RollaJase's Trip Off the Deep End - Custom Rimless 55G

[RollaJase]

I can confirm 100% that all the LEDs on the light work but I still can't get channel 5 to power up. When I did my last lot of testing I was successful in running the Cyan LEDs off of channel 5 with no issues. The only thing that has changed since then was the fact that I pulled the driver on channel 5 and left it removed while I tested each array using channel 6. It sat this way until the new arrays arrived. I confirmed no power passing through the terminals using a multimeter so I believe there to be an issue with either the driver socket, the driver board, the rectifier between the BF mini connector and the channel select pins or the BF mini itself. Process of elimination I guess. I'll test the BF mini first to make sure it outputs anything when I tell it to turn on channel 5.

[teenyreef]

Troubleshooting electronics can be super frustrating

[RollaJase]

Troubleshooting electronics can be super frustrating

It so can be. I shot myself in the foot really, probably should have ordered a spare driver board initially when I got the first one in. I hope it doesn't come to me needing to replace it, would be even more annoying if I needed to replace the BF mini.

 

*EDIT*

Thankfully BF provide a pin out diagram for the mini in the user guide. I'll be able to test the BF mini by hooking up the multimeter to the pwm and ground for channel 5 to see if it is pushing anything out. If it is I'll work my way back to the driver socket to determine the problem. I'm really hoping it is an issue with the Schottky Rectifier between the BF mini's connection on the driver board and the board itself. If it is a faulty rectifier I do have spares and the solder paste I have will make it much easier to replace and replace cleanly.

[RollaJase]

Another round of troubleshooting for the light, I know what the problem is. I tested the PWM signal coming from BF mini, all channels work fine. I tested the PWM at the driver socket and nothing. I checked either side of the Schottky rectifiers to confirm if voltage was passing through, it was on every channel except 5. Swapped out the rectifier and channel 5 started producing PWM at the driver socket. I reassembled the light and only channel 1, 2 and 6 were producing light. I pulled the drivers on channel 3, 4 and 5 and what do you know? No PWM at the socket. I then checked either side of the rectifier to confirm and in doing so I must have shorted between the rectifier on channel 5 and 6 and taken channel 6 out also. So I think after I checked PWM at the socket for channel 5 and then checked at the rectifier I must have shorted between channel 3, 4 and 5 taking all 3 rectifiers out before I put everything back together. A stupid mistake on my behalf but an easy one to fix. Downside is I need 4 rectifiers and only have 2 left so I need to order another strip. The things are dirt cheap, it just means I have to put the light on the back burner again.

[Mikeymikemike]

What light is this? Worth the effort or just order a different unit?

[RollaJase]

What light is this? Worth the effort or just order a different unit?

It's a custom unit I have built using 6 Nano Box V3 arrays. I initially shot myself in the foot by running reverse polarity through it and blowing up a few components on the control board and damaging two of the arrays. Over the last 4 months I have been slowly repairing it, uncovering greater extents of the damage I caused. Ultimately, yes, it would have been cheaper to purchase two off the shelf lights to do the same task. But I don't think I would get the same controllability, spectrum and output in the same package if I were to do so. Plus, as much as it's a pain in the ass it has been pretty fun and I have learned a ton about electronics.

 

I should say the light went together perfectly the first time around but one channel failed after a week or so, so I pulled the light apart and put it back together incorrectly. In the end I think what caused that channel to fail was a mistake I made early on and was rectified by replacing the entire array only at the start of this week after 3 solid months of back tracking and testing.

[Sancho]

PhosphateRx works by precipitating out the phosphate, and the precipitate is then removed by the skimmer, or by a very fine filter. Pretty much all the liquid phosphate removers are lanthanum based and work the same way.

not trying to thread hijack but what if the phosphate is leaching from the rock?

[jedimasterben]

not trying to thread hijack but what if the phosphate is leaching from the rock?

As soon as it does, the lanthanum will grab it and precipitate

[RollaJase]

not trying to thread hijack but what if the phosphate is leaching from the rock?

I think, to a degree, stored phosphates are part of my problem.

As soon as it does, the lanthanum will grab it and precipitate

Good to know, I'm thinking I should give a lanthanum product a try.

[markalot]

PhosphateRx has been the miracle cure for me since small daily dosing ensure stable PO4 rather than the ups and downs I was always getting with GFO. I'm a stuck record on this subject but for me the difference is huge and I'm at about the 6 month mark of dosing in chamber one, before the skimmer, with no socks or floss. No fish losses or stress noted, no adverse effects at all.

[RollaJase]

PhosphateRx has been the miracle cure for me since small daily dosing ensure stable PO4 rather than the ups and downs I was always getting with GFO. I'm a stuck record on this subject but for me the difference is huge and I'm at about the 6 month mark of dosing in chamber one, before the skimmer, with no socks or floss. No fish losses or stress noted, no adverse effects at all.

I think I'll definitely have to give it or something similar a shot. If my rocks are leaching phosphate as I suspect I want to be able to remove that as soon as it becomes available in the water column. To be honest, I don't think GFO is having any effect for me at all at the moment. I have had good results with it in the past but right now I don't think it is doing anything.

[Mikeymikemike]

There seems to be no proven papers on the idea of phosphates leeching from rocks in aquaria. Unless it is bound in organic matter that is slowly decaying or algae. Yet algae will not release it unless also decaying.

 

My plan of attack for phosphates is to siphon the substrate and do a 50% water change and run a canister filter or 100 micro filter sock to collect any debris. Mechanical filtration and removal has a huge impact in keeping our water clean. So much so ... my water was too clean so I had to add nitrates and food.

[RollaJase]

There seems to be no proven papers on the idea of phosphates leeching from rocks in aquaria. Unless it is bound in organic matter that is slowly decaying or algae. Yet algae will not release it unless also decaying.

Most if not all base rocks that are organic, non man made, will contain dried up organic matter. Once bacteria starts to establish and feeds on this matter it is quite common to see an algae bloom. Simply soaking dry rock in RODI and testing the water can result in reading of high phosphates after a few weeks of soaking. Soaking rock in a Muriatic Acid solution is a very effective way of burning organic matter out of the rock as the acid will feed mostly on the organics. In my case I am more referring to a build up of phosphates in the water (and potentially in dry rock I used to bolster my live rock from my previous tank) due to me using rain water over RODI for the past 8 months for water changes, top offs and dosing solutions.

[RollaJase]

Tank Update - 16th October 2016:

Lets start things off with a long overdue FTS.

Ah Cyano, the bane of my existence for the past 6 months, but only on the sand bed. GFO doesn't seem to be helping and while vinegar dosing is helping my skimmer bring out some nasty stuff from the water. My FTS's still look like junk because the Sol Blue makes it hard to take good distance photos due to the amount of light spill I need to have to get the best coverage for a tank this size.

 

I have picked up a few new pieces over the last few weeks.

Finally got myself a green/purple splatter hammer. This is a branching type currently with 3 heads. A friend of mine also gave me two blue staghorn frags for some zoas I fragged out for him. I am still undecided where to place these two pieces, I have a few ideas but the current light wont produce enough PAR in these areas. Assuming I am right with my final troubleshooting on my new light, once that gets fixed I'll open up a few more mounting opportunities for SPS.

 

I did some slight re-scaping on the central island under the green monti cap. The leather coral was taking up too much space where it was and I wanted to open up that area a little bit more.

I extended this island so it now runs right down the side of the overflow to the rear of the tank. This allowed me to move a few pieces of rock from my sump back to the display and make a bit of a pedestal under the monti cap for the leather coral to reside. I think things look much better in that area now with the island looking cleaner and the leather filling up a vacant part of the tank.

 

A random shot of my ricordia rock. Growth has been growing crazy with this one spitting out babies left right and center.

 

 

I had an interesting issue with my doser lately. The cable that links the master unit to the slave kept loosing connection which resulted in me not dosing vinegar at all for a while. I new something was off immediately once I saw the increase in cyano. After testing a few things out I determined that the connection on the master unit was faults and would only connect correctly if the connector was held at a very off angle. I decided enough was enough so so I opened up both units with the intention of replacing the stock connections with 4 pin molex plugs that you would typically find inside a computer.

This did the trick, I now have no issues at all now with my Marine Color dosers. I plan on replacing my dosing lines at one stage with colour coded options and when I do this I'll add a grommet to the hole where the cable emerges from the rear of the dosers to help protect the interior a bit more.

[teenyreef]

That hammer is super nice! The blue stag frags look really pretty too.

 

Have you considered chemiclean for the cyano, just to get ahead of it? I've never used it myself, so I was wondering what your experience with it was.

[RollaJase]

That hammer is super nice! The blue stag frags look really pretty too.

 

Have you considered chemiclean for the cyano, just to get ahead of it? I've never used it myself, so I was wondering what your experience with it was.

Thank you teeny , I love the hammer also. I've got my eyes peeled for a purple stemmed, green tipped one also if I can ever find one at a decent price. The Cyano you can see above is the worst it has been in a while, I put this down to the vinegar dosing going off schedule before I picked up on it. If you have a loot at my FTS from July I was almost on top of things before it started coming back and it took hold after the tank was without power for over 24 hours. I have not had any experience with ChemiClean or the Blue Life product of similar nature, to be honest I completely forgot that products like this exist lol. I might pick some up when I order some Phosphate rx or the Salifert equivalent, if I don't end up using it I can just add it to my arsenal of medications for a rainy day.

[ninjamyst]

Careful of the hammer. I already see some stingers out....

 

Mine took out a gonipora and some zoas already =(.

 

FTS looks great!! minus the cyano....

[Mikeymikemike]

Reverse purple and greens come up all the time in WA got mine for $16

[RollaJase]

Careful of the hammer. I already see some stingers out....

 

Mine took out a gonipora and some zoas already =(.

 

FTS looks great!! minus the cyano....

Yup, it has had its stingers out since I bought it home. I've got it placed right next to my purple frogspawn and there is nothing close by for it to target. Thanks mate .

 

Reverse purple and greens come up all the time in WA got mine for $16

Wow, that's a bargain! I saw one recently with an $80 price tag. It was a branching type with 10+ heads though, not too bad really. I'll have to keep a closer eye out.

[RollaJase]

Just ordered a Nyos Phosphate test kit as well as the Phosphate Rx and Red Slime Rx twin pack (was $10 more than buying Phosphate Rx as a stand alone). I went for the Nyos over Salifert because it looked much easier to distinguish between the gradients and from most accounts it seems to be quite accurate as well, compared to a Hanna that is. I think I'll start off with Red Slime Rx and then use Phosphate Rx if I see the Cyano starting to return.

[pappadumplingz]

You finally found that hammer you were after. How much did it set you back?

[RollaJase]

You finally found that hammer you were after. How much did it set you back?

Yeah I got lucky last weekend and stumbled across it whe going to get more RODI. Was a decent price, came in at $45 for the 3 heads.

[pappadumplingz]

Yeah I got lucky last weekend and stumbled across it whe going to get more RODI. Was a decent price, came in at $45 for the 3 heads.

You lucked out. Nice to see everything survived the power outage. Where are all your fish at?

[jack1978]

Hey, Jase...love the scape man!

Looks great in there.

[RollaJase]

You lucked out. Nice to see everything survived the power outage. Where are all your fish at?

I did indeed. No losses at all after the power outage. Most of the are hiding in the FTS as I cleaned the glass about 10mins before taking that picture (hence some of the floaties in the water). Pretty much as soon as I go near the tank outside of feeding time the fish freak out lol. The melanurus wrasse freaks out and dives into the sand as soon as I do anything major in or near the tank. I even have to be careful at feeding time otherwise he dives into the sand and misses out, he can stay that way for a few hours at a time outside of when he is sleeping.

 

Hey, Jase...love the scape man!

Looks great in there.

Hey Jack, thanks man, thanks for stopping by. How are things on your end?