Reef nutrition

In the beginning...

I never thought of putting a lock on it but it may be a good idea. My youngest is about to be 2. I'll have to look into it. I've seen some concealed ones that use a magnet to lock/unlock the mechanism.
 
Coral reefer said:
One of the many reasons I got all my plumbing into the garage!
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My garage is behind the kitchen. "Honey, lets relocate the kitchen so I can put my fish tank in this spot" will go real well :D

Flagg37 said:
I never thought of putting a lock on it but it may be a good idea. My youngest is about to be 2. I'll have to look into it. I've seen some concealed ones that use a magnet to lock/unlock the mechanism.
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Mines are 2 and 4. The 4 yrs old sorta make peace with the world. The 2 yrs old is still on daily rampage. Let me know which one you find to be effective. My 2 yo figured out how to open the door privacy lock with a pin. So any lock with visible keyhole will invite picking.
 
My 3 kids are about to roll over in age. They're about to be 2, 4, and 6. I have the tensioning of the hinges set too low for my youngest to be able to open it. The other two I'm not too worried about so I don't think I'll be putting a lock on it.

I checked with my stainer the other day and he assured me that over time the color of the two surfaces will match up. When I put the stain on the stand I remember thinking that it seemed dark and it has lightened up. So the fact that I stained them about a month apart means their on different time tables for lightening up.
 
So I've been trying to nail down a sump design that would fit all my equipment and all my wants and desires. This is what I've come up with so far.
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There is an ATO reservoir on the left side that will hold about 15 gallons. The back middle chamber will be where the water enters and is also the refugium. This is also where the heaters will be (2x200watt) but are not pictured. Then the water will flow to where the skimmer and Zeovit reactor are, and lastly into the section where the return pump is. On the right side is the CaRx and it's CO2 bottle are.

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Here it is actually inside the stand.

One of my questions is, will having the Zeovit reactor in the same compartment as the skimmer cause problems for either one?

Am I missing anything?
 
Make sure you take into account the size your baffles are. That will eat into available space for that chamber.

I'm assuming your probes will be in fuge chamber, it's not a big thing but I don't like having temp probes behind or in the same chamber if I can help it.

Where will the dosing lines go? Maybe plan that ahead and you can make them fit really cleanly.

Are you going run the full Zeo system? That is a lot of dosing.


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I was planning on doing the most basic one. Pump the reactor and dose one additive daily and dose two other additives weekly. I don't think it will take more than like 30 seconds a day. I'll just do it when I feed the tank in the morning.
 
I've got the new apex on its way so it's good to have one of the more expensive components marked off the list. I think the lighting is the next big thing but I need to decide if I'm going diy or ap700x2.
 
I've been able to get closer to water in the tank. I've got almost all the necessary equipment.
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I have 2 sheets of 1/4" acrylic for building the sump out of. I changed the design to put the refugium before the skimmer to allow it to have a higher water level. I also ordered a pair of titanium bolts and flange nuts to adjust the water level in the skimmer area.

The stand and tank are permanently placed flush up against the wall. I moved the outlets to where I wanted them and mounted them to the inside of the stand.
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The box to the right has 4 outlets, and the box on the left is a pass through that goes into the wall so I can pass cables from the tank to the stand through the wall.
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This is the garage side. I need to put the door on still. I was originally planning on running what I needed to then closing the wall back up but decided it would be nice to have access whenever needed.

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Here's the vertex CaRx. It's the only thing so far that I've purchased that has not been on my required list.

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Do you think this will be enough co2?
 
Flagg37 said:
I never thought of putting a lock on it but it may be a good idea. My youngest is about to be 2. I'll have to look into it. I've seen some concealed ones that use a magnet to lock/unlock the mechanism.
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Your tank stand is beautiful! You should see mine, it's painted black, and the cabinet doors are still in the garage, in the corner somewhere! And I know it's a bit ghetto, but to keep my kids out of stuff when they were young, I've taken panels from our old "Super yard" (ie; portable baby jail) and bungeed then to stuff. I'm not saying you want to do that, but it's an option if you want a cabinet the way you want, but can't because your kids are young. When they get older, you'll still have the cabinet and it will be baby-proofed against nobody. I still have baby locks on some cupboards and my twins are 8 now. Yeah, I'm that lazy.

V
 
Looking great!

That is some serious CO2. :cool:

FYI: Garages have special fire codes for the walls. That box you built probably needs a fire proof door.
 
rygh said:
Looking great!

That is some serious CO2. :cool:

FYI: Garages have special fire codes for the walls. That box you built probably needs a fire proof door.
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You're right, garages need a 1 hour fire wall to meet current code requirements. My home was built before that code so if I did put in a 1 hour fire rated door it would be the only place on that wall that had it. Plus, I'm not too concerned since there's 125 gallons of water directly on the other side of it.
 
hate to break it to you but putting boxes in the tank doesn't mean water is coming sooner :D

I like the CalRx, I was looking at that one too then got floored that I'd still need a larger one, and now think 2 part is just easier.
 
You know, it looks like your tank may not fit all the boxes.
I think you need to upgrade to a 180G tank.
:rolleyes:

Seriously though : Be careful storing crud in your tank. I did that, and ended up with a scratch.
Minor compared to scratches that came later, but so annoying to start out that way.
 
rygh said:
That is some serious CO2. :cool:
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That's actually a helium tank, I just thought it would be funny. The co2 tanks I'll be using are much smaller but I've got two of them so I can always have a full one when the other gets empty.

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The two silver ones are the co2. The brown tank is my argon tank for welding.
 
I got most of the sump built. I still want to add things like a couple heater holders and the probe holders. I also need to finish the top pieces to cover each compartment. I might make some frag racks and a porthole or two while I'm at it. I've got plenty of left over acrylic.

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This is the internal portion of it.

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Starting to get a couple sides on.

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Sides and bottom now on.

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I made two adjustable baffle plates. One that goes from 7-9" and the other that goes from 9-11". Those are 8mm titanium bolts that I drilled and tapped into the baffle. Originally I had planned to just make it a through hole and use a nut on the back side but I tested out my tap in a spare piece and it worked great. I'm used to using it on stainless steel so the acrylic was like butter compared to the stainless.
 
Man Flagg, you are one handy sonofagun. You sure know your way around acrylic (and everything else it seems, argon tanks for welding?!?).

I ordered a clear acrylic baffle for my refugium/sump, but was wondering whether I should paint it with epoxy black to keep the shine through from growing microalgae. I don't think you mentioned anything about refugium earlier though. You have other plans...
 
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