Enders Mid Life Crisis Build

[meash20]

@enderg60 It looks like you can still get everything back, your images seem to still be on IMGUR, but the links are busted ...

Here's an example of one I've fixed.


Update time!

Had a nice test of the generator last night and it works great. I just have to put a few things on some small battery backups for the minute it takes the generator to startup.

Im working on redoing the Closed loop controller panel.

https://i.imgur.com/tQeDzyX.jpg

I got all my corals cut, mounted, dipped and in the frag tank.

https://imgur.com/CXANtLl

https://imgur.com/cbXNkkw

https://imgur.com/s2E3WLi

Im still learning how to get this phone to take good pics but Im getting there.

I also got this guy in. I asked for something in the 10" range and well... its not small.

https://imgur.com/1KGfR7w

Its already opened up to totally fill the 10" basket and is sticking to food!

https://imgur.com/3WVlUlY

Few more weeks in QT and he can go to the display and I can take the QT system fully down for a revamp.

 

[hzheng33]

danny,

meash20 is correct. it's not to going to be easy or quick but can be done. looking through each of the network requests, i'm able to retrieve the following just as a quick test.

https://imgur.com/ePqGmMs

https://imgur.com/36NsTg4

 

[enderg60]

All the pics are hosted on imgur so I know they are still there. I just dont know how the links got broken or why.

What you guys are posting are not the actual pics but links to the pics on imgur.

I embedded the pics by inserting a link to the pics web address. For some reason it shows as working when making a post but the moment you hit preview or post it the link turns to the x-pic. It appears style links no longer work.

Aside from simply not wanting to go back and edit 10 pages of pic links, I cant edit my posts so I cant do squat anyway.

 

[meash20]

All the pics are hosted on imgur so I know they are still there. I just dont know how the links got broken or why.

What you guys are posting are not the actual pics but links to the pics on imgur.

I embedded the pics by inserting a link to the pics web address. For some reason it shows as working when making a post but the moment you hit preview or post it the link turns to the x-pic. It appears style links no longer work.

Aside from simply not wanting to go back and edit 10 pages of pic links, I cant edit my posts so I cant do squat anyway.

yah, it sucks.. sorry about the mess.

 

[enderg60]

Well it still works on other forums just not here. The only thing I can find is maybe they flagged this site for some reason and someone from here needs to contact someone there.....but it looks like that wont happen.

It appears I can still attach pics directly off my phone so Ill get a few closing pics for you tonight.

 

[meash20]

It's probably the change in provider hosted/managed phpbb vs. the prior method. maybe share a link to the otherS?

 

[lmm1967]

the issue with the image proxy service being used has been resolved and the images show up now

 

[enderg60]

Well I guess I better start putting together an update, or 3. I just realized how much BS has occured in the past 6 weeks lol.

 

[enderg60]

So from where we left off, the fish QT was full and I was monitoring it as it cycled. I gave it 2 weeks and then started copper treatment that is finished TODAY. So Ill be doing a water change and then Monday I will start the first round of Prazi. The cycle is done and my nitates are staying super low thanks to the usual bacterial bloom clouding up the water. I need to get the DI filter running again for that. Despite my learning curve on fish QT most of them are still around and doing well.

To my surprise the weird ass ribbon goby is still doing great.

The Coral QT....so I had just visited @billyocean and @dball711 on the same day. My god....
(Here im just starting to figure out how to take coral pics with my phone)

I told myself "You have spent enough money, time to start the QT for the corals."

So two weeks later I went to the frag bash.....

Ok...NOW Im done.

Corals have been doing decent. The Alk in the system dropped supper low while i was on vacation and I lost a few frags. Then since I have no fish in there, and its technically a new system a lot of stuff bleached a bit. I dumped some nitrate in there and the colors are starting to come back.

Im loving the coral QT though, at around 3-4 weeks I had two aptasia pop out of a frag and it wasnt even an issue.


The main frag tank has been running great as well.

After blowing off some rocks and seeing the crap cloud I decided it was time to start getting rid of the rocks and put whats left on racks so the bare bottom can do its job.

Thanks UPS!

Well at least they were still usable. I got most of the rock off the bottom.

But still have a pile in the corner...Collecting crap.

Reminder, the rock is for sale!

BTW Im trying to ID this frag. Its kind of a light teal base with blue tips.

Im also having a low nutrient problem in the main system causing corals to get pale. I was dosing it with nitrogen for a few days, but I have not started dosing ammonia to add to the whole nitrogen cycle. So we will see how that goes, until I can fill it with fish. Apparently nitrates at 0.2 and phosphate at 0.01 is too low.

To be continued.

 

[grouper therapy]

The ID on that frag is a acropora missingfromgroupertherapynis

 

[enderg60]

The ID on that frag is a acropora missingfromgroupertherapynis

Show your face around here and you just might get a frag.

 

[enderg60]

This update will be a text wall. Update pics will come next.

Shortly after the above stuff, we had a fun electrical storm where I learned things. Things like when your house has a "whole house surge protector" and thinking you dont need them elsewhere is dumb. Turns out they are only good for large surges, then you have to reset them to work. So when you have an electrical storm with multiple surges....youre SOL unless your sitting by the breaker.

The damage was localized to my halides and my apex freaked out and all the modules got readdressed thus the whole thing needed to be reprogrammed. My OG PFO HQI ballasts, and a few others did not survive the surge. Luckily I had backup ballasts I was able to get going and the apex programing went relatively easy but I was still not a happy person.

2 days later it happened again. Once again halide ballasts fried, my Apex went completely insane and it appears a few UV ballasts fried and in the process blew up the bulbs and sleeves. Oddly the UVs had a delayed response before popping.

The tank ran with my manually turning things on and off for 2 days while a new apex head unit came. This all happened on a sunday so overnight still ment tuesday. I got the replacement and reconnected everything one by one while reprogramming late into the night. The bugs I had been having with my old head unit became apparent when I took it off and you can hear loose items clanking around inside. The PM1 I used for the main tank temp also got fried, as soon as I connected it, everything else started to disconnect.

All said and done, the storms cost me 8 halide ballasts, an Apex, a PM1, 4 UV ballast, bulb and sleeves.

After I got everything running again I edumacated myself and got proper surge protection. While this was happening I also realized there were issues where a power outage occurs and in the 40-60 seconds it takes the generator to kick on the apex seems to loose its mind a little, or at the least it resets all outlets which is annoying. So along with surge protection I started looking into a UPS to at least keep the apex going. It turns out that thanks to the DC pumps a larger UPS can keep the Apex and main pumps running for that 60 second period. Im currently working that out but its delayed for a different reason.

So lots of surge protection and UPS backups have been installed. I also added one a UPS on my TV, work computer, router and stuff which has already come in handy when the power went out and I never even lost internet while I was working.

Also over the past few months I have been talking to Abyzz about the low flow Ive been getting at the display. The downside to DC pumps is most of them lack head pressure. Ill skip the math but the blueline pump I was planning to use was HUGE in order to get 1000 GPH at the display. My A200 was getting 600. Which is ok, but not what I wanted. They decide to let me exchange the pump and some more money for an A400 which should arrive today. The original blue line pump I got, is now my backup pump. Its currently running while the swap happens and its pushing 900 GPH. Once the A400 gets installed I can actually test if the UPS can keep the whole system going while the generator kicks on.

After all the fun electrical stuff was fixed I decided to go to the beach and had someone feed my fish. Everything was running fine exept one, the alk pump on my QT system failed and the alk dropped to 6 dkh for about 4 days. This in turn bleached just about every sps I had in there. And to top it off both my radiant and yellow wrasses decided it was a good time to see what the floor was like.

I fixed the pump, did water changes and also started dosing ammonia to bring the nitrates up. The ammonia dosing is fantastic BTW corals are coloring up really nice and the LPS and softies are much happier. Im trying to get the nitrates over 2.0.

Then came time to bring the QTed corals over. While dipping the SPS (I dip into QT and then again into the display) my child distractet me. They were in there WAY to long and I ended up loosing more than half of them, the rest I left in there with some hope and they seem to be still alive so fingers crossed.

So that brings us up to date with all the drama. Next update will be corals going into the display, fish updates, making screen tops and messing with flow.

 

[enderg60]

Surge protection installed! And uglying up my clean wiring...

New ballasts.

UPS installed, barely.

No idea why but my Atlantic blue tang is almost always in zebra defense mode. Also the last pic Icarus before his flight.

Euphillia garden in a bucket.

and in its new home

The view is getting better

Mr Anemones grand adventure.

Hopefully this is his happy place.

Top down when he opens up big!

UV carnage!

And starting the new screen tops for the display and QT systems.

In order to make the tight turns and short sections I had to nip the tip of the corner pieces. I did so many Ive become an honorary mohel.

And here is a full take shot from this morning.

 

[Jikkermanccini]

Looking good! So sorry to hear about the surge disasters, that is always a nightmare. Glad to see everything has been put back in order though.
I also just lost my radiant, though mine was a new addition. I put it in, it disappeared for a week, and reappeared half dead suspiciously close to my brittle stars' hidey hole. Didn't survive the night.

 

[enderg60]

Testing if I can post videos, Also from this morning so pardon the bad lighting.

Here is the display.

https://imgur.com/8EThPRC

And the frag tank.

https://imgur.com/vfcQWs4

 

[enderg60]

Can't believe it's been a month already...

I ended up finding a few more things that got zapped in the storm months ago. The latest victim was my network switch which took a while to die. It was causing my apex to disconnect every few minutes. Hopefully that was the last of it.

I finally got the screen tops done. It only took me 3 tries and it still ended up making it too tight, so it pulled the sides in and left gaps between the panels. Having decided I'd spend enough time on them, I cut some pvc strips to cover the gaps and called it a day.

They are decent at best, but functional so I could finally add all the jumpy fish that were waiting in qt. I will eventually get a nice acrylic set but I plan to move things around more and it would just need to be remade anyway.

Next issue up was my flow sensors. Since I didn't want to have to remove 20 feet of wire to clean them, I opted to have some plugs spliced in. These were causing connection issues. After messing with it enough times to meet the requirements for insanity I decided to simply order premade extension cords and shorten the stock wires using the stock connector.

Here is insides of a sensor (with the added connector)

And after the sealant was removed.

Prepped for surgery!

Using a hammer to do brain surgery, check!

Now the sensors are ready to go I just need to rewire under the tank again....yay. I like how the only difference between the 1/2"and 2" flow meters is the orientation of the sensor.

Next up my new frag rack feet! I found a guy on R2R that had some 3d printed stuff, and we wound up designing these guys. They adapt egg crate to 1/2" PVC, they dont block the grid at all and they are offset so you can put the racks right next to each other.

Cut up a bunch of legs.

This should be enough.

Presenting the all cleaned up frag tank, featuring less rock and new racks!

Racks also rocking in the QT system. (Also featuring my Idol experiment. Results, he liked acans and gonis)

 

[enderg60]

It was finally time, I had to bite the bullet and just rewire it all. I wound up just pulling everything out and redoing it. Everything is much nicer and cleaner and no one will ever know but me!

I finally cleaned out the fuge for the first time, and the little bit of red algea has started growing!

The regal tang has decided the scull is his new home.

So the urchin promptly stole it.

Now that the Qt systems are empty again it's time to get stuff. Behold the only hermits I will ever add to the tank.

And a little guy ill probably never see again.

Fish, round 3!

 

[enderg60]

So this stupid wrasse decided to get a swim bladder infection. Luckily he was easy to catch. You can see the bubble.

After running around town trying to get a syringe, turns out they are prescription only.... Expected at Walmart... Wtf?

Anyway in another first for me I poked a fish and sucked out a fart. I ended up having to do it two more times and toy surprise, he's doing great!

Enough talk time for Frag tank pics.

 

[enderg60]

Now that I have just about figured pictures out here are some current pics of the display.

Move fish!

Next up, some fish room tweaks and a mini fridge!

 

[scottw]

I think this is the first time in a long time I am more blow away by the equipment than the awesome live stock haha. Great attention to detail on your setup. Love to come see this one day. Kudos to you.