Kool Reef DIY 687 picture heavy

joekool · Dec 7, 2018

Improved my apex display with a proper cable. The old one was very thin and delicate. A note to display owners if your display stops working after moving it then likely you lost connection inside the wire. This happened to me in the past and had to run a new wire.

So now I decided to get ride of that garbage and go with this nice cable. I did have to make the hole for the wire a tiny bit bigger but it was easy.

Now for some pictures.
Old setup.

New setup

Boom.
And yes I cleaned after all said and done lol.

joekool · Dec 11, 2018

Took down one of my temporary holding tanks. Put the rocks in the display. Actually had more living corals than I thought.
There is so much room hehe.

joekool · Dec 15, 2018

getting real now. Got the framing done for the facing to close up the front.
Skimmonster is all plumbed in and runs good.

Finally got my one and only fish in the tank and he died. Probably had to swim to much and over worked him. He didn't do much swimming hiding under a rock in the trashcan. Didn't realize how much the pumps were blowing him around. Not very happy about it but what can I do now.
Have to be careful when I add fish again.

joekool · Dec 15, 2018

I also got the ato container auto fill hooked up and my ato to sump plumbed up.
All controlled by float switches and redundancies. Going to add a display full float in for emergency backup as well.

Hooked up the classic apex for backup readings running temp, orp, and PH.

joekool · Dec 22, 2018

You know a DIY'r is never done. So I re engineered the skimmer some. I made the reaction chamber out of 6 inch PVC and put my custom needle wheel pump in a recirculate setup. Adjusted the air intake with a 90 and made a lid. The neck of the skimmer is hidden inside the big pipe. The skimmer is still external to the sump but sits in it original container and is feed through the bottom and a hole in the side.
I just wasn't capturing all the bubbles in one spot like I wanted so this is what I did.

joekool · Dec 26, 2018

Making some good skimmate.

joekool · Dec 26, 2018

Started on the face of the tank. First I put foam panels up. Crazy but I like the shiny look although I didn't plan on leaving it like this.

wrapped up some wires and breakout box in a good spot.

joekool · Jan 12, 2019

Power supply for my sine wave skimmer feed pump died so I ordered a better one. These power bricks just get to hot.
I’ll post pictures when I get it. Not running skimmer at moment because of this.

Got some supplies from BRS , Mg, Ca, Soda ash. Getting levels just right.
Supprised a decent amount of my corals survivved the long storage during the build and moving.

The 400 watt MH led equivalent high bay light seems to be doing well. Corals seem to be liking the 5k...well mixed with 4 A360WE’s.
Going to buy one more. Only running the light at 40% max right now. But it has been running for a couple weeks so once parameters are where I want the I will boost that up.
later

joekool · Jan 14, 2019

Ok all an update video style. Finally going to show you the room behind the tank. No fancy editing or graphics just straight up to you. 2 parts. Whats going on in front of tank is first.

joekool · Jan 14, 2019

Ok here you go part 2. Hopefully you'll have lots of questions. I didn't go into a bunch of details and maybe it will spark some questions. Enjoy

joekool · Jan 14, 2019

And if you never saw it here is the video on how to make the auto fill for ato container with float switches. Yes this has the long intros and fancy editing stuff.

joekool · Jan 27, 2019

Ok all things are going well with the tank. Still not happy with the skimmer. It works fine but not great. I have a 5 foot piece of 20 inch 18 inch ID pvc pipe and will making that into SkimMonster 3.0 it will be a down draft with recirculating custom needle wheel pump that I’m currently using. I may buy a DCP 15,000 or 18,000 sine wave and convert it into a new needle wheel pump. I’m currently using a DCT 12,000.
Much more control with the sine wave pumps 30% to 100% in 1% increments. The 18,000 is 36volt and 15,000 is 24volt. We will see what I do.

Jakobe · Jan 31, 2019

Joe! this tank is freakin awesome! Ive spent much of free time at work today reading through this thread. Definitely tagging along for the ride.

Great work!

joekool · Feb 28, 2019

Finally got some fish in the tank.

View attachment 20190228_153507.jpg

joekool · Feb 28, 2019

pig is eating some LRS reef frenzy @ReefFrenzy right after he went in the tank.

joekool · Feb 28, 2019

Got a dragnet and 3 little dark blue springeri damsels the only ones that are friendly to other fish.
Not sure if you can see it in the photo. They are hiding at the moment.

joekool · Feb 28, 2019

Some shots of the top water action. It's deceiving when looking through the front that there is 4 feet of water between the front and back glass.

joekool · Mar 12, 2019

Ok so I was going to build that massive skimmer but the 20 inch PVC pipe had a crack in it. While waiting for my friend to find me a replacement at one of his construction sites my buddy that owns a LFS said come check out what's sitting in the other room. It was a skimmer. He said bet I can make you a deal you can't refuse so I said I'll take it. Went back a couple days later and really took a good look at it after he pulled it out from where it was buried. We thought it was something else but ended up being a ASM G-6 Specifications: Body Size: 8 ½” Height: 48 Foot Print: 18”X19” Pumps: (2) Sedra 15000 Tank Size (Gal): 1200 Gal

Then we realized that it needed some parts. Well he thought it was good to go when he told me about it so he said sorry bro. Then he went online and ordered me all new impeller, volutes, and every skimmer body seal it has on it. So that made me happy. I get all the parts tomorrow.
And now for some reef equipment p_ _n pictures lol.