Reef nutrition

CDA 87G

Triton requires a pretty large fuge which you don’t have so the pax bellum would take its place and can be run externally. I just know I’d hate doing manual water changes in an office building.
 
It's not too bad when I have ~20G of mixed water ready to go when needed. I've only changed ~5G prior in the 47G, which is 10% weekly. It'll be interesting to see which route I'll gravitate towards.
 
It's not too bad when I have ~20G of mixed water ready to go when needed. I've only changed ~5G prior in the 47G, which is 10% weekly. It'll be interesting to see which route I'll gravitate towards.
Do you mix at home and bring it to work in 5g containers?


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Nope, I have two white brutes at work, 1x 10g and the 1x 20g in my office. It's hidden behind a partition that nobody sees.
 
Pacific sun algae reactor pro is another knock off one. Just need it to be available in the states.


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Yeah good luck on that, I think Pax Bellum is vigorously defending their "we put a tube in the middle of a reactor that holds lights, so we won't let anyone else do it" patent
 
Without seeing the patent couldn't say, it might be they did something with their vertical heat pipe, or it might be something as a simple as really nothing new but no one ever made a product (or got a patent) on something that does everything, kind of like Orbitec with their "use LEDs to grow stuff in an aquarium" patent (which later had many of the patents thrown out via reexamination IIRC).

Of course I don't remember the specific article I read and it may have been something as simple as the Chinese factory Pax's parts are being cranked out of had another set made for some other company who literally just built the same thing with different branding. In which case I may be putting Pax Bellum in a bad light unfairly.

Either way seems you could make something similar with some titanium tubing down the center and simply water cool the LEDs, of course you'd want some setup to turn the LEDs off if the water flow stopped (or some temperature sensor to automatically turn them off)
 
And not to derail Eric's thread with ontopic stuff, but that is one sexy looking sump.

Thanks! Basically took what I saw and liked from other sump models and DIY it.

This reactor didn't have an issue growing chaeto, when I wasn't as aggressive with my weekly water changes. Makes me want to try the Triton method for sure.

upload_2018-3-26_20-50-40.png
 
Ok found this chaeto reactor, just was looking at videos on youtube of the Skimz reactor and there were recommendations on this one, ITC ALR (with 1,2,3 for various sizes). Seems to be a UK/European thing though (only places I seen it for sale have prices in GBP or Euros. Either way, the Pax doesn't look fundamentally much different except for the LED has that big heatsink at the top for their heatpipes.
 
Tank, stand, sump, and lights moved into the office. Stopped by Neptune on Friday and checked to see if the tank could be delivered on Saturday, but Robert didn't have any one around that he could spare. He asked me if I wanted it to be delivered immediate. Here she is sitting in one of the downstairs conference room waiting for the stand.

2018_03_30_tank_bergin


Speaking of stand, that was an experience itself getting it into the office. John had dropped it off at my place for the finishing work, but I figured it would fit into my buddy's Arcadia. It was off by about 1" since his car tapers slightly near the roof. Had to use a HD van to move it instead. If you've never seen one or driven one before, it's quite the experience. Enough cargo room to swallow a very sizable tank and in this case made quick work of the stand.

Plumbing was pretty straight forward.

2 x 1/2" loc-line returns with the Synergy Shadow overflow box
2018_03_30_synergylocline.jpg


Bean animal plumbing completed. The red outflow is the emergency while the other two are the primary and secondary. Outflow isn't quite done yet since I still needed to install the manifold. Also removed the middle bulkhead for the wiring since I couldn't feed the skimmer wire through. Also added two more John guests quick disconnects near that hole for Triton dosing if needed.
2018_03_30_plumbingwomanifold.jpg


2018_03_30_backoftankplumbing.jpg
 
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The 47G set up was picked up on Saturday.

Temporary bin for the fish and small amount of corals.
2018_03_31_coralbin.jpg


Old Tonga as well as the equipment was moved into a separate bin (which I eventually gifted the buyer since there was no way all of it was gonna fit into a 5G bucket).
2018_03_31_liverockbin.jpg


Tank drained, equipment removed, and sump was emptied (the sliding sump platform still works really well).
2018_03_31_caddrainednoequipment.jpg


Took 1.5 hours to get everything loaded into D's van and she was off, returning the empty corner back to me.
2018_03_31_cademptywall.jpg
 
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Called my buddy up once again and we finally moved the entire setup over.
2018_03_31_cdainposition.jpg


This is the first shot that shows all the panels in place. John did a great job on the stand and I just had to paint the inside and seal the hardwood ply. There are no hinges on any of the panels and they're held in place using 1 x 1/4" magnets.

All the plumbing including the manifold is in place. I didn't have an sch80 endcap and had to run to HD for one at the last minute. Didn't bother painting it as a reminder to myself that I screwed up on the plumbing. We'll see if it bothers me enough to rip it down the line and correct for it.
2018_03_31_sumpplumbing.jpg


Water is running through the system, but definitely needs to clear up before I can get the fish and corals back in.
 
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Nope, not light as a feather. Lighter than a traditional wood stand, but there's still wood on it. The back is 3/4" ply, the separator and the bottom are 1/2". The top is substantial at 1" thick (think of it as a giant butcher block) and is the heaviest piece. It's still not too bad weight wise however and is easily transportable once you remove the panels and top, as long as you have a truck or something that can hold it.
 
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