--75g Barebottom/Starboard Reef Project--

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<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6609458#post6609458 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by arconom
Well no more procrastinating(looks like wrong spelling :) I bought a duel stage Ranco Temperature controller just now online. The only place that sells Ranco it seams is DIYreef? Jay said it is listed under aqualogic. I didn't know they were the same.

I'm not about to risk my Livestock on 2 30$ heaters.

Next is the Return pump. But I want to wait until I get my new sump.
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Careful with that Ranco temp controller from DIYReef.com. I purchased one about 8 months ago... Ran great for a while then out of the blue one day (product being less than 4-5 months old and not being around any moisture at all) it caused an electrical fire. Aparently one of the boards/wiring inside short circuited and it made a nice fire in the basement of my home, thank goodness someone was home.

From their accounts they walked into the fish room and saw the thing arc across the room and then it killed the circuit. I had some nice burning ALL my electrical stuff -- which I had to buy all new stuff, the stand, carpet and walls also got a nice scorching.

Long story short I have contacted the owner of DIYReef.com and cannot seem to get any comments out of them. Basically she told me to open it up and see what went wrong, rather then that I was basically SOL. Long story short I had to replace all my electrical stuff, including heater, pH controller, DJ Electrical Controllers, return pump, heater, and my ca reactor feed pump.

Not to scare you away from the product, just be very cautious and keep a fire extinguisher close by.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6609866#post6609866 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis
Do you have a chiller running on this tank? I agree, no tank should have heaters running without a digital temperature controller such as a Ranco, Aquacontroller, etc. The cheap little thermostats that come with heaters are garbage. Yes, the Aqualogic temp controller is just a Ranco with the Aqualogic name stamped on it and the price doubled. Did you get a single or dual stage controller? Did you get the one with the outlets alread on it or the one that needs to be wired up? I have a wiring tuturial on the DIY page of my website that shows how to wire up the dual stage. I wired mine with power strips so I could have multiple heaters and fans turn on when needed.
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The Ranco one I had from DIYReef was a dual-stage and it came wired already.
 
elephen

OMG! Now what should I do?


Travis, it is a Duel Stage pre wired. I don't like messing with electrical. But now that I know what you did I will be doing it since I want a powerstrip on it. Travis do you have a Ranco?

I'm going to your DIY section on your site thanks:)
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6610115#post6610115 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by arconom
elephen

OMG! Now what should I do?


Travis, it is a Duel Stage pre wired. I don't like messing with electrical. But now that I know what you did I will be doing it since I want a powerstrip on it. Travis do you have a Ranco?

I'm going to your DIY section on your site thanks:)
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Well I may of been lucky and got a bad one, maybe maybe not, who knows.

I would say just keep it away from everything and keep an eye on it. Mine was running for about 3-4 months before this happend, its been so long I don't remember the exact timeframe.
 
elephen, thanks for sharing your experience and sorry to hear about your bad luck. I know a lot of people use the Rancos both in this hobby and also in the HVAC industry. Never have I heard about one doing that. The only thing I could think of would be if you were running too many amps on it. Or it could have just been bad luck. How many amps were you running on it?

arconom, No need to wire anything up. Since you ordered the one that is pre-wired you can just plug the power strips right into those outlets.:) Wiring it yourself just saves a few bucks but there is no need to rewire it since yours will already be wired.
 
I guess your right Travis I don't need to Rewire. I just like have you have the powerstrips on there permanently. Why don't they put powerstrips on them as a standard? most people are running more then 1 heater right?

Also after that 30 Gal water change I think the ALK and CAlc thing are at a balance. So there not out of wack.

My ALK is 7.4
Cal is 360

I will do Mag later I forgot:(


I want ALK 8.0-8.5
Cal 400-430

Now I will bring them up. I don't have any alk Bionic left only calcium so I will just use Calcium for now until my New bottles come in.

Or maybe not touch them since adding only calc might mess it up?
 
arconom - that is crazy that your levels went all out of wack. i've never had that happen w/ my phosban.

hope it clears up soon and gets you tank back on track

Lunchbucket
 
I would guess the controllers don't come with power strips because most people will only use them to run one piece of equipment and the power strips would make them cost more.

You can raise your alk cheaply with baking soda while you are waiting for you 2-part. Here is a calculator that tells you exactly how much of whatever product to add to get to your desired level of calcium, alkalinity, or magnesium.

http://home.comcast.net/~jdieck1/chem_calc3.html
 
It won't mess with the balance of my tank? People mostly use that for a quick boost?

I have read alot about it but thought it might mess up the balance of the water,like magnesium sulfate does?
 
You can add the baked baking soda to raise pH and Alkalinity easily. Then add the B-Ionic calcium supplement 30 minutes later.

For my reef, I'll mix 3 to 6 tsp of baked baking soda in a cup of RO/DI water, and add it slowly while watching the tank pH reading. As it goes up, I stop and give it a few minutes to level off. Then I'll add more, and stop again. Always add it in an area of high flow, and very slowly or gradually. You don't want a potent cloud of high pH traveling over your livestock. Try adding it like a trickle.

82F is totally fine and nothing to worry about. My tank is set that if the tank hits 85F, lights start shutting off. My tank ranges for 79 to 81.5 daily.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6613356#post6613356 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Travis
elephen, thanks for sharing your experience and sorry to hear about your bad luck. I know a lot of people use the Rancos both in this hobby and also in the HVAC industry. Never have I heard about one doing that. The only thing I could think of would be if you were running too many amps on it. Or it could have just been bad luck. How many amps were you running on it?
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Practically none. I had a 100 or 150w heater on one side and a cheap little small plastic fan from walmart that I would guesstimate is around 100w at the max.
 
melev

I will give baking soda a try. I have to go out and buy some since the only container is in our frig:(
 
Im kinda going thru my own version of a Ca/Alk/Mg imbalance.
My problem was that my alk was too high (4.6 meq/l) and it took a TON of CaCl to get my Ca to 425. But its there now and Im going to add about 120ml per day of my CaCl soulution. Meanwhile Im still trying to get my Mg to stay at 1350. My Alk is now hovering around 4.2 (meq/l). Who knows what it will be tomorrow morning. I used a dHK buffer (KENT) and I think that was my problem. I bought 5 boxes of Baking Soda and baked it in the oven at 300 for about 90 min. I will use that to dose with my CaCl (in equal parts) but not until my ALK comes down to the 3 range.

Are you dosing Strontium?
 
I read for increasing PH you would need to bake it.

I didn't bake it. My PH went down to 7.9 for 5 minutes nothing to bad.
 
Well you guys have to hear this...

I got the package from DIYreef yesterday. It was the Ranco Duel stage temp controller.

Well I hooked it up today.

I have been using a 8.00$ digital thermometer from Petco or Petsmart I'm not sure. It is a coralife? I will get pictures of it tomorrow.

Here comes the funny part.

My Ranco controller is reading 80 degrees and my coralife is reading 75.

:(

So I have been trying to keep my temp at 79 degrees. I basically when my temp gauge reads 79 it's really 84 degrees:(

Moral of the story..... Never trust a 8.00$ temp gauge for longer then a year. Especially when you know better!!!!!.

I should have known better when I would occasionally put my mercury thermometer in the tank and it would always read very high. But it was actually just measuring my temperature accurately.
 
I have that same digital Thermometer. I also have old faithful...the suction-cup mercury thermometer!

In addition... I recently added a fan blowing across my sump. This fan comes on with the MH's. So far my temp has not gone above 79.5. I'm esstactic! We've had some cool days here and there so my heater actually had to kick on but we also had some warm days too. We'll see what happens come March when the weather gets warm again.

Anyway, today, my Ca,Alk,mg are perfect. Tomorrow I will begin dosing 50ml each of Randy's 2-part Ca/Alk additives.
 
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