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The 14 day Upgrade to a 280g Starfire Reef tankWeek TwoDay 8 - Tuesday, 7/27/04 - The Halfway PointPlans were made and many questions were answered on my part as well as by others. I had to work and the tank project had to wait.
Day 9 - Wednesday, 7/28/04Today, the tank is much more clear. The sand is really being displaced by the current. Seriously, I can't believe Tunze Streams are needed, nor a closed loop. When I got up to check in the tank, there were a million microbubbles. I went into the fish room, and the skimmer had drained about 3g of water into a bucket. The sump water level was lacking the equivalent, because the return section is so small! Wondering if the bubbles were being caused by the lowered water level or because of the anti-siphon holes, I opened the ball valve 100% on the Ampmaster 4700, watching the water levels rise in both overflows to match the water level in the display area. Still tons of bubbles. So I added 5g of RO/DI and reduced the flow again, and the bubbles are going away. I took a few pictures of what I can see. Remember, the only lighting I have over the tank are two URI Super Actinic VHOs (72"), plus what light shines in from the 55g's 10,000K XMs. 
I bet getting some lights over the tank will make a big difference. Here are a couple of pictures of one or two tangs. 
And one of the Fighting Conchs. 
I have more LR in my 55g sump that I can move over to the 280g, but they have aiptasia. As I've mentioned before, I have a LifeReef Skimmer. Never having one before, I've been trying to understand how it works and what issues it has. To be frank, it is pretty simple in design, but not working as well as I'd hoped. The crud it was accumulating in the riser tube of the collection cup was vile in nature, but it wasn't filling the cup yet. When I'd close the gate valve on the output of the skimmer, the water level would rise in the main chamber, and water would leak out the neck of the skimmer. My fish room floor has gotten wet a few times in the past couple of days as water dripped off the top of the skimmer body. Basically, I felt the design needed tweaking. Late last night, I decided to take the cup off and wash it thoroughly. When I was finished, I noticed an O-ring around the tube that fits into the skimmer's main chamber, pressed up against the skimmate cup. I decided to remove the O-ring and insert it into the neck of the tube the cup inserts into, and then force that cup into and through the O-ring. Problem solved, now it is water tight and does not drip any longer! Leaving the skimmer running with the water level high up in the body last night, some crisp foam began to finally collect in the cup. Finally I had it set correctly, right? As noted in my previous post 30 minutes ago, the bucket under the skimmer collected about 3 gallons of water. Oops. At least it did pull fluid out of the tank. Each day, I learn one new thing about some of this equipment I never had before. I have 10,000K XMs over my 55g right now (175w) and don't really like the color to be honest. Looking at JB NY's 250w comparison page makes me lean toward 14,000 Coralvue bulbs. Thanks for the suggestion about HelloLights.com. I've used them in the past with good results. The XMs came from CarolineCorals.com and they were very fast and the price was great. {note: they are now out of business as of Sept, 04} I cannot believe how long it is taking to finish out the room. Part of the problem is the lack of space in the garage, but with it raining outside, I can't fill up the driveway with all the sundries of construction, nor my equipment. The inside of the room is roughed in, wired, and rocked. I bought an insulated steel door and that worked out nicely. Btw, the opening was too large. 34.5" x 82" would have been better. In the pictures, you may notice to top of the door doesn't touch the sheetrock, so I'll have to use some tape and bedding to mask that. As you can see, the ceiling is a wavy mess. 
The new 32" door, with metal threshold and doorknob. 
The outside of the room needs to be finished tonight, because my water heater is disconnected again to allow me to run the pipes through the sheetrock. Water is shut off to the house. The rocked section has insulation, the section on the right is what needs to be done in a few minutes. 
The skimmer is pulling out some cool looking foam right now. Think that is all drywall dust? 
The wiring was run in the walls to the various gangboxes, but are not connected to any circuit. I thought it would be wise to go ahead and get that ready in case I decide to crawl in the attic and run one more circuit. I say in case, because it is hot in the summer and I'm not really that motivated, but I do have reason to get that done. I want to relocate the light that is in the garage area to the fish room, and run a new light to the center of the garage with a shoplight. The current light switch will turn on the light in the fish room, and the new box outside of the room will have a switch for the area where I work to make sumps and such. The sooner I get all this sheetrock stuff done, the more quickly I can reclaim space in the garage for the rest of the things that need doing. It looks like I'm not going to have any time to work on the tank tomorrow, so I lose an entire day unfortunately. I've got a number of jobs to do tomorrow and that is how it is. Maybe I can get the tape, bedding and painting done at least. Then Friday I can tackle the lighting of the tank. I thought I would have started on that by today. If you read GregT's Sump article #3, he recommends going toothless on the overflows. His reasoning is that teeth, eggcrate and mesh tend to trap various foods and algaes which act like bait for the fish. By running smooth overflows, the fish don't go over the top. At least in theory. I do agree that snails, and even those daring hermits may be able to get into the next area, and the downtube, and the skimmer section, then the refugium and finally the return section... and challenge death face to shell as the Ampmaster awaits patiently, hour after hour. I have time to think about it, but eventually I'll just have to go with one method or another.I can make teeth easily enough, and insert them. A drain in the fish room would have been a nice feature.. The kitchen sink is only 4 steps away from the room so I'm not concerned about cleaning stuff up. However, when things leak, that is a different matter. I do have the sheetrock off the floor by about 1", but if there was a decent flood it would still get it wet before it could seep out into the rest of the garage floor. I'd not even thought about baseboards, let alone silicone. In the meantime, I had my first flood. Not like you'd think though. After the sheetrocking was done by the waterheater area, I rejoined the CPVC with couplings and waited. The cold water side didn't look very well glued because it wasn't aligned nicely. I had my doubts, but turned on the water. While installing some outlets in the new gang boxes, suddenly there was a loud 'whoosh' and water was shooting out of the new wall and pretty much over the waterheater. Madly dashing for the front of the house, I turned off the water main. This time I re-glued it better, and waited 30 minutes before reattaching the other end to the water heater. When I turned on the water, it held. I considered standing guard by this fitting for the next 24 hours, but... So the room is ready for the mudwork, the floor is drying as we speak, and the adventure continues.
Day 10 - Thursday, 7/29/04Today, the inside walls of the fish room were painted. I didn't get the second coat put on yet, but a lot of other stuff took up my time. Evan and Kaveh have been coming back day after day, working tirelessly without complaint as we create each new item from imagination. The light rack is done, and we tested it out. 
The rack is made of 3/4" aluminum angle iron, and 3/4" square rod corners & cross braces. It was assembled by drilling 1/8" holes and using 1/8" (1/4" deep) pop-rivets. When the rack was done, you could hold it with one hand - nice and light. The MH reflectors were riveted in place as well. 
Then the VHOs were secured to the longer pieces that extend along the bottom of the rack. However, after they were installed, testing them was a disaster. They would not come on. After a few failed starts, it was determined that one end cap was the problem and I replaced it with a spare. Still it would not come on, trying over and over. Suddenly, smoke came out of the IceCap 430! At this point, we noticed one of the wires had come loose from another end cap. I got another IC 430 out of the garage that was repaired last year. It was my backup. Plugged it in, and still nothing!!!! Took the IC 430 of my son's 29g, and it lit the bulbs perfectly. So after 1/2 an hour of frustration and 3 ballasts later, the VHOs worked. We carefully set the rack on top of the tank to see how it fit and how it would shine down over the water. 
Since I only have two 250w MH on hand, we tested those to see how it looked. I still need to get a third bulb soon. 
Here's what it looked like from the front. 
I still have to design my sliding bracket system that will allow me to push the lights out of my way from the front or the back of the tank. I'll probably build a shelf over the light rack, and the slider tracks will run beneath those. That way I can put the ballasts on the shelf, and keep them nice and dry. Next we messed with this stupid sump. If anyone wants this thing, it's going up for sale. I'll use the money to buy acrylic to make a much better one for my particular setup. Remember, it takes four guys to carry this one, as it is built out of 1/2" glass. 48 x 18 x 20 (or 21 I think). Due to the micro bubbles, we tried to add an extra baffle at the end to stop the massive flow of water and air that is crashing into the intake of the Ampmaster 3000. After trying a few tricks and wasting 30 minutes, I decided to not take any chances and left it as is for now. Still, it was nice to see the tank without micrububbles briefly. The Calcium Reactor was added to the system because it was handy. I've had it running for the past few days in the laundry room to test it for leaks, and this evening Evan noticed it wasn't working. Maybe recirculating the same water elevated the Ca too high, because the tubing leaving the reactor and going to the pump has turned cloudy for some reason. Or maybe it got vapor-locked. After a little fiddling with it, it came back to life and so I decided to put in on the main tank (Evan couldn't wait another day).
Day 11 - Friday, 7/30/043:00 a.m. My tank turned cloudy suddenly, in the past hour. My sand was blown around because Evan had pointed the returns downward, but I grabbed my pH Pinpoint Meter and discovered my pH was at 7.33!!! Immediately, I turned off the CO2 and the Calcium Reactor. Then I used some baking soda that I'd baked a couple of weeks ago, and used that to bring my pH back up to 8.0. It was only down for about an hour, and I hope the fish are okay. Later that day...I woke up just in time. My first job was to check the 280g and make sure the fish were swimming right side up. Current pH is 7.8 (but that could be 7.89 because the pH Controller doesn't show the number in hundredths). Then as I was heading back toward my room, something blue caught my eye. My little Hippo Tang was lying on the carpet! I picked up Tucker, and he was still soft but dry. I quickly immersed him in the 55g's sump and held him as he started breathing again. He's down there now, but I don't know if he'll pull through, especially since I don't know how long he was out of water. 5 minutes later, I checked on him again and he was swimming too closely to the return pump, so I put him back up in the display. I tried to put him near his favorite coral, and he's tucked into a spot breathing. He's acting like he's blind, but that could just be a temporary side effect from oxygen depravation (hopefully). While shopping at Home Depot again, for the 9th day in a row I bought what I think will work out perfectly for the rolling light rack. The track is used for pocket doors, and is rated for 100 lbs. I think the light rack weighs about 10 to 15 lbs, as it is all-aluminum and light bulbs-only. The ballasts will be connected above, either on a shelf or on the wall itself. I'll build it tomorrow, and then post some pictures if it works as planned.
Day 12 - Saturday, 7/31/04Great news! The rolling light rack works perfectly!!! This is sooooo cool!!! Here are the pictures of the light rack. First, here it is suspended. 
And here it is lit up. As mentioned, one bulb didn't work, so only two are lit plus the VHOs. 
The rack is suspended from a modified pocket door rack. Each track is bolted to an inverted shelf bracket that is very strong. Once the shelf brackets were screwed into the studs of the wall, a board was painted and placed across these to put the ballasts safely up away from the water. 
At one end of the light rack, two IceCap cooling fans are mounted to blow fresh air across the MH bulbs. Six feet away at the end facing the kitchen, you can feel the warm air. Kaveh mounted them in the rack, and then decided to peek at you in this image. 
These next two pictures show the light rack from the fish room. First, the rack is pushed toward the front of the tank. You'll see the hanging tracks extended to the back. 
And now they are pulled toward the back of the tank. 
This will be easier to grasp. Here is a picture with the lights pushed to the back of the tank, viewed from the top. 
And with the lights pushed the front of the tank. 
With the lights out of the way, there is about 10" or 12" of space to reach in. The VHOs are 4.5" off the water. The MH are 7.5" off the water. Putting the rack over the center of the tank is relatively simple, but there isn't anything that actually makes it be in the center, such as a bump or stopper. Not that it is necessary. This project came out very nicely, and I have to thank Evan and Kaveh for all their help. The next step is to add the woodwork to finish this project, add the A/C, and move in the livestock.
Day 13 - Sunday, 8/01/04I bought an 8,000BTU A/C window unit at Sams Wholesale Club. It was $146, and has a dehumidifier built in. I'm about to cut out the hole in the wall where it will go in the fish room. First I had to work on the electrical circuit. A new 15amp Circuit now runs to the new walls, which will support various items plugged in, including the new A/C unit. It says on the box it uses 8 amps! That sounds high, so I'll look at the paperwork more closely. The light in the ceiling of the fish room now works, and the new switch to the garage light works as well. What I did was take the wiring that lead to the garage ceiling and moved the end of that to the center of the fish room. That way the switch that was by the door would turn on the light in there, instead of in the garage. (The way it was, the light was left on so many times since the walls went up because you didn't see it with the new door closed.) Then from the new circuit, I ran a new switch and wiring that runs to the original ceiling box of the garage. When you exit the fish room into the garage, you can flip the switch on to light up the garage. I'm gonna go cut an A/C hole... A little while later...The window unit fits the room nicely, and I have it at 74F currently. If any of you use a window unit, I'd love to know what setting you've found works well for your tank room. Because I expected the outer portion of the unit to drip in my garage, I hastily made a gutter and secured it temporarily, with it angled down on one end so it can drip into a bucket. However, after several hours, nothing has come out of the unit. Not a single drop. This unit has a dehumidifier built in. Perhaps it simply evaporates?! Strange and surprising. I did not take a picture of it because the hole I had to cut and frame into the wall wasn't too pretty. Tomorrow I'll put some molding around the A/C on the inside and outside, then I'll post a couple of pictures. The garage is nice and toasty, but it is 80F outside and humid. While I was cleaning up tonight, I noticed (but didn't time it precisely) that the compressor seems to turn on for about 1.5 to 2 minutes, then cycles off for maybe 5 to 7 minutes. My guess is that once the canopy is in place and the air in that room is trapped, it won't cycle on and off as much. Tank temperature was 82F without the A/C unit, and now it is 81F. With the wiring run in the attic earlier today, it is so nice to have a light in the fish room. I found a great looking light at Home Depot, but it was out of stock. Of course, it was $70 and the one I have right now is $3. Here are some details about the Light Rack: It was created from my imagination, although Weatherson definitely gets credit for putting the idea of riveted aluminum in my head with his fantastic setup. I wanted a frame that was only as large as the MH reflectors, to keep the profile to a minimum. The rack had to fit over the tank, and allow me to move it in the present space provided. I also wanted the VHOs incorporated, so nothing was in my way when I had to work in the tank or clean it. I still may add some flashing on the front and back of the track to reflect light even further into the tank and also reduce the glare when looking at the top of the tank. The rack is 69.5" long, 5.75" tall and 16" wide. The MH section (the majority) of the rack is actually 14" wide. To be able to mount the VHOs under the rack and not block the MH at all, 16" pieces were put at each end. You can see this when you look at the pictures from the end of the tank, one or two pages back. The construction is made from 1/8"(thick) 3/4" angled aluminum, sold in 8' lengths. The four corners and the cross braces along the top are made from 3/4" square tubing. Using tubing made fastening with aluminum rivets easier. If you need close up pictures, I can add them to the thread. The VHO's are 2.5" off the top of the tank, so there is no risk of the rack and those bulbs (which are at the lowest point) running into anything that might break them. The VHOs are 4.5" off the water. These are 6' long VHO actinic bulbs mounted in waterproof endcaps. The tank is Eurobraced with 4" wide strips of glass, so the endcap area is relatively safe from any water contact. There are three 250w 10,000K MH bulbs, each in a spider reflector. The reflectors are riveted on the bottom front and back track. They were 13" wide, so by making the light rack 14" wide, the reflectors could be secured right along the inner edge of the frame and not have a lip extending inward that would impede any of the light shining downward. The MH bulbs are 8" off the water. The frame is very light-weight, even with all the bulbs attached. Carrying it was simple and almost a one person job, but it was easier having a couple of people there when hanging it from the rolling track mounted above the tank. I noticed that when the light rack was resting on the tank, the center of the rack did dip lower. Perhaps 1" angled aluminum would have had more rigidity. To make sure there were no problems with the rack flexing and putting pressure on the VHOs, I spaced the two rolling tracks over the light rack 37" apart. That worked out perfectly, because the weight was evenly distributed and the rack remains straight. The rack moves a total of 12" from the back of the tank to the front of the tank, but sits centered for even lighting. The tracks were bolted to a pair of shelf brackets. The brackets are screwed into the wall with 3" deck screws (designed for outdoor use and thus waterproof). The brackets fit nicely on the wall, leaving .5" of sheetrock beneath them. This worked out well because once the track was mounted, I immediately knew the rollers would not be able to roll too far forward. The wall acts as a stop. When cutting the track to length (22.5" each), I left a little extra metal at one end that I could fold over to act as a stop on the fish room side. This prevents the light rack from rolling too far into the room. Two IceCap fans are mounted at one end of the light rack to blow air across the MH bulbs and get the heat off the water. Since the rack is not enclosed, it has plenty of venting ability currently. The rolling track was purchased at Home Depot. It is the track and rollers designed for a "pocket door", and was rated to hold a 100 lb door if I recall correctly. The rack probably weighs 15 lbs. I bought a 60" set-up for $13, knowing that I would be able to get both tracks from the one piece. All the metal was cut on a DeWalt compound miter saw with a metal cutting blade. A jig saw or hack saw could do the same, but it would take longer. I hope these details help you as you design your own rack. If any of you want to create some type of 3-d drawing based on the pictures you saw, measurements could be incorporated and I can put that up on my site (linking it into this thread). Otherwise, I can just add some measurements, overlaying those on some of the pictures. After observing the current sump, I'm pretty sure I'll be replacing it with something better. This is a sketch of a sump I've built twice already. Here it is installed: 
I'll probably do something similar under the 280, although the return pump is on the right and the skimmer would be on the left. In thinking about the entire design and space available, I'm planning on making the landing I have the current sump on a little wider - by maybe 8" to 10" wider. By doing so, I can put the skimmer in the sump but have the riser tube and collection cup out in the open (in front of the back of the tank). Putting a refugium in front allows me to control the flow of water draining into that compartment. Plus if I make a wider sump, it can hold more volume. When the return pump turns off (due to power or pump failure), I'll know the sump can hold the water. Plus this gives me the perfect set up to put a permanent plank across the back of the tank at platform-level. When I stand on that, I'll be able to easily reach into the tank. I got this idea from the 800g thread in the Big Tanks Forum. This is a future project, but something I've been thinking about.
Day 14 - Monday, 8/02/04The livestock will move over today, and then the 55g can finally be moved out of the way. At that point, a shot from the front would be possible. Today is Day 14. The current sump is 48 x 18 x 20 or 21 tall. It has a large skimmer section that I can't use, because the baffles are 15" tall. The next section is the refugium and water is shooting through it so fast. Finally, there is a tiny 10g return. On a 280, that is like a drop in the bucket. It must be replaced with something better. The livestock has been moved. That took about 4 or 5 hours this evening. Kaveh worked on one rock after another trying to remove as many mushrooms as possible. Many were growing on the larger pieces of LR that I needed to start the aquascaping with. He removed hundreds. I went ahead and dumped all of those in my 29g that is virtually empty now, so they can heal up and be raffled off at the next meeting. There are three ocellaris (false percula) clownfish, and a bunch of micro-featherdusters. Here are a few pictures, but keep in mind that the water is cloudy with all this activity. First most of the LR and various corals were moved from the 55g. The SPS were put in the sump of the 55g to keep them safe. 
Here's the sump area with two 19w floodlights over the combined cheatomorpha, baby brittle stars, cops, and a Crown Conch. I recoved him from the refugium under my 29g, and had to unearth the LS to find him. My two mangroves are visible. 
I had to shoot this picture from up on a chair, so the top of the 55g would not obscure the view. 
The right side is rather barren, with a very unhealthy goniopora. I bought it from a reefer that had great success with it for 9 months. I put it in my tank, which was almost the same conditions, and it shut down within 45 days. Maybe it'll like this set up better? 
The middle of the tank. 
The right side. 
Many of the corals are closed up, but some opened up quickly. I really didn't bother with acclimation of anything. Things just got moved, including fish. The sun coral opened up immediately, as did some zoos. A few SPS slimed, and some LPS were shriveled up. Over the next few days, I'm sure I'll have to rearrange some livestock as it opens up. This is a fungia, a plate coral. It was given to me when it was about the size of a dime. It is now about the diameter of a tennis ball. It is glued to a piece of LR, so it is elevated off the sand. Small toadstool leather in the background. 
The sun coral. Needs to be fed actually. 
My 2 yr old Maxima clam in his new home. 
Montipora foliosa, with room to grow. 
Here is a picture from the end of the tank. It is cloudy, but you can see my BTAs right behind the Bengai Cardinal.  And with the flash. Btw, that is Tucker swimming at the top:  Evan helped me place the rockwork, because it is very difficult for a number of reasons. #1) The 55g is still in the way inhibiting easy front access. I'm getting some micrubbles in the tank today, but my plumbing is only 8 days old, and the return section of this sump is pathetic. I'm going to build a series of horitozontal baffles that will help impede the bubbles from the cascading water.
Update: 8/04/04Current temperature 77.8, pH 7.8 - lights come on in the next hour. The a/c - dehumidifier has no problem keeping the tank cool. Yesterday the high was 82.3 F. I'm going to have to put the IceCap fans on a timer as well, to avoid cooling the tank too much at night. Or bump up the A/C unit to a slightly higher tempearture in the fish room. This is the list of fish in the tank, in case you are still reading. 1 Percula (6 yr old female) Plus a couple of serpent stars, fighting conchs, an abundance of hard and soft corals , 2 maxima clams and a featherduster.
8/05/04Here is a full tank shot. Because the 55g is still in the way, I have to stand on a chair to show the bottom area of the tank. You can see the 55g in the foreground.  Please remember the canopy woodwork is not in place, so I'm getting a lot of light bleeding into the camera lens. Add to that the "new tank plumbing" of microbubbles, and the fact that I had to top off a few minutes before these pictures were taken. The left side of the tank: 
No room for a tripod... so these images are a tad blurry. My two year old Maxima 
and the baby Maxima 
Pocillopora (fuzzy) 
Peak of the rockwork 
Reef Shot 
BTAs (third one is barely peeking out of a hole beneath the others 
This Milleopora grew onto the rock behind it, so it is attached in that way. I need to support it with some rock soon,but for now it is "hangin' out". 
Tricolor Acropora - this guy has fallen about 5 times so far, and I'm having a hard time finding a spot where it will stay. My guess is that the Tangs swim by so quickly it throws it off its perch. 
Zoanthid patch 
Some SPS 
Frilly mushrooms, ricordia, and a plate coral to the left 
I just finished making a new batch of fish food. Unfortunately, Super Walmart no longer sells the frozen seafood bag that I used for the base of my mixture, so I went to Central Market (that store is amazing, but may only be Texas-based). I was about to buy their 1 lb/9.99 seafood delight, which lets me put in what I like in that 1 lb. I chose shrimp, scallops, squid casing, and squid tentacles. They were telling each other that my fish eat very well. Normally I add a bunch of the cubes of food from the LFS, but I didn't have the time to drive across town today to get $20 to $30 worth of stuff. After processing this fresh seafood, I added: All of this was run through a food processor. It came out into a pinkish paste, which was scooped into for sandwich sized ziplock bags. Pressing those flat to create a thin sheet, they were frozen. Since the recipe was different from what I usually use (Home-made fish food), I rinsed off the processor bowl and blade (carefully) in the tank, and the fish went nuts. That's a good sign. Would you like to join the discussion on ReefCentral.com? The documentation continues on page 24 (of 580 - as of 5/2008). Thank you for visiting my site. |
