Well .. things progressed a little since last update. Every step has a minor stumbling block though. Some days all you can do is laugh.
We'll start off with a Boxing Day FTS:
Tank is in super need of some colour. Dry rock and new sand just looks so sterile.
The lighting is in 3 phases:
1) Initial dusk/dawn is provided by the 2x24w t5's left of centre. They run 10:30 to 22:30.
2) Next up is the centre 400w and the 4x54w t5's. They run from 11:15 to 21:45.
3) Highest intensity with the left and right 400w's from 12:00 to 20:00.
All 3 halides are Radiums. The middle is a standard pulse-start (ANSI M137 or whatever it is for 400w pulse-start). The outside two are SonAgro ("HQI"). You can tell the middle light has a slightly blue hue to it, the outside two are a super crisp white.
The 54w T5's are 2 SuperActinic and 2 454's. The 454's are neat choice. Almost like a brighter-than-usual actinic, a little more blue than purple like a standard actinic would be.
The outside two halides aren't on right now because I ran out of timers. You wouldn't believe the number of timers that I've bought that are faulty out of the box. I'm up to around 3 now that I've had to return to Rona. And one more now. Crazy, they must have had one super bad shipment. Anyhow so I have to go get another freakin' timer before those lights can be on automatic. Grumble.
Some shots of the light stand with the t5's installed:
You can sort of see the difference between the SuperActinic and the 454 here. See how there is a purplish tint to the second lamp, that's the actinic, the other is the 454.
Also got the ATO installed. On the advice of Chin, the ATO empties into the skimmer intake to keep it clear. This meant for the first tank in 12 years I'd use a pump based top up instead of the usual $10 Home Depot humidifier float valve (which I'll say has NEVER failed me in 12 years. I would have done the same for this tank but I like the idea of an automatic rinsing of the skimmer air intake - I find I need to clean the air intakes of my other tank skimmers about every 2 weeks, there's enough gunk buildup in those to justify doing so.)
Sensors on the left side of the sump:
(Ignore the messiness, I want to clean the glass when I do a water change but since the tank hasn't finished cycling, I haven't yet done so. No water changes until I get a zero nitrite reading! Last night it was still at 0.2 so it has a while to go yet.)
Controller sits on the right side of the stand:
And the mini reservoir sits under the sink. I had to use a bucket with a float valve so that the RO/DI reservoir (which is currently too far away) can drain into the bucket but not spill over, and then the pump can sit in this bucket and go feed the skimmer air intake line when it switches on.
Installing a top off on your tank isn't supposed to cause this:
This happened when I was stringing the wire and tube from the top off pump over the sump area and I was cutting electrical tape to hold it all together so it wouldn't be such a gong show of a rats nest of wires and tubes. Actually you can see the scar on my pointer finger as well. That's the gash I gave myself trying to install the Zeovit reactor about 2 weeks ago. No word of a lie, I cut my finger doing that too. Well, it wasn't so much the reactor itself to blame but rather the plumbing needed modding, and the previous plumbing was glued to the pump, so I was trying to break things apart without breaking the pump itself. I succeeded in that goal if nothing else.
Guess that's about it. Well I guess I did modify my zeovit reactor so I will take some pictures of that later. I'm trying the zeovit 14-day cycle thing but I have to say so far it's not looking like it will be ready for fish in 14 days. Part of the problem though is self inflicted, between holidays and sick kids and a pet needing surgery this last week, it took me longer than I wanted to get the lights on timers and I don't think the cycle can really begin in earnest until there is light. Now that at least phases 1 and 2 happen on the light cycle, I have noticed the nitrite reading start to spike. So while this means the wait has to continue, at least there is a sign of stuff actually happening.
Unfortunately in my other tanks things continue to remind me that we need to shut down. On Christmas Day yesterday I lost another clam in my serial clam death event. This is what I hate about clams: if you lose one, unless you get it out quick enough, whatever kills it spreads to the others. I've lost about 6 in the last two months. I am hoping this is the last one. This one in particular surprised me for lasting as long as it had: over the summer it sustained a mantle injury. It had been showing signs of recovery lately but then bam, just like that, it too checked out, all of a sudden yesterday. Ugh. I'm depressed about it but I guess these things happen. I feel like I'm paying the karmic price of not having a single clam death in 5 years prior to this fall. Maybe old age is a factor? I somehow doubt it but if I pretend it is then I sort of feel a little less bad about it.