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Which panel broke? I assume you looked into just replacing it.
Whiskey's 300 Gallon Glass Cages Dream Reef build
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One side panel, it got a chip about half the glass deep that went up about 4 inches, plus it's not clean so it could easily turn into a crack. The problem is that everything overlaps it, the seams are armored so you can't see the silicone on the inside, and pulling the panel out is hugely labor intensive, along with risky. By the time a company does something like that, the labor costs get close to the cost of a new tank. Plus, since you have to get such a perfectly clean surface to bond the silicone properly, I don't trust just anyone to have a go at it. 300 gallons of water is allot of pressure.
Whiskey
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What a waste.
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Yeah, I know. I'm going to give someone an amazing deal on the best terrarium they have ever seen.
Whiskey
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21,033 Posts
I agree with all the other sentiments of THAT SUCKS Whiskey......BUT, .......'there he goes, the bright side of the cloud guy'.....When your NEW tank is all set up, and the soreness in your wallet begins to fade.....You my Friend have a brand spanking new tank with ZERO WORRIES! Your 'DREAM TANK'! 
But still......THAT SUCKS!
Hack
But still......THAT SUCKS!Hack
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40,445 Posts
OUCH
I agree with all the other sentiments of THAT SUCKS Whiskey......BUT, .......'there he goes, the bright side of the cloud guy'.....When your NEW tank is all set up, and the soreness in your wallet begins to fade.....You my Friend have a brand spanking new tank with ZERO WORRIES! Your 'DREAM TANK'!
Hack
Yeah,.. it's super lame. Especially since the tank that broke was in such perfect shape. But! Nothing I can do about it now. I'll be doing some things different when the replacement arrives though, let me tell you.
Whiskey
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Yeah, I remember some things about GC way back in the day that were slightly less than amazing, I have to say that the build quality of this tank I picked up is impeccable though, and the customer service has been second to none. Looking at other tanks out there, I bet the strength of this thing would hold 600 gallons without bowing.. The armored seams are a nice touch too, that's a first for me. They put tiny triangles of glass in the corners so it's impossible to nick the sealant with a blade.
Whiskey
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40,445 Posts
I have some new photos! First the woodwork,.. I'm continuing on today with the build out. There is still tons of finish work to do, but at least now I know that I made the two different door sizes the proper size.
![Wood Cabinetry Wood stain Hardwood Window]()
And!!! I have updated pictures of the tank with all the new Acros added. Not all of them moved in here, some are in the Frag Tank, but this is one packed tank now!!! I do have a couple colonies that have been with me a long time that are irritated. The blue tip slimer was stung and just keeps dying from the bottom up. I've tried fragging to stop it without success before, so this time I'm going to let it fight it out. I'm not sure what the Tort's problem is, but the exact colony right next to it is perfect. This one seems to be recovering and growing back though. I chalk this all up to the changes I've made lately adding tanks onto the system and stuff.
![Purple Nature Natural environment Plant Organism]()
![Water Blue Natural environment Plant Purple]()
![Water Plant Purple Natural environment Underwater]()
Whiskey
And!!! I have updated pictures of the tank with all the new Acros added. Not all of them moved in here, some are in the Frag Tank, but this is one packed tank now!!! I do have a couple colonies that have been with me a long time that are irritated. The blue tip slimer was stung and just keeps dying from the bottom up. I've tried fragging to stop it without success before, so this time I'm going to let it fight it out. I'm not sure what the Tort's problem is, but the exact colony right next to it is perfect. This one seems to be recovering and growing back though. I chalk this all up to the changes I've made lately adding tanks onto the system and stuff.
Whiskey
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40,445 Posts
Man,.. I had the weirdest experience over the last couple days, Thursday all day I was perfectly fine, about 9PM I completely hit a wall, and felt miserably sick, sicker than I've ever been. Like shivers, my whole body hurt, zero energy, I felt like Zombies in horror movies look! Friday I was a miserable excuse for a human, totally incapable of doing anything and I slept probably 18-20 hours, but today (Saturday) I'm feeling allot better. Not 100% for sure, but back to 70% or so. I have no idea what that was, but I'm happy it seems to be behind me. I almost never get sick, it's possible I'm just not very good at it.
Anyway; earlier in the week I was working on setting up this MasterTronic I got from Hydrored. For those that don't know it's an automatic testing solution that uses standard test kit reagents and automates the testing process. My understanding it that this thing is pretty easy to get connected right out of the box, but if you change your WiFi without changing the unit first it is extremally difficult to get it to connect to the new SSID. The biggest problem is the extremally poor documentation, and extremally difficult to find documentation. For those of you stuck in the same situation I am, here's how to change the WiFi on your MasterTronic.
If you can get it to broadcast it's SSID your life is easy, follow this simple document and move on with life:
Mastertronic Quick Guide internet re establisment.pdf (That's not my google drive BTW - For some reason FocusTronic publishes their documents that way).
The problem is that once it has connected to a wifi, it stops broadcasting that SSID and there doesn't seem to be anything that can be done about it except to completely wipe the operating system and start over. This thing uses a Raspberry Pi as it's brain, and so it's hard drive is on a little SD card inside a hatch on the front of the unit. You can load a new operating system onto a new SD card, then you have basically a factory reset unit. The process is almost documented in this document. Follow the steps exactly, and don't forget to load that update file onto the root of the SD card before starting up. There is one thing they don't tell you, that is the sn.txt file, and it's critically important. I'll get to that in a sec:
Mastertronic-Quick Guide SD-card-V2 .pdf (Once again they choose to publish documents VIA Google Drive).
Now,.. that mentions putting the sn.txt file in the root, but says nothing else about it, and the download location doesn't have it. This had me stumped for a really long time. When I would boot my unit it would come up with serial of all 9's. Although it seemed to work, and I could get it on the WiFi, it refused to connect with my App. It probably uses the serial to link up or something. Finally I decided to take a shot in the dark, and I created a text file named sn.txt with the serial number including the "M" on the first line of the doc and nothing else, then I made a new SD Card and used that file for the sn.txt and it worked!!!!
Calibration of this thing was a challenge as well, mainly because it doesn't tell you when it's done pumping. A few times, especially with the stepper pump calibration I went to measure only to have the unit start pumping. For this reason I recommend you run an accuracy test just to see where things are at once you think you have it right.
But!! Now that it's setup it's working great! Once the new sump goes in and everything I will get it in a better spot, but this will be super nice to validate my Trident once a week, and also monitor Phosphate and Nitrate. I look forward to getting more information about how various foods affect nutrient levels. I also got like a billion test kit reloads with it which is super nice!
Whiskey
Anyway; earlier in the week I was working on setting up this MasterTronic I got from Hydrored. For those that don't know it's an automatic testing solution that uses standard test kit reagents and automates the testing process. My understanding it that this thing is pretty easy to get connected right out of the box, but if you change your WiFi without changing the unit first it is extremally difficult to get it to connect to the new SSID. The biggest problem is the extremally poor documentation, and extremally difficult to find documentation. For those of you stuck in the same situation I am, here's how to change the WiFi on your MasterTronic.
If you can get it to broadcast it's SSID your life is easy, follow this simple document and move on with life:
Mastertronic Quick Guide internet re establisment.pdf (That's not my google drive BTW - For some reason FocusTronic publishes their documents that way).
The problem is that once it has connected to a wifi, it stops broadcasting that SSID and there doesn't seem to be anything that can be done about it except to completely wipe the operating system and start over. This thing uses a Raspberry Pi as it's brain, and so it's hard drive is on a little SD card inside a hatch on the front of the unit. You can load a new operating system onto a new SD card, then you have basically a factory reset unit. The process is almost documented in this document. Follow the steps exactly, and don't forget to load that update file onto the root of the SD card before starting up. There is one thing they don't tell you, that is the sn.txt file, and it's critically important. I'll get to that in a sec:
Mastertronic-Quick Guide SD-card-V2 .pdf (Once again they choose to publish documents VIA Google Drive).
Now,.. that mentions putting the sn.txt file in the root, but says nothing else about it, and the download location doesn't have it. This had me stumped for a really long time. When I would boot my unit it would come up with serial of all 9's. Although it seemed to work, and I could get it on the WiFi, it refused to connect with my App. It probably uses the serial to link up or something. Finally I decided to take a shot in the dark, and I created a text file named sn.txt with the serial number including the "M" on the first line of the doc and nothing else, then I made a new SD Card and used that file for the sn.txt and it worked!!!!
Calibration of this thing was a challenge as well, mainly because it doesn't tell you when it's done pumping. A few times, especially with the stepper pump calibration I went to measure only to have the unit start pumping. For this reason I recommend you run an accuracy test just to see where things are at once you think you have it right.
But!! Now that it's setup it's working great! Once the new sump goes in and everything I will get it in a better spot, but this will be super nice to validate my Trident once a week, and also monitor Phosphate and Nitrate. I look forward to getting more information about how various foods affect nutrient levels. I also got like a billion test kit reloads with it which is super nice!
Whiskey
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40,445 Posts
The other exciting news is that I have officially ordered the tank!! Joe was great, we went through the various options on the phone, but I ended up basically getting the same tank. I had considered going with regular glass on the ends but the end view is what you see coming in the door, and the other end is where I will have one of the timelapse cameras that I use to publish coral growth videos. At the end of the day the day it was only a couple hundred dollar difference so I decided to go low iron all the way around. I was also able to completely offset that cost difference by using the overflow I already have! It's a shadow box overflow so it just connects through holes in the tank and can be removed.
I can't wait to get it!!! For now I continue to work on cabinetry and make sure I'm ready.
Whiskey
I can't wait to get it!!! For now I continue to work on cabinetry and make sure I'm ready.
Whiskey
Joined
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40,445 Posts
I'm continuing to work on the cabinet doors. I got the hardware mounted up:
![Wood Rectangle Floor Flooring Composite material]()
Then I got them all broken down, sanded, and I'm about half way done with priming, but then the weather took a turn and I spray outside, so it was time to focus on something else.
So! I'm putting some thought into the lighting bar. I got a lighting bar with the tank, it's made out of 80/20 extruded aluminum which is fantastic because even though the exact design that was used before doesn't suit my lights, it's like a big erector set and you can rearrange all the pieces to suit whatever. It's the perfect platform to build on.
I'm planning to use 6 Hydra 32's (According to BRS the perfect height is 14 inches)
And I'll have 4 36W T5's and 4 54W T5 (3 foot and 4 foot to make 7 feet). There will be two rows on the front, and 2 on the back. The perfect mounting height for these is 10 inches.
For this reason I've arranged the bar to mount the Hydras above the T5's, and I will use wood pieces screwed into the T-Track to extend the T5 6 inches past the end of the bar because it's 6 feet, this will also drop them lower. This will make sense when you see it.
Then, the entire lighting bar will mount by block pullies to the horizontal supports on the canopy. I will have 6 inch liner actuators that will allow me to raise the lights to 20 inches so that I can work on the tank without hitting my head (I hate that) and then drop them down to 14 inches for the perfect light efficiency and spread. I was shocked to see how cheap these things are, $41 each for ones that can lift 330lbs. I'm using 2 for safety. They are IP54 certified for water spray as well!
Here's he partly assembled light bar. 4 of the Hydras will come from the current tank:
![Automotive lighting Bumper Rectangle Automotive exterior Gas]()
Plus I'm 3D printing some of these little deals which are designed to hold the the Hydra 32 transformers to keep them organized, but out of the way and safe. I'm mounting them to the back of the Canopy, but close enough to the side so that I can easily grab them.
![Automotive design Rectangle Wood Automotive exterior Cable]()
That's pretty much the update! I hope to mount some T5's after work tomorrow.
Whiskey
Then I got them all broken down, sanded, and I'm about half way done with priming, but then the weather took a turn and I spray outside, so it was time to focus on something else.
So! I'm putting some thought into the lighting bar. I got a lighting bar with the tank, it's made out of 80/20 extruded aluminum which is fantastic because even though the exact design that was used before doesn't suit my lights, it's like a big erector set and you can rearrange all the pieces to suit whatever. It's the perfect platform to build on.
I'm planning to use 6 Hydra 32's (According to BRS the perfect height is 14 inches)
And I'll have 4 36W T5's and 4 54W T5 (3 foot and 4 foot to make 7 feet). There will be two rows on the front, and 2 on the back. The perfect mounting height for these is 10 inches.
For this reason I've arranged the bar to mount the Hydras above the T5's, and I will use wood pieces screwed into the T-Track to extend the T5 6 inches past the end of the bar because it's 6 feet, this will also drop them lower. This will make sense when you see it.
Then, the entire lighting bar will mount by block pullies to the horizontal supports on the canopy. I will have 6 inch liner actuators that will allow me to raise the lights to 20 inches so that I can work on the tank without hitting my head (I hate that) and then drop them down to 14 inches for the perfect light efficiency and spread. I was shocked to see how cheap these things are, $41 each for ones that can lift 330lbs. I'm using 2 for safety. They are IP54 certified for water spray as well!
Here's he partly assembled light bar. 4 of the Hydras will come from the current tank:
Plus I'm 3D printing some of these little deals which are designed to hold the the Hydra 32 transformers to keep them organized, but out of the way and safe. I'm mounting them to the back of the Canopy, but close enough to the side so that I can easily grab them.
That's pretty much the update! I hope to mount some T5's after work tomorrow.
Whiskey
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40,445 Posts
Hello all! It's been a bit since I updated, I got covid and it's been kicking my butt. I have made progress, but not a ton with all that going on. Here's where we are at now:
I added mounting blocks for the T5 lights onto the lighting gantry, I also mounted the 4 foot T5's and ballasts. The 3 foot ones will come off the existing tank at the time of the tank swap, you can see I have the mounting blocks and space for the ballast ready for it. I plan to connect all the T5's into one cord for easy cable management, and I bought the 12/3 wire to do it, but I haven't gotten that far yet.
![Wood Bumper Automotive exterior Auto part Musical instrument accessory]()
![Wood Rectangle Plank Font Bumper]()
![Blue Rectangle Electric blue Tints and shades Magenta]()
I'm not exactly sure why, but those 4 wires at one end of the bulb need to be kept as short as possible. In my case I will not have a top on this canopy so I opted to mount them right there, but if you do trap humidity in your hood the back is a better choice.
Now that that's done, I took the entire gantry and mounted it inside the canopy shell. This is hung by 1/8 inch cables, the cables support over 300 lbs each, and the actuators support over 330 each. This should be way more than I will ever need. In the event that one of the actuators ever did have a catastrophic failure the lights can only fall about 7 inches from the highest position before the cable bars contact the pully blocks and stop it. I don't expect to ever need this safety feature, but it's good to know I have it.
All the way up:
![Light Blue Rectangle Audio equipment Gas]()
![Water Blue Fluid Liquid Gas]()
Down:
![Blue Entertainment Electronic instrument Rectangle Gas]()
![Blue Rectangle Gas Engineering Electric blue]()
Whiskey
I added mounting blocks for the T5 lights onto the lighting gantry, I also mounted the 4 foot T5's and ballasts. The 3 foot ones will come off the existing tank at the time of the tank swap, you can see I have the mounting blocks and space for the ballast ready for it. I plan to connect all the T5's into one cord for easy cable management, and I bought the 12/3 wire to do it, but I haven't gotten that far yet.
I'm not exactly sure why, but those 4 wires at one end of the bulb need to be kept as short as possible. In my case I will not have a top on this canopy so I opted to mount them right there, but if you do trap humidity in your hood the back is a better choice.
Now that that's done, I took the entire gantry and mounted it inside the canopy shell. This is hung by 1/8 inch cables, the cables support over 300 lbs each, and the actuators support over 330 each. This should be way more than I will ever need. In the event that one of the actuators ever did have a catastrophic failure the lights can only fall about 7 inches from the highest position before the cable bars contact the pully blocks and stop it. I don't expect to ever need this safety feature, but it's good to know I have it.
All the way up:
Down:
Whiskey
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