Build-diary: 240L ATS only system

[chrisfraser05]

love it

[RandyAce]

nice.. well planned...

[Doompie]

Thanks for the compliments!

Hereby the 6th weekly update..

It's WET!
Finnaly could do some test running, and found a few things that need to be adjusted just a little.

ATS
The canvas has been roughed, cut and fitted in the prepared slot pipe. Fixed them with a small tie-wrap all the way to the top of the inside of the pipe..
I found I need to cut out a little piece for where the outflow from the ATS is. See picture:



Test run

Did some pretesting on the pipework. Just putted the outflow of the pump directly into the overflow box, to see if all pipe connections were water tight.. Luckely it was first time right.

So then i filled up the tank with sand and osmose water, and got it running for the whole evening. After a little bit of fiddeling with the flow, it now runs completely quiet ! Which also made my GF very happy :lol:

The flow over the screen does look ok. Water is equally distributed, have a water level of about 2cm inside the ATS, which is fine. Only "problem" is tiny air bubbles in from the outlet of the ATS. I will add a T piece to it and see if that solved that problem.

I've added two fans to the ATS light fixtures for a little cooling and airflow.
Also ordered a set of fans for fitting in the lighthood for abvious reasons.

To the bottom of the ATS I fitted some plasticfoil to prevent water hitting the woodwork. Also going to make a cover plate for the sump.

One important test was the power failure. So I switched off, the pump and see what happend.. Lucky the sump handeled all the water, and even got a little extra space. Sofar..So good..

Here some pics of the system in power failure test (omly light is active because i wanted to have a close look off-course):

Sump area


DT with (still) unpainted hood without cover


perspective from seating position


Front view



So the ToDo list quickly shortens now

- fine tuning (named points)
- Finishing lighthood (paint, add fans)
- Add salt (that's going to happen tonight)
- Distribute the sand
- Add T-piece to the outflow of the ATS
- install streamers
- install heater
- install top-off system
- go and buy few pieces of fresh live-rock (ASAP after today)
- wait for the algae to grow..

Getting more and more excited now 8-)

[Doompie]

Oke, time for a quick up-date:

I've added live-rock last Wednesday evening. Yesterday evening, i saw the first spores of algae on the screen. Both green and brownish, looks like it's going to work..will take some pics of it tonight (after first full 18 hours lighting)
Live-Rock was realy realy fresh out of the box (so no skimmer has wasted it). It was stamped on the airport @ 14:50h .. in my aquarium @ 20:00h
Already Spotted allot of worms, fethers, weeds.. everything what is on it, is growing. Coraline algae color up brightly, worms and fethers got out of the rock within a day..I am really surpised up till now.

To be honest, I don't expect peaks during the cycle. All living things are supplied with food because it's not being removed by a skimmer, so hopefully most has survived and just a little died. hopefully the surviors kick in strong to break down the deaths, so the peaks really won't come..

Also added a T-piece, but not the expected result. So I came up with another idea to get rid of the micro bubbles.
Going to make an 180 degree bent upward, add an Y-piece up-side down so that it's partially above the water level of the sump and works as an air vent.. hopefully that's going to work without big loss of flow..

All the other equipement except for the auto-top-off-system is installed. System seems to work reliable.
Only got one issue with the DIN-rail timer for the display lighting. It's fried because of the current from 6*54 watts T5. According the specs it should be able to handle that (16A / 277V) but apperantly it can't...so ordered one that can handle more current, till that time i've installed an "oldschool" plug-in type. (hope that will survive a week)

Trying to give the hood a paintjob this weekend..

So far, So good..

[Doompie]

Hereby some video's I made yesterday evening (shot with iPhone)

Last thursday I've added two nice pieces of live-rock. So the tank is cycling since then (today is the 5th day, video's made on day 4)

Had a big issue with micro bubbles which is finaly solved now. Still a little in the display, but acceptable for me.

Screen is growing nicely brown, but also some rocks in the display have spores of algae on them. Hope the Scrubber will out compete them shortly.

First one is the main display tank. (sorry my girl was vacuum cleaning in an other room..) tank it self is realy silent..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... WVK1UsyV6k

Technical area underneath the tank, including my bubble trap.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... R6ZKSxp2Kg

Screen growth after 4 days:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... 9DAtXrMswE

I would like to get some feedback on it :geek:

[kerry]

Not bad growth for just a few days. Thats a nice looking tank.

[dxmarinefish]

I like the bubble trap, might try it

[SantaMonica]

The rock algae does not have long to live

[Doompie]

Thanks for the replies! That gives good hope

Just waiting now..
A few questions popped into my head, hope someone can answer them..

1) should i do the first cleaning after 10 or 7 days? Or maybe wait longer till the algae turn green?

2) should I already start with adding kalkwasser into the top off to supply the crust algae, or wait until the test says to do so?

Will do some nutrient measurements tonight. No test for ca/mg yet.

[kerry]

You could wait or clean it at 7 days. I have done both ways and didn't see any noticeable differences.