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TeenyReef's 10g Fusion - ATO Disaster


teenyreef

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That's funny - KPA must be overstocked on crabs. I ordered an emerald not too long ago and they threw in a red mithrax for free. :happy:

LOL! They always seem to throw in a little something extra.

 

But it is nice to be able to compare the red and green mithrax crabs in one tank. Have you noticed any difference? My emerald seems to be a little more energetic and hides less than the red guy.

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I really like the scape you did. Looks like some good coralline.

Thanks! I love the coralline on this rock. So far, it's been worth doing the uncured live rock.

 

Your tank is fantastic, btw :)

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I spent some time tonight working on getting this set up:

15964491715_daa8569e61_z.jpg

 

One of the things I wanted to do was increase the capacity of my ATO reservoir, so my old 1g bottle is going over to the 4g CAD Lights, and I'm now using a 3g bottle. I drilled some holes in the top for the pump's power and water lines:

15963841002_91e6188c92_b.jpg

 

The sensor package just BARELY fits in the third chamber, between the dividing wall and the return line:

15777091248_9330c4704e_b.jpg

 

The white sensor is the overflow sensor. It can be mounted on a separate magnet mount if it needs to go higher. The black sensor is the main optical sensor.

I placed the sensor just high enough to trigger the pump, and it promptly overfilled :(

Turns out it pumps for a minimum of 20 seconds to avoid cycling the pump too much. This is different from the Tunz Nano ATO which stays on only long enough to trigger the sensor.

After reading the manual some more, there's an adjustment you can make to decrease the flow rate of the pump so that it won't fill so quickly during the 20 second minimum fill time. I set it all the way down, on "Nano".

Now it seems to be working fine. The only downside of the "Nano" setting is that the pump can't handle as much vertical lift since it's been turned down. But it's fine for my set up.

 

Overall, I think I'd probably get the Tunze Nano if I was buying this all over again. The advantages of the larger model are the optical sensor (snail proof) and the overflow protector. But the smaller sensor package and finer control of the pump in the Nano version is really nice.

Excellent info, thanks for the mini review!

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My wife loves Christmas trees and I think we've got like six or seven of them scattered throughout the house :eek:

Awesome wife ;). When I have a bigger house someday, I'm going to have a tree in every room :).

 

That red brittle starfish is adorable!

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The overflow alarm woke me up early in the morning. After a little more research, it looks like even at the lowest setting, the pump still fills up the chamber too much during the minimum fill time. The recommendation from the Tunze web site is to add a valve to reduce the flow at the end of the water fill line. A standard air line valve fits perfectly, and it's been running all day without any further problems.

15968379721_65315b24fa_b.jpg



Awesome wife ;). When I have a bigger house someday, I'm going to have a tree in every room :).

That red brittle starfish is adorable!

That's her goal, and I think she's almost achieved it. I don't think there's one in the bathroom or master bedroom, and I know there isn't one in the garage. Otherwise we're covered :)

 

I'm glad I got a picture of the brittle starfish. For a while he hung out in the upper corner of the tank and cruised around the glass...including around the MP10 (eep!). Then he disappeared and I haven't seen him since. If he's anything like the Harlequin, I'll just see some arms poking out from the rocks at feeding time.

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I had trouble with snails getting into the float on the Tunze Nano, which was in the display tank section, and the overflow timeout was too long for my little 4g tank.

 

The separate overflow float plus the optical sensor is really a much better setup. And it was on sale really cheap for Black Friday.

 

However, I'd definitely recommend the Nano over the 3155 for this tank if I had it to do over again. I made it work but the Nano would have been much easier to set up.

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The new crabs have continued to go to town on the algae, although they aren't doing much with the big pieces (as expected).

 

I spotted one arm of the red brittle star sticking out under a rock, so I fed him a couple mysis shrimp tonight. No sign of the harlequin, but I didn't really expect to see him for a while as he's more shy.

 

While I was getting the new 8 outlet Apex power bar set up tonight, I found one of the Nerites that had gone exploring. I'm used to finding them sitting on the shelf or on the floor once or twice a week, this guy had been missing for a day and I couldn't find him anywhere. Turns out he went under the shelf. It took a little coaxing to get him to let go so I could throw him back in the tank :)

 

15787804887_86ef63b3e1_c.jpg

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Great start! I can't wait for mine, thanks for the informative pictures. I run the tunze nano on my 45g and it works awesome. Glad that it fits the fusion as well because I ordered it! I usually find my snails all over the floor, cats usually get to them before me lol.

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Great start! I can't wait for mine, thanks for the informative pictures. I run the tunze nano on my 45g and it works awesome. Glad that it fits the fusion as well because I ordered it! I usually find my snails all over the floor, cats usually get to them before me lol.

I have dogs. Being dogs, so far they haven't even noticed when the snails get out :lol:

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LOL! They always seem to throw in a little something extra.

 

But it is nice to be able to compare the red and green mithrax crabs in one tank. Have you noticed any difference? My emerald seems to be a little more energetic and hides less than the red guy.

 

I'm seeing the opposite! Maybe the free crab knows it was free and feels the need to prove itself. ;)

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I'm seeing the opposite! Maybe the free crab knows it was free and feels the need to prove itself. ;)

Lol!! I can just see him talking to himself..."You just keep working. Then he will see. He will see he should have paid for me instead of that lazy red mithrax!"

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Lol! This is especially true since I doubt I will keep both crabs for the long term. They must be eyeing each other thinking "I'm not the one going to the LFS!"

 

Of course what they don't understand is that I would probably keep the lazy one that eats less :happy:

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I got the new Nanobox light and the Apex stuff all hooked up tonight. I'm still playing with the white balance in these pictures. The originals were very purple which is not what the light looks like at all. These are too white but they are much closer to reality than the originals.

15801366460_bbdf03a1d6_b.jpg

 

FTS with the Nanobox on top:

15962860086_0c342eb6c7_b.jpg

 

Here's the ugly wiring under the cabinet. Hopefully I'll get this all cleaned up tomorrow night:

15802632239_6e718d7fbd_b.jpg

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How's the algae coming along?

The crabs and snails pretty much have all the annoying little algae under control now. There's a lot of Dictoya, though, and everything I've read about it sounds like a horror story. I'm going to try pulling out the big chunks and give the snails and crabs a chance to have at it. From what I've read the only other options short of burning it off are Algaefix and Tuxedo urchins.

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My entire house looks like what's in your cabinet ;) I don't make my cords all pretty anywhere. Worried that if I tried the cat would think it's a new toy and chew herself to an early grave. If I leave them as-is, she generally leaves them alone.

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I got the new Nanobox light and the Apex stuff all hooked up tonight. I'm still playing with the white balance in these pictures. The originals were very purple which is not what the light looks like at all. These are too white but they are much closer to reality than the originals.

15801366460_bbdf03a1d6_b.jpg

 

What percentages are you running to get this white look? It looks wonderful!!!!!!
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My entire house looks like what's in your cabinet ;) I don't make my cords all pretty anywhere. Worried that if I tried the cat would think it's a new toy and chew herself to an early grave. If I leave them as-is, she generally leaves them alone.

That's funny - cord defense through ugliness :lol:

I'm way too OCD to leave the cords all messy. I'm one of those people that has to straighten all the pictures in the house if they're crooked.

 

What percentages are you running to get this white look? It looks wonderful!!!!!!

Thanks! The Storm controller is set to 140 blues / 70 white. It looks more blue in reality. I just can't get the white balance to be accurate. But at least least it looks good, even if it's technically "fake" :)

 

Great start! Make sure to post in the NBR forum

 

-Dave

Thanks, Dave, will do. The light is great, as usual!

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I cleaned up the electrical mess under the cabinet tonight:

15995180665_17162bcc49_b.jpg

 

To help hide and control all the power cords going into the Apex, I built a simple cable tray above the Apex. First some spacers made from scrap strips of 3/4" oak plywood:

15809482097_36d0b179d0_b.jpg

 

I made the front panel from a scrap piece of 1/2" cherry plywood and attached it with some finish nails:

15993240011_5b30b15d02_b.jpg

 

This is the first time I tried to build a cable tray like this. If I did it again, I'd make it about a couple inches taller and about half an inch deeper to allow all the cords to easily fit inside.

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Nanobox and Apex = empty wallet, but cool tank!

Yep! Black Friday is pretty much the only time Apex goes on sale so I jumped on it :)

 

With the clean up of the cables, I think I've got the build pretty much done for now. I'll be ramping up the intensity of the Nanobox over the next month or so, but that's about it.

 

Now I need to focus on taking care of the algae and I can finally start buying a few corals and fish :D

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reefernanoman
Yep! Black Friday is pretty much the only time Apex goes on sale so I jumped on it :)

 

With the clean up of the cables, I think I've got the build pretty much done for now. I'll be ramping up the intensity of the Nanobox over the next month or so, but that's about it.

 

Now I need to focus on taking care of the algae and I can finally start buying a few corals and fish :D

Good luck with your battle. I think I obliterated most of my grass looking algea with the hydrogen peroxide treatment, but the hydroids are still alive.

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