90 Gallon Wave Front Build (A LOT OF PICTURES)

Thanks!

Wow the bean animal even has a warning sound function!

 

Ya it is pretty great when the open kicks in it will become full siphon (silent) but with only a restricted siphon the open will suck it down and give you a gargle as the air tubing is not submerged anymore. I also have my emergency pipe cut above the operating level of the sump so that I can get a nice loud splashing noise to know it is really out of sync.

 

So the air tube is supposed to be under the surface? Do you mind telling me why? and why isnt it any more?

I was wondering why it was short, I was like "maybe he didnt have just enough by accident? no way" lol

 

The air line is supposed to be above the normal operating water level of the overflow box but when a blockage happens in the siphon it will slowly start to flood the overflow box and block off that air line and make the open channel become a full siphon pipe to handle the flow.

Ya all those little things come into action here nothing was an accident! Well not counting that small flood I had from my RO/DI container.

 

Okay well it has been quite a while since the last update and I have got a good amount more done.

I started by getting the reactors filled with media. I used ROX carbon in one and GFO in the other and all seems to be working well. I love how simple these BRS reactors are they make it super easy to clean and maintain and flush the new media.

I also have been having some issues with my overflow nothing like flooding or anything. It is just so powerful that it keeps sucking down my critters. I was working on the aquarium the other day and realized I couldn't find my large Clownfish so I looked around and thought maybe he is in the sump, and sure enough there he was chilling in the filter sock. Very stressed out and a little beat up (probably from trying to get out of the sock which probably reminded him of a net).

What I think happened is that when he was sleeping (which is always near the weir of the overflow box) he got spooked and went over the falls and got sucked up by the pipe. She hasn't done it since so I think that this was a onetime thing. She got her top fin a little scuffed up but other than that she is fine.



Now I also got my CUC added to the system and they are going to work on the diatom outbreak and really cleaning things up. Which makes it a lot easier on me since I don't have to clean the glass as much.

I was also able to add the coral from my QT tank that I had been using as a temporary home during the build.







However with this CUC being added the snails like to move all over that tank and in the weir and the overflow box so it was going to happen and the snails have been getting sucked up the pipes. Which again is not big deal since I have a failsafe bean system however it is frustrating because when they do get sucked up (3 at a time sometimes) they clogged the siphon pipe and make the open channel kick it which is good and prevents flooding. However it does make the system get noisy since the open channel is having to take over. So I have had to take the elbows off the overflow 3 times now because of these snails.

I am going to be making a snail guard for the elbows of the overflow system I will use a hole saw and cut out some egg crate to fit inside and silicone it to the elbow so no more fish/snails get any free roller coaster rides.

And I also have the controller completely set up and online!!! Oh boy does it rock. I was able to drill some holes for these cable guides I got off McMaster Carr to keep everything tidy of course. I also was able to barrow a label maker from work and got all the cables labeled. I also had to buy some extension cords since some of the power cords (lights, korallias) are not long enough to be feed through.









Also I had ordered some Cheato with my CUC but it has not been doing very well at all so I took it out and threw it away. All that it seemed to do was slowly fall apart and leech back into the main tank so that I had little Cheato strings floating around, so to the garbage it went.

And finally I have some big news I am going to be building an ATS to add to my tank. For those of you that may not know about this lesser know filter system it is called a Algae Turf Scrubber. The idea behind it is that you will have a screen that is illuminated by lights and has water passing over it. Well with these lights shining on the screen it makes the algae want to only grow there since it is such an easy place to thrive. Therefore it wants to only grow there and removes that algae from you display tank. I know it sounds crazy but for about $15 in parts I think it is worth a shot. Not to mention I know two local reefers who runs these on their tanks (one uses only this for his filter w/ some live rock, the other uses a skimmer and this) and they look GREAT.

 

Great update!! Poor clown, mustve been a hell of ride to the sock. I think its a brilliant idea to bury a piece of eggcrate in the inlets. This is so inspiring, following you, bro!

 

Well I got the mock up done on my new scrubber design I still need to fine tune it some but it fits.

 

Dont know anything about a turf scrubber. Some says you dont need a skimmer. How does it work?

 

The basic idea is to create and area for algae to grow and by doing this it makes the algae only want to grow in that one area. So it removes that algae from your DT and converts it to beneficial bacteria/food for coral and the aquarium system. Also what the algae is doing when growing on the screen is feeding off of nitrates and phosphates making you tank even healthier.

There are a few different ways to go about running a scrubber. You can do it with or without a skimmer some do it with out and have great success and other keep it online with the scrubber still running.

What I am going to do is keep the skimmer online for the first 2 months so that the scrubber can mature (a very important step) and if I really like how it works I might just take my skimmer offline as well.

 

I had to redo it since I had the supply tee at the top if I ever wanted to clean the screen by unscrewing the unions I would have to cut the supply hose off so I moved it below the union so now it is just unscrew and take to the sink.