OldSchool 225 build with some new twists.

[OldSchool Reefer]

How late does FedEx work and or what constitutes End of Day?

I have been waiting on a new shipment of VHO bulbs all day, and I can’t wait until I can try out the new combination! Each side of the fixture will have a 454 (Blue Plus) an Actinic a 75/25 and a 50/50. This should give me a peak daylight color in the 14 to 20K range. Hopefully they are delivered before the VHOs start to come on at 9am.

 

[400BA]

What a GREAT build and thread, OldSchool! I Love the light stand (“holder?” “Thinga-ma-jig?”). Keep up the good work, my friend!

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Thanks for the kind words! The light rack is ever evolving I'm in the middle of a partial re design to stiffen it up more for when the pivoting arm is finished! It will hang from the center point what will have to carry the entire load, design work is not final yet though so stay tuned!

 

[400BA]

Thanks for the kind words! The light rack is ever evolving I'm in the middle of a partial re design to stiffen it up more for when the pivoting arm is finished! It will hang from the center point what will have to carry the entire load, design work is not final yet though so stay tuned!

Will do!!

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

It’s funny how tastes change with time, my new VHO bulbs came in from UVL today and I thought I had a good combination but it was still too yellow The 454s were a nice touch and showed exactly how purple the Actinics were. The Actinic White (50/50 12k) with the Aquasun (10K) were just too white and so was the Actinic White with the 75/25 (14k) so I replaced them with the pair of Pure Actinics that I took out for the 454s. The color is closer to 14k but still could be bluer, that’s where the Radions will come in to bring out the UV and Blue tracks!
I still can’t take a decent picture and getting a true representation of light color is close to impossible but here you go! Outside to inside your 454, Actinic, Actinic then the 75/25 in the center!

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Crazy morning I hear a strange clunk I have never heard before. Upon inspection the Klir had ran out of fleece :mad: Taking the Klir out of the sump is a bit of a Pain and I knew if I caught it at the right time I could connect a fresh fleece and pull it through without taking it out of the sump. So as I’m getting ready to pull it out I see a blob of salt creep on the top from a dripping fitting:mad: and to top it all off Mobius wouldn’t identify any of my equipment so I couldn’t even turn off the pump to re tape the fitting Wonderful start of the day!

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Work on the light rack continues yesterday I got some gussets made for the odd angles of the 2020 Track.

Now that all the end pieces of 2020 track are secure it’s time to layout the end panels cut and fit them. Laid out the trim lines, screw holes and and headed to the shop to do some work.

Screws and T-nuts installed I’ll give it a shot but I know I’ll have to adjust a few holes so the nuts have room to rotate the rotating T-nuts can be tricky but the other option of sliding T-nuts and hitting them with the screws is almost impossible when you can’t see the nuts.

I still have to cut some 2020 Track and add gussets for hanging this monster but that will wait until the mount and long skins have ben bent and it all is back from the shop. I needed to finish the ends to get exact measurements for the bends to come out right so I dug up the old drawings for reference as to what I actually made. It’s kinda odd that I hadn’t looked at these drawings in months and still everything was within 1/16”

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Still battling low PH but when it’s 96° outside you just can’t afford to open up all the windows I have been looking hard into CO2 Scrubbers but the equipment seems to be pretty pricey for this experiment. I ordered the media from @Bulk Reef Supply and have an old water filter canister that I was thinking of using but it’s 3/4” inlet and outlet meant lots of fittings and adapters not to mention the Clear Refillable Cartridge I’d need. Looking around for an expedient canister I can use but most of the screw top jars would need one line to go to the bottom and with a packed media you couldn’t screw on the lid:mad: in steps @AlgaeBarn for the win. All I need to do is step drill 2 caps add 2 1/4” push connect bulkheads and pack some media into the bottle. The 16 oz bottle only holds a little more than half of the media but BRS sells a 32oz Bettix Bottle that should work perfect

PH is steady rising and almost 7.8 so I’ll take that as a Winn, but I’m looking at recirculating scrubber mods for my skimmer to conserve media. I’ll probably still run the 32oz Bettix Bottle no matter where the scrubber ends up! The weakest part of this concept is the paper gasket in the lids, I’m sure that there is a perfect rubber washer for this but I just cut some old inner tube for now.

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Work on the lights continue, I finalized the design and structural integrity issues except the mount attaching points, the mount is at the shop with all the rest of the parts ;Facepalm

They were supposed to be working on my stuff this weekend but we will see…. I’m good with local business being busy but I’m ready to move on with this portion of the build.
I drew up the center brace to accommodate a pair of 120mm PC fans down the road if need be. I’m not an electrical engineer in the least bit but I know a little about this stuff, I’m thinking I can run 2 12 volt fans in series off of an apex 24 volt port. I know I’m not the only one to try this I just haven’t found them yet!
I have the layout on the metal and it’s ready to go to the shop for some trimming and drilling!

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

So much for the technical part of the weekend, I added a few new occupants! Stopped by the LFS to see what’s shaking and see if anything on my list showed up! Right off the bat I was drug to the back to see what came in with a recent tear down, 2 large rocks covered in metallic blue Discosoma mushrooms. Not on my list but the price was next to nothing,I didn’t have room for both so I took the small one. Back up front to see if there was a Shrimp goby pair and I see these 4 cute faces pressed to the glass looking at me. There was a Randals goby but the Tiger shrimp was AWOL:mad: those dang Chalk Basses were still looking at me with those puppy dog eyes so they are coming home!

they are strikingly beautiful little fish with strange behavior once they settle in they will be a nice addition!
The shrooms have been dipped and will remain in the Mangrove tank until I’m sure that they are pest free, yes it’s all connected but killing aiptasia in the DT is a pain. Frank’s F Aiptasia works great but shutting down all the flow for 30 minutes is a bit much!

I know it’s risky with the possibility of these taking over a tank but I still have a warm spot for them from the early years of reefing. I’m not too concerned as I have plenty of light to keep them in check, actually I could never keep them going in my SPS tanks for decades!

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

pH trials continue, pumping outside air into the skimmer had minimal effect as did air stones and powerhead aeration the addition of the ghetto CO2 scrubber helped a little but I couldn’t push enough air through all that 3/16 airline. My pH would get to about 7.8 and drop to 7.6 at night then struggle all day to get back to 7.78. Yesterday afternoon I had seen enough and moved the scrubber inside and connected it directly to the 3/8 line feeding the skimmer it was like a rocket ship and it made it to low orbit!

I’ll be upgrading to the 32oz bottle and working on the recirculation mod in the coming days. The only hurtle to overcome is the Tunze anti blow the top off design where it draws air from an intermediate chamber so when the water level rises it sucks water instead of air shutting down the skimmer.

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Yesterday I got the Metal for the light mount and the skins for the pendant back from the shop. It’s time to get back to doing some dirty work. There is loads of cutting and grinding to do to the mount and arm parts, drilling the holes in the skins won’t take as long as doing the layout on the computer but I’m kinda anal like that!

Everything layed out and evenly spaced mark up the sheet metal and head to the shop. Except it’s too long for the drill press OldSchool to the rescue again.

Once all holes are drilled and and debured you gotta add some hardware.

After a little adjustments everything fits nicely.

Now that that’s done it’s time to work on connecting them together!

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Still plugging away at the light rack/ mount! The top center brace and pivot mount for the arm were in the lineup for today.

First I have to make room for the fans, and then lay out the mounting details.

The pivot mechanism has to come off so I can get the holes lined up with the center 2020 tracks to carry the load. Center drill and then through drill on the press.

Mount them all up and test for fit! Tomorrow the center brace goes to powder coating.

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Center brace came back from powder coating I had it done in white for a little light reflection and so it matches the panels. I’ll hit the top side with some rattle can oiled bronze to keep the color the same.

Cut the few remaining 2020 track sections and went to assemble it all together but I didn’t account for the paint thickness and the 5mm screws wouldn’t fit :mad: Simple fix redrill the holes;Facepalm

It all fits nicely now and is ready for installation, hopefully I won’t have to take the light rack down to do this.
The arm is about finished but needs a little adjustment to get it square with the mount and a few welds then off to power coating. I knew I was going to have to get a different bolt for the arm section that I shortened the pivot on but when I went to test the fit of the arm and mount I couldn’t find either of the bolts :mad: I looked everywhere, so now the hunt is on for 2 3/8 16 bolts with a 2 inch shoulder! There isn’t a button head hex shoulder bolt to be found anywhere, the closest thing with a 2” shoulder is a grade 8 hex that’s 3 inches it will need to be cut down so it’s not blocking the mounting bolts. Cut down bolts, bronze thrust washers installed and everything works as planned.

The saga of the missing bolt has concluded. OldSchool Tip; When you think you have looked everywhere…… check the dryer

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Center brace In place and screwed down.

I still have to instal a bunch of gussets but after I dropped a screw into the tank I stopped It will be much easier with it off and the lights off!

Not much left to do so I had better get to the welding shop so I can finish it up!

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Nothing to do while I’m Waiting on the mount and arm to be finished so I can get it to powder coating then installed. Plenty of time to Contemplate my pH issues. My highest pH for the last 2 weeks was 80.3 all of my highest levels were on days that the wife and I weren’t home for long periods of time. (CO2). pH drops nightly with reverse photo period refugium, algae production is barely noticeable, nitrate is 0.0 and Phosphate is 0.01 so that is to be expected.

I was discussing this with a friend and the subject of skimmer air draw came up and that maybe I should get a skimmer that drew more air than my Tunze…… I have an Orca 250 XL that isn’t being used. I searched the house this morning for my Dwyer meter to see how much air I was pulling.

Thats 48 SCFH at 50% cranked up it pulled almost 65. Pretty impressive for an 8 inch skimmer.
8 inch Tunze 9430 W/DC pinwheel pump

• Air flow performance: adjustable up to 1,800 l/h (476 US gal./h)
• Energy consumption: up to approx. 38W

The Orca 250.XL W/ Dart pump was replaced with the Regal 300EXT W/VarioS-6 S Pinwheel Pump Features:

• Air Draw: 1200-2400 LPH / 42-84 SCFH*
• Power Consumption: 35-70W

The Tunze almost matched 12 inch Regal 300 EXT so changing skimmers is out.

Feed heavy to get the nutrients up, grow loads of macro scrub as much CO2 as I can until fall comes when I can open some windows up is my only option at this point!

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Lots of things have happened since my last post, I’m still working on chemistry / pH issues and finishing my lighting mount. The rabbit hole goes deeper and deeper by the day!

Before we get deep into that saga first a few frags I picked up.
Purple Haze Montipora
Bali Green Slimer Acropora Yongei
Blue W/ Green Leptastrea (Stylocoeniella)
Rainbow Acan Lord
Tubbs Montipora Stellata

Chemistry; large pH swings from high CO2 is aggravated by deep nightly drops from lack of sufficient consumption and growth of macro algae in the fuge. The ghetto scrubber worked but just didn’t have the volume I needed so I broke down and bought the fittings I needed to convert an old water filter and recirculate the skimmer.
Trying to grow macro with 0.0 nitrate and phosphate is pointless. I turned off the carbon and GFO reactors a month ago and have Increased feedings to 3 times daily and When the Klir ran out of fleece I just let it be. Phosphate has been rising slowly but nitrate is still at 0.0. It’s time to dose some nitrate I guess.

Was in a LFS getting a few corals and brought up my PH struggles and they recommended Aquavitro Balance to raise pH without raising Alkalinity it will definitely raise the pH a full point but the effects aren’t long lasting.

I’m still dripping 2 gallons of Kalk daily and it’s getting old, I’m doing a lot of thinking about incorporating a Kalk stirrer into a large dosing container with 4 or 5 compartments for Ca, Alk, Mag, Kalk. The design is still preliminary but it will be 30”X20”X11” and hold about 25 gallons total.

The light mount squareness issues were corrected, disassembled, sanded then powder coate

It only weighs in at about 12 pounds but holding it overhead trying to find the best mounting position was a bear! Cardboard template a yardstick some masking tape a few squares and a plumb Bob will do the trick OldSchool to the rescue again!

I still have to add a half dozen gussets to the rack and raise the light then bolt them together but it all lines up as planned.

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

A big shout out to Chris Coriell @EcoTech Marine! One of my Radion XR15 Blues was experiencing some hum…… I’ll say issues. Theses were SkyNet level issues!

It decided to go it alone changed it’s serial number locked me out of möbius and decided it’s own photo period and spectrum, it even prevented me from doing a manual Factory reset ……seems that it had achieved self awareness

So I boxed it up and sent it in for repair, not to go into details but as soon as they got my old one in hand they had a new one shipped!

Thanks again

 

[OldSchool Reefer]

Well it’s swinging I Still have some gussets to add, finish the moon lights and fans add a new Radion XR15 and do the final leveling. There is a saying I learned in Army SERE school “Small victories”

Now that I can get my arm into the tank I guess I gotta clean the glass:mad: