Tank Journal Archive

ReeferRob

Solidarité
Oct 22, 2014
2,661
931
Bel Air
Yea Dave, you have to be careful with the Chinese Black Boxes, you'll cook shit quick with them. Mine are about 20ish cm off the water to get spread.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
Aye, mines at about 10cm off atm, and that's because the water is about 5cm below the overflow line until i get the sump in lol.
Will fine tune height a little, but the light is hidden by a hood. Once I get the light above that, it's likely to piss me off from every angle I do things in the house.. corner of my eye from the lounge, straight out side my study. Might have to get creative (or build a higher hood lol).

Loosing the lenses makes a huge difference though. Noisy bastard at full power, but it'll do the job.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
Sump is ready. Hopefully pick it up tomorrow morning and get the bugger in and get this going properly. Woo!.
Pity that the bookshelf has to come out lol.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
Sump went in Friday night, plumbed early Saturday.
Water went in before 7 and was only a few degrees when I added it pulling the entire system temp down to around 20C from a nice stable 25C.

The ATO res holds about 60L which is nice.. I never bothered calculating that when I designed the sump, but that might successfully let me get a week out of it. Cut a piece of laminated board and put over the top to make a shelf. Might reduce evap from the ATO, and gives me a bit of working area for the dosing pump and container.

Have an old TLF 150 reactor connected to the waste hose on my skimmer. I've used it on and off for years as a collection container on the old frag system. It should fill just before the collection cup floods.. can't get the skimmer up any higher given the crazy outlet height. I prefer to use the reactor as its out of the tank and at worst can just overflow back into the tank instead of on to the carpet. If that doesn't work out so well, I'll clamp a jug in the sump, and use that (did that previously).
A little over a day and a bit fully running with skimmer, and cup is about 1/2 full and top of neck is dirty enough.

I pushed up the ammonia the other day to push the cycle along, finally getting from 1ppm down (currently at 0.30ppm). Nitrates up around 10ppm, so seems that the cycle is humming along nicely. Once the ammo bottoms out, I'll keep giving it some little doses of ammonium chloride to keep feeding it and build it up.
I have no where near as much rock as I used to; sitting on about 50kg down from nearly twice that in the old system (a lot in the sump), and I'd eventually like to stock this a bit heavier.

The sump is pretty dull. The LED strip is really not very bright - a little lighter than in the pic, but still pretty dull. Surprisingly adequate to work in though.

To Dos:
- Brewing some more water... still can't get a vehicle in garage in order to fill my IBC, so stuck doing it the hard way.
Want to take a good chunk of this water after the cycle is finished and replace the water in the tank holding the fish atm - start to get them used to this water. It's been a long, long, long time since they've experienced new water.

- A couple of pieces of LR have some aiptasia on them. Haven't worried about them given I haven't been in the tank itself and risked pissing them off. Probably need to get on top of that nonetheless. Hammer and chisel job.

- Tidy up the electrical. It's a cramped little spot, and access isn't that easy. It does however have some isolation from the wet stuff.
I do need to find some nice way of keeping the power supplies up off the floor. Lots of excess cable and crap in there too. Really messy.

- Light timers. I've found a single timer than gives me 3 outlets with individual controls - about the same price as buying 3 regular timers, but does it on a single board, which will get me back some power point space. the Mars Aqua uses two, and the Fluval sitting along the back uses one. I could probably get rid of the fluval, but running it blue only has a night moonlighting effect.

20180826_163412.jpg
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
A week later....

Algae yay. As expected, it's off an racing. I just have to keep reminding myself that it will pass. Eventually.
Side notes: Ammonia is basically undetectable and has been for past week. I threw in some ammonium chloride a couple of times and it promptly vanished. No Nitrite and not detecting any nitrate, so my speed cycle seems to have worked.

Added some fish yesterday - I had planned only on adding my Pajama Cardinal. When I returned to the shed and looked at the tank the fish have been living in.. they were all literally lined up front and centre staring at me ready to go too lol. The clowns moved too. The tang and some damsels will need to wait another week if the system copes with what I've already done.

Checked the Calc & Alk - calc came back so low I couldn't read it with my old Red Sea kit - Alk read exactly as it should for the salt mix. Figured it might be time to get some new test kits, as it just dawned on me I've probably had those for 6 or 7 years. Probably getting on to time I throw out everything in my test kit box and start fresh. Seen some cool electronic testers around, but budget isn't that healthy, so that might be a 2020 Christmas present if I ask now lol.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
A week on.. all my fish are in, and the old shed tank is now off and drained. Now that's out of the way, the rush is over... a month ahead of when I expected.
Nitrates seem between 20-40ppm. Put in two reactors over the weekend. Currently empty - waiting on some biopellets and carbon to arrive. The biopellets should help me with that nitrate issue. Carbon I like to have.. never know when Mrs DavidS fires up the smelly candles around the house or something silly.
Put some Phosguard in the sump over the weekend as well; not that I can really detect any phosphate - I just don't trust any of my kits enough to consider them accurate.

Used some aqua kneadit to get some support around my rocks as they were just stacked. Probably used a little too much. 12 hours later and skimmer was still nuts, so it's off overnight. Will fire it up again tonight and with a bit of luck it'll settle down a bit.

Diatoms are starting to appear as expected. Tanks gone from green to brown. Glass is difficult to clean if I miss it for a day - even with just the blues on.
Light timer arrived yesterday and is now programmed. Bit of luck that should help keep the crap under control for a while. It's on pretty conservative, with blues only one for 9 hours and 7 hours for whites.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
Long time, no TJ update lol.

Tanks going along OK. Algae is starting to make a mess despite pretty decent skimming and regular enough WCs. I pulled out a rock that was a little over infested with algae, and I think it's probably what has seeded so much of it.

Ordered a bottle of Vibrant. Going to give that a go - seems to be a cheaper solution than Flucanozole tabs, and a little more aimed at GHA. Also on todays order list are some salt (i really need to clean out my shed so I can get water delivered again) and some base rock - I'm a little off kilt and need to get a bit more height with the rocks, so that's on the agenda.
Got some morphs and zoas from Oceanarium a while ago.. they're all looking good, as is the pulsing xenia that came back to life along with some other assorted bits of coral that looked dead when I first got the rock.

General thoughts at the moment: the algae is starting to grow quite a bit more rapidly; low bio load, and no obvious sources of anything that is helping that other than light. Go with trying to kill it off and see if it settles down a bit. That shit is always a bit soul crushing - especially now that it's in our hall way and visible from most of the house, so that needs to get hit hard.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
A month since my last update.

The algae was nuts - I put in a couple of hours on Saturday morning and scrubbed the crap out of the tank to the point it's back to an acceptable level. I've imported a 16oz bottle of Vibrant, and started using it. A lot can be said for using filter socks. They caught a lot of the algae after it was released, and I syphoned a heap out while doing a WC.
Plenty of stray bits still around, and found some still on the back wall last night, but if I stop being lazy and blow it off the rocks every couple of days, I might be able to stop it taking hold while the Vibrant starts to starve it out.

Added some more rocks to get the height up on the left side. Looks a bit odd as the rock was base rock, so now have a heap of very white rock contrasting the more mature rock lol.

Had constant problems with the Marine Sources skimmer overflowing like mad, especially after WCs, and that's even when its wide open. Got jack of that, put the old Avast back together, shoehorned the pump off the MS skimmer into it. and shoved it back into the tank. Low and behold, a tunable skimmer that doesn't just sit there overflowing, and managed to start getting some crap out within a couple of hours of running after a year of being dry. Have a couple of minor issues with how the pump is mounted causing it drop a little. I may pull it back out at some stage and try to be a litle more persuasive. Not a lot of space left in the sump now with this skimmer. It's has a much larger footprint, and this sump was designed for something more compact - especially as I also have a reactor sitting in the skimmer section (not much cabinet space so it's sitting in the water).

Decided I'm changing the lights; the Mars Aqua light isn't doing it for me. With lenses on, it's way too spotty and doesn't blend (unless I mount it on the ceiling), without them it's better, but it doesn't really punch to the sandbed well. Unless I put a lot of white into it, it really doesn't quite have enough oomph to do the job. With enough white to punch down, it's too white. The spread is also a little off kilter.
I'm going to have Kessil A360s a go. Already ordered a controller, and will look at ordering a couple in the next week or two. Will probably need 3, but will start with 2. Everything I've read suggests that their spectrum and logic control is more about spectrum that the tank needs rather than what the user wants, which suits me - don't mind that idea at all. Also like their small footprint, and I miss having dusk to dawn light cycles. Also.. that shimmer....

UPS: In the past I've always had industrial grade UPSes hooked up (mostly because I own enough to power a town for a few hours). It's hard for me to hide something so big and heavy near the tank now, and do so in a way that it won't be interfered with by the cherubs. I had debated trying to get one in the ceiling above the tank and wiring it down, but I've seen my share of burnt out UPSes over the years, so yeah nah. Ordered a small 800VA unit on eBay last night - it's cheap enough. Literally only interested in hooking up a wave maker to it. Given the storm activity we've seen recently, power can be a bit iffy, That'll buy me an hour or so. That's long enough for me to get home on a hot day, and have enough time to get an extension cord out to the garage to hook it up to something little more industrial that will comfortably handle that load for a few hours.

Temperature controller: I was sent an Inkbird temperature controller recently to review. So far, its pretty good. I need to get around to wiring it in properly. I've noted a few times that my heater has been running when it shouldn't be, and the system has been a little warmer than I'd like as a result, despite the fact that on cooler days its about where it should be. This should help keep that under control. No longer running a chiller, and we only have evaporative air con, so I'd prefer to keep the temps around 25.5C instead of the 26.5C I used to chase.

Other thoughts: Everything I've skimped on getting this tank back up and running seems to be largely a false economy - I knew it would be, but alas needs must. Cheap skimmer; gone in place of a much better unit aimed at a much larger system that has always done a great job (but needs a little DIY love) that I still don't know why I tried to replace. Cheap light - already on the chopping block for lights worth 6 times as much. Both at least served their purpose in getting the system back up and running. Really, really need to get the garage sorted out over Christmas so I can open it up and get some NSW delivered. While it's not tedious to dump 20kg of salt into 600L~ of RO/DI, it takes planning, it wastes a lot of water (which I don't mind so much at the moment as it waters the recently sown bits of the backyard but that will get old soon), and it only gives me about 2 months worth of water rather than the 3+ months worth I could get for about the same cost.

Missus DavidS wants more pretties in the tank. Have been fairly firm on the "not yet". Might be tempted to get a couple of softies once this algae issue is under control, and a blenny will probably be the next fish purchase. Looking forward to getting some colour into the tank...just need to stay patient. Lack of near by LFS, and it being that time of year when no online retailer in their right mind will ship for the next few weeks should help me stay more focused on stability and maturity and less on tank bling :P
 

ReeferRob

Solidarité
Oct 22, 2014
2,661
931
Bel Air
The control issue with the Inkbird controllers was the reason I took mine out of service. I can't have 3 degree swings constantly in my rearing system, has to stay within 1 degree. The Inkbird controllers do an OK job, but I need a tad more of a narrow temp band.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
The control issue with the Inkbird controllers was the reason I took mine out of service. I can't have 3 degree swings constantly in my rearing system, has to stay within 1 degree. The Inkbird controllers do an OK job, but I need a tad more of a narrow temp band.
That'll be interesting to watch out for. Certainly haven't seen any significant swings - sensor is still within a few inches of my Seneye, and so far this one has been pretty good - certainly not seeing any variation greater than I was seeing with STC-1000s when I used them. Getting perhaps a half degree variation at times which isn't terribly significant; if anything it's a fraction high but it's easy enough to compensate for. The Seneye does all kinds of SMS and email alerts (on top of the monitor that sits beside my tank showing the current stats), so it's easy enough for me to keep an eye on it. Will certainly be a bit more curious about watching the temps though.
 

ReeferRob

Solidarité
Oct 22, 2014
2,661
931
Bel Air
I didn't wanna go pissing in your review thread about it. I would watch it if you have an Apex or a similar way to log the temps just to be sure. The cheap ones I got from Eric at Fish Street are working well with a 1 degree fluctuation. Rearing larvae is rough and you need to take out as many variables as you can from the get go so you don't have to retrace more things than you have to if a batch crashes.
 

DavidS

The Resident Loony
Jul 17, 2011
3,337
1,033
Ballarat, Victoria
First of the Kessils is in. Can see what they mean when they say its hard to beat them for shimmer. Doesn't quite have the overall oomph of the Mars Aqua, but the colour output looks a lot better, the shimmer is awesome and it can punch further with my preferred colour blend. Can't wait for the other one to arrive and the Mars Aqua can get sold. I'll need to buy another one then. I think 2 will do me for the moment, but 3 will help me get a little more spread and reduce some of the shading I'm going to otherwise have.
Controller should get her before the next one, so will be good to have a play with it too.

The UPS arrived with its battery sitting at about 4v after about 2 hours on charge - so not a good sign. Luckily I happen to have a box of spares, found one and got it going, then hooked up a wave maker to it.

Other notes: seeing signs of coralline finally.