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DigitalWeight
03-18-2013, 02:02 AM
I am 9 months into this hobby and can't believe how much fun it is (and freakin' expensive - don't tell my wife). I am starting this journal to try to get some sort of timeline that will show my progress over time. As I do, please chime in with your comments, suggestions, and criticisms as I want to learn as much as possible.

That is what I love about this - I work a pretty stressful job and this hobby is a great release from that. It is relaxing in the way that it is all consuming. I wouldn't call it a passive hobby; it requires constant learning, attention, but the rewards are pretty cool.

So, 9 months ago I went nano. Wish I would have gone bigger at the time but who knew. One day I am sure I will upgrade but that time is not now (see wife above).

Equipement:

28 Gallon AquaEuroUSA AIO Nano with lid removed so I can use the EcoTech lights
Homemade Arcylic Cover for AIO built in sump
Matching Stand
JBJ ATO
TLF 150 Phosban Reactor running GFO and Carbon
Slim Skim Nano Protein Skimmer
BRS 4 Stage RO/DI System - 75 GPD
VorTech Propeller Pump - MP10 ES
EcoTech Radion Gen 2 LED Lights

Tank Readings:
Temp: 80
Calcium: 480
kH: 8.0
Mag: 1250
Salinity: 1.026
Ammonia: 0
Nitrites: 0
Nitrates: 5 (need to get this down)

Next Steps:

1. Build a DIY sump that will fit in the new Ikea cabinet that I built just for this purpose (more on that later).

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8387/8566413779_57e1413f62.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566413779/)

Some Pics:

Here is where I am at today (first shot is 9 months ago). Still trying to figure out the best way to take pics (need to learn from Kien - that dude is the master) and ignore the particles in the water - moved some stuff around earlier and the tank was still settling.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8242/8566403693_db8981816b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566403693/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8089/8567502548_028fcb4851.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8567502548/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8240/8567510970_bf8f4908c7.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8567510970/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8247/8566410179_c4de6e01ba.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566410179/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8522/8566405013_b83f65997f.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566405013/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8531/8566405215_10f1bf8f1b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566405215/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8566405495_a2fb52089e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566405495/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8107/8566405691_9990602a6b.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566405691/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8085/8567503710_77a55e8444.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8567503710/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8388/8567504052_85f8153c81.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8567504052/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8386/8566406667_89f9d5ee5c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566406667/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8370/8567504524_c52a1a926c.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8567504524/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8371/8566407455_894a295060.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566407455/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8382/8566407961_c07e18d2be.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566407961/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8378/8566408291_10f6d607ed.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566408291/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8249/8567506100_fe129b0fc6.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8567506100/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8109/8566408723_afd55cf588.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566408723/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8243/8566408923_9c79faf8bf.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566408923/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8095/8566409131_8a3424fedc.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566409131/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8387/8567507054_581f1fc3c2.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8567507054/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8388/8567507278_3677a1242a.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8567507278/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8525/8567507522_d2de417878.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8567507522/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8373/8566410517_249e526245.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566410517/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8107/8566410819_db483d3456.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566410819/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8110/8566411481_20642d2cc3.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566411481/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8390/8566411835_5690969687.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566411835/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8368/8566412191_c2c7b27c63.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566412191/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8226/8567510138_fd51c64445.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8567510138/)

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8086/8566413137_4faae6f195.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8566413137/)

kien
03-18-2013, 05:10 AM
Looking good. That little cube is going to fill in nicely. :-)

We all wish that it was bigger but what can ya do..

Goatman
03-18-2013, 05:30 AM
Looking good. That little cube is going to fill in nicely. :-)

We all wish that it was bigger but what can ya do..

too easy Kien.....:twised:


That is most assuredly a mighty fine tank you have there DigitalWeight

DigitalWeight
03-19-2013, 01:06 AM
I tee'd up the bigger joke nicely! Well played guys!

Ok, I am planning the sump I am going to build. First time doing this, and after some research I have come up with the attached design. This is going to sit in the cabinet beside the tank so will need to plan the plumbing next (stayed tuned!)

It is a 29 gallon sump which I think should be a good size. Here are my question that I need to answer - if you have any suggestions please let me know:

1. Baffles - the height of the sump is 19" and the two sets of bubble traps has the middle baffle at 16" with 1" off the bottom. Each outside baffle is 14" and go right to the bottom. I am paranoid about flooding so want to make sure the baffle height is right from that perspective.

2. My skimmer is a Reef Octopus NWB110 4" pinwheel - the drawing is based on dimensions. Have I left enough room on either side?

3. I am going to attach a BRS GFO and Carbon reactor - this will go in the skimmer section I think.

4. I am going to get a BRS Biopellet reactor - is that ok to feed and drain into the fuge section.

5. Debating using a UV filter I have had from my freshwater days. Not sure where this will go, but thinking in the skimmer section as well?

6. The inlet area I plan to make a media tray with filter floss and purigen in there.

That is the plan as of now - any comments, suggestions on the above questions, or things I am missing I would appreciate your feedback.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8232/8570785562_90e5c967c7.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8570785562/)

kien
03-19-2013, 01:57 AM
What is your purpose for the refugium? If you run bioPellets in conjunction with a refugium you may find that macro algaes will struggle to grow in there.

DigitalWeight
03-19-2013, 02:35 AM
Right, because the sole purpose of a fuge is nutrient transport and the removal of nitrates. Looking through your tank journal, looks like you went with pellets over having a fuge. Is one method deemed as better than the other?

kien
03-19-2013, 02:50 AM
Right, because the sole purpose of a fuge is nutrient transport and the removal of nitrates. Looking through your tank journal, looks like you went with pellets over having a fuge. Is one method deemed as better than the other?

Well, I wouldn't necessarily say that it's the sole purpose of a fuge. A lot of people set up fuges to help grow/culture pods as well. Mind you I haven't found a need to run a fuge to grow additional pods either. They seem to do a fine job populating my DT even with strict pod hunters like my three pipefish and Mandarin.

Ya, version 1.0 of my sump had a fuge because I planned on that being my nutrient export method. I quickly found that chaeto didn't grow all that well In there tho (for reasons unknown to me). And then 6 months later BioPellets came out and I gave them a shot. They pretty much worked for me right away. It was at that time that I decided I no longer needed a fuge so scrapped my sump and built a new one without a fuge in favour of a larger reactor chamber to house a larger BioPellet reactor.

Anyway, lots of people use fuges with success but if you already plan to run BioPellets you may be negating a fuges nutrient export function.

Mike-fish
03-19-2013, 02:55 AM
your skimmer chamber is probably way to deep check that against the specs for it

DigitalWeight
03-19-2013, 03:03 AM
:twised: At the risk of derailing my sump questions above, I had to tell a tale of my adventure. I have been suffering from a good sized brown hairy crab in my tank that I picked up somewhere along the way. I was dealing with him, but getting more and more frustrated as my cleaner crew kept going missing and there were broken up shells all over the place.

The last straw was last week when my cleaner shrimp, which was the oldest inhabitant in my tank, got its ass kicked and succumbed to this beast.

So I tried the bottle trap trick, the glass jar trick, and even tried to bait it with a net in the hope that I would be able to humanely dispose of him to one of the stores in town. Alas, it was too quick or too smart for me.

Tonight though I triumphed. I found one of his hiding spots and flushed him out with a coat hanger and chased him around the tank for a good 45 minutes. I think I tired him out and all his usual hiding spots felt no longer safe. He ended up coming out into a clearing when I impelled him with a shish kabob skewer. Here is the photographic evidence.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8248/8571016662_17d5995571.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8571016662/)

Feel kinda bad for him, but he was not very nice to me or my other tank inhabitants. Good riddance....

P.S. My wife is ****ed and I am no longer allowed to take any more kitchen utensils for use with the tank.

kien
03-19-2013, 03:15 AM
Nice. I keep a skewer on my euro brace for this reason. I've hunted a lot of these guys over the years and I think I'm down to my last two. I see them at night with a flashlight but they're a bitch to catch. They sense the skewer hit the water and they're gone into the rock.

DigitalWeight
03-19-2013, 03:27 AM
your skimmer chamber is probably way to deep check that against the specs for it

Good point - the skimmer is only 19.75" high. Does that mean I should lower the first set of baffles then - how would I accommodate the height of the sump to keep the water level lower in that first chamber? Based on the info for the skimmer, the deepest level of water the skimmer can sit in is 10" and the shallowest is 6".

Mike-fish
03-19-2013, 03:46 AM
i would set the bubble trap baffles at 8.5" then the way you want to have the sump start with the deepest water chamber first in order of the flow path

kien
03-19-2013, 03:46 AM
Good point - the skimmer is only 19.75" high. Does that mean I should lower the first set of baffles then - how would I accommodate the height of the sump to keep the water level lower in that first chamber? Based on the info for the skimmer, the deepest level of water the skimmer can sit in is 10" and the shallowest is 6".

Your skimmer should have as part of its product specification a recommended water depth for optimum performance. You can easily find this out by reading the product spec. That will tell you how deep to submerge the skimmer.

If the current skimmer section is too deep you have two options. 1. Drop the height of the water or 2. Simply elevate the skimmer into a platform using egg crate or some such thing. Keep in mind the additional cabinet clearance to raise the skimmer tho. You don't want to make it difficult to remove the skimmer cup!

If you decide you want to drop the water level of the skimmer section (and you still want to keep your fuge, you can swap your return and fuge section in your diagram. From left to right it would be, Fuge-bubble trap-return-bubble trap-skimmer. With the return in the middle all three sections can be independent heights. However, doing it this way means you will have to send an additional drain line to the refugium. Just T off the main drain line and send some water to the refugium and some to the skimmer.

I guess if you didn't want to do it this way another option is to swap the fuge and skimmer sections. From left to right: return-bubble trap-skimmer-bubble trap-fuge. Drain the tank into the fuge and water flows and drops to skimmer and then flows and drops to return section.

daplatapus
03-19-2013, 04:08 AM
You mentioned you were concerned about flooding. A very legitimate concern with sumps when power fails and you get water flooding back into the sump. Looking at the spec of that tank I think it is 20" wide X 18 long. If you lose the top 2" of water and the volume of the overflows your looking at somewhere around 3 gallons+ of water. There's 231 cubic inches per gallon so it's fairly easy to figure out roughly how much will make it back to the sump. Just make sure you have that room in cubic inches above the operating water line in your sump + a bit for margin of error. Freaky the first time you do it, but you get comfortable with it quick.

As far as the skimmer goes, it's nice to keep the water volume so sitting your skimmer on egg crate works well to lift the skimmer. I cut 3" abs pipe to 6" lengths to lift mine then drilled the sides with a bunch of 2" holes so water wouldn't get trapped inside them. With the holes in the side, water flows through them.

To save a bit of room I only put 2 baffles between the skimmer and the next chamber. Personally I think the first baffle in the skimmer section is redundant and unnecessary. This is when I was leak testing mine:
http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x353/daplatapus/newsump2.jpg

The chamber on the left that's holding water is my skimmer chamber. Notice only 2 baffles. I also only put 2 baffles in the next chamber, but if you wanted your refugium with sand there, you'd have to have 3 like you have in your schematic to hold the sand in place.

DigitalWeight
03-20-2013, 12:08 AM
You mentioned you were concerned about flooding. A very legitimate concern with sumps when power fails and you get water flooding back into the sump. Looking at the spec of that tank I think it is 20" wide X 18 long. If you lose the top 2" of water and the volume of the overflows your looking at somewhere around 3 gallons+ of water. There's 231 cubic inches per gallon so it's fairly easy to figure out roughly how much will make it back to the sump. Just make sure you have that room in cubic inches above the operating water line in your sump + a bit for margin of error. Freaky the first time you do it, but you get comfortable with it quick.

As far as the skimmer goes, it's nice to keep the water volume so sitting your skimmer on egg crate works well to lift the skimmer. I cut 3" abs pipe to 6" lengths to lift mine then drilled the sides with a bunch of 2" holes so water wouldn't get trapped inside them. With the holes in the side, water flows through them.

To save a bit of room I only put 2 baffles between the skimmer and the next chamber. Personally I think the first baffle in the skimmer section is redundant and unnecessary. This is when I was leak testing mine:
http://i1177.photobucket.com/albums/x353/daplatapus/newsump2.jpg

The chamber on the left that's holding water is my skimmer chamber. Notice only 2 baffles. I also only put 2 baffles in the next chamber, but if you wanted your refugium with sand there, you'd have to have 3 like you have in your schematic to hold the sand in place.


Thanks for the feedback - I appreciate the calculation for flooding - I will need to work that into the design.

In terms of two or three baffles I have read both sides of the argument. I think what I should do is lay everything out when it comes in and decide from there. If I have room, I would more than likely go with three baffles before the return to minimize the bubbles entering the DT. Does that sound like a reasonable option?

DigitalWeight
03-20-2013, 12:17 AM
Your skimmer should have as part of its product specification a recommended water depth for optimum performance. You can easily find this out by reading the product spec. That will tell you how deep to submerge the skimmer.

If the current skimmer section is too deep you have two options. 1. Drop the height of the water or 2. Simply elevate the skimmer into a platform using egg crate or some such thing. Keep in mind the additional cabinet clearance to raise the skimmer tho. You don't want to make it difficult to remove the skimmer cup!

If you decide you want to drop the water level of the skimmer section (and you still want to keep your fuge, you can swap your return and fuge section in your diagram. From left to right it would be, Fuge-bubble trap-return-bubble trap-skimmer. With the return in the middle all three sections can be independent heights. However, doing it this way means you will have to send an additional drain line to the refugium. Just T off the main drain line and send some water to the refugium and some to the skimmer.

I guess if you didn't want to do it this way another option is to swap the fuge and skimmer sections. From left to right: return-bubble trap-skimmer-bubble trap-fuge. Drain the tank into the fuge and water flows and drops to skimmer and then flows and drops to return section.

Ok, so now I am torn between going with a fuge or the pellets. One thing I am thinking is just do a section with live rock and sand and have all the reactors feeding into that section. There would be more turbulence but from a pod perspective that would be ok I think I have read.

In which section do your reactors work in - how do you have that set up?

daplatapus
03-20-2013, 01:38 AM
Thanks for the feedback - I appreciate the calculation for flooding - I will need to work that into the design.

In terms of two or three baffles I have read both sides of the argument. I think what I should do is lay everything out when it comes in and decide from there. If I have room, I would more than likely go with three baffles before the return to minimize the bubbles entering the DT. Does that sound like a reasonable option?
Sounds totally reasonable. If you have another section (refugium or whatever) between your skimmer and return pump section, I doubt any bubbles would make it that far. I can more readily see the need for 3 baffles if your skimmer is beside the return chamber.
Looks like you're well on your way, keep it up. Learning about all this stuff is half the fun :)

DigitalWeight
03-23-2013, 11:17 PM
Received the Hanna Phosphate Checker in the mail yesterday and gave it a go today. Even though I am running GFO I have suspected my phosphate was a bit high as I seem to be dealing with some brown algae in the tank.

The tank is not even a year old yet so there are going to continue to be some settling in. I use RO/DI water which my TDS meter is reading at 001 which is good but perhaps some over feeding along with the frozen stuff I am feeding are contributing to that.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8227/8584403486_b85ac5f022.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8584403486/)

This things is pretty easy to use. However, a couple of things I learned as it took two tests to get to the results.

1. Make sure you dry the outside of the test tube before you put it in the reader. When I didn't dry it, I got an error of not enough light. This went away when I made sure it was dry.

2. Get everything set up before you do the test. You only have so much for the second step of the test and the unit will shut off if you take too long which will mean that test is over, wasting your reagent. The biggest part is making sure the reagent package is cut and ready for you to dump into then test tube.

3. Don't cut the reagent opening too big. It is a pain in the a$$ to put the powder into the test tube. Keep it smaller - like half a centimeter - so you can pour it easier.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8519/8584425202_9fc5520c9e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8584425202/)

So, my reading was high. 0.31 on the LED display - I want 0.04 or less!

It had been about 40 days since I changed my GFO so I promptly did that and will test in a couple days to see if it is lower. I also used a bit more to see if that helps. I am going to cut down on feeding as well to see if that helps.

I liked this thing - it was easy to use and less tedious than going drop by drop and waiting for a magical colour change.

If there are other ideas on what leads to high phosphates let me know!

DigitalWeight
03-24-2013, 07:56 PM
Received the Hanna Phosphate Checker in the mail yesterday and gave it a go today. Even though I am running GFO I have suspected my phosphate was a bit high as I seem to be dealing with some brown algae in the tank.

The tank is not even a year old yet so there are going to continue to be some settling in. I use RO/DI water which my TDS meter is reading at 001 which is good but perhaps some over feeding along with the frozen stuff I am feeding are contributing to that.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8227/8584403486_b85ac5f022.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8584403486/)

This things is pretty easy to use. However, a couple of things I learned as it took two tests to get to the results.

1. Make sure you dry the outside of the test tube before you put it in the reader. When I didn't dry it, I got an error of not enough light. This went away when I made sure it was dry.

2. Get everything set up before you do the test. You only have so much for the second step of the test and the unit will shut off if you take too long which will mean that test is over, wasting your reagent. The biggest part is making sure the reagent package is cut and ready for you to dump into then test tube.

3. Don't cut the reagent opening too big. It is a pain in the a$$ to put the powder into the test tube. Keep it smaller - like half a centimeter - so you can pour it easier.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8519/8584425202_9fc5520c9e.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8584425202/)

So, my reading was high. 0.31 on the LED display - I want 0.04 or less!

It had been about 40 days since I changed my GFO so I promptly did that and will test in a couple days to see if it is lower. I also used a bit more to see if that helps. I am going to cut down on feeding as well to see if that helps.

I liked this thing - it was easy to use and less tedious than going drop by drop and waiting for a magical colour change.

If there are other ideas on what leads to high phosphates let me know!

Did another test today after changing out my GFO yesterday. Got a reading of 0.00 now. Ran the test twice (have to stop doing that - going to cost a fortune). Lesson: change the GFO sooner.

zhasan
03-24-2013, 09:41 PM
Nice tank! I like the progress you've made in less than a year!! I hope I can get to half that mark in the same timeframe!

Seems like this Hanna phosphate checker is a worthwhile investment! I was looking into buying one of those and lately been reading good reviews about them! It'll be on my checkout list tonight :mrgreen:!!

I'm wondering about GFO and maybe you can help. I'm thinking of ordering this stuff (http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-bulk-gfo-granular-ferric-oxide.html) from BRS. I'm not too sure how much to use at a time or how much 1 or 2 lbs will last me. I'm sure it varies from tank to tank but whats the general rule of thumb?

daplatapus
03-24-2013, 10:43 PM
I'm wondering about GFO and maybe you can help. I'm thinking of ordering this stuff (http://www.bulkreefsupply.com/brs-bulk-gfo-granular-ferric-oxide.html) from BRS. I'm not too sure how much to use at a time or how much 1 or 2 lbs will last me. I'm sure it varies from tank to tank but whats the general rule of thumb?

IME there's a big difference in the regular stuff and the High Capacity stuff. I tried the regular in an effort to save a bit, but ended up going through it way faster and I believe ended up costing me more in the long run.

DigitalWeight
03-24-2013, 11:24 PM
IME there's a big difference in the regular stuff and the High Capacity stuff. I tried the regular in an effort to save a bit, but ended up going through it way faster and I believe ended up costing me more in the long run.

Agree, the high capacity stuff seems to last longer than the regular. I have been impressed with it.

DigitalWeight
03-26-2013, 08:26 PM
In anticipation of the new sump I am building, I just received my new sump in the mail. It is a Reef Octopus NW110 - I fit it into the 29 gallon sump tank and it does take some good room but now that I have it I can start to really plan out how big each section is. Anyone have experience with this sump and can provide any tips/tricks?

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8513/8592529899_2b848a9086.jpg (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeremymcneil/8592529899/)

DigitalWeight
04-01-2013, 03:30 AM
Well, it happened. After much deliberation, promising my wife some new Tory Burch shoes, and a total excitement for the hobby I just put in an order with Denny at Concept for a 48x24x24 120 gallon tank. Once things get started I will post a new build thread basically to docuement the journey. First step will be to build the stand......

DigitalWeight
04-02-2013, 01:33 AM
:sad::sad: Sucks today as when I got home my clam died. I noticed it acting a bit weird yesterday as the mantel was not reacting as it usually does. I inspected it and didn't see anything overly strange with it. My hope was that it was reacting to something and it would pass - rookie mistake.

Did a water test and it checks out ok:

Am: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 15
Cal: 485
kH: 7.28
Mg: 1310
Salinity: 1.026

Research suggests that this can happen, but it still sucks. I won't add another one until the new tank is set up and established.