Hui's Low Boy Holding Tank

[hzheng33]

first, mad respect for those of you keeping a nano tank. i tried before moving to the low boy and the swing was brutal. although it was small in size but the amount of attention i pay to it was actually more than what i do for my 150 peninsula.

the purpose of this setup is move some of the corals that i'm no longer interested in from the main display to here until i make a decision. furthermore i wanted to de-clutter the main tank of the frags that i have either purchase or accidentally made during maintenance.

Equipment List:

1/2" acrylic ~10gal AIO (more of an expo/show frag tank)
Tunze regular version
Apex Wifi
DDR/DOS
Kessil A160 --> A360
Aquatic Life 115 skimmer
neotherm heater
MJ1200 return


Dec 5th 2020





Dec 19 2020

the number of wires and cords are becoming an eyesore. my wife didn't approve of the setup at this time. but i did upgrade the A160 to A360 (no reason, just something i came across)



some of the corals at the time

​

 

[hzheng33]

Jan 3 2021

My coworker gifted me 2 sets of workbench when we moved from one location to another. guess where both of them ended up!

 

[hzheng33]

Jan 13 2021

I bought a low boy on an impulse....but it sat there for a few months because at the time the 10 gal was fairly sufficient and i didn't want to set up another one or replace the 10gal.

 

[DiefsReef]

Looks like a great little frag QT tank.

 

[hzheng33]

July 10

after 5-6 months of babysitting the 10gal tank due its low water volume, i'm finally convinced that 1) i don't like nano tank, 2) if i were to continue with this setup in the basement (in the middle of nowhere of the house), i need to bust down the low boy

i bought a nice glass sump to go with the low boy but decided not to use it and wanted something more or less like an AIO. so i cut some black acrylic pieces that i have and made some baffles out of it. the original workbench was only 36" long, so i bought a 48" butcher block to replace it.



the glass sump that i will not be using

 

[hzheng33]

July 11

Let there be light.

i really didn't cycle the tank. i threw a basketball size ogo into the tank and let the return pump blasted the bacteria all over the place. within 24hrs, i started placing corals from the 10gal and into the low boy. at this point i must thank my wife for her patience as i littered the basement (which is mostly for my two boys and their toys) with all the equipment and what-not between the 10gal and the low boy. it's getting there!!!!!

 

[Adam]

Nice looking setup Hui! I too worry about Nano's, unless there weren't any stony coral. The swings happen so fast.
At some point down the road I'm going to get an IM 50 but I'm in no hurry. I've never ran anything without a sump so I'm going to follow you and Trizz while I make up my mind if I what to go AIO or not.

 

[hzheng33]

July 12th

I swear sometimes this hobby really tests my patience, which is very low to begin with. the fan on the Kessil A360 decided to act up. i soldered/resoldered/replaced/re-replaced the various fan options that's available to me.....not realizing that the driver that supplies the DC voltage to the fan was just bad (for a whole freaking week i thought it was the fan). so i rigged up/spliced a power cord to connect the fan directly....of course i cleaned up all the mess that you see here.

 

[hzheng33]

July 24th

a big thanks to @Shawn for hooking me up with the t5 reflectors. i had these old t5 that don't have the reflectors for whatever reason and i chopped down the 5ft reflectors to make them fit/work on the t5 light.

i'm also switching up the lighting schedule a bit. most of the time, it will just be these two T5s running. kessils will be on only when i need to take pictures.

i need to track down on the par meter for the club tho....hopefully i can get some measurements in

 

[hzheng33]

Aug 11th

man last night was rough....i bought a trident and i needed to take out the original EB8 and swap in a EB832 (side note: spares are handy guys! i have two spare EB832 in case sh!t hits the fan or situation like this)

after program the EB832 and hooking up the trident. i got the dreaded "No Sample Water" msg on my fusion and i noticed water droplets on the bottom of the trident housing. a big thanks to @1mbrews8 for his write-up. my issue isn't really what he experienced but the details in the thread has allowed me to track down the issue. highly recommend this thread should you run into this issue

https://atlantareefclub.org/boards/...er-sample-fix-for-neptune-trident-diy.1177524

 

[ZapataInc]

I have that same Low Boy but i dont have the space for it in my new house. I bought it because I wanted to make a lagoon style nem tank. So now i dont know what to do with it.

 

[hzheng33]

In case you’re wondering what the inside looks like. To be honest I never had issue on the trident for my main tank so i have never taken one taken apart. To my surprise there’s a small magnetic pill/stirrer, just like the magnetic stirrer that I use when I do manual test

 

[Adam]

In case you’re wondering what the inside looks like. To be honest I never had issue on the trident for my main tank and to my surprise there’s a small magnetic pill/stirrer, just like the magnetic stirrer that I use when I do manual test

Do you like your magnetic stirrer? I've been thinking about getting one.

 

[hzheng33]

Do you like your magnetic stirrer? I've been thinking about getting one.

Yes I wouldn’t test without it.
This particular model has variable speed, very handy when I perform my Nyos nitrate test when the instruction saying to shake it “vigorously”

 

[sharis100]

Do you like your magnetic stirrer? I've been thinking about getting one.

the one on Amazon works great!

 

[hzheng33]

added a sixline wrasse and a tomini tang to reign in the nuisance algae and to prevent pest

need to a add a screen top to prevent jumpers or carpet surfers.

 

[lmm1967]

I'll pile on to the magnetic stirrer being a game changer - one significant advantage is confirming alk. With a large sample of water, a ph probe and a known acid you can confirm where your alk is (Randy Holmes-Farley has it detailed out on the web).

It is also the only way I've been able to get reliable results out of some of the red sea titration tests.

 

[hzheng33]

I'll pile on to the magnetic stirrer being a game changer - one significant advantage is confirming alk. With a large sample of water, a ph probe and a known acid you can confirm where your alk is (Randy Holmes-Farley has it detailed out on the web).

It is also the only way I've been able to get reliable results out of some of the red sea titration tests.

which one did you get?

 

[Adam]

I'll pile on to the magnetic stirrer being a game changer - one significant advantage is confirming alk. With a large sample of water, a ph probe and a known acid you can confirm where your alk is (Randy Holmes-Farley has it detailed out on the web).

It is also the only way I've been able to get reliable results out of some of the red sea titration tests.

which one did you get?

When Shari posted about it being on Amazon I did a search. Did you get this one Leo?

Amazon.com : SR Aquaristik Speed Test Kit Mixer : Pet Supplies

Amazon.com : SR Aquaristik Speed Test Kit Mixer : Pet Supplies

www.amazon.com

 

[hzheng33]

When Shari posted about it being on Amazon I did a search. Did you get this one Leo?

Amazon.com : SR Aquaristik Speed Test Kit Mixer : Pet Supplies

Amazon.com : SR Aquaristik Speed Test Kit Mixer : Pet Supplies

www.amazon.com

This is the one that I have