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New 33 gallon Aquamaxx


nrc

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3 hours ago, nrc said:

My 33 gallon (24x18x18) Aquamaxx purchased locally / used.   Stand was made from 'Hopkins workbench kit' which is probably overbuilt for what I'm doing.

Next up - Dry rocks.

33 Tank October 22 2017.jpg

This hopkins workbench kit is new to me.  Very cool!

 

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Howdy,

My wife spotted a 20h on sale and surprised me with it (who hoo).   I'm going to re-purpose the Brute can to water change duties.   

So far I have 10lbs of sand in there now, I'll probably add another 15.  That plus the 50lbs of rock will be my primary filtration.   I'll watch and add a skimmer down the road if needed.   The tank is in the basement 10' from my water source and my drain so doing changes will be a snap.

At this point regarding livestock I am all over the place, but want to keep it mellow.   Either a pair of clowns or a single goby, or maybe a single royal gramma.

 

33 gal tank Nov 3 2017.jpg

Edited by nrc
corrected amounts of sand
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Let there be light...

Yesterday I painted the back of the display black, and also picked up a used AI prime light, and some plumbing bits.   

This morning I plumbed the supply and return, then I got the lights set up.   For now I'm taking the 'easy setup' defaults for color mix, and only changed the dusk/dawn times.    Next week I'll start mixing water.

33 gal tank Nov 5 2017.jpg

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Received my RODI unit mid last week, didn't get around to starting to mix water/salt until Saturday.  Had the usual 3x trips to the Hardware store before I had all of the fittings, buckets, and pumps I needed.   Mixed 20 gallons pumped into the display and sump, then started the next 20 gallons.     Woke up 2a Sunday morning restless and walked downstairs... the rodi supply line had flipped itself off of the tank.   Luckily my tank is 10' from the floor drain so not the end of the world.

This am around halftime (go Vikings) I topped off the rest of the display and did a few test runs with the Rio 1700 that I was planning to use as a return pump (3/4 supply, 1x return drilled) was outrunning the drain.   It is/was rated for < 700 gph so I thought maybe I'm just too close to the max a 1" drain could handle.   I switched over to  Mag 3 (350 gph) but when I set it up the same thing happened.   It would  fill display faster than water could drain.

Lastly (currently) I added an inline ball valve and throttled down to the supply line.   Now my water level is stable, the tank is cloudy, and I can start to let things settle.    I've got the return volume somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 gph (guess) and I have a MJ1200 that is configured in 'circulation mode' which should be turning ~1000 gph in the display.   Hopefully this is enough flow for now.

 

 

33 gal tank Nov 12 2017.jpg

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Sourced a live rock from Terry @Seahorse Aquarium and deposited it on Tuesday...That's it in the lower left corner of the photo.   The polyps may(?) make it through the cycle we can hope. 

They have semi opened, but aren't fully in bloom.  My AI is running at 20s for all of the spectrum with a 2hr ramp up / 8 hours on / 2hr ramp down.   Not sure if that is too much (?) I don't want to accelerate the inavoidable diatom or algae bloom but I also want to give the little guys enough light that they have a fighting chance.

Misc note.  I'm evaporating at ~1gal / every other day.   I will be buying an ATO sooner than later.    I'm also still stymied by the return flow.... this weekend I will take another swing at that and try and determine if I need to add a durso-ish vent to the drain or if there is something obstructing flow in the tube.   More to come.

 

 

33 gal tank Nov 17 2017.jpg

Edited by nrc
corrected evap rate
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  • 2 weeks later...

A full tank shot.   I'm starting to see the beginnings of diatoms.   The polyps are hanging in there.   Ammonia is at zero, nitrites and nitrates are dropping.

I don't really need a cleanup crew yet, but I wanted something to watch in the tank so I picked up a few blue leg hermits and ceriths on Friday.   I'm feeding them a very small piece of Rods Seaweed every other day until the algae picks up. 

33 gal tank Nov 26 2017.jpg

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Cycle completed last week.  Have some new inhabitants.   Two Ocellaris , hovering over the rock I got from Seahorse two weeks ago.   Wife wants to name them Leia and Han (I said we need to wait and figure out which one is going to be Leia...)

Clowns and Palys Dec 3 2017.jpg

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Looking like progress!  I will be curious to see what those with AI experience say but, generally speaking, most folk are running LEDs at 2 or 3 times the intensity of blues over whites. I know you have more granularity than that on the AIs so others will likely have more specific recommendations. 

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This helped me get my setting dialed in. I was running a reduced version of the ab+ spectrum they show, but got my seneye yesterday and my par was a little less then what I thought.  I will slowly ramp up closer to their intensities over the next month or so till I get the par up a little more.  

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