Downsized to a BC29 - Cranks Mods and Build Log

thing is looking great.

 

Just bought a new place right before Christmas. With the craziness of the Holidays and moving in general, my new tank started to slip a bit. I don't think I lost any corals, but they certainly took a hit. They're now starting to recover nicely, however. I never had a clean up crew or any macro algae in this new tank. It began to show. Hair algae and and a nice brown filmy stuff is what I'm dealing with now.

I bought a clean up crew, chaeto and a some ulva from ReefCleaners out of desperation. Unfortunately I ordered right before the crazy freeze the week before last when temperatures dipped into the teens. Apparently they don't ship with insulated boxes, just a heatpack so a lot of the crew didn't make the journey. In addition I didn't receive the chaeto, just the ulva. Hopefully what did survive the journey will hold me over till warmer weather when I can try ordering again.

I did pick up some new corals and lots of new addons for my Reef Angel controller. The equipment has been sitting around for quite some time but I finally found some spare time to get everything hooked up and programmed. Also did some tidying up of the cord nest.

New Equipment:

- Reef Angel Plus board
- Expansion Hub
- Relay Expansion
- Salinity Addon
- Water Level Addon
- Reef Angel Top Off Pump
- RF Addon for controlling my Vortech MP10. I now cycle through all the available flow pattern modes throughout the day and go into Nutrient Export mode automatically for an hour after feeding. Cool!

 

nice looking setup. can you post a pic with the door on the stand? like one that shows the tank and stand.

 

Thanks,

I took a snapped a few pics earlier tonight with the door on but with the wrong settings and at mostly bad angles. I'll try to get some better ones in the morning but here's what I have so far

 

Love the cube so far, you have done some nice mods to it.

 

Wow. Great job on the cube... Whats the cost you have in on it now... It's tempting..

 

Thanks, man much appreciated!

Thanks, Nooze. It's hard to say, really. I reused some of the equipment and livestock from my 55 gallon and traded for some. I honestly stopped tracking the amount of money I spend in this hobby long ago. It helps me sleep better.

Here's some better pictures of the room I snapped earlier today. The tank sits in my sunroom/office area and gets some natural light through the two sliding doors. The room itself still needs some decorating. I'm looking to purchase a nice chair for the corner of the room in front of the tank to sit and hang out at. I've got a little closet area in the room as well that holds my computer electronics and fish tank stuff. I'm trying to work out a way to keep my fresh water in there for the top off pump. This will put that new RA Water Level Sensor to good work. Right now I'm manually topping off daily.

After the ATO solution, I would like to work out an automated salt mixing station for water changes. The plan is to use the float valves that came with my controller to measure out 3-5 gallons of fresh water then use the salinity sensor, a mixing pump, and a hopper of some sort that holds salt to gradually mix fresh salt water.









I also made some changes to the Client application I've been working on to track the info received from the new Water Level sensor. Not yet ready for a release since I'm still testing but as you can see It's been working great so far tracking evaporation and my top offs. Those large spikes are from when I turn off the return pump and the water level rises in the return chamber (3)



I've also been tracking output from the salinity sensor. It's hard to tell from the graph, but the measured salinity is directly tied to the tank temperature. You can sort of see in the second screen shot the salinity will rise and fall with the water temperature. I need to figure out a way to program in temperature compensation to the controller, or tighten up the heater/chiller margins so keep the tank within maybe .2 degrees. Right now the heater comes on at 77.7 and turns off at 78.7. The sensor has been outputting a salinity of 33.4 to 34.2 ppt based on water temp.

 

Oh NO!

Well now I'm really bummed.

I've been wondering why my Maxima clam has been keeping its mantle retracted the last couple days. Took a look at the tank near lights out with just the actinics and saw a small army of very tiny clearish snails surrounding its mantle in dug in its scutes. My heart sank.

I'm dealing with pyramids, yeah? I'm pretty sure I am

I only noticed one near the mantle of my Derasa. Didn't bother pulling him out yet - he still has full mantle extension.. I'm real worried its only a matter of time.

I'm not 100% sure how they got in my tank. I suspect they hitch hiked one of the larger snails I received with my Reef Cleaners order. Other than a clean up crew the only other additions were some corals pictured in the posts above. Could they have come in on one of those?

Do I have any options other than pulling out the clams and scrubbing and picking? Do my clams now have a death sentence?

 

I would be surprised if they came from reef cleaners, he always gets great reviews.

 

That stand looks so nice. You did a nice job with it.