400Gal Down Under

[melev]

Any updates?

 

[K_Red_Raider]

Im with Marc we need some updates

 

[Sherman]

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Poke

Update!

 

[chromus]

Sorry peeps, been very busy.

A few peeps on another sight I frequent asked for some pics so I obliged, and figured I would be lazy and post em all here as an update. :thumbsup:

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[Hung]

Love the euphyllia collection on the base of the rock structure

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk 2

 

[Sherman]

Nice!

 

[chromus]

Now to make you sick, 50% of the corals were given to me by a friend who decided he didnt want the hassle of SPS and LPS and was going to stick to gonipora corals, which he loves.

Cost me a promise of frags if he ever goes back to real corals [smilie=rofl.gif]

 

[hoopsdaddy]

looks great and that is a super score on those corals!

 

[K_Red_Raider]

That is an awesome deal i need some friends like that. How are the Lemon Peel Angels doing...any nipping?

 

[Mitch9192]

Do my eyes deceive me or is that clam growing in the side of a much larger clam?

Mitch

 

[chromus]

@Jzilla wrote:

@hoopsdaddy wrote:

Thanks

@K_Red_Raider wrote:

They smashed a catalaphyllia when I first got them, but they grew up with no LPS and lots of food so they lost interest.

@Mitch9192 wrote:

You eyes are correct, I live not far from a guy called Acroal, he is a strange dude, but strange leads to innovation, he has a backyard clam breeding setup. He gets clams from various places, triggers spawn events and then sells on the parents as they are expensive to keep, he then raises the babies. My clam(s) were post spawn parents and cost me a whopping $20 for a 10" maxi. Here's Als FB page: https://www.facebook.com/Acroalperth

 

[ERIKATHORNBURG]

Absolutely Beautiful!!! I need some deals like that to fill my 450!


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[chromus]

A few weeks back a mate dropped off a doohickey box which he had spare which had a float switch and a power supply attached which was intended to work as a controller for auto-top off filling.

I finally got some time yesterday to really work on it and make it suitable for my system. Basically the unit was originally designed to run off 2 powerpoints, 1 for a plugpack which was for a low voltage trigger for a floatswitch/relay combo and the other was a 240v switched supply controlled by the relay. This in turn was to allow a 24v retic solenoid plugpack, to be plugged into a 240v outlet. [smilie=nerd.gif]

While I have a bunch of powerpoints spare, the design was very functional, but a little inelegant in that it required so much interaction and 240V units.

Long story cut short. The relay and its plugpack were 24vDC, my solenoid was DC compatible so I decided to rework the internals a little on the low voltage side an the plugpack 24v side was rewired to allow it to power both the float/relay circuit and the solenoid. In theory the setup could work without the relay, but this particular relay had a much better current rating than the float switch so why put huge current thru the float switch when it just wasn't necessary. No 240V circuits were harmed in the making of this unit [smilie=whew.gif]

I attached a powerpoint timer to the powerpoint, plugged this unit into that and now the system works for 2.5hrs at a time every 60hours, this is enough to fill up my reservoir to just short of the top, but the float will kill it when the water level is high enough regardless.

While I was meditating on the changes for the switch box it occurred to me that the effluent run from the RO unit was going to need to be re-routed as I hadn't really done more than stuff it in under the tank on the shelf when I put it in. :book: I also wanted to adjust a few things including the drain for the skimmer cup. Again cutting the waffle to a minimum, I now run all of the RO effluent into 1 of the spare holes in my skimmer cup lid, this fills the skimmer cup with water until it gets to 1/2 full and by carefully setting the bend in the drain hose I now have it so it will drain like a surge bucket after it fills to this point and syphon will drain the cup completely. what this translates to is a skimmer cup rinse every 2.5 days with no effort at all from me. [smilie=devil.gif]

Pics of the setup when I finish tidying it all up, there is going to be a drastic rerun of all of the 240V cabling in the next week so I will wait till it's all pretty.
[smilie=wink.gif]

 

[chromus]

Please ignore the stuff floating in the tank, it is meaty cube nite, I do this once a week to feed the whole tank, its a mix of Crab Meat, 100% Reefsafe Aminos, Spectrum, Reefroids and Wicked coral food.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyl0i_owvZg&list=UUuKPQ_OdTFnUjwsS3GNk-fw&feature=c4-overview[/video]

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWOocx8TyAs&list=UUuKPQ_OdTFnUjwsS3GNk-fw&feature=c4-overview[/video]

 

[chromus]

I know I have been a little quiet of late, and for that I apologise, my silence was down to making quite a few upgrades.

1. A major rerun of all of the cabling below the tank. This means that most of the cables are now safely tied up under the tank well out of harms ways. I need to rearrange some of the plugs in the power bars, so that the vortechs are spread across multiple circuit breakers incase of accidental trips.

2. I did some major landscaping work outside, and this included paving/lawns, this forced me to finally do away with the hose pipes I had been using to fill the tank from my IBCs and plumb it properly in 1" PVC irrigation pipe.

3. Finally setup a bean-animal syphon in the weir, I have been getting by with a ghetto setup, while waiting for the irrigation store to get the end caps I want for the tops of the T's.

Pics in the next few days when it's all tidy and pretty.

 

[chromus]

IBC1

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IBC2 and pump

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Access hatch to allow me to disconnect from the duct under the house if I ever have to.

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That was this morning after while the pipe glue was curing.

When I went to do the 1st water change [[BANG!]] the pump exploded quiet spectacularly.

So I ripped out the Onga and replaced it with a Panworld I had planned to use in the closed loop.

 

[chromus]

Been nearly a month since I updated here.

In that time I have fine tuned the refilling pipework, and it's now working as I envisioned.

Another local reefer closed down their tank and offered me 1st pick on his coral, I grabbed a couple of hammers, acans and a lobo, the rest he passed on to others here.

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I did another 320L (80G) water change yesterday and cleaned my skimmer and pellet reactor today.

I have been dosing 0.5ml of Lanth Cl every other day just to drag the PO4 down a little more towards my goal of 0.04PPM

I won the "Tank Of The Future" award on my local forum which is basically an encouragement award to make me pull my finger out and get it to Tank of the Month quality.

The cabinets are ordered for the messy side of the tank so they should be installed in a couple of weeks and I can finally post some pics of that side that don't show the unsightly stuff.

 

[chromus]

OK another month on and little has changed. I need a new shaft for my Red Dragon skimmer pump [smilie=crying.gif] the magnetic core is splitting, I have applied supaglue to it for now, to seal the crack and stabilise it for a week or 2, till the new shaft arrives.

I added 4 sand sifting gobies to keep the sand nice and white. Oh, wait, last time I posted, I had no sand in yet. Well it's in and I like it.

Here is a video [video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=wQGqd3xKgic[/video]

 

[chromus]

OK quick update after a 16 hour day of tank work.

All of my cabinetry is now in and the frame is on the wall on the other side of the tank. Too dark to get photos now so you will have to put up with the 1's from earlier.

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[Hung]

Dark paneling looks gorgeous on the one side, the other side needs some paint now. LOL.