yet another build thread (180 inwall)

[cilyjr]

Congrats on getting TOTM

Do you have any FTS with the AI LED's?

How's the corals and clam doing with 3 AI fixtures?

Vic

i cleaned the tank tonight to take a new fts
the livestock is good under the led lights. though i did crank them a bit thinking they were not putting out as much light as my mh (i had high end fixtures). and i noticed some burned out acro tips. so i dialed the lights back. i first thought that the lights did not look as bright but now i think it is because they are more direct down then the mh was. when i take some fts i will compare to the last mh pics and we can see then

 

[vp6799]

i cleaned the tank tonight to take a new fts
the livestock is good under the led lights. though i did crank them a bit thinking they were not putting out as much light as my mh (i had high end fixtures). and i noticed some burned out acro tips. so i dialed the lights back. i first thought that the lights did not look as bright but now i think it is because they are more direct down then the mh was. when i take some fts i will compare to the last mh pics and we can see then

I've been thinking about making the switch to AI's also. How many units are you using to light the tank? I'm still a little unsure about them. Are you getting good progress with the led's?

Thanks
Vic


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[IPWitan]

Incredible build. Thank god the world has people who can make stuff like this because I am clearly not one of them. Very impressive.

DAG

 

[cilyjr]

I've been thinking about making the switch to AI's also. How many units are you using to light the tank? I'm still a little unsure about them. Are you getting good progress with the led's?

Thanks
Vic


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have 3 with sps dominate tank but I may put a 4th after talking to the guys at AI the other day. I had a small issue and I called them they called back after about 15 mins and solved my problem. So I will give them a thumbs up on custy service

 

[cilyjr]

Incredible build. Thank god the world has people who can make stuff like this because I am clearly not one of them. Very impressive.

DAG

Thanks for lookin....

 

[vp6799]

I have 3 with sps dominate tank but I may put a 4th after talking to the guys at AI the other day. I had a small issue and I called them they called back after about 15 mins and solved my problem. So I will give them a thumbs up on custy service

That's good to hear. I'm going with AI sol LED units. Just got decide on how many fixtures to go with. Can't wait to see the FTS with the LED's.

Vic

 

[cilyjr]

Also make sure to start off with light in around he 40% range. Even though it looked dimmer then my halides. They are not.

 

[AnthonyP]

Hey Chris,

Just wondering how you like your ASM G3 performance with your bio load and water volume....What would you say you have 250g total volume or so?

 

[AnthonyP]

Your Skimmer

Hey Chris,

Just wondering how you like your ASM G3 performance with your bio load and water volume....What would you say you have 250g total volume or so?

 

[AnthonyP]

heavy stocked?

 

[cilyjr]

Sorry I didn't see these posts until today.. I think the asm g3 is a great skimmer for the money. If you are handy a few mods will put up on par with the more expensive counterparts. I put my total system volume at about 220. 230 considering the amount of rock I have

 

[cilyjr]

So I have had a few setbacks in the coral eating Moorish idol and the changing to new lighting. Sadly I had to sell the MI to a member with a fish only tank. The fish is doing well and I am sure will live happily.
As for the changing to AI sol lighting I did some things that were amateurish to say the least. First off when I put them up I did what one is supposed to and started them at around 30% well it looked pretty dim so after a few days I cranked them to almost full blast. And I really fried the tips of alot of coral. So now I am in the mid range of the lights and I feel i need a 4th fixture (on order). As a result I have a lot of corals that are recovering from too much light up top and a few that are browning out from not enough light. I knew changing was gonna present some challenges and I am still happy I did it but I think it will take a while for full recovery.

 

[cilyjr]

haven't posted in a while. so here goes. in addition to the stuff that happened in the post above i had left a valve open that i used to do water changes with. well i thought i closed it, and it looked closed but it it was slightly opened enough to allow some fresh water water in to the system from my SW mixing tank as it was refilling it.after about 2 days i though it was weird that the SW mixing tank was only 1/2 full and i found the valve a bit opened. stupid me for not being as careful as i should have been.result was water dropped to about 1.022 from 1.025. not that big of a deal but with the lights and things getting munched on it was too much for some corals.

i lost alot of coral. i still have frags of many of the corals (most stuff lost was due to STN)and i am sure they will be coming back... oh turns out it was not the morish idol that was eating the coral. it was a long spine urchin that had become so large that coraline algae was not enough food.

so i took this as an opportunity do some things i wished i had done when i first set up and get out some fish i wanted gone. so i took down the display and reset up it up. guess i will list my goals for the rebuild.
1. remove 6 line wrasse to make room for a leopard.
2. better secure rockwork with acrylic dowels
3. add about 35lbs more sand.

 

[cilyjr]

well i though getting the wrasse was going to be tough and figured i would need to remove most of the rock before it would be possible. i got to work a few hours before the lights came on however and the fish was not sleeping burried as they often do. rather it was in an easily accessible corner and after removing out 3 or 4 rocks i easily netted the fish. it now happily resides in one of the support tanks.

well getting the fish out made it easier to accomplish phase 2 as i could now work 1 island at a time so i drilled some holes and cut acrylic rod into 2 to 4 inch pieces and stuck the rocks together. i also wanted less rock in the DT so each island is now no more than 13 inches tall. drillind the rock and building the islands were easy out of the water but they would have been to big to make and lower into the water so i had to disassemble and try to do it again in the tank. that was tougher. but i got it done and now i have a few more arches and caves which i think add some visual interest.

adding the sand was obviously the simplest task. i bought sand from marco rocks. it was a bit more fine than i had expected so it made quite a sandstorm. i added over a couple weeks because of it but it went as expected.

ok now for the pictures!

 

[cilyjr]

pics of putting the rocks together..yes the rose nem was on the rock during construction

 

[cilyjr]

guess the images are too big for here i guess i will edit them

 

[cilyjr]

before disaster and today

 

[SteveDola]

So sorry to hear about your problems. Keep your chin up.

 

[cilyjr]

so i figured i would update this thread.... i think i am pretty much done with all the troubles of late. i dont remember if i posted it but after i killed some coral with the lighting being too intense i had a heater explode and that pretty much finished off the job. i didn't really lose any fish but most of the coral i had got killed. some things lived and some even seemed to not mind. anyway i ended up with a pretty bad outbreak of bryopsis and instead of aggressively dealing with it i let it grow some pretty good clumps one was about the size of a baseball.
when i decided to deal with i 1st pulled out all i could by hand. i then spiked magnesium to about 1700ish with kent tech m..it sat like that for about 3 months and i am now bringing it back to a more normal level
it seems to have done the job.

also i decided to build a foam "rockwall" to cover my overflow in the middle of the tank i am pretty happy with how it came out.
to make it i built an acrylic 3 sided rectangle the size of the overflow
i then got my cans of "greatstuff" insulation foam. its the same stuff them make waterfall foam out of for ponds except it is white.


i was pretty sure it would float even with the rocks stuck in it so it is held in place with 4 acrylic screws. it was really white at first but its pretty covered with coralline and what isnt turned "rock color" after about 2 weeks
heres a current full tank shot. i think it adds some interest to the tank and i dont have to keep scraping clean the overflow anymore!

 

[cilyjr]

the other big thing i did was modded my asm g-3 skimmer into a resirc skimmer. all i did was drill a second hole below the hole where the pump fed it and turned the pump so it pulled from the skimmer body rather then the tank. the next thing i did was drilled a 3rd hole up higher for a maxi jet 1200 to feed the pump. i got the idea from this RC thread

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2109714&highlight=asm+g-3+mod