2 x 250W heaters running all night didn't even warm the tank up from 67 F. I cranked the heaters to maximum, added another 150W of heaters, and turned the MHs on all day...

After 10 hours, I'm up to 76 F.

I may need bigger heaters, but once the lights are hitting rock things might behave differently.

Black Box
 

Today, I built a black box. (Yes, I know what you are thinking...this just gets more exciting everyday!)

Soon, this black box will actually be interesting because it will house the tank's Aquatronica brain....and I have some pretty cool plans for this...trust me.

http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0095.jpg

I think I may just be building stuff for no reason just to avoid taking the possibly heartbreaking step of actually putting life into the tank!

Is it an acrylic box?

Yes, smoky black acrylic. I'm no acrylic expert, that's for sure...but it will do the job I need it to do.

Well that's a darn nice black box:biggrin: Now get on with the process of getting some life in that tank! Why should you be spared the heartache that the rest of us have to suffer through with this dang hobby:mrgreen:
Seriously this is a great thread and your tank is going to be amazing with life in it.

Here's the results of the salt measurements:

Mg: 1350ppm
Ca: 440ppm
Alk: 3.0 meq/L or 8.3dKH

Those are certainly better numbers that I ever got from Kent.

The water is clearing up. Tonight, I added 4 large, very dead, tiger prawns. There is a bucket of bio-balls under one of the overflows. I'm going to cycle the tank using these bio-balls, so that when the LR comes in, there will be some bacterial support for the new rock.

Once the tank is stable following the LR addition, I'll remove the bio-balls.

Meanwhile, I've solved most of my skimmer problems. Capping my gate valve mod made it a lot quieter, and had the side effect of lowering the foam level to the point where the gate valve could now control it. I've never seen it recommended that you cap off the top of the gate valve mod, but it is working perfectly in this case. I'm going to have to glue the cone to the skimmer body because that seal just leaks too much for my taste.

Since I'll have some time to wait, I can start working on that black box...

If you don't mind me asking, where do you get your acrylic from? Do you pay for it or just search in th scrap bins? I ask because I don't live far from you (Port Moody)

The small acrylic work that I've been doing has always been from small scrap pieces. There's an acrylic place on the East side of Boundary Rd...between 1st and Hastings. Sorry, I can't remember what it is called.

They have some nice selection of rods, tubes etc....and they generally have a box of scrap that I've used to find the pieces that I need. They've even cut a couple pieces for me. The scraps aren't free, but they are pretty cheap!

Fiber Tek, just North of Kitchener on Boundary Road.

Awesome looking set up if this is the first thing you've built you're a natural and I know I'm not the first to say it but, WOW you have done an excellent job.

Doug

I've made enough headway on the "Black Box" to provide an interesting update...so here goes.

The box is mounted on the wall above the primary sump. This also helps hide a few power cords for the skimmer, Ca reactor recirc, and light lifter.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0180.jpg

Inside the box is the main powerbar for the Aquatronica controller. The controller itself is also inside the box, along with all the connectors for pH, ORP or whatever else I may add in the future. For now, there is only a pH reading from the probe located in the Ca Reactor. The flash lit through the smoky black plexiglas and you can see the powerbar inside.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0181.jpg

The reason that the Aquatronica is hidden away is that I rarely ever have to access it. All the input is handled by a 15" Touchscreen display that is mounted on a swing arm directly in front/below the rear centre viewing area.
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0183.jpg

I won't attempt to turn this into a detailed discussion of the AQT controller or AQT software, but these are the things that the controller is going to be handling for now:

1) Heating/Cooling using 2 x 250W heaters and 4 fans

2) CO2 solenoid based on pH reading from the Ca Reactor

3) Ca Reactor flow rate via control of the Omega peristaltic pump

4) Movement of the lights up and down. (I need to do some more wiring to enable this, but once completed the controller will be able to start the lights in the morning at 2 feet off the tank surface and slowly lower them to the water surface for Noon...then back up again in the evening.

5) Kalk reactor flow rate via another Omega peristaltic pump that I have yet to purchase! (I haven't bought a Kalk reactor yet either!)
http://i142.photobucket.com/albums/r...n/100_0182.jpg

...Yes, the fish get to watch TV if they get bored.