OP
OP
Centerline

Centerline

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2016
Messages
1,474
Reaction score
1,573
Location
St. Augustine, Florida
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Nice dude, thats perfect results!
Ya Man, absolutely excited about it. You have no idea how much I have been bothered by the PH in that little tank. Once the household C02 started peaking in the 1500 - 2000 range a few years ago there was such an obvious decline in coral growth and health correlated against the in tank PH readings it left no doubt that I had a serious problem. I took my 80 down last year to replace it with a Reefer 525 and had planned to do a whole house ventilation system during the upgrade. My wife saw this as a great time to do a little remodeling and things have just drug on and on - but I'm getting there. I have a 400 CFM exhaust fan that Ill be installing next week (maybe tomorrow if I have time) to help with the humidity, temp and CO2 in my home office. I scored a C02 controller that is designed for mushroom farms and also manages humidity and temp. As a standalone controller it should be able to handle the office environment with little trouble (I hope). I run Radium MH in a Spectra fixture as the primary lighting with 4 T5s and 2 XHO ReefBrites so the room gets hot and humid during the afternoon (12 x 14). The 400 CFM fan should help with overall environment if I leave the window cracked. I plan to move the larger rainbow chalices (2 of them are as large as my hand) into my office but this still leaves the rest of them (15 or so) at the mercy of the C02 scrubber. I have a whole house ventilation system on the way (QuietCool QC CL-5400) but I just don't know when Ill find the time to install it. That's more for my health than the corals health. I cannot tell you how much more rested I am when able to sleep with the windows open.
 

Justfebreezeit

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 30, 2017
Messages
1,640
Reaction score
1,927
Location
SoFlo
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ya Man,........all it. That's more for my health than the corals health. I cannot tell you how much more rested I am when able to sleep with the windows open.

Yeah that's pretty sweet set up you will have going. I hear you, I live in Florida to and leaving a window open definitely isn't a feasible solution. That's sweet you had immediate results though. I still have not checked the PH in my Nuvo 20 (I know, I know). I know when I do its going to be a similar situation. My few Sps are growing ok and my Acans and Zoa's are growing great so i'll keep my fingers crossed!

Good to have this solution you cooked up in my back pocket!
 
OP
OP
Centerline

Centerline

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2016
Messages
1,474
Reaction score
1,573
Location
St. Augustine, Florida
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Yeah that's pretty sweet set up you will have going. I hear you, I live in Florida to and leaving a window open definitely isn't a feasible solution. That's sweet you had immediate results though. I still have not checked the PH in my Nuvo 20 (I know, I know). I know when I do its going to be a similar situation. My few Sps are growing ok and my Acans and Zoa's are growing great so i'll keep my fingers crossed!

Good to have this solution you cooked up in my back pocket!
Right on. BTW, I just posted to your canopy thread. Might have a good solution there if you want something that will last forever lol. Should have mentioned 3/8ths plywood and stain as well (less expensive for sure) but got a little excited. ;) If you like the wavepoint idea I have a 4 bulb retrofit that I'm not using and would part with cheep. Wife keeps threatening to toss it out.
 
OP
OP
Centerline

Centerline

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2016
Messages
1,474
Reaction score
1,573
Location
St. Augustine, Florida
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
So the next issue with the tank that I have had to deal with is heat. We had a few good days weather wise and accordingly the tank temp started hit 82-83 degrees. 82 isn't going to kill anything but a few degrees more and its anybody's guess what might happen. Looking around for a Nano chiller I came across this little guy.
CoolWorks-Microchiller-1.jpg

The "CoolWorks Micro Chiller". $170 at MarineDepot.

After reading a few reviews I ordered on and got it hooked up. That took a bunch of wrangling and my probes are back in the main tank now but the thing DOES work.

I installed the unit on March 1 and as you can see from the chart below saw good results within a few hours.
cw1.jpg


On the 4th I made a few adjustments to my heater and programing to keep the temperature a little more consistent.

cw2.jpg

So that worked out perfectly.

I'm giving a thumbs up to the CoolWorks Micro Chiller!

The ONLY things I don't like about it is that there are two different power supplies. One for the return pump and one for the fan. The second is that I'm going to have to powdercoat that heat sink black - stand out pretty good as is. I can live with that though ;)
 
OP
OP
Centerline

Centerline

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2016
Messages
1,474
Reaction score
1,573
Location
St. Augustine, Florida
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
ATO - originally I scored one of the small Tunze Osmolators. Seemed to work ok but the pump was too large to fit into a container that would fit under the stand. I looked at a lot of options and finally settled on a couple of slimline 1.3 gallon containers and my Apex Dos. I really didn't and don't like the way the DOS is used for ATO so I scored a couple of the BRS Dosers - both the 50ml a minute and the 1.1 ml per minute. One for water and one for kalk. I then built a double float switch and hooked that up to my apex breakout box and set several intervals on the Apex that sets the max time the pump can be on to a half hour over the day. So far its working out just fine. I have a leak detection kit for my Apex that needs to be mounted and to hook up the kalk pump - may get to that tonight.

Slimline Container
21EC+BeRKQL.jpg


Drilled with in/out ports
MVIMG_20180302_211208.jpg


A pickup I made with some 1/4" acrylic tubing and a bulkhead fitting.
MVIMG_20180302_211343.jpg


Custom float switch I made
MVIMG_20180211_180411.jpg


BSR Doser
202317_2partdoser-b_1.jpg
 
OP
OP
Centerline

Centerline

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2016
Messages
1,474
Reaction score
1,573
Location
St. Augustine, Florida
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Nice! looks clean I like it. Much more style than my 5 gal bucket haha
Ya Man, my wife just couldn't take looking at a big container sitting in the living room. I'm pretty sure the amoubt of time I spend messing with that little tank is messing with her as well. At any point I'm expecting her to suggest I pickup something that requires less time to maintain. Reefer 350 would be a nice option ;)
 

Justfebreezeit

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Nov 30, 2017
Messages
1,640
Reaction score
1,927
Location
SoFlo
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Ya Man, my wife just couldn't take looking at a big container sitting in the living room. I'm pretty sure the amoubt of time I spend messing with that little tank is messing with her as well. At any point I'm expecting her to suggest I pickup something that requires less time to maintain. Reefer 350 would be a nice option ;)

Haha what a perfect excuse to upgrade! My girlfriend is finally coming around to the tank and I catch her watching it all the time. A little longer and I can pull the upgrade suggestions out ;)
 
OP
OP
Centerline

Centerline

Valuable Member
View Badges
Joined
Sep 22, 2016
Messages
1,474
Reaction score
1,573
Location
St. Augustine, Florida
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Mines got greens coming in too.
In a month or so if I dont see anything else I may try running another actinic. I'm currently running 2 blue + and 2 true actinic. Every thing else looks great so I'm hesitant to fool with the lighting but... I should also have my 525 finished up by then and that will create a bunch of options for feeding and lighting.
 
Back
Top