Mike's 360G Dream Tank, Dream Box Build

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#41
Congrats Mike! My wallet hurts reading your thread, nice toys! Your attention to detail is incredible. I had a similar problem with Fritz salt and was told to mix and use it right away and that if I leave mixing the alk would fall even lower than your 6.2 reading. I mix large batches and do auto water change at 6 gallons a day with a Genesis Renew. My water can be mixed for a month so the salt would not work for me. I switched to Tropic Marin and my alk has been very stable at 8.4 and I am dosing 1/3 less 2 part to maintain. I do not understand the chemistry of the alk leaching out of Fritz if you keep mixing, but suspect something similar is going on with you? I would very much like to see all your reef toys in action, I am planning some upgrades shortly and a CA reactor and Alk monitoring are on my list. Awesome build, thanks for sharing!
 

Ohiostreetz

Reef Fast Eat Glass
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#43
This build is insane lol you spent more on the water change station then I did on my full setup bahaha.
 
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#44
Congrats Mike! My wallet hurts reading your thread, nice toys! Your attention to detail is incredible. I had a similar problem with Fritz salt and was told to mix and use it right away and that if I leave mixing the alk would fall even lower than your 6.2 reading. I mix large batches and do auto water change at 6 gallons a day with a Genesis Renew. My water can be mixed for a month so the salt would not work for me. I switched to Tropic Marin and my alk has been very stable at 8.4 and I am dosing 1/3 less 2 part to maintain. I do not understand the chemistry of the alk leaching out of Fritz if you keep mixing, but suspect something similar is going on with you? I would very much like to see all your reef toys in action, I am planning some upgrades shortly and a CA reactor and Alk monitoring are on my list. Awesome build, thanks for sharing!
Thanks Scott! How is your tank doing? Last I remember was you were working on the plumbing to your fish room in the garage. I'm sure your build did a number on your wallet too, lol! I was considering switching back to red sea blue bucket or going back to the first salt I ever used which was the Tropic marin. Either way, I'm trying to get rid of the Fritz. Shoot me a PM, you're more than welcome to check out the system.



This build is insane lol you spent more on the water change station then I did on my full setup bahaha.
:loldude:
 
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#45
I took a trip to Unique Corals on Saturday. It was a three hour round trip, traffic the entire way. It was totally worth it though, Tim gave me a tour of the facility and it was awesome! The Dastaco they have setup there is ridiculously huge. Sunday I went to work setting up the reactor which took some time as this is my first calcium reactor. After everything was setup, I had a heck of a time trying to get the co2 reaction chamber to purge the water out so the float switch could do it's thing. I was never able to get it to work and found out that the outlet on the controller that controls the co2 solenoid is faulty. It was not providing any power to the solenoid to let co2 in. This took me quite some time to figure out. This morning, I call Joe at Unique Corals and he is having a new controller sent out to me. So for now, it's filled and ready to go but stuck in limbo. Hopefully I'll get it up and running tomorrow evening if the controller gets here tomorrow. Here are some pics of the calcium reactor, it's pretty big. Luckily, I left enough space at the end of the tank for this very reason. I did get to play with the controller a bit and I like that I only have to adjust a dial to increase alk/ca dosage. No fiddling with bubble counters, PH or effluent rate. You do have to setup the controller upon first start up to keep the CO2 solenoid open for a minimum of 2 minutes and a maximum of 3 minutes so it can purge the co2 reaction chamber of water. There is also an option to vent the reactor X amount of times a day to get rid of any air that builds up inside the reaction chamber. This is also adjusted with a dial.








Initially I planned to pick up a Avast Marine Davy Jones Skimmate locker but I didn't really have a good spot for it to make maintenance easy so I put this ghetto skimmate locker together using a cereal storage container. It does it's job but it stinks up the entire living room every time I drain it. I may just ditch it and run a line from my GHL doser to the cup and drain it outside to a drain. This will also cut down on maintenance which I'm all about. I'm a lazy reefer.
 
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#46
That dastaco is bad ***!!! Only downside is the more controllers and devices you have, the more chances of something failing. But hopefully it was a one time thing, and it runs smooth from here on out.
 

joseserrano

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#47
Very cool. To bad the reactor had a hiccup, but once you get it going, I bet it will be so worth it. You can put Carbon in the collection thing you made. It will help with the smell some.
 
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#48
That dastaco is bad ***!!! Only downside is the more controllers and devices you have, the more chances of something failing. But hopefully it was a one time thing, and it runs smooth from here on out.
Very true Nick but this statement holds true for pretty much anything we add to our tank. If I went with a GEO, I would have had to buy a PM1 and PH probe for the GEO and that's another thing to calibrate or fail. Of course, a PH probe isn't necessary either. I may hit you up soon for a frag pack.

Very cool. To bad the reactor had a hiccup, but once you get it going, I bet it will be so worth it. You can put Carbon in the collection thing you made. It will help with the smell some.

Seems like every step of this build I have had a hiccup here or there. This has probably been the most troublesome build. I hope it pays off in the end. I will only drain the skimmer cup before I head to bed now so the smell doesn't foul up the living room while we're in there.
 
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#49
Got the new controller in this morning, set it up to see if it works and SNAP, the solenoid opened. It's pretty loud every time the solenoid opens, not so loud when it shuts off. After testing, I turned the unit off and went to work. Came home and fired it back up. I had to do the initial setup of fine tuning the regulator to pump in enough co2 upon start up and purge the co2 reaction chamber of water within 2-3 minutes. This took me some time to do and had to purge the co2 reaction chamber of co2 multiple times to get the regulator dialed in. The unit has been running for about 5-6 hours now. I have a 10lb tank and started at 100 PSI, I'm now down to about 91-92 PSI. I'm hoping this huge drop in pressure is due to me purging the co2 reaction chamber of co2 multiple times during initial setup, otherwise, this unit is a gas hog. I also completely shut off my GHL doser and set the KHG to test every single hour. Below are the test results after I shut off the doser.

08/15 18:57:14 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.15
08/15 20:06:58 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.14
08/15 21:23:59 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.02
08/15 22:02:48 Save New System Environment.
08/15 22:33:18 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.97
08/15 23:43:11 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/16 00:53:02 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98



I tested the effluent of the reactor for the heck of it and it maxed out the hanna checker at 300ppm.

 
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#51
Hi Mike,

Sorry to bother you but I recently got a Dastaco reactor from Unique Coral and having the same problem as yours. My CO2 chamber is full of water, the solenoid failed to release gas. Do you mind sharing with me the procedure how to make this work? All the outlets in my controllers working though. I am waiting on Joe from UC to help me but thought you might be able to give me some input as well. Thanks.
 
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#52
Did those acrylic controller brackets come with the Red Dragons?
No, I paid for them.



Hi Mike,

Sorry to bother you but I recently got a Dastaco reactor from Unique Coral and having the same problem as yours. My CO2 chamber is full of water, the solenoid failed to release gas. Do you mind sharing with me the procedure how to make this work? All the outlets in my controllers working though. I am waiting on Joe from UC to help me but thought you might be able to give me some input as well. Thanks.
Hi Anh,

Turn off your unit and unplug the doser and ehiem pump. Unplug the solenoid plug and try plugging it into the ehiem pump outlet. See if it the solenoid makes a loud snapping noise which will indicate it opened. If it doesn't do that, then your solenoid is bad. Initially I thought my solenoid was bad so I removed the solenoid from the co2 tank. Tried to blow in it and couldn't, switched the plug to a different outlet and it snapped and I was able to blow on it. All the lights on the controller worked so I thought all my outlets worked.
 
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#53
Hi Mike,

Joe suggested me to do the same thing yesterday and I tried that. I plugged the solenoid in a different outlet and it made a loud snapping noise then released gas to the chamber, blue light turned on after the chamber was full of gas. I then plugged everything back to where they belong, water slowly fill the CO2 chamber again and I am back to square one. Does it happen to you?
 
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#54
No, I paid for them.





Hi Anh,

Turn off your unit and unplug the doser and ehiem pump. Unplug the solenoid plug and try plugging it into the ehiem pump outlet. See if it the solenoid makes a loud snapping noise which will indicate it opened. If it doesn't do that, then your solenoid is bad. Initially I thought my solenoid was bad so I removed the solenoid from the co2 tank. Tried to blow in it and couldn't, switched the plug to a different outlet and it snapped and I was able to blow on it. All the lights on the controller worked so I thought all my outlets worked.
From Royal Exclusive or somewhere else? Pretty cool.
 
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#55
Hi Mike,

Joe suggested me to do the same thing yesterday and I tried that. I plugged the solenoid in a different outlet and it made a loud snapping noise then released gas to the chamber, blue light turned on after the chamber was full of gas. I then plugged everything back to where they belong, water slowly fill the CO2 chamber again and I am back to square one. Does it happen to you?

Anh,

The same thing happened to me, the outlet for the co2 solenoid is bad. If you plugged in the co2 solenoid to the ehiem pump outlet and it snapped open, that means the co2 outlet is bad. That is what happened to me and Joe had to send me a new integra. When everything is plugged in and the reaction chamber is filling with water, that means no co2 is being let in to push the water out of the reaction chamber. I would ask Joe for a new integra, this is what solved my problem.
 
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#59
Setting the KHG to test every hour makes dialing in the carx really easy. Here is a log from yesterday and today.


08/16 00:53:02 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/16 01:52:53 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.98
08/16 03:11:06 W.143 %0 AK.38.00 KH :7.89
08/16 04:29:33 W.142 %0 AK. 8.00 KH :7.94
08/16 05:47:30 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.03
08/16 07:05:20 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.22
08/16 08:23:53 W.143 %1 AK. 0.00 KH :8.25
08/16 09:41:58 W.147 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.30
08/16 11:00:41 W.146 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.40
08/16 12:19:23 W.146 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.54
08/16 13:38:02 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.63
08/16 14:56:49 W.141 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.67
08/16 16:07:00 W.145 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.67
08/16 17:17:22 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.66
08/16 18:35:07 W.146 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.57
08/16 19:36:34 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/16 20:38:12 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/16 20:56:56 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/16 21:02:46 W.176 KS=0D L%0 S%0 SW>_ERR KH :0.00
08/16 21:19:34 RESET !
08/16 21:40:33 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.44
08/16 22:50:34 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.31
08/17 00:07:58 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.16
08/17 01:25:12 W.140 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.02
08/17 02:33:18 W.142 %0 AK.38.00 KH :7.89
08/17 03:51:36 W.143 %0 AK.42.00 KH :7.88
08/17 05:01:45 W.144 %1 AK.12.00 KH :7.93
08/17 06:19:07 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :7.99
08/17 07:36:44 W.143 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.03
08/17 08:46:47 W.141 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.07
08/17 09:56:47 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.12
08/17 11:06:49 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.11
08/17 12:16:53 W.141 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.12
08/17 13:26:44 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.12
08/17 14:36:44 W.144 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.11
08/17 15:46:46 W.142 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.11
08/17 16:56:45 W.137 %0 AK. 0.00 KH :8.11
 
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#60
I'm having to drain my skimmer cup daily. Last night I drained the skimmer cup and tonight, this is how much skimmate has collected. This is probably the best skimmer I have ever owned.



The Dastaco carx has alarm features to notify of a co2 leak, water leak or empty co2 bottle. It sounds an audible alarm but also has the option to tie into a third party controller. The port is a regular RCA jack so I bought a 15 ft. cable to run it to the Apex's break out box. I'll have it send me a text and email when an alarm on the Dastaco occurs.



The Dastaco reactors are 34" tall. I originally had the effluent line running to the return section in the sump. This caused siphoning issues and noticed my PH really took a hit since bringing the carx online and stopping 2 part dosing. When I was dosing 2 part, my PH was running around 8.3-8.4 throughout the day. Ceasing 2 part dosing and running the carx, my PH dropped to 7.8-8. So I ran some clear vinyl tubing from the sump up to the return pipe and zip tied the tubing to the pipe. I took the effluent line from the sump and ran it up to the top of the vinyl tubing and stuck the line in there. This helped stopped the siphoning and also helps gas off excess co2. My PH is now steady at around 8.2ish.


 

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