homer1475's 80 gallon build

[homer1475]

Yup, Pmed a few times, even had thier tech service call me. We couldn't get it figured out so they wanted me to send them back the unit to poland and maybe it will get fixed.



No thanks, would just rather have a doser thats not such a hassle. I think for right now I have 2 BRS standalone units I can use. Until then, I'll buy a better unit later on down the road.

[ReefWreak]

Ugh sorry about the issues with... the Kore doser, the acans, and the cleaner. Not a great streak. At least you can keep fish now?

For the stylo, as mentioned the flow may be making it curl over in its growth (they usually grow into the flow though, not away from it), and then the light area with few polyps is probably going to turn into "underside" where that's pretty common since they don't get a lot of direct light.

I wish I could help on the acans, but I can't seem to keep LPS for the most part, except for my fungia plate which grew an incredible amount in the cube until it up and died for no apparent reason one day, but it grew to enormous size in 5 years, taking up all available room.

You going to RAP? I suspect Soul is, and I'll be there as well. I'm trying to figure out whether to blow my piggy bank there, or do a deal with a local with a pile of nice frags and get a lot of nice pieces for a low price.

If you go to RAP maybe you'll see if there is a new dosing pump worth checking out? Or see if Kore or one of their distributors will be there, and see if you can use them for a connection to sending your doser back, so that you don't have to front the shipping?

[soulpatch]

I just paid for lasik and a jetski so I think I might be missing rap this year. We shall see though

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[homer1475]

Woke up this morning to hear a popping sound, and the smell of burning electronics. Searched around and when I saw some smoke coming from my sump, I found this:



Apparently the last time I cleaned the ATS, I never pulled the extra cord from the back light so it wasn't sitting in the water. My wife who gets up with the dogs around midnight, has said the last couple days she has hear a popping coming from the tank. I could never find anything until this morning.

I have since fixed it, but I don't know if it was the voltage, or the burning, but everything seems quite PO'ed right now.
Green Slimer has been sliming like mad all morning.



All nems are closed up. My BTA's are even hiding in the rocks they sit on.




Even my clam who I never see closed except at night is closed up.




This stylo always has it's polyps out.



I do run carbon 24/7 and just changed it on Sunday during my weekly WC. So I'll just wait and see for now. Hopefully everything is ok.

[Pellikan]

Dang! What is (err, was) the thing that burned out? Shouldn't you do a water change or something? I wish I had some wise words to fix whatever is going on.

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[soulpatch]

I'd refresh your carbon honestly and do a water change.

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[homer1475]

Yeah I just refreshed it again. Mixing water right now.



Fish seem to be fine, just the corals that are PO'ed.




Glad I have the day off. lol

[homer1475]

The picture is of a connection I made to one of the ATS lights to extend the plug. It's burned up wire inside black tape and shrink wrap.



I wonder since the wire is copper, if I don't have a low level of copper in the water now? Could explain why the corals are so PO'ed and the fish are fine?



50G WC is on tap as soon as it's mixed up.

[Pellikan]

Copper or other nasty chemicals, yeah. The burned out insulation and tape could release petrochemicals I would think. There could have been electrical shocks. You're lucky in one sense, you could've been shocked badly.

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[homer1475]

24 hours and a 50G WC later things are looking better.



I do believe I've lost my last remaing turbo snail, and my chitons don't act quite right. Corals seem to be doing a bit better, and all the nems, and clam are fully open.



My 2 remaining chitons are still attached to the glass, but their "skirt"(for lack of a better term) is not pressed tight to the glass. Which for them is kind of odd as their "skirt" is usually tight and you can't see their fleshy underside.



Things still look a bit odd(I can't really explain it other then odd), but everything seems to be rebounding pretty well.

[Phixman]

I skimmed through page 25 ish to present, I think the issue might be all the drastic changes done to the tank. I personally use to run GFO and Carbon and bleached a lot of corals/killed and eventually changed to something more natural, a chaeto reactor. I feel like I killed a lot of corals when I was trying to prevent it due to all the things I was suggested on doing/ using. I'm not sure what your setup is like, but sometimes the simpler, the better. My tank is really simple, it's a nuvo 20, sand and rock, sump is live rocks and some filter floss I haven't changed in 2 months and a small skimmer. A chaeto reactor I made using my carbon/GFO reactor, put some LED lights, and use the chaeto growth to trade for more frags. I also dose 2 part, and add Mag every 2-3 weeks. Haven't done a water change in a bout 3 months which is how long I've been dosing and how long I've had the chaeto reactor ( a lot of my coral is sps).

[homer1475]

While I appreciate the look in and comment, this thread is 3 years old. Nothing has been done drastically.



My tank is very simple(minus the apex), 80G display with 2 mp10's and 2 jebao pp8's, 30G sump containing a skimmer, algae turf scrubber, heater, carbon reactor( I have stopped using GFO), ATO, and return pump. Lighting consists of a 6 bulb ATI T5 setup with 2 reefbrite strips(Actinic and blue).



All the early on changes was me trying to fight the PO4 laden dry pukani from BRS. Now that that rock is gone from the display, tank's been good minus the recent mishap. Of course I did loose all my fish, but that was from not QTing some snails, not any drastic change.

[homer1475]

Tank seems to be plugging along quite nicely now. Probably because I Work 12 to 14 hours a day and don't have time to play with it, other then manual daily dosing, testing, and feeding. I finally had it with manual dosing so I bought a DOS yesterday. Should be here by monday so I'm looking forward to playing with that.

Went to the LFS yesterday for some dry goods, of course I should never bring my wife..... Saw a large male mandy, and a rather large meat coral she really liked. Ended up coming home with both, of course! I'm happy with the meat coral as I have always wanted one, but everyone we saw she didn't like.





Pics do it no justice as it's about the size of a large coffee can. The acan I included for size comparison, If soul remembers is only about the size of a soda bottle top.


Wow pics do not show the true color thats for sure! It's actually a really nice dull orange and purple.

[Pellikan]

Ha! Nothing like "leaving well enough alone" for success. I'm glad to hear your tank is running well. For what it's worth, I like your new coral.

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[homer1475]

Thank you! Yup love that meat coral. Very large showpiece for my tank

[homer1475]

Ok got my DOS in yesterday. Plugged it into apex and the wall quick just to make sure everything works.



Question to anyone that reads this thread and has a DOS, do just the tips of the neptune logo light up, or does the entire logo? The manual shows the entire logo, but when I chatted with a BRS rep they said only the tips of the logo light up. If it is just the tips, thats absolutly dumb and can barely be seen.



Anyways, the unit isn't as large, or as loud as every one makes it out to be. Heck I think the KoreFifth's pump motors were louder.



Anywho, in other news......


We picked up our new Newfoundland puppy last night! There is nothing like puppy breath.

[homer1475]

Pics



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[ReefWreak]

Still following along. Glad to see that the tank is recovering from the electrical hazard.

Let us know how you like the DOS. My friend locally uses it and loves it. That, combined with the Neptune Trident, should be a really sweet setup. Now that my calcium reactor is set up for 2 weeks now, and I've already had my first clog because I haven't installed the peristaltic feed pump, I can see the value in having a simple 2 part system with automated testing.

The puppy is beautiful, and yes, the puppy breath is real! I miss (some of) puppy days. We had a ton of fun. Enjoy! Too bad corals and fish don't play like a puppy...

[homer1475]

Finally got time and the parts to get my DOS hooked up today. I'm finding there is no easy way to get the DOS to do a manual dos, which is rather off putting. Not sure who at neptune thought something so simple as a manual dosing button wasn't a good idea should be shot. Even after 2 years, it's still not implemented and it is the one feature most requested. Heck even the Kore fifth had a manual section where you could tell pump 1 to dose 200ml and it would dos.



I have that spare coat closet that sits behind my tank. Unfortunately for my wife I have taken it over as my electronics closet, and will be where the DOS and BAO containers will be going. I promise this time I will take pics of getting it setup.



Also got all the plumbing parts to get my ATS plumbed in properly with a proper gate valve.



Got quite a bit on tap to get done today. Hopefully I get it all done.

[ReefWreak]

Looking forward to hearing how an upgraded ATS works out. There is a Floyd Turbo one available locally here and it's really tempting to think about picking it up...

I'm still holding out for once I get an external ATO box, to drill the old ATO tank (~3 gallons) and turn that into an full fuge/frag tank for chaeto.

That does sound really stupid about the DOS. Isn't there a button on the unit to advance the dosers? I know that's not a nicely metered dose, but at least it provides manual functionality.

[homer1475]

Yes there is buttons to manuall dose, but it's not metered. So you would have to manually dose into a metered container, then dump into tank.



The only problem with that for my setup is my dosing lines are behind my ATS so I cannot just pull them and dose into a container.



I have been digging through Neptunes "help" forum and it seems I can setup a virtual outlet for manual dosing and wold just have to change that virtual outlet for a manual dose.

[homer1475]

God I wish I never let my wife talk me into adding a BTA to my tank. I now have 3 BTA's!!


Apparently one decided to split yesterday while I was at work. Going to try and peel them off the rocks today and throw them away. Horrible I know, but with my local LFS closed, the next closest is about 3 hours away. I called them and they do not want them, so into the trash they go.

[homer1475]

Forgot to post pics of getting the DOS setup and my ATS properly plumbed in.


Coat closet behind my tank, and where my ATO reservoir is. Got the DOS mounted.





The plumbing to my ATS before. Very simple with a ball valve. Not the most precise valve in the world, but it worked. Just not very effective at delivering water at a metered rate.



Gate installed.




Sump setup. Where the metal brackets are is where the plumbing originally went.






Finished product.

[soulpatch]

To save some hassle you could put a T on the output from the dos with valves on both sides so you could turn off line to tank and turn on a drip line to pour into the beaker and then you can walk it over and dump in tank. Issue is you need to ensure you close/open valves when done or you will have a mess.



Reef- get that feeder pump on there and you are then set. I haven't had to really touch my calrx in past year. It just hums along...

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[homer1475]

I thought about a separate line I could just turn off, but after doing some digging on neptunes forums I found a decent work around.



I simply setup a profile and virtual outlet for manual dosing. Pretty simple really, to adjust the dose I just adjust the profile.



I have a profile named ALK_Shot which has the dosing amount. I then setup a virtual outlet(Quick_ALK) who's only function is on and off. Then in my DOS ALK outlet I simply have an "IF" statement. Even iof I forget to turn the outlet off, it will not redose until I turn the outlet off, then back on.



If output Quick_ALK = on then ALK_Shot


With this setup in this manner there is no way I can overshoot/forget to turn anything off. It will only dos what I have setup in the profile.