Bulletproofing a reef tank

[ReachTheSky]

Isn't it annoying that despite all the technological dvances, they still can't make a cheap chiller?

It's not a matter of technological advancement. It's a matter of physics. To heat something up, you add heat. We have electricity that make things hot. Simple and easy. To cool something down, you don't "add cold" because cold is not a thing. You need to remove that heat. Since electricity does not carry heat away, we have to think of something else. Not very simple or easy.

With that being said, there actually are cheap chillers. They're called fans. They carry heat way in the form of evaporation. Another cheap method of cooling your tank is the A/C in your home. Keep the room cold and heat wont even come in.

 

[SpartaReef]

Look up Paul b... His tank has lasted forty years without crashing.

 

[el aguila]

Some of the things that I have done are:

Place automatic on battery air pumps for power outages with air stones hidden behind rocks. These are life savers if you are out for the evening or gone on vacation and power goes out.

Put essential functions on different circuits so that if a circuit gets flipped everything in the tank won't go down. ATO, LED lights, return, Ranco Temp controller, closed loop pump, Neptune, and tank room outlets are all on different circuits with a dedicated "tank elec. box."

I have a 55G drum for RO top off and another for mixing saltwater, plus a 150G for RO storage that I use to feed my mixing barrel. I try to keep all of these a minimum of 2/3 full. In an emergency (recently my 2yr old dumped a large full container of NLS TherA pellets in my sump) I can put salt in the RO containers and end up with a total 200-250G of saltwater in quick notice.

The above NLS spill would have knocked many tanks out, but mine is getting back to normal after 2 months.

For temp, I use a Ranco 2 stage Nem 4 with 3 heaters all preset to turn off a degree or 2 warmer than the Ranco. Cooling I'm on well water and use a solonoid valve and 300' of 1/4" line in my sump. Even with the AC broke down tank never reached 80 during 100 degree weather. I can also place box fans over sump/tank if need be.

Made extra homemade reactors from PVC to keep lying around. In an emergency I can run extra carbon and GFO which can save your butt when you have an overfeeding episode.

 

[ericsfowlr]

When you have 5,000.to 10,000. invested in an aquarium 800.00 dollars for a chiller is cheap. also due to a broken a/c fan and being out of town our reef hit 89 tank temp and 96 house temp in middle of july. So the priority in the new house is a whole house generator. Because the power has gone off for 8 hours at least 3 times gotta love living in the country.

 

[tanked37]

Put essential functions on different circuits so that if a circuit gets flipped everything in the tank won't go down.

I think this is often overlooked but very important. My GFCI flipped off one day while at work and turned off my aquarium controller and all associated outlets. However, I thought that something like that could happen so I run my return pump on a different circuit. Short story even shorter, the water continued to circulate all day with just the return pump running and everything was fine. If all on same outlet, then that could of been an issue.

 

[Paul B]

With that being said, there actually are cheap chillers. They're called fans. They carry heat way in the form of evaporation. Another cheap method of cooling your tank is the A/C in your home. Keep the room cold and heat wont even come in

When I find a situation like that I don't wait for technology to come up with something, I figure it out and build it myself. The key is to be self sufficient and that is why my tank lasted over forty years. Build things for "your" situation and make it fail safe.
I built leak detectors under my tank for $12.00 that shut off the pumps in case of a leak or if the 5 gallon skimmer container overflows. I built a ATO that only feeds the tank a little faster than what evaporates so if it fails, very little water will overflow.
I use 3 small heaters instead of one large one so if one fails and stays on, nothing will happen. When I go on vacation I invert a 5 gallon water cooler jug over my tank so it will keep adding water to keep the tank filled in case the ATO clogs. (my ATO is gravity fed so no pumps or controllers to fail) I don't use a sump and have no holes in my tank, no holes usually means no leaks.
I built this evaporative chiller in an afternoon for about $50.00 or less.
I don't even use it any more because I threw out my MH lights and built a LED system that stays cool and uses 12 volts so no danger of shocks to me or the fish.
I use that chiller now sometimes on my worm tank.
I also have a generator that runs on gasoline or natural gas because after Hurricane Sandy we could not get gasoline and my power was out for 4 days. Now the power could stay off forever and it would not affect my tank. The cost of electricity went up so I installed solar panels that paid for itself in a year and now it has cut my electric bills by $110.00 a month. There are solutions for everything, you just have to do it.

 

[SpartaReef]

How did you do the solar panels, I've wanted to do that also, everything I find is rebuilt and way over my budget.

 

[SpartaReef]

How did you do the solar panels, I've wanted to do that also, everything I find is rebuilt and way over my budget.

Oops typo and won't let me edit :-\

Instead of "rebuilt" I meant "pre"built

 

[Paul B]

How did you do the solar panels, I've wanted to do that also, everything I find is rebuilt and way over my budget.

These may be over your budget also. They cost me $23,000.00 but I got $14,000.00 back from a rebate from the power company and $7,000.00 back from the federal taxes so it cost me $2,000.00 which I made back in a year so it really didn't cost me anything. The initial cost of the panels could also be financed. I did it myself but if you can't do that, add another $10,000 for the installation.

 

[hollowpoint331]

Aquarium Controller, ie you set your heater thermostat and set the controller temp para you want, one with work if the other doesn't. Nothing is 100% but 2 controls are better than one. It can also turn off heat generating equipment if the temp keeps climbing. But I also second getting a independent temperature gauge with alarm for peace of mind. Always have a small dc fan, powerhead, and a battery powered surge protector on hand incase of power outage. You can live without lights for 2-3day

 

[Sanren]

I work in IT and at one of my old jobs we moved buildings and my boss told me to throw out one of the APC 2300 rack mount UPS that had a bad battery pack. So i threw it out into the trunk of my car. 40 bucks later i have a 2k UPS that now runs nothing but my 4 koralia pumps. This thing is designed for a server rack with multiple 750 to 1k watt power supplies, my 10 watt koralias last for days and days and days on that thing. only problem is you have to put up with the obnoxious BEEP every few minutes when the power is out. next time there is an extended power outage, i'm just going to remove the speaker and that problem with be solved. I live in Tampa and keeping the tank warm enough has never been a problem. when i set this tank up 2 years ago i picked up 2 heaters for the redundancy but have since removed them as i have never needed to use them.

 

[wbrinker]

Battery backup and 2 generators, works for me!

 

[dkeller_nc]

Here is a solution if you can't or don't want to run a natural gas/propane generator with an auto fail-over transfer switch:

http://www.theinverterstore.com/1500-watt-modified-sine-inverter-charger.html

Connected to a 100 amp-hour trolling motor battery, it will run your tank for days, and instantly transfers to battery if the AC goes out.

 

[rlpardue]

Let me tell you a story....

About three weeks after bringing it online, my Apex malfunctioned on me. It turned completely off and when it came back on by itself after about a minute, the programming was an utter, utter mess; random things were going on and off. There were heaters stuck on, dosing pumps randomly dumping 2-part, pumps and halides were randomly turning on/off (this can destroy them), the ATO was randomly dumping Kalkwasser in the sump and so on. Thankfully I was home and managed to correct the issue but imagine if I wasn't.

When I emailed Neptune about it, they quickly telnetted into my Apex and corrected the issue for good which I'm very happy about but still a bit shaken.

This is SCAAAAAAARYYYYYYY

 

[Timber77]

I would never use gravity for ato top off... have been using same liter meter 111 for the last 15 years never an issue or even thought of an issue.

keep external skimmer sitting in a sump that drains to the main sump in event the skimmer "gos wild"

try not to even use a heater but if necessary use 2 smaller heaters than 1 big one

controller: pretty much an awesome thing to have as it keeps temp, timers, internet, etc into the picture and eliminates having to have smart devices like lights etc... best ones are apex and reef angel ...

sump make it big big enough for a total power failure plus a good margin of error

skimmer go big on this piece look at used -the pumps are pretty universal these days
like a 1000 gallon skimmer on a 100 gallon tank is a good thing and solves alot of problems b4 they start

ro/di tds meter and supplies for them on hand

always have a supply of fresh ro/di on hand also helpful to keep a supply of saltwater pre mixed and arerated on hand

Mandatory test for CA MG and ALK PH are the bare minimum the beginner cycle test kits are nice to know whats happening but in a month are useless... phosphate tests should be considered snake oil as they dont work in this range (labs can but its not cheap) then keep your preferred method of replacing each on hand for refills....nilsen, ca reactor, 2 part, etc.... one the tank is running keeping these in line is really the game

++ on inverter or generator....