A Golden Reef Tank (v2)
- Thread starter halmus
- Start date
Thanks Mural. Baby steps.
After the smoke clears and coral is growing I’ll move on to the geeky electronics enclosures to do some more advanced monitoring and alarming of water levels. I’ve had a few accidents overflowing RODI and mixing tanks as I move water around. I want to make this a little more idiot proof. Those are nice to have features more than anything.
Maybe a more advanced water change system.
Maybe an overhead remote controlled & remote viewable camera system. I intentionally left space along the “monkey bars” running across the room.
After the smoke clears and coral is growing I’ll move on to the geeky electronics enclosures to do some more advanced monitoring and alarming of water levels. I’ve had a few accidents overflowing RODI and mixing tanks as I move water around. I want to make this a little more idiot proof. Those are nice to have features more than anything.
Maybe a more advanced water change system.
Maybe an overhead remote controlled & remote viewable camera system. I intentionally left space along the “monkey bars” running across the room.
Yes. I didn’t take a good picture of it, but I added that a few weeks ago. I’ll snap some better shots early next week. I added one of the Apex feeders to a custom mount at the front of the tank. I think it turned out well. I added a little acrylic ring that sits just below the water line so that the food will tend to sink rather than get swept down the overflow.
I have quite a bit of water movement the fish are really enjoying. With the two dolphin return pumps, two Vectra M1’s in the overflow returning directly back to the display via Sea-swirls, and the four MP60’s I can create quite a storm. I haven’t played around with programming the MP’s to have alternating gyres but that is the plan long term. As well as syncing them to create a daily upwelling current to sweep junk up to the top of the water column and hopefully out the overflow. I have a lot of options with the programmability of those four pumps somewhat evenly spaced across the back of the tank. Combine that with ramping up or down the Vectras on Sea-swirls and I can create pretty close to the random flow many of us are aiming for.
Right now, everything is mostly a solid and modest flow rate. I am running the default program for the MP’s.
I have quite a bit of water movement the fish are really enjoying. With the two dolphin return pumps, two Vectra M1’s in the overflow returning directly back to the display via Sea-swirls, and the four MP60’s I can create quite a storm. I haven’t played around with programming the MP’s to have alternating gyres but that is the plan long term. As well as syncing them to create a daily upwelling current to sweep junk up to the top of the water column and hopefully out the overflow. I have a lot of options with the programmability of those four pumps somewhat evenly spaced across the back of the tank. Combine that with ramping up or down the Vectras on Sea-swirls and I can create pretty close to the random flow many of us are aiming for.
Right now, everything is mostly a solid and modest flow rate. I am running the default program for the MP’s.
SynDen
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You'll have to come check out his tank for the April meeting 
http://www.marinecolorado.org/threads/april-meeting-spring-dbtc.26248/
http://www.marinecolorado.org/threads/april-meeting-spring-dbtc.26248/
You'll have to come check out his tank for the April meeting
http://www.marinecolorado.org/threads/april-meeting-spring-dbtc.26248/
http://www.marinecolorado.org/threads/april-meeting-spring-dbtc.26248/
Thanks for following. I don’t have any new photos at this time.
I added an additional vent fan to the room last weekend. That meant drywall repair in the ceiling and messing with insulation. Two of my least favorite tasks. The contractors put in one that pulled 90 CFM. Turns out that was way underrated for the space.
I added an additional fan that pulls 350 CFM. That required a new exterior exhaust to the house with a 6” pipe. That fan runs through the Apex and is triggered by temp. So, it’s a low tech chiller. The air enters the basement on the opposite side of the house and travels across the living space which I keep at 64 deg. The only way for air to enter the back fishroom is through vents in the top of the hood. So, the cool air is forced through the hood mixing with the hot exhaust from the T5’s and LEDs. From there, the air is drawn into the fish room from the open back side of the hood. So, all of the stinky aquarium air is sucked into the fish room and exhausted out.
So far, this has gone a long way to stabilize water temps and cut down on humidity in the fish room. I may have to add a chiller down the road, but I would need these exhaust fans to deal with the hot air anyway. So, this is the first step. We’ll see how things do this summer.
In other news, I’m getting together the fittings and gear to bring the CA reactor online. Including a masterflex peristaltic pump I picked up on eBay. I’ll probably bring that online in a month or two when I can dedicate the time to really dial it in.
I have one lonely Acan doing well in the tank. I have a few heads of Duncan, another Acan, and a small gold frogspawn in QT.
Most of the nuisance algae in the display is under control. I did add a green slimmer as a test. It browned out and isn’t happy, so I’m systematically going through all of the parameters to figure out what is going on. I need to test PAR from the Radions. I added the diffuser kit to get better spread I just need to get a sense of what kind of light I have between them and the T5’s.
I’m considering my options for a new career. That’s a big preoccupation.
Within the last month, both my wife’s and my laptops went to the big PC pile in the sky unexpectedly. As the resident IT support, I have to get my wife’s set back up with military permissions and CAC card accessibility. That’s always a nightmare. Government efficiency.
Hope you can make it out to the party at my place. It’s hard to convey what all is going on behind the scenes with words and pictures.
I added an additional vent fan to the room last weekend. That meant drywall repair in the ceiling and messing with insulation. Two of my least favorite tasks. The contractors put in one that pulled 90 CFM. Turns out that was way underrated for the space.
I added an additional fan that pulls 350 CFM. That required a new exterior exhaust to the house with a 6” pipe. That fan runs through the Apex and is triggered by temp. So, it’s a low tech chiller. The air enters the basement on the opposite side of the house and travels across the living space which I keep at 64 deg. The only way for air to enter the back fishroom is through vents in the top of the hood. So, the cool air is forced through the hood mixing with the hot exhaust from the T5’s and LEDs. From there, the air is drawn into the fish room from the open back side of the hood. So, all of the stinky aquarium air is sucked into the fish room and exhausted out.
So far, this has gone a long way to stabilize water temps and cut down on humidity in the fish room. I may have to add a chiller down the road, but I would need these exhaust fans to deal with the hot air anyway. So, this is the first step. We’ll see how things do this summer.
In other news, I’m getting together the fittings and gear to bring the CA reactor online. Including a masterflex peristaltic pump I picked up on eBay. I’ll probably bring that online in a month or two when I can dedicate the time to really dial it in.
I have one lonely Acan doing well in the tank. I have a few heads of Duncan, another Acan, and a small gold frogspawn in QT.
Most of the nuisance algae in the display is under control. I did add a green slimmer as a test. It browned out and isn’t happy, so I’m systematically going through all of the parameters to figure out what is going on. I need to test PAR from the Radions. I added the diffuser kit to get better spread I just need to get a sense of what kind of light I have between them and the T5’s.
I’m considering my options for a new career. That’s a big preoccupation.
Within the last month, both my wife’s and my laptops went to the big PC pile in the sky unexpectedly. As the resident IT support, I have to get my wife’s set back up with military permissions and CAC card accessibility. That’s always a nightmare. Government efficiency.
Hope you can make it out to the party at my place. It’s hard to convey what all is going on behind the scenes with words and pictures.
SynDen
Administrator
Staff member
M.A.S.C Club Member
M.A.S.C. B.O.D.
M.A.S.C President
M.A.S.C Webmaster
Thanks everyone. I’m looking forward to sharing it with people that can understand how much work it took to get here. All of my neighbors just think I’m a mad scientist.
The good news is that I’m finally at the point that coral seems to be comfortable and my fish mortality rate is low. The first few introductions didn’t go well. I’m glad I’m QT’ing everything but it took a while for the QT tanks to stabilize.
Haddonis - the hood is lined with 1/8” black acrylic panels. Everywhere that is exposed to the aquarium splash zone.
The good news is that I’m finally at the point that coral seems to be comfortable and my fish mortality rate is low. The first few introductions didn’t go well. I’m glad I’m QT’ing everything but it took a while for the QT tanks to stabilize.
Haddonis - the hood is lined with 1/8” black acrylic panels. Everywhere that is exposed to the aquarium splash zone.
That particular tank was once a display I recovered from a shop. They had used it as a sump so it was really beat up. The top bracing they had was junk. The entire thing is acrylic.
So, I cut it down in height, reinforced the seams inside, reinforced the bottom and added new top bracing. I added black acrylic to a few inside panels for aesthetics.
Then, I skinned it all with 1/4” white acrylic.
So, I cut it down in height, reinforced the seams inside, reinforced the bottom and added new top bracing. I added black acrylic to a few inside panels for aesthetics.
Then, I skinned it all with 1/4” white acrylic.