DaJMasta's 45G AIO Cube Mixed Reef

[YHSublime]

Very strange, but possible that you missed a spawning? 

[DaJMasta]

It's possible, but while I was distracted, I didn't notice anything out of the corner of my eye, and there didn't seem to be anything in the water when I eventually caught it.

 

I sort of doubt the sand is deep enough for this, but it sort of reminds me of the reports of gas bubbles building up in deep sand beds.

[DaJMasta]

Was seeing more algae buildup on the glass than usual this past week and went to clean the scrubber... the lights are as dim as can be while still being on.

 

Second time in two years, same fault, and of course it's out of warranty.  I wouldn't recommend the Santa Monica Filtration Drop 1.4X, especially for the insane price it's currently going for.

 

 

I don't know what my scrubber options are, now, since the chamber really could only accommodate something about that size.  I would like some kind of scrubber as nutrient export, so if anyone's got recommendations, I'm all ears.

[Gatortailale]

It looks like the Drop 1.4 comes with 2 power supplies.  Are they both working - try switching the power bricks for each. And maybe you can find a power brick on amazon or a mean well one that is compatible with it.  

[DaJMasta]

Yeah, the power supply is still good - measures a tad over the 15V nominal, but well within tolerance.  They replaced it the first time the same thing happened after a few months, but the warranty is only a year.  If I have to guess, it's an issue with waterproofing, since the failure mode isn't fully short or open, but that the lights get just really dim.

 

I'm tempted just to DIY it because scrubber prices just keep going up for some reason - just a plastic piece and some lights and a pump, but the very cheapest is like $200 and virtually nothing actually fits in the rear chamber of an AIO.  Will probably do a 3d printed shell, a clear algae basket, and then a relatively powerful spotlight type light to shine down the middle.  Should fit reasonably in the media basket tower, not exactly a scrubber without the airflow (maybe it can be added too), but at least an algae reactor and a way to offset the evening pH swing.

[DaJMasta]

And today, a little PSA for AIO users: vacuum your rear chamber!

I got about a quart of sludge out of mine and it may have been the first time since I started the tank up

 

[Gatortailale]

Saw this on bookface. No idea any good. Says for AIO tanks 

[DaJMasta]

That kind of thing could certainly work, but it's sort of a mess to try and incorporate - this is an AIO system, so either you add it on like a sump, or you add it on like a HoB, which doesn't physically have a great option where my tank is.  Probably the option that would make sense would be to mount it over the tank, so you pump water into it and then let it fall back in, but there's not a lot of space and I don't know if I want to mount it to the wall of this apartment, so it's a harder sell.

 

I thought about it and looked around a bit and decided I could probably make my own, though.  So I bought some low color temperature halogen bulb LED replacements as well as some ceramic bases, and I've got a 12V power supply and a low speed fan to go along with.  The idea is to design and 3d print a plastic box that slides into the media basket tower - black sides, but a clear plastic basket in the center with short handles to remove and then a black plastic hood with the lights, electrical, and vented cooling fan.  I think 3 narrow beam halogen replacement bulbs should allow pretty considerable depth penetration (the chamber is something like 20 inches high, but I think the basket will go down maybe a foot), it will fit where the previous one was, it will be larger in size, and with reasonable thermal design, it should be no risk to itself or the creatures around (12V DC, fused, and seated above the top of the glass to prevent flooding.)

 

Have to get to designing it and will probably need an iteration or two, but then it will be time to try and grow something with it.

Since taking the scrubber offline, I had the big film algae bloom, some hair algae in the display (especially on powerheads), and finally a bit of cyanobacteria bloom, but everything's calming down a bit.  I think it's back to some level of equilibrium for now.

[DaJMasta]

The story of a heater failure:

 

Last week I had a heater fail on in my tank and the temperature raised.  It was a little warm with the summer, I had added a new heat source (custom algae scrubber nearing completion I think), and the tank had been running hot for a couple of days without an obvious reason.  I looked for the light on and didn't actually notice it, but pulling one of the heaters it was clear that it was running when it ought not to be (steam coming off it after it was unplugged and pulled out of the water).

 

But it was a 100W heater in a 45G tank, so the water temperature only got to 82F or so.  I had a second, smaller heater in there that I could fall back on, the tank temperature is down, and I've verified that the electrical behavior of the old and the new ones is different (a way to check if a heater is bad: turn the temperature dial all the way down to below air temperature, then check the two prongs with a multimeter in resistance mode.  If it reads open circuit, it's shutting off properly, since the thermostat switch is mechanical, not electrical, and doesn't need to be powered to operate)

 

The moral of the story?  Don't oversize your heaters.  I didn't even notice any visible signs of stress in my livestock, it just got a little warm and I can continue on.  Doesn't save you from a crack in the glass and there's still some small chance of the heater and the backup both sticking on at once, but for no temperature controller and relatively old heaters, good system design can still mitigate much of the risk.

Edited May 25, 2024 by DaJMasta

[DaJMasta]

It's been a while!

The tank has been going along, largely happily, and is about a week shy of four years old now.  A lot is unrecognizable, the coral cover is getting to a pretty good spot (trimming and warfare are common), but I've got some long time residents that seem to still be happy (including at least one hitchhiker pistol shrimp that still lives in tunnels under the rocks.)  There have been too many events and changes to document, but some of the more recent ones include a crazing rigid airline in the vodka causing an air leak that stopped dosing for a bit (acrylic crazes in alcohol!  polycarbonate does not!), a crack in the interface with the flexible airline in the soda ash doser that slowed that substantially (and let the alk swing down), the subsequent corrections to get it back in line, and in reference to above, a custom 3d printed algae scrubber which has been working pretty alright.

 

As for issues, I've got one little stick frag that still isn't growing despite being in there for months, I have to clean the glass from film algae pretty much every day (maybe this is because of high phosphate, but a most-of-a-week long lanthanum chloride regimen didn't seem to do much), and these little clove polyps which look OK but have covered the majority of the rockwork and encrust over semi healthy corals.  Not too much in terms of equipment failure, but I did lose a Nero 5 which I ended up just replacing.  Still planning on opening the electronics package, but have a pile of other things to do.  Oh, and I guess the fact that the red goni ended up with like 3.5" or more of tentacle length and started stinging all of its neighbors, then I corrected some parameters and they're probably past 5" now - not ideal in a tank that's like 18" front to back

 

The pair of yellow banded possum wrasses spawn nightly, the mandarins I don't see spawning much now.  The peppermints and skunk cleaners are still spawning but it looks a little less frequent than before, and if the fire cleaners are, I've been missing them.  The banggai I have is still the same female and a few weeks ago I actually saw a fire cleaner holding a banggai egg mass, so I suppose I should find her a buddy, and the CBB and pintail wrasse bicker a little bit but seem to be good buddies.

 

 

 

Green porites are more aggressive than darth maul porities

 

[YHSublime]

Things are looking good! If I've learned anything from my downsizing, it's trim, baby, trim! If you're gonni is starting to sting and extend, then trim it back. I have NEVER had luck with gonni, up until I have had one for like 2 years now that generally does OK, but at night extends out fully, but never during the day. I also had a ton of angelfish, so we will see if anything changes, I'm starting to see polyps on SPS that I've not seen before

 

[DaJMasta]

Gonis have been a mixed bag for me too, the red one has always been happy, basically, and has either had long polyp extension or longer polyp extension.  The green one in front is a somewhat lesser version of that.  The nearly white nub sticking out behind the confusa on the right of the tank is actually a red short tentacle goni that for months now has looked bleached - pastel neon pink with some polyps, literally clear for others, but still extending...  The red one has recently shaded out another short tentacle goni, and I had a couple others that didn't make it through some parameter swings or were put in too high lighting (it seems from my experience that short tentacle gonis don't like as much light), and I'm supplementing a small amount of manganese (not as regular as I should and no ICP in the last few months), that while I'm not certain is doing much, may have helped some of the ones with troubles hang on.

As for SPS, I think this tank is gradually coming around too.  I think my algae dosing was a bit a problem before - not actually doing it, but that I was overfertilizing the cultures and then dumping nutrients into the tank - and for a long time the monti top center was barely holding on.  It's definitely happier, and it has some color (like the reddish acro on the left of it), but both only started getting happier in the last few months.  I think it's probably also parameter stability related, since I had the calcium and alk swings due to dosing pump issues and not testing enough to catch them quickly.

[YHSublime]

The SPS you have is pretty hearty stuff, once you regain stability, I suspect it will bounce back great. I've been on the fence about getting a trident. 

 

FWIW, the darth maul porites has always seemed to enjoy lower light. Used to be a very expensive piece that nobody seems to care about anymore, glad to see it's still kicking around.