mojo

how much for everything? im interested

So sorry I never saw your post, I didn't receive any email notifications. I'll send you a pm with my cell number and we can talk.

im sure its already been posted but what kind of lighting is that, where did you get it from and mine me asking how much it was?>

did it have to be suspended or does it come with mounting legs?

It is a 48" 10 x 54W ATI Powermodule. It has been tested by many who are "in the know" with T5 lighting and is felt to be the best T5 pendant available with respect to PAR output. I got it from www.reefgeek.com and the price is available on their website. There are no legs and it does have to be suspended, unless you have a canopy and can rest it on top of some side bracing. It's not light weight so if you are planning on suspending one make sure there are studs in the ceiling, or ensure your hardware will support it properly.

This stuff is just occupying space in my garage and it might make a nice holiday gift for someone, so here goes. Everything is in excellent condition unless noted otherwise.

Oceanic 30 gallon cube tank - $40

custom birch stand and light rack - $75

Current USA Lunar Light: Nocturnal Blue, Captive Sun 4" fan (mounted in light rack) - $10

modified AquaC Remora Protein Skimmer with surface prefilter box - $60

Tunze Calcium Dispenser - $15

CPR CS-90 overflow box with Aqua Lifter vacuum pump and prefilters - $45 (small amount of super glue is stuck to acrylic, perfect for attaching star polyps)

custom Trigger Systems acrylic sump/refugium - $75

40 pounds Tonga rock, sitting outside for nearly 6 months (devoid of all life) - $25

There's more equipment here as well but I can't think of it now and I'll just add it down the line if/when I think of it.

Nice! I really like how open your aquascaping is.

Thanks a lot, this was my first solo aquascape so that means a lot. Actually John (thedude) made the best suggestion of all, convincing me to move the highest rock from the middle column to the left hand side, which made a huge difference overall. It looks even more open "live" but it's hard to portray with my poor photography skills.

I haven't posted any tank pics in a while so here are a few.

full tank

left side - check out the red gorgonian, it has white polyps

right side

side view

duncan

you wanna piece of me?

The ricordea above are the ones in my avatar. They were one of the first corals I ever purchased in this hobby back in October 2005 and they've survived through almost every tank destroyer imaginable. I am really happy to have them in this tank.

I received the RedDragon 4.5m3 pump to replace the one that was sent damaged in the mail. I'm also happy to report that I was able to score one of the new models with imperial plumbing! I was quite surprised to see that this pump is actually a bit taller than the one with metric plumbing. Check out what I mean. The one with the red metric intake/outlet is my RD6.5m3, which is rated for higher flows than the all gray RD4.5m3. They both have the same size impeller housing and base, but the pump itself is raised higher off of the base on the newer model. I wonder why they did that?

The intake is set up with a 1-1/4" union, while the output has a 3/4" union.

Hopefully I'll get a chance this week to plumb it in and replace the Mag12. The RD4.5m3 is rated for about 900gph at 4-1/2 feet of head height, which is just under what the Mag12 is rated for. This should slow down the flow through my sump a little, which will be good.

While I'm discussing equipment, here's what the sump looks like at this point. You can now see the addition of the calcium reactor and some other things. The sump is actually too full for me to fit the kalk stirrer, but there's room for that in the pan along side the topoff reservoir. Sorry the skimmer wasn't bubbling, I had the cup off for cleaning.

This is what I'm skimming out on a regular basis. This is 3 days worth of nog. It reeks! Pretty good, I think, considering there's not much in the tank.

That's great to learn about the DJ's. For some reason I thought you had to cut off the plug and wire it into the center. This sounds like a snap.

As for the dosing pump tubing, I think I know where I can get some .

I did some maintenance today, it felt good. This included a small water change with sand siphoning, scraped algae off of the back glass and overflow, changed carbon, cleaned filter socks (I really need more of these), cleaned salt splash off the Powermodule, and ran some tests.

pH ~8.2

S.G. 1.026

alk 7.85 dKH

Ca 415

Mg 1260

nitrates 0

I had my calcium reactor off for a couple of days as the alkalinity actually climbed to over 10. Now that it's more reasonable I'm going to gradually tweak it up. I'm also starting to supplement potassium. My level was 275 and I need to get it up to around 380. I'm dosing K-Balance Strong, a K-Z product.

I just finished hooking up the dosing pump for the Aquatronica. I'll use this to dose one of my ZEOvit components, ZEOstart2, twice daily. I've been doing it pretty faithfully, and when I'm not home my wife has been doing it for me (most of the time), but this will certainly simplify things. The dosing pump is really slick, and it's able to dose at volumes of only 1 ml at a time. It's actually a 3-pump unit, and as I get more into ZEOvit and increase the coral load in the tank, I'll have other supplements to add so that eventually I'll be using all 3 pumps. I need to get some flexible tubing, as for now I'm using the rigid 1/4" polyethylene which is a little cumbersome.

Lastly, I got a larger powerstrip which I needed badly for things that won't go into the Aquatronica, and I labelled the outlets for ease of use and so I could give my wife instructions over the phone about what to unplug if things go wrong. I think the DJ power centers would be great, but I'm not sure how easy they are to wire up.

James,

I can only hope that my tank will ever look that good. As far as the "density" probe goes, I'll answer it here just in case other readers don't know what it is. It's a measure of the tank's salinity. The 'denser' the water, the higher the salt concentration. The controller allows me to measure it in 4 different units. I have it set to specific gravity, as that's what I'm most accustomed to, and I can compare it to my refractometer without doing any mathematical conversions.

The clowns are doing exceptionally well. I think they like their new, larger home. They usually stay close to their small frogspawn frag, but often the female will venture out to familiarize herself with the new digs. They are located to a great little rock wall where I foresee eggs in the future ...

The CBB is also doing very well. It's even getting a little belly on it. I wish I knew it's sex - hate calling it an "it."

Last night I hooked up my ORP probe to the Aquatronica. I'm supposed to leave the probe in the tank water for about 2 weeks before calibrating, so I'm not paying much attention to the values it's reading.

I also went on a little reconnaissance mission. I saw my red brittle star on top of the closed loop strainer. I should have realized that it was fine, as it was moving its extremities around and, looking back, I'm nearly positive it wasn't stuck on the strainer. I have a history of notting leaving well enough alone, and I felt I needed to do something about this. So I turned off the Barracuda to allow it to climb off of the strainer more easily. This backfired, and the brittle star actually climbed inside of the strainer, where it hung out all night. This morning I couldn't take it, so I unscrewed the strainer from the riser tube, and in the process the star fled down into the riser PVC. I simply waited a few minutes and it climbed out back into the tank. I promptly replaced the strainer and fired the 'cuda back up. I used this opportunity of having my arm in the tank to redirect the flow from my 4-way outlets. I wasn't happy with the flow pattern or the surface agitation, as there were 2 spots where particulates were visible on the surface. With the new positioning of the returns the flow pattern is much better.

I really need to increase the alkalinity demand in my tank (MORE CORALS!!). After running the Ca reactor for only 1 day my alkalinity rose to 9.9 dKH (from 8.0). I'll need to get it down to less than 8, as elevated alkalinity is lethal to SPS when using the ZEOvit method. I adjusted the controller so that it runs much less, and I have a coral shopping spree planned for next weekend.

I finally got around to hooking up my calcium reactor properly. I've got the tank's alkalinity up to 8.0 dKH, Ca 420. I didn't test Mg, but I'll get to that. I also hooked up some more modules on the Aquatronica, namely the pH controller for the Ca reactor and the density probe. Lastly, I unboxed a brand new pH probe for my Pinpoint monitor, which I'll use to test the tank water intermittently. I might just eventually get another pH interface for my controller and monitor the tank's pH continuously.

This was a bit weird (and concerning). I calibrated my brand new Aquatronica and Pinpoint pH probes in the same solutions, and put them both in the tank at the same location. Their readings were off by 0.2.

Next I want to hook up the dosing pump module so that I can automate one of the ZEOvit additives. Sorry no pics right now, not much to photograph.

Today I got my clean-up crew from Reeftopia. I really like ordering from them. Despite everything arriving quite cold, I had no losses as far as I can tell. The cerith snails are all in the same spot, even after being in the tank for 8 hours, but I'm pretty sure they're still adjusting and after a few hours of 'lights off' I think they'll start wandering around.

Also today I had to take the 4-way apart (again) as the drum had jammed. This is the drum that's supposed to tolerate sand. When I took it apart there was almost no sand that I could see, but when I put it back together it worked just fine. I think I'll just keep my Barracuda dialed down to ~50% for several weeks before trying to ramp it up again.

I also added the filter socks to the sump drains. What a huge difference in both noise reduction and tank clarity. This has almost completely solved my microbubble issue, although I still want to raise the baffle between the drain chamber and the return chamber, as this would likely completely eliminate all microbubbles.

The last piece of news is that the rest of my Aquatronica equipment arrived. I don't think I'll have time to situate all of it in the next couple of days, so this will have to wait a little while.

Aaron, the Powermodule is fantastic. I didn't like my original color, but after switching the lamps around I am really happy. Having 10 lamps offers a tremendous amount of flexibility.

James, the flow is pretty good. I haven't been able to completely open up the barracuda yet, as it causes sand to suspend and clog the 4-way drum. There is a small patch or two of visible sediment at the water surface, and I'd really like to eliminate them. Otherwise, everything in the tank is moving around at a pretty good clip. Thanks, too, for your suggestion on the filter socks. Mine are the ones with strings instead of the rigid opening on top, and these don't contain the 'soapy' material that has to be washed out of the rigid ones.

Today was fairly productive. I fixed the 4-way and installed the new drum which will tolerate a little sand. Now I can remove the Tunze 6055. Paul instructed me on what to do to repair the 4-way. He is very smart, extremely patient, and overwhelmingly helpful. No problem seems too great for him to assist with on the phone. I'll be an Oceans Motions customer forever. He figured out that I had probably pinched the o-ring in the lid of the 4-way. He had me remove it, lubricate it with vaseline, then reinstall it ensuring there was no entrapment, and that fixed the problem right away.

I hooked up my Osmolator for ATO. This was delayed so long because I was waiting for a replacement peristaltic pump. I can't believe I've been dumping water from a bucket into the tank every day for nearly 2 months.

I also set up several more functions on the Aquatronica controller, including the lights, light fan, chiller and heater. The more I play with it the simpler it gets. I'm already almost out of room on powerstrip, but the second powerstrip should be on the way.

Next on my list of things to do is to add filter socks to the overflow drains, which should solve my microbubble issue, and install the calcium reactor. After that -- SPS here I come!

Last night I went to put the new drum into my OM 4-way. After installing the drum I had a hard time making the black cap sit onto the body of the 4-way, but I was able to, well, let's say I 'inticed' it down. When I opened the valves of the returns there was a small leak from between the 4-way body and black cap, so I decided to fix this by tightening the screws a little more. Note to self, don't try to fix a 4-way without first talking to Paul. When I tightened the screw, I stripped the thread, resulting in a much larger leak. I therefore had to leave the Barracuda pump off. For supplemental flow I threw in a Tunze nanostream 6055 I had laying around. I spoke with Paul today, and he said stripping the thread on 1 screw is no problem. I'll need to take it apart and make sure the o-ring is well lubed and intact, as this was probably the problem in the first place. I don't think I'll have time to trouble shoot this tonight, since I'm taking my daughter out for trick-or-treat, so this will have to wait until the weekend. Honestly, the 4-way has been this system's biggest problem thus far, but I know it will be worth it once I get it dialed in.

After that I needed a little pick-me-up, so I unpacked the Aquatronica controller and set up a few basic functions. It's not as simple to set up as my former controller (ReefKeeper) but it's in a totally different league. I really think I'm gonna like it.

Thanks Aaron. Yeah, I figured that was what was happening, but even with a spike in amperes I should be all right with the 20A circuit installed. Believe me, I understand what you're saying, but to run another circuit to that wall would be a real PITA. I'm going to try and see if this solves the problem before thinking about another circuit.

I got my controller a couple of days ago. No beaming posts however, as they sent me the starter kit as opposed to the elite package I ordered and paid for. At least now I'll be able to install my calcium reactor and get that going, which should make the tank more hospitable for SPS. It'll also allow me to dial in the temperature control more tightly. The JBJ chiller I'm using allows a tolerance of 2 degrees F, so the temperature ranges from 77-79 degrees with the internal thermostat set at 78. I feel like this is too large of a temperature swing, and the controller will do a better job of keeping it tighter.

On the pump front, that won't be coming as early as I had expected. The package I received was a potassium supplement (K-Balance Strong), and the RD 4.5m3 is being shipped separately direct from the importer. I don't know when it will arrive, but the Mag12 is holding it's own for now. Now I'll be able to increase the K+ to NSW levels, considered important for SPS coloration and growth.

Regarding filtration, my AP851 is dialed in perfectly (thanks John), and with the increased bioload in the tank it's starting to produce some respectable nog, both in volume and quality. The ZEOvit protocol is proceeding along without any hitches and I recently changed out half of the ZEOliths. My wife has been great about stirring the rocks when I'm unable to get home due to work. The cyano has regressed already, and there is only a modest amount of short hairy algae on the rock surfaces. I feel like the ZEOvit method has certainly reduced the severity of the expected early algae blooms. I'm going to add a small clean-up crew in the next week or so. I'm also gradually prolonging the photoperiod of the T5's.

Last piece of news is that I increased the power to the circuit upon which the tank is run. It was running on a 15A circuit, which according to my calculations should have been enough for this system. I was wrong, and I suspected as much due to the fact that the power to all of the equipment would turn off momentarily whenever the chiller turned on. It turns out I was running just over 16A on the circuit, so I had this upgraded to a 20A circuit. No more power concerns now! Unfortunately everything is on the same circuit, but at 20A I shouldn't have a problem.

The wavebox is on the left side of the tank. You can see it in the opening seconds of the video. See, it's not such an eyesore afterall.

Next are some corals that moved in from my old 30g cube.

ORA green polyped toadstool

open brain

green and purple-tipped frogspawn frag (host to both clowns)

And here are a couple of critter shots. You can see where the addition of the wavebox and the recent manipulation of the 4-way has caused a few bare areas to develop, but this will be remedied in time.

The last piece of business for tonight is my sump. At low flow with only the Eheim 1262 providing return and through-sump flow it was fine, but after adding the Mag12 the extra flow has caused water to flow over the partition and away from the skimmer chamber. This has resulted in a lot of microbubbles in the display, as you can imagine from this image.

Water is supposed to flow from the back right chamber to the front right chamber, then into the larger middle chamber. The orange ball valve is connected to the Mag12 return pump, so you can see how a lot of bubbles are getting into the tank. I'll need to get some acrylic and make the partition taller, which will force water into the skimmer chamber, then into the "working chamber" where I'll eventually put the RD 4.5m3 pump, as well as the kalk reactor and calcium reactor.

I hope you all don't mind, but I took a few more pics tonight. Here's the new light configuration as described a little earlier. This gives a more balanced color distribution throughout the tank.

I liked this shot since it shows the lamp reflections at the water line.

And here's a standard side view. Much less of a pink stripe in the middle.

Here are a few full tank shots at different angles.

To be continued ...

I had a reasonably productive weekend, along with a lot of fun outside the aquarium world. I'll limit this update to events around the tank.

Carbon was changed for the first time in my fluidized reactor, and I did my first 5% water change, along with siphoning of the sand.

I received a new drum for my 4-way from Paul. The circumference has been machined down a bit to allow for some sand to escape and not clog the drum. I haven't installed it yet, still waiting for things to settle a bit inside the tank.

I changed the lamps around on my Powermodule, as I was unhappy with the band of pink in the center. I also felt like the rear of the tank was too blue/dark. I like it as it is now, but I'll have to look at it a while before I decide to keep it this way or not. The setup is now as follows:

front

blue plus

aquablue

super actinic

pro color

blue plus

aquasun

aquablue

super actinic

blue plus

aquasun

rear

If you recall, I've had a Red Dragon 6.5m3 as a return pump, but it hasn't been plumbed in due to troubles dialing it down and with bidirectional flow through the intake. I finally inspected the interior of the pump and I found a black "X" written with permanent marker on the impeller. I don't know what this means, but it gives me some concern. To rule out a plumbing problem as the source for the pump's failure, I hooked up a Mag12 to the exact same return plumbing I had been using for the RD, and the Mag pump works just fine. I guess I could just continue to use this pump, but I really don't like them all that much. I'll probably replace it with a RD4.5 pump, as the 6.5 created way too much flow through the sump anyway.

Lastly, I have a short video illustrating the wave action on the tank. You'll also see how the aquascape is changed, with the highest peak (now breaching the surface) now located on the left side of the tank. The video, while being of extremely poor quality, also shows off my CBB and my beloved clown pair, as well as the few corals I moved over. The video gives a much better sense of depth of the aquascape than photographs could.

Anyway,

You have a great looking tank. I am worried that a giant black box might take away from it.

I will hold judgement until I have seen pics.

Thanks for your concern James. I worried too, but now that I've seen it in action my concerns have been alleviated. Maybe I'm just blind to it, or maybe it's not so bad as I suggest, or maybe I'm just willing to trade that monstrosity for the results I expect it to achieve. Either way, I'm happy with it as of now.

I hooked up the Tunze Wavebox 2 nights ago. I've got a 1" wave throughout the entire tank, and I really like it. I'll need to eventually shoot a video so everyone can see how it looks on my tank. I think it looks great with the rimless tank, no sea sickness whatsoever. I'm also incredibly impressed at how it detracts so little from the aquascape. You would think that being at the front of the tank would make it incredibly noticable (which it is!), but with the rocks (and eventual corals) to the rear of the left side of the tank, the eye is actually drawn away from it. There's no way I'll be able to capture what I'm describing with photos, but I'll do my best when I get home from work tonight.

I may need to replace my OM 4-way drum. I was totally unable to remove the drum from the housing, so I had to separate the unit from all of the return plumbing. Paul had told me to use a 3/4" MPT fitting and use that to self tap into the top of the drum, then remove it that way. I tried this, but the drum material actually smoothed out the threads on my PVC fitting. I then pounded it out with a dowel (I used a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe). There wasn't much sand in there at all, at least I thought not. But I guess it was enough to cause a jam. I've reinstalled the 4-way but without the drum for now. Paul's been atypically unavailable, but I plan to speak with him on Monday to work out a solution. Even though there's no sand blowing around currently, I'm a little reluctant to put this drum back in considering the difficulty I had removing it.

Aside from my activities with the closed loop, I've been busy with other things as well. John (thedude) came over and we were unable to make my Red Dragon return pump work properly. I partly wish he would have pointed out something obsurd that I did wrong, but I'm also glad I didn't overlook anything obvious. I've got a thread on one of the other forums where a lot of folks use these pumps, and hopefully I'll get an answer soon. In the mean time the sump return is only via an Eheim 1262 that first passes through a chiller.

We also changed the aquascape ever so slightly, but it made a huge impact on the overall look. The large rock topping off the center island was moved onto the top of the cave on the left side of the tank. This rock now breaches the surface and by moving it out of the center, it provides an entirely new sense of depth to the tank. No photos yet, unfortunately, but they are forthcoming. It's amazing how much moving 1 rock can impact the entire tank. Great suggestion John, thanks!!!!

After looking at the lighting more carefully, I'm not happy with the color. There's too much red/pink in the center, and the rear is too dark. I'm going to move the lamps around a bit until I get the color I'm looking for. I'm not going to trade out any lamps yet, as I want to give them time to burn in a bit before making my final judgement. Thanks John and James (Headless Donkey) for your help and suggestions!

The last bit of news regarding this system is that it has a new occupant. It's one of my favorite fish of all time, a copper banded butterfly. John had it at Kingfish (his shop) for several weeks and he had it eating PE mysis. I saw it at the shop weeks ago and really liked it. John told me it had an awesome personality and he would know, as he is The Fish Whisperer. Oh, and as a bonus, it ate all of the aiptasia out of the tank John held it in. It hid in the rocks of my tank for only about 20 minutes, then it was roaming about as if it had lived there for years. I fed it PE mysis and it attacked! I already love this fish.

No problemo, Lee, and sorry if I came off a little harsh. I guess I get a little flamed when I feel my character has been threatened. Please do continue to contribute on the boards, as you obviously have a lot of excellent knowledge to share.

Mike