ac7av tank build

Since a lot has been going on since the first of the year I thought I’d update everyone on what’s been up and down. First off it started with trying to quiet down the plumbing a little bit. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t loud, I just thought it could be improved on. I replaced the drain and intake lines that were the hard pvc pipe to the flex pvc tubing. I had a little trouble dialing it in at first. I was getting the toilet flushing noise after the change but it was due to the increase in over all water turnover. When I removed the UV sterilizers from the return to the tank the water volume increased from the return pump by probably a good 25%. I have a silencer on the top of the drain but it wasn’t allowing for enough air to enter the tube. I increased the size of the air vent hole by about half and this took care of the flushing.

I purchased new ballasts for the light fixture. I have been battling with a startup problem on the bulbs due to low line voltage in the winter time in the house. I purchased the black Odyssea ballasts and these things rock. I replaced the old silver odyssea ballasts. Even after I modded them to get the full 250 watts they sill had some starting issues when the line voltage was low in the house. This happens every winter for me. It’s nice to be done with that problem. The new ones fire up so much faster, and they are up to full power in a fraction of the time.

I replaced the expensive 14,000K DE bulbs with the Odyssea 10,000K and replaced the 430nm UV brand PC bulbs with the 12,000K Odyssea bulbs. I added in 124 blue LED’s for night viewing and all together it’s all amazing. I have never been happier with the color and brightness. I kept trying blue’er and darker lights and I just wasn’t getting what I wanted. I even went all the way to 22,000K MH with 430nm PC. It looked like nuclear blueberries. I went brighter and whiter and this thing rocks now. The yellows and reds and so bright, It’s almost like sunlight shining in the tank.

I think I made a discovery on my coralline algae growth problem in my tank with all this. It seems that the Odyssea hood is not equipped with UV glass over the MH bulbs. The Odyssea bulbs have UV block glass on the outer housing of them. From what I’ve read DE bulbs need a UV shield glass over them so they don’t cook the tank with UV light. All this time for 2+ years since re-setting up the 210 I have been running everything but Odyssea bulbs in it trying to get something better. All this time I was cooking every in the tank with hi UV. This totally explains why coralline would grow only in the edge of the shadows of the tank and nothing at all under any direct light. This may also be responsible for not being able to keep any hard corals. And a lot of other corals as well. In just a few short weeks I have red and pink coraline algae starting to grow every ware in the tank.

And to top it all, here is a FTS of what was left after the die off.

Erik,

due to the lighting change, I wouldn't be surprised if the RBTA splits.

You mean I can end up with 4 of these things?
That's it man I want my Money back!

Just kidding

I will be getting the plastic bag and the salad spoons.
This tanks only big enough for two of them.

I thought I would put up some pictures of the new light cycles.

First is the night lights








PC lights on






MH and PC lights on

By the way all the pictures on this page are all taken with my camera phone. If I had a better camera I’m sure the colors and clarity would be much better. I can see the camera didn’t focus well with the blue lights.

Maybe these are a little better

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Lookin better in there Erik, survival of the fitest strong at play so everything that survived is now bullet proof.

Cheers, Todd

Looking Awesome Eric!

Phoenix is rising.

If you look in the center of each picture you will see the beginnings of new life where I thought there was complete death.

The first picture is of where a large pom-pom was and now from the ashes where I could see no live springs up what I think is going to be a new pom-pom


the second and third pictures are some other Xenia that I thought was also total loss. These were sites where large colonies were. The third picture was the area of rock about 8X14 that was covered from rock to water surface with Xenia.

Im still not sure if the stuff in the forth pictures is going to make it. It still looks like its receding.

And the last is a definite recovery. It looks better then it has in a long time.