build you a custom setup.
Nineball had troubles with his setup and was lucky enough that the expert in Toronto on RODI was already a subscriber to his thread.
He had a custom setup built to suit and was much happier.:dance:
Best of luck.
Daniel.
PMRogers. You are too dedicated to some brands. If I had a piece of RODI that failed like that more than once, it would be gone. I would suggest you ditch spectrapure....at least in some form.... Maybe find a pro in your area to build you a custom setup.
Nineball had troubles with his setup and was lucky enough that the expert in Toronto on RODI was already a subscriber to his thread.
He had a custom setup built to suit and was much happier.:dance:
Best of luck.
Daniel.
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