Switching to Salt!

[jrgilles]

I've heard different things about putting a valve on the return pump.

On mine, I have a 'return loop', where I can open a ball valve and redirect the flow of the return back into the sump. This lets me dial down the flow to the tank without restricting the pump. I heard it was bad to restrict the pump and it can burn out quicker.

I have also since heard that it isn't so bad to restrict the return pump, and if it IS restricted and less water is moving, your pump actually consumes less wattage.

If you are worried about it though, you could cut the tubing that goes back to the display, put in a hose barbed Tee connector, put on another piece of flexable tubing on the Tee that returns to the sump, then put your valve on the end of that piece of flexable tubing (or inline or whatever.) That would allow you to dial down the flow to the tank while still allowing your return pump to run unrestricted. If you closed the valve, 100% would go to the DT, if it was full open, the water would go 100% to the sump (or almost all of it, way easier route to follow since it doesn't have to fight gravity.)

 

[Cheechako]

Update:
- placed the restrictor valve on the output of the sump return pump
- gave away freshwater fish and emptied tank
- scrubbed the glass
- filled with tap water and ran whole system for a day or two to check for operation. a-okay
- got RO water from LFS and filled as much as I could with what they had on hand (got the display tank mostly filled)
- dead coral skeletons from Kona in place
- added a bag of Kent sea salt mix
- added a bottle of Bio-Spira to jumpstart the cycle
- There was a little bit of debris, left-over plant material from the freshwater setup, floating around, so I've got my AuqaClear 50 running with a sponge to clear it all up

Today I'll get the rest of the watert.
I'll get my sump up and running and relocate the heater.
I'll get more salt and get the salinity where it needs to be.

Questions:
My system plan didn't include any mechanical filtration. After seeing stuff floating around, I wonder if I need something. Should I keep my AC50 on the back?

 

[Cheechako]

Update:

Got 40# of Live Rock, 50 hermits, and enough substrate and rubble (from an existing 400 gal tank at the LFS) for the fuge in and it's been running great for a few days now. I'm even pulling out some olive green skimmate from the Tunze!

Aiptasia?? Should I do something about it?

This one's pretty big

Also there's a little red critter in a white tube on one of my rocks (to the left and above the aiptasia). What is it?

Latest test stats:
pH 7.8 (morning test, I think I should test in the eve after lights all day. Other days it's been 8.0 in the evening)
Ammonia 0.25 (been steady there for five days)
NO2 0
NO3 5.0 (up from 2.5 three days ago)
Salinity 1.025 (up from 1.023 three days ago)

 

[NC2WA]

Looking good.

Normally, you want to perform your water test the same time every day. For an accurate test result, it should be performed several hours after the lights are on. I normally do my test around 3 or 4 pm.

If possible, you want to get rid of the aptasia pdq, as it will multiple and then the entire tank is covered in it. If you have one or two, I would remove the rock, clean it and then replace. Heck, I have even chipped them off the rock before, rinsed in RO, and then replace rock in tank. IMO, no reason to spend money on some product just to kill a couple when you can manually take care of this yourself.

 

[Cheechako]

Nov. 8 Update:

I got another 10 #s of live rock for the display tanks and filled up the fuge. Tank is cycled. Went through a diatom bloom, then it all disappeared. Tons of little white critters swimming around and hanging out on the glass. Little bit of coralline algae starting to grow on back glass and overflow box. There's a film of brown algae starting to cover the back glass again. Maybe time for some turbo snails?

I got a couple peppermint shrimp to take care of the aptasia. They did okay, then just disappeared- going on two weeks now since the last time I've seen them. The aptasia is starting to multiply... unfortunately they're on the base rocks, so I can't just remove the infected rocks. I tried a syringe with Kalk, but that just seemed to help them propagate. I might go get another couple peppermint shrimp and hopefully they'll survive.

New tank additions...

Starry Blenny. He's very active in munching algae off the rocks and glass:

Maroon Clown Pair (this is the smaller of the two):

Yashi Goby and Pistol Shrimp. Didn't see them for a few days, then they showed up under the same rock in the corner. VERY pleased they chose a place my 10 year old could see them. He was very excited about getting the pair:

I really enjoy watching the Maroons swim around. I'd like to add a few more mid-swimmers. Something with color. I was thinking a Flasher Wrasse, or a trio of Anthias, or some Chromis. I plan on getting some corals and maybe a clam. Any suggestions of good mid-tank swimmers??

 

[Krish]

I think 2 and 3 might be backwards

Ever added rock to a full tank of water?? :shock: Same thing that happens when you have a full glass of water and dump ice in it will happen to the tank...Overflow

Nov. 8 Update:

I got another 10 #s of live rock for the display tanks and filled up the fuge. Tank is cycled. Went through a diatom bloom, then it all disappeared. Tons of little white critters swimming around and hanging out on the glass. Little bit of coralline algae starting to grow on back glass and overflow box. There's a film of brown algae starting to cover the back glass again. Maybe time for some turbo snails?

I got a couple peppermint shrimp to take care of the aptasia. They did okay, then just disappeared- going on two weeks now since the last time I've seen them. The aptasia is starting to multiply... unfortunately they're on the base rocks, so I can't just remove the infected rocks. I tried a syringe with Kalk, but that just seemed to help them propagate. I might go get another couple peppermint shrimp and hopefully they'll survive.

New tank additions...

Starry Blenny. He's very active in munching algae off the rocks and glass:

Maroon Clown Pair (this is the smaller of the two):

Yashi Goby and Pistol Shrimp. Didn't see them for a few days, then they showed up under the same rock in the corner. VERY pleased they chose a place my 10 year old could see them. He was very excited about getting the pair:

I really enjoy watching the Maroons swim around. I'd like to add a few more mid-swimmers. Something with color. I was thinking a Flasher Wrasse, or a trio of Anthias, or some Chromis. I plan on getting some corals and maybe a clam. Any suggestions of good mid-tank swimmers??

Tank is looking good!! Nice rockwork!!