Kyle's Reef

Kyl · Dec 26, 2017

So, aesthetically and plumbing wise the tank is done. The stand skirt turned out very well, though it still needs to be leveled. The plumbing isn't pretty, nor how I wanted for the initial run of the tank, but it's functionally plumbed. I went long on some runs, or put unions in places where the next portion of the run will be re-done in the new year. I need to make up some mounting brackets and get the piping rigid, hang the mini BRS reactor and then figure out the best way to hang the H150 for the refugium section.

Tomorrow the tank is going to get wet and spend a few days running with some vinegar, then it's a final rinse and RO refill. I'm not sure how quickly I should shut down the 20 and move everyone over once it is running, and if I should do a couple large water changes on the 20 first to get it as close to what the new tank will be parameter wise to lessen the transfer shock.

New sand and additional Marco rock were just ordered on sale, but I probably won't see those till the new year either. Ended up going with a 50lb box instead of piecemeal as noted earlier, and will try and make a "SPS" arch to go between the two existing rock pieces I have in the 20. It will have to be constructed using hydraulic cement, so that will take a week or so of cure time and then I like to soak the rock anyway for about a week in RODI water. I'm thinking by the end of January the tank should be 100% setup, as the T5 fixture still isn't available North of the border, nor do I really feel like paying a $130 mark-up after taxes and currency conversion are done. How $300 US becomes $500 CAD, pre-tax really is magical indeed.

Kyl · Dec 27, 2017

She's wet, and my floor is horribly un-level!

test_fill by Kyl, on Flickr

Unlike the frag tank, this one had a few unions leaking, one of which was missing it's O-ring somehow. All corrected, no new leaks so far. Most of the water had to be drained to properly level up the stand as I didn't want 1/4" of water line from the top of the tank running overnight. Initial observations are the sock area is really loud and will need to be remedied, and this Jebao DCP 8000 can push a heck of a lot of water even at 50%. The huge sump is so nice, even with the pump off there's still 5" of water line room so there won't ever be an over-flow worry.

Picked up some inverts from the sale yesterday, and also stumbled upon some small female blue star leopard wrasses that I intend to pick up later today. The problem as I've just posted for some advice on is my fish QT tanks are down, so something needs to be improvised for a few days until I can get a 20L set up again.

20 Trochus Snails
Another anemone shrimp (Periclimenes brevicarpalis)
5 Scarlet Hermits
1 Cleaner Shrimp
2 Fighting Conch

Final touches on the frag tank need to be done, I need to put better feet on the stand panels so they line up easier, and set about to design how all the hardware controllers and power supplies will be taken care of. I have two open spots in the Kallax shelf that is above the tank, and since I was able to fit all the control systems in half that space for the 20g nano, it might make the best sense to just put them in there.

Kyl · Dec 27, 2017

Santa allowed me to pick up a pair of ladies that will eventually go in the tank today:

macropharyngodon bipartitus by Kyl, on Flickr

The stand was re-leveled and is almost perfect, only out about 1/4" side to side now instead of over an inch. Going to run it like this till the final draining and shore up the shimming on the left side. Hopefully the gyres will be set up today, and I will try to get the SW-4's as well since the ethernet to them can be run from my current apex vdm port across the room.

All that would be left is hanging the refugium light, then there isn't much left until the actual tank move. The A160's are just going to rest on the rim for now, so I'll probably just run the two from the 20 initially. The third for the middle will require the T5 hybrid fixture as I can't attach it to the overflow, the arm won't reach far enough. That arm is going to be re-purposed for the H150 mount as well

Daniel@R2R · Dec 28, 2017

Nice additions!

Kyl · Dec 28, 2017

Thanks! Took them quite a while to find the sand, but they went to bed and both were out this morning around 10:00 am, almost on the dot. Wondering if the LFS lighting comes on at 10:00 am. As of this morning they're eating LRS frenzy nano, so it looks like they should do great.

Kyl · Dec 30, 2017

Looks like my rooms are all on one circuit, as as soon as the heater in the new tank kicks on the fuse trips. Going to have to get an electrician in and see if I can get a dedicated circuit for this tank, else, might have to re-evaluate some things. Not enough power :|

Kyl · Dec 31, 2017

Will be getting two 15A circuits installed Tuesday / Wednesday, so fingers crossed the tank should be fully functional by this coming Friday

The two leopard wrasses are already showing signs of something with scraping, so glad that QT is an option. They're eating like pigs though, and pretty much everything. Frozen spirulina brine, LRS frenzy nano (that I can no longer source), and PE mysis 1mm pellets. Super glad they're eating the pellets, makes things a lot easier.

Kyl · Jan 4, 2018

Still waiting on the circuit breakers in the panel to be installed, but I have the outlets wired up already. A bit of DIY that saved a couple hours of electrician labour to snake the wiring through the wall. Frag tank and the display will each have a dedicated circuit, so there should be no more tripping.

The blue star leopards are eating very well and seem to be going to bed at around 8:00pm every day, I'm not really sure when they are waking up now. Showing signs of something with some flashing and scraping, so after one round of prazi I've begun to dose copper as of yesterday. It doesn't seem too bad at this point, so it's going to ramp up slowly given how delicate these girls seem to be. The slightly larger one definitely shows signs of being the more aggressive of the two, so I'm wondering if long-term that will be the one that transitions to male.

Other than that, there isn't much to update. The new tank is running but without heat while I work out some of the kinks and over-looked things. Ventilation wasn't something I had given thought to, and there is a bit of condensation occurring in the sump. For now the side panel is being left off and it has stopped, but a solution, probably to have an exhaust fan mounted on the side of the panel will have to be done. That is the least ideal way to do it, but other than 40mm fans I can't fit anything larger between the rear of the tank and the wall. Another thing to account for when doing this again.

Kyl · Jan 7, 2018

Today has been a bit hectic..

Had to do a bit of an emergency QT on the Tailspot today, has cloudy eyes

Medicated and in a clean 5.5 for now, hoping it clears up well. The new electrical is now hooked up, so the new tank finally has heat and is now running. I haven't figured out the new style gyre controller yet, somewhat confusing, but I've just left it on it's automatic setting so the water is zipping around. Going to work on getting the cabinet for the electronics set up, an exhaust fan mounted in the left side panel of the tank and get a few more holes done in the cover plate for the power and monitoring wiring.

The other major thing left to do before the fish can go in (aside from the water getting up to snuff), is a cover needs to be made for the tank. I'll probably just do the window kit route again, though RedSea had apparently released something similar that looks quite a bit better than the hacked together pieces that tend to discolour over time with the window kits, but they're not out in NA yet. Still waiting on the Marco and sand on back-order from the LFS 26th Dec sale as well, but at least I can get started on getting the water up to temp, and going from there.

The leopards are still doing well and just about at therapeutic levels of copper (coppersafe). One thing I didn't read up on is if they will bother small inverts like the sexy shrimp as they get larger, but I guess we'll find out. If the shrimp are on the menu I'll probably just move them out to the invert/frag tank and they can live with the coral frags.

Kyl · Jan 8, 2018

First leak developed late last night, working in the sump I noticed it looked like silicone on the bottom of the plywood base, but was actually water wicking from somewhere. Oh god, not a leak..

Thankfully it was only the right return bulkhead. I guess there's a slight bit of play with the hole, and all the weight of the return line is pulling on both bulkheads (a reminder to further reinforce the manifold), so it must have tweaked it a bit during all the install and assembly. I would say the leak was super small, not really even active and only the trail of a sporadic water drip sliding down. Seems to have been fixed as I saw no drip evidence this morning before leaving, here's hoping.

Frag tank skimmer ships this week, finally. Also picking up a 30 foot apex cable then I can get the frag tank fully apex'd and consider it complete.

Kyl · Jan 12, 2018

Well I couldn't resist, and ordered a pair of Crocrea clams and a few other LPS / softy frags. The vendor will hold them till the weather clears up for shipping with the -20º C temperatures currently one province over, and held the year end sale pricing. One clam is blue with a spotted gold mantle, the other tan with a blue speckled mantle. They're going to go in the frag tank for the fallow timer, starting to get excited on new livestock/coral additions in the coming months.

At this point the new DT is fully functional, the gyres are running and there have been zero leaks aside from the temporary one from the bulkhead. I’ve gotten the glass ground down for the sump overflow entry bulkheads, but want to pick up some specific clamps to make the siliconing process easy and actually hold steady. The nice thing, given all the unions is I can bypass the filter sock portion of the overflow and allow the silicone to dry without shutting the tank down for hours/days. Ventilation, which was an afterthought, is still in the design process. I’ve pretty much settled on the left side panel having a fan, but I’m not sure if it will be an intake or an exhaust. Drilling holes in the back panel of the sump won’t accomplish anything as it’s set against the wall and blocked off by the perimeter of the frame, so side to side venting looks to be the solution. Not exactly a great one as the panels are not moisture friendly, but other than keeping one off permanently, it seems to be the best solution. The only other option would be 40mm fans exhausting up next to the overflow bulkheads and those tend to be noisy.

A half-bucket of seachem pond matrix and about half the remaining matrix from the AIO chamber in my nano tank was added to the sump, and a bottle of bio spira as well. Still waiting on rock/sand from the LFS, the initial transfer may end up being bare bottom. Going to fix up a temporary mesh lid this weekend and try and get my 3d printer project back running so I can print some proper inset corner brackets. I want it to rest on the edge of the glass, and printing custom corners seems like the only way that is going to be possible.

Kyl · Jan 12, 2018

So I am cursed with hardware, from nanobox lighting that never worked correctly, to parts missing on items. I ordered two icecap skimmers (K2-160 & K2-50) and unfortunately both have arrived with issues. The 160 had the skimmer cup un-glued as noted earlier, and the K2-50 I just received today after a decent wait on back-order is missing the air intake fitting that goes on the pump to feed the skimmer air!

Hoping the vendor can get this sorted quickly, I don't want to be waiting another 3 weeks for the missing parts to arrive via snail mail. I think since this was two major screw ups from IceCap / CoralVue on brand new items back to back, I'm going to ask for them to rush ship it out when they get back to me.

Kyl · Jan 14, 2018

light by Kyl, on Flickr
Progress..

Kyl · Jan 18, 2018

So the DT is cloudy as can be right now after adding the sand, and my box of rocks finally arrived.

new_arch by Kyl, on Flickr

I've cemented up a ~22" arch, so it will span between the two existing halves in the nano tank. It should be cured by tomorrow, but when I did my other tank I let it sit a week or so then soaked it for another couple of days. Given this is two feet long I can't exactly soak it easily, so it may just get a good rinse and then go in.

My clam order (and some other frags) also arrived, so far so good. A very terrible picture, as the blues in this blackbox fixture really beat everything out when taking pictures, unlike the Kessils. I don't have enough sand to acclimate / adhere them that way, so I chiseled some Marco rock to have somewhat of a V in it and they're just sitting in place, relatively stable until they can attach the byssal threads fully. The larger one on the right is a purple with gold edged mantle and gold spots, the smaller left one is a blue / purple with fluorescing blue speckles on the mantle.

clams by Kyl, on Flickr

clam_1 by Kyl, on Flickr

clam_2 by Kyl, on Flickr

The rest of the order was a purple torch, a couple of acans, some ric mushrooms and it looks like a frag of some zoanthid and some dragons breath macro were sent as freebies too.

Still waiting on the frag tank skimmer, but I'm going to start doing frequent water changes on the tank until it's online. I don't want the clams getting too funky from whatever is growing in there that hasn't been able to be skimmed out.

Livestock wise, my tailspot blenny is not doing well at all, eye infection in both and they don't look to be getting any better. It's about day eight I believe, and he has been in QT on the triple threat antibiotic treatment for six days now, so I hope it works out. One of the blue star leopards has burried for a few days, hoping it's not toast either. I backed off the copper levels to see if that is the issue, the other one is 100% normal. I also plan on moving the Midas blenny and Social wrasse into the new DT once the water clears, so that should cut down on the amount of tanks running and the work it's taking to keep everything juggled.

Kyl · Jan 20, 2018

The cemented arch failed in the middle, it must have shifted while curing or the cat bumped into it.. but it will still work once seated in the tank. Soaking for a day already and the second bucket of RO looked very clear so it's going in the tank tomorrow. I had put some frags of a hammer, the red plating monti and pulsing xenia into the tank on Wednesday night to test the waters so to speak, and everything looks very happy.

new_arch_2 by Kyl, on Flickr

QT wise the tailspot blenny is showing improvements in one of the eyes, but the reclusive blue star leopard was dead on the bottom of the tank when I got home today. It's side looked very caved in, wondering if the other one was beating on it while I was away during the daytime and that's why it was hiding so much. At any rate, copper levels are going back up, the remaining one is still eating very well and acting 100% normal.

Equipment wise the Aquaticlife T5 hybrid fixtures became available up North here today so I ordered the 48" version. There are still no A160 mount plates in retail yet, but it wasn't going to be an instant setup in the first place. Going to have to figure a way to mount it, I have a feeling the Kalax shelving above the tank will have to go, and possibly some DIY metal arms made to suspend the ~20lbs 20" from the wall to center.

Finally the clams seem to be doing well, mantles extended and very responsive to flow changes / shadows / walking near the tank. I ended up putting two SW-4's in the frag tank, got the refugium lighting set up (the old JBJ nano glow I tried out on the fusion 10), and put the large piece of dragons breath macro that came with the clams along with a chunk of chaeto. The flow through the 10g sump is perfect and it's tumbling like mad.

Light at the end of the tunnel!

Kyl · Jan 23, 2018

stocked by Kyl, on Flickr

Rocks, frags and fish. I guess this means it's officially an online reef tank. Planning on moving the last major pieces most likely on Wednesday. I want to give the Midas some more time to get used to the tank after putting it in yesterday. It hid under the left base of the arch, but was swimming around when I got home from work today. This evening after feeding, both it and the Social wrasse were sticking close together cruising around the tank.

All the coral so far is fully extending, SG of 1.026 and temp 78º F are a direct match between the tanks. Alk is a bit higher (10 vs 8.7) with calcium lower (370 vs 410) being a fresh IO mix. I'm doing one last water change on the 20 tomorrow to bump the alk up a bit more and lessen the shock on the remaining SPS.

Once the 20 is finally offline I can move the frag tank to the apex, then the next project is to mod the blackbox lights for 0-10v dimming. Still debating if I should retro T5 the frag tank as well eventually, but my upgrade budget is pretty much spent.

At least with this expensive therapy, I get to keep the results and don't have to book an appointment

Kyl · Jan 23, 2018

FTS_January_2018 by Kyl, on Flickr

FTS

I have learned one thing with this tank, unfortunately the glass scratches very easily! The frag racks from the 20 I put in last night have caused small faint scratch lines on the front.. I'm not sure if it can be corrected, but you can't see them unless looking almost strait down from the top.. thankfully. So no frag racks will be going on this tank ever, and for the initial propagation I'll keep them on the sand.

What's left at this point is getting the GSP off the rear of the 20 wall, along with a chunk of xenia. I'm not sure how the best way is to affix the GSP to the rear of this tank, I might just use some tunze magnets on the edges to hold it to the glass till it adheres. The only things left in the 20 are some clean up crew, the palythoa which I'm hesitant to put in this tank, and the pistol shrimp wherever it is, if still alive.

The major to-do is transfer the apex and tunze ATO over tomorrow, get more of the sand in and start work on mounting everything in the cabinet. All the livestock seem to be doing fine so far, hoping the RBTA stays in place.

Kyl · Jan 25, 2018

The DT and the frag tank are now both fully transferred to the Apex, and the ATO was hooked up to the DT as well. Before the weekend the Jebao harness for the frag tank SW-4 power heads, some black egg-crate that snaps together as well for the frag tank, along with the 48" T5 hybrid fixture will arrive,. I can't use the fixture yet as the A160 plates noted earlier haven't been released, but I am going to assemble it to try and figure out a mounting option that works. Unfortunately it looks like some of the equipment will need some extension cords, at least the skimmer and heater. It does look like everything will fit perfectly in the cabinet, much like it all fit in the double-cabinet stand the 20 has been sitting on.

As for the 20, I'm giving debate to what will happen to it. The 10 I'm most definitely going to try and sell locally, it has zero use value anymore and the stand is sort of shot from water creep during the last few months, but the 20 is pristine and keeps giving me puppy dog eyes not to abandon it. It's not going to be another salt tank, I'm done with the maintenance required on the AIO for that route, but fresh water shrimp seem to be an interesting avenue, not to mention a rather low expense option to keep something going eventually.

Kyl · Jan 26, 2018

So I had been keeping an eye on the anemone since the move, it didn't look right for the last day or so. Today I came home and my anemone was gone.. but in it's place there were now two anemones!

anemone_split by Kyl, on Flickr

I had read about stress events causing them to clone / split, and I guess the transfer from the nano tank triggered it. I'm going to keep both of them in the tank for now, and if it splits again then one can finally go in my 65g. Right now the clowns are staying around the smaller one on the left, and the anemone shrimp has taken back to residing in the larger one.

The final piece of the hardware puzzle also arrived today, so now both the 60 and the frag tank have a set of SW-4's apex controlled. Always remember to update new modules, it wasn't working properly with the 0-10v until I remembered to check the firmware on it.

The checklist for things is getting shorter, and I'm hoping in about a month or so things will be 100% finished and hands off. What's left to do:

Mount an intake fan and the vent grill on both side panels
Route the wiring out of the stand rear plywood cap, separated for probes and power.
Move the DOS over from the nano tank
Set up the H150M refugium light
Peel the remaining GSP off the nano acrylic back wall and attempt to adhere it to the rear some how
Order the A160 brackets for the AquaticLife T5 hybrid lamp next month
Figure out a mounting system for the hybrid fixture
Get the gyres dialed in
Add another bag or so of sand
Get the sump bulkhead plate sanded down and attached and re-plumb the primary drains

Nothing that will impact the function of the tank at this stage, it's been so much less stressful since moving the livestock over, to the point I was able to shut down two holding tanks, and the nano effectively too.