Austin goes Rimless - Dudester's 203g mixed reef

[Dudester]

Last night I hooked up my ORP probe to the Aquatronica. I'm supposed to leave the probe in the tank water for about 2 weeks before calibrating, so I'm not paying much attention to the values it's reading.

I also went on a little reconnaissance mission. I saw my red brittle star on top of the closed loop strainer. I should have realized that it was fine, as it was moving its extremities around and, looking back, I'm nearly positive it wasn't stuck on the strainer. I have a history of notting leaving well enough alone, and I felt I needed to do something about this. So I turned off the Barracuda to allow it to climb off of the strainer more easily. This backfired, and the brittle star actually climbed inside of the strainer, where it hung out all night. This morning I couldn't take it, so I unscrewed the strainer from the riser tube, and in the process the star fled down into the riser PVC. I simply waited a few minutes and it climbed out back into the tank. I promptly replaced the strainer and fired the 'cuda back up. I used this opportunity of having my arm in the tank to redirect the flow from my 4-way outlets. I wasn't happy with the flow pattern or the surface agitation, as there were 2 spots where particulates were visible on the surface. With the new positioning of the returns the flow pattern is much better.

I really need to increase the alkalinity demand in my tank (MORE CORALS!!). After running the Ca reactor for only 1 day my alkalinity rose to 9.9 dKH (from 8.0). I'll need to get it down to less than 8, as elevated alkalinity is lethal to SPS when using the ZEOvit method. I adjusted the controller so that it runs much less, and I have a coral shopping spree planned for next weekend.

 

[GSMguy]

Coral shopping spree whooo hooooo, I cant wait to see what you get, the corals in your office are superb.

 

[gkarshens]

Mike I am planning a big frag sale so let me know if you want anything.

 

[jnarowe]

just glad it came back out!!

 

[erics3000]

At least you saved him..

 

[Dudester]

Gabriel, I'll talk with you soon about that. Any hints on what you'll be fragging? I know you have a millepora that I'm dying to get a piece of.

The brittle star has been behaving himself, staying near but off of the strainer.

My alkalinity has drifted down slowly to 9.3. Just not enough demand in the tank as of yet, but I'm looking forward to correcting that problem .

In sadder news, I've suffered my first casualty of this tank. One of my 4 beloved emerald crabs has gone the way of the sea. Memorial services will be held at the Austin Zoo. Please send donations in lieu of flowers.

 

[hansmatt]

How are you liking your powermodule fixture? Any regrets? Enought light for sps ya think?

 

[jnarowe]

I put 4 emeralds in my tank and didn't see them for a year. Then one day there was two of them screwing around and posturing up on fish.

 

[robster]

Give the nylon filter socks a try. They are much easier to clean than the poly or felt filter socks. I get mine from www.filterbags.com. I use only nylon now and will use 150-200 microns. They don't clog as easily as the 100 micron. They also allow more to flow through for the skimmer to get. However, they are still very effective at catching larger particles and eliminating micro bubbles.

 

[gkarshens]

I will be fragging quite a bit. Several are growing into each other. I will frag you anything that is large enough to frag. I think you have my number but if not PM me.

 

[ycnibrc]

Happy ThanksGiving to you and your family Mike

Love your tank and hope that you can find some nice corals on your shopping trip.

 

[Dudester]

hansmatt - The Powermodule was a great purchase, no regrets for sure. When people with 400W halides visit my house, the first comment from their mouths is how bright the T5's are. I have no concerns at all about being able to keep SPS, and I'm sure the clams at the sandbed will thrive as well.

jnarowe - A grouper could get lost in your tank.

robster - Thanks for the link! When I surfed their website I didn't see any socks that had pull strings, which is what I need. I'll give them a call and see if that's an option. Simplifying the cleaning of the socks would be a huge bonus.

gkarshens - I'll give you a call soon, thanks!

ycnibrc - Hope you had a nice Thanksgiving as well, and thanks for wishing me luck on my upcoming shopping trip. I read in another thread that you just received your tank. Drop us a link to your thread when you get it going.

 

[Dudester]

I'm trying to decide on a power backup for my tank. I'll eventually be using a Red Dragon 4.5m3 return pump, and this uses only 48 watts. My plan was to plug this into an APC device. In the event of a power outage, the return pump would remain on, which would provide ample circulation and oxygenation to the tank. I was considering this APC unit which would provide over 2 hrs of power to the pump, which should cover most power problems we have here in Austin. Or should I upgrade to something with more life? I really don't think I need a generator, as we rarely lose power for more than 15 minutes at a time here. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[jnarowe]

You have to make sure of what kind of power it produces. most pumps won't run on the average UPS. I use a UPS to power my controller and a couple of items for my QT tank, but a genset is used for my main system. You have to figure that the UPS is going to cost a lot of money and you can buy a generator for not much more, getting much longer run time. You can also more easily get generators that produce a full sine wave.

you'll have to do some research to figure out what that pump requires and what the UPS will do for you.

 

[Bax]

I am considering placing a Tunze & a heater on APCs one each on two eperate units. Up here, if the power goes, cold is my first concern this time of year. This would give me a little time to set up a generator.

But long term, I adree with J. You only really protect your system when the bulk of it is wired to an auto start auto switching generator. Any other solution requires the luck of:

A) Knowing the power is out
B) Being able to react and get to you system before your interim power supply faails.
C) What if you don't know, will your solution switch back to main power?

Once you cross a line on system size and investment, this seems to be the most over looked safety devise. It keeps me up at night when there's bad weather and I am home but my reef is back at the office in my crotchety old building with only electric heat in the office. It would devestate me to loose my livestock over a power outage.

 

[bcoons]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11243611#post11243611 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dudester
My plan was to plug this into an APC device. In the event of a power outage, the return pump would remain on, which would provide ample circulation and oxygenation to the tank. I was considering this APC unit which would provide over 2 hrs of power to the pump, which should cover most power problems we have here in Austin. .

Mike,

Your run time calcs look right on, so the other thing you need to know is if your pump will run on the output waveform of the APC's inverter. The APC puts out a stepped (modified) sine wave, rather than the nice smooth sine wave it expects from the wall socket. Depending on the quality of the output waveform and the design of the motor, it may or may not run under load on the APC's power. The motor may run OK, it may run without a load but won't pump water, it may run if it is already connected to the APC when the mains power goes off but not start if it stalls, or it may run very hot.

The only way to be sure is to try it. I would try to borrow a similar unit and test it on your pump in operation. Remember, the pump must be under load (pumping water) and not just running in air at no load.

If you can't borrow a similar APC, see if the pump will run OK (under load) on a simple Radio Shack or Autozone 12VDC => 120VAC inverter. The cheap automotive inverters also produce a simple stepped sine wave output waveform. If the pump runs OK on it there's a good chance it will run on the waveform produced by the higher quality waveform of the more expensive APC. If the pump won't run, or runs raggedy and hot, you'll have to find a true sine wave output APC ($$$) or go to the autostart genset.

The genset will also be $$$$ but will be useful for other things when the power goes out. And yes, it is true that our power outages around here are short and rare, but that's not good to count on. Most lightning induced faults are cleared pretty quickly, but a car accident taking out a power pole going to your neighborhood, or a transformer failure in your 'hood can take several hours to fix. We had a transformer failure here last summer that put us without power for almost 3 hours. I had to manually hook up and run my genset. Think how much your tank is worth.

Give me a call if you have questions. You still have my cell #?

Bruce

 

[gkarshens]

Mike, I use a power sensing battery operated air pump. You plug it in and when the power goes off it comes on. It can run for 6+ hours. I too only get power blinks here for about 5 min. if that. It has worked perfectly.

 

[ycnibrc]

I check with homedepot and they have a system which run by natural gas and it will turn on automatic if the electricity shut down. You can determind how many watt that you want and they will install a system to give you the right amount. I have crash my tank 2 time for the pass 3 years so I decide to do this system for my new tank since it cost alot to reload the tank and very stressful.

 

[melev]

I had an APC 1500 running my Mag 5 return pump on the 29g, and another APC 1500 running my Tunze Turbelle in the 55g.

Both worked very well to maintain flow through the tank around the clock, especially since we can be out of power for multiple hours at a time for no specific reason.

On my new tank, I don't have anything like that set up, but I do have a VorTech plugged into an IceCap Battery Backup so that keeps things flowing for 24 hours if everything else is powerless.

And I have a gas generator that I can hook up if necessary.

 

[jnarowe]

I have a couple of the Vortechs on BB too.