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Well I recently started doing some remodeling in my apartment and I thought that I would start undertaking some major upgrades to my aquarium. My life is extremely hectic with work and my family so I am investing some time in getting my aquarium into the most functional automatic state possible so I can enjoy it rather than neglect it due to other time consuming tasks. That being said I wanted to keep a thread in regards to my trials and tribulations in hopes to share my experience with everyone on the forum. I hope you enjoy tagging along.

Update: Sunday, September 25, 2011

So I have always wanted a beautiful SPS Dominated Aquarium but I have never really had the opportunity to put one together. But things in my life are settling down and I thought it would be a good time to turn a 40 gallon breeder aquarium into a small piece of my dream (that is until I purchase a house). So feel free tag along on my journey.







Update: Monday, September 26, 2011

Today I received the delivery of my Two Marineland Maxi-Jet 900 Submersible Utility Pumps which I was going to use to move water through the two Avast Marine Works MR5 "You Build" Media Reactors. So I decided that I could start some of the placement of equipment in the sump since I would like to purchase an Internal Protein Skimmer. I unpackaged both Marineland Maxi-Jet 900 Submersible Utility Pumps and started to assemble their outputs barbs and place them inside the 10 gallon sump. I got some hot water in a mug to soften up the 1/2 inch tubing that will connect from the Marineland Maxi-Jet 900 Submersible Utility Pump to the Avast Marine Works MR5 "You Build" Media Reactor. I connected one end to the 90 degree Barb on the Avast Marine Works MR5 "You Build" Media Reactor then I ran into my first problem. Apparently the Barb connections on the Marineland Maxi-Jet 900 Submersible Utility Pumps are 3/4 inch. So my progress for tonight was put to a dead halt. I am hoping to pass by home depot tomorrow to see if I can locate a 1/2 to 3/4 Barb connector. If not I am going to contact Marineland to see if they make a connection that allow a 1/2 inch barb.













Update: Tuesday, September 04, 2011

It has been a while since my last post but I have had a very busy schedule between both work and getting the equipment setup on the aquarium. So I thought I would post a little entry to catch up on some of the different equipment that I installed on my aquarium via a couple of photographs.








Update: Tuesday, October 11, 2011


So I have been very happy with my Bubble Magus NAC-5E Protein Skimmer since I bought it a few months back but as with everything in this aquarium build I have decided that I need to make some slight upgrades and adjustments in order to suite the overall goal of this aquarium. So I have noticed that my Nitrates have been slowly creeping up over the past few weeks (they are currently 20ppm as of this post). I have a tendency to over feed and my display is stocked quite heavily with various types of fish. So with those two factors in hand, I decided to do some research and investigation as to why my Nitrates are going up.

1. I have taken the time to reduce the amount of food I feed on a daily basis. I have moved from introducing 4 to 5 cubes of various frozen foods to 1 cube per day.
2. I have increased the aquarium water turnover by opening the ball valve controlling the amount of water return to the aquarium from the feed pump.
3. I am conducting a 2 gallon water change weekly.

I also have a BioPellet Reactor that has been running for about 1 week now and still has on average about 3 to 4 weeks left in order to culture enough bacteria to start seeing a difference. Also my Fluidized Sand Bed Filter doesn't seem to be assisting in the reduction of Nitrates but in its defense it is also only 1 week old. So my next obvious choice would be to upgrade my current Protein Skimmer in order to address the issue. In the interim I stumbled across and article regarding the output of a BioPellet Reactor and that they recommended that it be placed as near to the Protein Skimmer water intake as possible or plumbed to feed it. So I figured this would be a better time then ever to upgrade.


I contacted Justin at Avast Marine Works and after a brief Q/A decided to order a recent addition to their equipment lineup, the Avast Marine Works "You Build" CS-1 Black Pearl Recirculating Protein Skimmer. It is currently in route and should be delivered by tomorrow. All I can say it that I am excited to see recieve it. I have been very pleased with all the products I have purchased from Avast Marine Works. I was only saddened that I did not have enough available cash at the time to purchase the Swabbie and the Davey Jones Skimmate Locker (they are next on my list). I am hoping that bad boy assist with my high Nitrate issues. Below is a photograph that Justin sent me of the unit and I can say this is definitely looks beautiful!







Thread Update: Friday, October 14, 2011


Well I am finally done building the Avast Marine Works "You Build" CS-1 Black Pearl Recirculating Protein Skimmer. First let me say that this is not a difficult build but it is rather time consuming. So if anyone wonders why the you build version is about 63% percent more expense well the simple answer is: time is money! It took me about 1 hour just to unpack all the pieces and get everything sorted out and at various stages in the process you have to allow adequate time for the solvent to dry so pieces don't come apart. It's just a simple fact of engineering that if you attempt to rush this build project you are going to run into issues with the seems holding. With that being said it freaking looks awesome! Mine came with the standard oval Avast Marine Works decals and no the cool looking circular ones which just looks better from a aesthetic stand point in my opinion but maybe I can get Justin to send me on. Other then that there is no much that I can really complain about. I am running on 4 hours of sleep from building this but it was worth all the time! I'm hoping to have it setup in the aquarium sump after work this evening! I have included some photographs of the recirculating feature for those that asked. Also because of the smoked cone you cannot see the bubble plate inside but it is removable for cleaning. Also my apologies if some on the photographs are a bit blurry. I was putting this together until 2:00am last night.


















Thread Update: October 15, 2011


Now that I have been slowly stocking up on SPS Corals for my aquarium I felt that I didn't have enough lighting. So I placed an order with Rapid LED for two Rapid LED RetroFit Constant Current LED Lighting Kits (I already had two kits from my previous setup). I now have 4 separate Rapid LED RetroFit Constant Current LED Lighting Kit running on 4 Drivers with 6 LED a piece for the equivalent of 250 watts of Meta Halide Lighting. This made such a difference to me. I also still have the ability to add an additional 32 leds if I want.
















Thread Update: Monday, October 17, 2011


The new protein Skimmer has been in operation since Friday evening and I honestly couldn't be more happier. This is a photograph of the skimmate production from over the weekend. I think this is enough to show that the recirculating model is more then doing it's job. I'm going to need a skimmate locker before my swabbie!




Update: Saturday, October 22, 2011


In my effort to get my aquarium as automated as possible I purchased another great product from Avast Marine Works, the Avast Marine Works Swabbie Protein Skimmer Neck Cleaning System. The installation was simply as the product comes built unlike much of the other equipment that I have purchased in the past. So after a few minutes of getting the correct measurement on the Wiper Blade I had it connected and running on my Protein Skimmer. I have run out of available outlets on my Neptune Systems Apex Controller so for the time being I have the unit plugged into a standard single outlet timer set to run 4 times a day for a period of 5 minutes each.



















Update: Monday, October 24, 2011


I have run into my first major issue with my reef aquarium. I built my LED Lighting System myself. It consist of 4 independent Meanwell LPC-5-700W Drivers each with 6 LED's (three Cree XP-G R5 Cool White LED's & three Cree XP-E Royal Blue LED's) for a total of 24 LED's with 40 degree reflectors. I originally had the lighting system suspended about 8 inches from the top of the aquarium. My seabed is located 15 inches into the aquarium. This lighting system put out the equivalent of a 250 watt Metal Halide System (if not more). I have stable water parameters and temperature and decided to purchase a few small frags to test my worthiness of SPS Corals. I am starting to see sign of Tissue Necrosis. I immediately thought that this was caused due to my water parameters not being accurately assessed since I am utilizing an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Test Kit. So I went to Greenwich Aquaria to purchase some Elos test kits. After some discussion about my issue we started to connect some dots. He has had a few customers with LED Lighting Kits (example: Aqua Illumination) that had their SPS Corals also experience Tissue Necrosis due to the intensity of the LED Lighting. So this started to make sense. I have a perfectly healthy clam that I purchased from a fellow reef keeper which has all the Mantle recessed for weeks. I originally suspected Pinched Mantel Disease but everything is starting to point to the intensity of the LED Lights. So I have raised the lighting system suspension from 8 inches to 16 inches above the aquarium in hopes to decrease the intensity but I may just have to purchase all new reflectors. What are your thoughts? Do you agree that the reflectors could be focusing too much light downward which is increasing the intensity to the level that the corals connect be exposed to? If so should I purchase 65 degree or 80 degree reflectors? Thank you in advance for all the advice.





Update: Wednesday, October 26, 2011


I have been seeing some bad side effects from what I can contribute to is due to the Bio Pellets that I decided to add to my aquarium. So I decided to ditch the whole Bio Pellets thing until I can get every one of my issues under control. Then I realized that I needed something to keep phosphates in check while I worked out the kinks. So I decided to turn to Brightwell Aquatics Phosphatr Regenerable Phosphate-Adsorption Resin. I purchased the smallest amount available (175ml) so I could test out the product on my system. Hopefully this will yield better results than my Bio Pellets.






Update: Thursday, October 27, 2011


I have been testing my Calcium and Alkalinity levels recently and the numbers just did not sit right with me. So I purchased an Elos Magnesium test kit so I could check my Magnesium level as that is where I believe the culprit lies. Sure enough my Magnesium level was 1200ppm which is about 150ppm below where I would like it to be. So I purchased from Brightwell Aquatics Magnesion-P Magnesium Supplement that I could mix myself and dose into my aquarium.


Now according to the instructions that after mixing my solution that 1ml would raise my Magnesium level in 1 gallon of water by 6ppm. So I have approximately 50 gallons of water so I came to the calculation that 1 ml would raise the Magnesium level in my aquarium by 0.12ppm (6 divided by 50 gallons of saltwater = 0.12ppm. The instructions state that the maximum dosage should be no more then 10ml per day per 20 gallons of water. So I am calculating that I can dose about 25ml per day which would raise my Magnesium level by 3ppm per day (25ml multiplied by 0.12ppm - 3ppm). It will take me about 50 days to get my Magnesium level up at this rate but that is not taking into account water changes on my system. So I guess my question is do my calculations seem correct? I seem to think so. What do you think?