A.J.’s 70 gal shallow reef
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Got some work done on the 210 this weekend, as well as got in the modular marine overflow and COB's for the lighting. Painted the back. Got the 210 drilled for the modular marine, as well as two 45mm holes for the two 1" return bulkheads. Got it plumbed but it's kinda hinky right now, have it going into my 40g breeder sump for my 70 gallon. Got some of the rock in it and tried doing a quick aquascape but not sure if I'll leave it as is or re arrange later. My problem with it currently is the scape is a little too wide. So the front of a couple of the rock scapes are close to the front and back wall. Might make them a little smaller but we will see. Trying not to go over the half way mark so I have plenty of room for acros to grow. I think even though it is now plumbed into the 70 gallon I'm going to wait to open the valves and combine the system. I'm going to build a skimmer stand to set in the 210, and put a light over the top of a section to try and get some coraline growing, and maybe throw a few fish in it and see how it does. I have a extra dose I can hook up to supply calcium and Alk until I feel comfortable combining the two systems. I've asked some people and they say just get the parameters to match then open the valves but I'm too chicken, lol. Going to take it slow. Next step is ordering the heat sinks and driver for the DIY led's. Have it all quoted out $280 buck more plus some hardware to mount them. Picked up 3 of the old 660 icecaps over the weekend so will eventually get those over it too with some t5 lighting. Anyways attached a few picks of the build so far. All the rock has been cycled and ready for a couple months now.
Went to Lowes and got some stuff to make a little Kalk doser. Trying to get my pH up, so will be playing with the dosing amount. Have it hooked up to my DOS now, so hopefully will be able to give some updates in a few weeks on how this worked. Also plumbed my intake for my CO2 scubber into the side of my protein skimmer cup so we will see if that helps prolong the CO2 media life as well as help increase my pH.
Update, got home last night after work and water all over basement. Only thing I can think is that the intake pulled in enough skimmate to somehow not allow air to the skimmer pump causing the skimmer to overflow. When that happened it filled my skimmate 5 gallon bucket with water and then overflowed onto the floor. Meanwhile my 20 gallon ATO kept filling. Luckily my new Kalk setup is running off my DOS and not my ATO, otherwise that could have been bad. Luckily as of this morning no Acro losses. I had bought a float switch and breakout box awhile back but never installed. Last night I drilled the lid of my skimmate bucket and hooked up to a break out box. This should turn the skimmer off when the float switch is activated now. Posted what I did to program to my apex in case anyone else wants to do the same, or if you can think of how to improve I'm all ears!
1.) Plug breakout box into bottom of Apex head unit.
2.) Install float switch in lid of skimmate container.
3.) Take one of the two float switch wires and put in the ground location on the BOB, the other on 'I1' location.
4.) I changed 'Sw1' to the name bucket. (optional)
5.) Go to home screen and select your skimmer.
6.) Change control type to 'Advanced'.
7.) Type in following code. " IF Bucket OPEN Then OFF " (DO NOT TYPE QUOTATION MARKS)
8.) Save settings and then test that skimmer turns off my manually moving float switch up into the "OPEN" position.
Note: I did also go in and add this line of code to the 'EMAIL'. "IF BUCKET OPEN THEN ON".
This way I should get an email telling me there is an issue.
1.)
1.) Plug breakout box into bottom of Apex head unit.
2.) Install float switch in lid of skimmate container.
3.) Take one of the two float switch wires and put in the ground location on the BOB, the other on 'I1' location.
4.) I changed 'Sw1' to the name bucket. (optional)
5.) Go to home screen and select your skimmer.
6.) Change control type to 'Advanced'.
7.) Type in following code. " IF Bucket OPEN Then OFF " (DO NOT TYPE QUOTATION MARKS)
8.) Save settings and then test that skimmer turns off my manually moving float switch up into the "OPEN" position.
Note: I did also go in and add this line of code to the 'EMAIL'. "IF BUCKET OPEN THEN ON".
This way I should get an email telling me there is an issue.
1.)
Well, quite the journey. Nice corals. It will be nice to see them grow out more and more. I love my 210g, you will too I bet.
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