UPDATE
Well, the last 6-7 months have brought many changes. Goes to show you paper planning only goes so far. I'll try to go over what things are now compared to what they were and why they were changed. Below are a couple of pictures of what the garage/water purification district looks like now.
*I started with 400 watt Blueline electronic ballasts and they have been replaced for 400 watt PFO HQI. Reason is that I wanted to get a little extra PAR from bulbs given I was pushing the lighting through 30" of water, I wanted to use an aquacontroller later (no interferance or need for direct connect), and wanted ballasts that were a little more reliable int he long term. So far they have worked as advertised.
*I added VHO actinics as planned and detailed before. There are 4 x 110 watt running the length o the tank and 4 x 75 watt running perpendicular to the length of the tank. I think this has been a useful addition as they bring out certain colors that the radiums alone don't emphasize. Also, it has allowed me to run my MH for 6 hr/day while running the VHO for 12 hr/day. Much less heat and the same results really now for 2 months.
*Close loops now have the 3 x 2" intake bulkheads in the tank merging to 2 x 3" pipes that supply the intakes of the pumps. Result has been no cavitation, no microbubbles, and better water flow/output. I think I will divide each of the 4 outlets that each pump supply into 2 x 3/4" or 1" loclines to redirect the flow more evently across the tank. Doing this will also allow me to get the elbows that are seen now out of the water and only the tip of the loclines will be visible. That will be much smaller and better aestheticly.
*I added a 4" diameter fan exhausting the top of the tank into the garage. Amazing how much air that little fan puts out. Since the tank is somewhat isolated from the house, the humidity and hot air now gets pumped out. Cool air is drawn into the above the tank section by small grooves. Results are very low heat accumulation and not accumulation of humidity.
*In the next week I will be installing the exhaust fan for the garage. Based on the ratings and the volume of air in my garage, I should be able to turn over the volume of the garage every 6 min. This will hopefully provide a much cooler garage, much less humidity build up, less chiller running time, and allow me to close the garage doors completely.
*Pest controll:
I completed the red bug treatment a while back and now I am 100% red bug free. What a difference did that make on coral colors and growth! I was also getting the growth of these 2 different algae that came in the plugs of aquacultured corals. One was an encrusting flat somewhat orange color that was taking over the tank. The other was reddish/brown macro (dictyopia). I added 8 tuxedo urchins and thy have nowed right through the entire tank. Not a spec to be seen anywhere. The macro algae is still there despite the naso tang I added, which eats it as his staple diet int he wild, but it is nowhere are spread as it once was. Hopefully the naso will take care of it once he decided to take a nibble of it.
*Skimmer has basicly stopped producing skimmate. It still foams considerably, but no overflow of foam happens. I think this is basicly due to a combination of things, but the 2 most important factors are that the water is so much cleaner now and that the skimmer hit its threshold. I have a moster custom airstone skimmer comming in about 2 weeks, so we'll see how that works. It has a wet neck too, so we'll see what that does to the maintenance and cleaning schedule. That will also allow me to get rid of a iwaki 100 (major heat souce). It will be fed by a pump I already use to feed my chiller.
*I stopped using ozone basicly because my ozoniser took a dive on me. I jsut have been too lazy to remove the unit an see what's up with it.
*All of my PinPoint monitors (pHx2, ORP, and salinity) died on me. When it rains for several days in the road everything in the garage gets soaked from the condensation on everything. They were soaked! Since then, I bought a new Milwakee pH meter for the Ca reactor output and placed it where it is not lkely to get soaked.
*I will be getting an aquacontroller in the next 1-2 weeks with the powerbuy PA has right now. It will actually be placed inside behind the cabinetry, but the probes will be going through the wall to sit in the sump on the other side. That way I can monitor things from the inside of the house and also be able to hook up an old lap to look at trends.
*My achiles tang has proven to be the worst fish I ahve had to date. It has killed a cooper banded butterfly and a longnose butterfly within 10 min of hitting the tank along with 3-4 heniochus butterfly. It has also been fitting non-stop for 2 weeks now with my new powder blue tang. I had a OBT and an achilles along with a powder brown before in my previous tank and they all got along, but this one is a nasty bastard that needs to go on the fish relocation program.
*The rest of the equipment is working well. I have fine tunned a few things, but everything is working well.
*Levels have stayed steady at:
Ca 400
ALK 11.5
pH 8.2
MG 1200+
temp 81F
*I have been changing about 100g per month. Originally I had decided to go with NSW as it is readily available here. However, the cost is ridiculous if you are having a water service provide it for you. Turns out that after calculating things it is cheapper to actually make saltwater with RO/DI and IO accounting for the cost of filter replacement, water cost, and salt. I just find it ridiculous. I added a 300g storage container in the garage for mixing saltwater and it has worked out tremendously well for me.
*Growth has been variable. There are some corals that have grown tremendously in only 6 months while others seem to just take it easy and grow at a very slow pace. However, everything is growing and have colored well.
*I am almost certain that I will change the radiums to XM 10000K in Dec when these bulbs are due for changing. That should bring the bulb replacement cost to about 65% less than what it is now. I am considering adding more VHO actinic, but it would make the top of the tank very tight as it is. We'll see.
I will attempt some coral pictures later today after the lights come on.
