Chris' Braceless Zeo Reef

[chr15_8]

I'm guessing it was a fox. I was out between 2pm and 6pm so had to buy more this morning lol.

This weekend I was busy preparing my reef bones. (I you do decide to soak your reef bones in Acid remember to be careful and always wear gloves when handling, a quick search on Google will show what this stuff can do to flesh)

On Saturday I soaked all the reef bones in a vinegar mix for 1 hour. I used a mix of 4:1 (RO water : vinegar).

I weighed 2 pieces of rock to see how much rock was dissolved in a 20 minutes soak of acid.

I used Hydrochloric Acid at a ratio of 10:1 (RO water : H.A.)
Once I added the rock to the mixture this is what happens

After 20 minutes of soaking I removed the foam from on top. This is what was floating around at the surface

Like I said I weighed a few pieces of rock to see how much dissolved.
Before - 1,284g

After - 1,084g

Before - 635g

After - 475g

After soaking the bones I let them soak in more fresh RO water for a few hours.

Then I washed all the bones in RO shaking them getting as much rubbish out as possible.

This is the water after the first wash in RO.

 

[woody88]

Absolutley lovin this thread mate. I'm checking 3 times daily to see if there are any updates.

Do have a quick question tho.

Those 12 sockets. Are they on a ring or are they fed off that 30A double pole isolator. Are they fed off the existing sockets in your house on a RCD or a new supply from the board [what size fuse/MCB is supplying them].
If are they fed from an MCB I'd recommend a type C and an RCD. [I had to up my MCB to a type C as the B's were tripping out from my pumps.
Do you plan on adding any type of 'back up' system in case of a power failure.

Are those lighting Ballasts high frequency or are you using starters?

Soz for all the questions!.......Just intrigued as I'm a spark and thats a nice, neat setup!.

 

[chr15_8]

Absolutley lovin this thread mate. I'm checking 3 times daily to see if there are any updates.

Do have a quick question tho.

Those 12 sockets. Are they on a ring or are they fed off that 30A double pole isolator. Are they fed off the existing sockets in your house on a RCD or a new supply from the board [what size fuse/MCB is supplying them].
If are they fed from an MCB I'd recommend a type C and an RCD. [I had to up my MCB to a type C as the B's were tripping out from my pumps.
Do you plan on adding any type of 'back up' system in case of a power failure.

Are those lighting Ballasts high frequency or are you using starters?

Soz for all the questions!.......Just intrigued as I'm a spark and thats a nice, neat setup!.

lol thanks

Im a spark too.

They are own a ring which feeds about 6 other double sockets. The ring goes into the 45a isolator and comes out in 6mm to the meter (deal with my dad that I pay the electric). They are on the RCD with 32amp type b breaker. I hoping it will hold up as it did on my old tank. I wanted to run in a separate feed but the house is finished with newish carpets and my mum wouldn't let me lift the carpets (even though I do it most days) I live in a bungalow and my tank is the opposite side to he fuse board. which means its imposable to fish due to all the dwarf walls and the supporting wall in the middle.

Im going to add a DIY battery back up using a twin 50w emergency spot light which will feed my vortech mp40. I have a generator on standby if i need any heat.

They ballasts are Osram HO electronic t5.

 

[woody88]

Absolutley lovin this thread mate. I'm checking 3 times daily to see if there are any updates.

Do have a quick question tho.

Those 12 sockets. Are they on a ring or are they fed off that 30A double pole isolator. Are they fed off the existing sockets in your house on a RCD or a new supply from the board [what size fuse/MCB is supplying them].
If are they fed from an MCB I'd recommend a type C and an RCD. [I had to up my MCB to a type C as the B's were tripping out from my pumps.
Do you plan on adding any type of 'back up' system in case of a power failure.

Are those lighting Ballasts high frequency or are you using starters?

Soz for all the questions!.......Just intrigued as I'm a spark and thats a nice, neat setup!.

lol thanks

Im a spark too.

They are own a ring which feeds about 6 other double sockets. The ring goes into the 45a isolator and comes out in 6mm to the meter (deal with my dad that I pay the electric). They are on the RCD with 32amp type b breaker. I hoping it will hold up as it did on my old tank. I wanted to run in a separate feed but the house is finished with newish carpets and my mum wouldn't let me lift the carpets (even though I do it most days) I live in a bungalow and my tank is the opposite side to he fuse board. which means its imposable to fish due to all the dwarf walls and the supporting wall in the middle.

Im going to add a DIY battery back up using a twin 50w emergency spot light which will feed my vortech mp40. I have a generator on standby if i need any heat.

They ballasts are Osram HO electronic t5.

Sounds like a good setup mate! I thought that was a digital meter I saw in one of your earlier photos.

The lecy bill should'nt be too bad to be honest. It's when you start using halides that you notice the jump in price on the bill but i'm sure you know that.
As for the tank and stand, that looks top mate. At least when its all done and people say ''god thats a nice tank'' you can turn round and say ''yeah, I built it all myself'' Well done mate!

 

[chr15_8]

Cheers

It will only be 430w when the full lights are on!

 

[chr15_8]

Got some acrylic coming for this Thursday/Friday (at the latest) wasn't the cheapest but I need it for the weir cover for the weekend.

Hopefully fill up during the week and start the zeo dosing :dance:

Also got a price for a sump and a new frag tank so will be ordering that soon. In the mean time

 

[chr15_8]

How hard is it to cut and polish some acrylic?

At least the acrylic came today like they said. The front weir panel is correct but the side is wrong. It has the correct width but only half the height it needs to be. Meaning I can't even do the weir this weekend . Checked there measurements on there cutting list and they are correct to how I need it. Just the acrylic is the wrong size

Also got the acrylic for my light hood. First was the damaged package, when i opened it there was a scratch on the panel. I ordered 1482mm x 487mm but received 1482mm x 587mm. So 100mm to big plus a nice scratch!.

I paid almost 2x the price of the cheapest quote as the could guaranty I would have it yet by the weekend im still no better off!

Rant over

 

[chr15_8]

Acrylic arrived today.

All pieces were correct and arrived undamaged. Have already marked out my slots ready for cutting them on the tile saw tomorrow.

 

[chr15_8]

30x 2mm slots have been cut into my weir cover now. Currently sticking the 2 pieces together now.

Hopefully will be siliconing the acrylic to the glass weir tomorrow if time allows when I get home from work.

 

[chr15_8]

Done some scaping tonight and am happy with how its turned out.

(2x blue + 1x 6,500k tube)

(1x 6,500k tube)

The veiw when you walk into my bedroom

Rock around the weir (2x blue + 1x 6,500k tube)

Island (2x blue + 1x 6,500k tube)

If I keep the MP40 this is where I would want it to go. Its about 4 inch from the rock and 4 inch from the front panel

Would the MP40 cause any problems to the SPS being so close? I'm thinking it will be too close but any views would be good.

Just need to silicone the weir cover on tomorrow.

 

[chr15_8]

Just finished what I've been waiting for.

Just siliconed it in. Really happy with how well its turned out. Just need to do the final bits of tidying it up.

Almost invisible in the back corner.

 

[seffieuk]

It is looking really nice, have I missed something, why are you considering getting shot of the vortech?

Seffie x

 

[chr15_8]

I think the Vortech is too close to the rock/sps and might be too much.

Where the Vortech is in the last picture is the only place I can place the Vortech.

 

[chr15_8]

Thanks

I've got roughly half my reef bones in my sump now with 2 dead(frozen) prawns / shrimp. At the moment the reading is 1.75mg/l. I'm going to wait until the ammonia reaches >2.00mg/l (highest it reaches) and leave the shrimps in there for 48 hours extra. I might add some start3 once I've finished with the shrimps.

I've also made a acrylic surround for the top off the tank. I couldn't stand the amount of light the unit was giving off was almost like looking up into the sun.

My moonlights are fully up and running now and really happy with the continuous strip along the length of the tank. All i need to do now is add the reflectors and change the tubes to what I want.

Thanks
Chris

ps. sorry about the picture need to get my camera out instead of using my phone. Also need to straighten up the light unit a little.

 

[HappyGeorge]

In response to your Vortech worries I don;t think it will be a problem, if it were me I think I might move it up a bit. I wasn't considering one for my set up until I saw one in The Reef Shack, the guy there specializes in corals and the flow was amazingly even not sure how they manage it but the corals 4 inches from the pump don't seem to move much more than the the ones 4 foot from it?