eMac909’s 150

[Emac909]

On day one of vacation I got the RO/DI system fully automated.

I also upgraded for a 25g barrel to a 55g barrel.

I started off by drilling the holes in the barrel. 5 holes total, one for a bottom drain, another for gravity feed ATO, two for the float switch’s, and last one for water in. The water in has a float valve as an added safety. I then ran 50’ usb cable from the tank to the up stairs laundry room. I hooked up an EB8, PM2 (I only needed pm2 for breakout box), and a breakout box. Then hooked up a 110v water solenoid to main water into ro system.

I wired the float switch at the bottom of barrel to switch 1 and the top float switch to spot 2.
Then programmed the apex like this

So when the water falls enough to cause the bottom switch to open it will trigger the outlet to turn on.

Then when the water triggers switch 2 to open if will trigger the outlet to turn off.

 

[Emac909]

So after having my fish population wiped out I decided to get my qt tank setup. I picked up a 30long a few months back but the tank was leaking. So I broke it down and re-siliconed the tank. Setup it up two weeks ago cycled with some live rock from my sump.

I first setup with a temp 5gal bucket as a sump but picked up a 10 gal for a sump/fuge. Then tossed a cheap led light on it.

Planning to run copper on this setup

 

[Emac909]

After I figured out that the controller needed it own separate 5v dc power supply i was able to get the unit work.
The unit has 5 rows of LEDs. Each row has 18 LEDs, 6 RB, 6B, and 6NW.

The canopy that the LEDs came in had an acrylic splash cover. I took a sander to the inside on the acrylic and fogged it, to act as a diffuser. I then cut out holes for the radions to fit in between.
I then programmed the LEDs with the apex with the 8 channel led relay.
Here is the final results

 

[Emac909]

Took a few top down pics the other day

 

[BeanMachine]

After I figured out that the controller needed it own separate 5v dc power supply i was able to get the unit work.
The unit has 5 rows of LEDs. Each row has 18 LEDs, 6 RB, 6B, and 6NW.

The canopy that the LEDs came in had an acrylic splash cover. I took a sander to the inside on the acrylic and fogged it, to act as a diffuser. I then cut out holes for the radions to fit in between.
I then programmed the LEDs with the apex with the 8 channel led relay.
Here is the final results

Awesome Eric! Turned out great.


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[Emac909]

Sunday afternoon I hooked up the new calcium reactor

I’m still in the process of dialing the reactor in. I run my effluent at a beaded stream, I do this so it doesn’t clog up. Nothin worse then checking your alkalinity and noticed it went way down because the effluent on the cal reactor clogged up. I start pH in the reactor at 7.3-7.2 and will work down to where the perfect melt rate is. With in one day I already have noticed a huge improvement. With the old cal reactor I was noticing a spike in the pH every day. In the first day with the new reactor I have not seen that spike.

Here is the post I made about the spike issue.
Strange pattern noticed

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/to...noticed-.100455/&share_type=t&link_source=app
I’m really excited to see what this reactor can handle. Even if it’s way oversized and has so much media into I still think it’s a win. I just think I’ll go through less co2 sense I don’t have to drop the pH level in the reactor so low.

 

[Emac909]

I also got my qt setup fully going.

The top tank is fish qt it’s a 30L and the 10g on the right is the sump. The 10g on the left is a coral qt setup.
All is controlled by the apex with 2 pm1’s.

 

[Emac909]

I wasn’t happy with having the calcium reactor in the return section. I was able to move it into the skimmer section. It’s a little tight for space but what you guys/gals think? Look any better

I’m still waiting on a 110v water solenoid for a purge valve for the calcium reactor

 

[Emac909]

The carpet has got so massive
Current

February 2020

 

[Emac909]

So I wasn’t happy with the flow in the tank. The large cliff on the right side made it really hard to place any wave pumps. So I did a little re-aquascaping.

by having the cliff in the middle in front of the overflow I then could use the neros at a better function

Happy with the sticks also. Things coming along after I got a cyano bloom last month when I was out of state for a few day.
Tri-valida, rainbow milli, green slim

WD

Red planet

green surhaisoni

Orange creamsicle

JF flame

 

[OGFrenchHorn]

Looking good, bro.

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[Emac909]

Yesterday I had an eb8 go out on me and sense I had to run the new eb8 cord I finally got off my butt and added to second eb8 so I could hook up my DIY kalk reactor.
My wife got me an air tight pasta container from target or Walmart idk. It hold a little over a gallon of water is all I know. I drilled a hold in the side right under the lid for a half inch bulkhead. I added a T with a 5” down drip tube to the bulkhead. Then I feed a 1/4” ro/di line as a feed line through the top of the T into the container. In these times I was having a hell of a time to find a small pump to mix the kalk slurry. I was looking for a rio90 or even a in-line that was small. I then remembered that I had an old mp10 that was sitting in my fish junk. I took the mp10 and attached it to the side of the container, filled with water and turned on then added a spoon full of sugar to see if the mp10 would mix up the water enough to dissolve the sugar. Yes the mp10 is plenty strong enough to mix sugar in water. Unfortunately the mp10 is way to strong to use as a stirrer. I was hopping that if I used the mp10 at its lowest setting it would mix the slurry enough to saturate the water but not to much that the kalk powder would stay suspended. So I have to use the mp10 as a mixer not a stirrer. This brought me to the conclusion that I need to stop the drip during the mixing process.
O-yea I should mention that in feeding the ro/di into the kalk reactor via gravity feed. My top off is in the laundry room in the second story. This allows my to drip water into the reactor at a steady rate. I wanted to create a steady drip of lime water in the tank instead of dosing lime water multiple times a day like some people do with there top off.
Ok back to the build. To stop the drip during the mixing process I decided to use a 1/4” water solenoid. Now that the mixing and dripping I figured out now for the controlling of dosing kalk. For this I’m using 2 outlets on the apex.
The mp10 is setup as so.

Fallback off
If time 00:00 to 00:01 then on
If time 12:00 to 12:01 then on
If feedB then on

This will turn the mp10 on for 1 min at midnight and noon. The feedB allows me to add kalk to the reactor

Now for kalk dip I did this.

Set on
If time 23:59 to 00:30 then off
If time 11:59 to 12:30 then off
If feedB 030 then off

These codes allow the drip to stop and drip out any extra 1 min prior to mixing the slurry. Then allow the kalk sediment to settle 29 min after kalk mixing. The feedB will turn the drip off for 29min after the mp10 turns off.

Now that the reactor is tuned and ready to go I added it in a spot where the drip will hit a high flow spot in my refuge.
Here we go

 

[Emac909]

Took a few pics with orange filter

 

[turbonut]

Looking good e


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[Emac909]

Going to do a sump swap on a few weeks. Got a trigger triton 44.

I purchased all new plumbing. Going with black pvc pipe and white fittings. The plan for the plumbing is to use two 1” for the drains. I’ll be doing a herbie style. My overflow has 3 holes drilled in the bottom a 1.5”, 1”, and 0.75”. The 1” will be the full siphon. The 1.5” is going to be the emergency but I am going to reduce it down to 1” when it comes out of the bulkhead. The reason I’m reducing it to 1” is because I want to keep it uniform and 1.5” pvc looks bulky as hell. Both the drains will have single side union ball valves before the hit the sump inlet pipes. The full siphon line will have a T before the ball valve. The line that comes off this T will be going to the UV sterilizer. There will be another ball valve on this line before it goes into the UV. I will have to play around with these 2 ball valves to get the flow I’m happy with through the UV. Then the exit from the UV will feed into the third inlet to the sump. These lines

Now for return line, I’m going to use the 0.75” as the return. I’ll still be running 1” pvc but I’m going to reduce it down to 3/4 before it goes into the check valve. The check valve will be right before hitting the bulkhead and into the tank. So it be like this. Pump to union to manifold to ball valve to second union to check valve then to tank. The second union is to make it easy to take off check valve so it can be regularly maintained. I’m going to stay with using the ethereal as a fuge light. I’m going to see how the tank does for a few months without a skimmer and if everything goes well most likely I’ll turn the skimmer section to a frag section. The main reason I’m doing this sump swap is because the triton is 3” shorter then my current sump. Those 3” will allow me to get my 20lb co2 tank and calcium reactor inside the stand and on the side of the sump. The current setup makes it extremely hard to maintenance anything

I did modify a few things on the sump. So far I added an adjustable holder for ATO

Also drilled a hole for 1/4” bulkhead for the calcium reactor effluent

And if I need to use a skimmer my itech200 fits beautifully in the skimmer section

 

[Emac909]

Do a anyone run there drain through the uv?

 

[Justkeepswimming]

Do a anyone run there drain through the uv?

Maybe run a pre-filter of some sort?

Seems like it might be prone to clogging?

Nice job on the setup!

 

[Emac909]

Maybe run a pre-filter of some sort?

Seems like it might be prone to clogging?

Nice job on the setup!

Thank you. Now I’m not getting! on the clogging. The uv sterilizer has a 1.25” inlet/outlet with barbed fittings that will be connected to 1” black vinyl tubing that will connect to 1” barbed fittings connected to the 1” pvc. Do you think 1” will get clogged?
Or are you thinking the ball valves will get clogged up with time?
Sense I’m planning to run the uv off the siphon drain I’m thinking it’s going to be fairly fast flowing so the ball valves shouldn’t be closed to a point where they should clog up much or am I just tripping

 

[Justkeepswimming]

Thank you. Now I’m not getting! on the clogging. The uv sterilizer has a 1.25” inlet/outlet with barbed fittings that will be connected to 1” black vinyl tubing that will connect to 1” barbed fittings connected to the 1” pvc. Do you think 1” will get clogged?
Or are you thinking the ball valves will get clogged up with time?
Sense I’m planning to run the uv off the siphon drain I’m thinking it’s going to be fairly fast flowing so the ball valves shouldn’t be closed to a point where they should clog up much or am I just tripping

I am sure it will be fine. Might get plugged over time, just as drains do, but will
be easy enough to clean with a pump and vinegar or something.
My overflow is a mess lol, so it just depends i guess.

 

[Emac909]

Did a water test all night while I was at work