The LAST big upgrade

michika · #1 03-02-2011, 07:57 PM

Leak test went swimmingly well. Tank is spectacularly stable and such!

Sports have started up already for the season, so we're really struggling for time to work on this. So far it seems like Kevin goes home, works on the house, and then I get home and we go on about our regular lives. Its kind of looking like from this part forward I'll probably only be ordering, paying, and making arrangements for components, while Kevin will be doing all the actual work. I don't mind, but I like participating in the build; doing the physical labour of it all stands for a bit more then just whipping out your credit card and paying.

fishytime · #2 03-02-2011, 09:19 PM

good to hear about the leak test....."all systems go!"
whipping it out is enough work isnt it?

mseepman · #3 07-24-2012, 12:08 AM

Just wondering...what ever happened to this build?

michika · #4 07-24-2012, 09:46 PM

Its still happening...

I'm just making a final push to finish off some other house renos by the end of August, and then we'll be back on track.

So far the tank has been leak tested, the water change/mixing station is underway as is the associated controller for it. We have most of our lights, but now I'm wondering if I want LEDs.

Anyways...photos later, its still happening.

mseepman · #5 07-26-2012, 05:11 AM

Good to here! Always really liked this build.

michika · #6 08-08-2012, 06:19 PM

Ok so a bit of a recap I suppose is required.

I took down my 180g grow out system. I've been slowly re-homing fish. I pretty much gave all but one tang away to temporary homes. I'm slowly working on packing it up and getting it out of the house for sale.

When the 180g came down we found some near-fails. This is one of my check valves. The inner o-ring was nearly corroded through, the valve could not make an appropriate seal. Scary thing is that I checked all the o-rings and plumbing not even 2 months prior!

Then I took Tony's old 90g (man this thing really gets around), and set it up for my tang and long-spine urchin.

I set up the RKE, and am waiting for the new SL2 module to be released. I'm 98% sure there is something wrong with the calibration of my pH probe. I've cleaned and calibrated it twice now, but maybe the 3rd time will be the charm. If not, new probe time.

Because I've been enamoured with LEDs for ages now, I'm actually starting to experiment. On the 90g I've put in 3 strips of Cool White Phillips LEDs (waterproof/water resistant fixtures) that I'm so far not minding. Granted I don't have enough PAR (probably) to keep any LPS or SPS, I'm finding that working with LEDs isn't like T5s or MHs.

mseepman · #7 08-08-2012, 06:38 PM

Glad to see the update. Interesting to hear about the check valve...those have always worried me on tanks. On the LED side of things...they can actually be a bit of fun to experiment with...but you'll eventually want to move towards more reef oriented versions.