Inherited 90

[redfishbluefish]

The following are recaptured posts from Google cache after our site was “lost” on or about June 1, 2011. I apologize if I did not fully restore them into original appearance, but I’m cursed with limited computer knowledge and didn’t want to spend multiple hours trying to make this picture perfect. However, all content is here. I also did not check all “links” since they may also be missing if they were NJRC posts that were posted during the past year. I’m also going to guess at the ”break” points for the original nine pages that were in this thread, and repost nine pages of original posts.




Title: Inherited 90
Post by: redfishbluefish on November 29, 2010, 02:51:48 PM

I’m actually picking up this “Tale” that I inherited at the end of last year. I felt it needed its own tale and here it is. Without getting into details, over the past 11 months I stabilizing the parameters, upgraded the lights, added new equipment, and added more rock, corals and fish. The short list of what still needs to be done are:

1. Build cabinet for left side of tank.
2. Build canopy.
3. Finish base cabinet with molding
4. Install external pump for skimmer

Here is a current picture showing the temporary canopy to keep the fish from carpet surfing. Oh, and it is a five foot, 90 gallon tank, with a 40 breeder sump. Six T5 ATI lamps driven by IceCap 660 and 430 ballasts, with two IceCap blue LED moonlights. Skimmer is an MRC 3 with a MAG 24 pump and the return pump is a MAG 9.5. Two 300 watt heaters and a BRS duel reactor for carbon and gfo. Glass holes overflow with a filter sock in the left drain only, to keep crap out of the skimmer beckett. All is controlled with a ReefKeeper 2 and ReefKeeper Lite.

Before I can get to the above to-do list, the sump developed a problem that I posted HERE . Simply put, the baffle walls were failing because of a poor silicone job.

So the beginning of this tale will be the building of a new sump....a new 40 breeder with improvements. I’m going to break here to get the pictures together, but here is a current mug-shoot of the sump:

LEFT SIDE – Filter sock (just resting on a baffle), skimmer pump and return line.
MIDDLE – Return section with MAG 9.5
RIGHT SIDE – Refugium with deep sand bed, some rock and cheato.




Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 1 Post by: JRWOHLER on November 29, 2010, 03:55:02 PM

Is the tank still sharing the room with John?
Looks good, but sounds like you have a lot of work ahead, I am sure you will plan things because it sounds a bit tricky unless you break it down and then build it back up.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 2 Post by: redfishbluefish on November 29, 2010, 04:04:18 PM

Quote from: JRWOHLER on November 29, 2010, 03:55:02 PM

Is the tank still sharing the room with John?

Jon is in Rhode Island playing house.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 3 Post by: MadReefer on November 29, 2010, 04:40:52 PM

Paul,
What about that nice tall tank you showed me sitting empty.... : ;D


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 4 Post by: redfishbluefish on November 29, 2010, 08:26:42 PM

First on the list was drilling a hole for the bulkhead for the skimmer pump. A drill bit and bulkhead were ordered from glass-holes.com…..and of course a little candy came along with the order….love that company. Second was to determine if the glass was tempered. This was especially true since I found a label in the bottom of the tank that read, “WARNING: Do Not Drill Glass Enclosure.” Luckily Sid (The Codfather) had posted a method of checking if the tank was tempered HERE. However, I was still bothered by this method since I was not able to see a “positive” result for tempered glass. All five sides of the tank showed them to be non-tempered. I was under the assumption that the bottom glass was typically tempered. But again, the Sid test showed it wasn’t.

The package from glass-holes arrived and my wife enjoyed the candy while I proceeded to drill the tank. But, before I drilled, I made a jig out of Plexiglas that was the size of the drill bit to help stabilize the drilling operation as well as act as a reservoir for the water to keep the bit cool. Here’s a picture of the jig with a little plumber’s putty on it to help make a water seal.

The jig was positioned and taped to the tank.

The tank was put up on end and the drilling began….slow and easy…with water in the jig to keep things cool.

And eventually you get a hole.

Don’t forget to put something down to catch the glass hole. Hate to cut the hole and have it fall and break the glass on the opposing wall.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 5 Post by: JRWOHLER on November 30, 2010, 10:16:40 AM

I cannot believe you did this recently your pool is too clean.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 6 Post by: redfishbluefish on November 30, 2010, 10:53:50 AM

Quote from: JRWOHLER on November 30, 2010, 10:16:40 AM

I cannot believe you did this recently your pool is too clean.

James, you can thank my pool boy……….….his name is Aqua Bot. ;D

Actually this was started a couple months ago, but LIFE kept on getting in the way. I’m just finishing it up, and I'm actually in the process of heating the 50 gallons of water.....another day maybe.

I’m hoping starting this Tale will give me the impetus to finally finishing this thing.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 7 Post by: redfishbluefish on November 30, 2010, 11:19:20 AM

BAFFLES

size=11pt]Next came the baffles. The original sump was “textbook,” with the three-baffle bubble trap. WHAT A JOKE. I never saw a bubble go more than an inch or so down into the trap…on just one side. This is engineering over-design to the nth degree. Here’s the current three-baffle bubble trap:

I went with a two baffle bubble trap with the second baffle made of ¼ inch (blue) acrylic and tapped and screwed with nylon machine bolts to the supporting 3/8 inch baffle. It did require making little stand-off blocks out of ½ inch acrylic.

And here is the bubble trap baffle set-up. The intent is to silicone the 3/8 baffle only….the clear one. The bubble trap baffle (blue one) will just be screwed to the clear baffle.

Lay-out lines were drawn on the outside of the tank using a builder’s square and black sharpie. By putting these on the outside, they are easily removed by wiping with a little isopropyl alcohol.

Before installing the baffles, holes were drilled in the one baffle to accept conduit clamps that will be used to hold the 300 watt heaters. The current setup just has the heater thrown into the two sections of the sump. One heater will be in the left section, the other in the middle section.

Baffles were installed in the tank. This time a lot of silicone was used to make sure these stay in place.

[/size]


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 8 Post by: redfishbluefish on November 30, 2010, 12:02:51 PM

ADD – ONS


With the basic sump done, now time for the add-ons that the other tank did not have.

FILTER SOCK

The filter sock in the original tank simply rested on the one baffle. A holder was made that was attached to the upper frame of the tank with nylon machine bolts. A spacer was installed between the holder and the frame to allow water to flow back into the tank if and when the sock overflowed.

BUBBLE GUARD

If you look at the above picture, it was cause for a potential problem that was unforeseen in the original planning. Water entering the sock from the DT was directly above the pick-up for the skimmer. Skimmers with becketts do not work if they are sucking in bubbles. So a bubble guard was made to keep bubbles from entering the skimmer pick-up. When I finished the one supporting bracket, I brought it upstairs and asked my wife, who grow up in northwest Pennsylvania, what she thought it was. Without hesitation she said the Nicholson Bridge. Now I know I lost everyone with this one, so let me show you what I’m talking about using pictures.

The support bracket:

The Nicholson Bridge:

The skimmer bubble guard was installed by using cyanoacrylate glue to glue the bracket to the side of the tank. The other side is simply a piece of ½ acrylic that uses the screws from the baffle connections. The top “guard” just rests on the two supports so that it can easily be removed for maintenance.

FISH GUARD and PH PROBE HOLDER

To the baffle for the refugium, a fish guard was made by first making small brackets. The brackets would hold egg crate and keep the fish in the refugium has well as any rouge cheato.

From the above picture, you can see a probe bulkhead to the left. This was installed to securely hold the pH probe. I already lost one probe by it falling below the waterline. With this bulkhead, it wasn’t going anywhere.

AUTOMATIC TOP OFF

And finally, an Aquahub ATO was installed by tapping and screwing it to the bubble trap baffle. I did a DIY post that can be found HERE if you wish to see the detail.

And that’s it…one finished sump. Now waiting for the 50 gallons of fresh saltwater to get up to temperature and then I’m popping this puppy in.



Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 9 Post by: Jcurry on November 30, 2010, 12:44:03 PM

The sump looks good Paul. I've always refered to the "Nicolson Bridge" as the DL&W's Tunkhannock Viaduct. Some day I'll actually get up there and walk it.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 10 Post by: magic on November 30, 2010, 01:00:29 PM

Paul

Nice job buddy!

Bob


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 11 Post by: redfishbluefish on November 30, 2010, 03:37:25 PM

Guys, thanks for the comments.


In regards to the bridge, the railroad in that area was originally owned and operated by the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad (D,L&WR). Not sure who owns the line now….it is still being used…maybe Conrail, but not sure. In fact, they have a “Christmas” train that has come through the past few years (at night) picking up food for the needy. The train is spectacularly bedazzled in lights….absolutely unbelievable. Big crowds line Nicholson waiting for the train to pass over the bridge. It stops and waits there for ten minutes or so while people snap pictures. Realize the town is down below this bridge, and a good distance away.

Anyway, the official name of the bridge is the Tunkhannock Viaduct, but people in them there parts refer to it as either the Nicholson Bridge or Nicholson Viaduct.

When my wife was young, many, many, many years ago, she and her gang use to climb in and about the bridge. However today you cannot get near the thing. Signs all over the place to “Keep Off.” Not even allowed to walk across it.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 12 Post by: redfishbluefish on November 30, 2010, 03:51:03 PM

Just finished the switch.


Old sump out:

New sump in:

Still need to add the cheato and rock back into the refugium.
Also found that one of my 300W heats was toast. The little light is on, but no heat!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 13 Post by: redfishbluefish on November 30, 2010, 05:40:12 PM

My first nano!

Actually it is a shot of my refugium with the cabinet door closed….it has a panel missing where the refugium is located. Behind the ‘Berlin Wall’ is a wad of cheato. My wishes are to eventually put a 6 – 8, 3W cree LED fixture over this sump and grow some coral in there as well. Right now it is a screw-in 11 watt LED floodlight in a HomeDepot clip fixture.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 14 Post by: itzju on November 30, 2010, 07:09:06 PM

looks amazing! great job on the redone sump!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 15 Post by: ThermoSTS on November 30, 2010, 10:03:50 PM

Who needs a display tank when you have a sump like that. ;D Its almost like an AIO on steroids.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 16 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 01, 2010, 10:05:40 AM

I switched out the return pump when I did the sump change with the spare backup I had. I don’t think this MAG 9.5 has been clean….ever…..for the three plus years its been running. The only thing I can say is that I’m shocked it was still running. When I opened it up, the magnet was covered with gunk and goo. Again, I can’t see how this thing was spinning. It’s soaking in vinegar right now, and then I’ll box it up as the new spare and consider changing it out….maybe yearly.

Anyone else using MAGs have them on a cleaning schedule?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 17 Post by: MadReefer on December 01, 2010, 11:30:29 AM

Paul,
That is a practice that everyone should probably do but doesn't. I am one of the latter ones unfortunately. I need to get another pump so I can swap them out for cleaning. The pumps should last longer and perform better this way. MikeM was a big fan of this. Everytime I went over by him he always had a few pumps soaking.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 18 Post by: JRWOHLER on December 01, 2010, 11:44:51 AM

I have one and like you it was 2 years before the first cleaning. I noticed my smaller quiet one pump was pumping water faster then my Mag12 so had to clean it.

They put off a lot of heat but they are so reliable it makes up for it IMHO.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 19 Post by: Jcurry on December 01, 2010, 01:02:05 PM

I religiously cleaned my Iwaki & Panworld pumps monthly. I never had to soak them just scrub them out with hot water and an old toothbrush. I got 13 years of service from my Iwakis before I sold them.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 20 Post by: NikkiT on December 02, 2010, 04:58:05 PM

Tank (and sump) look great Paul!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 21 Post by: Brando457 on December 02, 2010, 11:59:07 PM

Paul did you make that filter sock holder or buy it (if bought where can I get one!)


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 22 Post by: jimroth on December 03, 2010, 12:08:42 AM

Paul, that sump is a masterpiece! The bridge part is a hoot. I want to copy some of your designs!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 23 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 03, 2010, 07:40:31 AM

Quote from: Brando457 on December 02, 2010, 11:59:07 PM

Paul did you make that filter sock holder or buy it (if bought where can I get one!)

100% USA homemade! If you lived a little closer, or wanted to drop your sump off here……



Quote from: jimroth on December 03, 2010, 12:08:42 AM

Paul, that sump is a masterpiece! The bridge part is a hoot. I want to copy some of your designs!

Jim, not a problem. Please make the royalty check out for $1000 and send to…… ……. ;D



One note of caution about both my bubble trap and the single baffle separating the refugium from the return section. I’m actually getting some bubble formation from the water cascading down the baffle into the return section. It is more noticeable on the refugium side. The water is bubble free up to the baffle, and then that couple inch waterfall over the baffle causes bubble formation. The bubbles immediately float up to the surface, and are not picked up by the return pump. I don’t remember having this issue with my old sump that had the same single baffle wall on the refugium side. The only thing I could guess is that by changing out the return pump that hadn’t been cleaned in three plus years has given me a little more flow. The additional flow has caused for the slight bubble formation when cascading over the baffle. I tried taking a picture of the bubbles, but they don’t show up with the flash going off. I’ll try a little later without flash, when my lights come on.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 24 Post by: Brando457 on December 03, 2010, 08:25:38 AM

Unfortunately my sump is running but jeez I know how to call next time.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 25 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 03, 2010, 11:33:14 AM

ATO Water Reservoir

I set up my temporary water reservoir for the ATO. It will hold about ten gallons. The water will be pumped out using an Aqualifter pump. The one concern I have is the potential of a siphon starting when the reservoir water height is above the exit of the tubing into the sump. I am not smart enough to figure out if my reservoir water height is at the level in the bucket or the level in the jug resting on top of the bucket. If it is at the level of the bucket, I have no problem….but if it is the jug, it is above the level of the exit point of the tubing and a siphon could start. Anyone smarter than me wish to educate me on this one?

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 26 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 03, 2010, 02:16:31 PM

The more I think about the siphon point in the above reservoir, I’m pretty sure the level of water in the bucket is what determines the siphon point.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 27 Post by: SHLUZER on December 03, 2010, 03:10:57 PM

I thought level of water entry to pipe vs of exit point is what matters.
If you put Aqualifter on the bottom of the bucket(let's call it 'floor-level' ) and the exit opening over the sump on the level about 1 foot above'floor-level' , then you should be ok, no siphon. Even if water level in the bucket is above sump water level.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 28 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 03, 2010, 04:03:57 PM

Quote from: SHLUZER on December 03, 2010, 03:10:57 PM

I thought level of water entry to pipe vs of exit point is what matters.
If you put Aqualifter on the bottom of the bucket(let's call it 'floor-level' ) and the exit opening over the sump on the level about 1 foot above'floor-level' , then you should be ok, no siphon. Even if water level in the bucket is above sump water level.

NO!


What is critical for a siphon is two things:

1. The level of the water.
2. The position of the end of the hose/tube.

What happens between these two points doesn’t matter. If you take the hose high, low, or have the pump on the floor, etc., all of this doesn’t matter.

If the position of the end of the hose is below the level of the water, you will have a siphon. If the position of the end of the hose is above the level of the water, you will not create a siphon.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 29 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 05, 2010, 07:16:18 AM

Splash Guard

I noticed the water entering the refugium from the DT, through my Rube Goldberg bubble trap, was still putting out bubbles. When the bubbles pop, water was hitting outside the sump. I knew this would lead to salt creep, so I fashioned a thin piece of plexi to act as a splash guard. It is hard to see, so I’m pointing to it with a red arrow. A couple hours after taking the picture I noticed that the weight of the water droplets that formed on the guard were causing it to lean into the tank. So I had to add a retaining bracket to hold it in place.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 30 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 05, 2010, 08:02:23 PM

Finishing Up the ATO

I posted the DIY Aquahub kit that I put together HERE . This is the finishing steps, hooking it up to the sump. I’ll go from the reservoir to the sump.

To hold the tubing to the bottom of the water reservoir, I cut a dado (a groove), in a piece of half-inch acrylic that snuggly fit the tubing. Here you can see the tubing stuffed into the dado.

The weight of the acrylic will hold the tube at the bottom of the reservoir, as seen here:

The above also shows the tubing leaving the top of the bucket. The plastic was relatively sharp, so I put in a rubber grommet to protect the tubing. Here’s a shot of the finished reservoir that will hold a total of ten gallons….five in the bucket and five in the water jug.

The tubing then went up under the window stool, were it was attached with clips.

The tubing then went through a hole in the back upper right corner of the stand. Just inside the stand, the tubing was hooked up to an Aqua Lifter pump that would be controlled by the ATO unit. Here you can see the Aqua Lifter in the lower right corner, with the relay that controls the pump in the black box. Between the two of them is the outlet that has the lower outlet live all the time, where the relay transformed is plugged in. The upper outlet has the pump plug, which only receives juice when the relay says, “give me water.”

Finally, the tubing leaves the Aqua Lifter and enters the sump through the back right corner. Had to drill a hole in the splash guard to bring the tubing into the sump.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 31 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 07, 2010, 10:22:44 PM



FTS with moonlights

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 32 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 09, 2010, 09:23:15 AM


Artwork


If you are not familiar with Robert Lyn Nelson, you need to google his name and check out his artwork. Just spectacular!

I picked up two of his prints a couple years ago in anticipation of putting these up in my office. Well I actually did hang them there, but it is still just studs, with no walls. So I moved them up into the room with the DT. Here they are:

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 33 Post by: JRWOHLER on December 09, 2010, 01:37:27 PM

Looks like you repainted the room too if I recall correctly it had a "different motif".


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 34 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 14, 2010, 09:13:07 AM

Quote from: JRWOHLER on December 09, 2010, 01:37:27 PM

Looks like you repainted the room too if I recall correctly it had a "different motif".

That “different motif” is still on that one wall. It will soon be painted over with a nice white.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 35 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 14, 2010, 09:15:01 AM

Can I do this???



My MRC currently sits to the left of my tank on a small table, as seen in the picture here:

I am building a cabinet to hide this ugly beast. The problem is that cabinet will be relatively narrow, making access to the beckett (that is currently behind the skimmer chamber), very difficult.

I want to do two things:

1. Turn the skimmer 90 degrees and use an elbow on the return line…as seen here:

2. Move the injector from the “back” up to the “front” hole. Every MRC that I’ve seen with a single injector has had that injector in the same port. Here is the current configuration, but want to move it up to that “front” port location.

If I do both these things, will it impact skimmer performance? Any issues?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 36 Post by: SHLUZER on December 14, 2010, 10:54:38 AM


Quote from: redfishbluefish on November 30, 2010, 05:40:12 PM

My wishes are to eventually put a 6 – 8, 3W cree LED fixture over this sump and grow some coral in there as well.

Paul,
Question bout cree LEDs. Are they brighter than regular or do they provide the 'right' spectrum (vs regular cheap LEDs) ?
I've seen CRE-mini-LED-flashlight(3W) very cheap. Would it be feasible to string several of them with proper DC source ?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 37 Post by: SHLUZER on December 14, 2010, 11:37:46 AM

How do you make sure that plastic baffles hold against the glass?
Do you stop recirc pump during the feeding (to prevent food going into overflow down to sock) ?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 38 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 14, 2010, 12:19:42 PM

Quote from: SHLUZER on December 14, 2010, 10:54:38 AM

Paul,
Question bout cree LEDs. Are they brighter than regular or do they provide the 'right' spectrum (vs regular cheap LEDs) ?
I've seen CRE-mini-LED-flashlight(3W) very cheap. Would it be feasible to string several of them with proper DC source ?

Alex, I speak with great ignorance. I can only tell you what I’ve read. It is my understanding that cree LEDs are the gold standard. They have the “right” spectrum and output for aquarium use, and are a quality LED. I have no idea what LED's are in that flashlight....just because they are cree, they still might not be the right spectrum / output. I would recommend reading the summary from TheFishMan65 on the RC site, page 200. HERE’S the link, about halfway down the page. It’s a nice summary about LED DIY’s.



Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 39 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 14, 2010, 12:30:03 PM

Quote from: SHLUZER on December 14, 2010, 11:37:46 AM

How do you make sure that plastic baffles hold against the glass?

Just like with glass baffles, I have a large bead of silicone running down each side of the baffle. I don’t believe that gobbly-gook that people say that glass baffles for glass sumps, acrylic baffles for acrylic sumps. With either one, the baffle is physically trapped by the bead of silicone running down the glass wall of the tank.

Quote from: SHLUZER on December 14, 2010, 11:37:46 AM

Do you stop recirc pump during the feeding (to prevent food going into overflow down to sock) ?

I do stop the pumps when feeding, but not to stop the food from going into the sump/sock. I stop the pumps so the fish can more easily grab the food. With three 1400 Koralia Evolutions, the food gets whipped around if I don’t turn them off. I use the “standby” feature on the ReefKeeper to stop all pumps with the push of one button.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 40 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 14, 2010, 02:06:20 PM

FTS with full lights:

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 41 Post by: SHLUZER on December 14, 2010, 04:26:30 PM

very nice.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 42 Post by: Tazmaniancowboy on December 14, 2010, 10:05:48 PM

Paul, to answer your questions from what I have researched in the past (being I had the same skimmer) The beckett can be moved with no effect on performance at all. The elbow can and will make the skimmer even more finicky than it already is and may reduce it's performance drastically due to back pressure in the elbow. I would try it, but maybe only make it temporary in case you need to return it to original. You may get lucky


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 43 Post by: REEFLECTIONS on December 14, 2010, 11:09:11 PM

with the sump water level as high as it is.... if the return pump turned off for some reason, is the enough room to catch the water syphoned from the return lines?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 44 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 14, 2010, 11:35:21 PM

Quote from: REEFLECTIONS on December 14, 2010, 11:09:11 PM

with the sump water level as high as it is.... if the return pump turned off for some reason, is the enough room to catch the water syphoned from the return lines?

I have two siphon breaks that might pull ¼ inch of water out of the DT. The sump can easily handle this volume, even with the high baffles, with plenty of room to spare.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 45 Post by: REEFLECTIONS on December 15, 2010, 12:14:30 AM

ok, guess you just have to make sure they stay clean


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 46 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 16, 2010, 12:52:49 AM

External Pump for the Skimmer

Picked up a used Pan World pump for a good price (Thanks Steve). It was in pretty good shape, with some blistering paint on the body of the pump, and pealing paint on the foot.

I unscrewed everything I could unscrew, and gave it a good sanding with 220 wet/dry paper.

After sanding, it received a coat of primer and then two coats of fresh yellow paint. After the paint dried, a dab of Anti-Seize was put on each screw and all was re-attached to the pump.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 47 Post by: mfisher2112 on December 16, 2010, 07:43:26 AM

Good pump. Those things run forever (as long as nothing gets jammed in it! LOL!). I have a panworld 250ps that has less than 5 hours on it, but someone got something sucked up in it and the ceramic shaft snapped in the impellar housing. Just be aware that while they are mean pumps, that ceramic shaft will not hold up to abuse, and the entire housing has to be replaced in order to replace it.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 48 Post by: redfishbluefish on December 21, 2010, 08:36:36 PM

This hobby never lets you get ahead!


I had a little problem with cyano when Jack Blenny (my wife named the Starry Blenny), decided to cash in his chips and kick the bucket. After a month or so of first picking out the mats of cyano with each water change, followed by light vacuuming of the sand with water changes and further followed by simple regular water changes, I am virtually cyano free. However, I now have a case of diatoms. I’m guessing that all that new water brought in silicates to feed the diatoms. The mystery is that my TDS meter still showed zero TDS. Even though TDS was zero, the resin was a little over a year old, so I was questioning that zero number.

In the mean time I had asked Taz to save some of his waste DI resin that he changes more often than I change my underwear. He gave me a gallon jug that was ¾ - plus full of resin. So I decided to try, for the first time, to regenerate the resin. I used the instructions found HERE .


One note of caution - I thought the author was a bit flippant concerning his comments about using both the acid and base solutions. Both these solutions are highly caustic and I recommend wearing old clothes (both will eat a hole through your clothes) and rubber gloves. The sodium hydroxide is very obvious on your skin (gets slippery) while the hydrochloric acid is not felt until after it has burnt your skin. Both require continual flushing once it has contacted your skin. Eye protection is not a bad idea either.

So I regenerated all this resin from Taz, and, if you haven’t read the above link, you now have the resin split into an anionic portion and cationic portion. The separating of these two components, although easy, is a little time consuming. So now I’m thinking of a way to use this stuff without mixing it back together. This would make regenerating it again a breeze….acid wash for one, base wash for the other. Two things came to mind….the BRS dual reactor I recently purchase for GFO/carbon and the post I saw with Ed selling a two chambered RO water unit.

Here’s the RO unit I picked up from Ed for an unbelievable price (Thanks Ed).

I pulled off the RO filter and carbon polishing filter. Flipped the bracket over so the flow was in the right direction for my RO unit and changed one of the fittings to fit ¼ inch tubing.

I took out my DI cartridge and noticed the retaining sponges were a very fine opened cell foam while the extra cartridge I had from the BRS unit had a very large open cell foam discs. Here is a shot of the DI cartridge where you can see the fine foam sponge.

To keep the resin from simply washing through the large open cell foam, I covered the foam discs with a small piece of sheer curtain fabric. This was the same sheer curtain fabric I used to filter the resin, so I knew it would hold back the resin. Here is a picture of one end already covered with the fabric, with the other having the fabric draped across the disc.

The first canister was filled with Cation resin, with the second filled with Anion resin. Here is the unit up and running.

I have left my original single canister unit screwed to the wall just in case the new resin doesn’t start to help cleaning up the diatoms. What’s planned is picking up a canister specially made to pick up silicates. Here’s a shot of the RO unit with the new dual DI unit below, on the left, and the original single unit on the right.

Finally, I need to thank both Taz and Ed for their generosity that has allowed me to play like this.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 49 Post by: Tazmaniancowboy on January 02, 2011, 10:24:30 PM

WOW pretty cool. Glad you enjoyed it! I may have to do that sometime. Currently down to 1 canister in 24 hrs again :'( Going to talk to the water guy this week again, I can't keep doing this


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 50 Post by: Baxreefs on January 02, 2011, 10:31:54 PM

Great choice with the Pan World. I have several and would never give them up! Definitely worth refurbishing and you did a sweet job!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 51 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 03, 2011, 12:19:01 PM

Taz, sorry to hear about your water problems. There has got to be something wrong, going through a canister a day. Do you actually know what is blowing past your RO unit and saturating out you DI resin within a day? What is the TDS coming out of your RO unit? Also, what brand resin are you using?


I’m actually having a problem with the regenerated resin. I’m not sure if it is just fouled or my regeneration did not work for some reason.


Bax, thanks for the positive words. I originally purchased a GenX and I’m not sure if I’ll hold onto it for a backup or sell it. I’ve heard nothing but positive things about the Pan World, and this one was actually in very good shape, short of the cosmetics.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 52 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 06, 2011, 03:19:54 PM

I’ve finally gone Brute for my salt mixing bucket. I’ve been using a Rubbermaid Roughneck 18 gallon tub for the past three years to mix my weekly 15 gallons of water. The past six months or so I’ve been concerned about failure of this tub, especially with the walls bulging quite a bit when filled with water.

We also used these tubs for years around the pool to hold toys, towels, etc., and I’ve actually seen these things fail, and tear apart. Of course the UV light exposure to the sun I’m sure assisted in their premature failure.

I was in HD looking to replace the two snow shovels my kids broke this past snow storm….no shovels…all sold out. The cashier told me that they received 12 $600 snow-blowers today, and within an hour, 11 were sold. Anyway, since I was in the garden center, I spotted the Brutes. I didn’t know they made a smaller bucket. So I picked up a 20 gallon Brute to replace the Roughneck tub.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 53 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 06, 2011, 06:09:09 PM

So this idiot just finished doing a water change and I forgot to turn off the ATO. This thing is too new for me and I totally forgot about it until the last few gallons of new water was being pumped in. At best, I put a gallon of fresh water into the total of ca 120 gallons. No noticeable change in salinity. What an idiot! :-\


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 54 Post by: ThermoSTS on January 06, 2011, 06:44:00 PM

Yea that darn ATO will get you every time. I'll be siphoning out the tank and hear the ATO turn on... do you know how hard it is to pull a plug out of an outlet strip with only one dry hand?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 55 Post by: mfisher2112 on January 06, 2011, 07:00:27 PM

Hey Paul, they make a wheeled dolly that snaps on to the bottom of those Brutes as well. It's almost as expensive as the whole can is, but it is well worth it in the end if you ever need to move that thing around with water in it!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 56 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 10, 2011, 08:10:06 PM

Thanks Matt. I actually already have the dolly.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 57 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 10, 2011, 08:11:21 PM

Thank you Derrick (ynotme4886) for the newest addition to the tank…and thank you Sid (Codfather) for making the delivery.

I picked up a red and black sea cucumber from Derrick. Put the little echinoderm in the tank after acclimating for an hour or so. Hung out at the front glass of the tank, moving about six inches or so before I went to bed. The wishes were for this little bugger to clean my sand in the front of the tank. Woke up this morning and he was gone. Either moved in and amongst the rock or buried himself in the sand.

Here’s a picture that doesn’t even come close to the correct color…a point-n-shot camera. Now isn’t he pretty….there is a reason they don’t have eyes! ;D

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 58 Post by: trivan on January 10, 2011, 09:12:13 PM

Great :-[ I just picked up the same Rubbermaid tubs for my mixing station. I at least hope I can get 3 years out of the ones I bought. I did notice the bulging when I filled it up with water. I like the shape of it as I don't have enough space for brute cans. Maybe plywood around to reinforce it??




Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 59 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 10, 2011, 09:50:13 PM

You shouldn’t have a problem. Again, the one I was using was going for three + years. I’m just overly anal retentive. There are others who have been using them for years, and some who actually use them for there sump/refugium.

The 20 gallon Brute isn’t that big. Total footprint appears to be a little smaller than the Roughneck. It is a little taller.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 60 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 12, 2011, 04:38:31 PM

The Nickolson Bridge support bracket that I super-glued (cyanoacrylate) to the side glass of the sump has come off.

Anyone have an idea how to re-glue it to the glass? Thoughts are either silicone or epoxy, but I’m open to suggestions.




Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 61 Post by: joejoe on January 12, 2011, 04:59:45 PM

You could use household goop.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 62 Post by: panmanmatt on January 12, 2011, 05:03:14 PM

I think silicone will be your best bet.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 63 Post by: Brando457 on January 12, 2011, 06:49:57 PM

Quote from: redfishbluefish on January 12, 2011, 04:38:31 PM

The Nickolson Bridge support bracket that I super-glued (cyanoacrylate) to the side glass of the sump has come off.

Whats it do?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 64 Post by: REEFLECTIONS on January 12, 2011, 06:51:09 PM

what if you just put a thick bead of silicone all around the glass right above the structure, more to keep it from moving up, than to glue it in place.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 65 Post by: magic on January 12, 2011, 07:44:00 PM

Let's hope the real one is anchored better ;D


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 66 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 12, 2011, 09:34:46 PM

Quote from: Brando457 on January 12, 2011, 06:49:57 PM

Quote from: redfishbluefish on January 12, 2011, 04:38:31 PM
The Nickolson Bridge support bracket that I super-glued (cyanoacrylate) to the side glass of the sump has come off.

Whats it do?

The bracket simply supports that piece of acrylic that is above the pick-up to the bulkhead. It keeps bubbles (coming from the inlet from the DT), from getting sucked into that bulkhead pipe. That pipe feeds the becketted skimmer, where bubbles would screw up the skimming action. Bubbles and becketts don’t get along.

I was surprised the cyanoacrylate failed. There is no real stress on this bracket. One piece of acrylic rests on the top edge of the bracket.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 67 Post by: mfisher2112 on January 13, 2011, 07:13:05 AM

If you can lift that support bracket out, try running a run of silicone along the glass where the support sits, and along the edge, slide the support into the silicone, and then run silicone across the top of it. While the silicone won't bond the two together, you can create enough of a "brace" from it that the support shouldn't move.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 68 Post by: joejoe on January 13, 2011, 09:05:51 AM

Put a piece of rock on it. 


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 69 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 14, 2011, 02:40:15 PM

I’ve got an old tank that ain’t pretty. To add to it, the guy who made it wasn’t overly skilled and did a crappy job on the corners. I’ve been looking at these poor looking corners for too many years. Here’s a shot of one of the corners.

It is a custom built five foot 90 made with half inch glass. The corners are lightly flamed polished, but the poor seam job isn’t even square. The edge of the front glass is not even with the side glass. In addition, the multiple moves produced a few “divots” in the glass. Here you can see the side glass coming by the front glass by about 1/32 of an inch, and also see one of those chipped divots in the glass.

To cover the crappy looking corners, I ripped down a piece of corner molding to just cover the corners. A quick coat of paint and the molding was put in place using a few dollops of sticky-tack. I’m not overly confident that this stuff will hold, having seen how poorly it has held posters to the wall. Just have to wait and see.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 70 Post by: joejoe on January 14, 2011, 03:18:36 PM

That sounds like an accident waiting to happen.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 71 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 14, 2011, 05:43:46 PM

After picking up the Brute can for water changes, the design of the can did not allow the MAG 7 to pick up the last of the water. The Brute has a raised center in the bottom, with a depressed ring around the outside. A quick dig through all the plastic fittings, and an elbow with a ½ threaded male end was assembled. The lower pick-up pipe was “saw-toothed” using a small round file.

In addition, if anyone hasn’t seen the simple DIY for the hose adaptor (the piece on the top of the MAG), HERE is the link to that. IF YOU USE A MAG (or something similar) FOR A PUMP FOR WATER CHANGES, YOU NEED THIS LITTLE DIY!



Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 72 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 17, 2011, 04:30:19 PM

After putting in the new replacement sump, I’ve notice scum on the surface of the refugium and return section. This was puzzling, since I hadn’t noticed it with the old sump. Things became a bit clearer once I turned off the return pump. After turning the pump back on, I noticed the Chinese knock-off loc-lines were partially clogged, spraying water all over the place. I only had two of these ½ units on the return manifold.

The fan ends on the ends of these units are very small and easily clogged. I did clean them out, and luckily I had installed a total of four tees on the return manifold. So I added a third Loc-Line with large fans. This is a real Loc-Line ¾ inch branched unit.

The additional flow going down into the sump cleared the scum off the surface of the water. I’m actually going to install a forth ¾ Loc-line to minimize any back-pressure on the pump and the possibility of the smaller lines clogging again and causing a problem.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 73 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 20, 2011, 11:55:33 AM

FINISHING UP THE LOC-LINE

Picked up the last of the fittings to make the last adaptor for the ¾ inch Loc-Line. The return manifold is actually ¾ inch pipe with two, ½” NPT elbows and two, ½” NPT Tees. To attach the ¾ Loc-Line, I made adaptors from a ½ NPT to ¾ slip adaptor and a ¾ NPT to ¾ slip connector. To shorten up the whole thing, I cut off half the slip sections on the two pieces. No inspectors are going to be seeing these things, and the glue-up is overkill for a non-pressurized system. Here’s what the adaptor looks like with a ¼’ piece of tubing superglued into it (for the siphon break). The ¼” tubing will be trimmed once installed and the ideal length is determined.

The Loc-Line and adaptor was added to the manifold and here’s the final mug shots of that piece of equipment:

AND, with a little mood lighting:

I know it’s overkill, but with four return feeds into the DT, I’ve got to believe I now have no backpressure from restricted flow though the ends of the Loc-Line.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 74 Post by: mfisher2112 on January 20, 2011, 12:04:59 PM

Love it! I think I'm going to steal your locline attachments for the return line on my 30 gallon on a slightly smaller scale.

What paint did you use to paint it black? Love that idea, and I do have some krylon fusion black left from painting the back of the tank.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 75 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 20, 2011, 12:56:52 PM

I buy the best paint money can buy………Oh wait, it only cost a buck a can at HD! I’ve been using flat black. This is the same stuff that was used on the back of the tank a couple years ago. It holds up just fine (with the exception of ¼ tubing, which I’m guess is polypropylene….nothing sticks to that.)

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 76 Post by: mfisher2112 on January 20, 2011, 01:02:30 PM

LOL! Then my Krylon Fusion should be just fine. That stuff will stick to ANYTHING. Don't know about the tubing though, that would be partially submerged in the water. Can't say for certain that paint is safe to expose directly to the water.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 77 Post by: TanksNStuff on January 20, 2011, 03:14:15 PM

I've been away from the forums for a while, but WOW am I glad I decided to check out this thread! Lots of great ideas and improvements to sumps.

Paul, I have a bunch of questions/comments:

1. Great job on drilling for the bulkhead. Awesome idea for the template and smart to protect from the fallen hole plug.

2. Overall sump redesign is A+. You obviously put a lot of thought and effort into making it suit all your needs.

3. Interesting ATO setup as well. How is it working out? Any siphon issues?

4. Love your idea of that acrylic "splash guard". I've been thinking of something similar myself because I get salt creep near my filtersock/drain from DT. I don't have a lot of room in that chamber, but I may just lay a piece of acrylic on a diagonal and let it rest on the sump frame (lower) and the filter sock holder (higher).

5. You did a fantastic refurb job on that Pan World pump. It looks brand new! It should last a while, but I'd recommend keeping your other pump as a backup just in case.

6. Like your idea to mod a RO unit to keep the resin separated. Sounds like it either isn't working or not worth the effort though. Maybe try brand new media instead of recharged?

7. Didn't know they have 20g Brutes. I could probably use one of them myself instead of filling a bunch of 5g buckets for topoff water.

8. How's the sea cucumber doing? Did it resurface yet? Is the sand any cleaner? I've been thinking of getting one myself. I had a fighting conch, but he mysteriously died a couple months ago.

9. Did you ever work out the "Nickolson Brige" support issue? Why not just use acrylic glue (weldon) and glue the top shelf piece to the "bridge" looking support... sort of like an angle bracket? Then you can just let the other side rest on the piece with the screwed supports and still remove it easily for maintenance. I think that would keep it sturdy enough. The key would be to have a tight fit between the sump wall and the baffle with the supports screwed in.

10. How's the sticky tack holding up on the seem molding? It looks much better with them on there.

11. Not sure how cleaning & adding loc lines reduced the "scum" you were getting in the return and refugium sections. Can you explain the correlation?

I think that's enough for now. If you answer any questions or reply to any comments, please include the numbers so I can keep track of all that, lol.

Great job so far Paul!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 78 Post by: fatoldsun on January 20, 2011, 04:21:38 PM

Quote from: redfishbluefish on December 05, 2010, 07:16:18 AM

Splash Guard

I noticed the water entering the refugium from the DT, through my Rube Goldberg bubble trap, was still putting out bubbles. When the bubbles pop, water was hitting outside the sump. I knew this would lead to salt creep, so I fashioned a thin piece of plexi to act as a splash guard. It is hard to see, so I’m pointing to it with a red arrow. A couple hours after taking the picture I noticed that the weight of the water droplets that formed on the guard were causing it to lean into the tank. So I had to add a retaining bracket to hold it in place.

I think I’m sold on following your design for my sump (royalty check’s in the mail) but I had two questions – 1) what is a Rube Goldberg bubble trap, or more aptly, how do I make one?

2) What’s the spacing on your baffles, i.e., the size of your sections. I’m limited in that I have an in-sump skimmer that’s 7”x10” so I need at least 9” for my skimmer section. Just trying to plan the size of the return and the refgium. I have a 40b so at least I think I’m starting out all right.

PS, sorry to add to the already mounting list of questions - all I can offer: copying is the sincerest form of flattery....

 

[redfishbluefish]

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 79 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 20, 2011, 07:29:20 PM

George, thanks for the kind words. All my answers / comments are in blue, while your original questions remain in black.



Paul, I have a bunch of questions/comments:

1. Great job on drilling for the bulkhead. Awesome idea for the template and smart to protect from the fallen hole plug.


I can’t take credit for the template idea or catching the falling hole. Both these came from Glass-Holes when I ordered the 1500 gph overflow kit. Actually you can watch their video off their website to see both these tips. The 1500 kit actually comes with a similar template made out of hardboard to act as the water reservoir and make sure the two holes are properly spaced.

2. Overall sump redesign is A+. You obviously put a lot of thought and effort into making it suit all your needs.

The first sump was textbook, with two three-baffle bubble traps and no other amenities. I used the experiences from that one to come up with ideas for changes to sump #2 Not happy will all of them and already thinking about sump number three. But that will wait to see how the external pump works out, and if I want to change anything there.

3. Interesting ATO setup as well. How is it working out? Any siphon issues?

The ATO is awesome! It’s the kind of thing that once you have one, you wonder how you ever got by without one. It’s not fully automatic and I still have to manually feed it water in the reservoir. There are no siphoning issues because the water level of the reservoir is below the level of the hose end. The water jug on top does not add to the total water level of the reservoir. I had to do some head scratching with that one.

4. Love your idea of that acrylic "splash guard". I've been thinking of something similar myself because I get salt creep near my filtersock/drain from DT. I don't have a lot of room in that chamber, but I may just lay a piece of acrylic on a diagonal and let it rest on the sump frame (lower) and the filter sock holder (higher).

I’m not fully happy with the splash guard. I’m still thinking of other ways to minimize creep. I’m disappointed in the bubble trap in the refugium. It’s my own invention that isn’t doing anything. The wheels are turning on somehow replacing that as well.

5. You did a fantastic refurb job on that Pan World pump. It looks brand new! It should last a while, but I'd recommend keeping your other pump as a backup just in case.

I’m with you on a backup. I’ve got to thank Steve (9Supratt4) for giving me a great deal on a pump in good condition. I just need to find another PanWorld / Blue Line so that the backup is a two minute switch out without having to do any re-plumbing.

6. Like your idea to mod a RO unit to keep the resin separated. Sounds like it either isn't working or not worth the effort though. Maybe try brand new media instead of recharged?

Actually I found the cause of the problems I was having (I think). That actually was an RO unit where I just took off the RO portion. I never took a close look at the canisters, but just found that they weren’t attached correctly. The water was entering the first chamber through the “Out” port and the two chambers were connected “In” to “In”. I’ve switched them around but I’m still waiting for a few parts from AquaCave that are on backorder. Once I get this up and running, regeneration of the resins will be a snap.

7. Didn't know they have 20g Brutes. I could probably use one of them myself instead of filling a bunch of 5g buckets for topoff water.

I like my 20G Brute! I didn’t know either until I stumbled upon them while looking for snow shovels. One note, it is sold as a 20 gallon can and it looks like 20 gallons would be right to the brim. It’s not an issue for me, since I make 15 gallon batches of salt. 15 gallons comes up to that lip a few inches down from the top of the can.

8. How's the sea cucumber doing? Did it resurface yet? Is the sand any cleaner? I've been thinking of getting one myself. I had a fighting conch, but he mysteriously died a couple months ago.

MIA ……and I’ve carefully look in all the nooks and crannies using a flashlight. It is not cleaning the sand in the front of the tank.L I’m a bit disappointed.

9. Did you ever work out the "Nickolson Brige" support issue? Why not just use acrylic glue (weldon) and glue the top shelf piece to the "bridge" looking support... sort of like an angle bracket? Then you can just let the other side rest on the piece with the screwed supports and still remove it easily for maintenance. I think that would keep it sturdy enough. The key would be to have a tight fit between the sump wall and the baffle with the supports screwed in.

I think if I glue up the “shelf” with the “bridge” it would be too large to easily slip in and out. I’m leaning towards either regular silicone or RTV silicone. No rush until I’m ready to put the external pump in (finish building the side cabinet.)

10. How's the sticky tack holding up on the seem molding? It looks much better with them on there.

Sticky-tack is holding on….I’m surprised in part because that was an old ball of sticky-tack that was sitting around.

11. Not sure how cleaning & adding loc lines reduced the "scum" you were getting in the return and refugium sections. Can you explain the correlation?

The flow into the DT was being restricted by the clogged Loc-Line, reducing volume into the DT. You reduce volume coming into the DT, you reduce volume going down into the sump. That reduced flow though the sump causes for the scum to collect. Increased flow, the scum goes away.

I think that's enough for now. If you answer any questions or reply to any comments, please include the numbers so I can keep track of all that, lol.

Great job so far Paul!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 80 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 20, 2011, 09:08:21 PM

Quote from: fatoldsun on January 20, 2011, 04:21:38 PM

I think I’m sold on following your design for my sump (royalty check’s in the mail) but I had two questions – 1) what is a Rube Goldberg bubble trap, or more aptly, how do I make one?

2) What’s the spacing on your baffles, i.e., the size of your sections. I’m limited in that I have an in-sump skimmer that’s 7”x10” so I need at least 9” for my skimmer section. Just trying to plan the size of the return and the refgium. I have a 40b so at least I think I’m starting out all right.

PS, sorry to add to the already mounting list of questions - all I can offer: copying is the sincerest form of flattery....

RUBE GOLDBERG BUBBLE TRAP

The bubble trap is made using a 3” by 1 ½” sanitary tee with a 3” to 1 ½” coupling in one end and a short length of 3” pipe on the other end. The 1 ½ hole in the coupling was slightly widened using a rasp so that the 1 ½ pipe could be slid in or out. That 1 ½” pipe was slid in until it was a few inches from the end of the three inch pipe. This drawing hopefully makes it a little clearer. Water flow is marked in blue.

Don’t rush off to make this….it doesn’t work as I was hoping it would.


SUMP SECTION SIZES / BAFFLE LOCATIONS

A note on what determined my baffle locations. The refugium was made sufficiently large to offer a view from the front of the cabinet (with a hole in the door). The leading edge of that baffle is 17 1/2 “ from the right side of the sump (about half way). The intention was to keep a fish or two and some coral in this portion of the sump. The back of refugium would have cheato (behind the rock).

The other baffle was chosen rather arbitrarily since the skimmer (and eventually skimmer pump) are external to the sump. Anyway, the second baffle (leading edge) is 28” from the right side of the sump.

So to summarize the size of each section (with 3/8” baffle thickness), here’s what we have:

Skimmer section – 7”
Return section – 10”
Refugium section – 17 ¼”

I’m not sure what you are using for a return pump, but if it is a MAG (or something similar), the return section could be considerably smaller (6”), easily fitting your skimmer in the skimmer section.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 81 Post by: fatoldsun on January 21, 2011, 10:57:14 AM

I LOVE the visible refugium – I’m not sure I can do it in such a pretty way - maybe a window in a door but I think it will land in about the middle of my doors.

Too bad the trap isn’t working the way you hoped – seems like a brilliant concept. Maybe using a 4” instead of 3” and some rubble at the bottom… could you do the tee lower (below the water line) so the bubbles would float up and get trapped above the tee in the 3 or 4” pipe space around the 1.5”?

I have a mag 9 but all the talk about spares and external pumps and I’m leaning away from running that – certainly would not be an easy swap and install a spare for cleaning – I need a quick connect. But I guess your (new looking) pan world is for your skimmer. Are you sticking with a Mag for return? Is it possible that cleaner water takes less of a toll on the return pump? Anyway, my estimates were pretty close to yours – a 17” plan (at 17”Lx18”Wx~15”H) is ~ < 20 gal. That leaves 9” for my skimmer, 2.5” for the bubble traps accounting for the 2 baffles and ~6+” for the return. Seeing that you have room for your Berlin wall with the cheato behind is encouraging. A nice “time out spot” for any poorly behaved fish or inverts.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 82 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 21, 2011, 12:28:17 PM

I like your idea about the bubble trap and dropping the tee below the level of the water. I could also drill a couple holes through the coupling on the top to allow the air to escape. I’ll have to give that a try.

I don’t understand your comment about the difficulty switching out a MAG pump. These are the easiest. Go back and look at my sump picture. That’s a MAG 9.5 in the return section. To switch it out, I unscrew the union, pull out the pump, unscrew the threaded pipe section from the top of the MAG and now reverse this order to put the replacement pump back in….DONE! With an external pump, it would be similar except I’m probably playing with two unions and a pump that is bolted down to a vibration pad. I’ll take the MAG any day. In addition, they are very reliable pumps…I didn’t pull this pump for about three years, and that was just to give it a good cleaning. My only complaint is that they are energy hogs, but I do get some benefit from the heat generated in that it saves on what I’m spending running the heaters. With an external pump, that heat dissipates into the air.

One more thing about you sump design - Make sure you leave enough room for the water for when you turn off your return pump. Your other consideration is the ideal depth of your skimmer. Having a skimmer under your tank, make sure you have enough room to fit the skimmer and still have it at the ideal depth. To restate, if your skimmer section is very deep, make sure you have enough room to raise your skimmer so that it is at its ideal depth. Is that clear and understandable?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 83 Post by: mfisher2112 on January 21, 2011, 12:31:44 PM

+1 on the mag pumps. Pump -> union/ball valve. Close the valve, unscrew the union, unscrew the connection to the pump, rinse/repeat in reverse. And I've had mag's that have run for over 5 years and counting with no breakdowns what so ever.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 84 Post by: fatoldsun on January 21, 2011, 12:45:54 PM

I think I will be ok with the back-flow in the event of a power outage. I will have to do some new calculations with the new layout following your plan but I still think I will be ok - as for the skimmer, I need 11" of depth (I think - I have to review my notes) but I made the stand 42" high so I should have more than enough clearance.
I was considering going with an external pump b/c I expect heat to be a problem for me - maybe will even require a chiller. The tank is in a glass sunroom. The room is open to the house with dbl doors and has 2 HVAC vents pushing AC and the glass (allegedly) has an valve of R-6 which is better than plain plate glass but only marginally better. This will be the 1st summer so I guess I'll wait and see. No corals until after I go a full year and see all the temp swings in the room. So far, even with the short days my temp. 55g has a ton of algae so hopefully with the better control from a sump/skimmer as opposed to the HOB I'm running on the 55, that will be under control. So yes, all considered in the simple question about internal vs. external pump. Every degree of temp will have to be managed.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 85 Post by: fatoldsun on January 21, 2011, 04:04:40 PM

Quote from: redfishbluefish on January 20, 2011, 09:08:21 PM

RUBE GOLDBERG BUBBLE TRAP

The bubble trap is made using a 3” by 1 ½” sanitary tee with a 3” to 1 ½” coupling in one end and a short length of 3” pipe on the other end. The 1 ½ hole in the coupling was slightly widened using a rasp so that the 1 ½ pipe could be slid in or out. That 1 ½” pipe was slid in until it was a few inches from the end of the three inch pipe. This drawing hopefully makes it a little clearer. Water flow is marked in blue.

Just one other thought - what if in addition to moving the Tee outlet below the water line, you were to flip it so the curve went up - like a letter "J" I will try and add a diagram. Basically this would help any bubble that made it into the Tee to flow back up into the "trap" above the water line.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 86 Post by: SHLUZER on January 21, 2011, 04:22:56 PM

Excellent idea. In fact, to be called the Ruby Goldberg ... it has to have at least 20 more (preferably moving) parts.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 87 Post by: fatoldsun on January 21, 2011, 04:53:24 PM

best I could do with limited resources - this is what I meant by fliping the Tee. I think it woudl still have to be 3" b/c 4" would probibly take up too much space so I don't know if the live rock rubble is practical given how little space will exist around the 1.5". maybe some mesh or sponge instead - just to break up bubbles

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 88 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 21, 2011, 05:38:58 PM

Nice drawing!

I like the thinking. I can’t flip the sanitary tee I have because I glued up the coupling. I’d have to buy a new one. Without actually pulling it out, I don’t know what flipping would do for me. I believe the effective outflow is dead center of the tee. I would think the hard edge (inside the tee) of the current up-side would be more difficult for bubbles to escape. But that is just guessing. I could also put a 90 degree elbow on the outflow side, pointing downward.

I don’t like your use of rock rubble. That would end up being a detritus trap.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 89 Post by: fatoldsun on January 21, 2011, 08:06:53 PM

I don't think the LR would work anyway and if the trap works it's likely unnecessary. I'll post when I make it with a report. Gotta finish the stand first


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 90 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 24, 2011, 03:50:44 PM

My two heaters arrived today. Actually I only needed to replace one, but this hobby is like a Polygamist’s wedding…two is better than one. I would have preferred Yagers, with their double thick Pyrex glass, but the 300 w Yagers are too long for my sump (I think 17 inches). Had to settle for second best, which are the Sera heaters, at only 13.8 inches long. With Sera no longer having representatives in the US, many stores have stopped carrying the brand. Rod told me that AquaCave still carried Sera, and that’s where they came from.

Jim R., if you read this, I believe you were looking for heater guards for your horse tank. The Sera’s come with a plastic guard that I will not be using. You are welcome to the guards, if you’d like them.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 91 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 30, 2011, 09:50:08 AM

This is most bizarre……


As I mentioned in an above post, I picked up a red and black cuc on January 9 that immediately went MIA. I walked in to do my daily morning check of the tank and I spot little Miss Gherkin peeking her pretty little face from around the candy canes. I was elated and went to get the camera to take this shot

As I continue my inspection, plastered on the front glass is a second cuc. My first thought is that Miss Gherkin split! But upon further inspection, I saw the spines and was totally shocked this guy was still alive. This is a cuc that was put in the tank in 2008, immediately went MIA, and was not seen until about a year later. It disappeared again, and this is only the second sighting….about 2 ½ years later. I though for sure this guy was DOA. Never knew what kind this was, only that it is not a sand sifting type.

Now I’m puzzled why both cuc’s would be out and about at the same time…could there be love in the air?

Both pictures were taken under LED moonlights without flash.



Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 92 Post by: mfisher2112 on January 30, 2011, 09:52:33 AM

WOW! 2 1/2 years later? That's awesome that it's still there, but could the dual sighting be a widened search for food?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 93 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 30, 2011, 10:54:07 AM

It could be, but I think it was just coincidence and pure luck that I caught both out at the same time. I also now think spiny boy is out at night with great frequency. Here’s why I think that.

First off, I never knew that spiny could suck himself onto the glass. That was news to me. Now knowing that, there have been times where I haven’t cleaned the glass (algae covered), and in the morning notice a trail of kiss-marks going all over the place. I’ve got a hunch it’s been this guy making the trail in the darkness of night. I think I’ll let the glass go for a few days and see if I can spot him again at night.

The first two T5’s just came on and he had motored over into the corner. As soon as the lights came on, he buried his nose downward and shrank to about 1/3 his length. They must have some sort of rudimentary eyes to at least detect light.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 94 Post by: mfisher2112 on January 30, 2011, 10:58:10 AM

Ahhh! I see. Very cool. I've never been brave enough to try Cucs. Too many horror stories, LOL!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 95 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 30, 2011, 01:09:28 PM

Getting back to the Rube Goldberg bubble trap and playing off of Fatoldsun’s idea of submersing the tee underwater…..I was able to accomplish that by simply turning the whole shebang 180 degrees. To further explain, the pipe coming into the sump is not perpendicular. When the exit tee is towards the back of the sump, the tee is about half way out of the water. When the tee is facing the front of the tank, the tee is just submerged underwater. It’s hard to see in this picture, but the tee is just submerged (and you see no bubbles).

One more thing….I drilled a hole in the top of the adaptor so air could escape. Prior to doing this, I would get a large bubble blipping out the tee every couple of seconds.

This worked! No micro bubbles when both entry pipes were running. If I closed the one going to the sock, I would now get some bubbles coming out of this tee. But with both open, which I run all the time, with the exception of when I replace the sock, this thing now works.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 96 Post by: BobnKate on January 30, 2011, 07:54:02 PM

Do you have a better pic or sketch of the goldberg bubble trap? I'm having an issue with my return in my basement (that I've been ignoring). I tried several pipe combos to no avail. I'm about ready to build a box in the sump but would prefer to use pipe...


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 97 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 30, 2011, 08:15:54 PM

Quote from: BobnKate on January 30, 2011, 07:54:02 PM

Do you have a better pic or sketch of the goldberg bubble trap? I'm having an issue with my return in my basement (that I've been ignoring). I tried several pipe combos to no avail. I'm about ready to build a box in the sump but would prefer to use pipe...

Bob (or Kate), did you see the drawing on page 6, post #80 of this thread? I think that drawing is a good starting point. Take a look at that and let me know if you have any additional questions.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 98 Post by: BobnKate on January 30, 2011, 08:45:19 PM

oops - thanks -- didn't go through the thread (..bob can read..) It's bob - kate just comes along to humor me... Looking at your configuration, maybe I'll try another reconfiguring before I build a box. Thanx for the idea. Regarding the glue issue - I've thrashed so many glued fittings that I now usually wedge a few grains of sand in the joint along with silicon - instead of glue - if it's not in a critical place. That way I can reuse it when it dosen't work.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 99 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 30, 2011, 08:56:50 PM

Quote from: BobnKate on January 30, 2011, 08:45:19 PM

I've thrashed so many glued fittings that I now usually wedge a few grains of sand in the joint along with silicon - instead of glue - if it's not in a critical place. That way I can reuse it when it dosen't work.

Bob, a couple wraps with teflon tape around the pipe and jam the pipe into the fitting. It will hope pretty well and not leak. When needed, you can pull it apart.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 100 Post by: fatoldsun on January 31, 2011, 10:27:12 AM

Quote from: redfishbluefish on January 30, 2011, 01:09:28 PM

This worked! No micro bubbles when both entry pipes were running. If I closed the one going to the sock, I would now get some bubbles coming out of this tee. But with both open, which I run all the time, with the exception of when I replace the sock, this thing now works.

Glad to hear it worked! I will be starting mine as soon as I can find a couple solid hours to finish the stand. My wife is getting anxious.... I’ve tried to be evasive about the true “cycle time” but I think she’s on to me
Quote from: redfishbluefish on January 30, 2011, 01:09:28 PM

the pipe coming into the sump is not perpendicular. When the exit tee is towards the back of the sump, the tee is about half way out of the water. When the tee is facing the front of the tank, the tee is just submerged underwater.

I wonder if the angle is also contributing to the success - anything that allows the bubble to float up to a "trap" where they wait to pop should be helpful. I wonder if a fully perpendicular (90 deg.) pipe would be less successful?

What size hole (drill bit) did you use at the top of the adapter?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 101 Post by: TanksNStuff on January 31, 2011, 01:13:50 PM

Glad to hear the bubble trap is working out for you. I had a feeling that with a lil tweaking you would eventually get it. The idea just sounded like it should theoretically work.

Careful with the name though... you may end up having to pay royalties if this becomes popular. 8)


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 102 Post by: redfishbluefish on January 31, 2011, 02:18:50 PM

Quote from: fatoldsun on January 31, 2011, 10:27:12 AM

I wonder if the angle is also contributing to the success - anything that allows the bubble to float up to a "trap" where they wait to pop should be helpful. I wonder if a fully perpendicular (90 deg.) pipe would be less successful?

My guess here is dependant on flow rate. If the rate is fast enough, the bubbles will be drawn out the pipe, before they have a chance to float to the surface within the trap. I do get some bubbles coming out when the second drain is closed off, directing all water through this one pipe.

Quote from: fatoldsun on January 31, 2011, 10:27:12 AM

What size hole (drill bit) did you use at the top of the adapter?

It was a ¼ bit...just what my hand hit when I went to grab a bit.


Quote from: TanksNStuff on January 31, 2011, 01:13:50 PM

Careful with the name though... you may end up having to pay royalties if this becomes popular. 8)

Unfortunately Rube passed away in 1970. However, his legacy lives on in a yearly contest, of which you could enter HERE. My little bubble trap doesn’t even come close to the entries they will see....truly Rube Goldbergs.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 103 Post by: TanksNStuff on January 31, 2011, 04:39:47 PM

Paul, FYI... when I clicked that link my AVG blocked an "exploit hack". Could be nothing to worry about, but figured I'd mention it.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 104 Post by: redfishbluefish on February 12, 2011, 06:42:13 PM

This has been a concern for at least a year. I have the proverbial HD clip-on light in the sump. A few times, when I was working around the sump, I’ve knocked the light with my arm, where it almost fell into the sump. In addition, the chromed clip had since gone to all rust. Bottom line, I was concerned the lamp would end up in the sump, electrocuting the tank. Here’s a picture of the current clip-on lamp:

Picked up a few items at HD…..all plastic box and socket plate. To wire the box, I bought a $2 extension cord where I’ll simply cut off the female plug end. Total cost $6.08.

Here’s the new refugium light that is screwed into the stand, so there’s no chance of it getting knocked off into the water. I used the dome from the clip-on that just rests on the metal casing of the LED light.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 105 Post by: Baxreefs on February 12, 2011, 07:52:34 PM

Nice installation Paul 8)


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 106 Post by: mfisher2112 on February 13, 2011, 09:32:28 AM

Paul that's awesome! Your ingenuity constantly amazes me! I'd have never thought of that combination of parts to solve that problem!! You just gave me GREAT ideas for my frag tank lights!!!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 107 Post by: redfishbluefish on February 13, 2011, 12:12:39 PM

Thanks for the compliments.


Matt, not sure what you want to do, but for my freshwater tank I simply mounted four of the sockets on a piece of plywood…..no electrical boxes. And or course I used an extension cord to wire it up. An inspector would have a coronary, but it actually works just fine. The whole thing was done for less than $10.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 108 Post by: mfisher2112 on February 13, 2011, 12:22:48 PM

Paul, that's perfect. Thanks! AGAIN!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 109 Post by: 4realestate on February 13, 2011, 03:12:04 PM

is the bottom of the 3" pipe sealed, in order to force water up and out through the opening in the sanitary tee ?



Quote from: redfishbluefish on January 20, 2011, 09:08:21 PM

Quote from: fatoldsun on January 20, 2011, 04:21:38 PM

I think I’m sold on following your design for my sump (royalty check’s in the mail) but I had two questions – 1) what is a Rube Goldberg bubble trap, or more aptly, how do I make one?

2) What’s the spacing on your baffles, i.e., the size of your sections. I’m limited in that I have an in-sump skimmer that’s 7”x10” so I need at least 9” for my skimmer section. Just trying to plan the size of the return and the refgium. I have a 40b so at least I think I’m starting out all right.

PS, sorry to add to the already mounting list of questions - all I can offer: copying is the sincerest form of flattery....


RUBE GOLDBERG BUBBLE TRAP

The bubble trap is made using a 3” by 1 ½” sanitary tee with a 3” to 1 ½” coupling in one end and a short length of 3” pipe on the other end. The 1 ½ hole in the coupling was slightly widened using a rasp so that the 1 ½ pipe could be slid in or out. That 1 ½” pipe was slid in until it was a few inches from the end of the three inch pipe. This drawing hopefully makes it a little clearer. Water flow is marked in blue.

Don’t rush off to make this….it doesn’t work as I was hoping it would.


SUMP SECTION SIZES / BAFFLE LOCATIONS

A note on what determined my baffle locations. The refugium was made sufficiently large to offer a view from the front of the cabinet (with a hole in the door). The leading edge of that baffle is 17 1/2 “ from the right side of the sump (about half way). The intention was to keep a fish or two and some coral in this portion of the sump. The back of refugium would have cheato (behind the rock).

The other baffle was chosen rather arbitrarily since the skimmer (and eventually skimmer pump) are external to the sump. Anyway, the second baffle (leading edge) is 28” from the right side of the sump.

So to summarize the size of each section (with 3/8” baffle thickness), here’s what we have:

Skimmer section – 7”
Return section – 10”
Refugium section – 17 ¼”

I’m not sure what you are using for a return pump, but if it is a MAG (or something similar), the return section could be considerably smaller (6”), easily fitting your skimmer in the skimmer section.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 110 Post by: redfishbluefish on February 13, 2011, 03:19:31 PM

Quote from: 4realestate on February 13, 2011, 03:12:04 PM

is the bottom of the 3" pipe sealed, in order to force water up and out through the opening in the sanitary tee ?

No, it is not sealed. However, the base is slightly buried in the deep sand bed. It is not an issue when both 1 ½ feed lines coming into the sump are open. However, when I close the feed line supplying the filter sock (to change / clean the sock), I do get some sand shooting out the sanitary tee.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 111 Post by: mfisher2112 on February 13, 2011, 03:31:49 PM

Quote from: redfishbluefish on February 13, 2011, 12:12:39 PM

Thanks for the compliments.
An inspector would have a coronary, but it actually works just fine.

LOL! I'll just splash some purple pvc primer on it, no problemo! LOL!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 112 Post by: redfishbluefish on March 16, 2011, 11:52:57 PM

Oh Boy! Did I make a mistake?

I added a Neon Velvet Damsel (Thanks John). If he doesn’t work out, I’m either looking for recipes, or someone else who wants a devil fish. Here’s a mug-shot of the little miscreant.

So far all’s been quiet and peaceful. I’m hoping, as one of the last fish, he won’t pull the territorial crap. I’m just going to wait and see.

The only thing I’ve noticed is that every so often, the female blue throat trigger will make a half-hearted swim towards the damsel. The Trigger is listed as a “caution” in Liveaquaria’s fish list. Otherwise the two triggers and damsel are swimming around together.

One other change noted…..My triggers never had brilliant yellow, as seen in the typical blue throat photos. But now my male has the bright yellow fins and the blue throat is real blue. The female still has dull brown where the yellow should be. I’m wondering if he feels his “maleness” is being threatened, and this is his way of showing it. Here’s the male:

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 113 Post by: Baxreefs on March 20, 2011, 09:42:04 AM

The trigger looks great!


That damsel may make a nice snack for someone with a clown trigger or big eel, evil little bastages!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 114 Post by: redfishbluefish on April 08, 2011, 11:32:01 PM

So I’ve been doing a bit of traveling, where my wife has taken care of the tank. This included daily feeding with measured cups of food, hanging prepared clips of algae, dosing two-part and making sure the ATO reservoir was full. Otherwise, she really didn’t know anything else about the tank.

My last trip to North Carolina, I came home to find one of my powerheads pointing down towards the corner of the tank were the sand was now gone….bare glass bottom…and the sand pushed into piles 8 to 10 inches away. My wife was blind to this.

Sure enough, the movement of the sand caused for what I term “instant algae.” You clean off your glass and it seems to return to the glass very quickly. Ergo, instant algae…I’m sure from a spike in some good algae fertilizers released from the disturbed sand. I didn’t bother testing…… I just did water changes.

This puzzled me. How did the powerhead get pushed downward. Never happened before. Well I think I found the answer. I just went into the tank room and guess what I found…..one of my Mexican Turbos jumping on one of my powerheads: (Sorry about picture quality…point-n-shoot with flash on a darkened tank)

I have big Mexicans. For size comparison, that is a Koralia Evolution 1400 that the Mexican is sitting on. I’m now wondering if the weight of one of these beasts caused for the powerhead to be pushed downward. And I’ve got three of these Godzillas in the tank.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 115 Post by: REEFLECTIONS on April 09, 2011, 09:34:18 AM

please correct me if i'm wrong, but if a light falls in the sump, you only fry the sump. the electricity will only be inclined to travel down?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 116 Post by: redfishbluefish on April 09, 2011, 09:52:44 AM

Quote from: REEFLECTIONS on April 09, 2011, 09:34:18 AM

please correct me if i'm wrong, but if a light falls in the sump, you only fry the sump. the electricity will only be inclined to travel down?

I don’t know where this question came from, but electricity flows to “ground,’ and I’m not necessarily talking about the ground you are standing on. So it doesn’t necessarily flow “down.” It will take the path of least resistance. Since we have a continuous column of water from the sump up to the DT, if a light falls into your sump, and you now stick you hand in the DT, the electricity will flow up the return column of water into your DT and then into your arm through your body and out your feet. You, in effect, have completed the curcuit.

It is one of the reasons I’m against grounding probes. It really only protects you (you’re not that important ) and not your fish (and corals). By having a grounding probe, the electricity has a place to go, and now flows (current). You will never know you have an electrical leak until the current reaches a point that it is killing your tank. Without the probe, you stick your hand in the tank and feel that tell-tale tingle. You now know that you have to find the leaking culprit and throw it out.


EDIT TO ADD: A GFI or GFCI would protect you from getting juiced if a light actually fell into your sump.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 117 Post by: howze01 on April 09, 2011, 10:26:56 AM

That happened to me with our mixing bucket heater. Put my hand in there and got a nice little jolt. Reminded me of the good ol' days in the LFS I worked in. I swear, once a week you would go to catch a fish and ZAP!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 118 Post by: mfisher2112 on April 09, 2011, 10:33:45 AM

Quote from: redfishbluefish on April 09, 2011, 09:52:44 AM

EDIT TO ADD: A GFI or GFCI would protect you from getting juiced if a light actually fell into your sump.
[/size]

HUGE +1. GFCI is a must with all of this electricty we shove in a giant box of water. My understanding is if you can't get to the outlet to replace it, you can replace the breaker with a GFCI breaker, and it will protect everything on that circuit. (Could be wrong, who knows!)

Heaters are the number 1 source of stray current in our tanks. Can't tell you how many times I've been zapped and traced it down to the heater. If I get zapped now, that's the first place I go.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 119 Post by: redfishbluefish on April 15, 2011, 05:13:59 PM

About a year ago I quickly slapped together a temporary canopy to stop some of my fish from carpet surfing. It was made out of reclaimed quarter plywood that I removed from a job. Nothing fancy… nothing trimmed ….nothing painted….nail holes and all …..JUST UGLY.

The intention was to make a permanent one, but that still hasn’t happened. I finally got sick of looking at this ugly beast and puddied up the holes, added a few trim pieces, and paint it. So here is my permanently temporary canopy.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 120 Post by: mfisher2112 on April 16, 2011, 08:31:31 AM

Looks pretty good to me!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 121 Post by: Baxreefs on April 16, 2011, 07:37:57 PM

That's my kind of canopy!

Simple and functional!


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 122 Post by: fatoldsun on April 19, 2011, 12:23:50 PM

Quote from: redfishbluefish on January 24, 2011, 03:50:44 PM

I would have preferred Yagers, with their double thick Pyrex glass, but the 300 w Yagers are too long for my sump (I think 17 inches). Had to settle for second best, which are the Sera heaters, at only 13.8 inches long.

Hey Paul
Wondering if I could bother you for a quick question on heaters. I have a pretty similar setup - 90g DT with a 40 sump/refugium. I'm looking to order heaters and I followed your lead (again ) and used 2 pairs of conduit clamps (went with 3/4" - hope that's enough - the 1" looked too big) down in the sump, glued on the baffles (one in the skimmer, one in the return) so I assume I'm also not able to use the 17" 300W Yager heaters. So the question, am I better with 2 150W Yagers or 2 300W Seras? I thought 300W total would cover me (for >125 gallons total volume) but since as I said we have similar water volumes and I've relied on your experience MANY times thus far, I was wondering why you went with 600 Watts and if you think the extra wattage is important enough to pass over the Yagers for the Seras - I guess it's a silly question since I know you already made the choice but I was curious/interested why you went with 600W.
Thanks
-Dave


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 123 Post by: redfishbluefish on April 19, 2011, 01:10:01 PM

Well 300 watts is overkill, but I wanted to be able to have one of my heaters keep the tank cozy if the other one crapped out. This actually happened when I did the switch-out of the sump. With one of my heaters, the light was coming on, but no heat from the heater. The only way I discovered this was the switch-over of the sump. The one heater was maintaining temperature.

Two 150 watt heaters would probably hold temperature for you (dependant, in part, on the ambient temperature). I do know that your tank is in some type of Florida room, and I’m not sure what the temperature is going to do in there during the winter. If it drops into the mid 60’s or lower, I’d consider going higher than 150. I will tell you that if you do loose one of your heaters, I think the one heater would struggle maintaining temperature.

As far a Eheim Jagers, I like them because their glass is twice as thick as all others, and they are a quality heater. However, they are LONG. My personal preference for #2 on that list is the Sera….great quality for a reasonable price.

As far as the conduit clamps, the “control” end of the heater causes it to sit more than ¾ of an inch from the baffle. According, a ¾ clamp won’t fit at that end. You might be able to use a ¾ on the far end, and a 1 inch on the “control” end. I’m also a little puzzled….you glued the conduit clamps to the baffle?? How are you going to change out the heaters?


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 124 Post by: fatoldsun on April 19, 2011, 02:30:22 PM

Quote from: redfishbluefish on April 19, 2011, 01:10:01 PM

Well 300 watts is overkill, but I wanted to be able to have one of my heaters keep the tank cozy if the other one crapped out.

...you've yet to steer me wrong so I think I'll follow your lead again
Quote from: redfishbluefish on April 19, 2011, 01:10:01 PM
[

As far as the conduit clamps, the “control” end of the heater causes it to sit more than ¾ of an inch from the baffle. According, a ¾ clamp won’t fit at that end. You might be able to use a ¾ on the far end, and a 1 inch on the “control” end. I’m also a little puzzled….you glued the conduit clamps to the baffle?? How are you going to change out the heaters?

I guess I'm stuck if the 3/4" won't handle the control end. They're already glued and the sump is on its way to full. As far as the mystery. I guess it's not a total replica - I have glass baffles so drilling and tapping for nylon screws wasn't an option. To cover for this I used a piece of 3/4" PVC as a jig of sorts and siliconed the clamps to the glass to hold the heaters at an angle that would allow me to slide them in and out. I'll have to use one suction cup to act as a brake to keep them from floating up. This was a big gamble but I had some leftover silicone from the baffles, the conduit clamps in the garage bin-o-leftovers. I liked the concept of the heaters sitting out of the way but I knew I'd be limited by the glass so this was the best compromised solution I could conjure up....


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 125 Post by: redfishbluefish on April 19, 2011, 03:07:04 PM

Over the past year I’ve watched my five-computer-fan cooling unit loose fans.....first one, two, three, and finally the fourth fan was twitching this morning. Four of these old fans from computers from the 80’s crapped out on me, leaving me one fan. I really liked how this worked, so I’m looking into replacing all five fans with new ball bearing models, before the warmer months are here. I’m also going to up the voltage to 12 volts, since noise wasn’t an issue running these at nine volts. HERE’S the original build, if you’re interested.

Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 126 Post by: fatoldsun on April 19, 2011, 03:26:42 PM

Quote from: redfishbluefish on February 12, 2011, 06:42:13 PM

Here’s the new refugium light that is screwed into the stand, so there’s no chance of it getting knocked off into the water. I used the dome from the clip-on that just rests on the metal casing of the LED light.

What LED bulb did you go with? I looked at the HD today and they're as much as $50-$60 per - anyway I knew if you had one that was close to $50 then there's no way I'm gonna beat that.

Funny you posted the computer fan rig - that's on my list to try and cheat my way around getting a chiller. I have about 4 (3 more if I strip my PC which is just sitting in my basement with a head-crash -I'll get back to that maybe if this tanks ever running) anyway I was uneasy using those b/c I didn't think they'd make it in that environment. If you could would you post what fans you go with and where you found them ;D


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 127 Post by: mnat on April 19, 2011, 04:22:57 PM

Vortech stopped making the MP20 which you might be able to find for a steal. Then you can upragde it down the line to a MP40 which would be spreading the cost out over time. Just be careful with buying used vortechs from people you don't know, they seem to be the number one scammed item over on RC.


Title: Re: Inherited 90
Reply # 128 Post by: redfishbluefish on April 19, 2011, 04:25:04 PM

Quote from: fatoldsun on April 19, 2011, 03:26:42 PM

What LED bulb did you go with? I looked at the HD today and they're as much as $50-$60 per - anyway I knew if you had one that was close to $50 then there's no way I'm gonna beat that.

I use an LED floodlight from Lights of America….11 watts. I bought it from Sam’s Club for around $20-$21. I’m not sure if they still carry Lights of America.

Quote from: fatoldsun on April 19, 2011, 03:26:42 PM

Funny you posted the computer fan rig - that's on my list to try and cheat my way around getting a chiller. I have about 4 (3 more if I strip my PC which is just sitting in my basement with a head-crash -I'll get back to that maybe if this tanks ever running) anyway I was uneasy using those b/c I didn't think they'd make it in that environment. If you could would you post what fans you go with and where you found them ;D

I originally was going to buy THESE dual ball bearing fans, but the mA draw is too high….0.24 Amps each.

So I’m leaning towards THESE, which I believe are single bearing fans. Their air flow is a little less, but more importantly, they only draw 0.09 Amps.

I’m using a used AC adaptor, and you have to make sure the total of all amps does not exceed the amp rating of the adaptor.

 

[redfishbluefish]

After just finishing reposting all the “lost” posts for this Tale of the Tank, I noticed my very first post, where I listed the four things I was going to focus on to finish this Tale. 

To refresh your memory (and mine), they were:

  1.  Build cabinet for left side of tank.
    2.  Build canopy.
    3.  Finish base cabinet with molding
    4.  Install external pump for skimmer

I’m now realizing that all this time has past. and I haven’t done any of them……a real slacker I am.  One of these days I'll get to that project list!

 

[mnat]

Deja Vu, but everything still looks nice. The tank has really come together.

 

[GregW]

Good save, Paul

 

[redfishbluefish]

Feel-Good Project for RO/DI Waste Water


For a couple years I’ve been using my RO/DI waste water for the washing machine. But you can only do so many loads of wash….especially will all three kids out of the house. For the most part, my waste water goes down the drain.

So I turned a blind eye to the cost analysis and put in a 55 gallon drum, MAG 18 pump, piping, sillcock (outdoor faucet) and soaker hose to use my waste water to water the plants around the house. My guess is that the cost analysis would be questionable. However, I feel good using the waste water instead of letting it run down the drain. I did find that the MAG 18 did not produce enough pressure to allow the soaker hoses to work well. I even added about 100 feet of soaker hose, but still not very efficient. So I switched to just a regular hose to spot water plants. Might try a cheap little sprinkler to see if that works. But again, I feel green now using my waste water.

Here’s the top of the 55 gallon barrel, located between the wash sink and the washing machine. A rigid ¾ pipe comes up from the MAG and then transitions to the gray hose.

Here you can see the gray hose going up to the sillcock. I used a standard hose, because I thought I might be able to use the wash sink connection during the winter to wash my car with hot/warm water. (Actually I know that will never happen, but I can dream.)

And finally, here is the new sillcock outside the house….the one on the right.

Again, a feel-good project.

 

[TanksNStuff]

It would have been a crime to lose all of that ingenuity Paul! Thanks for re-posting.

 

[SHLUZER]

[size=11pt]Feel-Good Project for RO/DI Waste Water

Would RODI work if I led waste water hose up about 5 feet. I want to lead it outside to a rain barrel to water the plants.
The question - will RODI take that pressure on output ?

 

[TanksNStuff]

It looks like Paul's hose has about 5' of head, but he's using a mag-18 pump in that tank. Not sure if you could do this with 5' head without a pump. If you want to just have it setup to pump to your "rain barrel" manually whenever you want, this could work. But if you want to automate it or not use a pump, then you might need to put your thinking cap on.

PS, just noticed the paper towel rack you got there Paul!

 

[redfishbluefish]

Would RODI work if I led waste water hose up about 5 feet. I want to lead it outside to a rain barrel to water the plants.
The question - will RODI take that pressure on output ?

Alex, I would think this would work. The RO/DI is under house water pressure (typically 35-60lbs, but could be higher). In addition, we are only talking about a ¼ inch line. It should easily be able to push the water up five feet.

As far as automating the removal of waste water from the barrel….a sump pump would probably be the easiest and lowest cost way of doing this. I can pick up a sump pump for under 100 clams.

 

[SHLUZER]

Is it true that RODI sends to waste about %80 of water and only %20 is 'clean' ?

So, to change 20 Gal of water I need to waste 100. How much 100gal approximately cost?

 

[redfishbluefish]

I’d say it’s closer to 25/75 percent clean to waste, respectively. For every 5 gallons of water I make, I have about 15 gallons of waste.

Water Costs...you’ll have to check with your town. Don’t forget to add in sewage costs as well....which is based on water usage.

 

[TanksNStuff]

The amount of "waste" water will vary depending on the R/O membrane being used.

For example, I have a 75 GPD (gallon per day) unit which used to have about 3 to 3 1/2 buckets of waste per 1 full bucket of clean RO/DI. Then I bought a 150 GPD upgrade kit (which is essentially just another 75 GPD membrane added to the out-take of the first one) and now I get almost 1:1 ratio of waste to clean. I would say it's more like 55%/45% (waste/clean).

This is the reason so many of us are trying to come up with ideas on how to utilize the "waste" water.

The term "waste" is really a misnomer. It sounds like you are making dirty water that is no good to use. However, it's actually tap water in your house that has been partially filtered. That is, it's not pure and free of solids which could harm a reef tank. The RO portion of the filter should remove roughly 95%-98% of the particles that you don't want in the tank and this is typically what you would have for an ordinary home water filter/softener setup. There is nothing being added to the "waste" water and it will actually be a lot cleaner than your standard tap water. It's safe to use this "waste" water to wash clothes/dishes, water the lawn, and even drink if you so choose.

The problem is that once it goes through your filter, you bought it from the water company. :'( If you don't use it for something, then it's waste.