Hornberson Reef - DSA 90 gallon mixed reef

[MolaMola]

Thanks for the invite. My sister's family lives in San Jose so that would be great sometime.

 

[RobMcC]

Nice tank and useful write-up! :thumbsup:

 

[wpeterson]

With the higher temperatures, I changed my heater and cooling fans. The heater is set to 77 down from 78. This means the heater keepts the tank above 76.5 or so. I've set the cooling fans to come on at 78.7, where previously they didn't come on until >81. With the very hot days, the fans couldn't do enough to cool the tank down once it got to 81-82 degrees. By keeping the running temp lower and being more aggressive with the fans I've been able to keep the temperature between 77-79 on a nice 24 hour cycle.

Thanks to @jonmos75 for Apex programming advice and suggesting more aggressive fan programming.

I also took a few hours to breakdown my Turbotwist 12X UV, since It's been running for about 6 months now. Definitely a lot of detritus built up in the water channeler framework and a good bit of calcium deposits on the quartz and the casing. Less calcium deposits than I had feared, though. I'm glad to get it all cleaned out and running again. I re-mounted it with better cable management since the first install was under duress when we had an outbreak in the tank. I've been glad to have it running 24/7 for a buffer against pathogens and a way to nuke algae spores in the water column. It's only running about 200gph of flow.

I also mounted the frags I've had sitting on the sandbed for a while. An unidentified chalice and zoa (thanks @Enderturtle !) and the flaming zebra zoas from the grow out contest:

The flaming zebra is very delicate, so I cut up the frag plug around it to avoid damaging it. Unfortunately, it lead to an ugly mounting job but I'm hopeful the colony will grow over all that epoxy.

Unidentified Zoas from @Enderturtle:

 

[wpeterson]

Ugh, woke up this morning to another return pump failure. This time it was the control unit or power supply. Thankfully, I had a spare pump ready this time. I swapped out the pump itself and when that didn't fix it I swapped out the power pack and control unit to get things back up.

No apparent damage other than a temperature drop in the main tank over night - the tank got down to 73 degrees by this morning and it's heating back up now.

I have an I/O breakout box and a float switch I bought to detect pump failures like this, but I can't find the right hardware to mount the float switch:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00909404Y

Can anyone offer advice here? I can't even find a plastic nut that fits the MPT mounting on this switch.

 

[Vhuang168]

Ouch. Does not speak well for the reliability of the Jebao return pumps. Did you find out why it failed again?

 

[jonmos75]

I have found these to use on the sensor and mount them on an acrylic rack

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B009F39PTK?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

I have some that I can bring to the next BAR event if you are going as the picture is deceiving....lol

 

[wpeterson]

Ouch. Does not speak well for the reliability of the Jebao return pumps. Did you find out why it failed again?

The first failure was a physical impellor problem that required cleaning out the pump.

This time the control unit had no lights on and did not seem to be getting power. Either the control unit failed or the power block that drives it failed. When I have time this evening I can mix and match the components from the working pump to isolate which one it was.

The only thing I can think of is that perhaps it overheated as it was hot in our house yesterday and last night. The power brick for the pump sat in a location with the power bricks for the Kessil LEDs and perhaps that area got too hot.

 

[wpeterson]

I have found these to use on the sensor and mount them on an acrylic rack

Thanks, ordered.

 

[jonmos75]

the tank got down to 73 degrees by this morning and it's heating back up now.

Did you get an email from your Apex that the temp was getting low...if not I would put in a code in the email outlet to let you know when you are away from the house that there could be an issues with a Heater or a pump...

 

[wpeterson]

Did you get an email from your Apex that the temp was getting low...if not I would put in a code in the email outlet to let you know when you are away from the house that there could be an issues with a Heater or a pump...

I don't have a separate temperature probe in the tank, all of my apex sensors are in the sump. The two changes I take away from this are:

1. Add float switch to detect sump flood for return pump failure
2. Add a second temperature probe in the tank

 

[jonmos75]

Good Idea...but don't you already have a temp probe that you could use???

Just put in your email outlet
If Temp < 74.5 Then ON (or change to what ever value to want to be alerted when it drops temp drops to)

 

[wpeterson]

If Temp < 74.5 Then ON (or change to what ever value to want to be alerted when it drops temp drops to)

I have an alarm for temperature below 76, which did not go off. All of my probes, heater, and other equipment are in the sump. When the return failed, the sump became a closed system with no problems other than the high water level due to failed return. Until I have a second temp probe in the display tank and a level switch in the sump, no alarms go off.

 

[jonmos75]

Gotcha....and as you can see in my programming I have a temp in the overflow for the tank and I have one in the sump....

Neptune Aquatics normally has the temp probes in stock

 

[jonmos75]

Also when you connect the new temp probe you will have to calibrate it as I have found there is a temp difference between the Base unit and a PM module...so I just calibrated my PM1 Temp Probe (the one in the sump)

 

[wpeterson]

So, I found the root cause of the return pump failure. The power block is dead, I think it overheated inside my cabinet.

I moved the power black for the replacement outside the cabinet into a location where I hope it can bleed off more heat. We'll see.

 

[wpeterson]

I bought a replacement Jebao DP-4 doser and swapped out my current one. This one has all four dosing pumps that work. I switched my Alk schedule to 6ml every hour vs. 12ml every other hour. I switched the Calc to 5ml every 3 hours vs. 10ml every 6. I also re-routed the dosing tubes to dose into the drain chamber with the ATO inlet tubing. I'm hopeful that'll be a better, high flow location.

There was a lot of encrusted calcium on the alk dosing tube where it was in the water, so I'm hoping dosing just above the water will prevent mineral deposits in the tube.

 

[wpeterson]

I finally had time to setup a sump high water alarm with my Apex today. I bought a Madison M8000 float switch, Apex I/O breakout box, and re-used the ATO inlet tube bracket to mount the float switch.

I set up the float switch to trigger if the sump water level gets too high and the Apex thinks the Return pump is running. I wired this up the e-mail and audio alarms on the unit. Hopefully, this should warn me within a few minutes if a return pump fails again without going off when I'm doing maintenance.

The float switch is mounted on top of the larger baffle before the return chamber, sitting in the return chamber:

I mounted the I/O breakout box near the top of the cabinet, just above the controller for the return pump and next to the controller for the Vortech:

 

[wpeterson]

Tank is doing well. It's been easier to maintain temperature now that I put an AC in the house over the holiday weekend. Dosing pump is keeping things consistent. I'm contemplating dosing phytoplankton as a third line on the doser.

Full tank shot:

Flame Angel is getting fatter and remains the most active open water fish in our tank:

Mandarins are eating tons of frozen brine shrimp and getting fatter, still friendly but not paired up yet:

 

[wpeterson]

Oh man, I came home tonight to find our mandarins have finally paired up together. I've never seen Mandarins getting freaky in person, but they were spiraling together up in the water column toward the surface about an hour after lights out. I think there was definitely some love in the air.

Confirmed, they're spawning. Crappy video:

 

[swayd]

That's awesome bro how long have you had the two together? How's that new doser working? The one I got from you is doing amazing! Thanks! As soon as I find some super glue I'm going to be fragging some stuff up you should stop by!


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