OK so I know Ive been MIA for a while now, but thats due to me being bugged down with law school...
Anyways, I have a pretty major update to the tank, I bought many new goodies to update my tank...
First, I upgraded my lights from the stock hood to a Ecotech Marine Radion, now Im running an open top tank which lets me have more aeration and an overall good look
And how it looks from farther away
This let me exchange 4 plugs (daytime, moonlight, dawn/dusk and accent LED's) for only one single plug... less wires = less mess
Im still in the process of dialing in the right schedule, light cycle and all the other good stuff... Im hoping to find the right settings sooner than later. (Currently Im running Jon's program at 40% with some minor tweaks for the nighttime look)
With an open top I was experiencing more water evaporation than before, and quite frankly after almost a year of topping off my tank by hand I finally sprang for an auto top off system...
Meet the Tunze Osmolator
This thing comes with absolutely everything but the bucket and water to run the top off system
And here is the sensors: an optical sensor and a safety float switch
Here it is mounted in the back part (the magnet mount for the sensor fits perfectly and works extremely well)
I adjusted the speed of the tunze to be on "nano" and added a check valve because the pressure necessary to keep a steady low flow was not enough to keep it precise (after the check valve was added, it solved the problem)... also, I removed the jumper from inside the controller so that it does not sound the alarm when the emergency stop switches would come on, I hated the noise anytime I shut down my return pumps and without the warning it still does the safety auto shut off.
Well, since I had this nice light and top off, I figured I'll spring for one more and bought the Ecotech Marine MP10wES (so that it can communicate with my light and generate flow that is relevant to the time of day)
This thing is awesome!!! I have to run it at only about 50% otherwise it makes a sandstorm in my tank. I especially love that I was able to replace 3 of my pumps for this one... less wires = less mess and less room taken up in the tank. I also really enjoy the fact that I can put the pump in "feed mode" and turn it off without unplugging it when I do my water change.
Here it is on the tank
Then to the dislike of my wallet, my local reef club had a group buy on BRS and I ended up buying a lot... just look at the size of this box
Here are all the goodies laid out
I bought their 2 part starting kit, the Bubble Magus Doser, 3 1.5L containers, a dosing tube holder, and a viewing glass (now since I have an open top, I can look at stuff from above :P)
Here is me connecting all the tubing to the doser
I ran a bunch of check valves to make sure the little doses are more precise
I connected 6 total, 1 just after the containers and 1 just after each of the 3 pumps
I also had this clever idea of running the tubbing under the top shelf of the stand so its less messy, and got a bunch of cable holders
Here is the mocked out view
And after I glued the holders in place
However, after putting the shelf in place, I actually realized that some of those holders were impractical, so I snapped some of them off leaving only the necessary ones (too many of them were pinching the tubing in some places)