Dream 525 gallon peninsula display with large fish room.

[Adam]

I’m in love with this one, gotta build this myself. I am building a new house myself nest year and am planing the space for an 8x4x29 peninsula tank. I definitely want to come check out your setup when it is done.

You can come by whenever you want Dan. No need to wait till it's done.

 

[Rainblood]

Sorry for the grief bub

 

[saltwaterwannabe]

It's getting difficult to maintain enthusiasm when I keep losing fish. I lost another Powder Blue this week. The only thing I can think of is that somehow Uronema Marinum got in and I have no idea exactly how. In the display so far I've lost two of them and one Blue Throat Trigger. The Trigger nutted up and wouldn't come out, even to eat, and starved to death. That doesn't include the fish I've lost in QT.

I don't have a absolute confirmation of Uronema Marinum and all the other fish appear to be completely fine. The Powder Brown I have in the 60 frag is also fine and it's connected to the same sump. So your guess is as good as mine..
I am going to hold off on getting anymore fish of a while and focus on continuing the get the nutrients under control so I can get started adding coral. Before I think about new fish again I'm going to sterilize all the QT tanks and shift to modified TTM for most new ones. The 60 QT will shift to a post QT observation

Sorry to hear you are having struggles, I will be watching and learning as you work through this. It appears that new systems often come with a lot of losses even if everything is done right.

 

[scottw]

It's getting difficult to maintain enthusiasm when I keep losing fish. I lost another Powder Blue this week. The only thing I can think of is that somehow Uronema Marinum got in and I have no idea exactly how. In the display so far I've lost two of them and one Blue Throat Trigger. The Trigger nutted up and wouldn't come out, even to eat, and starved to death. That doesn't include the fish I've lost in QT.

I don't have a absolute confirmation of Uronema Marinum and all the other fish appear to be completely fine. The Powder Brown I have in the 60 frag is also fine and it's connected to the same sump. So your guess is as good as mine..
I am going to hold off on getting anymore fish of a while and focus on continuing the get the nutrients under control so I can get started adding coral. Before I think about new fish again I'm going to sterilize all the QT tanks and shift to modified TTM for most new ones. The 60 QT will shift to a post QT observation tanks.

Adam - Not a fan of adding powder blue, achilles, etc. into a tank that isn't VERY established *over 16 months*. They are VERY hard to keep alive, some people have luck, but for me, they need very established systems. Powder Brown are more hardy of the powder family, for one reason or another. You just need to get this tank established, live rock seeded, lots of pods, thriving, keep the faith this isn't your first tank!

 

[DiefsReef]

It's getting difficult to maintain enthusiasm when I keep losing fish. I lost another Powder Blue this week. The only thing I can think of is that somehow Uronema Marinum got in and I have no idea exactly how. In the display so far I've lost two of them and one Blue Throat Trigger. The Trigger nutted up and wouldn't come out, even to eat, and starved to death. That doesn't include the fish I've lost in QT.

I don't have a absolute confirmation of Uronema Marinum and all the other fish appear to be completely fine. The Powder Brown I have in the 60 frag is also fine and it's connected to the same sump. So your guess is as good as mine..
I am going to hold off on getting anymore fish of a while and focus on continuing the get the nutrients under control so I can get started adding coral. Before I think about new fish again I'm going to sterilize all the QT tanks and shift to modified TTM for most new ones. The 60 QT will shift to a post QT observation tanks.

So sorry to hear that Adam. Everything I read lately seems to point to a lot of issues with tangs coming in. Maybe best to pay the extra cost to get something already qt'd and treated.

 

[DiefsReef]

@Adam I remember in this post somewhere you talked about running your skimmer air lines outside. did you put any kind of filter on them?
I've got some hose to run my lines but dont have any filters at the moment and dont really like having an open line to the outside.

 

[Adam]

@Adam I remember in this post somewhere you talked about running your skimmer air lines outside. did you put any kind of filter on them?
I've got some hose to run my lines but dont have any filters at the moment and dont really like having an open line to the outside.

I ran the line outside using 3/4" PVC pipe. This allows me to put an elbow on out there and calk around it. Looks like it's always been there after painting. On the bottom end of the elbow I take a small section of window screen and hold it in place with some scrap pipe. This keeps bugs out.

Inside I use 3/4 to 1-1/2" fittings to add a section of 1-1/2" pipe to hold carbon. On the bottom of this "canister" I connect a plastic 1/2 hose barb for running the final connection to the skimmer. I also use reactor foam on the bottom of the 1-1/2 PVC to hold the carbon in place.

Here's a pic from my last setup. I'll post the current one when I get home.

 

[Adam]

This is the current setup. I haven't made the final attachments yet in case I need to tweak it.

 

[DiefsReef]

Wow I hadn't thought about any of that. I was just gonna run a hose out a hole.
Awesome idea! Now I have to go back and rethink the whole thing.

 

[Adam]

Wow I hadn't thought about any of that. I was just gonna run a hose out a hole.
Awesome idea! Now I have to go back and rethink the whole thing.

The carbon keeps the pollen and other airborne particulate out. When the pest guy comes my wife turns off the skimmer. But if we're not home or she forgets the carbon will keep the pesticides out of the system, same goes for the lawn guy and herbicides. Both of those could be catastrophic to a reef tank. Especially with the skimmer which will move those chemicals very quickly into the water column.

At the last house the pest guy knew about the tanks and the areas for avoid heavy spraying. The placement there was also far enough away from the lawn, behind bushes, that I wasn't too concerned. But I trust no one and the carbon is always in there and changed out every 6 months with an outside line. The only time that line was disconnected from the skimmer was when I was running a closed loop CO2 reactor.

Good luck with your new plan

 

[DiefsReef]

The carbon keeps the pollen and other airborne particulate out. When the pest guy comes my wife turns off the skimmer. But if we're not home or she forgets the carbon will keep the pesticides out of the system, same goes for the lawn guy and herbicides. Both of those could be catastrophic to a reef tank. Especially with the skimmer which will move those chemicals very quickly into the water column.

At the last house the pest guy knew about the tanks and the areas for avoid heavy spraying. The placement there was also far enough away from the lawn, behind bushes, that I wasn't too concerned. But I trust no one and the carbon is always in there and changed out every 6 months with an outside line. The only time that line was disconnected from the skimmer was when I was running a closed loop CO2 reactor.

Good luck with your new plan

Thx Adam! Yeah that was the reason for my question in the first place. Was really concerned about outside pollutants. Once in place I think I'll label it and make sure to talk with pest control.

 

[Adam]

Yesterday my wife comes upstairs from feeding the fish while I'm on the BoD Zoom call and says the returns are blowing really strong. I couldn't figure out what she was talking about. When I get down there I see bubbles blowing out both return lines and I think "This can't be good". Turns out my dumb ass turned off the ATO in the Apex after I changed the socks last time and the return chamber got low enough for the pumps to pull a bit of air. Crisis was mainly nothing.

It still amazes me with the scale of this system. Took over 5 gallons or RODI to fill it back up to the optical sensor, while the ATO running the whole time while I walked back and forth with a pitcher. The salinity? Well the probe had been giving me some issues and the graph was all wonky. Best I can tell it went up a whopping...... 0.3ppm LOL.

That's been about all the action the tank and systems have seen in the last week+. Work has been absolutely killing me and that with a whole lot of yard work over the weekend, I haven't been down there much at all.

 

[DiefsReef]

wow over 5gl of water and it only went up 0.3

 

[Adam]

wow over 5gl of water and it only went up 0.3

Yup, that's it. Didn't measure the exact amount but I know it was over 5 gallons and that is 0.75% of the system volume. 33ppt times 0.0075 is 0.2475 ppt. Crazy!

 

[scottw]

That is the major bonus of large systems!

 

[Adam]

While I didn't do much tonight, I decided it was time to clean the ATS. Was getting some good 3D growth and it had been 15 days since the last cleaning. But I was finding some algae in the filter socks.

Looks like about 2-3/4 to 3 cups.

 

[joseayes]

Went trough your whole Build Thread and man, it’s awesome Adam! A new house plus the benefit to start from zero on your tank build it’s phenomenal!
looking forward to see it in person one day!
I remember your last tank and it was designed with lots of tech geeks related to controlling and such, now on this one you were even more thoughtful on controlling the sorrounding environment related to climate and humidity. Well done. Can’t leave without mentioning the help from members here! And I’ve told you before if you need a hand just let me know!
Keep posting! Looking forward to learn more about how you managing the Controlling part on this one.

 

[Adam]

Went trough your whole Build Thread and man, it’s awesome Adam! A new house plus the benefit to start from zero on your tank build it’s phenomenal!
looking forward to see it in person one day!
I remember your last tank and it was designed with lots of tech geeks related to controlling and such, now on this one you were even more thoughtful on controlling the surrounding environment related to climate and humidity. Well done. Can’t leave without mentioning the help from members here! And I’ve told you before if you need a hand just let me know!
Keep posting! Looking forward to learn more about how you managing the Controlling part on this one.

Thanks Antonio!

I'll go into more detail on the control aspects of the system as it gets closer to completed.

 

[Adam]

In the continued battle to control extremely elevated nutrients I have been dosing the rest of the MicroBacter7 I had and moved on to Eco-Balance. I also did a a 30+% water change two weeks ago that consisted of about 210ish gallons. After which I started carbon dosing. I am up to 11ml per day as of this morning. NO3 went from 64.8 to 38.8 and PO4 from somewhere between 0.7 & 0.8 (I called it 0.75 ) down to 0.5 then to 0.37 at the last testing on 9/8.

I dosed Eco-Balance again last Saturday and the skimmer has pulled some pretty nasty crap out. There was a much more pronounced pH drop after that dose that I believe is due to the extra organic carbon available for the bacteria. I mixed up a fresh batch of saltwater last night and and cleaned the ATS, man, it is seriously producing, every 2 to 3 weeks I'm getting 2-3 cups of GHA off of the screen. I will be doing about a 15% water change tonight, along with dumping the skimmate locker and cleaning the skimmer & pump for it. Tomorrow night I will test the organics again and see where it's all at, hopefully they're continuing to drop. In the last week I've also had an explosion of pineapple sponges, I take that as another good sign.

Thursday morning I will be pulling quite a few samples for testing. Samples from the RO, NSW, Frag Trough and Display will all be sent off to ATI for ICP testing. Along with the RO and Display samples sent to ICP-Analysis. It will be interesting to compare those results.
I have also decided to send off water to Aquabiomics for Microbiome & tankDNA testing. All of these tests will set the baseline for the system to give me an idea where everything stands. After losing several fish in the display I want to see if something has gotten in. Currently all of the fish & shrimp appear to be doing great with no outward signs of anything amiss. But I have put a hold on any new additions for a while to let things continue to mature and also revamp my entire QT process.

As far as the rest of the progress, work and life have gotten in the way of much getting done. Beyond hooking up one DOS to the main system and adding float switches to the ATO and skimmate locker not much has been done. I have added a Classic Apex to the Frag system but haven't hooked anything up to it yet. It's been factory reset, flashed to current firmware and connected to Fusion. Next up for it is to hookup the pH probe and get the pumps & heaters connected to the EB8. This older Apex will get the job done until either a great deal comes along or the finances recoup from all these expenses so I can buy a new one. I do plan on putting my EB4 in by the mixing station to control the entire RODI as well as an EB8 to handle the coral QT's.

Speaking of the coral QT's I have a good bit of softies & LPS in them. Some of it is mine that @spike has brought over, some is from @jcook54 @Shawn and @Doberman13. Then there is a good bit that @ricky5415 gave me from his tear down a couple weeks ago. I'm hopeful I can get some of it into the display and frag trough within a couple weeks. I should also have the canopy installed by mid-October thanks to Fosters help!

That's about all I have for an update at this time. Thanks for following along!

 

[Adam]

So, in cleaning the entire skimmer system I dropped the pump that powers it, a DCP-18000, and a couple of the locking tabs broke off the motor housing, the ones that hold the volute on. The pump creates so much pressure that the volute was getting pushed open at an angle allowing a lot of water to escape. I'm glad I had the sump completely refilled before turning it on or it would have been a big mess. I temporarily held it in place as best I could with 305 stainless screws. It's still leaking some water but the skimmer is working at least. Steve Burton was kind enough to loan me one of his while I wait for the replacement to arrive. This whole ordeal was a kick in the ass to remind me I need to have some spares on hand.
I was thinking about ordering a DCP-20000 but the only ones in stock right now are over priced. Hopefully there are some on the way and they're just caught up in the log jam in our nations ports. The plan is to get one of those soon and keep the new 18000 as the back up.

I know I've mentioned it before, but I just can't get over the god awful stench that comes out of the 5 gallon bucket that is the skimmate locker. Gag a maggot nasty My dad used to say "back a buzzard off a dead horse." I may resort to wearing the respirator the next time it needs to be emptied. It's funny how cleaning the baby poop out of the skimmer doesn't bother me at all. It hardly smells at all, but the looks of it is just like a dirty diaper.