Dudester
Premium Member
melev - Won't be long my friend, won't be long.
fisheebill - I'm fairly certain that the clownfish are very happy in their new home. The smaller male didn't eat at all the first day, and he only picked at a few tiny morsels on day two. Today (day 3) he attacked his meal like the dude that he is, and I'm no longer worried about him. The female never skipped a beat, eating hungrily since the first day. The corals are also quite happy under their new light and flow. Everything I moved over is at the substrate level to avoid bleaching them with the new lighting, and I'll spread them around eventually.
Bax - When wasn't it fun?
javajaws - No sand?
Yuck! 
mcrist and chetm2 - Thanks for your suggestions regarding the 4-way. I may need to replace my drum as well. I was totally unable to remove the drum from the housing, so I had to separate the unit from all of the return plumbing. Paul had told me to use a 3/4" MPT fitting and use that to self tap into the top of the drum, then remove it that way. I tried this, but the drum material actually smoothed out the threads on my PVC fitting. I then did something similar to what you did, chetm2, and pounded it out with a dowel (I used a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe). There wasn't much sand in there at all, at least I thought not. But I guess it was enough to cause a jam. Here's what the drum and housing looked like.
I've reinstalled the 4-way but without the drum for now. Paul's been atypically unavailable, but I plan to speak with him on Monday to work out a solution. Even though there's no sand blowing around currently, I'm a little reluctant to put this drum back in considering the difficulty I had removing it.
CoralGeek and Slakker - Thanks for your encouragement!
So aside from my activities with the closed loop, I've been busy with other things as well. John (thedude) came over and we were unable to make my Red Dragon return pump work properly. I partly wish he would have pointed out something obsurd that I did wrong, but I'm also glad I didn't overlook anything obvious. I've got a thread on one of the other forums where a lot of folks use these pumps, and hopefully I'll get an answer soon. In the mean time the sump return is only via an Eheim 1262 that first passes through a chiller.
We also changed the aquascape ever so slightly, but it made a huge impact on the overall look. The large rock topping off the center island was moved onto the top of the cave on the left side of the tank. This rock now breaches the surface and by moving it out of the center, it provides an entirely new sense of depth to the tank. No photos yet, unfortunately, but they are forthcoming. It's amazing how much moving 1 rock can impact the entire tank. Great suggestion John, thanks!!!!
After looking at the lighting more carefully, I'm not happy with the color. There's too much red/pink in the center, and the rear is too dark. I'm going to move the lamps around a bit until I get the color I'm looking for. I'm not going to trade out any lamps yet, as I want to give them time to burn in a bit before making my final judgement.
The last bit of news regarding this system is that it has a new occupant. It's one of my favorite fish of all time, a copper banded butterfly. John had it at Kingfish (his shop) for several weeks and he had it eating PE mysis. I saw it at the shop weeks ago and really liked it. John told me it had an awesome personality and he would know, as he is The Fish Whisperer. Oh, and as a bonus, it ate all of the aiptasia out of the tank John held it in. It hid in the rocks of my tank for only about 20 minutes, then it was roaming about as if it had lived there for years. I fed it PE mysis and it attacked! I already love this fish.
In other news, I spent the last several hours taking down my 30g cube. I'll probably use the ReefKeeper controller until the one I ordered arrives. Pumps and reusable equipment are soaking in vinegar, and the tank and sump/fuge are emptied and sitting outside hoping for some rain tonight. I rinsed out all of the LR and it is sitting outside to get cooked by the Texas sun. I may use it later for rock rubble and mounting frags, but I'm not sure how to be totally sure that bryopsis won't emerge. I would think keeping it dry and outdoors for several weeks would do the trick?
fisheebill - I'm fairly certain that the clownfish are very happy in their new home. The smaller male didn't eat at all the first day, and he only picked at a few tiny morsels on day two. Today (day 3) he attacked his meal like the dude that he is, and I'm no longer worried about him. The female never skipped a beat, eating hungrily since the first day. The corals are also quite happy under their new light and flow. Everything I moved over is at the substrate level to avoid bleaching them with the new lighting, and I'll spread them around eventually.
Bax - When wasn't it fun?
javajaws - No sand?
Yuck! mcrist and chetm2 - Thanks for your suggestions regarding the 4-way. I may need to replace my drum as well. I was totally unable to remove the drum from the housing, so I had to separate the unit from all of the return plumbing. Paul had told me to use a 3/4" MPT fitting and use that to self tap into the top of the drum, then remove it that way. I tried this, but the drum material actually smoothed out the threads on my PVC fitting. I then did something similar to what you did, chetm2, and pounded it out with a dowel (I used a piece of 3/4" PVC pipe). There wasn't much sand in there at all, at least I thought not. But I guess it was enough to cause a jam. Here's what the drum and housing looked like.
I've reinstalled the 4-way but without the drum for now. Paul's been atypically unavailable, but I plan to speak with him on Monday to work out a solution. Even though there's no sand blowing around currently, I'm a little reluctant to put this drum back in considering the difficulty I had removing it.
CoralGeek and Slakker - Thanks for your encouragement!
So aside from my activities with the closed loop, I've been busy with other things as well. John (thedude) came over and we were unable to make my Red Dragon return pump work properly. I partly wish he would have pointed out something obsurd that I did wrong, but I'm also glad I didn't overlook anything obvious. I've got a thread on one of the other forums where a lot of folks use these pumps, and hopefully I'll get an answer soon. In the mean time the sump return is only via an Eheim 1262 that first passes through a chiller.
We also changed the aquascape ever so slightly, but it made a huge impact on the overall look. The large rock topping off the center island was moved onto the top of the cave on the left side of the tank. This rock now breaches the surface and by moving it out of the center, it provides an entirely new sense of depth to the tank. No photos yet, unfortunately, but they are forthcoming. It's amazing how much moving 1 rock can impact the entire tank. Great suggestion John, thanks!!!!
After looking at the lighting more carefully, I'm not happy with the color. There's too much red/pink in the center, and the rear is too dark. I'm going to move the lamps around a bit until I get the color I'm looking for. I'm not going to trade out any lamps yet, as I want to give them time to burn in a bit before making my final judgement.
The last bit of news regarding this system is that it has a new occupant. It's one of my favorite fish of all time, a copper banded butterfly. John had it at Kingfish (his shop) for several weeks and he had it eating PE mysis. I saw it at the shop weeks ago and really liked it. John told me it had an awesome personality and he would know, as he is The Fish Whisperer. Oh, and as a bonus, it ate all of the aiptasia out of the tank John held it in. It hid in the rocks of my tank for only about 20 minutes, then it was roaming about as if it had lived there for years. I fed it PE mysis and it attacked! I already love this fish.
In other news, I spent the last several hours taking down my 30g cube. I'll probably use the ReefKeeper controller until the one I ordered arrives. Pumps and reusable equipment are soaking in vinegar, and the tank and sump/fuge are emptied and sitting outside hoping for some rain tonight. I rinsed out all of the LR and it is sitting outside to get cooked by the Texas sun. I may use it later for rock rubble and mounting frags, but I'm not sure how to be totally sure that bryopsis won't emerge. I would think keeping it dry and outdoors for several weeks would do the trick?
