NateRealBig's Truly Minimalist 120g Office Build

[naterealbig]

Ran into my first "major" challenge... found EEFW on what i suspect to be a wild frogspawn... found them during a night inspection of QT #2.

It's the best time to find Aiptasia and other pests. Lots of stuff comes out at night, for fear of predation during the day

HELP - ID Flatworm On Octospawn

Hi, Are these bad? If so - how to eradicate?

www.reef2reef.com

 

[naterealbig]

Gave me a good reason to break out the videoscope. By far the best piece of equipment for combating pests. Literally nothing can get past this thing.









Crazy the critters in your reef....


No eggs at all on the coral, base, or plug, which is good news. Coral Rx handled the worms. I'll dip again a few times a week apart, to make sure i got everything.

 

[naterealbig]

A few more additions to QT2, and some updated shots of some frags. Everything growing nicely, and the A360X doing a great job coloring up the corals.

 

[naterealbig]

Current params:

 

[Perry]

A few more additions to QT2, and some updated shots of some frags. Everything growing nicely, and the A360X doing a great job coloring up the corals.

Freakin outstanding bro!!!

 

[Perry]

Got that Hellflower looking good bro!!!

 

[Northern Flicker]

Looking great.

 

[naterealbig]

Freakin outstanding bro!!!

Got that Hellflower looking good bro!!!

Thank you Perry!! Always nice to see you stop by. Your words mean a lot, you are true pro as far as I'm concerned, so getting the 'nod' from you means I'm on track! Soon as i get a few of these grown out just a bit, I'll need to stop by and drop off a pack of coral goodies, check out your systems (looking ******), and get you your frag rack back!

Looking great.

Thank you for the kind words brother!

 

[naterealbig]

Working on water mixing storage... Got the pump lines connected and hated it. The plumbing takes up too much room and (most impactful here, due to my OCD) the plumbing is not even or square. Cut all the piping down, additional list of pvc fittings - which include 6 more true-union ball valves (OUCH!)

 

[Perry]

Thank you Perry!! Always nice to see you stop by. Your words mean a lot, you are true pro as far as I'm concerned, so getting the 'nod' from you means I'm on track! Soon as i get a few of these grown out just a bit, I'll need to stop by and drop off a pack of coral goodies, check out your systems (looking ******), and get you your frag rack back!




Thank you for the kind words brother!

Thank you Nate for the kind words!
I was just thinking that I have known you back to the day you bought that 40 cube, 1" acrylic BEAST from me, custom MRC tank. That was 2007 bro!!!
Good to see an old reefer buddy doing the same thing as back then, some might think we're crazy
Much love brother!!!

 

[naterealbig]

More progress...

 

[naterealbig]

Ouch - yesterday was rough. A little bit of progress and a ton of setbacks....

Finished the plumbing job for storage tanks above, but needed a way to add salt to the bottom tank, since the lid on the top of the container is inaccessible. Thought the curved fitting below would do the trick, but it did not. Added salt, and it completely filled up and barely a grain made it to the mixing tank.




Like my 20th trip to Lowe's to add some fittings to plumb a flushing mechanism - worked like a charm!




I finished reinforcing the cabinet (the designers/installers clearly had no experience with aquariums). Brother came over and we lifted the tank to the stand. Started filling with water (tank is not plumbed yet, but I NEEDED something to look at ). A few hours later I added the rock that I had been cooking, and while futzing with the hanging canopy, one of the cables on the right side came loose, and right after that, the other cable on the right side broke away from the ceiling (evidently the electrician who installed this had no experience with this either...SMH).

I ended up with half the canopy in the water, with 2 x 48" Reefbrite Strips and a Kessil A500X energized, and completely submerged in saltwater. I was so mad that after I made sure the GFCI was tripped, I just left it there for a few hours while I finished work. After work I grabbed my tools, inspection glasses, etc, had a beer, disassembled the canopy, removed all the guts, and sat down at the kitchen counter to begin disassembling the lights.

4 hours later with 2 A500X's and 2 Reefbrites completely disassembled (could not remove the RB reflectors for the life of me), complete RODI washdown finished, and my fiance's hair dryer duct-taped to the lighting components to force-dry, I tested the lights. I was completely surprised with all four energized, and appeared to be operating normally.










Completely determined to see the aquarium with the rock in and lights on, I began reassembling all of the fixtures around 1 am, turned the RB's on and left on the counter to aid drying anything I missed with the hair dryer (by 2 am), and used my A-series mounting arms to temporarily mount the Kessils to the tank. Finally at 3:30 am I was able to see the display with rock and lights!

My intention was to just relax a few minutes before going to bed, when it occurred to me that I needed to make sure the pumps and heaters were working as well. I opened the tank cabinet, and it was completely covered in water. Included in the wet equipment was 2 Nero 7 controllers and the Power strip. Chucked the power strip, dried the Nero controllers, dried the bottom of the stand, and powered up the heaters and pumps. Heaters were good-to-go, and so was one of the Nero 7's. The other Nero 7 would not power up - just a quick blue then white LED flash and then nothing....

So went and grabbed my tools again and disassembled the controller. Same protocol that I used with the lights, but no luck with this one. Upon close inspection, it looked like one of the components was damaged. So, I went to the AI website to buy the circuit board, and of course, there is no such thing listed in their parts store. I sent them an email and am still waiting to hear back.




Still determined to have a semi-operating aquarium and just generally being a stubborn *******, I headed to the garage to pull out the ol' reliables - my Tunze streams. I installed a 6125, and I realized immediately that I like the flow and suction pattern MUCH better than the Nero. It move more water, and it did not generate the whirlpool/air-sucking affect that the Nero 7 did (the Tunze powerhead suction area has a MUCH larger surface area). (Anyone who has tried to mount a power on the short side of an aquarium between the front glass and the overflow box knows what I am talking about)...

Either way, I have made the decision to stick with the Tunze pumps. The single pump (with the design of my rock work) creates an EXCELLENT gyre effect throughout the aquarium, resulting in a massive amount of water movement, but at a low velocity - which is exactly what I want for this to-be mixed reef. Additionally, the 6125's have no controller so it fits very well with the reliable, redundant, simple setup that I was going for with this system.

I'll install the 2nd 6125 tomorrow, and will connect them both to mechanical timers. 11 hours on for 1 pump, 11 hours for the other, and both together for 2 hours, which should do a good job of flushing the display and getting the nasties to the (Tunze) skimmer .

 

[naterealbig]

Storage tank fittings still leaking.... another drain, another repair. Found more leaks on the other tank too. At this rate, it will be next year before I'm able to use these for making water...

 

[naterealbig]

OMG I literally cannot win with this build. Was super-excited to sit down last night to get the sump plumbed in. Tightened bulkheads. Installed first bulkhead drop. Went to start measuring PVC and drilling holes in the support, and waddyaknow - the pipe hangers I ordered weeks ago are too small.

For anyone curious, IPS and CTS measure pipe differently. CTS (copper pipe) OD is true to the measurement, and IPS (along with PVC pipe) is measured by "nominal" diameter. Guess which pipe hangers I bought? Back to the PVC website, more hangers, overnight delivery.... Best case they are here on Tuesday, which means two more days of waiting....

 

[Perry]

Keep pushing brother, you got this!!!

 

[naterealbig]

Keep pushing brother, you got this!!!

Thanks Perry! I will man, I will.

I got plumbing on the tank with running water, but still have some cable organization to do before I share.

Still haven't touched the leaks in the storage tanks...

 

[Stephen8169301]

Sweet build!!

 

[naterealbig]

Sweet build!!

Thanks for following along! Questions and feedback welcome here!

 

[Petcrazyson]

Yk…for what you’ve done Nate…I think you should be Mega Brain and not Pea Brain

 

[naterealbig]

Yk…for what you’ve done Nate…I think you should be Mega Brain and not Pea Brain

Thank you for the kind words brother!! I have to laugh at myself, every once in a while!

If you saw some of the mistakes i made on the build you might say otherwise