SMB2415 550g (84x36x42) build

[rpjaws74]

love evrything about this set up..

[firstlight10]

Impressive build!

[G_Sanab922]

Very nice build! I would agree with you, the view of how tall it is, is worth the hassle.

[smb2415]

Ive been away waaay too long. Its boating season and Ive been busy enjoying the summer.

I promise to update soon, need to CLEAN the tank first.

Not much has happened other than Ive lost a bunch of coral frags, likely due to lack of calc reactor. Nitrates seemed to have stabilized as the ATS is working well. I have turned off the skimmer, although I may try a cone skimmer instead of the beckett style one I have been using.

Life in the aquarium has stabilized. Ive been through the algae, coralline, pineapple sponges, some cyano, and currently have some aptasia. All in all its been stable, no fish have died or shown any problems in quite some time. I guess I can say that Ive given the tank the summer to mature.

[smb2415]

Been cleaning up the tank. Fighting some cyan, aptasia, and flatworms (only in ATS tank though). My current ambitions are to add a CO2 scrubber to increase PH and some additional type of nitrate reduction. Maybe a phosban reactor? still debating a denigrator as it would likely work however I have been trying to keep this build more on the natural side of things.

[smb2415]

[smb2415]

[tbettis]

No offense but this is exactly what I don't want my new build to look like.

[tyler22]

Looks good, can't wait to see how the tank looks a couple months and even years down the road, it definitely has a lot of potential. I love how the sump and filtration is set up, it was very cool to be able to talk fish with you for a while when you were picking up that Chevron tang. Keep it up!

[smb2415]

Hi Tyler, glad you found the thread. The Chevron is doing well, challenged at first by the purple and achilles. 2 days of lights out solved it, well that and their attention to the copper band. Both are doing well and getting along with tank mates.

[smb2415]

Picked up supplies yesterday to start on the canopy. It will be a fully sealed canopy fed by positive pressure from the fish room outside air then drawn and exhausted up through canopy to outside. canopy will be fiberglassed wood and epoxy painted black. Will have have hinged side panels. Canopy will be mounted on ceiling tracks so it can slide to side away from tank.

air flow will be similar to: outside air --->(fan)--->fish room-->DT--->(fan)--->outside air

Im going to put a 1/2" tap into the duct to feed the CO2 scrubber feeding the skimmer air intake.

Im still thinking whether it would be best to draw air from the DT side or fish room side. Im thinking from fish room as it would give a chance for temp/hum to equal out to ambient before being blown over DT.

MY concern is not so much for winter as I don't think either way will matter much, its more in the summer when basement is very humid and outside air can be quite humid as well.

Ive looked at whole basement dehumidifiers (~$1000), ductless split A/C (~$2000), and HRV venation (not a good fit for summer humidity). So the other 2 will be options if the least expensive venation system above does not work well enough.

The reason for the canopy/ventilation is because last summer my humidity was about 80% in the basement !!! WAY too much, I don't want a serious mold issue. In the winter I am seeing a more reasonable 50-60%, still a tad high.

[kevin l]

great build, im doing one similar. im curious to know how the mp60 is working out? are you making waves or is it running constantly does it make too much noise? would you do it again?
cheers

[smb2415]

Originally Posted by kevin l

great build, im doing one similar. im curious to know how the mp60 is working out? are you making waves or is it running constantly does it make too much noise? would you do it again?
cheers

Im not too excited about the MP60s. while they have plenty of rpms and do push a bit of water the flow is fairly narrow, at any setting. Ive been thinking of trying out 2 of the large Gyres. and perhaps not use the MP60s. They are a bit noisy although I don't have the most recent "quieter" versions.

Would I do it again.... no... however our options are limited and so I probable chose the best option at the time. My system is in the basement so while noise isn't a critical factor I was still disappointed. Theres a few thing about the MPs that I am not excited about. The company wants you to "rely" upon a sticky tab included with it to ensure it does fall off or drop... yes, a $.02 sticky tab for a $675 pump. second, the magnet doesnt hold the pump on as well as I would like and makes me uncomfortable. The cord is too short for those of use with large tanks and lengthening it voids warranty unless you send them the whole thing and have them do it (I have one extended unit).

Some people seem to really enjoy these pumps, me not so much. Throughout the build Ive tried to select the best or at lest close to best of products available and with the mindset of keeping the electrical bill reasonable. Populating my tank with 4 or more MP60s seems like an unnecessary expense both upfront and in operating costs. If I can use 2 gyres to better cover the flow of the whole tank with similar costs then I will ultimately end up going this route.

Another item I would change is I would have opted for multiple submersible return pumps rather than 1 single reeflo hammerhead....its the noisiest thing in the whole system... however it is the most efficient for my setup.

[Osama]

Hi Steve, I like my MP 60s and had my own issues with them. Maybe useful to share here my experience as well. 1. Same for an 11 feet long tank I could have used a longer chord as you would think they would make a connector to allow for such an extension without having to splice the one they give you 2. They are difficult to align with the magnet and if not aligned will be noisy, otherwise OK 3. The sticky that comes with it is worthless as well in my case, wished they had a slot to hook it to a wall screw 4. In my case the magnet part is inaccessible the way my contractor built the end framing. Not fun to adjust the location. Otherwise I am OK with the flow since I have no knowledge of other items to use so I will await your feed back on the Gyres.. My in tank DC 10500 pumps are quiet but had several failures. Would stay with an in sump quite pump but maybe something more durable in the future... Thanks for the update Steve

[smb2415]

+1 I agree with everything Obama has stated above.

[sassAwrasse]

Any recent pics??

[smb2415]

Sass, nothing recent... Since eI took vacation in Jan Ive been fighting with my RO and water quality issues....as a result phosphates have creeped up to .80 and so have had constant red cyano on the sand as seen in above photos. I tried adding some flow with an MP40 but it didn't seem to do much for the cyano. Ive done large water changes. Just added a GFO reactor a week ago and that seems to be helping. Im going to test again this weekend and do another large water change... and take it from there.

---- As a side note I have to say this hobby is a difficult one to figure out how to respond correctly to various situations. Everything is interlinked and the go slowly advice is often difficult to swallow while you watch your tank in poor shape. These learning curves have led me to adapt a no more buying livestock or coral until my water params are dead on and stay stable.

ugggh

[smb2415]

Water params have been less than ideal but pretty stable. Working on lowering Phosphates, raising PH, and Nitrates. Ive added GFO reactor to help with Phosphates. Added a CO2 scrubber for PH however it really hasn't done much so probably not keeping that running. For nitrates, Im still puzzled. I prefer to use a natural solution such as increase the size of the ATS and/or add more live rock. I think ultimately Im going to need to run a pellet reactor. Im just puzzled. I have the skimmer running 24/7 and it barely makes skimmate. Ive tried two skimmers, 2 beckett style and a SWC 300 and both performed the same.

Temp 78.5
PH 8.05
Salinity 1.025
Alk (has been fluctuating) 7.0 - 9 dkh (I'm trying to stabilize at 9dkh)
Mg 1320
Calc 410-440
Nitrate 2.0 !!ouch
Phosphate 0.80 !!ouch

prior to the RO issues nitrates were 0.25 and phosphates at .16

[smb2415]

RO issues - I have a puratek 100 and it was time to replace all the filters. I have a .5 and .1 preflilter, carbon block, and RO. Then dual DI canisters. I have well water and for the first year I used this RO setup it ran flawlessly until I changed the filters.

First, I tried a GE TFM-100 and was getting a constant 6-7 TDS after DI!. Then I tried a filmtec 75 and was getting 6 tds after RO at best, but fluctuates. Feed water is 190 tds pretty constant. The RO restrictor (came with unit) is 400 which should be small enough for the 75. At first the filmtec was getting around 15 tds after RO so then I swapped out the restrictor with a ball valve. I was then able to get to 6 tds at best. With both filters I reseated the RO firmly. I also double checked the connections to be sure they were correct. Someone I talked to mentioned measuring product vs. waste and Ive tried anywhere from 1:1 to 1:6 using the ball valve. Finally I concentrated on just measuring the tds to get the best which is currently 6 tds after RO.

next battle is DI resin, Im using BRS di resin however it is not lasting more than 2-3 days. Im making water in batches of 15-20g. So now I wondering if the resin is just not the same quality as what the unit came with. If feeding 6 tds it seems that the di should last much longer than this.

My next step is to replace the well filter... just because..why not. I will also replace the di resin with another source. Perhaps I just had the perfect storm.... either way it has been frustrating. Also going to order the RO the unit came with a pentair TLC-100.

perhaps its my well water content has changed? causing this to become more than difficult.

[kkittredge]

Keep up the fight, you will get it dialed in. How often do you do water changes?

[smb2415]

Originally Posted by kkittredge

Keep up the fight, you will get it dialed in. How often do you do water changes?

Ive been doing water changes of 100g about every 3-5months. One of my next purchases on the list is a stenner to setup automatics constant changes.

[herring_fish]

If you like the natural approach I think that making the scrubber bigger would help N and P. If it is properly sized, it can take care of both by itself. Just crank is up.