ADA 120-P + Elos Mini dual NPS tank journal

Thanks guys! Wouldn't have been possible without this forum and all the contributors to the threads. One thing I still need to add is another ball valve before the 1/2" pipe meets with the 3/4" pipe again. This way I can completely close off the feeding loop if I want to do maintenance but still keep the return pump going. I also ordered another ATB Flowstar 1500 from Victor as a backup, since the pump is like the heart of the system. I have been dealing with Victor for years since the first ATB skimmers got here and it has really paid itself off in the long run.
 
Wow that is awesome I watched it on my phone can't wait to get back to my laptop to see it again. Thanks for sharing!
 
Mike, wanted to remind you before you drill the new frige to test it for a day or so that it will hold temp between 35 and 38. The refrigerator has a similar wire as your other one going through the right side. The wire to the door contact switch only controls the light and the wire runs directly parallel with the switch. The hole will have to be drilled below this line otherwise you will have no light inside the refrigerator but it will work ;)
 
Thanks for the tips Mike! I can also drill above the line right?

Did you take yours apart? I'm guessing it doesn't have any refrigerant lines running along the sides like my fridge did.
 
By the way :thumbsup: thread broke 10k today. It is awesome that the interest in Azoox corals is growing each day.
 
You might be able to drill above it. I didn't completely disassemble it, I just ran small pilot holes to check for wires of piping through the sides. You will see when you open the refrigerator the inside liner has ridges for sliding the shelves in. Depending on if you are going to use the shelves or not depends how high you can go. Also I believe there is no piping in the sides (everthing is in the back).just the contact switch wire on the right.
 
Ok I will probably just drill through the plastic liner then use a spoon to scoop my way through the insulation in order to avoid any potential wires.

Also going to pick up a litermeter 3 water exchange setup from the PO today (delivered yesterday but I wasn't home). With over 100g in my system now and the amount of water changes I have to do, carrying buckets up and down the stairs just isn't gonna work.

Yes 10K views for my thread! I think we really are making way for the growth of this part of the hobby. 1 year from now, what will our tanks look like? How big will this forum be? Will we have an RC TOTM? It's exciting!
 
I would like to see the volume of traffic atleast double, if not triple in the forum. Any given day I can look at the forum and see between 25-35 viewing the threads. Asking to see 75 viewers; RC + guests should not be difficult. More aquarists integrating Azoox corals into their systems, creation of azoox attached systems, and more public aquariums creating azoox displays. Hell, I like seahorses too but I want to see the national level of aquariums start thinking outside the box more.


For my tank a year from now or so...I am planning to go bigger. Spring/summer 2011 I am looking for a new house or should I say due to a family situation, I have to buy a bigger home. Part of the requirements is that there is room for the size tank I would like and fish room as long as my wife gets her dream kitchen. I have a vision of what I would like to create and so far I have not seen anyone attempt the planned aquascape.
 
Got the fridge! Gonna let it sit for a few hours then plug it in and leave it overnight. Lets hope this one is not a POS like my frigidaire.
 
Here we go! Fridge has been holding temp well for a couple days now. I'm going to switch out the fridges and keep the plumbing loop with venturi the same. Lets hope this all goes smoothly. I don't know why I get nervous about this stuff.
 
Could you explain the ventri idea to me, sorry if you've already posted it Just haven't seen the idea behind it yet. I'm in the process of upgrading to a large tank that I can have a fridge next to. :)
 
Sure! It was Matt Wandell's idea. Basically, you fit a venturi valve into the water line that goes through your fridge. The venturi valve has a nipple on it, which is used in skimmers to suck in air and make bubbles. It works by way of changes in water pressure as the water passes through the valve. In our case, we use it to create a very light suction. We connect our food dosing pump output into this nipple on the venturi, and this light suction creates a slightly negative pressure in the dosing pump tubing. This way, if the pump tubing ruptures you don't drain your tank. Instead, the venturi sucks in air. Also, since there is always a little negative pressure on the pump tubing, you're less likely to have leaks at your 1/4" fittings due to excessive backpressure. I'm running a 1500 gph pump to push water through all this so that's pretty important for me. Hope that makes sense! Aquabacs posted a pic of his setup in the continuous feeding sticky, that should help make it more clear too. I'll take pics of mine later but it's nowhere near as tidy as my setup is a little different. If you check out my vid on the previous page you can see how the venturi keeps water from shooting up into the pump tubing though.
 
Low quality video of venturi feeder in action with my new fridge. Please turn up the volume so you can hear the venturi "sucking." The louder sound is the magnetic stirrer. Couple other things to note:

1) Yes I know the plumbing is crooked. I took it straight from my original setup which used a larger fridge, and it didn't quite fit in this fridge as well. Oh well, it works great and doesn't take away from the aesthetics of the tanks, and thats all that matters to me.

2) I use individual pumps which has its pros and cons. The pumps can run at the same time, this doesn't seem to cause any problems but I did change the program on my RKL so that they come on staggered 10 minutes apart. I am just testing here but I dose SD, RF and a mixture of frozen/dry foods every hour. The frozen/dry foods are mixed in the flask by a magnetic stirrer, which comes on at the same time as the pump. I also added an air pump in case the stirrer jams or fails the food still gets stirred. The entire flask is dosed within 12 hours. That's about 1.2L, or a ton of food! But it also feeds the fishes. This works GREAT for the fishes BTW. They pretty much just pick at food from the water column all day and get fat. Great for my anthias and OSFF. I dose OF every 8 hours as it tends to kill the skimmer for at least 2-3 hrs.

3) Aquabacs (Mike) really discovered the best fridge to use for this IMO. It keeps everything cooler than my compressor fridge did and uses very little electricity (less than a standard light bulb according to the box). From what I can tell it uses large computer fans. You can get it online from Staples with free 1 day shipping if you pick up in store.

Pics coming after video:
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hi
nice work!!!

can you tell me how much watt does the fridge needs? why don´t you turn the pump outside?

another question... do you controll the dosing with a tap on the venturi or with the runtime from the dosing pump?
 
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