Jgraz's Finally a Proper Tank 90 Upgrade

[jgraz]

Few changes today.
New pump: Rio HyperFlow32

Manifold installed. Had to go with my first design due to space constraints.

Split my BRS dual. With the upcoming start of bio pellets I'm hoping to not need GFO so I'll only need one.

Coming soon are the pellets and a cabinet for the electrical and ATO next to stand courtesy of Curtis.

 

[redfishbluefish]

John, looks good.


My only suggestion would be to get rid of those metal pipe straps. They will be all rust within three months. Go to the electrical department in HD and get the PVC conduit straps there. You have a choice of stand-off:

Or regular clamps:

They are sized just like PVC pipe...1/2, 3/4, 1, etc.


Use stainless steel screws with these and they’ll last forever.

 

[jgraz]

John, looks good.


My only suggestion would be to get rid of those metal pipe straps. They will be all rust within three months. Go to the electrical department in HD and get the PVC conduit straps there. You have a choice of stand-off:

Or regular clamps:

They are sized just like PVC pipe...1/2, 3/4, 1, etc.


Use stainless steel screws with these and they’ll last forever.

I was looking for these but couldn't find them. Guess I'll look again. I was looking in plumbing. Thanks for the tip Paul. I'll get it done today.

 

[Fish Brain]

Electric section, by the conduit, picked up some last week.

 

[jgraz]

Bio pellet reactor in it temporary spot. When I add to the volume I might have a different are that I will put it.

Question those pellets that are above the other seem to be stuck to the tube will they be fine. I've shaken thing as much as I can a some of them just won't come down.

 

[Daniel]

They will come down in time as they get saturated with water and seed with bacteria.

 

[jgraz]

Biopellets week 2
Week 2: just added my next batch last yesterday. I started with 1/4, now I'm up to 1/2. It's still early I think to be seeing any results yet. Only thing I have noticed is that the skimmer is a bit harder to dial in ATM. Seems to be skimming a tad bit wetter. I'm still getting the usual film on glass also. I did not add any bacteria to start it off. I 2 weeks I'll add the next 1/4.

 

[jgraz]

Well just a new FTS and a quick update.

Recently Curtis was kind enough to help me out and build me a cabinet to put beside my stand. You might see it in the pic but with the bad lighting and the fact that its black its kind of tough. ATM it houses my ATO tank which is now a 10gal tank, and my bio-pellet reactor. The 10 tank is a godsend. I contained I was using only held about 4gals and was a PIA to fill. This thank so far gets me about 8 days of use. I also have a bunch of storage in it. With the upcoming GB at PA I'm gonna be getting a controller. Planning on a Apex Lite. That will also find a home in here as will most of the electrics. This is also the cabinet that will double as the stand for my nano that's was just started.

I'm at week 3 with the bio pellets and still nothing to report. Other then that all is well.

Now onto the LED questions. I feel like I'm gonna soon be ready to make the jump. I love the T5's but frankly I don't want to change the bulbs again. I'm good till August so I've got lots a planning time. For now the research has begun. I've gotta say after seeing what can be done with AI's its gonna be tough to look elsewhere. So for those of you (Sunny & Darren) that have had spectacular success with them, how many sols would I need to cover a 90, and effectively be able to grow SPS anywhere while not overlighting what LPS I have. Well that's all for now here is a new FTS with the cabinet and a few pics of the cabinet itself.

 

[Sunny]

Good going John. As far as AI go, they are awesome. What is your time frame of buying the new LED?

Sunny

 

[iTzJu]

I'm in the same boat when it comes to LEDs. I'm currently running LEDs but not the greatest of fixtures. I am also looking into AI Sols, FathomLEDs, Triple Puck RapidLED Kit, or even the Reef Breeders Value LED for my upgrade. If we have the same dimension 90 gallon tank, we can get away with two Sols. AI Sols are rated to be able to cover a 24x24 area. You can ways go with 4 fixtures to make sure you cover every knook and cranny, I don't think 3 will work since we have that center brace to worry about. If you want to be cost effective and don't really care about the fancy features of the Sols/Fathom. You may want to look into the Triple Puck RapidLED kit. It's basically a Sol, at half the cost at which point you can get 4 for the cost of 2 sols. I am also considering the Reef Breeders Value LED due to the "full spectrum" option and how incredibly inexpensive they are compared to other fixtures. Also, those Bridgelux fixtures are proven to work and grow anything, again just doesn't have the fancy options.

sooo many options!!

 

[Sunny]

FWIW - Fathom LED have twice as much par as AI Sol if not more. They are 5 watt bulbs. The advantage over AI that you have with fathom is that they can customize the LED to your needs. So you can go with 40 degree optics and raise the lights 18 inches. You will cover a 48 X 18 tank with two easily. If you want to go with 60 degree optics you can but then if you raise 18 inches you will see lot of light on the floor and wall.

However, how the corals do under fathom LED, you need to wait for a couple of months for me to gauge that.

Sunny

 

[iTzJu]

FWIW - Fathom LED have twice as much par as AI Sol if not more. They are 5 watt bulbs. The advantage over AI that you have with fathom is that they can customize the LED to your needs. So you can go with 40 degree optics and raise the lights 18 inches. You will cover a 48 X 18 tank with two easily. If you want to go with 60 degree optics you can but then if you raise 18 inches you will see lot of light on the floor and wall.

However, how the corals do under fathom LED, you need to wait for a couple of months for me to gauge that.

Sunny

You just made it that much harder for me to make a decision! haha

but good information to know.. did not know they used 5w LEDs.

 

[Sunny]

You just made it that much harder for me to make a decision! haha

but good information to know.. did not know they used 5w LEDs.

You can come see my tank whenever you want. I can tell you that it is a lot brighter now than it used to be and I am running at 60% only..

 

[jgraz]

Good going John. As far as AI go, they are awesome. What is your time frame of buying the new LED?

Sunny

Only time frame ATM is before I change the T5 bulbs. So figuring 8-10 months, somewhere between August and October. Do I got plenty of time to get reviews on the fathoms. Also in no rush since I want to get my money out of these bulbs.

 

[jgraz]

Bio-pellets week 4:
So last week i noticed that I would have to clean a heavy film off the glass almost daily. Everything looked good otherwise so I just kind of filed it away in my brain for later thought. The last time I cleaned the glass was on Thursday and as of this morning its still pretty clean. So I figured that the pellets finally kicked in since i also noticed that my skimmer production while the same seems to be much darker and smellier. Oh, and cheato has also been dying off, so I finally tossed that out. With that said I went ahead and added my 3 batch of pellets. This brings me up to about 3/4 of a full batch. After I brought the reactor back online I decided it was time to feed. I noticed that one of my bangaii's is missing. Then I realize that I haven't seen it in quite some time. Then I remembered the extra film on the glass. I guess he must have died last week sometime and the hermits just did their job.

Anyway no other changes ATM.

 

[ahvrivera]

Heres a few more new shots

What is the green coral? i cant remeber the name to save my life.
Awesome build. Tank is looking great!! Great lunch time reading for me

 

[iTzJu]

Montipora Spongodes, I believe. Correct me if Im wrong John.

 

[greybolt03]

Either montipora spongodes,or montipora confusia...

 

[jgraz]

Montipora Spongodes, I believe. Correct me if Im wrong John.

Yep, monti spongeods.

Thanks Austyn for the compliments and Judeo and Mike for the assist

 

[jgraz]

Well it's been a while since I updated. Nothing special to report. Pellets seem to be going well. I changed my mp20's to 40's, and I'm on the hunt for at least one more fish. Most likely a wrasse, though I'm not not exactly sure which one yet. Well that's about it. I took a ton of pics today as well I'll get to most of them later but here is a few top downs for now. Some are the pretty much the same pic with white balance adjusted. Thanks for looking.