Paul’s 240 Gallon upgrade!

[dubs83]

Interesting with the wiring. Why are you jumping it from the basement?

I have two 20amp circuits dedicated to the aquarium which are all in the basement fishroom. On my previous tank, the power was simply brought upstairs via an extension chord. I wanted to clean that up a bit and take care of whatever needs I may have.

The blue are always live on two separate circuits and will power a respective Reef Breeder photon, MP40, MP10 and the batter backup. This way, should a circuit breaker pop, I should still have flow in the aquarium.

Red is powered by the APEX and will run the controller and Gyres. I’ll use the Gyre controller to controller flow but will use the apex to power the outlet for Feeding.

Green is a bank of USB plugs for things like the Reefbreeder remote and iPad charge.


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[dubs83]

Guy your setup looks sick. Power thru and get her cycling!

I’m trying to get there!

Great idea with the beam.

Thank you! I wish I could take the credit but it was the boss lady!


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[dubs83]

Update 11/5/18:

As I look to making another 2 week tour away from home (I think it’s the last one), here’s a quick update of work done since my previous post.

Most of the equipment has been cleaned. Just little odds and ends like float switches and probes still left to do.

The fish room has been torn down and clean up down there is under way down there. This is perfect as it lets me correct some things I didn’t think about during the previous build.

The rack of equipment

Fishroom tear down

Spackled and awaiting paint. My fiancé loves painting so she volunteered.

Anyway, once this is done, I’ll move on the running the electric extension and plumbing followed by filling the tank. My goal is for it to be wet on Black Friday. We’ll see!

-Paul


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[dubs83]

Okay, I actually had a few days at home and got quite a bit!

Walls touched up with paint, floors watched. New PVC molding and recaulked. Posts supporting the floor were cleaned of any rust using steel who’ll then painted with truck bed liner.

Today, I ordered the glass for baffles and will be installing them today. Once it’s dry (tonight or tomorrow), I’ll be moving the sump into the fishroom and start on plumbing.

Here’s the room as it sits

We have also agreed to start on the aquascape today so I’ll try and upload pictures as that comes together.

On to the hurtle, and I knew there would be one. Last night at feeding, I noticed the new hippo tang covered in ich. Agh!!! A little back ground. The hippo was purchased with a muellers butterfly fish and have successfully gone through QT. They were hanging out in a 20 gallon observation tank while I moved the inhabitants of the 125 into two 40b tanks. That left me with 3 tanks to care for while I upgrade. After two weeks of observation, I was leaving for work and decided to move the hippo and butterfly into the 40bs to make things easier and more manageable for my fiancé. 4 days later, I spotted ich. Today I confirmed it is ich. Frustrating as I’ve been very diligent about QTing incoming fish. I haven’t been so diligent with coral and inverts and I’m thinking it was already in the aquarium. With everyone healthy and stress free it didn’t rear its ugly head u til the move. Ive started to elevate copper in both tanks in hopes to combat this with a 100% success rate. All fish are fat and eating aggressively so I think it’ll be fine.

Wish me luck!

-Paul


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[dubs83]

Working on the rock scape. Here’s what we’re thinking. Plan on extending that over hang and make it a little girthier with rubble rock later on. This isn’t final by any means just a general thought. Let us know what you think.

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[dubs83]

To update every one, fish are going through copper treatment as they have somehow contracted the Ich. We had one loss, the mueller butterfly, but I truly believe this is somewhat isolated and a reaction to the copper. I tried pulling him out and putting him into NSW but he didn’t make it.

I rinsed 160lbs of new dry sand and got started on running electric downstairs around the tank. Again, these are basically extensions chords from the APEX so I can keep the APEX further away from the sump and still retain control over the necessary equipment.

Sump is in place. The holes previously drilled will be plugged using bulkheads. The 2” hole is for the return pipe and the three 3/8 holes will accommodate float valves.

A little background:
The fish room has two 20amp circuits. Treated, and labeled, as essential and non essential. The essential circuit is wired into my transfer box which can be powered by a 12.5kw generator. This way, should we lose power, the essential equipment will be powered. I’d like some input as to what you consider “essential” equipment.

In the pic above you see the 12/3 extension chord coming from upstairs and three 14g wires. The 12/3 extension chord will electrically power some non essential equipment upstairs (lights, MP40(2), MP10(2), iPad). The three 14g Wires act as an extension chord. They’ll will be plugged into the essential side of my APEX and will provide electric to the two gyres. The MP40s and 10s will be controlled by the APEX via the WXM module. Now, should the power go out, I have two back up batteries to keep those powered but extended power outages will eventually render these INOP. However, since the generator will power the essential circuit, I will have the APEX and therefore the gyres.

I hope I didn’t make that overly complicated

Anyway, here are some progress shots. The key is labeling EVERYTHING!

-Paul



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[dubs83]

A little more progress

1/2 of the wiring has been run for the display tank to where the Apex will sit. Still need 8 more outlets behind the sump and then I’ll move onto wiring mixing station outlets and QT. I’m hoping I’ll be home tonight through the rest of the week and it should all be done.

Once the wiring is done, I’ll move onto plumbing, which shouldn’t take long.

Electrical and float switch wiring

Paul


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[Ben]

wow, that's a huge sump! can't wait to see how this one turns out!

 

[dubs83]

Update 11/16/18

You know... I’m absolutely terrible at estimating how much time something will take. Lol. I wanted to finish the electric... and I finally did it today but I’m absolutely spent.

Main lines for Essential and Non Essential EBs

Fish room from the entry

Rats nest for the control board.

Dry fitting the return pump

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[dubs83]

Update 11/17/18

Once again, I lost track of time and didn’t come close to working on the scape. Tomorrow I promise!

Here’s what is done. Majority of the work on the fish room. I can happily say the wiring is complete! Also, the pump plumbing is complete! I made a mistake with the valve placement but I will fix it tomorrow. Newbie mistake because I started to rush. I’m sure you guys will spot it in the photos. Anyway!

The complete mess of wiring at the meeting where the APEX will live.

The yellowtail plumbed.

Heat exchanger

Running PEX for the heat exchanger.

Paul


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[dubs83]

Update 11/18/18

As promised, some rock work today. Used nylon rods with nylon nuts. The rods are flexible but once cut to size they became pretty rigid. Anyhow, we’re currently splitting duty between this and cleaning the house for thanksgiving. I really wish I took pictures of the process but most of it was checking to see if it worked and then leaving it a lone lol. I’ll provide more details later when we settle in for the night. Here’s a sneak peak.

We’ll be filling the gaps in and covering the nuts with rubble and super glue a little later today. The aquafix is currently setting before we place it in the aquarium and build the remainder of the scape! Let me know what you think!

-Paul


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[dubs83]

I’m done as of this morning!

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[diana a]

Looks great!

 

[diana a]

Have the rocks been cycled or will you do that in the tank? Bare bottom or sand? Happy thanksgiving!

 

[dubs83]

Have the rocks been cycled or will you do that in the tank? Bare bottom or sand? Happy thanksgiving!

No they have not. I plan on doing a fishless cycle with various brands of bacteria and ammonia additive while the fish recover from ICH. They have 5 more days before I can move them to an observation tank for two weeks in which time I hope to have the new tank cycled.

I’m going with about 1 1/2” of aragonite special grade sand. As much as I liked Fiji Pink, it blew all over the previous tank and with over 22,000GPH of potential flow, i wanted something with heavier grain. I know bare bottom would have been the best but the girls in the house really want sand


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[dubs83]

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[dubs83]

40 gallons worth of RODI water, will be pumping a pretty potent mix of saltwater today.

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[dubs83]

Very little progress the last two days as we prepared for thanksgiving. But, I started work on the junction box for the electric:

Basically a 12”x12” junction box where the power is distributed to the APEX and its respective EB

Drilled holes in the stand backing and plumbed the initial overflow pipe for the EMS overflow.

...and I continued to fill. This is taking excruciatingly long! We are at the 1/3 mark and all MPs running to mix the water and avoid stagnation

Tomorrow, I’ll try and finish the plumbing to the basement and run return plumbing. I’ll also finish up the electric for the recirculating pump and electric valve for the heater. Possibly assemble and lay out the control board.

We are doing some Christmas tree shopping so I only have until the fiancé gets home.

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!


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[dubs83]

Update 11/25/18

Okay, quick update. No pics today but...!

1. I finally finished the plumbing. I will never use 1.5” flex PVC again!

2. All the wiring to the main junction box is complete.

3. Tested and bled the heating line for the tank.

4. I have cleaned out the QT corner of the fish room.

5. Fish graduated copper treatment today. I sanitized their 40 breeder while they hang out in a 40 gallon plastic bin. They will be moving into the fishroom for observation. I suffered three losses- dottyback and butterfly fish to the ICH or copper and a Christmas wrasse to carpet surfing.

6. DT is about 2/3 full. I’m hoping to have the rest done tomorrow or close to it. With the plumbing complete, I can now start filling the sump which should translate to a faster DT fill.

That’s all

-Paul


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[dubs83]

Well, with my morning work briefing and the torture with my chiropractor out of the way, I got to work on the electrical panel.

It’s a tight squeeze but I placed two outlets in the box that are wired to the essential and non essential circuit.

I placed voltage/wattage/amp monitors to monitor total use age at a glance.

Box closed up

Demonstrating with heat gun

Below it goes the control board at the APEX. Getting to work on that now

-Paul


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