Custom 24g (2)x70w MH Nano Cube Project

[dja1980]

I moved over my 2 clown gobies last night and everyone seems to be happy.

 

I think my next project will be trying to figure out how to get my RK2 to communicate with my PC to start data logging. The problem is that my PC is in the upstairs loft and there's no way to run/fish wires without draping them over the half-wall in the loft and running them down the stairs.

 

This may be a bit too technical for this forum, but is anyone out there real familiar with networking and the different adapters that are available? According to Digital Aquatics, they've found some ways to communicate wirelessly with a PC, but it requires converting their RS232 serial connection to Bluetooth using an adapter like this:

 

http://www.iogear.com/main.php?loc=product&Item=GBS301

 

If I understand what I'm finding correctly, you would plug the RJ-11 side of the Reef Keeper's serial adapter into the RK by splitting the temperature probe port and plug the RS232 (DB9) side of the serial adapter into a Bluetooth device. You would then need ANOTHER Bluetooth device plugged into the Serial Port on the back of your computer. Is this right? So you would need (2) RS232-to-Bluetooth devices.

Like many, we already have a wireless 802.11g network setup in our house. Does anyone know if there is anything out there that would convert RS232 (DB9) to 802.11g to allow my computer to communicate with the RK this way?

[Uploadead]

I think more tentacles will be produced with time. You must have spent alot on that set up. I wish nanocustoms shipped to britain...

[dja1980]

I think more tentacles will be produced with time. You must have spent alot on that set up. I wish nanocustoms shipped to britain...

 

Yeah, I definitely think the RBTA would like a lot nicer with more closely spaced tentacles. Hopefully you're right and it will just look like a larger version of how it looked in my old tank under the less intense lighting soon.

 

As for the cost of the set up, yes, it would have cost me a lot had I paid for all of it, but the majority of the expense was covered by Chris at Nanocustoms keeping up his end of a promise. It's a long story, but you can read about it if you use the link in my first post of this thread. Let's just say that the 2-year wait definitely paid off in the end.

[dja1980]

That's a good question. I haven't checked on the chaeto since I added the fish. I think what I'll do is pull the chaeto out and thin it out, if need be, and then take a photo of what I put back in so we have something to compare in a week or two. Now that I'm feeding the tank, I would think that it has grown a bit. I just hope that I don't have the light mounted too low on the back of the tank. A good majority of the light is shining into the rubble in the 2nd chamber.

 

I did move over most of the corals from my 12g over the weekend, so we'll see how they do under the new lighting. The anemone is looking a lot better now that the tentacles are filling in a bit. I also found a crab of some kind that must have been living in my 12g for the last 3 years. I didn't put it in the new tank since I don't have an ID on it yet and don't know if it's safe. I did have some Peppermints disappear mysteriously in the 12g. I'll take some new tank shots soon and also post a picture of the crab for an ID.

[BSimm]

Dave:

 

I'm following your thread with great interest. I just bought some components to upgrade my 24 DX to 150 MH. I'll be adding fans (obviously) and a fuge light eventually.

 

The folks at Nanocustoms have been great. This is my first foray into SW and everyone's advice has been invaluable. I'm taking it very slowly, and trying to put much care and thought into this project BEFORE the water goes in LOL.

 

I look forward to hearing more of your progress!

 

Brad

[dja1980]

Hey Brad! Thanks for following. I'm glad to see that at least a few people have taken interest in this project. It sounds like you're headed in the right direction, and definitely taking it slow in this hobby is the best way to go. I'm also glad that Nanocustoms was able to help you out. I can't say enough how great those guys are.

[BSimm]

Thanks Dave!

 

What I've tried to do is take different ideas from all you great DIY'ers out there and build my own set up. Between you, Shao-lin, Asiankid and others, you've made it clear how many different ways you can go in this Nano side.

 

I'm planning on two maxi-1200s... one to drive a Hydor the other to drive tubing to the front of the tank to provide additional flow (surface flow)... I wonder if this will be too much flow, or too much heat, for that matter... I'll do a ton of testing before I proceed, obviously. I'm also putting together my livestock plan. I'll let you know what I come up with.

 

I really like your 4 bulkhead set up there... with the SCWD, truly inspirational

 

 

Brad

[dja1980]

Brad... With the 2 MJ-1200's running at 295 GPH/ea, you'll be running the nearly the same flow as I am if you run them simultaneously (590 GPH). However, if you have a wavemaker alternate them, you're total GPH will only be equal to one of them (295 GPH).

 

I ended up going with the Rio 1700, which is rated at 642 GPH, but I know the SCWD is only allowing it to perform at 90%, knocking the pump performance down to around 578 GPH. Actually, it's probably less than that when you factor in the tees and elbows, but I do know that the flow in the display is maxed out without overflowing the back wall.

 

Did you talk to Nanocustoms about chilling of any kind? You might have some heat issues with a 150w MH if your primary source of cooling will be fans. As you may have already seen from my posts, when my original hood was a 70w MH, Chris had incorporated their ICA into the hood. When I upgraded to (2) 70w MH, Chris told me that the ICA wouldn't cut it anymore, and that I would have to purchase an actual chiller.

 

My pump decision came down to finding the highest rated pump that would fit in the back chambers with the lowest wattage since my only source for chilling at the time was the ICA. My 642 GPH Rio is rated at 33 watts. If you run 590 GPH, you'll be rated at 40 watts, which again could cause even more heat issues if you don't have a chiller. I too thought about going with 2 MJ-1200's since I was really struggling trying to get the SCWD to fit, but when I realized that I would be cutting my flow in half as compared to my original plan (the one I ended up making work) I ditched the idea. And, using 2 Rio 1700's with a wavemaker seemed to contradict my idea of saving space by taking the SCWD out of the equation.

[BSimm]

I have thought about the heat issue, but hoping I can get away with a "fan only" cooling method. I'm following the build out procuedures found here...

 

 

Granted, it does not look like he has 40W of energy in his powerheads. I'm wondering if that will put me over the edge.

 

You like your random flow you are getting with the 2 hydors???

 

 

Brad

[dja1980]

It's hard to say if the 40w will put you over the edge or not. Do you have the new splashguard that extends all the way to the back, or is it the older one as shown in asiankidd's mod? Keep in mind that since he is using a 2004 splashguard, his fans are blowing directly onto the water, which is helping a great deal by creating evap. cooling. Also, keep in mind that if you go the evap. cooling route that you'll probably want some kind of ATO system since you'll obviously be going through a decent amount of water this way. Although, even if you don't decide to use evap. cooling, an ATO is still always a nice feature. Good luck and keep us posted with your progress.

 

As for the random flow, yes I really think the Hydor FLOs help a lot. Obviously this was something that was pretty high up on the priority list for me. I don't think that I have completely eliminated dead spots, but between the SCWD and the Hydor FLOs, I think I have taken care of most of them. I'm not sure if I mentioned this already or not, but I have the 4 bulkheads setup so that the top two fire simultaneously, and the bottom two fire simultaneously. I wanted the Hydor FLOs to alternate since I didn't know how much they would restrict the flow, and I wanted the backpressure to not get wasted. This way, any backpressure the Hydor FLOs create is just extra flow pushed out of the 1/2" nozzles. In my opinion, the SCWD is more important than the Hydor FLOs in the creation of random flow due to the constant switching of flow from the left & right sides of the tank.

[BSimm]

Indeed, I do have the older version Splashguard, where it leaves those fans exposed to do the evap cooling. I'm sure that will help, just don't know how much yet. Which ATO do you recommend? I should get my shipment tomorrow from Nanocustoms, so this weekend I'll post some of my progress.

 

How long has your system been up now?

 

Brad

[dja1980]

Well good luck with the evap. cooling. I really hope that works out for you. Do you have a ReefKeeper or at least a digital thermometer? At least you're doing the mods before you have livestock in there. You'll know within the first couple of days if you're having temperature swings or not, and you can always add a chiller later if you have issues. It also might help you to keep your heater turned up a bit to keep a more constant temperature. I've seen a lot of people at Reef Central purposely keeping their tanks at a constant 82-83 degrees, which is actually the range of what most natural reefs fall. It's better to run at 82 degrees all day and all night than to run at 82 degrees during the day and 79 degrees during the night.

 

I purchased the JBJ ATO system, which I definitely like, but the main reason I purchased it was because it's the only one that Nanotuners sells. With the huge break that Chris gave me, I tried to purchase as many of my accessories as I could from Nanotuners. A lot of people also seem to purchase from www.californiareefs.com. The biggest issue I ran into with the ATO was trying to find a container for the reserve water that would fit under the Nano Cube cabinet stand.

 

My tank is 1 month, 1 week old if my TickerFactory signature is correct. I didn't double check it, but that sounds about right.

[BSimm]

I have a digital thermometer, but not a Reefkeeper...yet. That really seems to be the way to go. And I really appreciate your advice on keeping the temp slightly higher, rather than have great swings.

 

Right... i'm trying to do all this well before livestock.. I'll get this thing put together then add water.. check my pump/light/heat issues and go from there. It is a total blank slate, with no rush and no timeline in mind...so I'm not fighting the typical get-there-itis!

 

Thanks for all the advice.. hope I am not hijacking your awesome thread.

 

Brad

[dja1980]

Yeah, having a ReefKeeper is definitely the way to go. Now that I have one on my new tank, I would never go without one on another.

 

You're not hijacking at all. In fact, feel free to post your progress here if you'd like.

 

I still need to snap some new tank shots now that I have moved a few corals over. The tank is still looking a little bare, but it's a start. I tried Super Gluing my mushrooms where I wanted them, but they only stayed there for about 12 hours. I'll have to try again over the weekend.

[BSimm]

I hope to be picking up a Reef Keeper soon. And if you ever figure out the "wireless" aspect of this, please share it!!!

 

I got most of my wiring done over the weekend, including adding the new fans, mounting the 150 MH, shield and moving the PC's. I'll try to get some pictures posted.

 

Right now, I have the two rear fans blowing in. For the middle fans (under splashguard), I have one blowing in, and the other blowing out. There seems much controversy as to blow them IN or OUT... we shall see what happens.

 

The only question I have is how to Wire the MH endcaps to the Ballast. I bought it from Nanocustoms...and the ballast comes with a 6 prong plug (only three have contact, pos, neut, ground???)... but the end caps are just wires. Any thoughts on how to create the link??? I need a plug adapter of some sort, I would think.

 

How's your tank coming along???

 

Brad

[dja1980]

Brad, I got your PM. Man, I didn't know you had the 2004 tank too. I just assumed it was just the hood since I thought most people that bought the tanks back in 04-05 knew about the cracking issues, otherwise I would have advised differently. If you read my Preface back in my first post, you'll find a ton of links related to the cracking issues. This is one of the main reasons it took me 2 years to get this tank started. Sorry to hear that you're "back to the drawing board. You're right though, better you know up front than to lose sleep over worry about when your tank is going to spontaneously give way. Plus, I think you'll have a better "canvas" to perform you mods on with a 2006 hood design. I'm really glad Chris filled you in on this.

 

Did you get the wiring and the fans straightened out with Chris too? If not, unfortunately I can't help you with the wiring since Chris and Nick took care of that on my hood, but I do believe that they set my fans to blow IN if that helps.

 

My tank is coming along well. I did snap some new pictures, which I'll post below. It seems that the bright green algae (not sure what this is called) accumulates pretty thickly within only a few days on the glass, so that's pretty annoying. However, it seems to wipe right off with my hand, so it's not a huge issue. I did some water tests last night:

 

Temp 80.1

pH 8.23

Nitrate <5

Phosphate <.03

Alkalinity 8.8

 

And for the pictures:

 

Here's the crab I found in my old tank while moving corals over. Can anybody ID? I was definitely shocked when I found him. He must have come over on my Tampa Bay Saltwater rock 3 years ago... little mooch! I didn't move him to the new tank since I don't know if he's a good guy or a bad guy. I did have 2 Peppermints go missing a little while ago after they were only in the tank for a couple weeks.

 

 

 

For those interested in the Nanocustoms Fuge Light, it seems to be working quite well. I don't remember how much Chaeto went in originally, but here's what was back there over the weekend.

 

 

 

This is what I put back in, so I'll check again in a few weeks and compare.

 

 

 

Here's a full tank shot with corals moved over from the old tank. I still think the RBTA is a bit too big for the tank, but I have to decide on what I want to do there. I tried glueing the mushrooms again too, but they popped off again within 12 hours. I'll have to try another tactic to get them to stay where I want them.

 

[ccjung]

Dave O

 

looking at the pic, it looks like your water is riding high on the Right side (looking at the tank).

 

I recommend maybe cutting a relieve notch/weir somewhere over one of those returns and minimize that water contact.

 

youll be able to get your SHIMMY on that way.

 

Chris

[dja1980]

Dave O

 

looking at the pic, it looks like your water is riding high on the Right side (looking at the tank).

 

I recommend maybe cutting a relieve notch/weir somewhere over one of those returns and minimize that water contact.

 

youll be able to get your SHIMMY on that way.

 

Chris

 

Thanks for the heads up Chris. Actually, the water seems to be riding lower as time goes on. Look at my picture on the first page from when I first added the rock. The entire splash guard was making contact with the water. Since I noticed that it was starting to ride lower on the left side, I just figured it was time to give the pump a good cleaning to get maximum pump performance again. So you recommend that the water is NOT in contact with the splashguard? I figured that I was getting better light performance this way since none of the light was being reflected off the water surface. Forgive the pun, but can you shed some light on this for me? Temps are very stable. Is shimmer the only drawback?

[ccjung]

Yep, shimmer would be the only drawback. You raise some good points on the reflectivity of the water surface too. Someones been doing their homework.

 

Chris

[BSimm]

Looking Good Dave! Your Cheato is really growing. Look at your original picture to check the amount you put in... WOW.. nice growth.

 

Yeah.. more I thought about my tank, more I was getting concerned that I may have cracking issues down the road. Chris and I talked about it and I decided to get a gutted 06 tank... that way I'm set for the future. Plus my other mods will not go to waste... I'll simply reinstall it in the 06 hood. It is supposed to arrive on Friday.

 

So.. you're in Illinois too? I'm in Lincolnshire.. northern suburb.

 

Brad

[travisurfer]

tank is looking great

[psidriven]

From the blunt/spoon shaped claws, I'd guess mithrax/emerald crab species. If the claws had sharp pincers, I'd not risk it and dump it.

[dja1980]

Thanks guys!!!

 

Brad - yeah, I'm out in Sycamore and work in Naperville. I have a friend that thought she might have a job opportunity for me out in Lincolnshire, but I already dread my hour commute as it is. I'd guess it to be at least a good hour and a half to Lincolnshire... not fun.

 

psidriven - thanks for the crab ID. I was thinking mithrax/emrald too, especially since I suspect it came on my original Atlantic rock. I don't think it's worth putting into the new tank since I don't know how aggressive it is, and I never saw it in the old tank anyway. Even if it is a mithrax/emrald, I guess these guys can be harmful to small fish, and may supplement their diets with corals or invertebrates if sufficient food is not available to them. So, I guess it is possible that this guy took care of my new Peppermints . I'm just surprise that my Blood Red Fire Shrimp was also in there for about 2 years and never became a victim to whatever got the Peppermints. Maybe the Fire Shrimp was just faster or smarter.

[Triggz]

For those interested in the Nanocustoms Fuge Light, it seems to be working quite well. I don't remember how much Chaeto went in originally, but here's what was back there over the weekend.

 

 

 

This is what I put back in, so I'll check again in a few weeks and compare.

 

 

 

How is that Chaeto doing ?

 

Any other updates??

[Triggz]

bump*

 

Still around here dja?