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Rygh's 250 gallon upgrade

Coral reefer said:
Would you post pics if you can of what your torch looked like
This was 4 months ago. The front torch is fine. The torch you can partly see on the back left
is the one that was sick, as was the plate right in front of it. Best pics I have.
old_torch.jpg
 
bondolo said:
For the stunner your only hope is emergency fragging. leave a good margin of heatly tissue and dip in revive. Also, keep a separate frag of everything!
Yep, pretty much what I did. Very little was truly healthy looking.
 
rygh said:
Kensington Reefer said:
Break off healthy remaining heads and toss the rest...sucks!
A couple of 3 day apart 30% water changes
Keep on keepin on

Hmm, another thing on my to-do list : larger salt water mixing tank.
I can only do 10% water changes. (35 gallon mixing tank)
Usually plenty, but guess I need to prepare for emergencies better.

Interested in a 70 gal rubbermaid ?
 
I am fine for now on water changes. I emptied out another bin and trash barrel.
Someday I may do a nice poly tank, like on Jim's thread.

Looks like Mike may be putting in a pond. :)
 
Final flow plan:

Above in the thread there were some recent discussions about my tank flow issues.
I had hoped to use a couple of MP60s, but no clearance next to the tank, and not so
easy to make holes in the wall in the right spots.
I had hoped to use sea-swirls, but the way my lights are mounted made it really hard to put
them in the right spot.

SO: I am using 4 x Magnum 7 powerheads on a controller.
They will be on 2 circuits (L1+L2) and (R1+R2) controlled by a micro-controller.
The powerheads can be turned on/off only. They are not variable speed.
The left and right sets will alternate, probably every 10 minutes, to create an alternating Gyre.
So on average, only 2 of the power heads are really on at a time.
During the day, I will have some random overlap when all powerheads are on, for extra turbulence.
At night, there will be a gap when no powerheads are on, to reduce current.

I tested it a bit by hand with 2, and it seems like it has good potential.

new_flow.jpg
 
Finally got it out!!! :~
I had a concrete-constructed rock structure, that was fairly nice at one point.
But for some reason, the concrete came apart, so structure fell apart.
On the other hand, the sand under it turned into a very solid block.

It took me 4 weeks to get it out without destroying my tank.
Slow going. Did not want to stir up too much at once.
I even used an aluminum rod + hammer to chip away at some sections.

Before:
struct1.jpg


Last indestructible bottom chunk:
struct2.jpg


Nice place for future rock work: (That will use epoxy, not concrete)
struct3.jpg
 
Deconstruction ongoing...
Taking it fairly slow. I have about 1/3 of the sand out now.
Mostly ending up siphoning it out. It releases too much crud any other way.
Another rock pile has disintegrating concrete issues as well.

tank_construct1.jpg
 
Kensington Reefer said:
How's the alternating gyre working?

I am very happy - after some tweaking.
A) Even though the pumps do not click when they go on, the surge of water scares the fish a little bit.
So switching every few minutes is not so great.
B) I like both the alternating gyre, and the mass turbulence when all 4 are on.

So my new programming:
During the day, it changes every hour:
. Left On
. Right On
. Both On

At night, only one is on, no alternating.
And which one (left/right) changes each day.
 
NO MORE CONCRETE!

I have been working on new rocks lately.
I had really bad luck with concrete before. Some pieces basically fell apart completely.
I am pretty sure it is partly user error. I mixed it a bit wet, since set time was so fast.
But not that wet.
And while I used Sakrete hydrailic cement, I also had a piece made by someone else with Emaco,
and it did not hold all that well either. The concrete did not stick to the fiberglass rod well.

The real key : The problem was in building using a lot of tiny pieces.
If you have a couple of big pieces, drilled with a fiberglass rod, concrete will be just fine.
In that case, the strength is not important.
But if you are making some intricate structure out of rubble - I would advise reconsidering.

SO: Instead I used epoxy.
(And real epoxy - not that cheap crumbly stuff in a tube)
rs_ep1.jpg
 
Here are some little zoa mounts I made.
I like small individual mounts for some corals, since they can turn into a pest so fast.

rs_minis.jpg
 
Here is a big structure I made.
It is about 18 inches high.
I showed the back as well, so you can see the added structure.
The rock I used was a bit brittle, so for added strength, I added fiberglass rods, and even a bit of fiberglass cloth.
It is far stronger now than it ever was.

rs_strct.jpg


rs_struct2.jpg
 
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