kinetic RSR 170

kinetic · Oct 30, 2017

Updates:

Neptune VDM

Got the VDM installed to change the flow of my ReefOcto VarioS-4 return to setup feed cycles for anti-back siphoning and to see if I can get away with not needing to turn off my skimmer. Also good for fine tuning the return for the herbie style drain. The Red Sea drain valve isn't very good, so I'm just going to use the fine tuning from the Apex to get it nailed. I have a few issues right now. If you are an Apex genius, please help!

I setup a profile that sets Ramp intensity to 64%. But my Apex dashboard reads 38% intensity. If I set it to 60%, it shows 42%. It's almost showing the opposite +2%. What's going on?
After feeding, this percentage is way off, and the flow is much lower than intended. In order for me to dial it back to, in this case, "38%" reading on the dashboard, I have to ramp it up to 70% for a few minutes, and then back down to 64%. What's going on? Should I change my profile to ramping down from 70% to 64% instead of just having it at 64% to start?

Profile: VarioS_Ret
Slow ramp over a minute after feeding
------
Ramp
Ramp Time: 1
Start Intensity: 20
End Intensity: 64
------

Profile: VarioS_Slow
This slows the flow down a lot, but not standstill
------
Ramp
Ramp Time: 1
Start Intensity: 10
End Intensity: 10
------

Profile: VarioS_Stop
This stops the flow to a standstill
------
Ramp
Ramp Time: 1
Start Intensity: 6
End Intensity: 6
------

Return outlet code:
------

Fallback ON
Set ON
------

Variable Speed code:
------
Fallback ON
Set VarioS_Ret
If FeedA 000 Then VarioS_Slow
If FeedB 000 Then VarioS_Stop
------

Neptune AFS

In anticipation of being out of town A LOT for work and Tahoe, I'm getting my AFS setup. It's currently setup to feed twice a day, on the lowest quantity setting, with one rotation. Once at 11:00 and once at 20:00. My lights come on around 10:30 and dims around 22:30, so I figure that might be a good spread. I might adjust the amount to come out a bit more, but we'll see how this goes for now. The fish eat up the food pretty quick. It's a mix of Sustainable Aquatics pellets and ON Reef Flakes.

I don't actually go into FeedA or FeedB modes, since I have the feeding station setup. I can leave everything full blast.

The Circus

The clowns have been getting along quite well. The mocha gladiators don't bother any of the other clowns at all, other than inspecting them all and sometimes body checking them, but never nipping or chasing. One of the fancy white gladiators is a bit larger than the rest, and he does chase around all the other small males a bit, and tries to nip. I see a few bottom fins nipped on the small males, so I'm considering selling the larger fancy white gladiator if he keeps staying aggressive. I'll wait a few more days to see how things are.

I notice that everyone waits for the mocha gladiators (the largest bonded pair) to finish eating before going into the feeding ring. Pretty interesting.

Skimmer: NYOS Quantum 120

Swapped out the Simplicity 120 DC skimmer for a NYOS Quantum 120.

Build quality: The NYOS is much heavier, so I don't need to hold down the skimmer body while adjusting things. The plastic/acrylic seems a bit thinner than the Simplicity, which isn't great. Feels like I could squeeze the cup hard enough when unscrewing to crack it. Otherwise, build quality is good.

Sound: The NYOS is pretty quiet, but still loud. I guess I'm just being overly sensitive or have too high of standards for sound. The good thing is, the NYOS has a deep low hum, rather than the louder medium pitched sound of the Simplicity. Same decibels, but different pitch.

Performance: The Simplicity had to be tuned to skim extremely wet. I think it was just too oversized for the tank / sump water level. I had to close the wedge pipe completely and set the air silencer to produce fewer bubbles to get things to reach the cup. Not terrible, but just felt like it wasn't a good fit. The NYOS quantum has a much larger range, and a very nice fine tuning for the wedge pipe. I'm about halfway closed on the threads and it's skimming a bit darker than the Simplicity after a week of break in. I'll probably keep letting it skim wet for awhile, and tune it down a bit.

Overall: Happy with the NYOS! I'm going to stick with it. I heard Royal Exclusive is coming out with a really tiny Bubble King at some point. Might look into that and swap this out if that one is even quieter. I like tinkering (might not be good for the tank...), but I LOVE quiet. So I'll try to stop tinkering with stuff, but if I can find a quieter skimmer, I'll go for it.

Photos of it after I cleaned the cup today:

kinetic · Oct 31, 2017

Had to update my VDM firmware twice, but once I did it the second time, everything is working smoothly!

kinetic · Nov 1, 2017

A 3" Magnifica is coming Friday!

Building the base for the Magnifica's pedestal. Added a small rock to make the highest point, not a point. Tomorrow I will attach the final flat tonga shelf rock to the top of this:

There are plenty of contact points for the flat shelf rock to sit on that. I have the largest stick of reef epoxy to get this all to stay.

Plan:

Remove shelf rock from RO/DI tub tomorrow morning (it's been in there for a week now while I dose lanthanum chloride to pull as much phosphates out as possible)
Rinse with a bunch of RO/DI and let dry for most of the day (12-ish hours)
Use a whole stick of reef epoxy in big globs at the contact points, adding small dabs of cyanoacrylate (super glue gel) on the epoxy to help it cure when underwater
Hold rock in place with my hand for about 30 seconds, hope the clowns don't nibble me too much
By Friday, when the H. mag arrives, the epoxy should be all cured and holding tight

kinetic · Nov 1, 2017

Pretty saturated photo of my Rainbow BTA. I could post a not-so-saturated shot, but this kind of shows off the colors he's getting back since being shipped. He's a bit pastel colored when fully inflated during the daytime, when the evening comes around and blues are dominating, he's a pretty dark color.

And of course, with my luck, he stays behind my rockwork facing the back wall, where it's almost impossible to see him. LOL.

And a video of it waving around:

NYC_Reef · Nov 1, 2017

If you're sensitive to noise, you must really like that AFS! I like mine for when I'm traveling, but you would think there would be a quieter motor for that simple function and price point... Tank looks great, very clean!

kinetic · Nov 1, 2017

NYC_Reef said:
If you're sensitive to noise, you must really like that AFS! I like mine for when I'm traveling, but you would think there would be a quieter motor for that simple function and price point... Tank looks great, very clean!

Haha yes, that motor is ridiculous! When designing it, I guess noise was the least of their concerns. It scared me pretty bad today. I think it'll be good for when I'm not home. Good to test it out while I'm at home for awhile just to be sure.

Thanks a ton!

cpllongjk · Nov 2, 2017

Just curious where you got your rainbow BTA?

kinetic · Nov 2, 2017

cpllongjk said:
Just curious where you got your rainbow BTA?

Ebay user aquadreams1. here is the exact clone I got it from:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/SUPER-COLO...120752&hash=item440035c69d:g:Qn0AAOSw32lY1Eji

I think he has a shop, but does A LOT on ebay. He has some aquacultured and some wild nems. His photos are way over saturated and obviously not realistic. But just imagine that, but 10% of the color. If you're happy with the cost for what you imagine, go for it. He also names some of his nems with some lineage names, but I haven't seen him really claim they're true lineage, just naming them. Anyway, he's quick to process the order. Shipment is fast and great. The anemone I got was super healthy. So I think you would be OK ordering from him. He has a few other anemones right now that I'm eyeing as well.

kinetic · Nov 2, 2017

Just put in my order for an Octo Lid with @cromag08! He's super responsive and ordering went smoothly. I'll update soon. In case there are any RSR 170 users out there looking for some ideas, here's my cutout diagram of the top of my tank I crudely made + the rendering from @cromag08

I'll probably keep the lid off my tank on days I'm at home. But if I'm out for extended amount of time (lots of travel), the lid will be on! Just in case. I have a fancy white gladiator that likes to jump. I've saved him once when he flew out of the tank. I see him jump once in awhile but always lands back in. No good!

As you can see, I'm going to have a cutout for the overflow and my Neptune AFS w/ BuildingAnObsession feeding station.

Clayton Jessup · Nov 2, 2017

Tank looks great. Can’t wait to see come along. I have question for you kinetic , how are you liking Hydra 52?

kinetic · Nov 2, 2017

Clayton Jessup said:
Tank looks great. Can’t wait to see come along. I have question for you kinetic , how are you liking Hydra 52?

Hey Clayton! Hydra 52 is great. No complaints at all. The wireless connection works (sometimes it's hard to connect, but usually not bad). Once I set it up, I haven't really needed to tweak it. The fixture looks nice too. I don't have any corals, just a BTA at the moment, and it seems to be very happy and coloring up nicely.

Clayton Jessup · Nov 2, 2017

kinetic said:
Hey Clayton! Hydra 52 is great. No complaints at all. The wireless connection works (sometimes it's hard to connect, but usually not bad). Once I set it up, I haven't really needed to tweak it. The fixture looks nice too. I don't have any corals, just a BTA at the moment, and it seems to be very happy and coloring up nicely.

Kinetic that’s very good to know about the Hydra I currently got a AquaticLife T5/LED Hybrid light and I am trying to figure it which LEDs to go with looking at Ecotech Radions , Kessils, Aqilluminations .. so a little all over

kinetic · Nov 2, 2017

Clayton Jessup said:
Kinetic that’s very good to know about the Hydra I currently got a AquaticLife T5/LED Hybrid light and I am trying to figure it which LEDs to go with looking at Ecotech Radions , Kessils, Aqilluminations .. so a little all over

I've heard good things about Ecotech Radions. Kessils seem to be more spotlight like, which is good if you have a small area you need to lightup with little light leak, but otherwise you'll need a few to cover bigger tanks. I picked AI mostly because it works as well as Radions, but it comes in white! I can't stand a black fixture in a room. I'm all about how the tank looks as a piece of furniture, and black isn't part of how I decorate. The fact that the AI was white sold me instantly. I'm glad it performs well too.

Clayton Jessup · Nov 2, 2017

kinetic said:
I've heard good things about Ecotech Radions. Kessils seem to be more spotlight like, which is good if you have a small area you need to lightup with little light leak, but otherwise you'll need a few to cover bigger tanks. I picked AI mostly because it works as well as Radions, but it comes in white! I can't stand a black fixture in a room. I'm all about how the tank looks as a piece of furniture, and black isn't part of how I decorate. The fact that the AI was white sold me instantly. I'm glad it performs well too.

Kinetic , that’s very valid point , even though all my tank set up is black lol

I like black as much as you like white lol [emoji23]

kinetic · Nov 2, 2017

Hah! Then you have a lot more options than me for sure =)

By the way, when you use LED's, you have to run them pretty blue, whereas with T5's you can get the right spectrums with a less blue look. That's the only downside for me. I like the lights to be pretty presentable in a room and not look overly blue, so I run the whites high. That'll probably cook SPS, so I've thought of going T5/LED hybrid to get a less blue look while being able to keep the colors going well on the corals.

Clayton Jessup · Nov 2, 2017

kinetic said:
Hah! Then you have a lot more options than me for sure =)

By the way, when you use LED's, you have to run them pretty blue, whereas with T5's you can get the right spectrums with a less blue look. That's the only downside for me. I like the lights to be pretty presentable in a room and not look overly blue, so I run the whites high. That'll probably cook SPS, so I've thought of going T5/LED hybrid to get a less blue look while being able to keep the colors going well on the corals.

Kinetic that sounds like a good plan to T5 ‘s . They do make a 24in version of my light to cover your tank , plus I am sure u could paint it White

kinetic · Nov 3, 2017

I'm deciding on which rock to use for the H. Mag. The first one below is larger by about 1" shortest diameter, and 2" longest diameter. Good for the nem to grow a bit. The second is big enough (reportedly) to hold it with 2 - 3" extra space to grow. Obv. I could just go with the larger, but aesthetics mean a lot too. Maybe there isn't enough of a difference, but what do you guys think. A or B?

A

B

kinetic · Nov 3, 2017

A quick video of a new BTA (not the H. Mag). It's starting to move to the back of the tank lol:

And a photo:

The H. Mag was not happy after being shipped. Even though it was out of @gig 'em's hands into mine within 15 hours, he was ticked. After a long 2 hour drip acclimation, he's in a breeder box in the DT. I have a quarantine / treatment tank all setup for tonight just in case.

Follow along the mags journey here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-mag-arrived-journey-to-the-dt.334479/

kinetic · Nov 4, 2017

The H. Mag made it onto his rock today, after a 24 hour stress session! Story here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/new-mag-arrived-journey-to-the-dt.334479/

Photos of the beautiful mag from @gig 'em below!