Jonas 3.13, 150G of Miracles fun

[ojonas81]

Mini Christmas today. The skimmer arrived! Quick delivery from the time I decided to scrap the original order from Memorial Day(!) and go with Skimz SM-163 instead. Came nicely packed in a big box un-assembled.



Unfortunately the package did not come with any kind of instructions. Actually besides the invoice (from AquaCave) there were no paper what so ever. Did however find the "manual" online and from that time it did not take long to put it together.



In the sump.



Added a few more items to the electrical panel as well. At some point this week I will have to take the nano off its Apex support and move that over to the new tank. Have not really figured out how to best handle that yet, especially since I run the dosers there as well and don't have another accurate enough timer (down to seconds) to use in the place of the Apex. Any ideas?

[pleuralplexus]

one distant-future option is the upcoming reef link. You could sign up to be a beta tester on your new aquarium. Doesn't look like the timing will work for you though
http://ecotechmarine.com/products/reeflink/

[ojonas81]

I signed up for that the first day they announced it. Have not heard back from them yet though. The ReefLink looks very promising on paper.

[Lilmatty5dimes]

awesome build. love your sump. just read the whole thing. miracles did go sending ya a new tank. skinz skimmers are awesome. had the sk181 and it pulled some nasty stuff out. cant wait to see some coral in the tank

[ojonas81]

Finished epoxying the rocks last night. Everything is nice and sturdy/fixed now. Also made another 20 gallon of saltwater. Tonight the sand and the first 50 gallons of water will enter the tank.

I also need to order fans for ventilation of the stand as well as float switches. Need to get the ATO and flooding safety in place.

[ojonas81]

We have sand and partial water! Added 150 lbs of sand last night. Have one 10 lbs bag left for the fuge. May have to add some more there. Have not decided if I want to go DSB or not yet.

After the sand was added I started to pump in the 50 gallon of pre-made water I had on hand. Took a long long time. I really need to get another pump use for water transfers since the MaxiJet 1200 is just plain too slow. 50 gallons did not do a whole lot in the tank. Not even covering all the rocks. This will be a painfully slow process to get the whole tank filled up.

Speaking of water in the tank. I was not able to get all the freshwater out from the tank from my leak test earlier. It is very little water let, probably less than a gallon in total. Should I just not worry about it and leave it in or do I have to get it all out?

Here are the latest pictures. Added a circulation pump to the tank when all the water was in to get some water movement until I can add more water.

[xrayjeeper83]

I don't a gallon of fw would do much in that big of a tank.

[ojonas81]

We have a working system!

Managed to get out another 2 gallons of from the tank using sponges and small tubing. As of yesterday afternoon the tank is running with all saltwater including the sump and skimmer. Did have leaks from two bulkheads that I had to fix. Think I over-tightened the threaded connections because both bulkheads had small cracks in them. In both cases I had to drain the overflow area, wipe it all dry, remove plumbing and install new bulkheads. Was a pain but glad I did since it is now completely leak free. The system is also almost dead silent. Can only hear a slight trickle in the sump from water falling through the filter socks, and only when I am right next to it. Very happy with that. Pictures and a video to come later int he week. For now I only have a short video of the tank 1/3 full with water and a temporary power head for circulation. Will add a shrimp on Wednesday and then start monitoring for ammonia.



Link for you Tapatalkers: http://youtu.be/AWZfrQYrjXg

[ojonas81]

Back home again after a few days in Denver. When we arrived in Denver on Sunday we thought we would be better off renting a boat than a car. Monday and Tuesday were beautiful though.

Anyway, the tank did well while I was gone. The skimmer overflowed which kind of was expected (have not dialed it in yet) which made it squirt a little water outside the sump. Need to build in protection for that, especially since the cup does not have a drain plug. May have to add one.

Also noticed that the light sensors on the WP-40 works too well. They are constantly in "night mode" since I have the sensor inside my stand where it currently is dark although not pitch black. Have removed the sensors for the time being to get the flow really going in the tank.

Will add a raw shrimp to the tank today and then start to monitor for the ammonia spike.

Below are the pictures as promised earlier.

Front view full with water


Right side


Left side


Top down


Control/electrical panel progress


Sump running with water


Close-up where the leaks were. The two smaller 1" bulkheads in the middle were the ones that had a small leak from over-tightening the pipe. Replaced them with slip connections instead of threaded to get away from that issue in the future. The larger 1.5" bulkheads are still in very good shape.

[fessoclown]

Looks awesome! I've been lurking this thread, nice to see water in there! I have total sump envy! Posted to subscribe. Nice work, now a new kind of fun begins!

[Benson0219]

Subscribed! Love the tank and the equipment. Great job. I have rimless LeeMar tank. Can't beat the look of a rimless tank. When are you adding the refugium?

[ojonas81]

Will add the refugium as soon as I have moved over all equipment from the nano so I don't have to try to squeeze in behind at a later stage. Maybe a week or two from now. Don't want to wait too long though in order to avoid a new mini cycle.

[ojonas81]

Have had the tank running for a few days now and the skimmer is producing an enormous amount of micro bubbles that makes it all the way to the display. Will that calm down in a couple of weeks when the skimmer has broken in or should I start looking at other solutions?

[ojonas81]

Short update. The cycling is humming along. Have not been able to detect very much ammonia at all. Granted I have been away on business trips on and off and not been able to test every day. Could I have missed the spike maybe? Ammonia is currently undetectable and the same goes for nitrite. Two whole raw shrimps have been in the tank for 2 weeks now and two days ago they were completely gone (there were in a mesh bag in the water column). That is a little strange to me since I have nothing in the tank that would eat it (from what I know). I have also ghost feed the tank the last couple of days and nothing shows up on my tests. Could the cycle be over already? I would have imagined that at least the ghost feeding (quite a lot of pellets) would give some indications on my tests?

The skimmer has calmed down considerable. Very few micro bubbles comes out from the output so that is a very good sign. It has also started to produce a golden brown smelly skimmate as well so must be some bio-waste in there.

Was worried that I may need a chiller for the tank but it turned out that I needed to add heaters instead. The tank temperature never got above 75F even though the ambient temperature in the room goes up to 78F during the days (and 73F during nights). Went with two 200W heaters that has been in the tank since this afternoon slowly warming up the water. Up to 77.6F at the moment.

I also got the hanging kit with extension bard from EcoTech. Will hang the Radions tomorrow. I will also hook up the reactors tomorrow but may hold off on running media in them for awhile. Or should I start running carbon and GFO right away?

The tank is running of my Apex now and my nano is on full manual control with timer based dosers. Had an issue with my Apex LSM (Lunar Simulator Module). It did not want to work as it should and the status LED flashed yellow. Contacted Neptune and they quickly connected up to my system and fixed the issue (slow communication with the LSM). Big thumbs up to Neptune and their support staff for helping quickly.

Heading on a week long vacation to Florida Keys in a week but I am planning to start adding my CUC either just before we head out or when we come back. Then I hope to be able to transfer my current livestock fairly soon thereafter. Any suggestions on how to best handle that? Planning to use the tank transfer method for the fish. Corals I am not sure about yet. Some rocks with zoas that I am planning to transfer have some bubble algae on it. Would like to avoid bringing that into the new system. Would Coral RX or any other dip kill bubble algae?

Other plans fore the weekend are to setup the ATO and get that one going (as this system need a lot of top off water to be added each day).

Guess the update turned out to be longer than expected. But there you have it, the current state of the system.

[TKCC]

I would not bring in any coral with bubble algae. After transferring your fish and other coral, I would quarantine any coral with bubble algae in your current tank. Treat until you're confident the BA is gone before introducing it into your new DT. Love the build.....keep up the good work!

[ojonas81]

What is the best way to treat the tank for bubble algae more than to manually remove it? Too much at this point for manual removement to be reasonable.

[TKCC]

See the link attached. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeqtPe3XukM

I hope this helps. I would do anything you can to NOT introduce bubble algae into your new DT. It's resilient stuff!

[herbklee]

beautiful and well planned setup.
looking forward to seeing it fully stocked.

about your stand: It's very nice.
Is the top removable?
If so, how is it held in place?

[JMMJ13902]

Very nice tank build.

[ojonas81]

Originally Posted by herbklee

about your stand: It's very nice.
Is the top removable?
If so, how is it held in place?

The stand top is removable and held in place by the weight of the tank itself. It is resting on the 2" think frame on top. It is going nowhere.

Got a lot done with the tank this weekend. First of all, I think I am coming towards the end of the cycle. Cannot detect any ammonia anymore, nor nitrite. I have a nitrate reading of about 0.15 ppm. Since I am heading out on a short vacation in a week i will probably hold off adding any livestock until I am back.

The more, at least for me, exciting updates are that I finally got the Radion Pro's hung and powered up. It is so nice to finally have some light over the tank. Running them on 40% at the moment but may turn that down some more when adding corals later.

Also got the lunar LEDs from Neptune mounted and connected to the Apex LSM. Had to extend the cord since it was not long enough to reach all the way to where I had the LSM mounted.

This week I need to get the ATO hooked up and tested. I also have the reactors to plumb and get running. Was originally planning to have them tee'd of the main return line but since the DC-6000 was slightly less powerful than I expected I will probably get its own dedicated pump instead.

Below are pictures from the Radion mounting and final result. Enjoy.











Cables organized.




Evening mode.

[ojonas81]

Tank is running along. Think it technically is ready for the CUC and maybe the first fish (no ammonia or nitrite detected anymore) but will hold off until I am back from vacation after next week. That will also give it another good week and a half to really settle in.

Discovered an issue with my Radio power supplies Sunday evening. They are tripping my GFCI circuits. Contacted EcoTech's customer service. This is a know issue and they are sending me (will arrive tomorrow) two new power supplies that are non-switching that should fix the issue. I am very happy with how they handle the support. Another great company to deal with. I do love how the tank looks with the Radion lights.

Hooked up the ATO two days ago, or at least temporarily. Have two float switched in the sump, one for the actual water level and one as a backup/fail safe, connected to the Apex BOB. Been running two full days now and so far so good. The tank evaporating about 2.5 gallons a day however which was more than I expected. This made me rethink how I should leave the tank while on vacation next week. Think I will turn off the return (and all devices in the sump) and just run the circulation in the main display for the week when I am gone. I do not trust my ATO fully yet and would hate for something to happen while I am gone. The sheer volume of the RO/DI water needed makes it impractical for this week. For the future, when I have more time, I will setup so I can be gone for a week with no issues.

[ojonas81]

Back from vacation in Florida Keys. Stays a week in a house on Marathon and we rented a boat. Got to do some snorkeling on smaller reefs (very cool) and do a lot of fishing. Most exciting catch was a Hammerhead shark, a parrot fish, a barracuda and a large angel fish.

As for the tank, it went on autopilot for the week and managed it fine. Kept up with its status via Apex remote. Very handy when away.

The tank is now cycled (no ammonia or nitrite to to detected and just <0.1ppm nitrate) so today I added a small CUC consisting of 5 turbo snails, 5 astrea snails, 10 dwarf hermits, 2 scarlet cleaner shrimp and 1 fire shrimp.

I also added three shroms from the nano tank as well as my trumpet coral. These will be my bunny rabbits for a week to make sure all is ok. In about 2 weeks the first fish will be transferred (using the tank transfer method). First out will be the wrasse (if I can catch him, if not it will be the clowns).

Updated pictures below.



















Enjoy!

[ojonas81]

Moved over a few more corals today, mainly to rescue them from degrading water quality in the nano cube and to get them away from the growing BTAs. Have now moved over about half of the corals from the cube. Will let the tank run on auto pilot for a week now (gone on a business trip) and if everything checks out fine when I am back home next week I think I will start moving over the fish.

Comments?

[adddo]

Looks really great!

[myst]

Looking good man, must be exciting to finally have it cycled and get some life into there.