The last day of the year 2010

[ac7av]

Im sorry I talk to much some time, it can get confusing. Im not talking about 3 separate tank. A sump built from 3 tanks so I can get in into the stand. Thatguy you give me nightmares with pictures like the one you sent me on cutting the brace. Im sure it can be done but im not going to do it. I will never sleep and every noise I here I will think my tank is crashing down or the thought of it crashing down on my head when im under the stand messing with stuff.

here is a drawing of my thoughts on the basic setup. What do you think and how should I best use the space. Total water capacity is around 50 gallons when running. These are 20 talls and the skimmer only will have 10 inches of water and the sump less then 10 inches for run off when the power is off.

 

[TheKraken]

I look forward to seeing your tanks to get a better idea as to the space constraints.

I was told that the refugium should be slower flow. While it makes sense to put the return in the middle, I ended up with socks ->skimmer -> macros -> bubble wall -> pump due to the existing design.

A few years ago a trend started by reefers to putting the refugium at or above the top of the tank so that the pods would drain into the tank without a pump chewing them up.

 

[TheKraken]

It seems obvious now, but when I switched to a refractometer and set up a wet skim I was able to drive the salinity WAY down (I thought it was 35, it was 22). Before the tank was great and I could grow coraline and all the zoas I wanted but then things just slowed down. The pH also dropped from ~8.2 to 7.5 which turned the Ca reactor off. The web says that the skimmate is about the same salinity as the tank but for some reason the tank struggles. I have salt in the top off water, the Ca reactor back on @ 7.8 and the tank is improving. The skimmer can make a dry foam again and the corals look happier. Now the biggest clown is digging in the sand and making plumes of dust so I am sure that is not helping anything.

How is your pH and when did you calibrate you testing gear?

I have the same rock the same salt the same water the same lights, better pumps, an awesome skimmer, way more water moving in the tank then I ever thought of having before and now I cant hardly seem to keep my wamin watermelons alive. Now I test for every thing, regular water changes, feed better foods, try to have better lights and filtration and I feel like im going backwards.

 

[NC2WA]

I have the same rock the same salt the same water the same lights, better pumps, an awesome skimmer, way more water moving in the tank then I ever thought of having before and now I cant hardly seem to keep my wamin watermelons alive.

Erik,

How many lbs on LR do you have in the tank? And out of the total lbs, how many lbs of lava rock do you have?
I am wondering if this is causing any biological issues in the tank?

Just a thought.

 

[tat2z_21]

The problem that is that you have to take into account the size of the lips on the tanks and the bulkhead connections. All of this is going to increase the amount of things that can go wrong. I am not talking stability of the water, but if the hole gets clogged for some reason, (SNAIL, CHAETO, GUNK) then you have an instant ocean in your living room. If you take the lip off of the 20 talls then you have a chance of cracking the tanks. So this is all the stuff that you are going to need to think about. It is a whole lot easier (for an under tank system) to be an all in one kind of deal.

 

[thatguy559]

also a 2 3/4" hole in the 20g will be too big for that thickness of a tank. are they glass? if so i would be surprised if you get that hole drilled with out it cracking. and like what was stated above already if that hole gets clogged for what ever reason then you will no doubt have a flood in your house. if you can get the glass cut then why not make your own all in one sump i know i had a 48" sump under my 210g and build it in the stand so you dont have to worry about cutting the stand

 

[bigblue141]

First off Happy New Year's Erik!!!

I think I have a 60 or a 75 that's acrylic that you can have (If I even have it anymore, it may of been given away too.)

Second thing is, I have a theory about the troubles in your tank. You have a ton of rock in there, and if I remember right it's stacked pretty tightly. All the reading I've done says you want tons and tons of flow through your rock work, otherwise there will be "dead spots" of water that can accumulate with deadly concentrations of Ammonia and Nitrites that will only "leak" into the main water column. It that's true you might be putting the stonies in the wrong spot. No such thing as too much flow until the scales on your fish start coming off

As far as coraline, have you ever introduced any into your tank, cause you used all dead rock didn't ya?

As far as your lighting, I'm lost bro. I'd scrap it all and go with an aquaview or aqua something sounding T5 light fixture Or go old School and rock some T12 VHO's with the Mylar backing for some extra reflectivity. If I had to guess what's wrong with them, I'd say your ballasts. I was shopping for Halide's for that tank I had, cause it seems like most guys act like T12VHO's are "The Devil" I found some "Catalina" systems on Ebay, went to a couple of LFS and talked to several people and basically I came to the conclusion that the 250W rated systems for $120 might not power a "real quality" 250W bulb.

When you set up your sump, I'd also put a 6-8" sand bed in it.

As far as having to run your fuge on top of your tank, I say hog wash Plenty of critters from my sump made it up to the display tank in my system. Do some of them get chopped up by the impeller and turn into plankton, I'm sure they do, but since most of our critters are smaller than a ball point pen head, how many are you actually chopping up?

I hope you have a much better new year than how it's started off for you bro.

Ryan

 

[ac7av]

Okay, let me try to answer all the questions.
I have about 50% Hawaiian waterfall rock and 50% regular stuff of various types.
I had no problem with coralline algae growth before on this same rock. I have introduced coralline algae into the tank. Some recently came from NC2WA on a very heavily covered rock and basically disappeared or faded to rock color in a very short period of time like a week or two.
The test levels don’t ever change any significant amount and none of the test kits I have require any calibration as far as I know.

Tat2z_21 I’m not sure what your talking about on the lip or gunk getting into the bulkheads. I don’t intend on using any. The tanks will be lamented together once under the stand, at least this is what I was planning on doing. I don’t see this being a problem more then the 1 ¼ inch drain from the tank. that’s a way smaller size. 2 ¾ is all most big enough to get my head threw. Is there any reason I can’t put some of this gutter screen over the baffle to prevent anything larger then 1/3 in threw. I don’t think blockage should be a problem.

Thatguy559 I already drilled the holes in the tanks. They came out clean. Way cleaner then the hole ARES drilled in my 210. I don’t see how to get a 48in under this tank. I had a 55 gallon 48 in truview tank I wanted to try and use before I set the tank but up but from no angle I could get it in the stand, not from the back, top or front. It just wouldn’t fit with out cutting stuff. Now as far as building a 48 or 60 in sump in the stand I’ve thought about it but I just don’t think I trust myself to do something like that and have a reliable outcome.

Bigblue141, thanks for the offer on the sump, I just cant fit something that big in the stand. I do have a lot of rock, its not really that packed. It may have that look in pictures but the rock is open enough for even the biggest of my fish to swim threw and around. Some smaller flat pieces are sort of wall papered across the back to fill in some gaps between the larger pieces and since they are up agents the glass you really cant get much flow behind them. For the most part the rock pieces are rather large in this tank and stacked upside down I guess you could say. Smaller dense pieces on the bottom to form a base and the larger pieces are on the top row. Even then its really open behind what looks like a pile of rock. I could probably use more flow behind them it would make a difference. I could mount a power head on the under side of my over flow blowing to the back of the tank to help with that. The lights are just going to have to chill for a while. I’m just going to have to do with what I have for a while. I blew my mad money on the new lights all the way around and I just had a trany go out in my van so that’s going to have to be it on upgrades until at least the summer time roles around. By the way the vans for sale on Craig’s list if you know any body that wants parts. It cheaper to buy a new van then fix the old one. Since I’m now sporting my wife’s van and she has to drive my old civic that she hates, the new van will have to come sooner then later.

I think that answered about everything.
If you guys want to swing on over this weekend to see what I have before I start making any drastic changes, any input is appreciated.

 

[NC2WA]

Erik,

I was suspect of the Hawaiian lava rock which might have been the cause of your calcium issue, but it looks like coralline algae can grow on this type of rock:

Oceanpro Aquatics, Inc.

FWIW, I never worried (nor tested) about iodine levels, I just made sure I had plenty of good light, calcium level of 425-450 and appropriate alk levels and some time for everything to come together.

 

[tat2z_21]

I was under the assumption that they were standard tanks. I would not use a 20 gallon rimless tank for a refugium those things are way too nice.
Please do not take my advice as the only way to do things, I am just stating problems that I see coming along with the set up that you are proposing.
I was reffering to the brace (wood or black plastic) that goes around the top of your tank that sticks about 1/2 inch in either direction. This would be the case unless you have a rimless tank. WHich I assumed that they were not (those would seriously be too nice of a tank to make into a sump). With this lip it will create a 1" gap inbetween the two which would make it impossible to connect as you are stating without some sort of pipe running through to connect.
The use of gutter guard is possible. I have done it myself and had nothing but failure. Actually I had a biocube set up in my room. And used the gutter guard for my gravity return 6 gallon sump. Between the stuff that just naturally gunked up and various other things, it seemed as if it would clog at the most inoppurtune time. The wife made me get rid of the tank because she got tired of the 3 gallons of water dumping on our hardwood floors.

I would love to come over. I am pretty sure that we can fit a nice sized sump under there. I know tearing the brace out of the front of the stand sounds scary but it can be done if done right. This way we can fit a nice sized sump/refugium in there that will house all of your mechanics. Next we can take a look at your lights. I have a few other ballasts and a few other lights around my house that we can use to trouble shoot. Let me know.

But please do not take my advice as the only way of doing things. The biggest part of reefkeeping is learning what works best for your perticular setup. Your tank is awesome, it may just need some tweeking.

 

[ac7av]

Ill try and dig up some old pictures of the tank but yes, some of the rocks were completely covered with purple coralline algae when I took it down. The lights were the cheep ones the light fixture came with and I used them for 2+ years before trying something different.

They are standard 20H aga tanks. I was going to use small piece of pipe between them that will be silicone into place. The tanks I was going to silicone together and even of the short piece of pipe were to leak it would never hit the floor. Anyway it was a thought, I bought them at the petco sale.

 

[fulkerl]

Just thinking out of the box. What if you took 1/2 inch plexiglass and silicone it between ths tanks then ran a two inch bulkhead through the tank, plexiglass and the last tank. use something like this e-bay item 2" Aquarium Bulkhead Tank Adapter Thread x Socket - eBay (item 290431926388 end time Jan-29-11 01:41:07 PST) and use a gasket on both sides.

 

[ac7av]

The spacer is a good Idea. I was thinking even simpler. I measured it with the tanks together and its less then ½ space so I was planning on just using silicone. Run a bead around the edge of the tanks and then around the holes between the tanks. Then just push the tanks together and use a couple of clamps to hold it still while working on other things while the silicone dries. I was thinking of using a 2 thin wall pvc pipe to bridge the gap and silicone it into place. Using bulkheads will just decrees the opening more then I would like for the water flow. I have to correct my self the drill size I used is 2 ½ inch not 2 ¾ in.

 

[tat2z_21]

So you plan on using just a piece of 2 1/4" pvc in between the tanks with some silicone. Again I would say that you are leaving too much room for error. If you already have a 2 1/4" then why would you not use a bulkhead which will be a little safer then going with pvc and silicone. Not saying that what you are talking about wouldn't work, but for how long.