Teenyreef's Deep Blue 30g - Massive Reorg

[markalot]

That didn't take too long.

[Reefkid88]

Oh woe,that was super quick !!! That light is going to be amazing !!! Wanna get rid of that kessil ?!

[DaveFason]

#yolo

[Marc.The.Shark]

 

20170129_024010.jpg by TeenyReef, on Flickr

 

The powerstrip is mounted where the previous owner put it. I'm not sure I want it to be inside the cabinet, though, it's kind of close to water with the sump right there. Am I just being overly sensitive since I've never had a sump before?

I keep my Apex EB8 in my cabinet opposite side of the filter sock area. I also have my cabinet fans set to run for 10mins every 2hrs from my Apex to get some fresh air in there for humidity & skimmer. I also have a break out box that I connected a humidistat to that will kick the fans on if the humidity in the stand gets over 55% or so, can't remember the exact #. The humidistat only kicks the fans on in the summer when it's humid tho. My stand stays nice & dry, works out well.

[teenyreef]

I keep my Apex EB8 in my cabinet opposite side of the filter sock area. I also have my cabinet fans set to run for 10mins every 2hrs from my Apex to get some fresh air in there for humidity & skimmer. I also have a break out box that I connected a humidistat to that will kick the fans on if the humidity in the stand gets over 55% or so, can't remember the exact #. The humidistat only kicks the fans on in the summer when it's humid tho. My stand stays nice & dry, works out well.

Thanks, that's great advice from the certified genius builder

 

I remember when you posted about the humidistat and I've thought about doing it too. For now I'm keeping it simple because I'm reusing my Apex Jr. from the 4g tank. No breakout box, and only four outlets. I'll probably expand it eventually, and when I do that's definitely on my list. But for now I've just got it running continuously on low, and it's absolutely silent.

 

For those of you that don't follow Marc's build thread and are wondering if he knows what he's talking about, I give you this

 

That didn't take too long.

When a guy who grows corals like you do makes a suggestion, guys like me are smart to listen

Oh woe,that was super quick !!! That light is going to be amazing !!! Wanna get rid of that kessil ?!

Actually I do need to sell it now that I'm getting the new light, since I can't really use it over any of my other tanks!

[ninjamyst]

Actually I do need to sell it now that I'm getting the new light, since I can't really use it over any of my other tanks!

there's another solution to your problem....

[teenyreef]

there's another solution to your problem....

My wife really would kill me then

[Bowen1022]

there's another solution to your problem....

[teenyreef]

Oh woe,that was super quick !!! That light is going to be amazing !!! Wanna get rid of that kessil ?!

To quote Kyle, "You've got mail!"

[teenyreef]

Now that I finally hooked up the Apex temperature probe, I found out the temperature in the tank was 75 degrees even though the Finnex heater was set to 78. I double checked with a spare thermometer, and sure enough, the Finnex is off by 3 or 4 degrees depending on which thermometer I believe. This is the first Finnex I've had with the digital controller. I've had three with the mechanical controllers and they've all been almost exactly correct. Now it's set to 81, the Apex reads 76.7, and the spare digital thermometer says 77.6. Time to bump it up one more degree...

 

In other news, when I got home tonight my wife requested that I order a top because the snails keep escaping and she's already getting tired of picking them up off the carpet. So I just ordered a top from Artfully Acrylic. They ask for six weeks on their web site but hopefully they can do it quicker.

 

So my fish stocking list just got a lot broader because I don't have to worry about jumpers

[Marc.The.Shark]

Thanks, that's great advice from the certified genius builder

 

I remember when you posted about the humidistat and I've thought about doing it too. For now I'm keeping it simple because I'm reusing my Apex Jr. from the 4g tank. No breakout box, and only four outlets. I'll probably expand it eventually, and when I do that's definitely on my list. But for now I've just got it running continuously on low, and it's absolutely silent.

 

For those of you that don't follow Marc's build thread and are wondering if he knows what he's talking about, I give you this

 

 

Hahaha, well that's a nice compliment and I appreciate it, but all of my ideas are Stolen! Lol. Maybe with the exception of 1 or 2.

[SeaFurn]

Now that I finally hooked up the Apex temperature probe, I found out the temperature in the tank was 75 degrees even though the Finnex heater was set to 78. I double checked with a spare thermometer, and sure enough, the Finnex is off by 3 or 4 degrees depending on which thermometer I believe. This is the first Finnex I've had with the digital controller. I've had three with the mechanical controllers and they've all been almost exactly correct. Now it's set to 81, the Apex reads 76.7, and the spare digital thermometer says 77.6. Time to bump it up one more degree...

From the looks of your picture my Finnex temperature controller looks like your heater's but I have cobalt heater attached. I checked the temp tonight and sure enough mine is off by two degrees. The controller indicates 79 while a regular thermometer reads 77 and a digital reads 77.2. I bumped my controller up a degree. Crappy probes I guess.

[teenyreef]

From the looks of your picture my Finnex temperature controller looks like your heater's but I have cobalt heater attached. I checked the temp tonight and sure enough mine is off by two degrees. The controller indicates 79 while a regular thermometer reads 77 and a digital reads 77.2. I bumped my controller up a degree. Crappy probes I guess.

That's weird, although mine is an integrated unit directly wired to the heater with an internal probe. But I'm glad my experience helped you find out yours if off too!

 

I guess I really can't say if the calibration is off on the ones with the mechanical controller, since they don't show a temperature readout. On those tanks I use the Apex to turn the heater on and off so I've never really worried about the whether the set point was right or not.

 

I just got a VDM module for my Apex which will control the DC return pump and the DC skimmer pump once they arrive. At that point I'll free up the pump control outlet, and I can use it to control the heater. I get nervous relying on the heater thermostat and controller, I never trust it not to get stuck on or off.

[ninjamyst]

midas blenny =)

[teenyreef]

midas blenny =)

Why yes! Yes, I think that's a very likely candidate.

 

I love yours. Maybe I'll get the shrimp too and see if they pair like yours.

[FlowerMama]

Hey! Looking really good so far! Are you going to have rock in the sump? Just wondering what natural filtration you were going to have. I've been away at my parents home since last Thurs gall bladder surgery & came home today. I'm getting my nursery wet Saturday with some help from a friend for lifting water and mixing.

[teenyreef]

Hey! Looking really good so far! Are you going to have rock in the sump? Just wondering what natural filtration you were going to have. I've been away at my parents home since last Thurs gall bladder surgery & came home today. I'm getting my nursery wet Saturday with some help from a friend for lifting water and mixing.

I hope your surgery and recovery went well!

 

I have a Brightwell bio plate in the sump but no rocks. I have a couple pieces of dry rock that I'm going to break up and put in the display, though, just enough to provide some hiding places for fish. I may throw the leftover pieces in the sump, but I haven't decided yet.

[Pjanssen]

(sigh) I can see just from this page that 'i'm going to have to go back and read this thread from he beginning

[teenyreef]

(sigh) I can see just from this page that 'i'm going to have to go back and read this thread from he beginning

Hi Penny! How's your tank doing?

 

At least this thread isn't 127 pages long like the 10g thread. How the heck did that happen, anyway?

[Pjanssen]

Hi Penny! How's your tank doing?

 

At least this thread isn't 127 pages long like the 10g thread. How the heck did that happen, anyway?

 

Considering the almost total neglect my tank got for 18 straight days of working 16 hours a day, it looks pretty good. Still finding Bryopsis, but Cyano has cleared up. I think the Vibrant worked! Blood shrimp went missing, and found a claw of my emerald crab. Maybe they starved with nothing but Bryopsis to eat, and me just throwing pellets in for the fish on a semi daily basis. Thanks for asking. Looks like you have a fun new project to work on. I need to catch up on your other tanks.

[teenyreef]

The pump and skimmer from Fish-street.com showed up today! It's a good thing I never really believed the DHL tracking status online, because even now that it's been delivered, the tracking status still shows "shipment information received" and nothing else

 

Remember how I mentioned that the temporary pump I was using was a little oversized? Here's a comparison with the new Jebao DCS2000.

 

20170202_204232.jpg by TeenyReef, on Flickr

 

This picture shows the pump box arrangement with the new pump. I've got it sitting on a scrap of yoga mat to hold it in place and keep things quiet. The water flows from the sock chamber on the left into the main chamber, then flows under the outer pump box, then up and over the inner box. This arrangement is good for keeping microbubbles out of the pump but I'm already seeing some crap accumulating on the surface of the water in the skimmer chamber. Hopefully once I install the skimmer that will help.

 

The pump itself is very nice and super quiet even on the highest setting. Unfortunately, with the Durso drain, I can only run it on the lowest setting right now. That's not a big deal though because I've got two MP10's for display tank circulation.

 

20170202_211046.jpg by TeenyReef, on Flickr

 

 

 

Considering the almost total neglect my tank got for 18 straight days of working 16 hours a day, it looks pretty good. Still finding Bryopsis, but Cyano has cleared up. I think the Vibrant worked! Blood shrimp went missing, and found a claw of my emerald crab. Maybe they starved with nothing but Bryopsis to eat, and me just throwing pellets in for the fish on a semi daily basis. Thanks for asking. Looks like you have a fun new project to work on. I need to catch up on your other tanks.

Sorry to hear you had to work so hard, but I'm glad the tank is doing well. Have you seen the new thread in R2R about using Fluconazol to treat bryopsis?

 

You're not missing much in the other tanks. In summary:

4g: just shut down and moved to this tank.

10g: winning the balance battle but the war is not over, rocks and monticaps are sitting in random piles in the tank because I take them out and scrub them every week.

40g: frag tank junkyard holding lots of corals from the 10g tank and other new corals I can't mount yet because of all the extra frags.

I hope your surgery and recovery went well!

 

I have a Brightwell bio plate in the sump but no rocks. I have a couple pieces of dry rock that I'm going to break up and put in the display, though, just enough to provide some hiding places for fish. I may throw the leftover pieces in the sump, but I haven't decided yet.

Here's a picture of the bioplate in the sock chamber of the sump. The sump has a little bracket on the bottom designed specifically for a bio plate.

 

20170202_205626.jpg by TeenyReef, on Flickr

[4x5]

That sump is neat. I like.

[teenyreef]

That sump is neat. I like.

Thanks, me too. I wasn't sure about it at first, but it looks nice and it's super compact.

 

The Coralbox D300 skimmer is up and running. No skimmate yet but I'm running in low while it breaks in, plus the tank is very clean.

 

20170203_002716.jpg by TeenyReef, on Flickr

 

And just to record the condition of the corals, here's a picture of what the frag rack I moved from the 4g tank looks like:

 

20170203-untitled-006.jpg by TeenyReef, on Flickr

[Bowen1022]

Looking good! I can't wait to have a skimmer... and sump

[teenyreef]

Looking good! I can't wait to have a skimmer... and sump

Thanks! I don't think I'll ever go AIO again if I can help it, I love having the sump once I got over the learning curve.

 

This particular sump, the Somatic, is a cool looking sump and has some interesting features to minimize the size, which I like. But there are also some design flaws, at least in my opinion.

 

The pump box is designed so that water from the main sump chamber flows under the outer wall then over the inner wall. This is great for minimizing bubbles from the skimmer, but the underflow means there's no surface skimming in the main chamber, and it doesn't take long for a film buildup to start. I've put a small powerhead in the main chamber to stir the water around more, hopefully that will help.

 

I'm also not a big fan of where they located the probe holder in the return/sock chamber. Since there's a cover on the chamber to reduce splashing and salt creep from the return pipe, all the wires for the probes have to go through holes in the cover. And that means that every time the cover is removed to change the sock, all the probes have to come out. Or you have to leave enough slack in the probe lines to allow for the cover to be removed which is kind of ugly. I haven't decided what to do about that problem yet.

 

Finally, the dosing tube holder is located over the main chamber pretty much right over the lowest flow area. I'm going to try to position the power head so it's blowing into that area to deal with that problem, though.

 

The last thing I don't like is the pump box isn't quite high enough so my water level is about a 1/2" below where it needs to be for the skimmer. I could put something under it to raise it up, but then it won't fit under the screw-in clips that secure the box to the sump walls.

 

Now that I've written all this down, I've realized almost all the problems are caused by the design of the pump box. If it was secured in a different way and it took the water over/under instead of under/over, and if it had space for a dosing tube holder in between the outer and inner wall, the only problem with the sump would be the cover over the return chamber. It needs to be smaller so it only cover the filter sock area, then the area with the probe holders would be open and you wouldn't have to mess with the probe wires when removing the cover.