A Golden Reef Tank (v2)

[halmus]

If you ever sell that house you are going to have some really confused buyers!

When we sell the house I’m going to have months of work to do just to prep for showings. I’ll have to tear out the aquarium and build a Cherry entertainment system in that hole.

Or, I can advertise the room as being ready for “horticulture growth”. Or, a room for pet grooming? In house vet clinic? Aquaponics system for “preppers”? Any other ideas?

 

[flagg37]

Cool idea.

Only way to make it easier would have been to use switches instead of the plugs.

 

[halmus]

Yep, I actually ordered switches but decided against it for now. I didn’t like the idea of running that thick of gauge 120VAC up to switches in the face of the cabinet. The face is just two doors that swing open for maintenance. Plus, the 3-pole toggle switches I ordered have contacts uncomfortably close together.

So, this is a temporary solution. I will run the solid copper lines to appropriately rated relays on the back wall of the cabinet and control them with low voltage DC lines. All thinner gauge stranded copper running to the face of the cabinet controlled by toggle switches. That will also clean up the cable management inside the cabinet which is now a mess with the temporary solution.

 

[halmus]

Couple of updated photos of the tank after moving Aussie corals in

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[halmus]

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[halmus]

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[halmus]

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[halmus]

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[halmus]

Also worked some more on finalizing my generator backup solution. I opted to just keep things manual. I could have done this through relays and switches. I still might someday but for now, I just moved all of my 120VAC jumper cables inside the cabinet.

Here is the generator outside. Testing out the system. There are two circuits off of the generator that run to male outlets in a weather resistant box on the side of my house.

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[halmus]

Inside of my main electronics cabinet, there are outlets controlling 8 critical components in the system I need to supply power to even in a power outage. (Pumps and heaters).

4 on the display

4 on the QT system

Each of those circuits is fed normally from either an Apex outlet or straight from from outlet in the wall. The patch cable just cross connects that normal utility power back to the load (the pump or heater)

There is also an outlet corresponding to each of those loads which is powered by the generator.

So, when power goes out, I just move the patch cable from the utility outlet to the generator outlet.

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[Andrew_bram]

Looking great. How are you liking the halides? Did you notice instant growth or color?

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk

 

[halmus]

I made a panel on the front of the cabinet that has indicator lamps for each circuit. The lights indicate whether there is utility power and/or generator power to each circuit. They also indicate whether the load (pump or heater) has power supplied.

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[halmus]

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[halmus]

I also added a power strip to the front of the cabinet which is powered by the generator for the unforeseen needs during an outage.

Finally, there are panels which indicate the voltage and current draw running through the generator.

 

[halmus]

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[halmus]

Looking great. How are you liking the halides? Did you notice instant growth or color?

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I am liking the halides! That’s what I used for years, so it’s not too hard going back to them. I just have to re-learn the photo period I should be running.

I did see a very noticeable increase in Ca demand since firing them up. So, the coral is growing.

I did see a huge change in growth from some coral. Some are still growing at the same rate. Some select coral don’t want to grow but refuse to die.

I saw some change in color but not a huge change yet. I fell behind testing and was low on Ca for a while. I just bumped up the calcium reactor a few days ago and waiting on things to normalize again.

 

[SkyShark]

What is your testing routine like these days? And what are you using to track your results?

 

[halmus]

What is your testing routine like these days? And what are you using to track your results?

Not sure if the picture will come through with enough resolution. Everything is tracked in a written log. Making notes on important changes like LED->MH.

Main things I’m concerned with is Ca, Alk, Mg and tracking the feed rate going through the CaRx.

Whenever I make changes I’ll start testing daily for a few weeks. Otherwise I might go for a month without testing (not advised but the truth). I watch the coral and they generally tell me when something’s up.

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[jda123]

co2 tank will be at about 850 psi from full to when there is just one single droplet of liquid left in there - psi will only start to fall when the cylinder is full of nothing but gas. If you are looking to track something with it, get a digital scale and track the weight of the cylinder.

 

[halmus]

co2 tank will be at about 850 psi from full to when there is just one single droplet of liquid left in there - psi will only start to fall when the cylinder is full of nothing but gas. If you are looking to track something with it, get a digital scale and track the weight of the cylinder.

Thanks! Good point. I did notice that quickly the first time I ran out unexpectedly. Not sure why I still record it. I have noticed a very slight drop in PSI right before empty but that could have been in my head.

Good idea about the scale. I do keep a small spare tank around full.