My Build Thread

rhostam · Aug 29, 2021

After weeks of delay, I finally built the mixing station. We have a friend crashing with us and so our garage has been a mess with rearranged stuff vacated from the guest bedroom. We’ve slowly been cleaning and consolidating.

Water test completed. So now I just need to finish a few bulkhead installations for the 1/4” WC and ATO lines and decide how to drill into the floor under the tank into the garage immediately below (which is where station will sit).

rhostam · Sep 10, 2021

A few updates on the way to “almost zero touch:”

I settled on the Simplicity 240DC for my protein skimmer. It offers great value and generally has good ratings. It is a major step in mitigating my feeding regimen which is in the heavy side of things. It took less than a day to break in and is generating a lot of nasty crap. I’m using it as a basis for tuning my feeding. I’ve also removed the socks.
I also received my Tunze Eco Chic Waterproof Refugium LED Lights. I installed them and added my guest tiny ball of chaetomorpha. I forgot to test parameters before doing this so now I’ll guess I’ll wait until the morning. I would have really liked a frame of reference.
I finally got to rearranging and cleaning up the garage so that I could move the mix station to its final spot. I also purchased the hardware I need to drill into my floors, but I have not done so yet. I hope to get that done this weekend if family affairs allow.
Once the floor and mix station are setup, the remaining pieces are:
- Relocate the RODI set up to the garage. I need to find an enclosure I can use for it so that I can insulate it. I think I’d have larger problems to worry about if I left the garage open during the winter, but better safer than sorry.
- Clear out the stand chamber where the ATO reservoir sits and place and hookup the Trident and KW reactor.

That’s all for now!

rhostam · Sep 16, 2021

As expected, life has prevented me from wrapping up a few things as I planned. All I have are minor updates:

Completed some more wire work in the controller cabinet
This allowed me to move the Trident into the tank cabinet
I’m now convinced taking my time with the move is for the best because dKH is lower than the tank from which most of the corals came. This means it’s going to take a longer time to bring values up. I don’t want to cause more stress if everything looks quite healthy right now. I’ll do it to increase growth and to optimize the environment, but not because it looks like corals are unhealthy.
I took a few pictures to illustrate how I’ve arranged corals in the tank. Basically, I wanted to have virtually the same view of the tank from both sides of the peninsula. To do this, I placed grouping of similar but corals on each side of tank. I did move some around after having been acclimated for their final resting place.

Left Side (left to right)
Large Arch/ (Top) Rock Structure

Zoanthid assorted
Palythoa assorted

(Mid) Rock Structure

Xenia
Ricordia florida
Euphyllia divisa
Euphyllia parancora
Euphyllia glabrescens
Pectinia (rainbow)
Pectinia (space invader)

Sand

Black catalaphyllia jardenei
Trachyphyllia
Pachyclavularia
Caulastrea furcata
Cynarina
Duncanopsammia
Lobophyllia
Scolymia vitiensis

Right Side (left to right)
Large Arch/ (Top) Rock Structure

Euphyllia glabrescens
Duncanopsammia
Zoanthid assorted
Palythoa assorted
Sarcophyton
Caulastrea furcata

(Mid) Rock Structure

Goniopora
Lobophyllia
Micromussa lordhowensis
Duncanopsammia

Sand

Ricordia yuma
Rhodactis (bounce)
Catalaphyllia
Plerogyra sinuosa

rhostam · Sep 27, 2021

Welp! I finally got holes drilled, ran initial ATO lines, tanks filled, and initial SW batch mixing!

The PMUP has proven to work quite well for the amount of travel.

I have a few more lines to run for the water change setup and I need to make the cable work and plumbing tidy. The hardware for that work is on the way. On the whole, I'm happy with my embarrassingly incremental progress.

I did have to change out where the mixing station return line fed into the SW tank. I realized that I didn't have an easy way to dump salt into the tank to prepare a batch of water. Not without disconnecting a union and spilled water. So, I decided to offset a bulkhead on the tank so that I had unfettered access to the tank's large lid. Thankfully, I followed recommendations and had spare fittings to make these adjustments. Unions seem extra, but they really are nice.

I think the hardest and most nerve-wracking parts are complete. So that leaves the following items on the to-do:

Kalkwasser Dosing
- Add KW DOS to the now freed DP cabinet
- Hookup the Kalkwasser reactor in the now freed DP cabinet
- Configure/ begin initial dosing of KW to slowly raise pH and Alk to the desired range
Automatic Water Change
- Add WC DOS to the controller board in the garage
- Run WC tubing lines from the sump to the garage
- Connect the fresh SW input tubing (SW tank > WC DOS Head 1 > sump)
- Connect the waste SW output tubing (sump > WC DOS Head 2 > waste line)
Add Sensors
- Add optical sensors to mixing station tanks
- Add water leak sensors to DP high-risk zones
Cleanup
- Permanently install RODI input and waste lines to bathroom plumbing. Right now I'm using a water hose adaptor and the RODI waste is going outside of the garage to the yard.
- Tidy up the cables on both controller boards
- Secure permanent RODI plumbing using brackets
- (re) secure and tidy up sump cabinet cables and tubing

I wish now that I had completed my garage paint project first.

ReefChef19 · Oct 3, 2021

Great looking build!!! I'm not sure how much weight It'll support, but I would say be careful of your water tanks on that shelf. They get pretty heavy.

rhostam · Oct 4, 2021

ReefChef19 said:
Great looking build!!! I'm not sure how much weight It'll support, but I would say be careful of your water tanks on that shelf. They get pretty heavy.

Yeah, I’ve been watching it. The shelf at the top is doubled up, but I’m not sure I believe the rated 900 lbs per shelf as I can already see very subtle bowing along the center. Being a garage floor the shelving itself isn’t level. I still haven’t found a stand I like.

I’m not sure if I should just build my own stand or keep these. If I keep them, then I’m going to let the reservoirs empty and add a center brace and have 3/4” plywood shelf made for it as well as shim the shelving so that it is level.

rhostam · Oct 14, 2021

Another belated update:

Automatic water changes are enabled. I’m happy about that. I’ve decided the shelving will be inadequate in the long term as others have suggested and so will be building my own if I can’t find one with the right dimensions and weight support.

The remaining DOS I had used with a Kalkwasser reactor. However, I’m wondering if I should go that route again or whether I should go two part. I’ve been manually dosing to get parameters slowly where I want them. And that has worked fine. I think I have a better idea of consumption over the next few weeks to configure two part. But I do definitely miss the pH boost from KW. pH presently is not where I’d like it, but relatively stable otherwise.

The refugium has helped I’m sure with algae as I only have to clean glass about once every week or longer. But it doesn’t seem to help with pH much. There is also substantial aeration via the skimmer and air stones. I have not run a line outside, yet.

For those that use kalkwasser one of the questions I had about my setup was whether I should continue to use fresh RODI. The concern I had was competing “top off” levels between my ATO and KW dosing and the resulting salt dilution… is it a problem? It doesn’t seem like it was in my previous configuration. But much more water evaporates from this system than my old one. Any thoughts on feeding tank water from sump into the KW reactor as its source?

CONTEMPLATION!

Also, by shade/diffuser from 3Dreefing are in. We had some shopping issues with USPS, but 3Dreefing made it right.

Comparison of on versus off:

Final plans for the aquarium kids are finalized and have been submitted to production! I should have ordered this a long time ago as part of initial equipment, but I didn’t because I wasn’t sure what kind of equipment I would have and didn’t want to risk not having the cut outs I needed. I did lose a Diamond goby as a result of this poor planning.

rhostam · Oct 20, 2021

Algae Blooms, Bacterial Bloom, and Cyano OH MY

About the time you might expect, I started to see a few of the uglies creep up. This included algae (excessive algae film on the glass that required daily cleaning). Then I got cyano. Then I got a nasty super nasty bacterial bloom.

So, I started working down a phased treatment path. I gave each step at least a week to see if I could note any visible changes. Since I forgot to document each of these issues as they occurred, I am lumping them all together in sequence.

Excessive Algae Film on Glass
While not exactly an algae bloom, this was a little annoying. I was still tuning lights and my feeding regimen was still quite heavy (in retrospect). I wasn't yet running the refugium or the skimmer. Those additions were documented above and they changed things almost overnight. The algae film on the glass went from a once a day (sometimes twice!) to once every few days, maybe less maybe more.

During this period:
NO4 ~ 10ppm
PO4 ~ 0.23ppm

After about a week running the refugium and skimmer:
NO3 ~ 5ppm
PO4 ~ 0.08ppm

I didn't get good pictures showing the film. I didn't think to snap a picture at an angle from one side to the other. That's always the best way to view the film. But this picture shows what the water looks like after I would clean the glass.

Cyanobacteria and Blooms
After a while, I had a visit from our dear friend cyanobacteria.

So, I continued my journey:

I cut back my feeding schedule. I use the @AVAST Marine Plank Feeder. It is awesome. It is silent. It allows pretty refined feeding intervals and gave me the ability to keep food in the water column. My problem is that I am sure I was overfeeding. But how to judge? "Feed only what fish can eat in five minutes" doesn't apply if you are effectively dosing food every few hours throughout the day. I moved to a manual schedule and fed by hand.
Water chemistry didn't change much. And the cyano didn't seem phased.
I adjusted the lighting to have less white. I noticed that the refugium didn't have any cyano. So I figured that perhaps maybe my lighting was exacerbating the situation.
Water chemistry didn't change much. And the cyano didn't seem phased.
After about two weeks, I decided to clean the sand. I tried to siphon up as much of the cyano as I could. I replenished the water volume that was sucked out during this process.
Water chemistry changed. But it was barely noticeable. Honestly, with those kits, readings can seem one shade different if you look at the cuvette from the wrong angle or in the wrong lighting or time of day. The cyano obviously was lessened. But it is clumpy and I had to remove some sand with a net. This helped for a spell. But it was short-lived.
I performed a manual water change of about 10% water volume. My AWC wasn't set up at the time so this was annoying only because I didn't want to slosh water around.
The next day I woke to what was the beginning of a nasty nasty bloom. I had stirred up a mess of nasty bacteria.
I let the bloom work itself out for just over a week. It was looking pretty bad. I think by now it was bacterial and algal. At one point you couldn't see through the tank at all. The fish were swimming about, but any movement startled them. The corals remained fully extended and appeared otherwise unphased by the bloom. That surprised me given that light penetration must have been severely impacted by the bloom.

(In the following pictures you can see the progression. You can also see the reflections more clearly than you can see through the tank.)
I had always planned on plumbing in a UV light. However, for me, that would have been a lot of work and it had already taken me so long to even get some of the basic automation in place. Not because of difficulty, but because of time. So, I ordered a UV light that I could just plop into the sump and let be. I didn't want to go this round and I was a little stressed, I'll admit. But this I hoped would help me down the line and would buy me some time for a better and longer-term solution. The unit I ordered was the largest I could find that could get to me in a reasonable time frame. Even so, it was undersized by rating. I figured any help is better than none. I also knew that I could probably wait out the bloom, but each day it seemed to get worse and I was concerned about potential adverse effects on the corals.
It took about two days for the water to begin clearing up. It went from terrible mucky grey/green to almost crystal clear in about four days.
The UV light definitely helped. One *could* argue that the bloom had just burned out on its own. I wouldn't be able to refute that. I had a bloom in my first tank and it resolved itself inside of two days. At the very least, I hope the UV helps to mitigate any future blooms.
Since I changed to a manual hand-feed cycle, I expected the glass cleaning to still require the same effort every few days. I had been feeding like this for a few weeks. The installation of the UV light appeared to change this. Once I had reached the near crystal clarity, cleaning the glass went from every few days now to about once a week or longer.
At first, some of the zoanthids along the top of the tank were kept shut. Clearly, they were adjusting to the light blocked by the bloom. I didn't think to turn on acclimation mode as I expected the bloom to take longer to resolve. But after about a day, things slowly started opening up. The LPS were open and looking super happy.
The cyano started to return within a few days. At this point, it had been about two and a half months since its first appearance. At this point, I focused on manual removal via a net trying as hard as possible to not disturb the sand. So far, it has helped. It took weeks and months for this issue to become so bad, as BRS says, it will take perhaps as long to get out of it.
I performed a 20% incremental system water change over a few days using the newly configured AWC.
No observable changes.
The one thing I had not done was change my CUC size. In my 50 gallon AIO, I had a small crew that probably was undersized for even that tank. I don't have a good reason for waiting as long.
Today (10/20/21) I received a shipment of a significantly larger (and more appropriately sized) clean-up crew (CUC). Basically, I went from a crew of about a dozen to a couple of hundred assorted members. Thanks, @reefcleaners! Reef Cleaners - 220 Gallon CUC
I also received a shipment of my new baby urchins and red ogo from @AlgaeBarn. My intention is to have the red ogo in the sump since the chaetomorpha is looking kind of gunky. I also hope to keep some ogo out in the display tank if it survives the snails and herbivores. I love the texture and colors.
I should note that I have tried adjusting flow. Areas of higher flow do seem [more] clear of cyano than others, but not by too much. Still, I am limited on just how much I can adjust the flow due to the tank being heavy LPS. I have to solve this in another way.

I still have cyano. I see some of it being replaced by some algae, I think. So I am hoping that the CUC can help bring things into check before resorting to the final option in fighting this type of issue. I'll definitely report back with an update in a week or so. I've also resumed automatic feeding. But rather than regular micro feeding, I'm going with a fixed twice-daily schedule with a smaller overall dosing window.

Thanks for reading folk.

rhostam · Nov 6, 2021

Battle with cyano is still on. I have finally decided to use Ultralife’s Red Slime Remover. It did help some what. But I’m thinking it won’t win the war.

The only thing I haven’t done at this point is consider adding flow along the lower right side of the tank. The left side of the tank is clearly less affected than the right and the main difference is positioning of WAVs. Though at the front end of the rock work where the goniopora, scallop, and rock flower anemones are seems to get a lot of movement. I wouldn’t expect the worst patch of cyano to take hold there.

Next week I’ll place a few AI Nero 3s I have on hand to see if I can find the right amount of flow to help. My only concern is bothering the LPS which seem quite happy with the way things are now.

I’ll do a round of parameter testing and share results, but I will wait until the Red Slime Remover has had more time to work and I’ve completed another large incremental water change.

One of my lobophyllia is showing signs of stress. That will be another post, though.

Michael F · Nov 6, 2021

Great build

Jeffcb · Nov 7, 2021

rhostam said:
Battle with cyano is still on. I have finally decided to use Ultralife’s Red Slime Remover. It did help some what. But I’m thinking it won’t win the war.

The only thing I haven’t done at this point is consider adding flow along the lower right side of the tank. The left side of the tank is clearly less affected than the right and the main difference is positioning of WAVs. Though at the front end of the rock work where the goniopora, scallop, and rock flower anemones are seems to get a lot of movement. I wouldn’t expect the worst patch of cyano to take hold there.

Next week I’ll place a few AI Nero 3s I have on hand to see if I can find the right amount of flow to help. My only concern is bothering the LPS which seem quite happy with the way things are now.

I’ll do a round of parameter testing and share results, but I will wait until the Red Slime Remover has had more time to work and I’ve completed another large incremental water change.

One of my lobophyllia is showing signs of stress. That will be another post, though.

Your tank is looking good. Cyano is tough. I think you have the right idea with flow and lighting. I finally got rid of cyano in my RS 900 by adding 2 WAV pumps to the 3 ReefWaves I already had. I have them ripping the surface and water flow at the upper part of the tank. The ReefWaves for flow around the rock. I also cup lighting back. I mostly lowered it the times I am not here so I don't see it. You will get it , keep up the good work.

rhostam · Nov 7, 2021

Jeffcb said:
Your tank is looking good. Cyano is tough. I think you have the right idea with flow and lighting. I finally got rid of cyano in my RS 900 by adding 2 WAV pumps to the 3 ReefWaves I already had. I have them ripping the surface and water flow at the upper part of the tank. The ReefWaves for flow around the rock. I also cup lighting back. I mostly lowered it the times I am not here so I don't see it. You will get it , keep up the good work.

Thanks @Jeffcb. Thanks for the advice. I’m glad I’m on the right track, then. Because I’ve definitely been scratching my head on this one.

I made the mistake of buying the fiji pink over special grade and tuning the flow down there was a challenge. And, of course, never mind the LPS.

I’ll be sure to report back!

rhostam · Nov 15, 2021

I hate my job. Reefing has allowed me to escape and release the pressure building up from all of the insanity I deal with on a day-to-day basis.

So here I am on my lunch break. Again.

I got an email from the manufacturer of my aquarium lid with a progress report and some pictures. The lid itself is still about 2-3 weeks out from being a finished product, but it is something I can share with those interested.

But first!

CYANO
I haven't made any gains battling cyano. I have adjusted flow and if I make any more changes or increases, I risk severely irritating the LPS and/or damaging them. In fact, one of my lobophyllia just hasn't taken to the change lightly and is looking to be the first casuality coral in this build. Cyano hasn't gotten worse, but it also hasn't improved even with this change. I'll keep trucking through.

Now the preview lid product!

rhostam · Dec 1, 2021

A few updates to share:

The battle against cyano is finally coming to a close. I feel confident that all of the measures taken will lead to its eradication over the next few weeks.
I had some issues with my refugium. And after rebuilding twice, I think I may be on the right track. My first attempt involved chaeto and it just didn’t do well in my tank and led to a rapid deterioration. When I rebuilt it the second time I had underestimated just how much rot there was under the rock and biomedia. I removed all of the detritus and decayed plant matter and removed all rock but for one chunk and a bag of matrix for copepods. I then populated with some sprigs of various caulerpa.
I had some trouble with pH being oddly low even with use of a modified IceCap Kalkwasser reactor. I read a really good article that discussed KW effectiveness in tanks with inadequate CO2 and decided to play around with ways to maximize contact of KW solution/slurry in the sump. This article also suggested that inadequate contact could lead to drops in Alk which I was definitely observing. I had just added a spare Nero 3 into the chamber proceeding the refugium to add flow in the chamber. I placed the output line of the KW reactor in this chamber and this proved to be (dangerously) effective. The same dosage period and volume now registered a 0.60 increase in pH to 8.38. I am aiming for 8.15-8.3. However, I didn’t expect it to be so effective and was unprepared for the huge spike. So I did a 5 gallon water change immediately and enabled aggressive incremental water change over night. This brought down thing relatively smoothly with no immediately apparent side effects. But I’m still watching closely. I will note that Alk now is trending upwards and holding stable from where it was. I’m happy with that, too.
I have added two more tank residents. A juvi yellow tang and a white tail bristletooth tang. The white tail (Wammawink) was pretty shy at first, but settled in quite nicely. He has even started to swim along side the others as they patrol the tanks perimeter (chromies, clowns, hippo, naso, and cardinal).
Finally, I’ve received shipment notice for the tank lid! It is scheduled to arrive this weekend and will share pictures as soon as it is installed. I have been waiting to pick up a six line and a goby and possible another type of wrasse (if there are recommendations?), but wanted to wait to avoid mishaps if possible.

I’ve included a short video of me clumsily walking around the tank trying to find the new shy inhabitant but also to show the state of cyano.

rhostam · Dec 16, 2021

Final update for the year:

Cyano is beat! Corals are settling in, though I’m still having some issues tuning kalkwasser dosing.

rhostam · Jan 20, 2022

Seen a few folk update their build progress and figured I should provide one of my own.

New year update:

I’ve had a few incidents with the largest of my turbo snails and an ever growing hermit bull dozing two pectinia. I’m concerned because some of the tips pierced through the flesh of the crowns. I’m not sure they’ll recover.
Added a few more rock flower anemones and a Midas blenny named Glendale. He’s been a great addition as he is always swimming against the current and in the top of the water column.
Still waiting on finding a six line wrasse and a diamond goby.
The shades are great, but I still wish I could control light spill a bit more.
I am also testing a camera I use for the Apex dashboard. It’s just an old iPod touch, a magnetic mount at the end opposite the overflow, and IP Camera Pro.
I had to replenish some of my clean up crew as well. A few dozen snails keep getting eaten by both the cataphyllias and the large hermits. This includes a small conch. That guy is so industrious and fun to watch with his elephant like trunk.
No changes to system itself made other wise.

Zach B · Jan 20, 2022

rhostam said:
Seen a few folk update their build progress and figured I should provide one of my own.

New year update:

I’ve had a few incidents with the largest of my turbo snails and an ever growing hermit bull dozing two pectinia. I’m concerned because some of the tips pierced through the flesh of the crowns. I’m not sure they’ll recover.

Added a few more rock flower anemones and a Midas blenny named Glendale. He’s been a great addition as he is always swimming against the current and in the top of the water column.

Still waiting on finding a six line wrasse and a diamond goby.

The shades are great, but I still wish I could control light spill a bit more.

I am also testing a camera I use for the Apex dashboard. It’s just an old iPod touch, a magnetic mount at the end opposite the overflow, and IP Camera Pro.

I had to replenish some of my clean up crew as well. A few dozen snails keep getting eaten by both the cataphyllias and the large hermits. This includes a small conch. That guy is so industrious and fun to watch with his elephant like trunk.

No changes to system itself made other wise.

Wow! The tank looks great

rhostam · Feb 2, 2022

So I was thinking on something said in passing by an LFS I visited last weekend… they said that phones have these filters built in. Today I looked on my iPhone for built in blue light filters. I don’t use my cameras much so i thought it was possible I missed something. It looks like I didn’t.

So then I looked for an iOS app with filters that could work. Nothing seemed interesting. But then I found iOS Aquarium Camera.

Am I the only one who didn’t know about this app??

BTW I have both IceCap and Orphek lens and filter kits. It’s just not always convenient to get them and put them on.

I tried the default controls and didn’t see much improvement. It did reduce blue, but not enough. Then I played with the ”gels” option. BINGO!!

Granted it can make some colors super saturated and I’m sure some vendors abuse this, but in the whole the colors are pretty close to what I see with my own eyes.

Here is the app and a few with and with filters applied. Sadly, I discovered this app as my tank was starting ramp down. But I think the results are still pretty clear. I wanted to share sobering before I forgot.

With out:

Using Aquarium Camera and orange gel:

I’ve also made progress on testing out old phone or iPods cameras for streaming.

I’ll share a link, but the tank won’t be visible until lights on: 10:30AM to 7:00PM Mountain:

Sith Sanctum Reef

Hope you all have a great evening!

rhostam · Feb 17, 2022

Well, it’s not all fun and games.

A few weeks ago I had a phosphate spike. I say spike, but it was sustained. I noticed a few corals looking frumpy. So I ran the gamut of tests and even double checked the baseline Trident measurements. Phosphates were the only readings that were off at 0.4.

I quickly moved to bring them down and did so over the course of a few weeks. But not before I think a few corals got sufficiently stressed.

I first noticed my cynarinas not looking so puffed and sprawled out as usual. Immediately following the duncans started looking grumpy.

The duncans contracted brown jelly disease (BJD). I attempted to treat them before it clicked that it was BJD. Within a few days my other duncan colony contracted BJD. I siphoned as much off before removing the infected pieces. Much to my dismay so did one of my euphyllia ancora. I did not recognize this in time and it cost me a few of my favorite corals.

RIP

2x duncanopsammia
1x euphyllia ancora
1x pectinia “space invader”

It’s now been been just over a week and I haven’t seen any further sign of spread. Though I lament the losses, they were awfully close to other colonies and so I hope the rest are safe.

The only thing that looks frumpy still is one of the cynarinas. Prognosis doesn’t appear great, but I’m trying to nurse it back to health.

rhostam · Mar 21, 2022

My crappy UV that I bought in a rush until I could plan something more substantial finally gave out. Big surprise. It did it’s job! And for the cost, I am satisfied even if a bit disappointed. It was the highest rated for its class with nothing hobby grade listed to support my tank size.

So, I ordered a bunch of stuff and have a new project in place to add Pentair 40W unit to my aquarium.

I do wish I could have planned it with the purchase and placement of my aquarium at the onset, but it is what it is.

That said, I thought I had enough spare fittings and piping to complete the job this Sunday. I was wrong. So perhaps next weekend.

In the meantime, I did get to clean out the sump. I also redid wiring and cabinet stuff to help accommodate the new UV, but also because I had a few temporary devices in there that were thrown in with out a permanent placement plan worked out. Things like the temp Green Machine UV, the BRS mini reactor, and even wires and plumbing to the second controller board in the second cabinet chamber. I’ll share pics of the more completed state later once the UV is installed.