Craig's Tank Journal

[craigwmiller]

Here is my water change regiment and rig.

While I was planning out the water changes, I had a couple rules in mind:
- The first rule about water changes is they must be easy or they won't happen regularly for weeks/months/years on end
- no towels should be required in preparation for a spill or even a drip
- no buckets to haul water
- slick & nerdy enough that it's actually kinda fun to do it, making me look forward to the process!

I'm changing roughly 8 gallons of water, every Sunday... here's how:

Rigging:
- RO/DI equipment (aquasafecanada.com 100GPD setup, which consistently makes water at 2 TDS post-RO and 0 TDS post-DI -- incoming water is 190-210 TDS)
- 32 gallon Brute (containing a 100W heater, circulation pump, and Mag-Drive 3 for transferring the water upstairs)
- ~75' of 1/2" clear PVC tubing to connect 4 locations together (with 6 shutoff valves to control where the water goes). Locations: sump/display, Brute, storage room access hose, basement bathroom sink drain (direct/permanent installation)

Process:
1. The Brute is first filled and heated to match tank temperature, and then salted to match tank salinity (currently using Fluval salt at the time of this writing)
2. Water is siphoned from the sump upstairs, directly to the drain under the basement bathroom sink. (siphon is always started from water remaining in the in-between-floor hose from the last change, but can be restarted easily via the access hose - hanging coiled up in the picture).
3. New water is then pumped from the Brute up into the sump.

[rhody605]

Very slick setup. I would like to implement some of your ideas into my upgrade.

Thanks for sharing.
Keep up the great work.

[craigwmiller]

Thanks all! It sure has been fun up till now, and the rewarding part is just beginning (though the build is sure very enjoyable).

I have some more tech aspects of the setup to write about, and then will start on the livestock/etc...

...but if anyone has any specific questions/etc please let me know.

Cheers!

[Madreefer]

Nice build. Ill be following along. I've heard but haven't seen anybody start a tank with the Zeo system right from the get go. I'm really interested in seeing how your tank progresses. Do you plan on running Zeo for a long term or are you planning on slowly dosing back until you no longer use it? I've always wondered if it is possible to do that.

[craigwmiller]

Thanks!

I am planning to keep with ZEO. The cost analysis shows it pretty reasonable to continue and there is no refugium nor extra rocks in the sump nor a dsb or otherwise (all which would have required me to run a larger sump anyways) -- just the ZEO reactor and skimmer - which has less maintenance, and more display/growth to enjoy (at least that's my thoughts at this point)


Progression is going well, will add livestock pics tomorrow - but currently the list is:

- 2 clowns (one tiny ~1 inch, and the other mature at over 2"),
- 3 chromis (medium size, say 1.5")
- 1 barnacle blenny (1.5") -- almost forgot this guy
- 1 porcelain crab
- 1 blue tuxedo urchin (1")
- 1 purple linckia (3" from longest tip-to-tip)
- 8 turbo snails
- 5 narcissus snails
- 8 hermit crabs
- candy cane (3 clusters, 14 heads)
- frogspawn (1 cluster, ~6 heads, 5-6" across)
- torch (1 cluster, 2 heads, 2" across not extended)
- suncoral (1 cluster, ~30 heads)


Added the most recent bits of that 3 days ago, going to add some more tomorrow (water quality is unchanged and ammonia/nitrite/nitrate was unmeasurably affected by the addition)... my last nano tank will then be nearly empty after tomorrow's transitions, leaving just the bubble tip and it's buddy (another 1.5" clown) for maybe Tuesday-ish.

[subman]

Looking great Craig! Welcome to salty land

[Arok3000]

I like that water change system. Very nice build.

[craigwmiller]

Last-ish piece of tech (at least that I took a picture of so far) is the ATO reservoir. Not that glamorous, but important nonetheless. It's sitting in the same storage room with the mix bucket, and RO system. Simple enough system... connected to the RO system, and up to the TLF KW300 upstairs.

[craigwmiller]

Okay, some life...

Sun Coral



ORA Birdsnest


Pink Zoas

[craigwmiller]

Just got this Goby tonight, so here he is

Six Spot Sleeper Goby



Burgundy Linckia



Marble Red Fromia