Reality check 7 - the floor is wet (part 2), time to gain control and try more corals (Oct - Nov 2018)
Excited about getting the jerk fish out of the tank and being able to expand again, I went out and got fish for the DT, more corals on a new rack, and more. Ever since I started my tank, I was saving up to get an Apex system. I love tech and science, so this was a really fun way for me to combine everything, not to mention make tank maintenance easier, not to mention a bit less dangerous (see below). The question was always "when do I set it up?". I had most of the system on hand around mid-October and was trying to figure out an agreeable setup that would work well with the house aesthetic. Started thinking a simple panel with the stuff mounted, a custom-built TARDIS cabinet (that would've been AWESOME), and a few other things. Eventually settled on modifying an existing cabinet. It'd work well. I found a good deal on the cabinet and got the supplies, but still wasn't really in a hurry. My setup worked as it was and I didn't have too many problems, plus I'd just gotten new fish and corals!!
Ok, so it's not a great idea to precariously lay a coral rack atop rocks. This is true. BUT LOOK HOW PRETTY. Really, though, I was pretty excited about it.
I had a new Anthias that was doing sort of OK (the firefish I'd gotten died) and a forktail blenny that was perky and happy in the tank.
One day, my return pump was giving me various troubles: I had to take it out and get it cleaned extensively. I hadn't replaced any of the plumbing pieces since getting the tank, aside from the busted tube a few months in, so I was going along doing my thing, cleaned it a few times and got the tube back on. A few hours later, the tube popped off. (remember, kids, clamps are your friends). Water once again was getting all over the floor (right near the power box for the tank) and again we had to soak some towels and sweep things to get it all cleaned up. Well. Seems like it's a good time to get those leak detectors up and running, right?
It should be noted that I'm in no way an expert in electronics, construction, or the like, and have never even done major DIY projects, but I wanted to do something cool on my own, and this seemed like a good option. Here's a list of everything I got:
- Apex system with:
- Leak detectors
- DOS
- WAV Kit (including 1LINK)
- AFS
- PM3 module (just for the breakout box connection)
- 2 breakout boxes
- Apex Display
- COR 15 pump (purchased later by a few weeks)
- Tunze ATO
I also got the other key pieces together:
- Used armoire with removable back (i.e. unscrew it)
- 3/4" plywood fitted to back size
- 2 way toggle switches
- Momentary off buttons (with LED lights)
- LED strips
- Paint
- Wiring
- Desk grommets
I took the original backing off the armoire to replace it with plywood later.
I needed a lot of stuff aside from the actual Apex.
First, I sanded and prepped the backing. It covers the whole back, including the space under the shelf, so I set out my spacing for the piece and laid out my components, leaving lots of room for wiring grommets, etc. This was primarily to determine where holes were needed for switches and wires.
The dots on the top indicate centers for the toggle switches and buttons, while the whole thing is lined up to fit in the "main" portion of the cabinet, above the shelf.
The plywood piece was huge, so I had a lot of extra material that I was able to use for testing. I tried using my hole saws and the small mounting screws to make sure everything'd work well.
Mounting and hole test result. Also FISHIE and coral.
For the real deal, I just used some cheap sawhorses to hold it, then drilled and sanded as needed.
Ready for paint! I did 3 coats of latex paint on each side. Basically paint, wait, flip & paint, wait, etc.
Next step was getting the electronics set up. I have 5 LED buttons, 10 toggle switches, and LOTS of wiring. To ensure the best connections, everything was finalized with soldering and heat shrink wrap on the terminals. Initially, I didn't wire up all the toggle switches, either. If I need more, I can get them, though.
1 12V power supply can light all the buttons. Hooray!
I soldered all the wire terminal connections for the switches and buttons, then did heat shrinking.
(mostly) wired and ready! Full disclosure - I basically ran out of wire. The switches are relatively easy to remove and solder if I need more control, though.
Trying to be at least somewhat organized.
Finally, time to get things in their final places. Using my initial layout as a general guide, I finalized everything as squared off and level as I could manage:
Templates are very helpful. The velcro is for the ATO box.
All the little modules lain out
All set up plus some extra space if needed for more stuff later.
Hardware ready!
After all this I got the back panel placed on the cabinet with screws and wood glue and let it dry for a couple days before placing in all the modules, but soon enough got it in and began wiring it up.
The breakout boxes had to be mounted directly - they don't "click in" the way everything else does.
Ewwwwwww. Gross. I heavily cleaned this up using command strips for the power bricks, a few cable wranglers, and some other stuff, but in the end it's a LOT of cables. Also look! Corals on an actual rack.
One thing I wanted to do was get cabinet lighting setup, so that meant reed switches on the doors. Pretty easy to set up.
Remember when I said my old setup was bad and unsafe? Yea, this is what I meant. It's just awful.
Got the Apex connected to my home network and was making sure that communication was functioning; all seemed to be working well.
Fully wired/tubed and running now, plus ran DOS testing, calibrations, etc. for all things.
After migrating everything over to the system (sump, return, etc.), I ran into a few problems. I had programmed the green, blue, and red buttons (feeding, water change, all stop, respectively), as well as the toggle switches for specific equipment (return, skimmer, ato, wav), but the return pump wouldn't always start up properly after a feed cycle. The impeller was just acting weird. In addition, the ATO would prime after coming back on and send ~half a liter a water to the sump, regardless of the level. After this, I ended up getting the COR15 return pump so I could still have enough flow to keep things on, but it would mess much with feeding and the like. In addition, I ran into issues with both the DOS and WAV pumps. The former had an aquabus/power issue that was fixed by using a 1LINK cable and the latter had the 1LINK power brick die. Both handled quickly by Neptune, thankfully. Afterwards, the DOS still wasn't working well, and there were lots of bubbles in one of the lines. The tubing material I used was too slick, and the fluid couldn't move through properly. After replacing the lines, everything was fine.
All done plus COR controller added next to the screen. Good stuff.
I set up to get a fuge started, as well, by moving the skimmer to the first chamber. No light at the moment, but it was the next upgrade on the list at the time. I also REALLY want to get a bigger ATO container (to this day an accurate statement), as I need to refill it every other day.
And we come back to the corals! This is my homemade frag rack that can actually stay away from the rocks. After a few weeks I cut and glued these all around the tank where it made sense for the types, but the vast majority of them died again
. A few are still mostly around, at least.
After all this hubbub and fun, the anthias ended up dying, as well. Forktail was still doing alright, but I genuinely didn't know what was going on, and was devastated since I didn't have the aggressive fish anymore.
Getting ready for a water test. You can see a good handful of the corals on the various rocks still, but many of them were starting to go down at this point (early Nov).
. Yesterday I managed to remove some of the stored water from inside the system before taking them off - not sure if it mattered, but point being I got them out! Hooray!
