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Innovative Marine Aquariums

Time to upgrade from my Evo 13.5


Staticmoves

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I tried the top rock on its side last night, as advised by a fellow reefer.

while creating more surface area, I was not big on the Look of it. In many tanks I’ve liked the look of coral growing from the side and up from rock work. 
trying to keep the lines flowing, and my wife likes the keyhole and botch look.

i glued top piece last nigh, and will epoxy this evening.

C24936CE-1C57-49C1-9D34-AB2498FDBC8A.jpeg

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1 hour ago, afcajax73 said:

ah man, I'm so jealous! 😄 I'm desperate to upgrade to a reefer 170 but the mrs won't let me 😄

 

good luck with this one... Loving the scape 🙂

I just worked and outage, or I wouldn’t have been upgrading either.

as per the all powerful “Mrs” 😳

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It's always fun setting up a new tank. You certainly have some nice equipment, The scape looks like it will support good flow around it as well.

 

Try to rig something to the door, so that way when you open the cabinet, the motion sensor is automatically tripped & you have light. Maybe a small L bracket. There is another way, but it costs $499 plus shipping & does a bunch of other really cool things. 

 

Before you get the tank wet, do yourself a favor & buy more filter socks. I have 15 which gives me about a month before I need to wash the other 14. It's as simple as 2 wash cycles. One with bleach, and one without bleach. Both with hot water. They don't come out burn your eyeballs white, but they are clean and easily last 2 days.

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3 hours ago, JBM said:

It's always fun setting up a new tank. You certainly have some nice equipment, The scape looks like it will support good flow around it as well.

 

Try to rig something to the door, so that way when you open the cabinet, the motion sensor is automatically tripped & you have light. Maybe a small L bracket. There is another way, but it costs $499 plus shipping & does a bunch of other really cool things. 

 

Before you get the tank wet, do yourself a favor & buy more filter socks. I have 15 which gives me about a month before I need to wash the other 14. It's as simple as 2 wash cycles. One with bleach, and one without bleach. Both with hot water. They don't come out burn your eyeballs white, but they are clean and easily last 2 days.

Do you run the mesh or felt socks. I have two mesh at the moment.  I was actually pondering running the return lines into a hang on the sump mesh filter sock, then running a felt in the proper sock holder.

i was thinking about devising a jig to trip the sensor, though a quick wave of the hand does it at the moment.

just completed epoxy placement in top rock work this evening, and glues last evening.

in my EVO I have marine pure bio balls filling chamber one, and may pull those to cycle new tank. I’ll put them in a mesh media bag in the sump.

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2 hours ago, Staticmoves said:

Do you run the mesh or felt socks. I have two mesh at the moment.  I was actually pondering running the return lines into a hang on the sump mesh filter sock, then running a felt in the proper sock holder.

i was thinking about devising a jig to trip the sensor, though a quick wave of the hand does it at the moment.

just completed epoxy placement in top rock work this evening, and glues last evening.

in my EVO I have marine pure bio balls filling chamber one, and may pull those to cycle new tank. I’ll put them in a mesh media bag in the sump.

 

I run 150 micron felt socks. I tried 50 micron at first and every day it was clogged. So I went with 150 & change it every 2-3 days.

 

Running 2 socks is ok, but twice the work. Are you worried that you have too large of a pump? Or are you just trying to have really polished water?

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9 hours ago, JBM said:

 

I run 150 micron felt socks. I tried 50 micron at first and every day it was clogged. So I went with 150 & change it every 2-3 days.

 

Running 2 socks is ok, but twice the work. Are you worried that you have too large of a pump? Or are you just trying to have really polished water?

Pump is DC on a VFD and will be set around 560 - 600 GPH, with slow start.

two sock system would be 225 mesh as primary from return pipes then 150 felt in actual sock holder, that way I avoid large particles in felt sock, and possible less sock changes. ( I’ll keep journal posted on success with this method.)

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Probes all in.

Heater hidden on bubble trap wall.

just need to clamp the return pump hose on the barb fittings.

will be installing shelf high on right side to accommodate dose pump, unless I decide to go with a Neptune dos, which may be a good possibility. Purchased a Jebao DP-4 for this tank, but may sell it or keep it for the EVO and get a Dos.

once I find all probes working well I will tie cables together to tidy.

2E56ACAB-8F6C-4AEE-9CC6-7874C0E1DAA6.jpeg

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1 hour ago, ninjamyst said:

Nice build!  I would push the rocks back just a tad to give you more room in the front

I pondered. But I want good flow back there, a place for the fish to hide and swim, and I’d like to grow a birds nest from the rear rock side and up as well as a chalice to add some depth. But I hear ya, I’ve been thinking long and hard. Maybe even a gorgonian swaying in behind the rock work.

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13 minutes ago, JBM said:

go buy a reed switch like this one wire it up to the control port on your apex with a Mini Din 8 cable (old printer cable) create a virtual outlet & have apex turn on and off your light.

Hmm I’ll have to look into that.

the light is operated via a motion sensor, not sure I’ll be able to bypass it, unless I buy a different light.

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There are other neat things you can do, like having a button for feeding. Push it, and all your pumps turn off for x amount of time. You don't need the break out box, just the cable. Although the break out box makes things "tiddier"

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