pelphrey Posted March 11, 2017 Author Share Posted March 11, 2017 14 minutes ago, J-Ranko said: Is it noisier than the vortech? I'm surprised this could be the case; I thought the pump being fully submerged would surely be quieter than the vortech's external pump. I had a vortech several years back, and that thing was loud. The new QD version of Vortech pumps make zero noise until they are ran at 100%. Even when ran at full speed the QD pumps make very little noise. Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted March 16, 2017 Author Share Posted March 16, 2017 Picked up another 40 gallon container from Rural King. The 65 and 75 gallon containers used to ship for free, I wanted to grab another 40 gallon before he shipping goes up to $150 on it. Also in preparation for some fish I want an a vacation I got the Neptune AFS and Building an Obsession feeding ring. Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted March 27, 2017 Author Share Posted March 27, 2017 Rural King used to ship the 65 and 75 gallon containers for free. When they started charging 140ish to ship the containers I decided I should go ahead and pickup another 40 gallon. The 40 gallon will ship for around $10 in my case. Having 80 gallons of stored RODI water should last me right at 2 months. My next project is figuring out the best way to run my RODI line through the dry wall from the laundry room into the garage. The garage is NOT temperature controlled, I am worried about condensation in between the dry wall. Is this a legitimate concern? Or should I drill the 1/4" hole and run the line through? Before - Plywood for extra security - In place - Need to pickup another 3/4" slip to thread fitting. These containers will not be recirculating water, I had left over parts so I went ahead and used the fittings and ball valves. May actually put a gate valve on the down spout in an effort to keep the kids from turning either valve or both in the "ON" position. Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted March 28, 2017 Author Share Posted March 28, 2017 I've ran my tank bare bottom since I started the tank back in November, BB does have its benefits I am just tired of trying to keep the bottom of the tank clean all the time. Picked up a few bags of sand I am going to mix up and add to the tank. I'll be stirring up the sand at least once a week in an effort to try to keep it clean. Also decided I wanted sand for the more "natural" look. May be a few weeks before I get around to getting the sand into the tank! Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted April 3, 2017 Author Share Posted April 3, 2017 I've ran my tank bare bottom since November, I've tried to keep the bottom clean with little success. It never got super dirty and for the most part all of the debris would settle in 2 locations. Aside from that and wanting to mimic an ocean to the best of my ability I added the sand. I am very glad that I did, it changed the look of the tank dramatically! First I added a test cup to see how much the water would going to cloud up. To my surprise the Tropic Eden sand did could the water up, but not as bad as I thought. It is also important to note that I did NOT rinse this sand before adding it. Final results! I added the sand using a 1" PVC pipe a funnel and a measuring cup. I would add a couple cups of sand then use a coral feeder to blow the sand into its place. Using this method turned out to be great, easy and kept my hands 100% out of the water. To offset the sand that was added to the tank I had to remove about a half a gallon of water. It is also worth mentioning that I bought a 30lbs bag of sand and two 15lbs bags of sand. I didn't even open up one of the 15lbs bags and hardly put a dent in the 30+15lbs bags that I mixed up. 1 Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted April 11, 2017 Author Share Posted April 11, 2017 Before Sand - After Sand - New addition - Moved the black frag rack to the back of the tank. One magnet is strong enough to hold it up! Got my water storage container project done - Quote Link to comment
HIppieRose Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 The sand looks nice and it is more natural but wont it make cleaning harder... Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted April 11, 2017 Author Share Posted April 11, 2017 2 minutes ago, HIppieRose said: The sand looks nice and it is more natural but wont it make cleaning harder... I'm not sure I understand? If you are talking about keeping the sand clean I use a long coral feeder a couple times a week to sift the sand. It isn't going to take any more or less effort than the bare bottom did. Quote Link to comment
HIppieRose Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 I had sand and it was just a huge pain to keep cleaned up is why I asked. I lost so much with ever cleaning that I decided not to put any in my 29. But I have been thinking about maybe some crushed coral. But not sure that would work either. Sorry don't mean to hijack your post. Your tank looks amazing. Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted April 11, 2017 Author Share Posted April 11, 2017 Just now, HIppieRose said: I had sand and it was just a huge pain to keep cleaned up is why I asked. I lost so much with ever cleaning that I decided not to put any in my 29. But I have been thinking about maybe some crushed coral. But not sure that would work either. Sorry don't mean to hijack your post. Your tank looks amazing. I don't be trying to "vacuum" the sand as I do water changes. I'll be sifting it and using that same coral feeder to blow the sand around. It really shouldn't create any problems, I prefer the look of the sand over the bare bottom 100%. I used the tropic eden meso flakes and reef flakes. First time using this sand and really like it. Not hijacking, by all means I love to hear concerns and suggestions! Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted April 17, 2017 Author Share Posted April 17, 2017 Had a jumper, this guy been with me since the beginning. Sad to see him go! Progress on the new manifold - Reactor is glued and ready to go into the tank. Bottom tee will feed my Santa Monica RAIN2 scrubber. Hope to have this done soon, been putting it off way to long! Quote Link to comment
RIP Sebastian Posted April 17, 2017 Share Posted April 17, 2017 Sorry about the clown. 1 Quote Link to comment
HIppieRose Posted April 24, 2017 Share Posted April 24, 2017 Thats nano tank looks huge. Nice tank. Love the set up for your rocks. Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted April 25, 2017 Author Share Posted April 25, 2017 Tidal Gardens had their live sale over the weekend, I decided to pick up a few frags. I am running the two Kessil 160's with the intensity and color going up to about 60%. The frags are in the middle of the tank width and height wise. I had planned to stick the plugs in the sand, but my sand is to shallow! So I stuck them on some rock and let them be. If I have ID'd any incorrectly please let me know, also if you have better placement suggestions I would love to hear them! Pink Birds Nest Purple Stylophora Neon Green Stylophora Purple Pocillopra Neon Green Stylophora Purple Pocillopra Pink Birds Nest Purple Stylophora Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted April 26, 2017 Author Share Posted April 26, 2017 I've been putting a lot of thought into my lighting. I am happy with the Kessils and to be honest I don't know that I can let them go completely. I just don't know if the 160's will pack the punch I feel like I will need or provide the spread needed down the road. With that said I've tossed around a few ideas. I would love to hear opinions on swapping out the 160's for the 360's or potentially the AP700. If you have any experience of even an opinion I would love to hear it! Red circles show the new SPS frags that went into the tank yesterday - Kessil lighting schedule - As always, if you see something wrong with placement or my light schedule please let me know! Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted April 28, 2017 Author Share Posted April 28, 2017 My original plan was to run the @SantaMonica RAIN2 off of my return pump. With such a small sump foot print it was finally decided to run the scrubber off it's own pump. I've had this ATS for a few months now and it is time to get it into the tank! I did need to pickup a few PVC parts to complete this job, while I was at it I bought the Hanna Alk tester. Last weekend I noticed a small drip coming down from my reefer return standpipe. After talking to @Broadfield I drained the overflow, pulled the standpipe and made sure the o-ring was still intact. After verifying that there was no damage to the 0-ring I re-installed and turned the pump back on. The leak was minimized to a much slower drip, on Sunday I entered a ticket with Red Sea. On Monday Amanda with Red Sea emailed me, I provided pictures of the parts and the leak and she sent out a new return stand pipe. I haven't installed the new pipe yet, the leak has since gone away for now. I wanted to be pro-active and get the ticket entered and a new pipe in just in case. For the ATS I super glued two 1/4" pieces of acrylic together as the base. I then super glued a 2" PVC table top fitting onto the acrylic. After that I used 2" PVC to a 2" PVC tee with a 1/2" threaded output. I am using a MJ1200 to run the ATS with a valve to control flow. None of the PVC fittings are glued together for easy removal. The ATS hasn't been started yet, I will test nitrates and phosphates before I turn the scrubber on. Both of those levels are always low for me, I don't want to strip the system completely so I will monitor. Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted May 1, 2017 Author Share Posted May 1, 2017 April 30th 2017 RAIN2 Algae Turf Scrubber Startup. Running 1 GEM5 light 24/7. Tested water with Hannas Phosphorus tester, test came back at 4, phosphates really low. I did test nitrate with my Red Sea kit (which was expired) but it was zero. I threw it away, all future tests will be phosphate tests only. I'll pickup another nitrate test kit eventually. Added a piece of 1" PVC with a 90 to push the flow away from the output of the scrubber Quote Link to comment
pelphrey Posted May 2, 2017 Author Share Posted May 2, 2017 I'm up a few hours before work each morning with the kids, I was completely unaware that the natural sunlight would provide a different perspective of the tank. The sun is starting to come up earlier and over the hill behind our house, so I decided to turn the pumps off and snap some shots. No fancy camera here, just the iPhone 6. Top down view with the Gyre pumps off, return pump still running Not ready to wake up Quote Link to comment
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