Marty's 180g [My Elusive Shrimp]

Did some work on the ATS last night. Hoping to have it running tonight!

Drilled the hole for my 1" drain in the ATS, also added an emergency 3/4" drain if the low-profile strainer in the bottom get a little cloggy.


Here is the view from slightly above.



Here is the pump I purchased to do the job. This is adequate to meet my 770 gph requirements for the ATS (35 gph x 22" of laminar flow)


I started the lay-up of the screen tube as well, although I forgot to take a photo of that. Two slits 1/8th" wide by 11" long. This leaves 1 inch in the middle of the pipe and one inch on each end to help make it more sturdy. I will also use my dremel to cut the hole and slots in the ATS box to hold the screen tube in place.

 

You should light both sides.

 

I am, the photo was just of fit checking for light alignment.

 

Making great progress today on the ATS. It will be up and running tonight!!! Posted from phone so sorry for brevity. I'll get more detailed in my final ATS build update tonight. Follow on days will be updates of algae growth and tank status. The tank right now is not fit for human eyes. Frankly I'm embarrassed by my hair algae nightmare.

 

It took 3 months for mine to mature and then export all of the excess nutrients that were in the live rock. But now I have a hair algae free tank.

 

I've heard it can take months. I've been dealing with this for so long I have no choice but to be patient now. lol

 

Ok, the lights all work, and I set up the apex to kick them on from 5 PM to 11 AM every day.

A few lessons learned here:

1) I am dumb sometimes. lol The pump I bought is not self-priming. This is an issue that I will fix in a couple weeks. The system will not restart if the power fails. Just bad on my part.
2) Although I primed the pump and it is working I have several concerns about my flow bar. The flow is not consistent. So I need to either shorten the laminar flow by 1 inch on each slot, or cut a more narrow notch in the tub, although I used the recommended 1/8th inch.

I'll let it run for a bit see if the pump breaks in and fixes flow issue.



Oh, I should have used a 1.5" drain line. The water is creeping into the emergency drain, while not a major issue it is contributing to the bubbles. I will report for a few days how things are going.

I'm also going to wrap duct tape around the flex line going into the ATS to keep reflected light from growing algae in the line.

 

It will make a huge difference. Mine is pretty small and I think i almost starved my Lawnmower blenny.

 

Video of the ATS.

 

very cool