Ivan's terribly slow 225 build

[IvanTheTerrible]

Today I took the Mag 24 apart. Everything appeared to be in order, so I put it back together. I also picked up a silicone trivet from WalMart and sat the pump on it. Apparently, the pump didn't like me fooling with it. In revenge, it shot the tubing off of the discharge. This resulted in water hitting the top of the sump compartment and spraying EVERYWHERE. I had to reach through the fountain and pull the plug, which was in one of the outlets in the stand. Needless to say, that little trick didn't help my relationship with this pump. Sure it was probably my fault for not clamping the hose tight enough, but still. The pump is a little quieter but still pretty loud. I ran it for a couple of hours today, since some have reported that the pumps quiet down once they break in.

I also drained the tank and most of the sump (had to leave some water to test the pump). Before I did, I took a couple of shots of the aquascape. The water was still a little cloudy.



From the left:


From the right:


I can't really get a picture from the right side, because there is a Christmas tree in the way. Anyway, thoughts/opinions/critiques are appreciated.

I ran out of putty, so some of the pieces can still be moved. Also, the structure on the right appears quite a bit higher than the one on the left when viewed in person. I'm not sure why they look so even in the pictures. Also, if you notice I forgot to put frag plugs in the structure on the left yesterday (I was in a hurry). I'll put those in before I fill the tank with saltwater. I do plan to have a sandbed, so the acrylic sheets that the rocks are sitting on won't be visible.

- Ivan

[IvanTheTerrible]

I've been thinking about my fish list lately, and could use some recommendations. My plan is to move the fish in my current tank to the new tank immediately. Then, I'll use the current tank as a QT. For TTM, I have a 20L with a piece of acrylic siliconed into the middle. This makes two ~10 gallon tanks, but I don't fill them all the way up so it's actually more like 6 gallons per side. Filling one side up all the way would put more pressure on the silicone and could lead to contamination due to splashing (which could make the TTM pointless). Anyway, I have another 20L that can be used as a hospital tank if any of the fish need it. My plan was to get small fish first and use this set up. Later, I'll take the divider out and use the two 20L's for TTM when I get larger fish or fish that need more swimming space (tangs, etc.).

So here's my groupings thus far.

Group 1
(2) Orange skunk clownfish
(1) Black molly
(1) Scarlet cleaner shrimp

Group 2
(2) Bangaii cardinals (Pterapogon kauderni)
(1) Sexy shrimp (Thor amboinensis)

Group 3
(3) Schooling bannerfish (Heniochus diphreutes)

Group 4
(1) Purple firefish (Nemateleotris decora)
(1) Blue stripe neon goby (Elacatinus oceanops)
(1) longfin fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus rubeus)

Group 5
(1) Scarlet cleaner shrimp
(2) Blue throat trigger (Xanthichthys auromarginatus) (male/female)

Group 6
(2) Yellow tang (Zebrasoma flavescens)
(1) Starkii damsel (Chrysiptera starcki)

Group 7
(1) Green mandarin (Synchiropus splendidus)

Group 8
(1) Blue tuxedo urchin (Mespilia globulus)
(1) Red tuxedo urchin (Mespilia cf globulus)
(1) Red serpent star (Ophiomyxa australis)

I feel like this will be a pretty light stocking and I could use a few more fish, especially since most of the fish on my list won't be very large. I'm trying to avoid fish that require a lot of attention (anthias), aggressive fish, and fish that will eat corals. I've been considering a group of royal basslets, but I could also go for a larger fish or two. Any recommendations or suggested changes to my current list?

- Ivan

[bobbravo2]

Add a Sohal Tang! That's my dream fish

[IvanTheTerrible]

Originally Posted by bobbravo2

Add a Sohal Tang! That's my dream fish

Thank you for the suggestion. They are beautiful fish and owning one would be awesome. Unfortunately, I don't think my tank is big enough for a Sohal. Any other suggestions?

- Ivan

[bobbravo2]

Originally Posted by IvanTheTerrible

Thank you for the suggestion. They are beautiful fish and owning one would be awesome. Unfortunately, I don't think my tank is big enough for a Sohal. Any other suggestions?



- Ivan

I've got a beautiful Lieutenant Tang. That'd work in a 225

[IvanTheTerrible]

Originally Posted by bobbravo2

I've got a beautiful Lieutenant Tang. That'd work in a 225

Cool. I'll check that out. Thanks.

- Ivan

[acer]

Achilles tang, u dont have any drawf Angels . Yes they pick coral a bit, but not enough to cause real harm.

[IvanTheTerrible]

Originally Posted by acer

Achilles tang, u dont have any drawf Angels . Yes they pick coral a bit, but not enough to cause real harm.

Awesome looking fish. According the Live Aquaria they can be aggressive towards other tangs. They say that about pretty much all of the tangs, but I see lots of pictures with different types of tangs in the same tank. Would aggression be a problem with the yellow tangs? Would it help if I introduced them together?

- Ivan

[acer]

Achilles probably should be last tang
But in a 220 you may not have any issues.

[IvanTheTerrible]

OK, I've done some more research and a lieutenant tang is now on the list. It seems like most folks have positive experiences with them and they aren't typically aggressive. When I was looking at LA, my wife spotted the foxface lo and decided that we need one of those too. In her words "that's a Steelers fish, we HAVE to have one of those". If she had her way, every fish in the tank would be black and/or yellow. Any other fish suggestions?

While cleaning my garage today, I found a box of dry rock that I had forgotten about - probably about 30 lbs worth. I put it on the top shelf when I was building my stand because it was in the way. Out of sight, out of mind. I don't really want a lot of rock in my tank so I don't plan to add it. But, it's got me second guessing the rockscape. I may try to create something different, but then again I may just sell it too.

- Ivan

[IvanTheTerrible]

Santa Claus brought me some lights for my sump area. They are rope lights from Amazon. I like these because the plastic sheathing protects them from humidity, splashes, etc. They even come with little clips which made mounting them up high in my sump a breeze.



I have plenty of light in my little room, but it can still be a little dark under the stand. With these on things are brighter, but not blinding. I had enough length to go completely around my stand in a sort of figure eight pattern. With the room lights off, you can see how much light they add. At some point in the future, I'll put them on a switch/timer. For now, I'll just be plugging them in as needed.



I also decided to rinse my sand today, since I didn't have much else going on. A while back, I ordered some Tropic Eden Reefflakes. Three of the bags broken during shipping, which created quite the mess.



I dumped each bag into a 5-gallon bucket and rinsed it in the sink. The waterline for my sink is immediately after the meter where it comes into the house and that water is COLD. I rinsed each bag three or four times, until the water was pretty clear. I've got a few bags of sand left. Once I add some water and smooth things out a little, I may add some more. Then again, maybe I'll sell it so I'm not tempted to start another tank. You know, since I already have leftover sand and rock...

- Ivan

[acer]

Lol, Santa is great!!

[IvanTheTerrible]

Originally Posted by acer

Lol, Santa is great!!

Yes he is! He always seems to know just what I want.

- Ivan

[IvanTheTerrible]

OK, update time. The tank is finally full and the cycle started.

I've been sick lately, so I couldn't really do much with the tank. I petty much just sat on the couch wasting time - which is rare for me. I've been making saltwater for the past few days. Since my couch is right next to the tank, I had to listen to the RODI booster pump and mixing station pump hum and hum AND HUM. Today, I couldn't take it anymore. I didn't feel much better, but I was too bored to sit around listening to pumps all day.

First, I went to Lowe's and picked up some eggcrate and a few other odds and ends. The eggcrate didn't take long to cut to size. I've got some 1/4" netting on order from BRS. Once that gets here, I'll add that to the eggcrate to make sure I don't have any jumpers. I've tried using just the screen and the frame kit before, but I've never been happy with the results. If your frame is too big, it bows. If you have to go around something (like the SeaSwirls), you're just doomed. It's been proven many times that eggcrate alone won't prevent all fish from jumping. Somehow, they find a way to get through. I figure by using both, the eggcrate will keep everything stiff and the netting will keep them in the tank (that's the plan anyway). The only downside I can see would be light transmission. Only time (or a par meter) will tell if that's going to be a problem.



I've also been doing some work in the sump area. I picked up a couple more silicone trivets from WalMart and put them under the skimmer and pump. This quieted things down considerably, but the pump is still louder than I would like. I'll replace it before it wears out.

Since I was out, I stopped by the LFS to talk about my fish list. Shipping fish to Pittsburgh in January or February just a bad idea. Our weather sucks. It could be 10 degrees outside, or it could be 60 degrees. Sometimes, it's both in the same day. I'd rather not repeat the excitement that occurred when I received my tank, so I'll probably get at least the fist few fish from a local store. I love the convenience of shopping online, but I also like to support the local guys when I can. In this case, it's a win-win since I don't have to worry about the cold weather, finding what I want in stock, etc. and they get to sell a few fish.

By the time I got home from Lowe's and the fish store, I finally had enough water to make the last batch of saltwater. I through a second heater into the mixing tank to get speed things up a little. By late afternoon, the tank was full and everything up and running. The new power transformer from Ecotech is working like it should, so that's a relief. Once the water was warmed up a little, I put in some ammonia to start the cycle. I didn't bother hooking up the ATO, but I'll get to that in a few days. I've got some more stuff on order that should be here soon (it gets expensive when I sit on the couch all day). I'm trying to keep all of the wires, hoses, etc. neat on this build. Hopefully it works out and stays that way.

- Ivan

[Jrk2195]

I wish i can have a tank like this!

[IvanTheTerrible]

Originally Posted by Jrk2195

I wish i can have a tank like this!

Thanks. It's been a dream of mine for a while.

- Ivan

[IvanTheTerrible]

So, the center brace in my external overflow box broke loose. I wasn't concerned about it, but the box is visibly bowing and the bow is getting worse. I've got some Weld-On 4 and a clamp, so I'm trying to repair it. Hopefully, the fix holds. I had to drain the box to fix it, so no water is circulating currently. I'm just glad I don't have any fish in the tank yet. If I ever buy another overflow, I think I'll find a different acrylic vendor. I noted previously that I had a small drip from one of the corner seams. After that, another corner started leaking during system startup (when the water was higher than normal). At this point, I've gone over all of the seams and added some extra Weld-on where I could spot gaps. There were a lot of spots that weren't leaking, but looked as though they might in the future. Wish me luck.

- Ivan

[acer]

Hmmmmm...., That sucks. Makes me nervous. Hopefully, I caught his mistake right away and no others exist. At a certain point, the price of being cheaper isn't worth it. However, i looked and asked several people, phoned, etc. and finding some one else to make the acrylic overflow is difficult. Hopefully, you can fix it. Did u call him?

[IvanTheTerrible]

Originally Posted by acer

Hmmmmm...., That sucks. Makes me nervous. Hopefully, I caught his mistake right away and no others exist. At a certain point, the price of being cheaper isn't worth it. However, i looked and asked several people, phoned, etc. and finding some one else to make the acrylic overflow is difficult. Hopefully, you can fix it. Did u call him?

I did a fair amount of research myself. All of the reviews I could find were good. I guess I just got a dud. I didn't bother to call him. Taking the box off of the tank so that I could have him fix it would be a huge pain.

Here's the before pic. Sorry it's a little fuzzy. You can see that it was really pulled away. You can see some strings of Weld-On in the pic. Those are from my first attempt to fix it. I didn't have a clamp big enough to hold everything together. Once I bought a bigger clamp, the repair went pretty smooth.



Here's the after pic. It's holding for now.



On a different note, I got some filter socks from BRS today. My water wasn't real clear and I figured they might help. I'm not sure if they'll do anything for the water clarity, but they made the sump a lot quieter. When I have the return pump cranked up, the flow through the sump is pretty heavy and the water in the first chamber sloshes over the baffles. The filter socks break up the flow and put an end to the sloshing. I'm not planning to run the filter socks permanently, but this makes me second guess that decision.

- Ivan

[acer]

Yep, I use socks, and carbon, and GFO currently. Have to change out the 2 x7 inch socks every 7 days. Only sending about half the flow through the socks or the socks would clog even faster and it would overflow the sock area. So, now I am planning a small manifold off the return plumbing pipe to run media chambers to decrease flow to display tank from Reeflo pump and the outflow will be back into refugium. So, by omitting the small pumps running media currently I will also reduce power usage. Hopefully, this decrease in flow threw drain of display will also allow all drained water to run through filter socks and still only require a sock change once a week.

[IvanTheTerrible]

I've been making some slow progress lately. Actually, I've been working on the tank quite a bit, I just don't have a whole lot to show for it. I decided to work on cable management a little. I bought some wire raceway from Amazon. I got the 2" x 2"size and installed it above the tank and in the sump area. That size worked out nice, not too big and bulky but still has plenty of room. It really cleans things up and gives a finished look to everything.



That big black wire in the picture is bugging me, so I guess I'll have to install one more piece in that corner. Overall, it's not a bad product and worked well. The caps don't fit quite as well (a little loose) as the better known brands, but it was a whole lot cheaper. Above the tank, I had to leave enough of a gap to get the eggcrate out. The SeaSwirls get in the way, so you have to tilt the eggcrate up to get it out. With the gap shown, it isn't too bad and the covers come off without too much struggle.

I've been struggling with what to do with my Apex, Vectra controllers, etc. There are some really slick looking set-ups out there, and I thought about trying to build something really nice. In the end, practicality won out. I've had the hose come off of the skimmer pump twice. This turns the pump into a geyser which shoots up and hits the top of the stand and sprays water EVERYWHERE. Rather than risk damage to my electrical components, I decided to build a small door out of 3/4" plywood and mounted it on the end of the sump. All of the electrical components are mounted to the backside of it except the Apex display and Vectra controller. I mounted those on the front of the door, since I will need access to those. If Ecotech and Neptune ever resolve their issues and make the Vectras Apex compatible, I might move the pump controller to the other side of the door. I'm not too worried about that, I don't think they'll resolve their differences anytime soon.



I also hooked up the ATO and added the 10 gallon storage container. I've been topping off the tank manually. It really doesn't take any time. The flexible hose I have on my mixing station is great and makes it a quick and easy job. But, it's still one more thing I had to do everyday.

I've also been working on my Apex programming. I picked up an ALD module and a couple of sensors from a fellow reefer, so I went ahead and added some warnings for those. Since I was disconnecting the Apex to move it, I decided it would be a good time to update firmware. Not having the ability to update over wifi is a bit of a pain. It's great that they fixed it in the new version, but that doesn't help me. Since my modem and router is on the complete opposite end of the house, I had to disconnect them and bring them to the basement where I could connect to the Apex. Of course, my family came home in the middle of this operation. They were less than impressed with the lack of wifi, but fortunately none of my blood was spilled.

I got my replacement skimmer lid in the mail today, so now my skimmer is whole again. I've been running it for a few hours every other day or so. With nothing in the tank, there really isn't much to skim but I have been able to get about 3/4" of skimmate in the collection cup. Some day the tank will be cycled and I'll be able to run the skimmer 24/7. Waiting for a tank to finish cycling is worse than watching paint dry.

- Ivan

[acer]

Ivan - looking good, we should talk about programming Apex. I am lost. LOL I picked one up used and have no clue. I did update it , but thought I had to run a Cat5 cable to keep it hooked up to the internet for me to program and/or use it.

[IvanTheTerrible]

Originally Posted by acer

Ivan - looking good, we should talk about programming Apex. I am lost. LOL I picked one up used and have no clue. I did update it , but thought I had to run a Cat5 cable to keep it hooked up to the internet for me to program and/or use it.

It needs to be hardwired for updates (assuming you got the classic version). Alerts, fusion, everything else works fine over wifi but hardwire is better. I'm not an expert at Apex programming but I'd be happy to help.

- Ivan

[IvanTheTerrible]

So, I accidentally dosed 3 tablespoons of ammonia instead of the intended 3 teaspoons. Rather than do a water change, I'm just waiting it out but this is killing me. It's like watching paint dry. I've been testing every 2-3 days. No nitrite yet. It took a little longer for the ammonia to change color tonight so hopefully it's starting to make a little progress.

- Ivan

[acer]

patients , my friend , P..A...T...I...E...N...T....S - look at the title of the thread.