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Joel's 175 Gallon Re-build

jkapit

jkapit

Finishing up the loose ends before water goes in the tank either next week or the following week. PAtch up cracked plastic tank braces, connected sea swirls, and installed Apex Fish Feeder.

Got around to patching the plastic top tank braces with Marine Epoxy and fiberglass tape. I would have dyed the epoxy black, but considering this is not an open tank I left it white. MY thought is the new glass braces installed under each plastic brace will be much stronger than these repaired plastic itself. But one of the plastic braces broke and curled up, so at least the Epoxy now holds it in place.

The left brace...
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The right brace..
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Back of the tank showing the Apex and Sea-swirls.
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Last three to-do items before water goes in are to Connect Apex in the basement to the power bar under the tank. Connect Apex with an internet cable and have electrician install dedicated GFI line in the basement.
 
art13

art13

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
If you get the separate power supply for the apex brain, it can sense a power outage, just plug it in to a separate outlet not on the energy bar. Next, get a ups, and plug the energy bars into it. Then you can go into the apex and program it so if it senses a power outage, it will only leave certain outlets on that you specify.
 
jkapit

jkapit

Ran the Cat-6 wire for the Apex to connect to the internet. Even though the new Apex can be run off a wireless connection they still recommend a wired connection so took care of that. Also connected the remote power bar in the tank stand with a 45' Aquabus cable.

Today I planed out my initial Rockscape. Going to go with the twin peeks theme. Layed it out on the table, will then soak it in vinegar since I already soaked it with Muriatic acid but still a lot of crud in and some calcium build on the rock. Plan to soak it a couple days, then soak in RODI. Then dry it out and then put it in the tank.

A couple pics of the rockscape...

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The vinegar doing its job....

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jkapit

jkapit

Ok, the tank has been up and running now for over a week. Fixed a few small leaks. Programmed the Apex to get the basic functionality going. I must say, it is quite a system, just amazing what you can do with it and the support from Neptune has been very good.

At this point I've been testing for phosphates and even though I soaked the rock in Muriatic acid, then RODI, then Vinegar, then RODI again, the rocks are leaching quite a bit of phosphate.

I am reading around .98 ppm, when I treat with LC it's gotten down to .35 but creeps back up.

Just going to keep dosing the LC until the tank holds steady at a very low phosphate number(.01 is my target for now) then take the next step and add sand and start stocking the tank.

Also added GFO to a reactor to help the phosphate removal along. I keep telling myself to be patient and complete the process properly. Having a tankful of rocks leaching phosphate is not the way to start off.

Meanwhile going to buy some Clowfish and put in the QT tank so when the display is ready I'll have some fish to put in.
 
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redfishbluefish

redfishbluefish

Officer Emeritus
Officer Emeritus
How did I totally miss this reboot? I just spent my Saturday morning reading the first four pages. Extremely well done and an excellent lesson in taking your time to do it right. I really like you're "take it slow" approach and the obvious thought and planning with this rebuild. I'm a follower now! Again, extremely well done Joel!
 
jkapit

jkapit

redfishbluefish said:
How did I totally miss this reboot? I just spent my Saturday morning reading the first four pages. Extremely well done and an excellent lesson in taking your time to do it right. I really like you're "take it slow" approach and the obvious thought and planning with this rebuild. I'm a follower now! Again, extremely well done Joel!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the great feedback. Getting so close to be up and running again.
 
jkapit

jkapit

art13 said:
If you get the separate power supply for the apex brain, it can sense a power outage, just plug it in to a separate outlet not on the energy bar. Next, get a ups, and plug the energy bars into it. Then you can go into the apex and program it so if it senses a power outage, it will only leave certain outlets on that you specify.
Click to expand...

Art,

Thanks for your advice. I now have the parts and the strategy to make this all work.

So here's is the setup but have not programmed it or tested yet....

I got a separate power supply for the Apex plugged into a non UPS outlet and have the primary energy bar plugged into the UPS. So now I can detect a power outage and shut off all the outlets. Once the power failure is detected one of the tunze pumps will stay on and be powered by the Icap battery backup.

This way only the Apex modules are powered by the UPS and one of the tunze pumps will be powered by the ICAP battery backup. I'll have to test it to see how long both the Apex and tunze last on battery power. LOL, at least in theory that is what I think will happen.
 
jkapit

jkapit

A week into monitoring the Phosphates leaching from the rock and making progress. Down to zero on the Low resolution test. IT took a week to go from .98ppm to zero. I will not add any LC today and will see what it measures in the morning. My guess is that it will still take another 4-8 more weeks to draw the last of the phosphate out of the rock, we will see..

He are the details I am tracking with my Apex.
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jkapit

jkapit

Making progress on the phosphate leaching front over the past two weeks. The last three days I did not dose LC and the phosphates are around .06-.09. Down to a 4ml dose today of LC, will switch over to the ultra low phosphate test kit and see if I can get the tank to hold at .01ppm or less then it's time to stock the tank.

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jkapit

jkapit

Starting week 4 of removing last of the phosphates from my rock. I switched to the Hanna ULR test kit and phosphates are holding steady at .06ppm while doing 4ml of LC per day. Once I get it holding steady at .02 per day while dosing 2-4ml of LC per day, I will switch to using a cup of GFO. If a cup can hold phosphates down to under .03 I think I am ready to stock the tank.

I have 4 clownfish in QT doing fine, they are too small to put in the main tank anyway. Probably would get sucked into the overflows. So will just leave them there while they grow a bit bigger.

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jkapit

jkapit

Time for another update on the phosphate front. I am exited to report I am at the tail end of the process and my phosphates have held steady between .03 an. .05 without dosing LC and runnning 2 cups of GFO.

It's taken 6 weeks to go from .98 ppm down to a steady .03. I used a 1/2 dozen 10 micron filter socks to catch the phosphate precipitation then switched over to GFO. Going to monitor another week and double check things are still around .03 then add the sand and start to cycle the tank.

For those that are interested, below are my charts of the progress. For the most part I have dosed 20ml per day for the first week to 10ml per day down to 4ml per day of LC and my total water volume is 225 gallons. There are pluses and minuses to using LC but in my opinion it shorted the time and lowered the cost to capture the phosphates vs. just GFO and/or running the fuge with Chaeto. Like most things in this hobby, there are dozens of ways to accomplish the same thing but this process worked pretty well for me.

Tank all wrapped up so no light to prevent algae during the process...


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6 week phosphate chart, normally dosing around 10ml per day, then reducing to 4ml per day.

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This week's phosphate chart without dosing any LC

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jkapit

jkapit

Phosphates still holding at .03 so added the sand bed. Went with Fiji pink, about a 1". Only doing the sand bed in front of the rocks so if I need to I can vacuum the bed out.

Adding microbacter7 and ready to move my clownfish from the QT to the DT next week. Next step is to find some nice purple algae scrapings to seed the coralline algae.

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jkapit

jkapit

A few pics of the tank's progress. I am QTing everything so progress will continue to be slow, but hopefully my due diligence will pay off. The four clownfish are growing nicely and just added three fire fish to the display tank. Unfortunately I lost a royal gramma in the QT. Going to Tropiquarium tonight to find a few more fish. Then will add some inverts like snails, cleaner shrimp. Once all my fish are stocked in the DT then on to some corals.



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jkapit

jkapit

A little update on my tank. So far so good. I've had some live stock in there for about 5 weeks at this point.

All inhabitants are happy, Clownfish, fire fish, and two Scarlett Cleaner shrimp are doing great.

Here is. Link to a short vid(Made with my iPhone, not the best quality)....

PH steady at 7.9
Alk steady at 7.8
Calc at 440
Phosphates .02-.05 with the help of 3.5 cups of GFO and Chaeto in the sump
Nitrate - Zero, once I put corals in, LPS corals in this may be an issue.

Just a hint of algae on the black glass, I clean the front glass once a week witch accumulates a slight dusting. I seeded some coralline algae pieces but not a spec on the glass or rock work yet.

Have a Powder Blue Tang, 2 Black/White Clownfish, and a royal gramma in QT. After they go into the display, I'll probably do one more batch of fish then start putting some corals in QT.
 
jkapit

jkapit

Just when I post a positive thread on the tank's status over the weekend my PBT who ate the first day home is now not eating and scratching himself. Although I don't see Ich on his body yet I assume that is what he has. Going to treat him with Seachem. Metroplex which will help cure a few things including ich. Any suggestions are welcome.

BTW, the PBT is in a QT tank so not a major issue. Just don't want to lose him. He is hiding in the PVC tube below....

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