Nicks Mini Reef 160 - Salt Virgin (ULM Triton)

[Nickalls]

Water Fill Day

Hi All,

Thursday was fill day (Thanks Sam @100% Reef Safe!), and it's been non-stop tinkering since then.

These first few days have required a few changes to the setup to get things dialed in. Initially I had a small flood caused by the chiller ports not being seated right, which lead to the tear down and dry out of the chiller. Have to say that I've never owned a chiller, and am pretty surprised that the design allows for leaks to enter the unit. The whole thing was saturated within 2 minutes. Lucky for me I wasn't standing in the salt water on the floor cause I'm sure it would have been the first test of just how good the RCD device was!

The Sump had a few teething problems, as the water started going in I pondered if the flow meter was waterproof... how did I not think of that? Turns out, no, it isn't. The riser between the meter and return pump was increased in height 3 times as I worked out how much water needed to be over the pump to stop micro bubbles in the display... turns out a lot more water was required, about 20 more liters than the recommended max working volume. The addition of the extra water settled everything down, no more micro bubbles, I'd say there's probably 15-20 cm of water over the pump now.

The sump fans which blow into the cabinet at 180 CFM warped the cabinet door directly in front of it by 5-8mm in 24h, opps! These have now bee reversed to suck air out of the cabinet, will see how that goes.

Last change has been to the foam splash guard I made for the intake which has been really effective diffusing the turbulent water, however, I could still see very fine spray venting, so have added 2 more. With 3 layers of foam at the top now, there is zero mist from the venting air/micro bubbles.

[Macca_75]

I there is to much water in your sump - should be a few cm's lower. The water level should only sit above the baffle on the skimmer side and should be lower on the return pump side. This allows the skimmer section to remain consistent in height, which in turns leads to more stable performance of your skimmer. At the moment both levels are above the baffle and thus will fluctuate with your ATO.

Also double check when you turn various bits of equipment off it doesn't flood (ie. turn the skimmer off and some water should drain back into the sump, turn the return off and more returns into the sump.

[Nickalls]

I there is to much water in your sump - should be a few cm's lower. The water level should only sit above the baffle on the skimmer side and should be lower on the return pump side. This allows the skimmer section to remain consistent in height, which in turns leads to more stable performance of your skimmer. At the moment both levels are above the baffle and thus will fluctuate with your ATO.

Also double check when you turn various bits of equipment off it doesn't flood (ie. turn the skimmer off and some water should drain back into the sump, turn the return off and more returns into the sump.

Thanks Macca, I've had a good tinker with the water level and hit some system limits. Due to the volume the pump is pulling, the baffle spacing, durso etc, and needing to have 15+ cm of water over the pump, I've had to keep topping it up to reach an equilibrium. Durso has also been drilled out to 8mm and is as loud as I can tolerate. Power outage and back-filling is still ok. Display is pushing 2200lph.

[Nickalls]

Hi All,

While the tank is going though it's cycle, here's a few updates since fill day.

Flow Meter:

The K25 flow meter failed after 65000 liters, it started grinding and had to be pulled. Looking at the build quality and materials of the meter I had suspicions it wouldn't last, but while it was working I was able to tune the display to 2200lph, and the chiller to about 1500lph. Will eventually replace it with a paddle wheel flow meter, rather than a turbine style.

Power Outage Monitoring (Alerts) for $25:

This was a cool update I wanted power outage notifications on the power outage event, and when power was restored. The idea was to use an old android phone with a 365 day pre-paid sim to monitor power outages and call my mobile if one occurred (Outage alert triggers when the phone stops charging). My phone would receive the call, auto reject it, then I'd get a missed call SMS

For the outage itself I've used:

• Old Android phone with a cracked screen that was laying around
• Charger and cable
• Aldi $5 Starter Sim Card
• Aldi $15 Sim Top-Up
• Android App - Power Cut Alert by WindowsIT
  
  

Monitoring Phone:

• Connect the phone with no sim to wifi
• Download the app
• Open the app and activate monitoring + add your mobile you'd like called in the event of an outage
• Install the sim and activate, selecting the 365 day plan
• Plug the phone in and start charging
• Disconnect it to test the auto dialler. The phone will automatically call your programmed mobile number on power disconnection

Phone that will be called:
The incoming call from the monitoring phone needs to be auto rejected

• Download and install an app for call blocking, such as 'Call Blocker - By Unknown Phone.com'
• Add the monitoring phone number to the block list

Power Restore Alerts:

These alerts are provided by the Grid Connect App for the smart power boards. In the Grid Connect App, each power board is named, in this case, they're Top, Middle, and Bottom, and each socket is named after whatever is connected to it.



In a power outage, these power boards don't return to their previous state, you have to tell them what to do. If the power is cut and restored, the power board restarts in standby, connected to wifi but with no sockets on. It then looks for any schedules or automation rules set, and carries out the command if required.

In this case, to get the devices to come back on, and notify me after a power cut, a couple things need to happen:

Set the devices to turn back on:

• Each power outlet needs a schedule telling it to always be on 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This way, when power is restored, the board looks at this rule and says, this socket is scheduled to be on now, and activates it
  
  
  
  Send the alert:
  
  • An automation needs to be setup on each outlet that says for example; When the power is restored, if the Return Pump is off, wait 30 seconds and send an alert
    
    
    

The end result is on a power cut, the monitoring phone detects no power and calls me, and I get an SMS. When the power is restored, I get individual notifications to say each device has been restarted

Presto


If this interests anyone and you have questions, PM me happy to walk you through

[Nickalls]

Hi all,

There's been a bit happening over the past few weeks, time for an update I reckon. Also.. I killed my first fish



Tank Cycle: What a pain in the ass :P The original plan was to run a fishless cycle using Dr Tims One and Only + Ammoninum Chloride. As the tank is bare bottom, I was expecting it to take a while but.. after a week of monitoring with the Seneye, there was zero shift in ammonia. At $60 a bottle and a week of wasted time, I was pretty miffed. I switched to Continuum Bacter Gen M at $16 a bottle, and it started working day within half a day!!!



After another few days of sllllooooowwwwww progress (but progress) I decided to add donor media which I found at Coral Reef Aquatics and Atlas Aquarium here in Brisy. After about 2 days of the media settling in, there was more progress, but this too eventually stalled. Really didn't want to, but to stabilise things I've added removable sand beds in the refugium (Argonite) and soaked it in Bacter Gen M, since then, I've seen an exponential reduction in ammonia, which is now undetectable (Seneye NH3 0.001).

Things I found helpful


• Total Ammonia Calculator by Hamzas Reef https://www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/TotalAmmonia.php
• Seneye Real-time NH3 Monitoring
  
  Things that didn't go so well
  
• Too fixated on NH3, and didn't test No3 nearly enough, which after the 1st week was just 5-10ppm. Feeling good about NH3 being processed, and expecting marginal No3 (enough to start the refugium Cheato) I didn't test it before putting fish in My other half and I went to the shop this weekend just gone, and picked up out new additions, which included a beautiful 6 Line Wrasse, which was dead by the next morning Realising that something was probably wrong, I tested the No3 and got back a staggering 100ppm The only think I can think of which may have caused this would be rock die-off, but would love to hear what you guys think it could have been? Post that, we spent all Sunday dropping the water in the display, and replacing all of it with new NSW (dropping the no3 to 25ppm), and acclimating the fish again. Since the water change I've added 3 handfuls of Cheato to the fuge, and started off with an 8 hour opposite photo period. Testing the No3 daily now, the fuge is pulling about 10ppm of No3 per day which surprised the crap out of me!
  
  

Anyways, time for bed. I'll update tomorrow on the first tank inhabitants x2 of which are a beautiful pair of clowns and how I got them to host

Also, I've been struggling to find anyone who can sell me Tritons Core7 Base Elements (Or Triton anything for that matter..) Does anyone here know where I might be able to get some?

[Macca_75]

The old rule of thumb is 4 weeks+ for a cycle minimum. The longer you leave it the better (esp if you have live rock) as it allows everything to establish and settle.

Also an anemone hosting clowns is not the ideal first addition to a brand new tank IMO.

Don't try and take shortcuts or rush anything - you'll get better results taking it slow. Some experienced hobbyists can do it with their knowledge and experience but generally it will lead to bad things.

PS. 25pmm NO3 won't kill fish. Not ideal levels but not deadly for fish either.

Good luck moving forward.

[Nickalls]

The old rule of thumb is 4 weeks+ for a cycle minimum. The longer you leave it the better (esp if you have live rock) as it allows everything to establish and settle.

Also an anemone hosting clowns is not the ideal first addition to a brand new tank IMO.

Don't try and take shortcuts or rush anything - you'll get better results taking it slow. Some experienced hobbyists can do it with their knowledge and experience but generally it will lead to bad things.

PS. 25pmm NO3 won't kill fish. Not ideal levels but not deadly for fish either.

Good luck moving forward.

Thanks Macca :-) 4+ weeks sounds solid, It was about 3.5 before ammonia was 0ppm. We bought the anemone on the advise of a local aquarium who said it would be better for us if we got the clowns and anemone settled before adding corals. Is there anything we should watch out for?

[Nickalls]

New additions :-)

• x2 Black and White Clownfish pair (Amphiprion Ocellaris I think?) / Jason and Freddy
• x1 Six Line Wrasse (To replace our poor fishy who died) / Pennywise
• x2 Peppermint Shrimp
• x1 Bubble-tip Anemone / AKA the Clown House

We got some great advice from Reef Safe on how to get the clowns to host which we followed. After some time, we got the successful outcome we were looking for. It went something like this.

Day 1: Acclimate, and add the clowns and nem to a decent size acclimation box


Day 2: Watch the clowns try and escape their new prison, ignoring the nem


Day 3: Start feeling guilty for keeping them in a small box, while watching them remain as far from the nem as possible at all times, then remembered the advice 'The bond usually starts at night', so watched (after lights out)... and observed the dominant clown tap out a code on the nem.. WOOT!
Day 4: Watch these two cute fools (who look like new drug addicts) treat the nem like a bouncy castle all day, then go to sleep in at at night! SO COOL!!


Day 5: Observe more venom induced? happiness and notice the bond today is much stronger with both fish and the nem. Waited until night time when the fish were sleeping in the nem, then turned off the pumps, took the lid off the box, and very gently lowered released the cluster into the tank. The nem moved round, but the fish followed until all settled

and this is Pennywise (Chapter 2)