Jim's 150 cube

Inland Aquatics kit - For what I paid, there sure wasn't much in the shipment. I guess time will tell if I got everything. According to their web site, the packages were to be labeled with their contents - that wasn't the case. I'm not really sure I got what I ordered.

 

Latest fish added

I added the five Blue Green Chromis and the the two Diamond Gobies. The Gobies headed for the rocks and I haven't seen them since. Also picked up some additional Pods from the LFS and added them. This was late yesterday afternoon. The Chromis are their hyper active selves - as expected.

 

More completed tasks

How does that old expression go - "The best laid plans of mice and men"

Ran into yet more restrictions for adding equipment in the stand.

• Installed the ATO - There isn't enough room for the 9 gallon reservoir that I ordered. It will fit, but I won't have room for the Protein Skimmer overflow capture - which I really want to have. Because of the location in the sump of the skimmer, it's a major pain to tear down to empty. Guess I'll fall back to the 5 gallon reservoir.
• Added the CaribSea Aruba Shell. For anyone who hasn't purchased this product before, it does not contain any sand. It is all shells. That being said, it did add a nice contrast to the sand bed, it stops the sand drift caused by the MP40, and the kritters love it.
• I still have to set up the Dosing Pumps. I have them mounted, and the dK and Calc reservoir tanks in place, and reserved two electrical ports on the AquaController. Need to start monitoring the params to determine how much dosing to start out with.

I have pics of the equipment under the stand, but I'll do follow on posts individually with a description.

 

Another task completed

Since the seven days of dosing the Sea Chem Stability completed. I installed the UV filter and the BioPelets Reactor.

 

Equipment Pics #1

These pics were taken with the side panel removed.

The first pic shows the connection strings between the equipment in the sump and the controllers. Also shows the UV and the BioPellet reactor. BioPellet reactors need to discharge to the input of the protein skimmer to utilize the oxygen of the skimmer to discharge the gas they create.

The second pic (ignore the light - there so I can see) shows:

• the battery backup for the MP40W
• the two dosing pumps
• head on of the chiller
• overflow for the skimmer

 

Equipment Pics #2

The first pic is with the side panel removed showing the ATO reservoir in place.

The second and third pics are from the front of the tank.

Second pic showing:

• back side of battery backup
• AquaController Jr. with connections
• non switched electrical connections
• dosing pump
• ATO reservoir

Third pic showing:

• Vortech MP40W controller (top)
• Tunze Osmolator Universal 3155 ATO controller (bottom)
• Calc & dK reservoirs

 

That is one busy, well organized, automated cabinet.

 

I give thanks to the Cable Tie god every day Chaos would abound without them. Thanks for dropping by.

 

First water tests

Official start date (all water in) would be 7/10 which is 10 days past. Did first complete water tests today.

• Amonia - 0
• Nitrate - 0
• Phosphate - 0
• Salinity - 1.025
• Calcium - 480
• dKH - 8/143.2
• Magnesium - 1260
• Ph - 7.98 (2 AM) to 8.08 (4 PM)
• Temp - 78.7 --> 79

Looks good so far. For some reason, Mag is always low. Had same issue with the last tank I had. I'm beginning to suspect the test kit may be off since this is fresh mixed water. This Saturday will be two weeks, plan on doing my first water change (8 gallons).

Not a lot of skimate from the protein skimmer, although there is some. Skimmer seems to be working fine, just not a lot of crud yet. I had a small algae bloom (brown) - just enough to feed the crabs and snails. Beyond that, tank seems to be running clean.

Still no sign of my two Diamond Gobies. Also two of the Chromis aren't out and about - but they could be taking turns watching the home base. Too bad I couldn't have marked them before adding

 

Aquascaping pics

Front of tank views: