Dane's 175 Gal in-Wall Tank Build - Page 7

TulaneDane · 07/20/2014, 07:27 PM

@Ikserk. Great points. Inside the cabinets is not an option.

I'm going with a JBJ 1/4 HP Chiller. So I'll need 480-1920 gallons per hour. Anyway I could draw from my emergency overflow weir?

Perhaps mount a pump where my AFS is and draw from the weir? Would cut the head pressure by about 6'..

nicdu · 07/20/2014, 09:24 PM

Well. My advice would really be to either sanitize the QT, and fill it with new water (I think it's less important that it be cycled since you don't treat with CP...you can add prime as an ammonia neutralizer) or leave it fallow for 6-12 weeks. I only say this b/c I learned the hard way from not QTing and sanitizing 100% of everything I put in my tanks. Unless you know why the YT died, I think this is the wisest yet sucky course of action.

dson78 · 07/21/2014, 09:05 AM

Very detailed build, following along.

TulaneDane · 07/21/2014, 09:42 PM

Rolled the dice on my QT. Changed the Hang on the Back filter and did a 100% water change. Waited a week, and I'm on my second yellow tang now.

I'm watching him like a hawk. What's different this time: Feeding him much smaller pieces of seaweed salad (2"x2") clipped to the glass. Pulling out what he hasn't eaten after 6-8 hours. Supplementing his diet with a couple frozen mysis shrimp. Not using the tank lights yet.

He seems much more active and expands his sail...hadn't seen that before. He's shy though and will skirt behind the PVC if I walk in the room (I can still peek my head around the corner without him noticing).

On the chiller...this is going to be a project. I just don't see how I can make it work pulling from one of the overflow weirs...am I missing something?

Going from the sump...It's 9' to the shelf. The chiller is another ~2' tall, giving me 11' of head loss. Suppose I can power my way through that...but I'm out of room in my return section of the sump.

Ideas??

Indymann99 · 07/22/2014, 05:52 AM

Dane, before jumping to the chiller have you tried running the tank with the top and bottom cabinet doors open? If the temp drops to acceptable level you could simply replace the panel doors with louvered doors? (maybe some fans to pull air from side-side) Would not look as pretty but would work without the expense, complexity, and noise of a chiller.... also the chiller is going to have to have somewhere to exhaust the heat it produces...

my 0.02

Indymann99 · 07/22/2014, 05:59 AM

So I just read the earlier post, that you are worried about temp @ 80deg?? I would consider that no problem... many run tanks at 79-80... and even higher.

The 20g per week top off is a "bit" excessive (I loose 2g per day to evap) but may work in your favor if you are planning on running Kalk in your ATO.

TulaneDane · 07/22/2014, 08:02 AM

@Indyman99: Good points. Actually, since I added the CPU fans venting to the interior of the house, opening both top and bottom cabinets doesn't change the temperature but ~0.1*.

Now if those fans, and the larger fan pointed across my sump, are turned off (or fail) the temp heads north of 82.5* in a couple hours. Opening the cabinet doors then brings the temps back down.

What worries me is we've had an incredibly mild summer here thus far. Only a few days over 90*. Couple that with having to set my house AC at 73* to keep the tank from topping 80.5*, and turning through 20 gallons of ATO in ~7 days, leads me to the Chiller conclusion.

However, unless I can figure out the physics of a Chiller on this tank, my hand may forced away from one anyway.

Cymonous · 07/22/2014, 08:24 AM

Its too bad you can't run air from your AC ductwork through your fans. Or...could you? :-)

TulaneDane · 07/22/2014, 07:34 PM

@Indyman99: I see you have two amp meters on your apex. Are you running two energy bars? Also, what interface is that you screen shot? I only access my Apex through Apex Fusion via Safari. Doesn't look anything like that...

@Cymonous: Now that is an idea! I could move that vent above the top shelf down and then use a 90* duct to feed it through the mini duct I added above the tank... I shall research this further!

TulaneDane · 07/25/2014, 01:56 PM

Still racking my brain on the cooling. Haven't settled on my planned solution yet.

Did make a few minor changes to the Display Tank:

I'd been running three Koralia 1500s and one Koralia 1150 on alternating schedules. I swapped out one of the 1500s for another 1150. My clowns rarely leave their top right corner of the tank. Thought maybe I was pushing too much flow...
Bought a bracket to hold the float valve that shuts off my skimmer if the sump water level gets too high (yeah...magnet holders don't work here):

Indymann99 · 07/25/2014, 02:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TulaneDane

Still racking my brain on the cooling. Haven't settled on my planned solution yet.

Did make a few minor changes to the Display Tank:[LIST][*]I'd been running three Koralia 1500s and one Koralia 1150 on alternating schedules. I swapped out one of the 1500s for another 1150. My clowns rarely leave their top right corner of the tank. Thought maybe I was pushing too much flow...
]

My clown hung up in the corner for 6mo before realizing he has 119.8 other gallons to swim around in.. just give it time.

jmsilhy · 07/27/2014, 12:10 AM

Awesome build and experiences man, tagging along for updates!

wij · 07/29/2014, 03:32 AM

Just a thought mabey put vents in your top shelf say 300 mm Sq ×2 then hide ur chiller in the canopy the vents would help heat release from the chiller and you still have ur shelf just a thought?have a nice evening .

TulaneDane · 07/31/2014, 09:52 AM

So after a lot of searching, I've found only a few opinions on whether or not you should leave your chiller pump running continuously, regardless if the chiller is on or off.

A small majority seem to think its best to leave the pump 'always on' and just turn the chiller on/off as needed. I think this will be my approach as well.

The other debate is whether to use your controller as the primary regulator of the chiller and the chiller itself as the back-up, or vice-versa.

The best school of thought I found was to use my controller as the back-up because:

Each chiller has a spool-up/boot-up time, and allowing the chiller to step through this on its own is best
Turning any appliance on/off repeatedly probably isn't best, particularly one with a compressor
You can program your temperature reading within the chiller to match that of the controller, thus avoiding a chiller & heater running at the same time
Chillers draw a lot of amps when running, and spike when initially turned on. Keeping these spikes off your energy bar could be beneficial

Just thought I'd share my research.

Indymann99 · 08/01/2014, 12:16 PM

+1 on your logic.

I do the same with my heaters... my APEX is the failsafe the internal control is primary.

my 0.02

TulaneDane · 08/02/2014, 06:51 PM

So I'm up and running with the JBJ 1/4 Chiller:

Will find a way to conceal it a bit better later on. Learned a bunch trying to hook this thing up.

Currently I'm pulling from my primary overflow weir, and dumping into my emergency weir. I'm cavating a little somewhere in this setup, which is dumping micro bubbles into the tank. I have the outflow tube wrapped in a filter sock now to cut this down.

At first I was using a Taam RIO HF20 to feed the chiller. Uh no. That thing sounded like tin cans. I'm now running it off a Eheim Compact 3000+. MUCH better. ...though I think I'm near the minimum flow rate for the Chiller off the Eheim.

...and now for some reef porn:

One of my Blue Knuckle Hermits with two feather dusters on his shell.

TulaneDane · 08/08/2014, 03:15 PM

Sigh...more bad news. Lost my second yellow tang in my Quarantine Tank.

As soon as I noticed he was slowing down and not picking the seawead clean off the clip, I changed out the filter insert in the HOB filter, and did a 50% water change. After careful monitoring, two days later he was gone.

Sad and frustrating. He made it 1.5 week longer than my prior yellow tang. I kept the lights moderated for most of the time. Supplemented his seaweed diet with frozen Mysis Shrimp. Made sure the airstone and powerhead were agitating the surface.

SG: 1.024
Temp: 78*
NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 4 ppm

One side of him had some brown coloring. I guess I should have listened to those that said to break down the QT tank. Is is possible that a 15 gallon QT is just too small for these guys?

TulaneDane · 08/12/2014, 11:11 PM

Tang killer checking back in.

Display Tank water parameters still seem OK:
NH4: 0
NO2: 0
NO3: 0
PO: 0
SG: 1.024
Ph: ranges from 8.1 to 8.3

Getting a decent amount from algae in the tank, so I'm going to cut down on feeding (and lighting as well...running about 10 hours). Current stock:
- 2 clownfish
- 2 Halloween hermits
- 2 blue knuckle hermits
- 4 scarlet leg hermits
- 6 red leg hermits (little guys)
- 5 Trochus snails
- 1 mexican turbo snail
- 1 emerald crab

Replaced the two locline outputs from my return with flat bill nozzels to try and spread the flow a bit.

Also moved three of my four power heads to the top of the tank and pointed them down. Perhaps this will better oxygenate the water.

Set my Chiller to hold the temp at ~78.5. It's working quite well. However I haven't yet cracked the micro bubble issue. My chiller's pump is pulling from my primary overflow weir on the left as shown, and dumping into my emergency overflow weir on the right. No bubbles are making it into the sump from the primary overflow...so how are bubbles coming from my Chiller??

This is the Chiller pump line out from my primary overflow:

The black hose atop my ecotech power boxes is the same Chiller pump line. Runs horizontally from left to right, then up. The second hose running straight down on the left is the return:

Thoughts on killing these micro bubbles??

TulaneDane · 08/15/2014, 10:53 AM

Decided my next fish will be a small school of Blue/Green Chromis. Thinking 5 to start. Supposed to be a bit more hardy than Tangs, so they'll be better equipped to handle me.

Biting the bullet on my chiller, and am going to plumb it through the sump. I can't figure out how to stop the micro bubbles I'm creating from drawing/dumping from/to the display tank.

It will be 11' of head height though, so I'm going to have to find a way to fit a mag 12 pump into the sump. ...It's going to be tetris in that thing.

Time for some good news! Since adding my chiller, I was able to turn off my sump fan and put the lid back on my 'refugium' (just live rock in there). Its now been 15 days since I last filled my 20 gallon ATO, and it's only half way down. Looks like it may last me almost 30 days! With no chiller and using fans to cool, I was only making it ~10 days!

Reef noob_ · 08/15/2014, 11:42 AM

awesome thread and build, i just read through all of it, excited to see it mature, subbed.

TulaneDane · 08/22/2014, 01:28 PM

So finished plumbing my chiller through the sump instead of directly in the Display Tank. MUCH better. No more micro bubbles in the display tank, and so much more of the wiring and tubing is hidden!

Plumbing now runs through the interior of the house to the left of the tank and comes back in through the wall (black vinyl tubes):

I then run the black vinyl hose directly into the second return enclosure of the Aqueon Proflex4 sump:

Went with a Mag 12 for the chiller pump. It's pushing plenty of flow even at the 11' of head height of the chiller. However, I have zero room left in the return section of the sump:

Return section now houses two Mag 12s (one for the chiller, one for the return), one Mag 24 (running the skimmer), a Maxijet 1200 for my GFO/Carbon reaction, the AquaC skimmer, a heater, and all the float switches and tubing for my ATO. It is a full house...

On another note, I picked up 5 Blue/Green Chromis a little over a week ago...and only two remain today. The bigger ones just bullied the smaller ones.

kw22 · 08/22/2014, 03:43 PM

It seems to be coming along very well

adddo · 08/22/2014, 04:35 PM

Looks awesome, read through ypur thread and im impressed with your patience and approach.

Chiller could be concealed using a poster or a framed photo or something similar?

Indymann99 · 08/23/2014, 01:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TulaneDane

So
On another note, I picked up 5 Blue/Green Chromis a little over a week ago...and only two remain today. The bigger ones just bullied the smaller ones.

Did you provide plenty of "hiding spots" for the Chromis? If you have 5x in QT you need at least 7-10 pieces of PVC tubes / elbows / Tee's for each to have a hiding spot at night.

my 0.02. I have had 4x Blue/Green Chromis in my DT for several years.

TulaneDane · 09/09/2014, 07:51 PM

Checking back in. I'm down to one Blue Green Chromis. He's a bully of a dude I guess, and has gotten pretty big, about the size of my clownfish now. I have 4 PVC pieces in my QT, two very large pieces and two smaller pieces. That is apparently not enough. Though I'm suspecting I did not feed enough to begin with...these guys are pigs. Will put him in my Display Tank this weekend.

My minor algae problem has turned into a rather large one. Could be Chrysophytes or brown/clear hair algae. I'm speculating my 55 gallon saltwater mixing tank is leaching TDS. For a while I mixed my saltwater and just let it sit stagnant with no pump circulating it...that's bad for TDS right? Will pick-up a TDS meter outside of my RO/DI unit to test the mixing tank. That or my rocks are leaching nitrates/phosphates...However I started with all dry rock. Will find out soon.

In the meantime, I'm treating the symptoms:
- Did 36 hour blackout
- Aggressive manual scrub down using a toothbrush
- Changed filter socks after they captured everything I knocked loose
- Scaled my red LED bulbs to zero
- Increased air intake to skimmer: unplugged the ozone intake to my skimmer (not dosing O3, but had plugged it while tuning the skimmer early on), made other adjustments to up the air intake as well.
- Started dosing API AlgaeFix Marine yesterday
- Started a small dosing of Carbon (vodka)
- Contemplating a biopellet reactor!

We'll see how this approach works.

Think my next fish will be a Diamond Watchman Goby.

Some good news: added two LPS corals to the tank! A Hammerhead and a Candy Cane. I feed them about once every 5 days with Mysis shrimp or Apex Crossover Diet. They are beautiful under the blue lights, and are doing well.

07/22/2014, 05:52 AM	#155
Indymann99 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 2,447	Dane, before jumping to the chiller have you tried running the tank with the top and bottom cabinet doors open? If the temp drops to acceptable level you could simply replace the panel doors with louvered doors? (maybe some fans to pull air from side-side) Would not look as pretty but would work without the expense, complexity, and noise of a chiller.... also the chiller is going to have to have somewhere to exhaust the heat it produces... my 0.02 __________________ 120g DT 100lbs LR / 200 lbs LS, 45g fuge, VectraM1 Return, Herbie drain, 4x RW-8, 2x AI Hydra 26 w AWM, ASM G2, Apex controller, Apex BoB w floats ATO

07/22/2014, 05:59 AM	#156
Indymann99 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 2,447	So I just read the earlier post, that you are worried about temp @ 80deg?? I would consider that no problem... many run tanks at 79-80... and even higher. The 20g per week top off is a "bit" excessive (I loose 2g per day to evap) but may work in your favor if you are planning on running Kalk in your ATO. __________________ 120g DT 100lbs LR / 200 lbs LS, 45g fuge, VectraM1 Return, Herbie drain, 4x RW-8, 2x AI Hydra 26 w AWM, ASM G2, Apex controller, Apex BoB w floats ATO

07/22/2014, 08:24 AM	#158
Cymonous My Clown Attacks Me Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Akron, OH Posts: 2,105	Its too bad you can't run air from your AC ductwork through your fans. Or...could you? :-) __________________ 100 Gallon Long with 20L sump 10 Gallon Office Tank Current Tank Info: 2 False Percula Clowns, One Spot Foxface, Diamond Watchman Goby, Yellow Tail Damsel, Engineer Goby

07/25/2014, 01:56 PM	#160
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	Still racking my brain on the cooling. Haven't settled on my planned solution yet. Did make a few minor changes to the Display Tank: I'd been running three Koralia 1500s and one Koralia 1150 on alternating schedules. I swapped out one of the 1500s for another 1150. My clowns rarely leave their top right corner of the tank. Thought maybe I was pushing too much flow... Bought a bracket to hold the float valve that shuts off my skimmer if the sump water level gets too high (yeah...magnet holders don't work here):

07/31/2014, 09:52 AM	#164
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	So after a lot of searching, I've found only a few opinions on whether or not you should leave your chiller pump running continuously, regardless if the chiller is on or off. A small majority seem to think its best to leave the pump 'always on' and just turn the chiller on/off as needed. I think this will be my approach as well. The other debate is whether to use your controller as the primary regulator of the chiller and the chiller itself as the back-up, or vice-versa. The best school of thought I found was to use my controller as the back-up because: Each chiller has a spool-up/boot-up time, and allowing the chiller to step through this on its own is best Turning any appliance on/off repeatedly probably isn't best, particularly one with a compressor You can program your temperature reading within the chiller to match that of the controller, thus avoiding a chiller & heater running at the same time Chillers draw a lot of amps when running, and spike when initially turned on. Keeping these spikes off your energy bar could be beneficial Just thought I'd share my research.

07/20/2014, 07:27 PM	#151
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	@Ikserk. Great points. Inside the cabinets is not an option. I'm going with a JBJ 1/4 HP Chiller. So I'll need 480-1920 gallons per hour. Anyway I could draw from my emergency overflow weir? Perhaps mount a pump where my AFS is and draw from the weir? Would cut the head pressure by about 6'..

07/20/2014, 09:24 PM	#152
nicdu Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Posts: 48	Well. My advice would really be to either sanitize the QT, and fill it with new water (I think it's less important that it be cycled since you don't treat with CP...you can add prime as an ammonia neutralizer) or leave it fallow for 6-12 weeks. I only say this b/c I learned the hard way from not QTing and sanitizing 100% of everything I put in my tanks. Unless you know why the YT died, I think this is the wisest yet sucky course of action.

07/21/2014, 09:05 AM	#153
dson78 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2012 Location: Orlando, FL Posts: 87	Very detailed build, following along.

07/21/2014, 09:42 PM	#154
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	Rolled the dice on my QT. Changed the Hang on the Back filter and did a 100% water change. Waited a week, and I'm on my second yellow tang now. I'm watching him like a hawk. What's different this time: Feeding him much smaller pieces of seaweed salad (2"x2") clipped to the glass. Pulling out what he hasn't eaten after 6-8 hours. Supplementing his diet with a couple frozen mysis shrimp. Not using the tank lights yet. He seems much more active and expands his sail...hadn't seen that before. He's shy though and will skirt behind the PVC if I walk in the room (I can still peek my head around the corner without him noticing). On the chiller...this is going to be a project. I just don't see how I can make it work pulling from one of the overflow weirs...am I missing something? Going from the sump...It's 9' to the shelf. The chiller is another ~2' tall, giving me 11' of head loss. Suppose I can power my way through that...but I'm out of room in my return section of the sump. Ideas??

07/22/2014, 08:02 AM	#157
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	@Indyman99: Good points. Actually, since I added the CPU fans venting to the interior of the house, opening both top and bottom cabinets doesn't change the temperature but ~0.1. Now if those fans, and the larger fan pointed across my sump, are turned off (or fail) the temp heads north of 82.5 in a couple hours. Opening the cabinet doors then brings the temps back down. What worries me is we've had an incredibly mild summer here thus far. Only a few days over 90. Couple that with having to set my house AC at 73 to keep the tank from topping 80.5*, and turning through 20 gallons of ATO in ~7 days, leads me to the Chiller conclusion. However, unless I can figure out the physics of a Chiller on this tank, my hand may forced away from one anyway.

07/22/2014, 07:34 PM	#159
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	@Indyman99: I see you have two amp meters on your apex. Are you running two energy bars? Also, what interface is that you screen shot? I only access my Apex through Apex Fusion via Safari. Doesn't look anything like that... @Cymonous: Now that is an idea! I could move that vent above the top shelf down and then use a 90* duct to feed it through the mini duct I added above the tank... I shall research this further!

07/27/2014, 12:10 AM	#162
jmsilhy Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: McKinney, Texas Posts: 157	Awesome build and experiences man, tagging along for updates!

07/29/2014, 03:32 AM	#163
wij Registered Member Join Date: Jan 2014 Posts: 177	Just a thought mabey put vents in your top shelf say 300 mm Sq ×2 then hide ur chiller in the canopy the vents would help heat release from the chiller and you still have ur shelf just a thought?have a nice evening .

08/01/2014, 12:16 PM	#165
Indymann99 Registered Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Indianapolis Posts: 2,447	+1 on your logic. I do the same with my heaters... my APEX is the failsafe the internal control is primary. my 0.02 __________________ 120g DT 100lbs LR / 200 lbs LS, 45g fuge, VectraM1 Return, Herbie drain, 4x RW-8, 2x AI Hydra 26 w AWM, ASM G2, Apex controller, Apex BoB w floats ATO

08/02/2014, 06:51 PM	#166
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	So I'm up and running with the JBJ 1/4 Chiller: Will find a way to conceal it a bit better later on. Learned a bunch trying to hook this thing up. Currently I'm pulling from my primary overflow weir, and dumping into my emergency weir. I'm cavating a little somewhere in this setup, which is dumping micro bubbles into the tank. I have the outflow tube wrapped in a filter sock now to cut this down. At first I was using a Taam RIO HF20 to feed the chiller. Uh no. That thing sounded like tin cans. I'm now running it off a Eheim Compact 3000+. MUCH better. ...though I think I'm near the minimum flow rate for the Chiller off the Eheim. ...and now for some reef porn: One of my Blue Knuckle Hermits with two feather dusters on his shell.

08/08/2014, 03:15 PM	#167
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	Sigh...more bad news. Lost my second yellow tang in my Quarantine Tank. As soon as I noticed he was slowing down and not picking the seawead clean off the clip, I changed out the filter insert in the HOB filter, and did a 50% water change. After careful monitoring, two days later he was gone. Sad and frustrating. He made it 1.5 week longer than my prior yellow tang. I kept the lights moderated for most of the time. Supplemented his seaweed diet with frozen Mysis Shrimp. Made sure the airstone and powerhead were agitating the surface. SG: 1.024 Temp: 78* NH4: 0 NO2: 0 NO3: 4 ppm One side of him had some brown coloring. I guess I should have listened to those that said to break down the QT tank. Is is possible that a 15 gallon QT is just too small for these guys?

08/12/2014, 11:11 PM	#168
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	Tang killer checking back in. Display Tank water parameters still seem OK: NH4: 0 NO2: 0 NO3: 0 PO: 0 SG: 1.024 Ph: ranges from 8.1 to 8.3 Getting a decent amount from algae in the tank, so I'm going to cut down on feeding (and lighting as well...running about 10 hours). Current stock: - 2 clownfish - 2 Halloween hermits - 2 blue knuckle hermits - 4 scarlet leg hermits - 6 red leg hermits (little guys) - 5 Trochus snails - 1 mexican turbo snail - 1 emerald crab Replaced the two locline outputs from my return with flat bill nozzels to try and spread the flow a bit. Also moved three of my four power heads to the top of the tank and pointed them down. Perhaps this will better oxygenate the water. Set my Chiller to hold the temp at ~78.5. It's working quite well. However I haven't yet cracked the micro bubble issue. My chiller's pump is pulling from my primary overflow weir on the left as shown, and dumping into my emergency overflow weir on the right. No bubbles are making it into the sump from the primary overflow...so how are bubbles coming from my Chiller?? This is the Chiller pump line out from my primary overflow: The black hose atop my ecotech power boxes is the same Chiller pump line. Runs horizontally from left to right, then up. The second hose running straight down on the left is the return: Thoughts on killing these micro bubbles??

08/15/2014, 10:53 AM	#169
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	Decided my next fish will be a small school of Blue/Green Chromis. Thinking 5 to start. Supposed to be a bit more hardy than Tangs, so they'll be better equipped to handle me. Biting the bullet on my chiller, and am going to plumb it through the sump. I can't figure out how to stop the micro bubbles I'm creating from drawing/dumping from/to the display tank. It will be 11' of head height though, so I'm going to have to find a way to fit a mag 12 pump into the sump. ...It's going to be tetris in that thing. Time for some good news! Since adding my chiller, I was able to turn off my sump fan and put the lid back on my 'refugium' (just live rock in there). Its now been 15 days since I last filled my 20 gallon ATO, and it's only half way down. Looks like it may last me almost 30 days! With no chiller and using fans to cool, I was only making it ~10 days!

08/15/2014, 11:42 AM	#170
Reef noob_ Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: holmdel, NJ Posts: 555	awesome thread and build, i just read through all of it, excited to see it mature, subbed. __________________ ________________________ New Build in progress http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2528685 90 gallon DT, 65 Gallon Fuge, Chinese LEDs, LPS and Soft coral reef

08/22/2014, 01:28 PM	#171
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	So finished plumbing my chiller through the sump instead of directly in the Display Tank. MUCH better. No more micro bubbles in the display tank, and so much more of the wiring and tubing is hidden! Plumbing now runs through the interior of the house to the left of the tank and comes back in through the wall (black vinyl tubes): I then run the black vinyl hose directly into the second return enclosure of the Aqueon Proflex4 sump: Went with a Mag 12 for the chiller pump. It's pushing plenty of flow even at the 11' of head height of the chiller. However, I have zero room left in the return section of the sump: Return section now houses two Mag 12s (one for the chiller, one for the return), one Mag 24 (running the skimmer), a Maxijet 1200 for my GFO/Carbon reaction, the AquaC skimmer, a heater, and all the float switches and tubing for my ATO. It is a full house... On another note, I picked up 5 Blue/Green Chromis a little over a week ago...and only two remain today. The bigger ones just bullied the smaller ones.

08/22/2014, 03:43 PM	#172
kw22 Registered Member Join Date: Aug 2014 Location: Éire (Republic of Ireland) Posts: 435	It seems to be coming along very well __________________ If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree,it will spend its whole life thinking that it is stupid. Current Tank Info: All freshwater at the moment.Hoping to set up a marine tank in the future.

08/22/2014, 04:35 PM	#173
adddo “Goodnight, tiny humans.” Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Stockholm, Sweden Posts: 1,008	Looks awesome, read through ypur thread and im impressed with your patience and approach. Chiller could be concealed using a poster or a framed photo or something similar? __________________ If Pacman had affected us as kids, then we'd all be running around in a dark room, munching pills and listening to repetitive music //Bjarne

09/09/2014, 07:51 PM	#175
TulaneDane Registered Member Join Date: Nov 2013 Location: Memphis, TN Posts: 116	Checking back in. I'm down to one Blue Green Chromis. He's a bully of a dude I guess, and has gotten pretty big, about the size of my clownfish now. I have 4 PVC pieces in my QT, two very large pieces and two smaller pieces. That is apparently not enough. Though I'm suspecting I did not feed enough to begin with...these guys are pigs. Will put him in my Display Tank this weekend. My minor algae problem has turned into a rather large one. Could be Chrysophytes or brown/clear hair algae. I'm speculating my 55 gallon saltwater mixing tank is leaching TDS. For a while I mixed my saltwater and just let it sit stagnant with no pump circulating it...that's bad for TDS right? Will pick-up a TDS meter outside of my RO/DI unit to test the mixing tank. That or my rocks are leaching nitrates/phosphates...However I started with all dry rock. Will find out soon. In the meantime, I'm treating the symptoms: - Did 36 hour blackout - Aggressive manual scrub down using a toothbrush - Changed filter socks after they captured everything I knocked loose - Scaled my red LED bulbs to zero - Increased air intake to skimmer: unplugged the ozone intake to my skimmer (not dosing O3, but had plugged it while tuning the skimmer early on), made other adjustments to up the air intake as well. - Started dosing API AlgaeFix Marine yesterday - Started a small dosing of Carbon (vodka) - Contemplating a biopellet reactor! We'll see how this approach works. Think my next fish will be a Diamond Watchman Goby. Some good news: added two LPS corals to the tank! A Hammerhead and a Candy Cane. I feed them about once every 5 days with Mysis shrimp or Apex Crossover Diet. They are beautiful under the blue lights, and are doing well.