Durand tank build (1 Viewer)

[BlindSwordsman]

Ive read that colder temps can give better colors but slow the rate of growth. Not sure if that is true or not. I’ve always ran my tanks at or around 78.

That's probably true. I think my stuff doesn't look too bad but they don't grow that fast. But, I believe they also die faster at a higher temperature .

 

[reef junkie]

Thanks @MistakesWereMade for the idea on the pipe extension for ato. I did not follow very well what this was doing until last night when I went to turn on my ato. Had not done this since I’ve been working on upping my kalk dose after adding new sump. When I finally turned the ato on I got the syphon again. After remembering your post I added the extension and got the outlet tube of the ato above the top of the ato reservoir and syphon stopped.

 

[reef junkie]

Bear with me and my soon to be photo bombs. Trying a new hobby for winter. Lol

And before you ask. Yes Dewalt now makes camera tripods.

 

[reef junkie]

I made the tank wake up for me to take pictures LOL

 

[Fishfoo]

Awesome pics! Just gotta works on getting the exposure up a bit and they'll look even better

 

[reef junkie]

Awesome pics! Just gotta works on getting the exposure up a bit and they'll look even better

Thanks, Thats what im trying to figure out now. LOL

 

[Fishfoo]

Increase the aperature by lowering the f stop. try 5.0 (not sure what lens you're using so unsure what to recommend exactly)

 

[reef junkie]

Added a 4th mp10 to the tank. All ran in reef crest mode antisync 50%. They run for about 2 hours in nutrient export 65% at noon. See how this 4th one plays along at that point in the schedule. I have two spots detritus gathers. I’d like to hit those bottom areas more must seems to make my LPS and Gonis very unhappy.

Heaters do seem to be keeping me close to temp. Today the second heater had to come on and that set off an alarm. Thinking come February it might be a two heater kind of a month. Might just have to look at getting the 200w. The 100‘s just might not cut it. I did set the temp a little lower on the program so maybe a few more days of tweaking before throwing in the towel might get it.

Ph has been a thing of the past. 8.16 at the low and 8.31 at the peak. I feel pretty stupid having that prob so low and not even thinking twice about it. But glad its good now.

For the pump. I turned my ATO back on Wednesday. Woke up thursday and the water level had risen in the overflow and the water was going down the E drain. Checked the sump and it was a high as well. Figured the water level rose overnight in the overflow like it does and the ato kicked on. THen the kalk also kicked on im sure every hour so between all that the water level was high. So i just let it run. after 24 hours the water level evaporated enough to be close to back to running level. I checked the ro reservoir and it had 2.37 gallon gone. SO tonight I will check it again and see what went out over the last 24 hours. I did change the speed on the pump as well as open the gate valve to get the water level lower in the overflow. If I can find a happy medium where at its high its just below the E drain and at its low its still quiet in the overflow ill keep the pump. The fine tuning from the variable speed on the apex is I think helping with that. Being able to change speed by 1% is way easier than trying to barely spin the gate valve. LOL. Few more days of testing I think the high and low water level should eventual equal out and Ill have the new normal.

Some more pictures. Fine tuning a little the camera specs. Feel like its getting a little better but still have a ways to go LOl

 

[spsick]

Man, that overflow is really a rollercoaster of emotions!

 

[reef junkie]

Man, that overflow is really a rollercoaster of emotions!

Hahah. I had the same problem on my 60 cube. I bet it was every other day I was adjusting the gate valve on that tank. Smaller overflow being it was an external. Figured the larger internal would have fixed it. Or gave it more wiggle room. .
Prob not as big of a deal if I just let it be noisy. But hearing water splash is always a heart stopping feeling and now any little creak makes me jump and look at the sump.

 

[spsick]

What about putting a riser so the full siphon tube is higher?

 

[reef junkie]

It’s already higher than the tank normal running level. The water in the tank rises about 1/2-3/4” before it hits the E drain.

Nice thought though. When I raised it went oh this will do it for sure. Lol

 

[BlindSwordsman]

Re. Your photoshoot: I'm not pro like others. I'm more of an amateur. But personally, for sharpness and lightness/darkness of the shot, I make adjustments to the ISO, the aperture, and the shutter speed. For colors, I use yellow or light green filter, and adjust the white balance of the camera setting. I run my tank completely under blue lights and I take photos under blue light with these adjustments. I don't change my tank light settings when I take the shots. Too much work for that for me to change then to change them back. Just my 2 cents here .

 

[reef junkie]

Re. Your photoshoot: I'm not pro like others. I'm more of an amateur. But personally, for sharpness and lightness/darkness of the shot, I make adjustments to the ISO, the aperture, and the shutter speed. For colors, I use yellow or light green filter, and adjust the white balance of the camera setting. I run my tank completely under blue lights and I take photos under blue light with these adjustments. I don't change my tank light settings when I take the shots. Too much work for that for me to change then to change them back. Just my 2 cents here .

Thanks Ken, I’ll give that a try.

 

[BlindSwordsman]

You will have to juggle with these settings to fit what you need. It depends on your lighting, how much you want to capture the movement, etc. For me, I usually set mine at 'manual' mode, ISO from 200 - 400, F stop at 5+, and shutter speed 1/8 - 1/15. People usually turn off the flow when they take the photos because less movement will help. But I usually leave mine on because things look droopy without the flow and I don't like that look . Unless I do a top down shot then I would turn the flow off because the water surface movement will interfere too much with the shot.

 

[reef junkie]

Thank you. That’s great info on the settings. I’ll see what I can do to adjust. The iso I’ve been struggling with. I had it as auto and it was in the 3000 range. I’m able to set it but not any lower then 800. Or at least I think I can’t lower. I’ll need to read up on it and see if I’m able to adjust more.

 

[reef junkie]

Just another update for anyone laughing along

The overflow has an adjust piece of plastic to allow the water level to be adjusted in the display. I had it raised some in the display beacuse one rock from the old tank is a little tall. Ive removed that along with the small thumb screws Due to the fact this is what is causing the splashing sound when water gets to low. I then proceeded to remove over 4 gallons of water from the system (water was going down the E drain again this morning). I then set the water level 5” below the E drain. Basically as low as I can get it before air gets sucked into the strainer on main drain. This should allow the water level to change in the overflow a good gallon and a half before going down the E drain. Reset the water level in the sump back to its running position. Now we wait. I have to believe this constant change in salinity can not be good for the heath of the tank. But nothing is showing signs of stress yet.

 

[reef junkie]

Woke this morning to a nice and quiet tank. Removing all those extra items in the over flow stopped the flashing. And allowing the water to go way further dowan in the over flow allowed more room for the over flow to fluctuate before hitting the E drain. So are so good. I spent most of the day yesterday watching the sump and the overflow change and adding saltwater whe nthe overflow would rise to keep the salinity right during the settling. I sure hope this did it and that I can keep it consistent Between water changes.

Swapped out the 100 watt heaters for the 200’s. I reach the desired temp now but must faster. Which was what I was trying to avoid but as soon as the temp dropped outside the 100’s just could not keep temp without both running side by side. I’ll try spreading the temp swing a little and call it good enough.

A new plan I think im going to do is start spreading out my water changes to maybe biweekly or even monthly. My No3 does a lot of roller coastering along with my Po4. Im hoping that maybe if I spread this out it can stay a little more stable. The over feeding im doing does not seem to be fixing the problem other then adding more detritus to the bottom of the tank. I have some short hoses and the socks that came with my sump. Think I’ll still do my weekly cleaning just run through a sock right into the sump. This way I can focus on bubble algae, maybe reduce the feeding a bit and maybe have less dosing. If I can now that I have the variable speed working on the return pump try and match the flow of the syphon hose while cleaning and might be able to just keep the tank running during cleaning and the cleaning hose will match the flow on the return pump So I dont have to stop or wait for the pump to catch up. Should be pretty easy to do I hope lol.

Time and perseverance seems to be paying off.

 

[reef junkie]

Just sharing my process this morning. Stole the idea from Ben(@spsick). Was able to even walk away and grab glue to glue back on the corals I knocked over.
I turned the returun pump down to 40%. Took a few tries but this was the magic number. Started a syphon on the hose and it feed right into a filter sock hanging on the drain side of the sump. And then proceeded to move around sucking in debris and plucking away at bubble algae. In all I spent about 2 hours working my way around the tank.





Kept a solo cup near by along with some tweezers, small bottle brush and a towel.






I also made some marks on the overflow for reference for the high and the low points in the overflow.



THe last thing I did today was add the auto shut sensor off that came with the Various pump. I have no other sensor or etc other then the tunze alarm for if water got to high for any reason. This sensor will shut off the Return pump. Im guessing Ill need to make some sort of apex code to notify me if this was to happen if able. But I’ll save that for another day.

 

[reef junkie]

Was having issues with co2 scrubber collecting water between the 2 canister. Had to hit up the box box store today anyways and grabbed some parts. This hopefully will take care of it.


Also jaw breaker was for some reason deciding to let go of the plug it was on. So i pulled it out and grabbed a basket from the dollar store today. Drilled some holes and clamped it on. Hopefully it will reattach and I can put back in the display.

Amazing how much free time I have when the Vikings are sucking.