dave.m
Active member
Sorry, I was thinking of Eliott's frozen food auto feeder. Not the same as the liquid food feeder that you're looking at here.
(About 3:30 in this video)
Dave.M
(About 3:30 in this video)
Dave.M
1000 Gallon Build- Here we go- Lots of Pictures
- Thread starter Socaltoaz
- Start date
Ricardo18
New member
Why not avoid the 2 pumps and have a doser pump it right into the tank.
The doser would have to be a large one, like the Neptune DOS.
For me that wouldn't work. My fridge is in fish room. So I would pump to the sump and then use the return pumps to pump the food into the display tank.
So what's the difference between the Neptune dosing pump and the dosing pump shown in the video.
Someone smarter and more handy than me needs to list a current parts list so I can get this made.
So what's the difference between the Neptune dosing pump and the dosing pump shown in the video.
Someone smarter and more handy than me needs to list a current parts list so I can get this made.
Drill a hole in the fridge and have the Dos pump the food to your return. The benefit of the Dos is it's the only pump I'm aware of that has a reverse function. This will be necessary to clear the feed line to prevent blockage. I would add a second emergency overflow line from the container in the fridge to the sump in case the reverse flow failed to stop and flooded the container. Slief has a similar setup using a wine bottle chiller.
So no Venturi valve needed like in the video. Even better! This is officially on the to do list for me as the next project. Time to buy a dos pump.
The Dos will pump both forward and backwards which makes flushing the lines of food much easier. You can also control the pump speed which helps depending on what you are feeding.
I use a Dos for my thawed but chilled frozen food feeder. This solution would great for me and has been providing supplemental feedings to my tank every day for over a year.
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MidwesternTexan
Average Joe
SoCal,
I like your set up and innovations.
I also agree with (I think it was dave M.) about already running biopellets and GFO.
- I'd run neither- the Algae Truf scrubbef is the way to go! You can DIY your own, or purchase several companies products. Check into it, I waited at least 3 yrs to build my own, and should have done it 4 years ago!
Also, The way you have your skimmer set up- while it is genius;
having the open drain could drop you salinity quickly by the skimmer malfuncioning and pumping out alot off stuff/water over the top, into the cup and out the open drain.
Then, YOur ATO tries to keep up and puts Way too much RO/DI water back in the system, lowering your SG- seen it happen several times with this type of set up.
- Just saying- not hating
Also, you have ~ 1000g? And your exchanging 3g/day? That's like what, 0.3%?
And you think that'll keep things/params in check?
Again, not hating- love your system.
LOVE the sump and all the custom covers!!!
I like your set up and innovations.
I also agree with (I think it was dave M.) about already running biopellets and GFO.
- I'd run neither- the Algae Truf scrubbef is the way to go! You can DIY your own, or purchase several companies products. Check into it, I waited at least 3 yrs to build my own, and should have done it 4 years ago!
Also, The way you have your skimmer set up- while it is genius;
having the open drain could drop you salinity quickly by the skimmer malfuncioning and pumping out alot off stuff/water over the top, into the cup and out the open drain.
Then, YOur ATO tries to keep up and puts Way too much RO/DI water back in the system, lowering your SG- seen it happen several times with this type of set up.
- Just saying- not hating
Also, you have ~ 1000g? And your exchanging 3g/day? That's like what, 0.3%?
And you think that'll keep things/params in check?
Again, not hating- love your system.
LOVE the sump and all the custom covers!!!
I agree on the biopeller reactor. No need for one at this point and assuming he has enough rock/biological surface and ask I assuming the tank tank isn't overloaded, the should never really need one. Especially if his Po4 is in check. Personally, I see BP reactors as a sign of a biological short coming such as not enough live rock or an overloaded system. I am not a fan of them nor am I fan of carbon source dosing.
I also agree on the skimmer. I always keep my collection cup drain valve closed so I can keep an eye on my skimmer performance and know if there is an issue or if my pump is in need of cleaning. In the off chance a snail gets into the skimmer or salt creep in the Venturi, the skimmer will overflow and having it plumbed directly to a drain like that won't necessarily reveal an issue. Especially with an ATO and even more so if you're not monitoring salinity daily. I have a small float switch that I added to my collection cup lid that will shut the skimmer down and send me an alert in the event of an overflow.
Regarding his water change, at the moment, he doesn't have a load on that system with the amount of fish he has in there. Also given the age of the tank, there isn't much reason to change out more as the tank is still building bacteria. While his initial cycle is over, the tank will continue to go through a number of cycles over the next several months as it builds biological diversity. Especially since he didn't use live rock. As long as he doesn't go nuts with his fish stocking, smaller water change amounts will be plenty sufficient provided he isn't registering nitrates. I am sure as his load increases and his coral start to grow and consume nutrients, his water changes will increase as needed.
That said, with daily continuous water changes, I've found that you can get away with less water changes than the typical larger weekly or monthly water changes because nutrients are building up between the changes. In my case, I have a 600 gallon overall volume with 60+ fish (many are 8"+) in my 480g display. I've only changed out 5 gallons daily for the last several years. That works out to 20% a month or so and I don't do larger water changes really ever. I do however have several hundred pounds of live rock, 2 refugiums, one of which has a 30"x36" DSB/Mud Bed and a lot of marco and I have no detectable nitrates. It's all relative and my system is very well established at 18 years of age but with his large volume and light current load, his current water change regimine should be sufficient. At least until his load increases enough to cause his nitrates to rise or his Ca or Alk levels to get out of whack at which point he will have to re-evaluate his water change regimine or look at dosing or Ca. Reactors.
Thanks for the comments. Appreciate the feedback. Right now we are set to change 3 gallons a day. As the bio load increases, we will up that to 5 gallons a day. If my water tests are off, I'll do a big 30-40 gallon change, a couple of them as needed. So far all parameters seem to be well.
With regards to the ATO lowering my salinity, won't happen. I'm using the Genesis Storm for my top off and the way it's designed is that it will do a 10 second top off if water level gets low. If after 10 seconds it's still low, it will do another 10 seconds. If the water level is still not right, the whole top off shuts down completely preventing the issue you are describing.
I'll reevaluate the bio pellet reactor and just run GFO based on feedback here but right now, no turf scrubber for me. Everything is stable and healthy, I dont want to introduce any variables that I don't need right now. Turf scrubber seems unnecessary for me at the moment.
Scott, is this still working well for you? Seems too easy. I just need to drill a couple of holes in the side of the fridge and run some tubing and attach a dos pump. Genius!
Yep.. It runs every day and has been in use for the last year.
The issue becomes getting rid of any food left in the tube. The Dos has the advantage of being able to run in reverse which is not something commonly available with most dosing pumps. You would need to use a second pump with RODI water or something to flush the line after the feed and also a means of insuring the water doesn't back feed into the food container such as a solenoid. The Dos keeps in simple where as the alternatives become much more complex. Ricardo may be able to give you some insight into his solution for flushing the lines.
MidwesternTexan
Average Joe
Wow, that is genius, and running the line clear/backwards, etc.
Nice fish!
Sorry abo0ut the hi jack
The algae is part of the normal cycle.. You tank will go through a wide range of cycles during the first year as the tank builds bacterial diversity. Dialing the lights back some will help but you have corals in there already so you need to be careful as you don't want to light starve them. If you are at a 12 hour photoperiod, you can drop it to 8 hours. You can also reduce the amount of white light in the tank as the blue is the most important spectrum for corals and white tends to accelerate algae growth. This will give the appearance of your tank not being as bright even though your corals will still get the light they need.
