Whitewillsmiff

Sump swap Saturday is here, got the new Trigger Triton 20 sump in place today! Was able to adjust the baffles and get it dead silent in minutes. I liked the Fiji Cube sump but I feel it's undersized for this tank. Far from an expert but I think this is great for Spent way too much time trying to cut costs and time on the plumbing line runs. I knew better but still thought I could make it work. Once the cement dried I kicked on the pump and started checking for leaks. Was getting a bad drip from the bullhead, my bad plumbing was making about a 2-3 degree gap letting water through. I loosened all the unions and was able to make it work but I'm redoing it once I get the parts in a day or two. Will be shifting the sump about 10" to the right so I can have more flexibility on the drain lines with plumbing routing. Did a full power off simulation, there was about 4" of volume left in the sump. Fears are abated now about that. I also put a skimmer back in place, pH wasn't reliably staying above 8. Threw my old Reef octopus back in with my c02 scrubber. Ordered the Red Sea RSK-300 due to its smaller footprint, looks like it's got decent reviews and supposedly quieter than my current. Have only had the old skimmer in place for a couple hours and pH is already above 8. Here's two quick pics, yes it's a hot mess but I'm working on cleanup tomorrow. Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Thanks for the advice, I'll set the lights to something flat lined. I swear I still feel brand new to this hobby everyday. Sent from my KFMAWI using Tapatalk

Got a question that sounds silly as I'm typing it but its my first time running a hybrid fixture. I've got 2- Hydra 32's running the below schedule, am I correct that I should lower the power during that window? I'm only running the t5's for 3 hours at the moment while I acclimate the coral to the light change. Am going to gradually add 30-60 minutes a week until I can get it up to roughly 5-6 hours. When I was testing with a PAR meter the t5s added about 60-100 PAR depending on the depth. LEDs alone were roughly 250-350 PAR, in a mixed tank I assume running the LED schedule as normal would potentially scorch the coral. Really curious to see what other folks are doing or if I'm just over thinking things. Feel free to giggle amongst yourselves if its a dumb question. Sent from my KFMAWI using Tapatalk

Couple new updates to share about corals and sumps, if you've came this far might as well stick around. Snagged a few deals last weekend on a reef2reef sale from Fraghouse corals. Great packaging and all the coral are already showing polyps. Trying to figure out the best location to sprinkle them throughout the rock still, I'll give them a week or two. I did take advantage of the BRS sale to snag a larger sump and a DC powerhead. No matter how I tried adjusting the Fiji Cube 20 baffles and return pump settings I couldn't achieve a great noise to volume ratio. When I do a power outage test it goes right to the rim of the sump. Pretty sure my hobby would come to an end if this thing spilled .5-1 gallons on the floor. Grabbed a Trigger Triton 20 sump as it has an additional 5g of volume available easily putting my fears at ease. I'll have a ton of extra room in the sump now for either chaeto or an ATS vs. the micro chambers in the Fiji. I couldn't seem to get the flow right in the sump with a hydor powerhead I had running below my dosing lines. Was trying to get the existing chaeto to rotate and twist around. Sicce has a DC power head, XStream SDC, with flow adjustable from 250-2000gph allegedly. Will be nice to program it for burst pulses in case the chaeto gets stuck somewhere. That's all for now, will take some more pics once the new sump and plumbing is in place. Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Checked parameters today and I got the baseline set. Will look tomorrow and see how much variation is getting drained. Snagged some sweet new corals today on a reef2reef sale. Attached a few pics, they should be fill the center plate area nicely. Salinity - 33ish PH - Low = 7.98 High = 8.13 Alkalinity - 9 Calcium - 430 Magnesium - 1350 Nitrates - .2 Phosphates - .1

Got the sump dialed in today and fixed my herbie overflow! When assembling the tank I did a quick main drain pipe with the strainer, didn't get the proper height tweaked. Now the top of the abs guard is 6" before the height of my emergency drain. That retained about 1.5 gallons inside the overflow that was just filling the sump. It doesn't create a full syphon as quick as before but I'm ok with 2 min of gurgling when it syncs back up. I kept hearing a trickle because I couldn't get the proper sump baffle heights to reduce noise and bubbles. It wasn't loud, but enough that I could hear it about 20' away on the couch. Reminded me of "the telltale heart". haha Took a video from inside the sump, can barely hear a trickle from the emergency drain! The only noise I hear now is the whirring from the mp40's and the MaxSpect pump, which is super low. Noticed a couple of my corals have some brown stringy parts coming from the polyps. Think I have the t5's on for too long, PAR level is roughly the same as before. It could be stress from the move, getting fragged again, not sure. Might start a separate post about lighting, haven't used a hybrid setup before, much less trying to learn a new light OS. Https://imgur.com/gallery/JMbayxU Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

I did notice a difference in PH, don't have the previous records from my Apex but I believe it bumped it roughly .1-.2 overall. I'm not using it on my new tank though going to see if I can do alright with PH sitting around 8-8.1 with the lights on. Got the Skimmer & C02 scrubber for sale if you're interested, have about 1/2 of a bag of the BRS c02 media as well. Skimmer is a Reef Octopus 110-int.

It's supposed to be, I took over the main section for marine pure blocks from my 75 gallon. Grabbed the Tunze submersible light to try some chaeto. Long term plan is to go with an algae turf scrubber. I hated how noisy my skimmer was and didn't want to keep buying media for my c02 reactor. Still working on a permanent fix for the dosing pumps and lines, trying to figure out how to clean up the center refugium section. Took a brief video (link below) of the aquascape, there's several chunks of rock I'm removing once the newer rock is colored over. Looking for a few nice SPS/Acros for the top platform section, then just go crazy with zoa's, blastos, and eventually a clam. http://imgur.com/gallery/Z2vE07W Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Worked a bit on some easier things tonight, mounted up my dosing pumps and prepped the sump. Had to add in my powerhead, dosing pump line holders, refugium light all to get prepped for tomorrow. Ordered a refugium starter pack from Aqua Culture Nurseries, they had clean chaeto in stock plus copepods, rotifers & amphipods. I'm going to try to get a dragonette in 6-8 months, hoping if I start seeding it now that should help. Checked the big 3 parameters today and are sitting at decent measurements. Will probably test every couple days for now, not sure how quick the existing coralline algae on the live rocks will take off. Going to slowly bring the Calcium and Alkalinity up over the next few days and set a new baseline. Had to return the par meter to Reef Escape and snagged a couple corals, super nice guys. Grabbed a purple Goniopora and a Blasto. I'll grab a few pics once the lights are looking right. Looking forward to selling equipment from the previous build so I can snag some other sweet corals, completely hooked at this point. Alk - 8.6 Calcium - 400 Magnesium - 1360

Had a decent weekend getting everyone migrated to their new home. Unfortunately had a few casualties , couldn't find "Kobe" my no color blenny or my striped goby, pistol shrimp anywhere. Believe they hid in the rock that got removed. Super blown about Kobe, had him for over a year. Cleaned up a ton of the cabling nest, I'm still working on a solution to cleanly hide the wires for the lighting. Not happy with the lighting routing but it's at least together and off of the floor. Lighting was fairly easy to get dialed in but man is this combo strong. I'm getting 150+ at the bottom and a solid 275-335 at the top of the rock points. Still tweaking until I'm happy with the time overlaps. I did get a few apex alarms today for temperature once the t5 lights kicked in. Thinking a fan tied to the temp sensor might help reduce temp spikes. My MP40s today also went crazy for an hour, couldn't control my primary and had frequent schedule error messages. Had to remove all devices, juggle bluetooth settings then attempt to add them back. Finally got them connected but need to rebuild all my profiles. Power settings are drastically different being a 3' vs. 4' tank length. Enough typing, updated pics. Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Slowly doing that now, it always takes longer doing it right it seems. Trying to plan the best for current vs future access needs or possible mistakes from the past. Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Previous post was a bit of foreshadowing, filled enough water to test the return pump. Had a few drops of water on the return plumbing at one of the unions. Disconnected the line and realized I didn't glue one of the joints, easy annoying fix. Set the lights in place temporarily to test outlets, etc. One of the hydra's was flashing teal/red which translated to contacting support. After researching it looks like there's an issue with some of these lights from the factory where the mother board and led screws came loose during shipping. Had to disassemble them, socket the connections back in place and verify all other bolts were tight. Not gonna lie, was a little miffed having to do the repair on a new light out of the box. Am currently tweaking the return pump flow settings and dialing in the sump for noise levels. Can't seem to find the sweet spot yet. I think the teeth on the return guard are too small, might dremel them taller and mitre the slots to reduce water noise. On a great note, the controller board is great for hiding the spaghetti mess of cabling. The deluxe option has a couple shelves, tons of drilled sections for attaching cables. The French cleat mount is awesome for easy removal. Buy that upgrade if you buy the standard board! Took a few more pics today of the progress, not as much physically different but progress made. Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Got a ton accomplished today, even filling it as I type. So tested the overflow and bulkheads, no leaks first try, I'm still skeptical. Spent way too long today trying to chase down a suitable floor joist to mount my light fixture to. Had to take yet another trip to home depot for hardware. The Adaptive Reef controller board fit everything I needed to. Brought home my cable label maker from work to easily identify power cords in the event I can't connect to fusion. Pretty happy with how my plumbing turned out minus the giant primer stain on the return line. In the event I need to add a manifold I'll swap it out. Not making another trip to the hardware store. Took a few photos of the progress. Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

The package came with all the fittings shown. I needed about 5' of pvc and elbows to finish it up. Going to be wiring everything up today and hopefully getting some water in this weekend. Will upload more pics shortly. Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk

Just received my Fiji cube tank combo today! Loved my current 75 gallon tank but noticed the top trim of the stand started to split where the tank sits. Started looking more and it's indeed separating. This lead to immediate panic and shopping for a replacement. Found this combo with tank, stand and sump for a price in my budget and most importantly, the wife's approval. Ha Fiji was great with communication regarding shipping delays due to last week's storm. Packing was a solid 3/4" MDF with everything internal protected by foam/plastic wrap. Felt like I was unboxing the leg lamp in "A Christmas story". Took some install pics after getting it in place, the installation guides were definitely lacking in detail. Going to power through this weekend and get some water in it. Have 40# of rock ready to go I've seeded with existing rock for the past several weeks. Best things I've loved so far, plumbing is going to be completely isolated and out of the way. Everything can tuck into the back left corner leaving room for more activities. Will be running (2) hydra 32's with an Aquatic life t5 hybrid for lighting. Haven't used t5's before, only using a reef breeders photon v2 right now. Curious to see how my corals do under them. Swapping my (2) MP40s over, hoping they don't cause a tsunami in a 1' shorter tank. Also snagged the newer Apex just for the integrated WiFi. Our house lost power several weeks ago and my TP link ethernet adapter didn't reconnect. Couldn't manually power cycle the outlets so I had to leave work. Hopefully one less point of failure reduced in my DR plan. Well enough rambling for now, here's some teaser day one pics. Sent from my SM-N986U using Tapatalk