Soulpatch's 150 SC build

[soulpatch]

Got the parts in and plumbing glued. Leak test tonight and if all well will go into action tomorrow. I'll need a powerhead but I can borrow one for now.

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[mav3rick478]

Oh I like the orange but I'm biased being a Mets and Knicks fan.

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[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by mav3rick478

Oh I like the orange but I'm biased being a Mets and Knicks fan.

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Yes theme for the growout tank is orange and blue. Two of my favorite colors. The dt is blue and white for Penn State.


So far no leaks which is as expected with as many times as I've plumbed a tank now. Lol. Tomorrow she gets hooked in and I move over an EB8 to hook everything together.

I also will be moving the chiller under this tank as it needs new tubing anyway so will make life easier. I thought about chiller to frag tank BUT concerned output is colder then I would want as it tries to chill when needed so I will leave that exhaust into sump.


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[soulpatch]

She is up and operational...

I still have to move the chiller and do some cleanup but she is running at least...

Have to fine tune a bit and need powerhead(s) for it yet but she is running!!!

This week I need to get another board to make bottom shelf for chiller to sit on, rerun fresh lines for that, and figure out what I will do for wire management.

First time with lights not in a canopy so need to get used to the glow and if not another weekend project is upcoming.

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[ReefWreak]

Looks great, and your plumbing work is beautiful. Plenty of space to grow out more pieces and R&R new ones.

[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by ReefWreak

Looks great, and your plumbing work is beautiful. Plenty of space to grow out more pieces and R&R new ones.

What I like most is the tubing into the DT. It allows me to see flow as it is a translucent blue but also allows me to easily swap out as needed or to change things up without much cost. As it my grow out tank can be disconnected in a heartbeat.

And yes more pieces will be moved over and I will be fragging my larger pieces in the DT so as to multiply stock once I get the powerhead in.

I need to program and power up the radion this week to hopefully jump start things a bit more.

Exciting times indeed

[homer1475]

Looking good and I love the color choices for the pipe and fittings.



My only compliant, WTH did you cut that piece of plywood with, your teeth? lol just poking at you. Looks awesome though!



And why the check valve on the return line? We all know they are prone to failure, and a simple siphon break will prevent too much from backflowing into the sump.

[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by homer1475

Looking good and I love the color choices for the pipe and fittings.



My only compliant, WTH did you cut that piece of plywood with, your teeth? lol just poking at you. Looks awesome though!



And why the check valve on the return line? We all know they are prone to failure, and a simple siphon break will prevent too much from backflowing into the sump.

That ply was scrap I repurposed. Didn't care to sand the back and such. There is a slight wave at top as well I didn't notice till I hung it. Least it is on top of board so no one will see typically.

Check valve is really for 2 reasons. Sure siphon break stops more water draining from tank BUT it also pretty much ensures entire pipe is back filled into sump. I'm close to top of my sump as is now so those call it 1 to 2 gallons I could save are important. Not to mention that air would hit my manifold and likely also drain my reactor hose in.

So sure check valves fail but this one is a union and likely do the wye one next time as it was out of stock when i ordered. Having the check valve close is same as putting your finger on top of straw. The water stays in thus having less impact on my sump.

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[homer1475]

Makes sense now that you describe it.

[soulpatch]

Oh and second reason was so I didn't get a ton of bubbles into the grow out tank when it restarts. Being so shallow those bubbles would he directly against corals and would **** them off so something else I'm trying to avoid. The valve ensures the line is always wet so when return restarts it is a ramp up of flow back into tank without shocking the corals

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[soulpatch]

Gyre 330 ordered.

Set up the ghl kh director but not yet fully operational. Honestly not the easiest thing to set up so still trying to figure it out

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[homer1475]

I've been on r 2 r a lot recently(really been on there more then here recently. Just so fricken dead around here anymore). Quite a few threads devoted to the kh director. None of which end with everyone being happy with the device.



Purely out of curiosity, why the use of that if you already have the calcium reactor setup? Do you need additional ALK supplementation even with the reactor?

[soulpatch]

Only want it for testing. It will not dose into my tank.

It was significantly cheaper to buy then the alkatronic and I dont like the running costs of the trident

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[mav3rick478]

Originally Posted by soulpatch

Only want it for testing. It will not dose into my tank.

It was significantly cheaper to buy then the alkatronic and I dont like the running costs of the trident

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Running cost, is that thing even out yet

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[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by mav3rick478

Running cost, is that thing even out yet

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Ha it's in the wild at least but so as their proposed numbers of 30+ a month in regents. Too much for me to buy in.

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[ReefWreak]

On one of the neptune stream cast thing, they said it would be ~$20/month, and that they would sell 6 month supplies in bulk at a lower cost. It's a lot, but I'd use it for a year or so until things are dialled in and running smoothly. I've had a really tough year dialing in the new tank, and a trident would have paid for itself this year....

Yeah, RC has been really dead, and the friggin "Get New" button isn't even working after me clearing out my cache. Ugh.

I've spent most of my "reefing time" texting with Rakie these days.

I'm still curious to hear the results with the Kh Director. I have mostly the same thoughts on the other competitive products, but I'm still holding out for the trident system. It'll get here.... eventually.... and might even have reasonably priced reagents at some point.... Also curious how you like the Gyre. I've been tempted many times to pick one up to try out in my tank.

Thanks for keeping us updated!

[homer1475]

Seems like an awfully expensive test kit! lol



I've been eyeing the alkatronic, but the price tag doesn't justify the means for me. Trident is out as I will not spend another 600$ (or whatever they get for the EL)for just a head unit when there is nothing wrong with my current head unit. Besides even on r 2 r where neptune is a sponsor, they still do not have a solid release date. More smoke and mirrors. We know beta testers have units and from what they have been posting it's a solid unit, but as we all know neptune will price it out at a very high end. Plus the cost of the reagents which coming from neptune........


I bought a gyre a while back and absolutely love it! I've been contemplating getting rid of my MP's and adding a second gyre, one on each side of the center overflow tower pointing toward the outer walls. I have just the one fx130 on my center tower overflow on an alternating gyre and I have 0 dead spots. If I was to do a larger longer tank, gyres would be my go to with maybe some smaller jebaos for supplementation. The gyre reaches places the MP's or similar style PH's can't. I think its the long laminar flow that creates waves similar to the ocean is one of the reasons I like it so much. Coupled with the apex, the programming is endless unlike the controller it comes with. I also don't know what all the complaints about noise is, mine runs in nutrient mode at 100%, and other then water splashing, I cannot hear it. Any other time it runs around 45% and again it's inaudible. I will complain about the cleaning though, as there is a few more parts then a typical PH, but certainly not anymore a chore to clean then any other PH.



If your thinking about buying one, I wouldn't waste the money on their controller, buy just the gyre head, and the icecap module for the apex. It's actually cheaper this way and you won't have a 60$ controller sitting around collecting dust when you decide to hook it up to the apex and let it control it.

[homer1475]

FYI I am going to reefapalooza this year! Just booked my room at the hilton across the street.



Not bad, it's only a 4 hour drive.

[soulpatch]

Upgraded head unit is like 200 I believe and the trident had been a announced to be around 600 so even with the 2 cheaper then most on market right now by decent margin. Regents are 20 to 30 a month. My kh director is like 20 for 3 months or more.

Yes a very expensive test kit BUT I dont always test and dont like the time it takes. I've tried the hanna route only to be disappointed by the crap that they are. Their kh tester is worthless as it is never steady on readings. I have some dkh test fluid coming so I can calibrate...

With the amount of coral I current have and plan on increasing to stability is the name of the game and as such this investment should pay for itself with increased coral growth and color.

I did get the gyre with the controller since my frag tank is over 6 feet from the apex and honestly I dont do weird flow modes. All I care about is having a variable mode which almost all pumps do these days. The gyre coupled with the variable flow nozzle should make for a happy frag tank.

In other tank news I've also ordered in the kaomer pump for my calrx. I wanted to upgrade from my spectrapure pump for a few reasons but the main being it costs me nearly 40 bucks to swap out the tubing every time. No thanks. I will likely move my spectrapure over to ato duty for when I am on vacation and need a larger tub. It wont have the same siphon issues the tunze could have with larger ato bin.

The radion also likely gets turned on this weekend with SUPER low settings and ramped up over coming weeks. With the 4 t5 I dont want to fry my corals.

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[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by homer1475

FYI I am going to reefapalooza this year! Just booked my room at the hilton across the street.



Not bad, it's only a 4 hour drive.

Awesome. I should be there. Doubtful I stay the night but always game for dinner and drinks

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[strat1960s]

Homer,
Are you using one of the apex profiles for the gyres or one of your own?

[strat1960s]

Soul,
What kind of par are you planning for you frag tank?

[homer1475]

I'm using one of my own. I found a walkthrough on how to setup 2 different virtual outlets to control pump speed, and forward or reverse.



Always up for dinner and drinks! When it gets closer we'll have to plan meeting up, with reef hopefully.


This is the virtual outlet for speed, of course I have profiles setup for the Gyre_Sp_D, and Gyre_Sp_N:

If Time 07:00 to 19:00 Then Gyre_Sp_D
If Time 19:00 to 07:00 Then Gyre_SP_N
If Output Export = ON Then Gyre_Export
If FeedA 000 Then Gyre_feed


Then this is the virtual outlet for forward or reverse, again profiles setup for Gyre_Dir_D, and Gyre_Dir_N

If Time 07:00 to 19:00 Then Gyre_Dir_D
If Time 19:00 to 07:00 Then Gyre_Dir_N
If FeedA 000 Then OFF


All the outlet does for direction is if it's off, one way, then if the outlet is on, it spins the other direction. I forget now what actually makes it spin in either direction, but something in the programming tells it to spin one way, then the other if the outlet is off or on.

[homer1475]

You do realize that the error margin for the KH director is nearly same as the ALK tester from Hanna?


KH director margin of error .01
Hanna DKH checker margin of error is .03


I've become solely reliable on my hanna. Between the Hanna and salifert, they both come pretty close to each other. Just curious as to why you think the hanna is "crap"?

[soulpatch]

Originally Posted by homer1475

You do realize that the error margin for the KH director is nearly same as the ALK tester from Hanna?


KH director margin of error .01
Hanna DKH checker margin of error is .03


I've become solely reliable on my hanna. Between the Hanna and salifert, they both come pretty close to each other. Just curious as to why you think the hanna is "crap"?

That is their reported error but do a few tests back to back and see that the error rate is MUCH higher with Hanna. Plus when compared to 3 other brands it was horribly off. I went through 3 different regents with them and tons of time on phone to solve. My unit was returned and they said it was fine. Yeah no go for me.

If you have one that works then you are one of the few. Tons of reports on them being crap. I went the risk route thinking people couldn't follow the procedure or something but turns out I was in same boat. I would literally get a 3 dkh swing in back to back tests. Yeah no go for me.

Plus I only get a single test whenever I do it. I literally turn on the kh and get up to 24 tests a day. Currently have it set for 3 though. This allows me to see swings in consumption for the tank or if my calrx needs adjusted.

Strat - a lot... I have 4 t5 and a radion xr15pro hanging on the frag tank. A lot of my higher end acros relish the high par for full color. I might actually have to built a sort of shaded area for anything else I put into the tank.

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