cparka23's Nano in 90 Elos Mini

cparka23 · Jul 14, 2012

TY, M&T.

I dread the post office but managed to send off the part to DigitalAquatics on Monday. Hopefully it comes in this afternoon. If it doesn't fix my issues, then I'll have to contact DA customer service for a repair. Fingers crossed that the firmware update solves the problems I've experienced. When I get the part and update the firmware on the modules and head unit, I'll post a follow-up here.

cparka23 · Jul 19, 2012

My first attempt at biopellets.

When I purchased my skimmer from Warner Marine, Jon threw in a small jar of ecoBAK (Thanks, Jon!). I've never used biopellets or dosed carbon before, but I've wanted to give it a try for some time. I had a Next Reef MR-1 reactor on hand, but the pellets wouldn't tumble in the 4" diameter body. I almost hacked up an old skimmer, but creating a flange to replace the skimmer cup meant buying solvent, acrylic and hardware. It didn't seem like a great savings over buying a reactor, so I sprung for a CPR Aquatics Nano Reactor. Here it is in the sump by the skimmer inlet. Please excuse the glass.

It works quite well, but it's a bit unwieldly. When the reactor sits atop the the included Rio pump, it has an overall height of ~11". The pump has an attachment with a small valve to control the flow rate through the reactor. It's not the best way to secure the reactor, which has a lean to it due to being supported by nothing other than a tiny venturi found above the valve, but it gets the job done. Overall, it's functional and keeps the media in a gentle tumble without allowing pellets to linger in any corners. It was sold as a beta model (the acrylic pieces weren't routed before they were glued together, so it is literally a little rough around the edges), so maybe things will get a bit of polish as a full production model. I like it though.

cparka23 · Jul 21, 2012

Just as a followup to my RKE going wacko, I finally got my SID in the mail yesterday evening. Since the Digital Aquatics announcement claims that they'll upgrade the SID firmware as soon as they receive it and will ship it out the very next business day, it got my hopes up that I could get it back in less than a week. In actuality, it took 11 days rather than the 5-6 days that I anticipated.

On the plus side, updating the firmware on the ReefKeeper Elite and all the modules fixed my controller issues. Things turn off when they should, and my light no longer flickers the blue LEDs off when I am working on the tank.

My impression of Digital Aquatics has only been reinforced in the last couple weeks: Nice products... support takes a little extra time. (And you need to run Windows.)

cparka23 · Jul 21, 2012

I also picked up a small colony of xenia a couple weeks ago that I forgot to document. It came from a local hobbyist whom I never met before, so I extra carefully inspected the container before adding the rock to the tank. Sure enough, there was a flatworm on it. It wasn't the acro-eating variety, of course, but I despise red planaria with a passion (acoel flatworms aren't far behind).

I scraped the xenia from the rock and aggressively treated it with Melafix Marine. Things shriveled up dramatically, and I thought to myself, "Wow, that was a complete waste." It really looked bad during and after the dip, which only lasted a minute or two. I put the xenia in a small dish to inspect for any pests, then tossed them into quarantine. To my relief, they came back and looked well. I put them into the display a couple days later. The original small colony was more like three frags growing on the same rock, so the xenia is in a few different places now.

I'd say there are 5 stalks in total. A couple smaller frags are not pictured. That contributes $50 to my livestock total, which is updated in the first post.

cparka23 · Aug 21, 2012

Just a couple updates. Things have been busy with side projects cropping up, and I'm still building my light from scratch.

I added a mesh top to keep my snails from crawling out, and it matches the black seams pretty nicely.

Sadly, the macro wasn't doing well in the tank. The cerith snails pretty much ate all the ulva. As for the dragon's breath, I don't know if it wilted with the use of biopellets or from the fact that I don't feed the tank much besides phyto. Regardless, I had to pull it and relocate it to my biocube.

Also picked up some SPS. Pics to follow.
The new FTS.

The SPS I picked up. They are ORA Joe the Coral, ORA Red Planet, one that I can't remember, a birdsnest, and in the back is a browned out encrusting monti.

Given that the monti is sizable but browned out, I conservatively estimate it's worth $40. The acros are each around 1.5", so, regardless of what I paid, they're worth $20 each. The livestock is $120 on top of my total thus far. Prices are updated at the end of the first post.

Mike&Terry · Aug 21, 2012

Tank is looking good. Glad to hear your RKE is working well after the firmware upgrade. Looking forward to seeing the pic update...

-M&T

cparka23 · Aug 22, 2012

I fixed the photos in the above post and noticed that the tank really lacks the splash of color that it had with the macroalgae. I'm trying to relocate my BTA into this tank and a few maxi mini anemones, too. I'm going to give it another try this Saturday.

As for the mesh on top of the tank, it's nothing special but did a good job of keeping the nerites from escaping. I once picked up 8 (out of 11) of them off the sides of the tank and stand in one night, and I have been doing a walk-around of the tank every morning to save the snails from drying out. An intervention was way overdue. I simply followed the instructions written up by Acroholic (link), and he sells the mesh at a good price. And while I love Bulk Reef Supply, their prices for the window screen frame and spline roller are really high. Save money and get them from Home Depot or Lowes as suggested in the instruction thread.

For the DIY light, I am going to try to have it up by next weekend. It'll mostly be made of surface mount components, several timing chips, milled copper clad board, and be mounted by a gooseneck over the tank. The only things I won't make are the fan, heatsink, and the enclosures. There won't be any fancy features beyond manual dimming via 3 potentiometers (one for the fan, two for the LED channels). ON/OFF will be supplied through my RKE. It would have been easier to do with an Arduino board, but I like the challenge of designing the circuits, laying out the PCB footprints, milling it, and soldering it myself. Building things is fun for me.

If only I could find a little more time to do it...

Mike&Terry · Aug 29, 2012

cparka23 said:
I fixed the photos in the above post and noticed that the tank really lacks the splash of color that it had with the macroalgae. I'm trying to relocate my BTA into this tank and a few maxi mini anemones, too. I'm going to give it another try this Saturday.

As for the mesh on top of the tank, it's nothing special but did a good job of keeping the nerites from escaping. I once picked up 8 (out of 11) of them off the sides of the tank and stand in one night, and I have been doing a walk-around of the tank every morning to save the snails from drying out. An intervention was way overdue. I simply followed the instructions written up by Acroholic (link), and he sells the mesh at a good price. And while I love Bulk Reef Supply, their prices for the window screen frame and spline roller are really high. Save money and get them from Home Depot or Lowes as suggested in the instruction thread.

For the DIY light, I am going to try to have it up by next weekend. It'll mostly be made of surface mount components, several timing chips, milled copper clad board, and be mounted by a gooseneck over the tank. The only things I won't make are the fan, heatsink, and the enclosures. There won't be any fancy features beyond manual dimming via 3 potentiometers (one for the fan, two for the LED channels). ON/OFF will be supplied through my RKE. It would have been easier to do with an Arduino board, but I like the challenge of designing the circuits, laying out the PCB footprints, milling it, and soldering it myself. Building things is fun for me.

If only I could find a little more time to do it...

Those nerites are notorious escape artists... glad the screening is helping. Good luck with the nem's and the DIY light project.

-M&T

cparka23 · Aug 30, 2012

Thanks for your continued comments, Mike and Terry. They're encouraging in light of the fact that I'm not making as much progress as I'd like. But I do have a bit of progress to report.

I had ordered a couple aluminum cylinders to form part of my heatsink, and I spent a bit of time last weekend in getting it ready. One is just a backup in case I messed up the milling/tapping of it, but things went pretty well on the first one. I did a TON of sanding while watching NFL preseason games to pass the time.

The rough cut aluminum

After sanding with 120 grit. Followed up with wet sanding at 220, 400, and 800 grit. I also drilled and tapped it for metric M3 screws to attach to the commercial heatsink I picked out.

cparka23 · Aug 30, 2012

My to do list for this week:

- drill and tap for the standoffs that will hold the splash shield and for the holes that will clamp the LED stars to the aluminum
- attach the LEDs with Tuniq thermal compound (better dissipation than arctic silver)
- wire them up... going with two channels.
- maybe finish the PCB layout for the fan and led dimming circuits. It takes a couple hours, unless I need to make revisions.

cparka23 · Sep 23, 2012

Well, I got my BTA and a couple mini carpet nems into the tank a couple weeks ago and put a zoa frag in as well. Trouble is, I never got a decent picture before sending my Canon in for repair. I should receive my camera back this week, but here's my dilemma. The contest deadline for adding livestock has passed, and I didn't get a pic. Don't know how that will be judged by the contest rules, but I'll leave that up to the judges.

Anyway, here's one of the better pics I managed to get. It's just a FTS, wherein the BTA is visible and the zoas are just so at the bottom.

The maxis and the BTA were purchased from AquaSD a couple weeks before the contest, but I'm nowhere near the livestock limit. Meh, the BTA is $50, the zoas are 6 polyps @ $5 ea., and lets call the maxis at $50 ea (way more than I paid, but no matter). That adds $180 to my livestock total, which is updated in the first post.

cparka23 · Sep 23, 2012

So the xenia seems to be doing well at the top of the rockwork. The SPS seem to be doing okay, which is great considering that I've not had the best of luck with SPS before. And I really lucked out on catching the BTA on the glass of my biocube before I moved it to the Elos.

My light is coming along slowly. The wires from the drivers to the solder pads on the LEDs broke free a couple times, so I had to find a connector to provide some relief. Got that put on the heatsink now. Still need to do the layout for the dimmer module. Just too busy, atm. :\ Anyway, those pics will come up when the camera comes back from Canon.

Mike&Terry · Sep 26, 2012

cparka23 said:
Well, I got my BTA and a couple mini carpet nems into the tank a couple weeks ago and put a zoa frag in as well. Trouble is, I never got a decent picture before sending my Canon in for repair. I should receive my camera back this week, but here's my dilemma. The contest deadline for adding livestock has passed, and I didn't get a pic. Don't know how that will be judged by the contest rules, but I'll leave that up to the judges.

Anyway, here's one of the better pics I managed to get. It's just a FTS, wherein the BTA is visible and the zoas are just so at the bottom.

The maxis and the BTA were purchased from AquaSD a couple weeks before the contest, but I'm nowhere near the livestock limit. Meh, the BTA is $50, the zoas are 6 polyps @ $5 ea., and lets call the maxis at $50 ea (way more than I paid, but no matter). That adds $180 to my livestock total, which is updated in the first post.

The tank is looking GREAT!

cparka23 · Oct 2, 2012

Got the camera back from Canon today, and took a few quickie shots with it to get an idea of the working condition of the camera. Prior to sending it in, the camera always gave me Err30 messages. Canon decided to replace the shutter mechanism altogether, and the shutter now seems to click more softly. I get a lot less shake during long exposures. Very happy about that!

I'll try to play with it some more this weekend. Just a couple quickies. Very blurry from handholding. I was more interested in hearing the shutter than on holding the camera still, I guess.