Mattgsa 315 gallon build

[Dj City]

Some of the sand I ordered came in today. I also ordered and administered my first dose of Live rock enhance. I have not quite decided how I'm going to add the sand to the system, but I will work on that.

Get a tube or length of pvc pipe. Put the pipe into the tank so the end is at the bottom. Pour the sand down the pipe to the bottom of the tank.

 

[mattgsa]

Get a tube or length of pvc pipe. Put the pipe into the tank so the end is at the bottom. Pour the sand down the pipe to the bottom of the tank.

This is a great idea, I'm putting all the sand in the sump, however, I do want it to look nice.

 

[Dj City]

This is a great idea, I'm putting all the sand in the sump, however, I do want it to look nice.

Sump or display, this method will stop sand from being EVERYWHERE!

 

[GBRsouth]

Some of the sand I ordered came in today. I also ordered and administered my first dose of Live rock enhance. I have not quite decided how I'm going to add the sand to the system, but I will work on that.

Get a tube or length of pvc pipe. Put the pipe into the tank so the end is at the bottom. Pour the sand down the pipe to the bottom of the tank.

This^^! Great advice Dj City!

 

[mattgsa]

This^^! Great advice Dj City!

Done, can we say cloudy tank. I bought 120 pounds of sand, however, I think I can only fit 80 in the sump. So it looks like i will have to send a bag back.

 

[mattgsa]

I'm having trouble with the AE ACR, so I'm looking into making this and feeding with a dosing pump. Which sucks when thinking of the amount of money I spent on that thing.

Source This is not my picture, it was taken by @Dennis Cartier I'm just not sure about all the parts and the complete setup.

 

[mattgsa]

My ALK continues to jump all over the place. it goes from 7.6 to 8.6. That is way too much of a swing. My Mag is 1410.
I'm dosing Kalk with a doser, and there are only one or two half-living corals in the tank with almost no Coraline algae.

 

[GBRsouth]

Do you test at the same time of day every time? (If not same time of day that might partially explain the swing.) And what tester are you using?

 

[mattgsa]

Do you test at the same time of day every time? (If not same time of day that might partially explain the swing.) And what tester are you using?

They are done around the same time. I'm going to hold off on taking any action right now. Since the corals in the tank are mostly dead. However, I am planing on getting a Trident to help track Alk in the future. I am also considering letting the trident control the dosing, however, I have heard arguments both ways on that, and I'm not sure which path is best at this time.

I was doing a little PAR testing on the tank today, and noticed that I'm get 320 PAR at the bottom of the tank, and 326 in the middle of the tank. I'm not sure how I'm getting such even distribution at the different depths in the tank.

 

[mattgsa]

I'm having trouble with the AE ACR, so I'm looking into making this and feeding with a dosing pump. Which sucks when thinking of the amount of money I spent on that thing.

Source This is not my picture, it was taken by @Dennis Cartier I'm just not sure about all the parts and the complete setup.

I have ordered all the necessary parts to build a new regulator for my ACR, and a dosing pump. I will keep you posted on my progress.

 

[mattgsa]

Look what came in the mail. Still waiting on several other parts

 

[mattgsa]

For the last couple of days, my tank keeps climbing in temp, and I don't know why. To my knowledge, nothing has changed, and I keep my house at 75 or below. I have verified the temp with a nest validated thermometer.

 

[GBRsouth]

Maybe your a/c has a difference between the temp it's set to come on and the temp it's set to rest?

 

[mattgsa]

Maybe your a/c has a difference between the temp it's set to come on and the temp it's set to rest?

You might be right, I have my thermostat set to 75 but the house temp was 77 when i got home. So I ordered two of these. I don't know if they will make any difference on the tank but we are going to find out.

 

[mattgsa]

Alight so I put some fans in the tank room. One point in the sump, and one just to move the air around the room. This due to the fact the tank got up to almost 81 degrees today. I'm going to leave the fans on all night and all day tomorrow and see what happens with the temp. The wife is already talking about getting a chiller for the tank.

 

[mattgsa]

I also messed up today, again. The tank was sitting at 7.6 DKH, and I decided to get it up to 8.5, I thought I put in the right amount. However, when I tested again the tank was at 9.7 DKH. :mad: It's been a challenge tying to get the Alk stable on this tank. I'm looking forward to having the calrx online and running. I'm hoping that it will keep the tank a lot more stable. I have decided I'm not going to buy any more corals until I learn to control the ALK better with the CalRX.

 

[mattgsa]

Well, the good news is, last night I put a couple of fans I found in the garage, and I brought down the temp to 77.

 

[mattgsa]

I also messed up today, again. The tank was sitting at 7.6 DKH, and I decided to get it up to 8.5, I thought I put in the right amount. However, when I tested again the tank was at 9.7 DKH. :mad: It's been a challenge tying to get the Alk stable on this tank. I'm looking forward to having the calrx online and running. I'm hoping that it will keep the tank a lot more stable. I have decided I'm not going to buy any more corals until I learn to control the ALK better with the CalRX.

After testing the tank today, I think this reading was in error. Because I have very little to anything consuming ALK right now in the tank, plus I'm dosing Kalk, and my reading today was at 8.6 DKH. I just don't see my tank consuming that much ALK in a day. Which I'm hoping means I didn't screw up.

I was able to get a little work done on the tank. I cleaned the skimmer and the filter sock and got a these installed to turn on and off the cabinet lights, along with other I'm just not sure what right now.

I just need to work on getting that wire tucked away, but for now it goes with the rest of the tank. LOL

 

[mattgsa]

I have also decided to redo my ATO. Right now I have to run a hose from the garage to the ato container every week to refill it. Well that has gotten old. So I ordered a uniseal and some other plumbing parts, and I'm going to siphon feed the ATO container with a float valve. I will also put a solenoid on the line as a backup with a float switch mounted just above the float valve, and in case that fails a water sensor on the floor. That way if either are tripped the water supply is cut off. I wonder if I put it all in a water tight five gallon bucket in the event all safety measures fail would the lid to the bucket keep it from over flowing? Since there are no pump or water pressure other than just the force of the equilibrium. I think I will need to experiment.

 

[mattgsa]

Working on programming the other toggle switch to turn off the skimmer so it can be maintained. However, I can't seem to get the code to work.

Set ON
If Output Returpump = OFF Then OFF
Defer 005:00 Then ON
If skimsh = OPEN Then OFF