Interest in Missoula Reef Club?
- Thread starter dsmhero
- Start date
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dsmhero
Well-known member
I will write up the sign up sheet and deliver it to Dan tomorrow. Hopefully we can gather a few more people, I am really excited if we can get this off the ground.
Bennettp
Well-known member
Sounds good to me. I was planning to make a trip in to reefmissoula tomorrow to get some more RO water. Ill make sure to sighn up on the sheet. Im really enjoyong my tank now, and im excited to start gathering some more fish and corals. The tank is starting to get to a point where it mostly maintenance free and the polyps are now responding to the leds and thriving.
dsmhero
Well-known member
what time do you think you might be there?
Bennettp
Well-known member
Well, i just found out i have to work tomorrow so i may not make it in. I really wanted to work on my tank tomorrow. I have an idea of a really cheap way to perform automatic water changes. I want to set my skimmmer to pull wet skimmate and have it pull around a gallon a day. Then i will have my ATO be new saltwater instead of plain water. I will need to adjust the saliniy to slightly less than my tanks salinity so I can account for evaporation. I will also put the ato on a timer so that there is some sort of failsafe for a sticky float valve. If I can make it to reefmissouka tomorrow it would need to be before 11am. We can always meet up anytime Dsmhero if you want to check out tanks and talk reefs too.
dsmhero
Well-known member
I am pretty sure Dan doesn't open until 12. For your idea about the automatic water changes, to me it seems as though the time it takes to clean up your gallon of skimmate everyday and refill your ATO would negate the hassle saved. My thinking may be off, its late.
I would definitely like to meet up soon, I will keep ya posted and maybe find a day that works.
I would definitely like to meet up soon, I will keep ya posted and maybe find a day that works.
Bennettp
Well-known member
Well my pm bullet skimmer has a hose running from the collection cup that could easily go to a 5 gallon bucket and I was thinking of using a 32 gallon brute trashcan for the saltwater reservoir. The system could run a week or so before dumping the skimmate and even longer before refilling the saltwater reservoir. What i mostly need to figure out is a good float or top off controller with redundancy for safety.
dsmhero
Well-known member
Dont you think that 5 gallons of skimmate would stink?
Bennettp
Well-known member
I thought about that, but the skimmate would be very dilutted. Right now im only pulling about a cup of tea colored skimmate a day. If I made it even more wet it would probably just look like regular sea water.
Put some bleach in the collector, doesn't stink at all.
dsmhero
Well-known member
haha sounds good. I can't wait to see how this setup works.
dsmhero
Well-known member
Sign up sheet is posted!
Bennettp
Well-known member
Thats a great idea. I just constructed a rolling platform for my brute trashcan to sit on. Im trying to get it slightly higher than the sump and place it in the room behind my saltwater tank. Now im going to look for a float valve that will work with gravity or a powerhead. I would prefer no pumps and no electronics so that it is relatively maintenance free.
Bennettp
Well-known member
Ill be there tomorrow after church so probably around 2 o'clock. Im going to get some more RO water and see what he has for float valves. I remember seeing one there the other day
Bennettp
Well-known member
I just thought of another cool idea. I will use a sealed 5 gallon container that i usually use to transfer ro water as my collection for my skimmer.I will just add a bulkhead to it and run the tubing to my skimmer. I will also wire my skimmer pump to a float switch in the container to turn off in case my collection container over fills. If i use a pump in my saltwater comtainer to transfer new water to the sump then i will put it on a timer to only run for a minute or so 2 or 3 times a day. That way if the float valve in my sump fails, i will not be pumping 33 gallons of fresh saltwater into my tiny sump.
dsmhero
Well-known member
Looks like it is coming together nicely.
Bennettp
Well-known member
Ya, I'm just checking out float valves that don't require pressure. It seems there are quite a few good choices to choose from and I really like the fact that the system would have very few working parts, which means less to go wrong. Here is what I have come up with so far:
http://www.floatvalve.com/mini-floatvalves.html
http://www.airwaterice.com/c=ArpyNS9CT21mfJE7h9obkbh78/product/FV-14MA252/Float-Valve.]Mini PVC Float Valves | U.S. Plastic Corp.[/URL]
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23623&clickid=redirect
http://www.floatvalve.com/mini-floatvalves.html
http://www.airwaterice.com/c=ArpyNS9CT21mfJE7h9obkbh78/product/FV-14MA252/Float-Valve.]Mini PVC Float Valves | U.S. Plastic Corp.[/URL]
http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23623&clickid=redirect
dsmhero
Well-known member
I wish I had more to add and critique, I haven't really done anything like that so I am not sure. Right now I have been cramming my head with LED builds and I have almost fully designed mine for the 12gallon. Here is what I have so far. Let me know what you think.
Bennettp
Well-known member
I wish I had more to add and critique, I haven't really done anything like that so I am not sure. Right now I have been cramming my head with LED builds and I have almost fully designed mine for the 12gallon. Here is what I have so far. Let me know what you think.
What wattage leds are you going with? I found out there is such a thing as too much light. I have 72 watts leds on my 58 gallon, plus my PC's lights at around 130watts, and I feel like I'm scorching stuff. Dan said that his anemones did not respond well to led lighting on one of his tanks. The diagram looks great though with plenty of spread. Make sure you don't skip on the heatsinks. My heatsinks weren't cutting it very well, but I just added a bunch of aluminum to the heatsinks and now they are not so hot. The rule of thumb is that if you can't hold the heatsink then its too hot. Other rule is no more than 130c or you'll burn up your leds. Also make the lens on your blues wide spread. Mine are sort of narrow and I can see beams of blue spot lighting my aquarium.
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dsmhero
Well-known member
Thank you for the input. They are CREE 3watts but on a dimmable driver. The heatsink should be plenty, it's a 5.9x9 finned aluminum plate plus I am upgrading the fans in my hood, but I will check it with my infared thermogun. Also there will be no lenses on these leds, my tank is far too shallow to need them so the blending of colors should work out nice. I should be ordering these next week if everything works out.
