12 years later....

[TheKleinReef]

LETS GOOOOOOO

[boscoT]

I went to check it out yesterday and they had one tank left in stock and won’t get their next shipment of the 24s for a few months. 
 

this tank has the perfect dimensions for my spot so it came down to getting it now or likely going with another brand or smaller size in a few weeks.  
 

I am not ready to set it up yet so it will sit and wait for a little bit.  I still have a lot of thinking and shops to go to to see options for my set up.  
 

 

[TheKleinReef]

take your time, set up is a fun process.

[boscoT]

Picked up a few more goodies today 

 

caribsea live sand 

I can’t find any live rock.  I went to 5 stores today. One place had it but the tank was loaded with algae.  
 

picked up 20 lbs of caribsea life rock and used 15 pounds. 
 

also picked up a spectra RO/DI 90GPD

 

im going go start cycling tank for 5 to 6 weeks. I’d love to find some live rock crumble to put in for the rock this week if I can. 

[boscoT]

Is someone able to move this to the nano section instead of beginners or should I start another post on my setup in the nano section? 

[banasophia]

You just start a new thread in the Journals section. 

[TheKleinReef]

10 hours ago, boscoT said:

Is someone able to move this to the nano section instead of beginners or should I start another post on my setup in the nano section? 

@Christopher Marks could move the thread. Or you can start a new journal thread. If you wanna keep everything in one thread it might be nice to just move it. 

[boscoT]

Busy weekend and I have decided on a 4 to 6 week cycle time.  I was able to add in about 15 pounds of caribsea live sand to the tank.  It was really wet and filled with liquid.  I noticed a bunch of little white critters in the sand and from a google search they look like copepods and amphipods.  It looks like they are safe from what I read. 

 

I also purchased 20lbs. of caribsea life rock.  Like I said earlier in Ontario Canada where I am, I have not found any quality live rock.  I did find some rock but it was covered in both green and red algae.  So this will have to do for now.  I ended up only using 15lbs of liferock and my LFS was good to let me return 5 pounds.  

 

I added approximately 20 gal. of RO/DI water that I made.  I always feel guilty running an RO/DI unit as you waste so much water making it.  Now that I am up and running I can make 5 gal a week for ATO and water changes.  Shouldn't be too bad

 

Tank was so cloudy.. still pretty cloudy after 2 days.  I ran a filter sock in the intake part of the ATO for two days.  It really helped clear up a bulk of the cloudy water.  The sock was causing flow issues and my third chamber containing the return pump kept losing its water level.  Grateful not to have my ATO hooked up just yet or I would have had some issues for sure.  

 

I added the Reef Casa Media Basket and jammed an entire bag of the Marine Pure into the larger of three chambers.  I had it packed to tight and this further restricted water flow.  I removed the SICCI pump and turned the flow up to max.  This did not help with the water flow.  I removed one of the chamber dividers in the basket and increased the space for the gems to live.  This immediately improved the flow rate and the third chamber stabilized.  

 

@banasophia I totally understand what you meant about the noise without the water diverter into the media basket.  It was super loud and did not appear to allowing the water in.  The diverter is a bit too small for the Vila 24 and will not stay in position.  I took a small pieced of sponge and rolled it up.  I used the sponge to fill the 1.5mm gap and it holds in place perfectly and the noise has stopped.  Water flows perfectly now!!  

 

I also added the Reef Casa filter floss tray on the top of the media basket.  My filter media sits about the basket leaving me room for carbon after the tank cycles now.  

 

I have been learning about the AI prime 16HD and downloading AI files.  I have found one that I really like.  I am not a huge fan of a deep blue look.  I do prefer some white light, I really hope that this doesn't cause issues with algae.  I just prefer a little less blue....  Anyone with input???

 

Ceramic heater is holding well at 78 and I use a temp. gun for accurate readings.  I had a brand new one for when I was doing BBQ social media influencing.

 

I have just installed the nero 3 wave maker.  I needed to put the external magnet in the rear chamber and did a quick search with respect to submerging the exterior magnet.  AI says no as the magnet is not properly sealed.  I took out my food saver and vacuum sealed the magnet.  Then I added the nero 3 along the back wall.  

 

I have a bunch of cooking containers that I had from my other hobby.  They are all new in the box.  So I am using a 12 qt Cambro container for my ATO reservoir for now.  I have placed that inside of a Cambro container that fits the entire bottom of my stand to assist with any issue that could arise from a syphon back.  I am aware not to let the airline touch the water line to avoid this issue.  

 

I have to drill a few holes in the back of the stand this week before I get the ATO installed.  I will also then focus on wire management.

 

I am going to be adding an ecotech versa dosing pump in a few months to run liquid all for reef.  I will also add the tunze 9004 skimmer in a few months after the tank has a bit of a bio load with fish.  I am not going to add a refugium at this point, however; I have the room if I ever choose to go that route.  I may add a few more Reef Casa large bacteria blocks to the rear and remove the gems from the media basket. 

 

Pondering a second AI prime 16HD but that won't be until after the cycle once I start going with corals.  

 

Once I figure out how to upload photos I will try and get a few of the current aquascape and show you all what I am working with.  

 

Anyways thanks again for all of the help.  I really do appreciate it as I am trying to sort myself out with getting back into the reef world.  This has been an expensive week for me and I don't normally splurge on myself like this.  My wife is a huge fan of the reef tanks too so that really helped with the push to get back into it.  

 

[banasophia]

3 hours ago, boscoT said:

 

@banasophia I totally understand what you meant about the noise without the water diverter into the media basket.  It was super loud and did not appear to allowing the water in.  The diverter is a bit too small for the Vila 24 and will not stay in position.  I took a small pieced of sponge and rolled it up.  I used the sponge to fill the 1.5mm gap and it holds in place perfectly and the noise has stopped.  Water flows perfectly now!!  

Oh yeah, I guess I'm not the only one... but I did take the diverter out a couple of days ago just to see how it does now without it, and now it's not making any noise... very weird, right?

 

3 hours ago, boscoT said:

I have just installed the nero 3 wave maker.  I needed to put the external magnet in the rear chamber and did a quick search with respect to submerging the exterior magnet.  AI says no as the magnet is not properly sealed.  I took out my food saver and vacuum sealed the magnet.

Genius! I've had this issue come up before with powerheads, never thought to use a food saver for it... I wonder if I still have one.

 

3 hours ago, boscoT said:

added approximately 20 gal. of RO/DI water that I made.  I always feel guilty running an RO/DI unit as you waste so much water making it.  

Yeah, I feel bad about that sometimes too, being from California where we are often in a drought. I used jugs of distilled for a while, that would get delivered monthly and they would pick up and reuse the bottles, but that got to be too much when I was running three tanks. 

 

 

 

Glad your tank is up and running!! Sounds like a great start. I think you should just start your journal in the journal section. I have never personally seen CM move a thread... not that it doesn't happen, but usually people just start a new thread once they get their tank and you can always do a post where you link to this thread for the background info.

 

Oh yeah, and what's your BBQ channel? I want to check it out!!

[boscoT]

I am trying to see if I am losing water through evaporation or if my filter media is slowing me down.  I have filled up the water twice a day to fill the return chamber.  I would be shocked if its all evaporation.  

 

I have added the Tunze 3155 ATO today.  A little bit tricky but I think that I have it set up correctly.  Does anyone find the magnet to be a bit sketchy?  It seems to want to fight connecting in the middle and settles more to the side of the unit.  If I turn the magnet around the unit just slides down the tank for some reason.  Any suggestions?

 

I have started with 4qts in my reservoir as I don't want to wake up to a flood.  I also need to get one of those connections that prevent back syphoning if you can point me in the right direction.  

[mcarroll]

On 9/3/2023 at 11:04 AM, boscoT said:

I have been learning about the AI prime 16HD and downloading AI files.  I have found one that I really like.  I am not a huge fan of a deep blue look.  I do prefer some white light, I really hope that this doesn't cause issues with algae.  I just prefer a little less blue....  Anyone with input???

<smallrant>IMO it would be really nice if these high-end lights would provide 20,000K, 15,000K and 10,000K presets.   Just leaving the whole config up to the end user to figure out....or to be forced to copy some random or "popularized" online setup seems....lacking.</smallrant>

 

Just to be slightly less subjective in what you want to see, do you like the look of old-school 20,000K halide-lit reefs?  In their time, the look of 20,000K Radium-brand bulbs, on their proper ballast, was more or less considered the gold standard of reef lighting.  (Not all 20K's were totally similar to one another.)  IMO, that was the best, most naturalistic look that reef tanks have ever had.  The T5HO "look" that became popular later is a bit cartoonish by comparison....and I think the T5HO look is what many LED profiles (eg AB+) emulate.

 

FYI, Vivid Aquariums 800 Gallon system famously ran 20K's and Radion's side by side.  Maybe you can find out what their setup was like at the time and import it (manually if needed) to your AI's.  They've changed the whole setup and more recently were emulating T5's instead of 20K halides, and it's all LED now of course.  Not sure how the Radion profile "now" compares to the setup during the 20K halide comparison.)

 

For reference, check out some of the photos on this thread (and any others you can find like it):

...too bad there weren't more posts, but IMO the pics there are representative of the 20,000K color I'm talking about.

 

You can find pics online of some folks' Radiums that are bluer than this because some folks ran them at lower power, technically on an incorrect ballast, which would run the bulb cooler-than-spec and tilted the spectrum toward blue.  Still nothing as blue as the heavy blue that many of the T5HO tanks later ended up with.

 

If you want to set up your lights on your own vs using one of their popularized setups, here's my suggestion, at least as a starting point:  UV, Violet, Green and Deep Red are at best vanity colors if you're emulating a deep reef where they those colors would be nonexistent (ie most reef tanks)....at your discretion, they can be off.  Turn the blues up to max, or whatever blue:royal blend near max looks best to you.  Then turn up the Cool White channel as little as possible – just until things look really good to you.  Use a lux meter or PAR meter to dial in the overall intensity level you want.  You're done.  Chances are it will at least be "20,000K-ish".

 

On 9/3/2023 at 11:04 AM, boscoT said:

I may add a few more Reef Casa large bacteria blocks to the rear and remove the gems from the media basket. 

Usually the rock and sand in the display, combined with absolute demand for N in the tank, is more than adequate.  I doubt you'll need any of the fake bio-media as time goes on.  🙂 

 

On 9/3/2023 at 11:04 AM, boscoT said:

Pondering a second AI prime 16HD but that won't be until after the cycle once I start going with corals.

Light spill in general will probably be your main issue.  Lighting the back filter chamber specifically will be the most immediate problem created.  Of course here are various ways of dealing with this, including adding a second light and adjusting their mounting heights appropriately.

 

4 minutes ago, boscoT said:

I have added the Tunze 3155 ATO today.  A little bit tricky but I think that I have it set up correctly.  Does anyone find the magnet to be a bit sketchy?  It seems to want to fight connecting in the middle and settles more to the side of the unit.  If I turn the magnet around the unit just slides down the tank for some reason.  Any suggestions?

In most cases I'm aware of, their magnets have two halves inside the plastic housing, and each half has a specific "mate" in the opposing magnet on the other side of the glass.  Sounds like you're only mating half of the magnet....so try rotating either half 180º around its face to see if that makes the difference.  Hopefully that all makes sense. 😉 

 

5 minutes ago, boscoT said:

I have started with 4qts in my reservoir as I don't want to wake up to a flood.

ATO floods are a math problem.  Calculate the available tank space for "extra" water in gallons.  Your reservoir should hold this amount of water or less.  Then there cannot be an ATO flood....merely an occasion that you find a failed ATO.  👍 (Flooding should be very unlikely with the 3155 anyway as it has multiple built in safety precautions.)

[banasophia]

39 minutes ago, boscoT said:

I am trying to see if I am losing water through evaporation or if my filter media is slowing me down.  I have filled up the water twice a day to fill the return chamber.  I would be shocked if its all evaporation.  

 

I have added the Tunze 3155 ATO today.  A little bit tricky but I think that I have it set up correctly.  Does anyone find the magnet to be a bit sketchy?  It seems to want to fight connecting in the middle and settles more to the side of the unit.  If I turn the magnet around the unit just slides down the tank for some reason.  Any suggestions?

 

I have started with 4qts in my reservoir as I don't want to wake up to a flood.  I also need to get one of those connections that prevent back syphoning if you can point me in the right direction.  

Oh yeah my tank gets TONS of evaporation too… I think it’s because the flow is pretty high. The Tunze doesn’t come with a filter break? The one with my Duetto looks like this:

 

Looks like you can order one from Amazon, not sure about whether you can order from Canada though…

https://amzn.to/3P6wsPI

 

 

Also you can check out my video on evaporation and setting up an ATO…