Planet Aquarium 130g

[FarmerTy]

Tank is looking good Jimbo. Everything looks happy and healthy!

[Jimbo662]

2 minutes ago, FarmerTy said:

Tank is looking good Jimbo. Everything looks happy and healthy!

Thanks, I've had a few losses...I think from nutrients being on the low side...mostly the acans.  😞

[jolt]

Nice work Jimbo, love the tank!!!

[Jimbo662]

59 minutes ago, jolt said:

Nice work Jimbo, love the tank!!!

Thanks, I was just looking at the last video I posted and didn't realize how much some of the frags had grown.

[Jimbo662]

I think I'm long overdue for an update. Big thanks to Ty, Sascha and Chris for helping me get it moved! I finally got sand in it last week and Ty was right...so much better than going bare bottom. I had one casualty which I think was an accident. Lost my red head salon wrasse. I think he jammed himself under a flat rock that was on the bottom of the tub. He'd been out the evening before swimming around and eating like normal. Next morning when i started transferring everything to the tank I found him under the rock. Luckily I found a great replacement...picked up an orange back fairy wrasse last weekend. Only one coral had some issues...my large plate. It's lost some tissue but has been hanging in there...not sure if it'll pull through though.

Who needs a dining room when a "fish room" is all the rage these days!

[Jimbo662]

Changes are coming to the 130! Yesterday I received the Exotic Marine Overflow I ordered. Taylor is great to work with. I sent him the drilling template I got from Planet Aquarium. He sent me a template of where the holes would be placed on the boxes to compare to the actual tank. One hole was off 1/4" so he did a 2nd template and sent which was perfect. This thing is rock solid. The external box basically has eurobracing as the top piece so the entire box is open. The Tideline overflow from PA has two separate lids so the piece in-between covers the center drain and is a pain to try to work around. The lid for the external box is also 3 layers so that shouldn't warp. The internal box is open on top and has two braces to also help prevent warping. On the internal Tideline box the weir is removable. The bottom of the removable panel is about an inch and half below the water line. Once and only once I removed it to look inside not thinking and my heart stopped when I heard the sudden rush of water down the drain. Luckily the sump was large enough to handle the water that drained before I could get the panel back on.

You can see the external box sits slightly higher than the internal. On the Tideline the external is lower. To prevent a loud waterfall noise I had to raise the two emergency overflow pipes as high as possible. Water level in it has to stay about 1/4" from the top of the box...any lower and you start getting the waterfall effect. I placed the external box up to the current box and I think I'm only going to have to alter my main drain line because the hole for it is about an inch closer to the right side of the box. I'll get more pics as I work on it.

[Jimbo662]

I initially planned to install the overflow next weekend but realized I had everything I needed to make any alterations to the plumbing. Install was a breeze...remove the old and install the new. No leaks from any bulkheads at all. The only thing I had to make sure to do was level the interior box. There are no weirs so the "overflow" areas need to be level. I didn't even have to alter the plumbing which was a big plus!!! I turned the return pump on to refill the tank. I was watching the water rise and double checking everything the back of the tank and saw the water reach the overflow areas. I was standing behind the tank and thought the return pump had turn off for some reason because I wasn't hearing any water in either box. When I saw the pump was running I realized this thing is DEAD SILENT!!! Since there are no weirs to break up the water which is what apparently causes most waterfall noise, the water simply runs down the inside of the box. I only had to make a minor adjustment to the gate valve. Total time was about half an hour to remove the old, silicone the plumbing where it screws into the bulkheads on the bottom of the exterior box to prevent leaks and install the new.

 

The water noise you hear is where the water runs from the initial drain area of the sump into the filter sock section. If I can get that silent it'll just be the icing on the cake!

 

[victoly]

purdy

[Jimbo662]

9 minutes ago, victoly said:

purdy

too bad it won't stay that way...

[Jimbo662]

Y'all don't know how hard it was to stay away from the frag swap yesterday!!! I had a project that I need to get finished so spent the weekend plumbing a nem tank into the main tank. I'm feeding it off the manifold and the drain is just going into the skimmer section since there won't really be any food or much waste coming out of the smaller tank. Still need to get water mixed up and some sand rinsed and in the tank so hopefully it'll be ready to be unveiled next weekend! 

 

[jolt]

We missed you at the swap Jimbo

[Jimbo662]

5 minutes ago, jolt said:

We missed you at the swap Jimbo

😞

Several times I tried to justify heading down there but stuck to my  plan.

[Sascha D.]

[emoji20]
Several times I tried to justify heading down there but stuck to my  plan.

Wasn't the same without ya! I stopped by to visit with friends and see all of the shiny things for sale. It's pretty hard to buy something when you have no idea what you want. A lot of great stuff though.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

[Jimbo662]

CSB seems to like his new home. Pics make him look a more red.

[+Bmwaaron]

On 2/10/2019 at 10:54 AM, Jimbo662 said:

Changes are coming to the 130! Yesterday I received the Exotic Marine Overflow I ordered. Taylor is great to work with. I sent him the drilling template I got from Planet Aquarium. He sent me a template of where the holes would be placed on the boxes to compare to the actual tank. One hole was off 1/4" so he did a 2nd template and sent which was perfect. This thing is rock solid. The external box basically has eurobracing as the top piece so the entire box is open. The Tideline overflow from PA has two separate lids so the piece in-between covers the center drain and is a pain to try to work around. The lid for the external box is also 3 layers so that shouldn't warp. The internal box is open on top and has two braces to also help prevent warping. On the internal Tideline box the weir is removable. The bottom of the removable panel is about an inch and half below the water line. Once and only once I removed it to look inside not thinking and my heart stopped when I heard the sudden rush of water down the drain. Luckily the sump was large enough to handle the water that drained before I could get the panel back on.

You can see the external box sits slightly higher than the internal. On the Tideline the external is lower. To prevent a loud waterfall noise I had to raise the two emergency overflow pipes as high as possible. Water level in it has to stay about 1/4" from the top of the box...any lower and you start getting the waterfall effect. I placed the external box up to the current box and I think I'm only going to have to alter my main drain line because the hole for it is about an inch closer to the right side of the box. I'll get more pics as I work on it.

Hey Jimbo 

I am thinking about getting the PA 150 and wanted to know more info on your overflow experience. Did you have the 16 or 20 inch version? Would you have had PA do anthing different as far as drilling the overflow holes or was exotic marine able to compensate for  the 1/4 inch difference?

[Jimbo662]

10 hours ago, Bmwaaron said:

Hey Jimbo 

I am thinking about getting the PA 150 and wanted to know more info on your overflow experience. Did you have the 16 or 20 inch version? Would you have had PA do anthing different as far as drilling the overflow holes or was exotic marine able to compensate for  the 1/4 inch difference?

Hi.  I think I had the 16" overflow. Exotic was great to work with. Not sure that you would need to tell PA anything about the holes. But, knowing that they can mis-drill I would take as many measurements as you can to send to Exotic. Taylor didn't charge me any extra for the templates. Or you may be able to get Exotic to send you a template that can be sent to PA.

[Jimbo662]

I feel bad for never updating this thread...just not much happening with the tank. I finally got my PO4 up and stabilized in the .1 - .15 range consistently for about the last month. It had been staying around .03 -.04. And of course with that comes more algae!!!!! Got home Sunday and saw my CSB was ready for its closeup.  The disc is now around 6" - 7" across.

[Jimbo662]

Well...I'm still battling the ugly algae that covers the rocks (the kind that you can blow off with a baster) and the bright green stuff that carpets the sand.

This was weekend before last. It only takes about a week to look like this after cleaning.

After a good cleaning it looks like this.

I've been prepping to introduce SPS again and have had new rock getting seeded in the 45g that's attached to the system. After cleaning everything on Monday I switched out all of the rock. Old rock into the 45g and new rock in here. I'm still getting the bright green on the sand. Might pick up a sand sifting goby to see if that'll help deter it from forming.

 

[jolt]

Sometimes that green stuff on the sand can be amphidinium dinos, which are difficult to get rid of because they do not go into the water column ahence UV is ineffective on them.  I fought them for about 11 months.  They thrive if your phosphate is too low, which keeps other organisms from competing with them.  If you ever want to get an ID on that stuff bring me a sample and we'll throw it under the microscope.  

[Jimbo662]

6 minutes ago, jolt said:

Sometimes that green stuff on the sand can be amphidinium dinos, which are difficult to get rid of because they do not go into the water column ahence UV is ineffective on them.  I fought them for about 11 months.  They thrive if your phosphate is too low, which keeps other organisms from competing with them.  If you ever want to get an ID on that stuff bring me a sample and we'll throw it under the microscope.  

You know...now that you mention it...they had pretty much gone away when my phosphate were averaging in the .1 - .15 range. Because of all the other algae I'd reduced the feedings a little and when I tested yesterday it was at .03. I'll increase feeding just a bit and see what that does. To get rid of the stuff, because it attaches to the sand and is hard to siphon, I've been swirling the sand like crazy to get it to detach then use a python hose and drain it into a felt filter sock along with it going down the drain.

[jolt]

Yeah I also siphoned them out as best I can. I found 0.08 phosphate seemed to be enough. Also keep nitrates up I shoot for 5ppm. 

[Timfish]

What I'll do to slow down any kind of algae growing on sand is siphon off just the surface layer, drain off as much of the saltwater as possible then dump in a pint bottle of hydrogen peroxide (3%) and let it sit for a day then rinse and dump it back in.   Just stirring the sand I've found doesn't kill a lot of the algae leaving it to grow back pretty quickly.  You also want to monitor your alkalinity as this process is breaking down the sand and there sometimes appears to be some dissolution once it's back in the tank.

[Jimbo662]

21 hours ago, Timfish said:

What I'll do to slow down any kind of algae growing on sand is siphon off just the surface layer, drain off as much of the saltwater as possible then dump in a pint bottle of hydrogen peroxide (3%) and let it sit for a day then rinse and dump it back in.   Just stirring the sand I've found doesn't kill a lot of the algae leaving it to grow back pretty quickly.  You also want to monitor your alkalinity as this process is breaking down the sand and there sometimes appears to be some dissolution once it's back in the tank.

That's a great idea!

[Chris Frattaroli]

Hi Jimbo-

I saw that this tank is no longer with us, but I just got the exact same tank delivered the other day and had a question about sizing the return pump. I built a manifold very similar to yours and I was wondering how you incorporated that into the head height/pump sizing equation. I want to make sure my return pump can handle running a few extra devices. It'll probably be a GFO reactor and maybe a UV, with one more line open for potential future expansion.

Thanks!

[Jimbo662]

17 hours ago, Chris Frattaroli said:

Hi Jimbo-

I saw that this tank is no longer with us, but I just got the exact same tank delivered the other day and had a question about sizing the return pump. I built a manifold very similar to yours and I was wondering how you incorporated that into the head height/pump sizing equation. I want to make sure my return pump can handle running a few extra devices. It'll probably be a GFO reactor and maybe a UV, with one more line open for potential future expansion.

Thanks!

Hey Chris! I got the pump before even thinking about the plumbing. I just picked one that I knew would be able more than what I would need and could handle anything I would end up doing. I was running the Varios 6 and I think I had it set in the high 50% range.