Bob's 93 CUBE Reef Build Thread

 

Temp is up to 76F and salinity is sitting at 1.025

 

Water is still a bit cloudy but hopefully will settle out overnight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Today I picked up some nice Live Rock from Troy & Pam (ptrosp) as well as my first livestock

 

A Green Torch and a Gold Torch frags (3 heads on the Green; 2 on the Gold) also from Troy & Pam

 

A pair of Purple Firefish (believe it or not, from Petco)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Later on, Mack (smacky) stopped by with a starter of Live Sand and some Chaeto for  the fuge

 

Everything is running smoothly so far; I am especially happy with the Bubble Magus NAC7 Cone Skimmer... already has a mountainous head that is the consistency of shaving cream, the bubbles are so fine... not much to skim out yet, other than the "milkiness" in the water from the oolitic sand

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next I need to tackle setting up the electrical a little better / neater, then I can set up the ACIII Controller, and the Calcium Reactor...

 

Now...who wants to help me set those up?

 

 

 

 

They are so, so powerful - I set them to run at 30% output for each pump (the lowest setting on the controller) and I checked this morning and there has been a bit of a sandstorm again...

 

I actually may go with only 1 Tunze instead of the pair in the display. They are rated for 3,170 gph each @ 100% output - that's still 1,055 gph each @ the lowest (30%) setting - and 2 of them at 30% is over 2,100 gph, which would equal about 24X turnover. I could run just 1 with the 2 - speed variable settings at 40% and 80% and keep the average turnover from the 1 Tunze at around 15X. My return pump puts out around 600 gph (or around 7X turnover) so the total tank turnover of around 22X should be compatible for the corals and with the fine sandbed. If I placed the one unit in the center of the tank each corner would only be 15 inches from the center; the pumps flow pattern is wide enough that I shouldn't have any "dead spots" going out 15 inches from the pump, that is for sure...

 

My only issue is that, for some reason, when I hook up the controller to both pumps the pump on  'channel 2' does not respond. I know the pump itself is fine, because if I unplug the controller cable then the channel 2 pump runs. I am going to download the manual for the controller to see if I am setting something up incorrectly. I will also try switching the controller cables to see if the problem follows the cable (which would mean a bad cable or bad cable connection at the controller or the driver) or if the problem is within the 'channel 2' portion of the controller itself.

Might be a moot point if I go with only 1 pump in the display, but I would still like to figure out what the issue is.

 

BTW, I am also very impressed with how dead silent these pumps are. I can set the variable speed at the max spread (30% low to 100% full) and you don't hear any "spooling up" or revving motor noises like you do on Vortech pumps... you just see the increase in the water turbulence that tells you the pump has sped up...

 

 

 

I agree, Ryan... Vortechs are not "loud" at all; you just hear a little "whine" from the motor; especially if the rest of your setup is pretty quiet. And the Tunzes are definitely bigger inside the tank. But both are pretty cool pumps to have.

 

When I first started up my Bubble Magus it was too loud for my taste as well. Then I figured out why. I disassembled it (removed the cone body) and found that the plastic screws holding the pump to the skimmer base were really, really tight... normally, tight is a good thing; but in this case it meant if the pump vibrated at all, then all that vibration would be transferred down the base of the skimmer and onto the "feet"... sure enough, I loosened those pump mount screws just a little bit and the noise disappeared. My skimmer is now very close to dead silent .

 

The loudest thing in my setup right now is the return pump.

 

 

 

 

 

21.99 each on sale

 

I could have been dishonest and gotten them for 14.99 each because the kid who bagged them at Petco couldn't find the tank sticker and was going to write in the SKU for the regular (red?) firefish, until I showed him that the purple firefish sticker had been stuck on the wrong tank...