Our New Living Room Mixed Reef

[tpallas]

5 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Looks clean. That's one thing I still need to work on, I don't think I've ever had my cords and everything organized. 

 

It's like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.

 

I'm getting sick of the bites!

[YHSublime]

12 hours ago, tpallas said:

 

It's like eating an elephant, one bite at a time.

 

I'm getting sick of the bites!

 

Got a stand that's sanded down over here and ready to be varnished. I get it  

[tpallas]

Second energy bar mounted, and I think I’m done! For now at least. Definitely have some more programming to do but all of the equipment is mounted. 
 

 

Also made the mistake of forgetting to rinse the rox carbon so now I’m skimming lots of carbon dust. Flow through the reactor is pretty slow (26 GPH) but the rox still tumbles, so probably have to put it in a media bag.

 

 
 

 

[AlanM]

That cabinet is looking great.

 

I always sandwiched rox carbon in between two layers of floss in the reactor.  Bottom floss kept detritus off the carbon and carbon didn't tumble or escape because it was held in by the top floss.

[tpallas]

6 hours ago, AlanM said:

That cabinet is looking great.

 

I always sandwiched rox carbon in between two layers of floss in the reactor.  Bottom floss kept detritus off the carbon and carbon didn't tumble or escape because it was held in by the top floss.

Nice, great solution! I will do that.

 

Got a couple more trachys:

 

 

And a rainbow acan to fill out on the center rock:

 

[tpallas]

Did anyone take advantage of the Neptune sale? We did and went a little overboard, will have a busy weekend.  Tank is coming along. Brown uglies are gone, have some green uglies. Not too bad in the display, we got a bristletooth and it is going to town on it. Sump is a little fugly, I’ll get some pics tomorrow. 
 

Alan, followed your advice. Running carbon and a small amount of GFO.

 

And the Bubble King Mini 160 is pulling some funk. It stanks!

 

Edited March 17, 2021 by tpallas

[tpallas]

Some sunset iPhone shots (use orange filter and it’s dead accurate).

 

Still my all-time favorite coral:
 

 

A little deflated for the night:

 

 

This plate we picked up recently from the Coral Dragon (actually won it in their Facebook auction):

 

 

 

Edited March 17, 2021 by tpallas

[tpallas]

Here’s my ORP graph over the past several days since I installed the probe. Is this the probe adjusting, or just increasing because it’s a new tank? Never really payed that close attention to ORP.

 

[howaboutme]

Looks great! 2 questions.

 

Those Coral Dragon auctions are way cool. Do you do pick up or shipping? They are close but not that close. Also, why do people put a "." (period) at times? Is that a secret code? 

 

What does the ORP tell you? I browsed through the old RHF article and it made my brain explode.

[tpallas]

1 hour ago, howaboutme said:

Looks great! 2 questions.

 

Those Coral Dragon auctions are way cool. Do you do pick up or shipping? They are close but not that close. Also, why do people put a "." (period) at times? Is that a secret code? 

 

What does the ORP tell you? I browsed through the old RHF article and it made my brain explode.

 

For this one, we decided to drive out (about 1.5 hours from Arlington) to check it out. I think it was worth the drive. We won't be going on a recurring basis, but we will once in a while. The nice thing is they post on auctions and online, and shipping within the DC area is free over $150 or $15 otherwise. They have some pretty nice pieces so it's worth it. The period took me a second to figure out - it's a way of marking the post so you get updated by FB when someone bids. So if you're interested in a particular coral, you get notified when someone else bids without bidding first yourself.

 

LOL I did read the RHF article....the bottom line is at the end! He almost lost me before I got there. It looks like the two major uses are preventing an ozone overdose, and monitoring for spikes in the readings that might indicate something has died and decomposing. I don't use ozone but the second one is helpful so I will set an alarm if levels rise over 450-500 or so.

[howaboutme]

Ok thanks for the info.

 

I kind of wish the local shipping was more to further encourage me to give the drive a shot...haha. The auctions are very tempting and the starting prices are soooooo good. I haven't kept track but based on what people are doing w/ the ".", there are last minute snipers like ebay?

[tpallas]

8 hours ago, howaboutme said:

Ok thanks for the info.

 

I kind of wish the local shipping was more to further encourage me to give the drive a shot...haha. The auctions are very tempting and the starting prices are soooooo good. I haven't kept track but based on what people are doing w/ the ".", there are last minute snipers like ebay?

 

I will say this - they only list a portion, and from what I can tell a small portion, of their inventory on auction or on their website. So the trip is certainly worthwhile. Maybe organize a caravan! On the plate I bid the minimum and won, but there are also some lively auctions on other pieces. Definitely not the last minute eBay thing so far as I can tell. 

[tpallas]

Working on our euphyllia garden. From left to right, a $40 purple torch from Congressional aquarium frag tank, a TSA black panther, TSA indo gold, and indo gold from our own CKReefs. Needs a NY Knicks and some hammers! You can also see our blastos in the rear right.
 

And an early morning FTS. I think it’s safe to say this is now a mixed reef and not pure SPS! @YHSublime is it possible to change the title?

 

Edited March 19, 2021 by tpallas

[flooddc]

28 minutes ago, tpallas said:

Working on our euphyllia garden. From left to right, a $40 purple torch from Congressional aquarium frag tank, a TSA black panther, TSA indo gold, and indo gold from our own CKReefs. Needs a NY Knicks and some hammers! You can also see our blastos in the rear right.
 

And an early morning FTS. I think it’s safe to say this is now a mixed reef and not pure SPS! @YHSublime is it possible to change the title?

 

lol! can't resist those lps no matter how hardcore you're with sps. 

[YHSublime]

1 hour ago, tpallas said:

Working on our euphyllia garden. From left to right, a $40 purple torch from Congressional aquarium frag tank, a TSA black panther, TSA indo gold, and indo gold from our own CKReefs. Needs a NY Knicks and some hammers! You can also see our blastos in the rear right.

And an early morning FTS. I think it’s safe to say this is now a mixed reef and not pure SPS! @YHSublime is it possible to change the title?

 

Wow! That's a lot of heat in one tank already! 

 

Took care of the title change for you! 

[tpallas]

8 hours ago, flooddc said:

lol! can't resist those lps no matter how hardcore you're with sps. 

 

I know!!! The colors and movement are just too good. This is my wife and I's tank and she could care less if it's a pure SPS tank or not, and I really am liking the LPS. 

 

8 hours ago, YHSublime said:

 

Wow! That's a lot of heat in one tank already! 

 

Took care of the title change for you! 

 

Thanks! We are enthusiastic about the tank for sure. 

 

Haul from the Neptune sale came in today. Took advantage of it to get a Trident, 2 dosing pump units, the PAR monitoring unit, and the second leak sensor I've been meaning to install.  I'm rapidly running out of real estate in the stand for equipment, so I mounted the two pumps on the right side wall. Fortunately, there is sufficient space on the left hand side for the Trident. So what I will do is get some containers made that will also serve as a stand for the Trident, 4 in total - 1 waste water, then 3 for Alk/Ca/Mag. Feed lines will come across the front top of the stand, to the pump, and then dosing lines to the back right of the stand, and then across to center sump where the dosing line mount is. Tight, tight squeeze but everything fits!

 

 

 

[YHSublime]

Looks pretty slick, how much room do you need in there for the trident? Got me thinking I might be able to squeeze on in my stand... 

[tpallas]

23 hours ago, YHSublime said:

Looks pretty slick, how much room do you need in there for the trident? Got me thinking I might be able to squeeze on in my stand... 

 

You know, its got a smaller footprint than I was expecting - about 4" wide and a foot or so long. The space between the refugium and stand wall is only 6" in that photo. Wish I could say I planned it this way but I just Forrest Gumped my way into it working out near perfectly! Jeff at Lifereef is going to build the dosing containers to match the sump.

 

Here's a shot of the corals this evening. I guess you can't upload HD iOS videos to YouTube?

 

 

[tpallas]

Today was Trident install day, which has not gone as I’d hoped. Got an Amazon box that fits well for a temporary stand. I ran the feed line into the front area of the second sump chamber which is free from micro bubbles and away from where the dosing lines will be. I went through the install process and got a red error light at the end, indicating an error. The error is no sample water. The Trident pump is working, the feed line is clear, but no water is coming into the unit. The feed line is clear and I’ve gone through the troubleshooting list with no change. So I’ve got a help desk ticket in. Hoping I won’t have to send it in, but we’ll see. 
 

Did speak to Jeff at Lifereef and he will be building the dosing container unit, which will also act as a stand for the Trident. It will be matching color to the sump, should look pretty cool.

 

Unit in place on a temporary box:

 

 

Where the feed line goes in. I’ll clean up the tubing mounting with clips on final installation:
 

 

The red light after multiple attempts:
 

 

 

[tpallas]

On the good news front, the PAR monitoring kit went in without a hitch. I have it set up so that the meter is available inside the hood to take measurements. I don’t plan on keeping it full time in the tank. Next step is to take detailed readings from all over the tank.

 

 

 

[tpallas]

Last thing I did this weekend was to get started on running the dosing pump lines. First step for that is straightening out the tubing included with the Dos pumps. I did this by boiling for a minute or two, or until al dente, and then laying out flat to cool.
 

 

Edited March 22, 2021 by tpallas

[tpallas]

I got the stand exhaust fan in today. The only problem is the mounting holes are too narrow given the width of the opening. The edges of the unit do overlap the wood on both sides. Is it possible to use some sort of adhesive to hold it in place? Silicon or something else?

 

[flooddc]

On 3/20/2021 at 9:52 PM, tpallas said:

 

You know, its got a smaller footprint than I was expecting - about 4" wide and a foot or so long. The space between the refugium and stand wall is only 6" in that photo. Wish I could say I planned it this way but I just Forrest Gumped my way into it working out near perfectly! Jeff at Lifereef is going to build the dosing containers to match the sump.

 

Here's a shot of the corals this evening. I guess you can't upload HD iOS videos to YouTube?

 

 

Looking great! just select 1080hd on the setting to view in HD.

 

1 hour ago, tpallas said:

I got the stand exhaust fan in today. The only problem is the mounting holes are too narrow given the width of the opening. The edges of the unit do overlap the wood on both sides. Is it possible to use some sort of adhesive to hold it in place? Silicon or something else?

 

Man! you got all sort of new techs. I am still reefing with old school stuffs 

Can you use some kind of mounting clips to hold the fan? one with a screw on one end.

[tpallas]

On 3/22/2021 at 7:17 PM, flooddc said:

Looking great! just select 1080hd on the setting to view in HD.

 

Man! you got all sort of new techs. I am still reefing with old school stuffs 

Can you use some kind of mounting clips to hold the fan? one with a screw on one end.

 

To view, or to upload? I thought I read that YouTube doesnt support HD iOS video uploads but maybe I'm wrong.

 

I know! We're trying to have a baby so I'm automating as much as I can. And TBH the more I install, the easier it becomes, and it makes the hobby a lot more enjoyable and much less stress. 

 

On the good news front, I had a phone call with Neptune tech support and we got the Trident working. Really glad I didn't have to send it back in. We ran water through some of the internal hoses, which is evidently there was some sort of blockage. Not sure if they do this in production or not.

 

Also used some Gorilla double sided tape to mount the exhaust fan. This makes a pretty big difference in the humidity in the stand. I've been keeping the side door open this whole time but now with the fan I think it's kept at acceptable levels.

 

[YHSublime]

Hey, cool news about the kid, GL! 

 

Like Chuck, I'm still running old school, but for me it's out of time. 

 

FWIW, you're inspiring me. I've had this Aquabox sump which I think I'm going to swap out with any old Ruby Trigger 36, which means I'll have to actually put some thought into the redesign underneath. Your pictures gave me hope that I might be able to fit a Trident under my stand, but after you provided measurements it's a no go for me. 

 

Looking back over your photos this is incredibly clean, when I had my stand built, I accounted for the sump and ATO container, but that was about it. I'm slightly jealous!