Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Here's a new webpage (soon to be added to the Hidden Treasure page) about how to install a new (or replacement) sump under an existing reef tank. Plumbing is explained as well, and I hope it proves useful to you.
Install a new sump under your tank.
Install a new sump under your tank.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
I finally got my new light suspended over the prop section of my sump last night. I wanted a small light that would fit nicely, not use tons of power, and be moveable. As people would come visit, I'd explain what I was wanting, and finally someone suggested I get a rolling drawer track. Bingo! :D
After work yesterday, I came home, ate dinner and then decided that I had mere minutes to head up to Home Depot before they closed. I looked at the rolling door tracks, and stumbled across a bracket set designed to secure a keyboard under a desk for $13. The tabs sticking out of it were roughly 7" apart, the same distance as the cables on the light fixture. PURRRFECT. In hardware, I looked for something that I could crimp around the wires to keep them in place, but wasn't sure of what kind of metal to use. I found aluminum ones with some help, but lead would have been better in retrospect.
When I got home, I started to figure out what would work and what would need doing to make this happen. It was hot in the garage because of the a/c unit to the fish room, so I opened it up to vent out the heat before starting to make noise for the neighbors from midnight to 2am.
The biggest hindrance was determining what I could use from the base of the stand to the bracket. I didn't really want metal that could rust and drip, but wood seemed bulky. I thought about acrylic for a little bit, but didn't want to wait for it to cure, let alone wonder what would happen when it eventually did fail. I couldn't find any angle brackets, and didn't feel like modifying a shelf bracket or two. Then I remembered I had some straight stock aluminum left over from the original light rack.
Tools needed for this project:
Hammer
Hacksaw
Drill with various metal bits
Vicegrips
Tape measure
Wire cutters
Speed Square
Patience
So once I figured out where the light would hang and how the bracket needed to be placed, I cut my aluminum pieces. On was 7" long, the other was 12.5" long. The 7" piece would fit under the 2x6 frame that holds up the tank, while the 12.5" piece needed to be secured to the plywood sheet that the tank sits upon.
Next I drilled holes to align with the brackets that were built onto the rolling track. This wasn't as simple as I would have liked, but 20 minutes later I had what would work. Using rivets, I secured the aluminum brackets to the rolling track, and then screwed this into the underside of the tank's stand.
The wires were run through the keyboard tabs, and using the aluminum crimps with Vicegrips, I was able to assure those weren't going anywhere.
Finally, I ran the other half of the cables into the connectors on the lights, adjust the height to what I felt was right, and tested it out. It worked.
Want to see some pictures?
Okay, here are the crimping parts. $1.10
Front cable
Rear cable
Front bracket
Where it was riveted
Here is the light fixture extended to the front of the sump.
And now it is rolled back or retracted to the rear.
Again, but from above
The frag zone is small, with LR piled up in the back.
A couple of frags.
Now I just need to go through my reef and figure out what needs to be transferred down into the prop zone.
I'd like to move the Maroon clownfish and their anemone to this section, but at the same time I'm not sure if that would be a good idea. I don't need the clowns moving or harming frags, nor do I want the anemone to hike right into the return pump intake....
The fixture is an Aqua Medic 150w Double-Ended (DE) Metal Halide setup. It has a 14,000K bulb and the color looks nice over the frags. Currently the timer runs the light 8 hours a day, but I may reduce that photo period if necessary.
After work yesterday, I came home, ate dinner and then decided that I had mere minutes to head up to Home Depot before they closed. I looked at the rolling door tracks, and stumbled across a bracket set designed to secure a keyboard under a desk for $13. The tabs sticking out of it were roughly 7" apart, the same distance as the cables on the light fixture. PURRRFECT. In hardware, I looked for something that I could crimp around the wires to keep them in place, but wasn't sure of what kind of metal to use. I found aluminum ones with some help, but lead would have been better in retrospect.
When I got home, I started to figure out what would work and what would need doing to make this happen. It was hot in the garage because of the a/c unit to the fish room, so I opened it up to vent out the heat before starting to make noise for the neighbors from midnight to 2am.
The biggest hindrance was determining what I could use from the base of the stand to the bracket. I didn't really want metal that could rust and drip, but wood seemed bulky. I thought about acrylic for a little bit, but didn't want to wait for it to cure, let alone wonder what would happen when it eventually did fail. I couldn't find any angle brackets, and didn't feel like modifying a shelf bracket or two. Then I remembered I had some straight stock aluminum left over from the original light rack.
Tools needed for this project:
Hammer
Hacksaw
Drill with various metal bits
Vicegrips
Tape measure
Wire cutters
Speed Square
Patience
So once I figured out where the light would hang and how the bracket needed to be placed, I cut my aluminum pieces. On was 7" long, the other was 12.5" long. The 7" piece would fit under the 2x6 frame that holds up the tank, while the 12.5" piece needed to be secured to the plywood sheet that the tank sits upon.
Next I drilled holes to align with the brackets that were built onto the rolling track. This wasn't as simple as I would have liked, but 20 minutes later I had what would work. Using rivets, I secured the aluminum brackets to the rolling track, and then screwed this into the underside of the tank's stand.
The wires were run through the keyboard tabs, and using the aluminum crimps with Vicegrips, I was able to assure those weren't going anywhere.
Finally, I ran the other half of the cables into the connectors on the lights, adjust the height to what I felt was right, and tested it out. It worked.
Want to see some pictures?
Okay, here are the crimping parts. $1.10
Front cable
Rear cable
Front bracket
Where it was riveted
Here is the light fixture extended to the front of the sump.
And now it is rolled back or retracted to the rear.
Again, but from above
The frag zone is small, with LR piled up in the back.
A couple of frags.
Now I just need to go through my reef and figure out what needs to be transferred down into the prop zone.
I'd like to move the Maroon clownfish and their anemone to this section, but at the same time I'm not sure if that would be a good idea. I don't need the clowns moving or harming frags, nor do I want the anemone to hike right into the return pump intake....
The fixture is an Aqua Medic 150w Double-Ended (DE) Metal Halide setup. It has a 14,000K bulb and the color looks nice over the frags. Currently the timer runs the light 8 hours a day, but I may reduce that photo period if necessary.
Monday, May 15, 2006
I took the time to dose my tank with Prodibio tonight. Cleaned the sump up a little, cleaned the skimmer, and stirred up the refugium a tad to get some detritus into the water and get the macro algae semi-rinsed. Here's my new (revised) dosing schedule.
I decided to try out the Reef Booster this time, but only used on vial. That is some smelly stuff, and left an oily slick on the surface of the return section (where I poured it in). I stirred this up with my hand to get it in suspension, and left the skimmer off for 20 to 25 minutes. The drains from the tank sounded much louder after dosing Booster, similar to what plumbing sounds like when tested with freshwater.
I decided to try out the Reef Booster this time, but only used on vial. That is some smelly stuff, and left an oily slick on the surface of the return section (where I poured it in). I stirred this up with my hand to get it in suspension, and left the skimmer off for 20 to 25 minutes. The drains from the tank sounded much louder after dosing Booster, similar to what plumbing sounds like when tested with freshwater.
Sunday, May 14, 2006
Water tests were completed yesterday. While it is important to test the water often, I find myself putting it off for various reasons. I think the biggest reason is because I worry the water results will come back negatively, and it'll be one more issue that needs to be dealt with. Yesterday's results were pretty good, which was a nice surprise.
Phosphate - the test was really hard to read this time, but it was somewhere between .03 and .5ppm. That's a good thing. About three weeks ago, I tested the effluent (the output) of the Calcium Reactor, and it was testing 1.0! For those of you that have a calcium reactor, it is good to know if it is producing phosphate. A few months ago, I threw out all the media and washed the reactor well, then started with new media. For the first few weeks, it was testing 0 phosphate, but over time the level rose. I gave some thought to replacing the media again, but instead tried something different. After opening up the reactor, I poured in about 1/3 of a bottle of CaribSea's Phosbuster Pro. Next I replaced the lid, screwed it down, and turned on the circulation pump. Quickly the water in the reactor turned white as expected, and a week later I tested and it was <.03ppm. That was a nice solution for now, to stop adding PO4 to my reef tank.
Cyano bacteria - I've been dealing with cyano here and there in the tank, but not enough to grow concerned. A few corals have had some adhere to them, and a patch in the center of the tank had a tough layer that was siphoned out. I believe what is left in my tank is Chemi-Clean resistant, so I'm just siphoning it out, or blowing it off with a turkey baster.
VHO actinic lighting - About a week or so ago, the VHOs refused to turn on. I tried a secondary ballast, and still no joy. I'm not sure if this is a ballast issue, a wiring issue, or a bulb issue yet. I'm going to set up a secondary VHO setup just to test each ballast as I have four or five now. It would be nice to know if the ballasts are good or not, rather than just sending them in for repair when the problem is something else. My tank looks just fine without VHOs, but I prefer the blue hue as it makes some corals pop with color.
Fish - All the fish in the tank are very happy, and seem to be behaving themselves. The large blue mandarin is the only one that looks far to skinny to be healthy, but it has looked like this for about two months now. The other mandarin is fat as can be. My guess is the blue one may have an internal parasite, but I've been unable to catch it. I was thinking about putting it in the refugium to get the lion's share of the pods, but that may not solve anything if the fish has internal parasite situation. Spock still looks amazing as always, the Purple Tang is very beautiful, Tucker seems to be behaving himself, and the Copperband finally figured out that aiptasia taste good. I hardly see any in my tank anywhere now. The clowns continue to lay eggs every couple of weeks, and the other Ocellaris that lives in the lavender Frillies seems very happy to nestle in deep and pop out occasionally.
Invertebrates - The Blood Shrimp still comes out only rarely, but seems to be happy. A few weeks ago I saw it cleaning the Copperband Butterfly's gills, and the CBB seemed to really enjoy it, waiting nearby hoping for more of the same. The cleaner shrimp in Casper's tank was moved over to the main reef, and it seems to like its bigger home. The Bubble Tip Anemones look bigger all the time, but still are together in one area fortunately. I never feed them, and they simply catch a snack each night when I feed the tank.
Corals - For the most part, all of the corals in the tank look great. I mentioned a little cyano issues, but this hasn't affected the SPS much at all. A few corals need to be moved around a little bit to make some more visible than others. I did have a Hammer Coral that was losing a head (polyp) each night, and I fragged what was healthy and moved it to the quarantine tank. This didn't seem to solve anything unfortunately. All it did was delay the inevitable apparently, because two weeks later, the last two heads let go of the skeletal structure. There is still one tiny head that seems okay at this time, and one independent one that may be 100% unaffected. The pink branching hammer coral near the Tyree frag needs to be fragged soon, as it is getting too large and seems to be encroaching on nearby SPS. The Tyree frag was recently bumped accidentally, but I retrieved the three tiny pieces that broke off, and glued them to a new rock. A few days later, they seem to be fine.
Cooling - The 8000 BTU window A/C unit was pulled out last week and cleaned up of any salt accumulations. It looks pretty good considering it has been in use for over 1.5 years in the fishroom. Some of the aluminum fins near the bottom of the coils were eaten away, but for now I think it will be fine. I need to get a backup while we are still in the season to buy window units.
Prodibio - After losing two corals in my tank, I basically put the brakes on since the last dosing. I'm going to resume since the water tests looked pretty good, but I won't use as much as originally planned. I'll do a water change today, and then dose the tank with a reduced amount.
Casper's health - Casper and her H. kuda husband are still in their 10g hospital tank. She's cured of the tail rot, but hardly eats anything at all. I'm really not sure how she's still alive, because she never seems to snick any food at all. The kuda looked pregnant for 3 weeks, but now he looks less (or non) pregnant. No babies were released, so I don't get it. Both horses will be moved to a new tank in the near future, and hopefully they'll be happy there. I'm looking forward to getting my countertop back.
Upcoming Projects - I have a few projects to do on my tank in the coming weeks and months. 1) The propagation section of my sump will finally be utilized as originally planned. I'm going to use an Oceans Motions Squirt to create some random flow in that section, and a 150w DE Metal Halide fixture to light the corals. 2) I'm planning to move the Gold Stripe Maroon clownfish and their anemone to this section as well, and take down the tank in my son's room. 3) I need to install a vent fan in the ceiling of the fishroom to remove heat and humidity. This will ease the load on the a/c unit, and reduce the moisture issues that occur in the fishroom at night. 4) Woodwork. LOL Yeah, it's on my list.
Reefcast - I'm getting lots and lots of PMs and emails about reefcast, asking when the next podcast will come out. Episode 6 was recorded a month ago, but Evan's life got way too busy. I was hoping that things would settle down and we could get back to it as before, but I have a feeling this isn't going to happen. I talked with him a couple of days ago, and asked him if it would be alright if I could continue editing Ep. 6 so it can be released, and start doing a few shows without him until he can get some free time again. I know it won't be the same without him, but I'll do my best to keep it entertaining. I've got some ideas for contests as well as guest hosts that should make the show enjoyable and informative, and I really don't want to see it just vanish into dust. Thank you for being loyally patient with us.
Phosphate - the test was really hard to read this time, but it was somewhere between .03 and .5ppm. That's a good thing. About three weeks ago, I tested the effluent (the output) of the Calcium Reactor, and it was testing 1.0! For those of you that have a calcium reactor, it is good to know if it is producing phosphate. A few months ago, I threw out all the media and washed the reactor well, then started with new media. For the first few weeks, it was testing 0 phosphate, but over time the level rose. I gave some thought to replacing the media again, but instead tried something different. After opening up the reactor, I poured in about 1/3 of a bottle of CaribSea's Phosbuster Pro. Next I replaced the lid, screwed it down, and turned on the circulation pump. Quickly the water in the reactor turned white as expected, and a week later I tested and it was <.03ppm. That was a nice solution for now, to stop adding PO4 to my reef tank.
Cyano bacteria - I've been dealing with cyano here and there in the tank, but not enough to grow concerned. A few corals have had some adhere to them, and a patch in the center of the tank had a tough layer that was siphoned out. I believe what is left in my tank is Chemi-Clean resistant, so I'm just siphoning it out, or blowing it off with a turkey baster.
VHO actinic lighting - About a week or so ago, the VHOs refused to turn on. I tried a secondary ballast, and still no joy. I'm not sure if this is a ballast issue, a wiring issue, or a bulb issue yet. I'm going to set up a secondary VHO setup just to test each ballast as I have four or five now. It would be nice to know if the ballasts are good or not, rather than just sending them in for repair when the problem is something else. My tank looks just fine without VHOs, but I prefer the blue hue as it makes some corals pop with color.
Fish - All the fish in the tank are very happy, and seem to be behaving themselves. The large blue mandarin is the only one that looks far to skinny to be healthy, but it has looked like this for about two months now. The other mandarin is fat as can be. My guess is the blue one may have an internal parasite, but I've been unable to catch it. I was thinking about putting it in the refugium to get the lion's share of the pods, but that may not solve anything if the fish has internal parasite situation. Spock still looks amazing as always, the Purple Tang is very beautiful, Tucker seems to be behaving himself, and the Copperband finally figured out that aiptasia taste good. I hardly see any in my tank anywhere now. The clowns continue to lay eggs every couple of weeks, and the other Ocellaris that lives in the lavender Frillies seems very happy to nestle in deep and pop out occasionally.
Invertebrates - The Blood Shrimp still comes out only rarely, but seems to be happy. A few weeks ago I saw it cleaning the Copperband Butterfly's gills, and the CBB seemed to really enjoy it, waiting nearby hoping for more of the same. The cleaner shrimp in Casper's tank was moved over to the main reef, and it seems to like its bigger home. The Bubble Tip Anemones look bigger all the time, but still are together in one area fortunately. I never feed them, and they simply catch a snack each night when I feed the tank.
Corals - For the most part, all of the corals in the tank look great. I mentioned a little cyano issues, but this hasn't affected the SPS much at all. A few corals need to be moved around a little bit to make some more visible than others. I did have a Hammer Coral that was losing a head (polyp) each night, and I fragged what was healthy and moved it to the quarantine tank. This didn't seem to solve anything unfortunately. All it did was delay the inevitable apparently, because two weeks later, the last two heads let go of the skeletal structure. There is still one tiny head that seems okay at this time, and one independent one that may be 100% unaffected. The pink branching hammer coral near the Tyree frag needs to be fragged soon, as it is getting too large and seems to be encroaching on nearby SPS. The Tyree frag was recently bumped accidentally, but I retrieved the three tiny pieces that broke off, and glued them to a new rock. A few days later, they seem to be fine.
Cooling - The 8000 BTU window A/C unit was pulled out last week and cleaned up of any salt accumulations. It looks pretty good considering it has been in use for over 1.5 years in the fishroom. Some of the aluminum fins near the bottom of the coils were eaten away, but for now I think it will be fine. I need to get a backup while we are still in the season to buy window units.
Prodibio - After losing two corals in my tank, I basically put the brakes on since the last dosing. I'm going to resume since the water tests looked pretty good, but I won't use as much as originally planned. I'll do a water change today, and then dose the tank with a reduced amount.
Casper's health - Casper and her H. kuda husband are still in their 10g hospital tank. She's cured of the tail rot, but hardly eats anything at all. I'm really not sure how she's still alive, because she never seems to snick any food at all. The kuda looked pregnant for 3 weeks, but now he looks less (or non) pregnant. No babies were released, so I don't get it. Both horses will be moved to a new tank in the near future, and hopefully they'll be happy there. I'm looking forward to getting my countertop back.
Upcoming Projects - I have a few projects to do on my tank in the coming weeks and months. 1) The propagation section of my sump will finally be utilized as originally planned. I'm going to use an Oceans Motions Squirt to create some random flow in that section, and a 150w DE Metal Halide fixture to light the corals. 2) I'm planning to move the Gold Stripe Maroon clownfish and their anemone to this section as well, and take down the tank in my son's room. 3) I need to install a vent fan in the ceiling of the fishroom to remove heat and humidity. This will ease the load on the a/c unit, and reduce the moisture issues that occur in the fishroom at night. 4) Woodwork. LOL Yeah, it's on my list.
Reefcast - I'm getting lots and lots of PMs and emails about reefcast, asking when the next podcast will come out. Episode 6 was recorded a month ago, but Evan's life got way too busy. I was hoping that things would settle down and we could get back to it as before, but I have a feeling this isn't going to happen. I talked with him a couple of days ago, and asked him if it would be alright if I could continue editing Ep. 6 so it can be released, and start doing a few shows without him until he can get some free time again. I know it won't be the same without him, but I'll do my best to keep it entertaining. I've got some ideas for contests as well as guest hosts that should make the show enjoyable and informative, and I really don't want to see it just vanish into dust. Thank you for being loyally patient with us.
