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Bpkenn's BC 14


bpkenn

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Nice! Love that grill! Where did you get it? Looks like something out of the movie Blade. How do you like the moon lights? I should be getting all my stuff for the tank on Friday and MAYBE fill it up this weekend!

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i bought the grill from coolerguys.com. i used the silicone screws with it and it is silent!! nice and tightly fitted also. i also put in a terminal so that when i have to chagne the fan, it will be easy to just remove the heatsink as one. for the moonlight, i actually attached it to the splashguard for better coverage, you should think about doing the same, i love the moonlight.

 

i bought this to drive the fan from coolerguys, easy ;)

http://www.coolerguys.com/840556087977.html

 

For your sand, use seafloor special grade reef sand, its a perfect grain size, almost homogenous, and isnt going to blow around with the strong pump (i think). I just bought 40 lbs and am going to pull my rock and sand tonight and replace the crappy black/white sand with this stuff. I'm also going to take a hammer and chisel to my rocks and break them into small pieces, so when i mount frags, its easy to pull out the rock and cut off frags and trade them.

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For your sand, use seafloor special grade reef sand, its a perfect grain size, almost homogenous, and isnt going to blow around with the strong pump (i think). I just bought 40 lbs and am going to pull my rock and sand tonight and replace the crappy black/white sand with this stuff. I'm also going to take a hammer and chisel to my rocks and break them into small pieces, so when i mount frags, its easy to pull out the rock and cut off frags and trade them.

 

So where do I get the seafloor special grade reef sand? Brand?

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i ended up using tap water via the tub. i think i spent like 3-4 hours washing sand...it just never comes clean!! I rinsed 1-2x with RO/DI after the tap

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i ended up using tap water via the tub. i think i spent like 3-4 hours washing sand...it just never comes clean!! I rinsed 1-2x with RO/DI after the tap

 

 

Think you should be fine. Thats what I've always done.

 

Are you running a fuge in chamber 2 via StevieT's media rack? If so, seems like your tunze ATO sensors will have to be pretty high. Making sure it will work for me before I put down the money.

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the tunze will definately keep yoru water level in the 2nd and 3rd chambers almost at the same water level as the main tank. I lowered my water level in the 2nd and 3rd chambers to try to get my skimmer working better, well see how it goes.

 

I was going to use the media rack at first, but i bought the sapphire aquatics Biocube 14 skimmer. it does produce a green tea type skimmate, and i can definately see foam in the riser tube, so i'm going to give it a bit longer to break in and see how it performs. Currently i have my ATO set to keep the water level about an inch above the side water level indicator window for my skimmer.

 

I just finished the changing of the sand, and busting up the rocks with a chisel and hammer...some of those rocks are extremely hard. I'll post pics when the tank clears up.

 

oh, if you do get the tunze, id reccomend siliconing the brackets that hold on the positioning/slider strip to the back wall. easiest to do this without water in the chamber. see my earlier posts about it.

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Here are a couple pictures of the skimmate I am getting from my Sapphire Aquatics BC14 skimmer:

 

post-42229-1247989283_thumb.jpg

post-42229-1247989288_thumb.jpg

 

Very nice if I may say, I wasn't expecting it to be so efficient.

 

some tank shots later, here is a moonlight shot of a couple new corals and new rockwork and sand.

 

post-42229-1247989448_thumb.jpg

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some tank shots later, here is a moonlight shot of a couple new corals and new rockwork and sand.

 

post-42229-1247989448_thumb.jpg

 

 

Loving the moonlight and new rock work!

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Bought a head of frogspawn today, decided to dip it in revive, and tropic marin pro coral cure. Not sure why, guess I just really don't trust the LFS i got it from. I only dipped for about 5 min in the revive, and then 2 min in the TMPCC, then swished in tank water.

 

This is my first time dipping a coral, hopefully I didn't kill it.

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Bought a head of frogspawn today, decided to dip it in revive, and tropic marin pro coral cure. Not sure why, guess I just really don't trust the LFS i got it from. I only dipped for about 5 min in the revive, and then 2 min in the TMPCC, then swished in tank water.

 

This is my first time dipping a coral, hopefully I didn't kill it.

 

 

Nice! Let me know how it works out. I plan on dipping my corals as well but not sure what to use and how. I just noticed you got a six-line wrasse in your tank. Do you plan on putting any other fish in there? They are pretty territorial.

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Nice! Let me know how it works out. I plan on dipping my corals as well but not sure what to use and how. I just noticed you got a six-line wrasse in your tank. Do you plan on putting any other fish in there? They are pretty territorial.

 

I'm getting barely any polyp extension still, so i moved the coral from mid tank down to the bottom and its getting a little better. Hopefully by end of day tomorrow it will have good PE.

 

Yeah i have a six-line, he is awesome, very very active in the tank and has unique swim patterns. he seem to find every little cave within the rockwork. He used to pick on the clown a bit, but then the clown started fighting back and i havent seen him go after the clown since then. they dont even go after each other when competing for food. Eventually I will add a pair of picasso's, interested to see how that goes, might have to remove the wrasse for a bit.

 

I used to have an orange spotted goby (gutatta?) who would snap at the wrasse whenever he was close by, was funny to see the bully get bullied. that goby went carpet surfing while i was retrofitting my LEDS to the BC hood. I had a piece of plexi-glass over the tank to prevent this, but my girlfriend moved it because it extended far off the tank and she would accidently hit the corner on her way to the kitchen (i did it myself a couple of times), oh well...poor goby.

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traded in my onyx clown for a bigger, better colored onyx clown, and also bought him a mate. the breeder i get my clowns from is awesome, if you dont like the coloration of your onyx, he will let you trade it back for something more to your liking, awesome guy, his names mitch from booyahs onyx. pictures in a few days.

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got a couple astreas for .99 each and a margarita...downside i had to just toss them in cause i didnt have any saltwater made to replace anything used in acclimation...oops.

 

guess ill see what happens

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Could you add the link to that site that explained the ammonia dosing to cycle the tank on my build thread? It got lost when the site crashed. I should be filling my tank next weekend, so I want to read up on it to see if thats the way I want to go and ask you any questions. Thanks!

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Got rid of the damned wrasse, he was picking on my gorgeus onyx clowns. I will get cracking on those pictures...i need to find a card reader for my new hand me down camera ;)

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I got my Tunze ATO installed yesterday and it was acting strange. I have both sensors on one rail and I left chamber 3 a little low, so as soon as I plug the controller in, it should start to fill up. Plugged the controller in, meter pump kicked on and it filled to the optical sensor and stopped. I was like wow, this is great! 30 seconds go by and I hear the pump turn on again and then stop. I check the water in chamber 3 and now the water is filled to where the "U" clip holds the optical sensor. 30 more seconds go by and the same thing! This happens until I eventually unplug the controller. I am thinking maybe sensor break in? I emptied the excess water and try again. This time it fills up to the optical sensor and stops. 30 seconds go by and the pump turns on and stops. Again filling chamber 3 to where the "U" clip hold the optical sensor. I was able to see the LEDs on the controller during this. I saw the Green LED turn on (level) when it was at the bottom of the sensor but the pump remained on until it filled to the "U" clip part. Where does yours stop at? I was also testing with the full length of the black tubing. It only repeated what it did the first time I turned it on once more. But it consistently fills up to the "U" clip. I see the yellow LED turn on (pump on), then I see the green LED light come on, while the yellow LED is stil on. They are on together for about 3-4 seconds before the pump shuts off. What are your thoughts? Normal? My faith of this overfilling has gone up. :scarry:

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I got my Tunze ATO installed yesterday and it was acting strange. I have both sensors on one rail and I left chamber 3 a little low, so as soon as I plug the controller in, it should start to fill up. Plugged the controller in, meter pump kicked on and it filled to the optical sensor and stopped. I was like wow, this is great! 30 seconds go by and I hear the pump turn on again and then stop. I check the water in chamber 3 and now the water is filled to where the "U" clip holds the optical sensor. 30 more seconds go by and the same thing! This happens until I eventually unplug the controller. I am thinking maybe sensor break in? I emptied the excess water and try again. This time it fills up to the optical sensor and stops. 30 seconds go by and the pump turns on and stops. Again filling chamber 3 to where the "U" clip hold the optical sensor. I was able to see the LEDs on the controller during this. I saw the Green LED turn on (level) when it was at the bottom of the sensor but the pump remained on until it filled to the "U" clip part. Where does yours stop at? I was also testing with the full length of the black tubing. It only repeated what it did the first time I turned it on once more. But it consistently fills up to the "U" clip. I see the yellow LED turn on (pump on), then I see the green LED light come on, while the yellow LED is stil on. They are on together for about 3-4 seconds before the pump shuts off. What are your thoughts? Normal? My faith of this overfilling has gone up. :scarry:

 

 

Mine does similar thing. when you plug it in, it fills while a capacitor charges. I think there is a minimum time the pump can run, like 10s or so. on any larger volume system, like even a 29g, this doesnt really make a difference, but its so noticeable since we have such a small amt of water.

 

if you are really concerned, e-mail tunze usa.

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Email from Tunze USA:

 

On a new Osmolator this can happen because the new plastic parts have a strong affinity for air and attract air bubbles or trap a film of air. Since plastic is made of oil it repels water until it has broken in which takes a few days. You can speed this up by rinsing the sensor in hot soapy water or soaking it in vinegar for an hour or so.

 

It is important that it is in a chamber with little or no microbubbles as it cannot differentiate between a bubble and being dry. It is normal for the two LED's to be on at the same time for a few seconds. The osmolator waits about 8 seconds to turn on the pump after reading dry and overfills for about 10 seconds after registering full, this was done to minimize rapid cycling, a slight overfill and a delay in case of a wave or slight turbulence in the water.

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added to project list, I need to stop looking at LED retros before i get more ideas.

 

Bought a new coral for 18$ at aquarium adventure. normally i dont buy stuff there cause its massively overpriced, but they decided to start selling frags and it looked like it would color up much better in my tank under LED's (think they had it under a 20k hqi). Will post clownfish pics later when they decide to wander from the top rear of the tank.

 

post-42229-1249085109_thumb.jpg

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as you can see in the picture, fighting off a bit of hair algae atm. I am ready to give up on this sapphire aquatics bc14 skimmer and put in stevie T's media rack.

 

I'm introducing phosphates somewhere, I think maybe from my home depot bucket that i had salt mixing in for a week or so. Either that or I am overfeeding. either way, the skimmer requires i use a piece of sponge to quite the flow of water from chamber 1 to 2, which in term raises the water level in the tank higher than the intake grates and prevents good surface skimming.

 

I am hoping that with the stevie T's that i can get a good mix of mechanical (filter floss), chemical (purigen, chemi pure) and biological (chaeto), + the gfo in chamber 1, that i will never see hair algae again. What do you think?

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