mojo's Blog

[mojo]

So I couldn't stand it having my new light in the closet, wondering how I was going to be able to mount it. With the help of other Powermodule owners I got the assistance I needed to get started, and I didn't need 2 other dudes, just my father in law, as it only weighs in the neighborhood of 50 pounds. Here it is, in all it's glory. It's a 10-lamp x 54 watt unit, measuring approximately 46" x 22" x 2.5". On the far left of the 1st image is the gray power supply. This splits farther out to 2 separate power cords, which I'll explain more about later.

Here are the fans, each cooling 2 lamps.

For my lamp selection, I went with 90% of the recommendation made by The Grim Reefer on Reef Central, a well-established guru of T5 lighting. I wanted to add a lamp that would bring out a little more of the reds, so I substituted a super actinic for an ATI Pro Color. Here is the fixture with all lamps aglow.

The lamps are situated as follows:

front

Blue plus

Aquablue

Super actinic

Aquasun

ProColor

Super actinic

Aquasun

Blue plus

Aquablue

Blue plus

rear

Notice how shiny the reflectors are? You can read the lamp names very clearly, and there's an acrylic shield covering the entire fixture that slides out quite easily.

Positions 3 and 8 are on a separate power cord from the other lamps, and these will be used for dusk/dawn. I originally had both of these as super actinics, but Grim suggested I include a blue plus in the mix, as it's supposed to look great combined with an actinic.

Here are the 2 super actinics.

And here's how it looks with a super actinic and a blue plus.

[mojo]

Now that you've seen the light, it was time to mount it to the ceiling over the tank. First I covered the tank with a tarp to protect it from drywall chips off the ceiling, and to keep the power cords out of the water (this actually came in handy). Next I laid some wood planks over the tank upon which to center the fixture.

Notice in this close up the ventilation slots on the side of the fixture to assist with cooling - nice!

Once the unit was centered over the tank I used a plum bob to locate the spots on the ceiling that correspond to the place where the hanging wire joins the hardware on both sides of the fixture. The Powermodule comes with hardware for mounting to strong material, like wood, but unfortunately those places on my ceiling have no extra support other than the sheet rock material, and there's no attic above for me to install any extra support. I considered using toggle bolts but fortunately I found studs approximately 1 and 1/2 inches closer to the front of the marks. I stopped at that point to think it over, and I've finally decided that I'll mount the fixture about 2" front of center. Unfortunately, however, that will have to wait for a few days, as I'm leaving town tomorrow morning. When I return mid-week I'll have it hung and update everyone.

[Headless_donkey]

Heck YEAH! Those fixtures are fantastic. I am amazed how shiny the reflectors are. That pro color should be real cool.

IMO those super actinics kick butt. They make the colors absolutely jump off the colors. It is pretty freaky and super sweet. They make ever day run of the mill green zoos look worth keeping.

[Headless_donkey]

I am impressed you were able to stop. I would have been up all night hanging the fixture and almost breaking something.

If you really wanted to mount the light centered you have several options. You could get some 3/4" plywood, paint it to match the ceiling, maybe drop some molding around the edge, span the joists, and bolt to it.

You could also use unistrut for a more industrial look. Basically, you would do the same thing then use the unistrut hardware to bolt the lights up.

Just some thoughts. Although I do not think 2" is going to be that big a deal.

I am still impressed with that light.

[mojo]

I finally hung the Powermodule!

You can see that it's not exactly square over the tank, and it is quite a bit forward of center. I'm not happy with the fact that it's not square, but it's tough to see if you're not looking for it. I am happy with the fact that it's tweaked toward the front a little, as the light does not hang over the overflow box at all. This does mean that the rear of the tank is somewhat poorly illuminated, but I'll just keep corals there that require less light.

Here's how the tank looks. I think the light helps you to appreciate the depth of the aquascape much better in these photos than the ones I originally posted. Hope you like them!

Same angle as above, but with dusk/dawn effect (super actinic in front, ATI blue plus in back)

Here's the side view.

And the same view with the dusk/dawn configuration.

I hope everyone enjoys the pics.

[mojo]

Real good thoughts, James, but I wouldn't be able to get away with any extra hardware on the ceiling. Thanks for the ideas, though! If you've seen my recent update, you'll see that I'm actually fairly happy with the position of the light.

[Headless_donkey]

Darn it! That is great!

I really like the aquascaping. That is a nice color temp. I like the red. I really like the more European style. It gives the affect of a slice of ocean. I REALLY want to see with some big fat SPS colonies and in person.

How hard is it to move the lights up and down?

[mojo]

The lights are a little tough to move up and down, harder than I expected, but not so hard that I want to add any more conspicuous hardware. The more I do it the easier it gets. You'll have to come over and check it out some time!

[mojo]

I encountered a little problem last night. It seems, I learned, that my 30g cube tank shares the same electrical circuit with this system. When I tested out the newly-hung lights, the chiller kicked in. No problem. But when the MJ 600 that feeds my ZEOvit reactor turned on (it's on a 3-hr on/3-hr off cycle) the circuit tripped. Unbelievable that I had been teetering on the edge, only to be pushed overboard by a little'ol Maxijet. At any rate, the tank tests 0 for ammonia and nitrate, and I've been circulating with cured LR and live sand for around 7 weeks already. Add that to 2 weeks of ZEOvit, and I felt the easiest solution to my electrical problem would be to shut down the 30g and transfer critters to the 203g.

I moved over a green-polyped ORA toadstool, a small frogspawn frag, a green/purple favites, some green/purple rics, a green plate coral, and a red open brain. My other corals and 2 clams have bryopsis on them, so they won't be transferring. I put a post on this site offering them up for free for anyone who wants them.

Next came the fish. I didn't want my clownfish pair to be test fish, but I was feeling confident and I went for it. I left the light off and they hid behind the 'scape. After a couple hours I turned the dusk/dawn lighting on, then went out for dinner. When I returned, they were hanging out together at the front of the tank over their host frogspawn frag, looking as happy as ever. The female ate readily, but the male did not. I'm sure he'll come around.

I also moved over some nassarius snails, but the astreas won't go. They all have bryopsis on their shells and they look like mini-Don Kings.

Currently I'm working through a problem with my OM 4-way. Previously I had the Barracuda CL pump dialed down a bit, and with the anticipation of adding corals I opened it up full bore. This caused some sand to fly, which resulted in a clicking sound from the 4-way. I figured some sand got in the drum, but when I tried to take it apart I couldn't get the drum out of the unit. I spoke with Paul on the phone (great guy) and he gave me some tips, but no success yet. I'll work through it again tomorrow at a better hour when I can call him again for more assistance.

[mojo]

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.

[Headless_donkey]

Thanks for the clam! It seems to be doing well. Your tank looks cool. Let us know how the bulb swap goes.

[mojo]

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.

[Headless_donkey]

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.

[mojo]

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.

[mojo]

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,

[Headless_donkey]

Sweet. That wave action is always worth it. It really looks cool with the rim less. I like the color temp of the tank. Moving the bulbs seemed to help.

I hope they send you a new RD pump. For the price they should have overnighted you one. It sucks when the dreaded mag come to the rescue.

[mojo]

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 ...

[mojo]

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.

[+dapettit]

Cool video and nice aquascape. . .

I give up. Were is the wave box? Did i just miss it?

[mojo]

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.

[mojo]

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.

[+Bmwaaron]

Hey Mike,

Your fuse was blowing because when your chiller compressor kicked on it actually has a momentary spike in amperes. I would highly recommend to get a dedicated circuit for your chiller if possible because that spike is not good for your other equipment.

[mojo]

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.

[mojo]

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.

[mojo]

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!