A Capital Dream - 400g SPS build

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Today, the DT is not looking as good as it used to (and it's not just the lack of glass cleaning)

DT_w_shelf_zpswcihrkyn.jpg~original


It may not be pretty, but it is effective. I moved some of the live rock that will allow me to start the 400g aquascape. Here is the live rock, just crying to get back into use.
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Live_Rock_zpsxaxosqay.jpg~original


Here is a closer look at some of this rock. You really don't get a size perspective, but the largest rock is about 25 lbs.

Live_Rock_2_zpscvkz2uqk.jpg~original


Live_Rock_3_zps15chxurk.jpg~original


Ignore the tape. This marks the 5-3 split. e.g. Using a design principal of dividing the whole into 5/8 and 3/8, the tape is placed to show where 60" is to the left and 36" is to the right. The channel will start around this mark.

Live_Rock_4_zpsrfp6ofjf.jpg~original


I will be starting the aquascape process tomorrow by creating the right side structure. (already have the MH set up there, so I can move corals as soon as I am done.)
 
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I think I am a little overdue for an update.
smile.gif
All the livestock is now in the 400g. Here is how I got there. I noted a few posts back that I started the transfer by removing the rock from the left side of the 220 to the 400. I used an egg crate rack to hold some of the coral.

The next step was to lay out the shelf rock to see what I had to work with.

Shelf_1_zps0qrdlisz.jpg~original


There is approximately 25 sq ft of rock laid out with the largest at the top and smallest at the bottom.

These were the largest shelves and a few of them I consider show pieces and want them to stand out above the rest.

Shelf_2_zpsm9sxuosw.jpg~original


The top right rock is the largest and measures in at 23" x 24" with a weight of 58 lbs. The one below it measures 26" x 14" but weighs in at only 14 lb because it is so porous.

I built the right side structure first. I knew before I started that the large rock on the top left above would be the feature rock at the top of the hill. I ended up with the following:

440_right_zpsi49ueqlf.jpg~original


I then moved the large corals that were on the egg crate in the 200 to this structure. Please note that there are some corals in this photo that were moved in the next phase. I did not photo every step, but tried to provide sufficient pictures to illustrate the process I used. The MH lamp was already installed there, so they would have adequate light through the next stages.
 
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The next step was to move the rocks from the middle section of the 220 to the 400. There was practically no shelf rock in the 220, so the live rock was to be used as the pillars for all the shelf rock. I did not want to risk losing too much of the bacteria necessary for the nitrification process, so I placed it directly into the 400 and worked with it in there. The whole aquascape process would have been much easier if I had taken all the live rock and laid it out to pick and choose. Instead I had to trial and error most of the aquascape until I got it to a point that I was happy.

Here is the 220 after the second batch of rocks was moved from the centre of the tank:

220_step_2_zpshm8d7iic.jpg~original


Yes, the tank needed serious cleaning IF it was to remain the DT. But it was not, so I didn't bother. The fish were very confused now that 2/3 of their house had disappeared. I was a little worried about aggression issues with the added stress, but they actually behaved very well.

The corals from that 2/3 were scattered between the 220 and the 400. The 440 did not have enough shelf space for them all, and I could not use the sand bed in the 400 because I needed that as work space. I still had all 3 MHs over the 220g, so I used the egg crate and the sand for corals.

I then built the left side structure:

Left_Initial_zpsx1x52ezk.jpg~original


First, those 4 small rocks at the very top and the pizza slice in the centre lower 3rd did not stay. The top shelf is the 23 x 24 piece that I felt is one of the nicest rocks I have and deserved the king's seat. The 26 x 14 was place to the right centre of the picture.

After the structure was complete, I moved most of the remaining corals from the corals from the 220. I left some there because I again did not have enough space for all of them yet.

Left_structure_zpsvx9ndepu.jpg~original


The only thing I am not fully happy with is the downward sloping rock in the centre. This one was difficult to place because of it's shape, but it will be less noticeable down the road as corals grow out to hide it. After this shelf was created, I moved on of the MH from the 220g to the 400. I had corals on both ends of the 400, but only one MH on the right. I put the MH in the second position of the planned 4 because it is harder to reach than the first position MH. This is why the light is more intense on the left side of the picture.

The MH move was easier than I had hoped. I am going from a Lumenbright mini to a Lumenbright large. Fortunately, the mogul socket assembly was identical for both pendants. I merely removed the socket assembly and transferred it with the ballast attached to the large pendant. I was worried that the socket lengths would be different to allow proper alignment to the centre of the pendant. If that was the case, I would have to rewire the ballast to the new pendant. Fortunately, that was not necessary.
 
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I took a break from the transfer to pick up an important new piece of equipment for the aquarium. A heavy duty generator.

Generator_zpsnlj9fmdl.jpg~original


Generator_watt_zpse1hmlxkz.jpg~original


At 6500 running watts, I will be able to run the aquarium heaters, T5 lights, return pump and powerheads. In addition, I can run the motor on the natural gas furnace, the freezers, and the TV. I love overkill.
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The generator was 1/3 off the regular price. I mentioned earlier that my wife and I were considering a generator and we decided to do it at that price.

 
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You will recall that my intent was to build a channel to help provide the sense of depth. This did not work as envisioned because I had more rock than I had free space. There was one last show rock that I wanted to display and it ended up as the centre piece (literally) that joined the two ends.

Centre_1_zpss4rppjlk.jpg~original


I also had extra rock from the 220 so it currently sits in the back of the centre section as well as other not so visible locations in the back.

Standing back a little, this is what the centre join section looks like:

Centre_2_zpsraytp8gz.jpg~original
 
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I completed the aquascape yesterday and moved all the coral into the 400g. There were a few rocks left in the 220 that I moved today so that the tank was void of all rock. Today I went fishing.
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I was not even going to attempt to get the fish, shrimp and snails with rock in the tank. This was going to be stressful for the livestock and me.

I have tried to move fish before and it is a challenge. The fewer obstructions, the better. I also knew that the 30" height of the tank left lots of room for the fish to escape the net that I was to use. I made the job easier by draining the water to a 12 inch height before I even attempted to catch the fish. It took about an hour and a half to remove all the fish, except the yellow coris wrasse. He buried himself in the sand and I did not see where he went. I further drained the tank to 3" of water. I put a few flakes and oyster eggs in the tank hoping to invoke a feeding response that would draw him out of the sand. Two hours later he was out swimming around. It only took a couple minutes to catch him and he joined the rest of the gang. I retrieved all living snails and even found a peppermint shrimp that I had not seen since we put it in the tank 5 months ago. I had put 3, but only one survive.

I have a harlequin shrimp that I use to control asterid starfish. I have had a few coral frags decimated by some of these. Today I was even scraping the tank walls for asterids, catching them with a net as they fell, to transfer them to the 400 so the harlequin won't starve. I have had him for 4 months. He has not eradicated them, but has certainly gained control over them.

Mission complete.

Here is what the tank looks like.

FTS_zpshdqonpih.jpg~original


The next phase is to transfer over the remaining 2 MHs, the 6' Reefbrite XHO blue LED, and the Tunze powerheads. I have to make a few changes to the timings in the Profilux controller.

 
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I was thinking about the 220g this afternoon and, for a brief period, felt a little sad that I was shutting it down. We have had that tank for about 6 years and have been though a lot with it. It started with fish and softies, went to FOWLR that later had a velvet infestation because I did not QT a fish. I lost abut $1500 in fish in a matter of a few days. It was later reborn as a mixed reef with LPS and SPS. I was successful with the SPS and we made the decision to upsize to the 400 with an SPS focus. The old DT is nothing more than a material item, but there are memories and lessons there that I will always cherish, and use, to forward my SPS obsession. I intend to throw a few LPS in it, just to keep those SPS guys on their toes.
smile.gif


The 400 still needs to be skinned and there will be more adjustments as time shows areas for improvement. The room still has to be organized for the freezers, computers and entertainment centre, so lots is left to be done.

This thread is far from done, so keep checking in and thanks for reading.

 
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I took a little time a couple of days ago for some basic tests. I had not done any in a week or so and I am particularly interested in phosphate levels since I added the shelf rock. The phosphates have been running around .06 previously. The test I did gave a .13 reading (Hanna Phosphorous ULR converted). Now, this may be from the new rock or it may be that the Rowaphos has been fully exhausted. I cleaned out the reactor and added fresh Rowaphos. I tested nitrates and they are around 10. In the past, they always read zero. I feed quite heavily so the coral colours were not impacted.

The alk in the tank tested at 6.5. This is a little lower than I want so I am bringing it up using baking soda, then adjusting the calcium reactor. I would like it between 7 and 8 dkh. This should combine well with a NO3 target <5 and PO4 target of <=.05.
 
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Updates may continue to be a little slow. There is something about the Olympic games that grabs my attention.

I am very proud of our Canadian contingent and I think I am wearing out my TV remote trying to watch all the events.

I tested the water today and the alk was at 6.9. I want to get it to 7.5 so will continue to add baking soda and fine tune the calcium reactor. The phosphates have dropped to .055 and nitrates are down to < than 5 so I am happy with those numbers at present. I have a diatom bloom in the tank, due to the new dry rock I suspect, and plan to closely monitor the NO3 and PO4.

Finally, and totally non-reef related, my wife (Susan) and I celebrated our 28 wedding anniversary. She has been my rock over the years and fully supports my reef passion. I only hope that others are as blessed as I am.
emoji106.png


 
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Updates may continue to be a little slow. There is something about the Olympic games that grabs my attention.

I guess I am out of excuses for the lack of updates, now that the 2016 Summer Olympics has ended. First, I am very proud of our Canadian athletes. They represented Canada with honour and brought home more medals than was originally predicted.

I did a series of water tests today and this is the current standing:

Salinity 35 (1.026 sg)
Alk - 8.2 dKh
CA - 450
Mg - 1350
P04 - 0.07
N03 - < 1 (cannot detect colour in low range Salifert)
PH - 8.23

My Alk is a little higher than the 7.5 - 8.0 that I am targeting. I am still messing with the CA reactor and have become more aggressive in my adjustments. I was too conservative in increasing the effluent rate and CO2 bubble count in the past and always seemed to come up short of my target. I would add baking soda to bring up the Alk, wait a day and adjust the CARX. I believe I am now close to my target and should have it dialed in soon.

Ca and Mg are fine so I am not worried about them.

Phosphates are a bit of a problem. They were down to .05 a few days ago but are now rising. I only test once, sometimes twice a week and will change out the Rowaphos if it continues to climb. I may end up having to add nitrates in order to get that N03/P04 ratio. I am a little nervous about doing Nitrates and the impact on the Acros but I cannot get a measurable level of nitrates.
 
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Over the past couple weeks, I finally managed to increase the flow in the tank. I was using two Maxspect Gyre 150's but have since added my Tunze powerheads. I moved the Gyres to the back wall and mounted them vertically. I had one on each end but they kept blowing the sand so that I had a 1.5' x 6" bare bottom in the middle front of the tank with an 8" sand dune on either side. of the bb.

I mounted the two Tunze 6101 (3170gph each) on the back wall and one Tunze 6055 (1450 gph each) on each end wall. These, along with teh Maxspect Gyre 150 (5000 gph ea) provide lots of water movement.
mdrbig.gif
I will be connecting the Tunze to the Profilux controller and will be buying the new Gyre controller to convert the 150s to 250s. They should be here in Canada early September. This will provide more randomness in the flow pattern after all are connected.
 
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I am an avid mind reader and can hear some of you saying: "that's nice about the equipment changes, but where are the pictures?"

Here are some that I took today.

FTS. This is hard to get because the room is so narrow.

FTS_Aug_24_zps8tyudimt.jpg~original


Left side:

Left_Aug_24_zpsgozzcukq.jpg~original


Centre:

Centre_Aug_24_zps2ixniafj.jpg~original


Right side:

Right_Aug_24_zpswmb6grps.jpg~original
 
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Current fish list:

Tomini tang
Purple tang

Scribbled rabbitfish

Copperband butterfly

Wrasses:
Yellow coris
Purple lubbocks
Solar fairy
Yellow flank
Red velvet
one unknown red
yellow tail tamarin

In waiting
3 pyramid butterfy
 
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I visited my goto LFS today and picked up some more cleanup crew. Last week, I added 50 astrea snails to go with the 25 astrea, 6 large nassarius and 6 mexican turbos. The turbos are getting close to baseball size, but they only come out after dark. Today, I bought 20 trochus snails, 10 cerith, 10 peppermint shrimp, strawberry conch and two short spine urchins.

I am not sure what type they are but, go figure, all the rock with algae and they want to hitch a ride on snails.

Urch1_zpsytiwk6eb.jpg~original


Urch2_zpship0ssvr.jpg~original


The algae levels on the rock is not too bad, but I don't want it to get worse before the P04 settles down some. The sandbed is in pretty good shape and I am hoping the ceriths and conch will keep it that way. If not, I will get some more.
 
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I mentioned in post 71 that I had taken a more aggressive approach in adjusting the CARX. It appears, I might have been a bit too aggressive. My Alk has jumped to 8.7 (target 7.5 to 8.0). I run a constant effluent stream from the CARX and I am making adjustments to the PH. I had it set at 6.55 ph (pretty low) so started making adjustments to the ph level in the reactor and am now at 6.75. The alk was rising about 5ppm (.28dKh) per day. I will continue to monitor this.

I tested P04 , and it read .03. This is down from the .07 a couple of days ago. I attribute this to user error with the Hanna Phosphorous ULR colorimeter. It seems to fluctuate between .03 and .07 when I test. I have Rowaphos in a reactor and will leave it "as is" for now.

Most of the the corals are starting to show signs of growth since I moved them into the tank which indicates to me they are happy with the current conditions. The fish are getting fatter by the day and the corals do not appear unhappy. Sue and I are heading out of town for a few days, leaving tomorrow, to celebrate her folk's 60th wedding anniversary. I believe the tank is in good condition and I have an auto feeder that runs 4 times a day. The poor fishies will have to dine on pellets, (instead of steak) actually mysis, Rod's and a few other good things. They will not be getting the volume they had, but they will get the nutrition they need.

 
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The tank and I had a little test this past weekend. Sue and I went down East to New Brunswick to celebrate her folks 60th wedding anniversary. We left last Thursday morning and returned last night(Mon). This left the tank unattended for 5 days. I am very happy to say that all corals are looking good and there are no detrimental affects that I have seen.

I used the Eheim autofeeder and gave the fish a shot of pellets 4 times a day. I lost no fish and the clean up crew looks pretty good. I have a lot of snails so not sure if I lost any.

We got back late yesterday afternoon and I tested the parameters last night. The alk had dropped to 123 ppm (6.88 dKh) so I added a little baking soda (5 tsp). The main issue with the CARX is the use of a small pump (MJ600) for supply and the use of a needle wheel to regulate the effluent stream. I have experienced some plugging of the effluent line and consequently some variable effluent volumes. I plan to get a peristalic pump but until then I will use the MJ600 and a needle valve to provide a continuous flow. I will just have to make some adjustments on the fly.

I did have an algae film on the glass when I got home. It was not too heavy, so I was quite happy given the 5 days absence. I tested nitrates and they were basically zero (no colour using salifert). My phosphates were .09+ which is higher than the .05 that I want. I am not surprised because I expected the Rowaphos to exhaust soon.

I replaced the Rowaphos today and will continue to monitor the phosphates.

Off topic: It was a wonderful weekend. My In-laws are pushing their 80's plus, and they were smiling the whole weekend. The wholw family was there plus many friends. My father-in-law drives me nuts, only because he talks way more than me.
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My mother-in-law is a sweetheart and I love her almost as much as my own Mom. I came to realize a long time ago that their daughter's welfare is the most important thing to them, and that my role is to be the best husband I can be. I must be doing something right, because she is still with me after 28 years and the in-laws still accept me. End of sentimental segment.
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Great news on your tank after the 5 days!! Even better news on your weekend with Family. Definitely what one should be doing over the Holiday weekend.
 
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Great news on your tank after the 5 days!! Even better news on your weekend with Family. Definitely what one should be doing over the Holiday weekend.
You are so right. Family first. The tank made it and I am grateful. The nice thing about these get togethers is the food. I ate so well. Haha
 

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