180 gallon tank build

I feel very accomplished today. Gary M. gave me a heads up on some nice rock at TRS, so I went there today and ended up getting about 100 lbs of really beautiful rock. Tom was very nice to me ;). After TRS, I went to Home Depot. I got a 40g tum to cure the rock in, some PVC, pvc primer, pvc glue, and some other misc. things. When I got home, I filled up the tub with salt water, added a MJ1200, the rock and my ASM G4X skimmer. For some reason, the skimmer kept over flowing. I have the return tube pushed all the way down and even tried setting the skimmer on 2x4's. It's still not working correctly. I assume that I'm not doing something right. Any ideas/suggestions? Also, should I have a heater in that tub?

Next some friends came over to offer their mussels. We brought the tank up from the basement and into the garage where I put on the first coat of Rustoleum Flat spray paint. While it was drying, we moved the loveseat from the soon to be tank room down to the basement. Then we brought up the stand to live in it's new home.

Tomorrow, we will bring the tank inside...yay!!! :celeb1:

First, is this the correct PVC primer and glue?

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Here is the skimmer that is not working so well right now and the tub of rocks.

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This is the stand sitting in it's new home

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Here are some picture of the tank after being painted.

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And this is from a bristle worm that got me when I was fidgeting with the new rock...

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looks good

looks good

except for that finger. OUCH!

you've used that skimmer in the past, right? I don't know what's wrong now. I'd be surprised if you got much skimmate from those rocks- they're pretty clean. Room temp should be fine- you don't need heat on 'em. Nice rock, BTW. Nice big pieces- perfect bottom building blocks.
 
brand new skimmers

brand new skimmers

need to be "broken in" before they'll produce skimmate properly.
Any chance you can set it on it's lowest height and just run it for a day or two? Allow whatever "pseudo-skimmate" that's produced to flow back into the tub. This might mean you need to remove the collection cup temporarily. I've never broken in an ASM. Maybe somebody else can offer their insight on this matter.
 
Hi Magdalen,

Nice build thread and some great progress.

the venturi tube should be straight upwards.
If you loose power, the water could back siphon and drain your tank.

Waffleman
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12271376#post12271376 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SkiFletch
IMG_1872.jpg


Is that foam I see INSIDE the riser tube? That's not right, you need the tube empty ;)
Click to expand...

Hmmm.... It came with the skimmer and it showed a diagram with it in the tube. I'll pull it and let it run as Gary suggested.

We'll see what happens... but I still don't get it!!
 
I have an asm g4x.
A couple of things:
The vinyl tube (quarter inch airline) should be clipped in so it is elevated well above the water. There is a clip towards the top of the skimmer. Just slide it through. If it's near or in the water the skimmer will not get any air. This piece of tubing connects to a venturi (under the water) where air enters the pump trough a small pin hole. This air then passes trough the needle wheel impeller in the pump where it is chopped into fine bubbles which rise in the skimmer.

You need to raise the grey platic pipe to about an inch or less above the lower end of the neckof the skimmer Just pull this tube upwards. ( I can't tell from the picture if it's even in there). If not and you have it (it's about a foot long) just push it gently into the hole in the black sponge and on into the pipe outletfrom the skimmer.
Water from the skimmer will exit and flow down the outside of this pipe into the black sponge on the bottom. The hieght at which you set this tube will determine the height of water in the skimmer. At some point you may wan't to remove the black sponge entirely since it will be a nitrate producer.It does however make the skimmer a bit quieter.
Sice your ventrui has likely gotten a lot of salt spray from the air tube you may want to rinse it out. Take a cup of warm tap water and put the end of that air tube in the cup. It will drink it like sucking on a straw and flush the venturi.
This skimmer which is made of plastic not acrylic should not need a break in period. Mine ran very well out of the box.

Good Luck.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12271376#post12271376 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SkiFletch
Is that foam I see INSIDE the riser tube? That's not right, you need the tube empty ;)
Click to expand...

Thank you for the suggestions tmz, Gary, and Waffleman, but SkiFletch wins the prize. I took the foam out of the riser last night, but found that it was still overflowing. Well, I went down today to take it all apart and fiddle with it. I took the riser pipe out to inspect it a little closer when I realized that there was a middle piece of foam still in there. Well, needless to say, I removed it and Presto Chango!!!

A working Skimmer... Thanks guys!!!!!
 
Glad I could help Mike. TBH, I'm not sure why they put that foam in there. Perhaps sometimes it's needed for operation but what you were describing lead me to believe that the pressure inside the reaction chamber was too high due to extra restriction at the outlet (foam inside the riser tube). As your skimmer breaks in over the coming month or so as Gary suggested, you may need to tweak it a bit. Internal parts will become cased in slime and the pump will operate differently. If the water level in the reaction chamber lowers, you'll have to raise the riser tube, and vice versa.
 
Finally, the tank and stand meet. It's love at first sight. They will get married to become Mr. and Mrs. Tankstand. They will have a wonderful honeymoon in Fiji and bring back some rock as souveinirs. Soon they will begin to build their home. Their house will be located at 180 AGA Drive. After their new home is broken in, they will have many children and their children will have children. AFter many years go by and space begins to get tight, Mr. and Mrs. Tankstand will look for a bigger house. Maybe this one will be located at 265 Starfire Way.

...but for now, we'll be happy here; in our new home.


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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12283205#post12283205 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by SkiFletch
Looks great Mike. Sure you want it that close to the wall though ;)
Click to expand...

Which wall are you refering to and what problems could I run into?
 
I got the new Hamilton light today. It's pretty sweet with the exception of two things. They put the cord on the wrong side and the fans are really loud. I specified that I wanted the cords on the right hand side of the light so that it was in the corner of the wall. Well, they are on the left side for some reason. Next. the noise level of the cooling fans is so loud. My wife is not very happy about it. I'll deal with it, but come on...it's a light. You shouldn't be able to hear light, just as you should not be able to taste the color purple. Here's a pic of the lights...

IMG_1921.jpg
 
Sorry about the issues with your light. I didn't specify for mine and the cords are on the right. The fans are loud but push alot of air. These lights get pretty hot but don't afffect the tank temperature as much as you might expect. I have some pcs with louder fans. I don't know of any with really quiet fans.
 
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