DP Reef - Tank Build

[DP Reef]

Just finished plumbing on tank and my pivoting light fixture for 48"ATI Power Module Hybrid 8 Bulb.

Tank Dimensions 60" x 24" x 24"

[sahin]

Subscribed. Looks like a very promising build. Saw your post on the ATI thread, I don't think there is an extension cord for the powercable. I'd mount it on the right hand side out of sight.

[Cosmojo]

Looks very nice so far.

[DP Reef]

Tank up and running for 2 months now. Electronics and equipment all "finalized". Now focusing on tuning my new Dastaco reactor and then to corals!

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[SawdustInTank]

Nicely organized equipment!

[DP Reef]

4 Months:

Added various SPS and LPS.

Ich outbreak is making me think about what to do next. Go Fallow or just live with it. Only item lost was the powder blue that brought it in. My yellow, Hippo, and purple tangs are "ok".

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[MrsReefK]

Sorry to hear of your Ich issues. Love the simplicity of your rock work! I just finished TTM with all of our fish due to an outbreak, now just waiting for the remainder of the 72 days. I'm moving forward with strict QT regimen rather than have Ich rear its ugly face in the future. Sorry you lost your powder blue.

[sahin]

Your tank is looking very nice. The aquascape is very well thought out.


Have a Happy New Year

[DP Reef]

Another update. Jan 2016

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[TimeConsumer]

Very impressed. How did the ich thing work out? Did it not show any signs in QT?

[DP Reef]

I didn't set up a QT. I have not seen any new appearance of ich over the last month or so. Maybe just that phase of the cycle.... My Purple, yellow, and hippo tang are visibly free of it. I never saw it on my YWG, Oc. Clowns, spot tail flasher wrasse, Randall Anthias, or my Bu. Anthias.

The powder blue, who I think brought it in, did not make it. I assume I have ich floating around my tank but I will be one of those to just leave it alone and see what happens this year.

[DP Reef]

And here is an update:

Picture from Tony Vargas' Facebook.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?f...type=3&theater

Shout out to David Rains at Urban Aquatics for building the tank/stand, doing the maintenance (heavy lifting) over the past 5 months, and getting Marc Levenson, Tony Vargas, Michael Paletta, Ben (Diesel), and Dennis (D2mini) for coming over to my house to take a look.

Pictures below, curtesy of D2Mini.

[DP Reef]

Another Set:

[d2mini]

That was a clean little reef! Thanks again for letting us check it out.

Two things...

1. I bet that large marine pure block is sucking up all your nutrients, not leaving much for the chaeto. I think you had mentioned slow growth? I have a handful of the little marine pure spheres in the filter compartment of my 26g Lagoon and it has maybe 1ppm nitrates.

2. Tell us about the DaStaCo reactor. You're one of only a handful of people in the USA running one.

[DP Reef]

The dastaco is great.

I used to use BRS dosing pumps however it seemed like I was always fidgiting with it, accidently leaving it on, and interestingly I always had to pump CA / ALK at different rates. I finnaly decided to go with a Dastaco on this new system after being pointed to it by David Rains.

System Background: XtremA Model A-1 w/ Triton Media



Pros
-Great service. Sent an email to one of their employees and started exchanging emails over the weekend and was even given a number to call on Sunday if I needed help.
- Simple to use - "Plug and Play"
- Second chamber has resulted in no noticable drop in system PH
- Alarm on their controller has been very useful. Its alerted me of low CO2 and also when my dosing pump intake was out of the water
- Light sensor to adjust dosing based on changes in lighting intensity (I have not verified changing in dosing, but I have my sensor plugged in)

Con
- Very limited online experience, in English, to leverage.
- instructions are poorly translated. I only got the latest version after requesting it to be emailed. Could not find it ANYWHERE on the internet
- Causing Dastaco to alarm will shut it off. Happened to me while I was out of town and my alk dropped. A power cycle will "reset" it until it detects alarm again.

The alarming feature is nice, but also a nuisance. I'd almost rather it keep running with an alarm code. Having little English community who uses it, there was no one I could talk to and haven't tried going back to the guys in Europe.

I believe that I did not set it up properly.

Basically something happens with the unit where during its venting process each day, the CO2 chamber doesn't fill up quickly enough and it causes the system to alarm and shut down (solenoid closes and pump stops). The common event in both cases is that I fidgeted with the regulator since the regulator output was above the .8 bar max they recommended or I changed out the CO2 bottle.

The problem is that even though I "re calibrate it" to fill the chamber in 2.5 minutes, it doesn't fix the problem. I end up disconnecting things and following the installation and start-up procedures in the manual from the beginning and also running the pressure near 1 bar (instead of .8 bar as the instructions say). After this re-installation the unit works again with no alarming.

So far, this reoccurring alarm has happened twice in the last 5 months.

[ljosh]

What type of light are you using on your fuge?

[DP Reef]

I took the idea off of D2Mini. A Flora Lux fixture with an HPS bulb. I wanted an aesthetically nice looking fixture and not just some clamp light from home depot.

My refugium chamber explodes in algea growth while I get very little if any in my display. I recently did have an chaeto growing problem and kept having hair algae take over the Chaeto. I also had rocks in there that would stop the Chaeto from rotating and the rocks also had alot of hair algea growing on them. Rocks have recently been removed and the Chaeto has been working better past few weeks. Then again, maybe the rocks were helping denitrification and their removal now let the chaeto work more. I removed almost a 5 gallon bucket of rocks out of the refugium.

My marine pure has only been in there for maybe 1-2 months so I'm not sure it is working full steam yet.

http://www.htgsupply.com/Product-FLO...ini-Grow-Light

It causes A lot of heat. I didn't even need a heater in my system this winter between the T5 Hybrid and the Fuge light. Although I do use almost 15 gallons of RO due to my cooling fans keeping system around 80F.

I just ordered two of these as a replacement:

http://www.amazon.com/Finnex-FugeRay...ilpage_o00_s00

[DP Reef]

I've had a few PMs regarding the ATI Power Module Light Fixture.

I basically drew up my plans and then got a company in Texas to draft an autocad version of the drawing for final confirmation. They then pre-cut the 80/20 rails for me and sent me the entire package with bolts / tools required for around $350.

My original plans to the vendor were this prior to getting my stand in:



Once I got my stand in, I realized that the location of the 2x6 (chose not to use a 2x4) was not optimal. I also figured that the 80/20 would be too visible so I moved them closer together. In addition, my light came in and I had to move things around to avoid blocking any fans. To secure the 2x6 to the stand, I used another angle bracket with wood and metals screws as needed. I have the ability to tighten a nut to lock the light at an angle, but I don't have the guts to test it out. I can flip the light up, lean it against the wall, then lock it down if I want to get into the tank. In the end, I have not needed to lift if it up as the gap between the light and my tank has been large enough for any rocks. The final design is below.



This is the ugliest part of my tank. Thank goodness you can't see it unless your 7' tall. To mount the 80/20, I removed the fans and drilled 1/4" holes where I could screw in 8 T-Nuts into the unit. I put a few angle brackets in there that I ended up not using.



When the fixture was finally put together I realized that the diecast pivots did not stop at 90 degrees! They actually go down almost 20 degrees below the horizontal plane. I fixed this by adding an angle bracket (thank goodness I bought extra) and 2 rubber feet (home depot) for a piece of furniture. Its in a position that you cant see it from the front of the tank.



One last thing. Each of the sliding linear flange blocks have locking handles on them so i can adjust the height of the overall fixture and lock the overall fixture in place by 4 nuts connected to handles.. I'm limited by how low I can go by the "hard stop" angle bracket I put in there. I also have my tank spaced so that my skinny arm can reach in there...

[sahin]

FTS looks stunning. And that aussie echinata looks yummy.

[DP Reef]

Thanks for the compliment Sahin. I've spent alot of time messing with the Macro view of the tank. I'm finnaly happy except for that my gigantea has moved to the back of the tank. He is now on a rock that would require me to tear apart the entire left to center part of my tank.

Now to focus on stability and see how my colors look in a month. Until then, I probably won't change much. Had a slight browing of some corals when I turned the dosing controller up too high and subsequently went out of town. My alk went from 7.7 -> 8.4 then back to 7.4. Bringing it back to 8 over the next week and then will focus on keeping it stable.

[sahin]

My buddy has the Dastaco. I've seen it in action at his place. He tells me its hands down the best Ca reactor he's ever used. He also said to me that the controller box is what makes all the difference.

[DP Reef]

Yes, it is very steady. One area where I never debate if I should have done something else.

[nvictor]

Thanks for the info on the stand.
Great concept - Looks so minimalistic from the front
Noel

[JohnnyHildo]

damn that's impressive.

[Grkgod36]

Is this a 150 gallon tank ?