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

[RollaJase]

Good thanks man. Busy but good times all round. I accidentally redid my tank this weekend, went to the store to get some snails came home with new rocks. Woops. Looking forward to the update.

Glad to hear buddy. Gotta love impromptu tank work lol, I've been caught out doign the same a few times now also. I've decided I'll be making some changes to the tank as well, I'll be covering all that in the update. Likewise man, I look forward to seeing what you have been up to also.

[RollaJase]

Over the last few months I know I have been really inactive. After getting back from my trip to Phuket, Thailand in February the tank took a turn for the worst. Cyano outbreak and RTN on most of my SPS put me on the back foot. I started to take back control with the purchase on my new skimmer and since then it has been a slow and steady road to getting the tank back to where I would like it to be, clean and stable.

 

I installed my new light for a week and managed to blow it up, leading to it to remaining in pieces for the next 6 weeks while I gathered the parts to fix it. At this stage, it is still in pieces, not because I’m waiting for parts, more the fact that I’m afraid that when I plug it in again I’ll blow something else up. I fixed the driver board and I literally just need to re-connect the LED’s but I just haven’t gotten around to doing it.

 

Amongst these things, I have made a few large changes to the tank over the last few months. A summary of these changes are below.

 

Test Kits:

I changed both my Cal and Mag tests to Nyos. I was using the remainder of my Red Sea Pro Calcium kit and was going to switch to Salifert like my Alk and Mag kits but due to lack of current availability I decided to pick up a Nyos kit for my Calcium tests. I was immediately shocked to see that my Calcium tests were reading in the range of 530-550ppm after the change, roughly 125ppm higher than the Red Sea Pro test. After having my LFS check this for me using a Salifert, Nyos and Hanna test this was in fact correct, my old Red Sea Pro kit was reading horribly low. This would explain why I could never get accurate Calcium results when testing freshly mixed Red Sea Blue Bucket salt also. After this, when the opportunity came to try out the Nyos kit for my Mag tests I decided to bite the bullet and pick up a kit. While the Magnesium reads pretty true to the Salifert kit (slightly higher, 20ppm or so) I do find the colour change easier to pick up. When it came to replacing my Alk kit however, I stayed with Salifert, purely because it tests in 0.2dKH increments, not 0.5dKH like the Nyos kit.

 

My levels are now super stable at around 8dKH Alk, 430-450ppm Cal and 1330-1350ppm Mag. The colour of my corals has never been better.

 

Recording Test Results:

After keeping a notebook of my test results for a few years now I decided to start recording them in an Excel spreadsheet when I established this new tank. I mainly wanted to do this so I could graph my results and keep a digital copy of the results. Over the last 6 months I have perfected this spreadsheet to a stage where I am really happy with it. The spreadsheet is smart enough to only plot a certain amount of results and automatically adjusts the graphs as you add new data to the tables. I use the spreadsheet to record my tests, keep track of my dosing and to track any small notes that I may add. I have included a link below to a copy of this spreadsheet in my Drop Box account with some dummy data. Feel free to grab a copy for yourself and see what you think. Keep in mind that I’m not using the US date format and that changing the names of the workbook will mess with the formulas I have used. The graphs may not function correctly until there are at least 15 data entries correlating to different dates.

 

Download Link:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/zy6s8zyyuwn5aj2/Aquarium%20Test%20Results%20Template%20V1.0%20-%20Blank.xlsx?dl=0

 

Carbon Dosing:

In an attempt to get on top of my Cyano issues I started dosing vinegar as a form of carbon to accelerate the growth of good bacteria. I started this towards the end of May and since then I have ramped up from 5ml to 16ml daily. I got sick of dosing daily via syringe so I ordered the triple head expansion pump for my Marine Color doser and now I automatically dose Vinegar along with Alk, Cal and Mag supplementation daily. Since starting this dosing I have seen increased activity from the skimmer and get a darker and much more horribly smelling skimmate. I saw a big reduction in Cyano very quickly and I think I will now continue using vinegar and GFO to stay on top of my nutrients.

 

Water Changes:

Since mid to late June I have opted to abandon water changes all together. As some of you may recall, I currently live with my parents on a farm where we rely solely on rain water as our source of clean water for showering, drinking, cooking etc. We used to regularly clean out the concrete tanks once or twice a year by completely draining and scrubbing them before a large storm front was scheduled to hit. The timing of this has become much harder due to changes in the climate and we have since opted to have the tanks cleaned and ‘vacuumed’, much like a pool, without draining the water. Obviously, this doesn’t do as good a job and I have seen the TDS reading of our rain water rise from about 10 to upwards of 40-50 TDS. Some of you will say I should just get a RODI unit, and I have pitched the idea of my father. The cost isn’t an issue for me; $200-$300 for a clean source of water isn’t very expensive at all. The biggest hurdle is the wasted water. Relying solely on rain water means I can’t afford to have a 1:2 or a 1:1 water to waste ratio, it’s just too much wasted water. I share this sentiment with my father and while I would like to continue doing bi-weekly water changes with 100% clean water it just isn’t going to happen. I can buy natural sea water from my LFS for $5 per 20L and am thinking I may resort to this for a larger, monthly water change. I am also contemplating getting a large storage container and keeping a couple hundred litres of the water handy at all times, which is ideally what I would like to do when I get my own place.

 

I noticed a big drop off in Cyano after abandoning the water changes. I only noticed this after going 1 month without a water change due to not having the time on the weekends, the Cyano came back with a vengeance when I was able to perform a water change after waiting so long. At this stage I am still using our rain water to make up my dosing solutions and fill up my ATO reservoir.

 

Battery Backup:

At 3am on Monday the 11^th July we had a power outage caused by some pretty bad storms. Luckily my UPS kept the pumps going on the tank for about 80mins but it wasn’t enough to tide us over until the power came back. The power was restored at about 6.30am and I went to work hoping that the worst of the outages were behind us, how wrong I was. Come noon the power went out again staying off for a little over an hour before going out a third time at roughly 3pm and stayed out until 11pm the following night. Luckily for me, my girlfriend was at my parent’s house during the day on the Monday as she had a late afternoon appointment in the area. I talked her through how to aerate the water (not having a battery power air pump handy) and kept an eye on things until the power came back to get the water circulating. By the time I got home from work the tank had dropped from 25c to 23c and was slowly dropping further. We kept up manually aerating the water with a turkey baster and I warmed up saucepan after saucepan of tank water on the coals of our wood fire to try and keep the water at around 23c. Hoping the power would come back later that evening I kept this up until 3am when I finally decided to call it a night. Waking up at around 7am I could immediately see that the water was slightly cloudy and the temp had dropped to 22c. Things were going south quickly and the power company were telling us the power would be out until the following day. Dad and I decided to bite the bullet and we went out and bought a 2kVA, 4 stroke inverter generator. We had the tank back up and running in no time, running only the essentials (return pump, circulation pumps, skimmer and heater). I proceeded to go out and buy 30L of mixed salt water to do a water change to combat the cloudy water; I also picked up a bottle of Prime to be safe. I performed a water change later that day, mixing in enough Prime for 50 Gallons and gradually brought the temperature back up over the rest of the day.

 

In the end I was fairly lucky. I lost no fish but did lose two SPS pieces and will potentially loose a third. Usually we are subjected to power outages that last from a few minutes to a few hours; the most recent outage was the worst we have seen in 21 years of living where we do. The 12^th July also ended up being the coldest July day that South Australia has had in the last 2 years. It was also the second time we have had recorded snow fall on the Vineyard in 21 years. The storms resulted in over 50,000 homes without power for a 24 hour period or greater. I know it doesn’t sound like a huge amount compared to what some parts of the US experience but 50,000 homes is roughly 13% of the entire population of South Australia being affected.

 

I am now seriously evaluating my own battery backup and I plan of either purchasing or building something capably of keeping my return pump going for at least a 12 hour period. If worse comes to worse we have the generator but I would like the added piece of mind.

 

TL;DR: I have repaired my new LED light that I fried, too much of a pussy to turn it back on. I changed my Cal and Mag tests to Nyos and haven’t looked back. I developed an interactive Excel spreadsheet to keep track of water test results, download link above. I started dosing vinegar as a carbon source, love it. I have stopped doing water changes as our rain water is getting worse, can’t use a RODI unit due to excess waste water when relying on rain water for entire house. Power outage almost killed the tank; I bought a generator and won.

 

It has been a very eventful last 4-5 months for the tank, lots of things happening, good and bad. I am going to make a conscience effort to at least get out a monthly update and share a few pics when I can. I do have a few FTS sitting on the camera I need to go through and edit when I have another free minute.

 

Apologies for the essay, I literally wrote this in 40mins this evening. Speed writing 2000 word essays for Uni must have paid off lol.

[ninjamyst]

Read the whole thing =). No water changes is interesting. How much are you feeding fish and corals?

[Mikeymikemike]

good read and update, glad you overcame some of the troubles, I know the sinking feeling and the "all hands on deck" mode of trying to keep life support on for a tank, it can keep you up all night.

 

how far are you from the coast? You could consider getting an IBC and filling it up with salt water and then storing it at your property. 1000L would last a long time.

[RollaJase]

Read the whole thing =). No water changes is interesting. How much are you feeding fish and corals?

Glad to see someone was in an essay reading mood lol. To be honest, I probably don't feed the tank enough. I feed half a cube of Ocean Nutrition Marine Mix daily and sometimes will throw in half a cube of frozen rotifers or a third a cube of frozen lobster eggs. I feed the corals weekly with two full cubes of marine mix, 1 cube of frozen rotifiers, half cube of lobster eggs and a mix of Microbe-Lift Phyto- Plus A, B and Zoo Plus. I spot feed with the turkey baster. I'm keeping an eye on the nutrients in the water and if things get out of hand I'll have to go back to regular water changes.

 

good read and update, glad you overcame some of the troubles, I know the sinking feeling and the "all hands on deck" mode of trying to keep life support on for a tank, it can keep you up all night.

 

how far are you from the coast? You could consider getting an IBC and filling it up with salt water and then storing it at your property. 1000L would last a long time.

Thanks mate. I have definitely spent the last few months chasing my tail, definitely not a good feeling but I think I have everything under control now. I'm not a huge distance away from the coast, about 40-50mins in either direction. Both my closest and favorite LFS can do salt water delivery, charging you about $80 for a 1000L IBC and then another $200 or so to fill it right up, works out much cheaper than bucket salt that's for sure. Ideally that's the direction I would like to go in but a 1000L IBC is pretty large. I'm contemplating seeing if I can get my hands on a couple smaller 200-250L food grade storage tanks and using them instead. That way, when I get my own place it will be easier for me to reuse them with a smaller space. For now, the 0 water change has been working out, over 1 month now with no ill results. Not including the emergency water change I did during the black out.

[RollaJase]

Got the balls to fire up my light on Sunday after my repairs (I replaced all 10k resistors and the SCHOTTKY rectifiers on the board). Powered it on, the LDD on channel 2 popped. Removed LDD and replaced with a new one, light powered on fine after that.

 

Initial diagnosis is that Channel 1 & 2 (whites) are down. Channel 2 & 3 (Royal Blue) work flawlessly. Channel 5 (UV) turned on at a really low setting and I wasn't able to control it through the BF mini, I wiggled some cables and it went out. Channel 6 (Cyan) works.

 

Fan control not working either but I can't tell if that's because the UV channel isn't working or if I botched loading the software to the arduino I replaced. I need to test it on the Royal Blue channel to be sure.

 

The irony of it all is that I killed the light trying to fix channel 6, now it works and most of the rest of the light is busted. I am starting to think that a lot of my issues are due to dodgy wiring and I expect the biggest culprit to be the terminal blocks on the driver board. They are really loose to the touch and quite a few of them are really hard to tighten down and when tight the cable still wiggles a bit. I might end up replacing these also.

 

Worst case I fried all the white LED's on all 6 of the NB arrays. If this is the case I'm gonna call it a day, part out what I can and buy two AI Prime HD's, Hydra 26's or maybe even a pair of Kessils. I have had no issues with My Sol Blue so I'm kinda partial to the AI brand. The fact that I can buy them in retail stores in Aus now is a bonus.

[jack1978]

Got the balls to fire up my light on Sunday after my repairs (I replaced all 10k resistors and the SCHOTTKY rectifiers on the board). Powered it on, the LDD on channel 2 popped. Removed LDD and replaced with a new one, light powered on fine after that.

 

Initial diagnosis is that Channel 1 & 2 (whites) are down. Channel 2 & 3 (Royal Blue) work flawlessly. Channel 5 (UV) turned on at a really setting and I wasn't able to control it through the BF mini, I wiggled some cables and it went out. Channel 6 (Cyan) works.

 

Fan control not working either but I can't tell if that's because the UV channel isn't working or if I botched loading the software to the arduino I replaced. I need to test it on the Royal Blue channel to be sure.

 

The irony of it all is that I killed the light trying to fix channel 6, now it works and most of the rest of the light is busted. I am starting to think that a lot of my issues are due to dodgy wiring and I expect the biggest culprit to be the terminal blocks on the driver board. They are really loose to the touch and quite a few of them are really hard to tighten down and when tight the cable still wiggles a bit. I might end up replacing these also.

 

Worst case I fried all the white LED's on all 6 of the NB arrays. If this is the case I'm gonna call it a day, part out what I can and buy two AI Prime HD's, Hydra 26's or maybe even a pair of Kessils. I have had no issues with My Sol Blue so I'm kinda partial to the AI brand. The fact that I can buy them in retail stores in Aus now is a bonus.

Dude, sorry to hear about the light......I'd throw it on the ground and run it over with the car at that point.

-Besides all that, hope all is well!

[RollaJase]

Dude, sorry to hear about the light......I'd throw it on the ground and run it over with the car at that point.

-Besides all that, hope all is well!

Thanks Jack. Things are going pretty well here, how about yourself? Yeah, I considered setting fire to the thing, only thing holding me back is the fact that I have sunk about $1,500AUD into it and it would be a shame to literally burn all that money for the second time lol.

[jack1978]

Thanks Jack. Things are going pretty well here, how about yourself? Yeah, I considered setting fire to the thing, only thing holding me back is the fact that I have sunk about $1,500AUD into it and it would be a shame to literally burn all that money for the second time lol.

Holy guacamole, batman! $1,500? Why did it blow up? Can Dave help you or no?

 

We're doing well. Work has been crazy for quite awhile now, the Mrs and kids are wrapping up their summer vacation in a few weeks and we're considering an addition to the house in the next year or so.

[RollaJase]

Holy guacamole, batman! $1,500? Why did it blow up? Can Dave help you or no?

 

We're doing well. Work has been crazy for quite awhile now, the Mrs and kids are wrapping up their summer vacation in a few weeks and we're considering an addition to the house in the next year or so.

Yeah, total was about $1,200USD at the time when I ordered everything, before the Aus dollar dropped further, equates to roughly $1,400AUD when you do the conversion plus the $100 or so I have spent trying to fix it. The money was not too far off ordering a 4 channel NB quad from Dave with dedicated moon light once you factor in freight and the USD to AUD conversion (from memory the quad was about $1000USD ~$1200AUD).

 

Sadly Dave can't really help me, the only NB items I ordered were the arrays and Dave hooked me up with the BF mini. The actual driver/controller board I ordered from a third party. It's a great product, all the issues I'm having were caused by myself. The light was working well but channel 6 stopped working. I took the light apart, checked all wiring and when I hooked the power back up I reversed the polarity through the driver board, blowing most of the LDD drivers and frying the majority of the 10k resistors and the arduino that does the fan control. Probably would have been easier to spend the money ordering a new driver board but I went with the cheaper option of doing the repairs myself.

 

Glad to hear you are all well. Work has been crazy here also, end of financial year was just horrible. Ended up spending a lot of my time away from work doing work which just makes you feel a whole lot worse about the situation. How I wish for it to be summer again over here, winter so far has been horrible with a lot of rain, gale force winds and power outages.

[jedimasterben]

Well, the good thing is that you're still not likely to have blown the LEDs on CH1 and CH2. Did you try hooking them up to a different (working lol) driver channel to see if they come on? It takes a LOT to kill modern LEDs. I should know, I've done all kinds of shit to them

[ninjamyst]

I would go for AI Hydra HDs. Saw a few tanks with AI next to Kessil and prefer the color on the AIs. More crisp and the control software is 100x better than Kessil.

[metrokat]

Sorry about your troubles. Did I read correctly that your cyano came back AFTER you performed a large water change?

[markalot]

Glad to see you posting again.

 

T5

 

[gena]

 

This is an impressive update. I am all caught up now! And another reminder that a generator would be a good thing to have on hand .

[RollaJase]

Well, the good thing is that you're still not likely to have blown the LEDs on CH1 and CH2. Did you try hooking them up to a different (working lol) driver channel to see if they come on? It takes a LOT to kill modern LEDs. I should know, I've done all kinds of shit to them

I didn't get that far with my testing. I was kinda pissed when I heard the driver pop and smelt that horrible horrible smell of burning electronics lol. That will be my next step, connect the whites up to channel 3 and 4 and test them again. I'll also test all wiring and trace the cables back to the LED's to triple check it is all hooked up ok. I looked at each individual LED under my macro lens adapter and they all looked good, besides the one lime I torched with the soldering iron by mistake .

 

I would go for AI Hydra HDs. Saw a few tanks with AI next to Kessil and prefer the color on the AIs. More crisp and the control software is 100x better than Kessil.

I think the AI lights are very sleek and I am familiar with the GUI. Worst case, I can get a pair of Hydra 26 HD's for about $1200AUD shipped which is not bad at all. My LFS stock AI and I'm sure they would give me a good deal if I asked and handed them some zoa frags. If I did abandon my current venture I would definitely be considering the AI's. From memory, two of the Hydra 26's would give me shadowing with my dimensions, perhaps the HD's will give a bit more spread.

 

Sorry about your troubles. Did I read correctly that your cyano came back AFTER you performed a large water change?

Thanks Kat. Yes, you are correct, cyano came back or rather the infection got worse after the larger water change. I put this down to an increase in TDS in our rain water at home. At this stage a RODI is out of the question due to our water situation but I am investigating storing store bought salt water to continue regular water changes. At this stage however, I have abandoned water changes all together and things are going rather well. Cyano is under control, only a small patch on the sand directly under the lights (lower flow area) and the skimmer is producing great skimmate with the vinegar dosing.

 

Glad to see you posting again.

 

T5

 

Thanks Mark , I'm really going to make an effort to be more active. Reefing is my stress relief and I feel like everything else has been getting in the way of that over the last few months. Hmm, the lure of T5 is always present, I may consider it but the good fixtures over here are ridiculously expensive (Giesemann Matrixx II, 24W 4 bulb fixtures are abut $1k, no Dimtec bluetooth controllable model available in this size.). It may be worth playing around with it though considering a dumb 4 bulb fixture is like $200 plus bulbs. What I really love about LED is the controll and while I do love the look of of T5 if I were to change to two smaller LED fixtures I may retro some T5's for some extra power.

 

This is an impressive update. I am all caught up now! And another reminder that a generator would be a good thing to have on hand .

Thanks Gena . Yes, a generator is a must if you are in a storm prone area. The bonus of buying a larger one is you can also use it for other stuff besides the tank, we were charging our mobile phones etc. while the power was out.

[RollaJase]

Tank Update - 26th July 2016:

I know, long time between proper updates but I had some time this evening and decided to go through some pictures on my camera and post some of the better ones.

 

Lets start with an FTS. Posting this one a little late, photo was taken on the 17th July. Since the photo was taken the cyano has all but disappeared and I swear the monti has grown even more!

 

Next up some new additions to the tank. Sadly the first acro browned out and is now rapidly loosing flesh after the prolonged power outage (trimming it back isn't helping). I did manage to get some really good macros of it though. The orange lepto perished due to the power outage also. The highlighter acro on the other hand is still going strong, not liking its current lower light position though and did have a few burnt tips after the power outage. You may remember that I had another similar piece earlier on, it died when I was away in Thailand earlier this year. Besides these pieces I have added another two SPS pieces which over the months which perished in the power outage .

 

Lastly, a cute picture of my clown , he loves these zoas and defends them quite impressively, even the Melanurus wrasse steers clear.

 

One addition that I have not been able to snap a decent picture of is my new Secretive Wrasse, otherwise known as a Scarlet Pinstripe Wrasse. Really nice addition to the tank and a somewhat calmer temperament than the Lubbocks fairy wrasse that I had in the past. I'll try to get some nice pictures of the little guy.

 

 

In non reef related news, just a few pictures I snapped of the farm towards the end of March while our warm weather was waning. Also some pictures of some new neighbors who have moved in since our dog died. Not that she was much of a concern to these neighbors at her age.

In total there are 7 Kangaroos that like to call our property and the surrounding properties home. I believe them all to be of the Western Brown species. There is one big male, he would be about 6' when he stands up straight, the rest of the mob (yes, collective term for Kangaroos is a mob) are made up of some smaller females and their joeys. We give them space and they don't venture two close to the house (ironically, those last 2 photos were taken from my bedroom window) but it's not too uncommon to see them while in the vineyard or hopping along when we go out for rides on the quad bike. While they may look cute and cuddly they can be dangerous. 3 of our neighbors dogs cornered the male against a fence, he struck out and unfortunately opened a horrific wound in one of the poor dogs stomach, poor thing never made it through the trip to the vet not 10mins away by car.

 

I promise that the updates will be more frequent! Annoy me if you haven't seen one in a while, I do check the forums frequently.

[niQo]

I also read your update essay I find it helpful and encouraging to read that successful reefers have struggles with all kinds of things as well!

[teenyreef]

Great update! I love how the tank is looking - the clown in the zoas is adorable

[ninjamyst]

very jealous of your zoas =P

[RollaJase]

I also read your update essay I find it helpful and encouraging to read that successful reefers have struggles with all kinds of things as well!

Well thank you, I'm glad you enjoyed the read. I have found that the worst thing you can do is try and let setbacks get you worked up. It's the nature of the hobby sometimes, and seeing that the majority of us here deal with quite small tanks the risks we run sometimes are higher.

 

Great update! I love how the tank is looking - the clown in the zoas is adorable

Thank you very much , things are finally getting back on track. This clown has so much personality, much more than my original pair. The downside of him loving zoas so much is that he has little black spots all over from the burns.

 

very jealous of your zoas =P

Thanks , at the moment they are really the center piece of the tank while I sort out the SPS situation. Now that I have got my Cal and Mag stable the colours have really gone to another level and I am getting insane growth from all colonies bar a few.

[RollaJase]

Ok, round 2 of light troubleshooting after the repairs.

 

I started off by tracing the wires for each channel back to the source (note to self, used more colours than black next time) between the driver board and the LED's. Lo and behold, I had 2 negatives on white channel 1 and two positives on white channel 2. This explains why the channel 2 driver went pop. I sorted that issue and checked the blue channels out, more shenanigans here with the positives being correct and the negatives actually swapped between channels. Not really an issue but I fixed it up. Next onto the UV channel, this was all fine. And lastly onto cyan which is fine also.

 

So, I power on the fixture, no popping which was a bonus. I log into the bluefish and start testing the channels. White channel 1 wont turn on and channel 2 is on but with no control. I smell burning and can see the driver on channel two slowly bulging. Power off, driver out, burning my fingers as this thing was insanely hot. I pulled both white drivers and moved onto the blues. Blue channels work fine, full control in the bluefish. Move onto the UV channel and nothing, swap out the driver and still nothing. I find this really odd as it was all hooked up correctly from the get go yet during my test the other day the UV channel had really low power and had no control before going completely dark. Lastly I moved onto the Cyan channel and it looks fine, even the LED I thought I cooked with the soldering iron was on, maybe giving it some time to cool sorted it out?

 

So, as it stands, I'm not really any further than I was the other day. Half the fixture is working, the other half isn't. I'm almost certain that the issue with the second white channel is another fried resistor, a pretty easy fix. That leaves me with trying to sort out the other white channel and the UV channel. For all I know, it could be a resistor issue on all 3 channels.

 

I'm going to test all my remaining LDD drivers on the channels that seem to work to rule out if I missed any failing drivers after my initial testing when I first fried the fixture. I currently have 2 spare LDD drivers after already frying two during testing. Once I have ruled out the drivers I will swap the cabling on the channels that work with the ones that don't to try and rule out a cabling fault.

[RollaJase]

Oh, I also forgot to mention I ordered a CoralBox PowerCell for additional battery backup on my return pump. After talking to the guys at Fish Street they confirmed that this battery works with the original DC series pumps but you require their T1 controller if you want to use the battery with the newer DCT or DCS pumps. So I think I'll be ordering another DC-3000 to keep on hand as a spare. My current pump is only running at about 50-60% flow right now that I cleaned it (was running at 100% before the clean). I still have a lot more headroom when it comes to my drains but I had issues with pushing more flow through them while keeping the noise down. I may try to fix that at one stage but I am happy with it for now.

 

I'm no mathematician but i gave the up-time calculations a crack.

CoralBox quote 2 hours 15mins of run time on a DC-12000 pump at full speed with 1.7m of head. The DC-12000 is an 85W pump, the DC-3000 is a 25W pump, this means a DC-12000 is 3.4 times more power hungry than my current pump. So I would imagine the DC-3000 would theoretically get 7.5 hours of run time based on their figures at 100% power. So worst case, I hope to get at least 8 hours out of the battery in the event of a power outage, on top of the 1 hour my UPS provides seeing as the pump only runs at 50-60% peak output.

If the up-time isn't enough, I always have the option of adding a second battery to daisy chain them and double output. Or open up the enclosure, put the guts in a new box and replace the 3.6Ah battery with a 12Ah or something like that. The batteries are cheap, the only thing holding me back from making my own system was the electronics side of things.

[gena]

Thanks Gena . Yes, a generator is a must if you are in a storm prone area. The bonus of buying a larger one is you can also use it for other stuff besides the tank, we were charging our mobile phones etc. while the power was out.

or earthquake prone area! It's something we keep saying we will do but always put it off.

 

Your photos are awesome. Tank looks really nice and I love the kangaroos .

[RollaJase]

or earthquake prone area! It's something we keep saying we will do but always put it off.

 

Your photos are awesome. Tank looks really nice and I love the kangaroos .

Very true! Luckily, we don't experience all too many Earthquakes here in Australia. There has been 2 or so in the last 20 years in my area. Thanks Gena, glad you enjoyed the photos. I've been trying to get some better photos of the Kangaroos but they are very wary of how close we get and the male is fairly territorial.