First DIY tank, 75 gallon - Page 2

Rover88 · 11/24/2017, 06:35 PM

I wanted a battery back up for my two powerheads. I did not want to pay 500$ for two battery backups like Ecotech wants to charge. I'm sure they are fine, but I'll go my route on it.

The items: BATTERY!

I went beefy. This bad boy is three times bigger then the Ecotech standard battery, which is good because its gonna be running both of my powerheads at once.

This is the fancy trickle charger. It comes with battery terminals that attach via alligator clip or with terminals, I used the terminals. And got the same ones for my wires.

What you need: Battery. Charger. Some form of inline fuse holder. (And don't be me: BUY A FUSE). Power plugs. The wire I had was far too large to 'properly' put them in the plugs, so I BillyBobJo'd it to get the job done.

Step one. Positive to the inside.

Step 2: A little heat shrink wrap to ensure the positive doesn't dick over to the negative, and attach the negative to the outside.

Step 3: Pretend you are happy with how it looks, and bust out ye olde multimeter to ring out the center and red, then the black and barrel. Ideally, when you are touching each end you'll get 0 ohms, and if you cross to touch the other wire with the ohmeter you should get infinity. This ensures you don't have them touching inside the wrapping you used because the wires are too big to go underneath the screw on fitting *cough*. But also, its just a safety check to ensure you don't get a short circuit.

DO THIS FOR AS MANY ECOTECHS AS YOU WANT ON THIS BAD BOY.

Steps a-bunch-to-the-finish I didn't take pictures of.

Here is the low-down. You attach a short 6-8 inch strand of wire to the circular terminals (Blue things) I had in the first image. You put this pigtail of wire on each terminal of the battery. Then you take all of your ecotech lines and put all the colors together! Red to red to red. You want all the positive on one side, all the negatives the other. Marret them together. If you look at the right side terminal, you'll see a red wire coming off that goes into an inline fuse holder. This fuse holder has a black wire going off that all my other wires are joined to. The same thing exists on the red side.

In the picture, its charging merrily right now with no issues. I tested it and it works fine by bypassing the fuse holder. I need to get an actual fuse for it to ensure it works correctly.

Easy peasy, job took me less then an hour. I don't care that its messy and not a perfect solution, it does the trick and is easily concealed. I would HIGHLY ADVISE AGAINST putting this in the sump. Mine is hidden out of the way where it won't get dripped on.

Some day I can make it prettier. But who cares if its pretty if it works.

Rover88 · 11/28/2017, 11:11 AM

Battery backup works like a charm, ran it to test and it went overnight with no issues.

Unrelated note. Starting to see algae blossoming I haven't had before. Not having it before isn't saying much, I'm new to this. Its stringy brown and grows just about everywhere with lowish flow, so I'm banking on Cyano.

I've removed it a few times from various places, and it keeps returning. Its not a major mat anywhere, and its not encroaching on the few corals I have so I'm not immediately worried. My suspicions is new tank syndrome and simply not having enough biodiversity to really take care of whats feeding it. However I also have nothing to stir sand except hermit crabs and cerith snails.

I may need to invest in some nassarius snails, or something else to dwell within the sand bed and hopefully stir up the dead spots where detritus dwells. No matter what I do with my flow there is always SOMEWHERE stuff settles.

hottuna · 11/30/2017, 05:42 AM

Don't want to kill your Joy , buddy...but based on the pics...I fear that if you get a sand sifting creature or two in there or an angry clownfish -you are going to see alot of your sand wind up being sucked into the lower slots of your corner overflow...FWIW

Rover88 · 11/30/2017, 06:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hottuna

Don't want to kill your Joy , buddy...but based on the pics...I fear that if you get a sand sifting creature or two in there or an angry clownfish -you are going to see alot of your sand wind up being sucked into the lower slots of your corner overflow...FWIW

Not sure if you know, but just making sure...

Those lower slots feed into an upwards channel that rises all the way to the top before falling over an internal wall; Water doesn't pass through at the bottom, it goes up then over.

Not saying you are wrong, just wanted to be sure you knew how that particular overflow worked! So far I haven't seen much sand winding up in the sump! I don't have any big sand sifters yet, I was letting things mature.

Rover88 · 12/27/2017, 08:41 AM

Been about a month, so time for a quick update. Pictures to come later.

Livestock is:

2x ocellaris clowns
1x yellow clown goby
1x tailspot blenny
1x convict blenny (Engineer blenny?)
2x Cleaner Shrimp

Oodles of hermit crabs.
A dozen or so snails. (All of my zebra nerite snails that I bought in the cleaner kit died, however every other snail is doing okay.)

Corals:
Utter Chaos Zoanthid colony (From 4 heads to 7!)
Elegance soft coral
A small Rhodactis (Purple)
A small Ricordia (Yellow)
A small Ricordia (Blue)

A pair of green monticap colonies

So far the tank is coming along nicely. Green algae is growing on most of the rocks, with purple coralline coming through in places. I've gone through MOST of a diatom bloom, though its still present. I had some hair algae for about a week then it died off. I had a diatom blossom come and coat most of my rocks and sand, so I did a three day blackout. It has since receded and currently is only just beginning to return on the loc-tubing of my return plumbing. I'm keeping an eye on it and debating leaving it alone or dealing with it. I've heard mixed messages on whether it might spread out again, or whether its just there because its always in a tank. If it gets worse, I'll take the time to think about treating it.

My parameters have been rock solid and unswaying, except for one period where randomly the temperature was 2 degrees higher then any other point. I don't test at the same times of day however, so this might have either been a fluke, or it was just warmer in the apartment and I didn't notice.

I've started to feed mysis shrimp, reef frenzy, and occasionally zoo plankton from Seachem following instructions. I don't know if the last one makes a difference, but my clowns and goby LOVE the mysis shrimp. I'm glad I didn't wait any longer to figure that out!

Rover88 · 01/09/2018, 12:14 PM

Here are some more pictures, and a little video I took of feeding the tank!

https://youtu.be/lEnyXlX6EIE

Rover88 · 01/23/2018, 07:35 AM

Won't be adding anything more here to this thread, going to start a build thread in the correct forum when I have an update.

11/30/2017, 05:42 AM	#28
hottuna Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 1,248	Don't want to kill your Joy , buddy...but based on the pics...I fear that if you get a sand sifting creature or two in there or an angry clownfish -you are going to see alot of your sand wind up being sucked into the lower slots of your corner overflow...FWIW __________________ HotTuna

12/27/2017, 08:41 AM	#30
Rover88 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 590	Been about a month, so time for a quick update. Pictures to come later. Livestock is: 2x ocellaris clowns 1x yellow clown goby 1x tailspot blenny 1x convict blenny (Engineer blenny?) 2x Cleaner Shrimp Oodles of hermit crabs. A dozen or so snails. (All of my zebra nerite snails that I bought in the cleaner kit died, however every other snail is doing okay.) Corals: Utter Chaos Zoanthid colony (From 4 heads to 7!) Elegance soft coral A small Rhodactis (Purple) A small Ricordia (Yellow) A small Ricordia (Blue) A pair of green monticap colonies So far the tank is coming along nicely. Green algae is growing on most of the rocks, with purple coralline coming through in places. I've gone through MOST of a diatom bloom, though its still present. I had some hair algae for about a week then it died off. I had a diatom blossom come and coat most of my rocks and sand, so I did a three day blackout. It has since receded and currently is only just beginning to return on the loc-tubing of my return plumbing. I'm keeping an eye on it and debating leaving it alone or dealing with it. I've heard mixed messages on whether it might spread out again, or whether its just there because its always in a tank. If it gets worse, I'll take the time to think about treating it. My parameters have been rock solid and unswaying, except for one period where randomly the temperature was 2 degrees higher then any other point. I don't test at the same times of day however, so this might have either been a fluke, or it was just warmer in the apartment and I didn't notice. I've started to feed mysis shrimp, reef frenzy, and occasionally zoo plankton from Seachem following instructions. I don't know if the last one makes a difference, but my clowns and goby LOVE the mysis shrimp. I'm glad I didn't wait any longer to figure that out! Last edited by Rover88; 12/27/2017 at 08:41 AM. Reason: typos

11/24/2017, 06:35 PM	#26
Rover88 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 590	I wanted a battery back up for my two powerheads. I did not want to pay 500$ for two battery backups like Ecotech wants to charge. I'm sure they are fine, but I'll go my route on it. The items: BATTERY! I went beefy. This bad boy is three times bigger then the Ecotech standard battery, which is good because its gonna be running both of my powerheads at once. This is the fancy trickle charger. It comes with battery terminals that attach via alligator clip or with terminals, I used the terminals. And got the same ones for my wires. What you need: Battery. Charger. Some form of inline fuse holder. (And don't be me: BUY A FUSE). Power plugs. The wire I had was far too large to 'properly' put them in the plugs, so I BillyBobJo'd it to get the job done. Step one. Positive to the inside. Step 2: A little heat shrink wrap to ensure the positive doesn't dick over to the negative, and attach the negative to the outside. Step 3: Pretend you are happy with how it looks, and bust out ye olde multimeter to ring out the center and red, then the black and barrel. Ideally, when you are touching each end you'll get 0 ohms, and if you cross to touch the other wire with the ohmeter you should get infinity. This ensures you don't have them touching inside the wrapping you used because the wires are too big to go underneath the screw on fitting cough. But also, its just a safety check to ensure you don't get a short circuit. DO THIS FOR AS MANY ECOTECHS AS YOU WANT ON THIS BAD BOY. Steps a-bunch-to-the-finish I didn't take pictures of. Here is the low-down. You attach a short 6-8 inch strand of wire to the circular terminals (Blue things) I had in the first image. You put this pigtail of wire on each terminal of the battery. Then you take all of your ecotech lines and put all the colors together! Red to red to red. You want all the positive on one side, all the negatives the other. Marret them together. If you look at the right side terminal, you'll see a red wire coming off that goes into an inline fuse holder. This fuse holder has a black wire going off that all my other wires are joined to. The same thing exists on the red side. In the picture, its charging merrily right now with no issues. I tested it and it works fine by bypassing the fuse holder. I need to get an actual fuse for it to ensure it works correctly. Easy peasy, job took me less then an hour. I don't care that its messy and not a perfect solution, it does the trick and is easily concealed. I would HIGHLY ADVISE AGAINST putting this in the sump. Mine is hidden out of the way where it won't get dripped on. Some day I can make it prettier. But who cares if its pretty if it works.

11/28/2017, 11:11 AM	#27
Rover88 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 590	Battery backup works like a charm, ran it to test and it went overnight with no issues. Unrelated note. Starting to see algae blossoming I haven't had before. Not having it before isn't saying much, I'm new to this. Its stringy brown and grows just about everywhere with lowish flow, so I'm banking on Cyano. I've removed it a few times from various places, and it keeps returning. Its not a major mat anywhere, and its not encroaching on the few corals I have so I'm not immediately worried. My suspicions is new tank syndrome and simply not having enough biodiversity to really take care of whats feeding it. However I also have nothing to stir sand except hermit crabs and cerith snails. I may need to invest in some nassarius snails, or something else to dwell within the sand bed and hopefully stir up the dead spots where detritus dwells. No matter what I do with my flow there is always SOMEWHERE stuff settles.

01/09/2018, 12:14 PM	#31
Rover88 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 590	Here are some more pictures, and a little video I took of feeding the tank! https://youtu.be/lEnyXlX6EIE

01/23/2018, 07:35 AM	#32
Rover88 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2017 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Posts: 590	Won't be adding anything more here to this thread, going to start a build thread in the correct forum when I have an update.