Wrasse Retreat 2.0: Evolved's 270g Peninsula

Jstn · Sep 1, 2016

I like that electrical panel, it appears extended forward 6", is there something hid behind that?

evolved · Sep 1, 2016

Jstn said:
I like that electrical panel, it appears extended forward 6", is there something hid behind that?

Good eye, for a crappy picture.
7" actually, and a huge mess of cords and power bricks.

bknapp · Sep 1, 2016

evolved said:
I mean, I can, but I don't think my day-job patents and trade secrets will have much credibility here.

You never know, LOL. Just make sure you overnight them in a styrofoam box with a few of your wrasses as well, LOL.

Jstn · Sep 1, 2016

evolved said:
Good eye, for a crappy picture.
7" actually, and a huge mess of cords and power bricks.

Makes sense, designing my wiring system is holding back my built big time. FOMO is real...

reefknight · Sep 1, 2016

evolved said:
Pin assignment? I have no idea. But as an extension cable, the pin assignment does not matter - provided you are consistent and mirror the opposite end of the extension cable.
I ordered everything from digikey.
Male connector: http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=WM23704-ND
Pins for that end: http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=WM2501CT-ND
Female connector: http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=WM24064-ND
Pins for that end: http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=WM2822CT-ND
Cable: http://www.digikey.com/product-search/en?keywords=W510-50-ND

Thanks!

Thank you.

Awesome, thank you for that info and parts list! The pin out assignment would be which wire to which insert in the plug end. I can see your point though on it not making any difference. I deal with Digikey all the time for work, so that's an easy one.

Paul87 · Sep 2, 2016

Looking real good man! That reactor looks pretty legit. Can't wait to hopefully see it in action.

evolved · Sep 2, 2016

Jstn said:
Makes sense, designing my wiring system is holding back my built big time. FOMO is real...

I am one for wire management, but only to a certain extent. There are some wire conduits in here from 80/20 that keeps everything neat on the wet side of the stand (I'll get nice pictures of everything eventually - promise), but I hate the traditional wire tracks people often use on the backside of equipment boards. Sure, they look nice, but they are a pain to get everything into and an even bigger pain to get a wire out of later - like when you need to clean a pump. Stuffing all the excess wires into a "hide box" makes a lot more practical sense to me.

reefknight said:
Awesome, thank you for that info and parts list! The pin out assignment would be which wire to which insert in the plug end. I can see your point though on it not making any difference. I deal with Digikey all the time for work, so that's an easy one.

You're very welcome.
I know what you meant by a pin assignment; my point was a bit subtle with a sprinkle of snark.

Paul87 said:
Looking real good man! That reactor looks pretty legit. Can't wait to hopefully see it in action.

I put 1.5 cups of ROX and HC GFO in each tube last night, and they're the perfect size for that. Rinsing the carbon out was easy; the GFO was a bit more challenging due to it's density but was doable with a bit more time. I plopped in the tubes and fired it up, and it works just as expected. The fluidization of the GFO is great - totally uniform. Much better than a TLF reactor in that sense (all I've ever used in the past). And of course the carbon is fine as it's easy to turn it down to a small trickle.

Jstn · Sep 2, 2016

evolved said:
I am one for wire management, but only to a certain extent. There are some wire conduits in here from 80/20 that keeps everything neat on the wet side of the stand (I'll get nice pictures of everything eventually - promise), but I hate the traditional wire tracks people often use on the backside of equipment boards. Sure, they look nice, but they are a pain to get everything into and an even bigger pain to get a wire out of later - like when you need to clean a pump. Stuffing all the excess wires into a "hide box" makes a lot more practical sense to me.

You're very welcome.
I know what you meant by a pin assignment; my point was a bit subtle with a sprinkle of snark.

I put 1.5 cups of ROX and HC GFO in each tube last night, and they're the perfect size for that. Rinsing the carbon out was easy; the GFO was a bit more challenging due to it's density but was doable with a bit more time. I plopped in the tubes and fired it up, and it works just as expected. The fluidization of the GFO is great - totally uniform. Much better than a TLF reactor in that sense (all I've ever used in the past). And of course the carbon is fine as it's easy to turn it down to a small trickle.

Oh I agree, I come from The import world and have wire tucked a car or two.

dragonfish · Sep 3, 2016

love the details ! good job

bknapp · Sep 17, 2016

How's the tank doing @evolved ?

evolved · Sep 19, 2016

bknapp said:
How's the tank doing @evolved ?

Overall, well. Thanks for asking!

I believe I have worked out all the little bugs at this point - not that there were many, but it's nice to feel the new system jitters fade away. More than anything, getting the Vortechs placed well and finding the settings on them which tend to work best has been the biggest challenge. Pretty much all the SPS have found their homes in the back half of the tank, and I've started (but have not yet finished) getting all the LPS place on the front half of the tank. And yes, that type of arrangement is intentional. I picked up a fair amount of coral at MACNA and spent about 4x what I normally do at MACNA, but the space in the new tank and the fact it was driving distance this year definitely influenced that. I am hoping to finish up placing corals this week and then FINALLY get some proper pictures up here within the next couple weeks. I do have a bit of hair algae happening as you'd expect, but it's already starting to burn itself out. I really didn't get much in regards to diatoms, so I'll take that small victory. While the new rock had cycled for 4 months prior to this and I did change out the GFO on the stock tank several times, I still expected all of this to some degree. The only low-light to mention in contrast to the highlights is that after returning from MACNA, I had the badly decomposed corpse of a femininus in the tank.

While I was still feeding 4x a day on this setup, I blame myself here as ultimately the lack of a micro-fauna population in this new setup certainly contributed to the demise of the fish. I knew that would be a risk with the species, but I didn't assess the severity of that risk as high as it was. I will try again with the species, but it will certainly be at least 6 months down the road, if not a year. Everyone else is doing well, and there are now 3 new things in QT.

bknapp · Sep 19, 2016

What you hiding in QT?

What were your thoughts on the Monsoon trio at MACNA. (I'll make it to MACNA one of these days I swear.)

NeverlosT · Sep 19, 2016

Amazing build! I am a fan and will be following along. I have a few questions if you would be so kind?

Do you find that it is a pain to fill your ATO reservoir or do you have a trick? Mine is kind of tucked under like that as well.
Does all of your top off water pass through the kalk reactor? If so, what does your ALK run at?
Any idea on the flow rate through your drains?
Lastly, do you control CARX effluent flow with a needle valve or with a peristaltic pump? I currently use a needle valve and find it to clog easily, so I am considering a used peristaltic pump for effluent duty.

Terrific work on the 80/20, I am an engineer as well and admire your analysis!

Keep up the great work and good luck!

NeverlosT · Sep 19, 2016

Oh, I have to add one more thing, I love the design of that dual reactor! I'd put money down right now for one of those suckers...

(I'd prefer they had barbs on the drains though for the option of external operation).

I feel like a geek using a this word for reef tank stuff, but your sump design and that reactor are ******

evolved · Sep 20, 2016

bknapp said:
What you hiding in QT?

The first rule of QT is you don't talk about who's in QT.

3 different species, and one of them isn't a wrasse!

bknapp said:
What were your thoughts on the Monsoon trio at MACNA. (I'll make it to MACNA one of these days I swear.)

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a...airy-wrasse-was-at-macna.265159/#post-3173368
And everyone should go to MACNA at some point. It's an annual trip for me with no end in sight after going once 5 years ago.

NeverlosT said:
Amazing build! I am a fan and will be following along. I have a few questions if you would be so kind?

Do you find that it is a pain to fill your ATO reservoir or do you have a trick? Mine is kind of tucked under like that as well.
Does all of your top off water pass through the kalk reactor? If so, what does your ALK run at?
Any idea on the flow rate through your drains?
Lastly, do you control CARX effluent flow with a needle valve or with a peristaltic pump? I currently use a needle valve and find it to clog easily, so I am considering a used peristaltic pump for effluent duty.

Terrific work on the 80/20, I am an engineer as well and admire your analysis!

Keep up the great work and good luck!

Thank you for the kind words and compliments; appreciate it!
And of course on your questions; that's what a forum is all about.
The ATO is pretty easy to fill, as I have 50' of hose off the RODI storage tank. The pump there is on a wireless remote, so it's a matter of pulling the hose out, putting the end into the ATO, and pushing a button.

Takes about 2 minutes.
Yes; the ATO goes through an Avast kalk reactor. I haven't added Kalk to it yet on this setup as I've been waiting for everything to settle in, but I target an Alk around 9 typically. I can always add more or less Kalk to adjust weekly to find that balance - but it's mainly there for some pH balance with the CaRx.
Considering I'm running the L1 at 70% power and there's about 7-8 feet of head loss, I should be around 1100 gph on the overflow.
The CaRx simply has a John Guest needle valve on it. Using TLF Reborn on the media and running it at a pH of 6.55-6.58, I have no issues. If yours clogs frequently, you are probably running your pH too low else the media might be your issue.

NeverlosT said:
Oh, I have to add one more thing, I love the design of that dual reactor! I'd put money down right now for one of those suckers...

(I'd prefer they had barbs on the drains though for the option of external operation).

I feel like a geek using a this word for reef tank stuff, but your sump design and that reactor are ******

Thanks; if we strum up enough attention here that might be a design Titan starts producing.

Price is very TBD; this is a prototype after all.
We did this one knowing that it would in the sump; the outlet could have easily been configured differently. For that matter, they're just pipes pushed into those uni-seals, so you could pull them out and do whatever you'd like.
Titan designed the sump, but that was with some collaboration of myself and several "nos" on other proposed designs.