CADlights 39g Pro build thread

[Gillundr]

How high do you guys keep your sump lvl? I keep mine at about 8 1/4" I need an ATO as well but am at home all the time so I can top off a few times a day so it doesn't get too far off unless I leave for the day but even then it's not too much. I will be getting an ATO soon then I gotta figure out a tank to use and all that. I saw the jugs MD has and may use that but I was goin to check the hardware store for maybe a jug first. They should have jugs for water at a hardware store or even an RV store that way I won't have to pay to ship a big 5g jug lol. I was sort of waiting to try to figure out a good pump to try on the skimmer to put in an order and would probably get the ATO with that or maybe wait for Christmas to see if Santa brings me an ATO and an MP-10 or MP-20. Cant decide on which lol. Probably the 20 but...

 

[reeftivo]

7 3/4 for me but 8 1/4 is fine. I am using a square 5 gallon carboy style container which is covered with wicker baskets next to the tank. I good option is PetSmart. I'm pretty sure they sell catalina NSW in 5 gallon buckets similar to mine. This insures that they are food stuffs safe and they are easier to hide in baskets than the round HD buckets. I got the two baskets I use for my ATO at Target and the others at a store over here called Michaels. The Tunze Osmolator has a kick @#ss little pump that drops right in to the opening on my 5 and will push water up to 15 feet. It also has an alarm and is way more precise than the others due to the sensor.

BTW, MP 10 is great but the MP20 is much broader flow-better IMO.

 

[reeftivo]

Sorry but it's not petsmart for the Catalina NSW but Petco. My bad!

 

[timdanger]

1/3 cup of skimmate that good is cool! Especially with that low of a load.
Your production will increase once you get an ato. Ask for a Tunze osmolator for an early Christmas present -lol!:thumbsup:

haha -- i'd love one! unfortunately, i think "vortech" is at the top of my Christmas wish list this year. i think i'll probably end up with something from autotopoff.com. I actually saw someone selling an osmolator-style system made by Elos in the classified ads for like $99, but I don't know anything about those as compared to the Tunze ones.

Unrelated note, is it pronounced "Toon-zee"? "Toonz"? "Tunz"?

 

[timdanger]

How high do you guys keep your sump lvl? I keep mine at about 8 1/4" I need an ATO as well but am at home all the time so I can top off a few times a day so it doesn't get too far off unless I leave for the day but even then it's not too much. I will be getting an ATO soon then I gotta figure out a tank to use and all that. I saw the jugs MD has and may use that but I was goin to check the hardware store for maybe a jug first. They should have jugs for water at a hardware store or even an RV store that way I won't have to pay to ship a big 5g jug lol. I was sort of waiting to try to figure out a good pump to try on the skimmer to put in an order and would probably get the ATO with that or maybe wait for Christmas to see if Santa brings me an ATO and an MP-10 or MP-20. Cant decide on which lol. Probably the 20 but...

i'd just buy 5g gas jugs from Lowes or Walmart. i use red for salt water, yellow for fresh.

 

[Gillundr]

I was thinking about doing that lol but wondered if the plastic was weird and could possibly leach phosphates into the water. I wasn't sure if I needed to find some sort of "food grade" plastic for the ATO water just to be safe. I had always used an old aquarium before but it's not going to work for this system. I'm going to have to put it in a jug and hide it in a cabinet or behind some baskets or something. I may build a cabinet to go next to the CAD that I can hide that sort of stuff in. Still deciding on what to do, but then again I don't have the ATO and all that yet either so no big rush on that one. I can build a cabinet in a couple of days when it comes down to it if that's what I decide. May go the basket and plant route. I guess I'll have to see what the "Boss" wants when I get that far haha.

 

[timdanger]

I was thinking about doing that lol but wondered if the plastic was weird and could possibly leach phosphates into the water. I wasn't sure if I needed to find some sort of "food grade" plastic for the ATO water just to be safe. I had always used an old aquarium before but it's not going to work for this system. I'm going to have to put it in a jug and hide it in a cabinet or behind some baskets or something. I may build a cabinet to go next to the CAD that I can hide that sort of stuff in. Still deciding on what to do, but then again I don't have the ATO and all that yet either so no big rush on that one. I can build a cabinet in a couple of days when it comes down to it if that's what I decide. May go the basket and plant route. I guess I'll have to see what the "Boss" wants when I get that far haha.

well, that is definitely an interesting theory (about leaching phosphates into your water). i can honestly say i hadn't considered that!

my water has always tested "0" for phosphates, but its possible that my phosphates are tied up in my prolific hair algae population so as to avoid detection.

what i can tell you is that a lot of people at my LFS (which is a marine specialty shop) use those gas cans. and, how long do you generally store ATO water? my 5g jug lasts me approximately 7-8 days, and the volume of water being exposed to those phosphates is constantly decreasing. i guess the one thing i could do is let some water sit in that gas can for a few weeks and then see if i can detect any phosphates in there.

to tivo's point, petco's little "water bladders" actually aren't bad ideas, and they're flexible so they can fit where you need them to fit -- downside is that you can't fit a pump into the bag with the water.

re: hiding containers, isn't it tivo who has the awesome basket setup with the fish gear inside of it? (i will now and forever be referring to the invention of a basket for hiding fish gear as "Fishouflauge" (TM) -- tivo, you can buy the trademark name from me, or we can go in as partners on this venture of constructing fish gear hiding solutions). anyway, scroll back through here -- i'm sure you'll see it. looks like a good idea.

I hear you about "the boss" -- my boss is trying to convince me to buy a whole new set of bedroom furniture AND a new couch for our living room right now, only 4 months after redoing our entire master bathroom. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO AFFORD OSMOLATERS AND VORTECHS WHEN YOU KEEP WANTING TO BUY THINGS LIKE FURNITURE???

 

[reeftivo]

haha -- i'd love one! unfortunately, i think "vortech" is at the top of my Christmas wish list this year. i think i'll probably end up with something from autotopoff.com. I actually saw someone selling an osmolator-style system made by Elos in the classified ads for like $99, but I don't know anything about those as compared to the Tunze ones.

Unrelated note, is it pronounced "Toon-zee"? "Toonz"? "Tunz"?

Good question! I say Toons because I said tons-LOL to my LFS owner and he looked at me like I was an alien. He said it's toons (tunze) but then again he is from singapore and his english pronunciation is most likely scued-LOL.

Regarding the osmolator, I think the design is in the sensor which is like an electric eye not much different than a garage door opener. It is housed in a pointed sensor and when water is covering the sensor the light prisms through and kepps the circuit closed. When the water drops the light breaks the prism and the circuit opens activating the pump. The nice thing with those is that the water can bounce around quite a bit and wont trip the sensor. It will only trip when it drops and holds the level lower. Many others will be tripped with turbulence and slight level fluctuations but the Tunze does not-wierd!

 

[reeftivo]

well, that is definitely an interesting theory (about leaching phosphates into your water). i can honestly say i hadn't considered that!

my water has always tested "0" for phosphates, but its possible that my phosphates are tied up in my prolific hair algae population so as to avoid detection.

what i can tell you is that a lot of people at my LFS (which is a marine specialty shop) use those gas cans. and, how long do you generally store ATO water? my 5g jug lasts me approximately 7-8 days, and the volume of water being exposed to those phosphates is constantly decreasing. i guess the one thing i could do is let some water sit in that gas can for a few weeks and then see if i can detect any phosphates in there.

to tivo's point, petco's little "water bladders" actually aren't bad ideas, and they're flexible so they can fit where you need them to fit -- downside is that you can't fit a pump into the bag with the water.

re: hiding containers, isn't it tivo who has the awesome basket setup with the fish gear inside of it? (i will now and forever be referring to the invention of a basket for hiding fish gear as "Fishouflauge" (TM) -- tivo, you can buy the trademark name from me, or we can go in as partners on this venture of constructing fish gear hiding solutions). anyway, scroll back through here -- i'm sure you'll see it. looks like a good idea.

I hear you about "the boss" -- my boss is trying to convince me to buy a whole new set of bedroom furniture AND a new couch for our living room right now, only 4 months after redoing our entire master bathroom. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO AFFORD OSMOLATERS AND VORTECHS WHEN YOU KEEP WANTING TO BUY THINGS LIKE FURNITURE???

timdanger, that is too funny man! "Fishouflauge":lolspin: I love it!:bounce3:

I got lucky because my wife likes dark wicker chairs and stuff like that so when I told her about the baskets I saw she said go for it.

On another note; When I have plans to buy something expensive at the LFS or online, I usually take my wife out to the mall to look at something I don't need and while I'm looking at that she inevitably will find something she likes somewhere else and I'll say hey, go ahead and buy it. That way I never get yelled at the next day when I've spent more money than she did-LOL:lolspin:

 

[reeftivo]

weird skimer problem:

I cleaned my skimmer recently and expected a break-in period. After not rinsing a filter sock my skimmer has been off due to excess foam - DOH! Today it STILL would not run on the lowest setting without the collection cup instantly filling. I decided to do a bug test. I placed my finger over the air tube blocking the air. This revealed that the problem is not excess foam, but the fact that the water level goes half way up the riser tube even though there is nothing blocking the water exit. It is not clogged or anything and is not gated at all! What gives?

Sorry ItsMee but I did not see this post and haven't heard from you lately. Hope everything is going great! Did you rinse the sock well before you put it in ? All the production residues are still all over those things so rinsing is important or the skimmer will usually go nuts. I personally took a skimmer apart 3 times and cleaned every part on it because I thought something was wrong with it. Turned out to be the sock!:hammer:

Sorry for the late reply.

Tivo

 

[Gillundr]

I did it. I drained the sump and removed my rubble and took the divider out. I managed to not break the sump in the process so I'm a happy camper about that. If anybody is just setting up a Pro system I would suggest maybe taking this partition out before you fill it with water. It is probably inevitable that you will want it out anyways so JUST DO IT. hehe.
On another note, I figured since I had it empty I might as well clean things up a little and took the skimmer out and cleaned up that compartment really good. While I was doing that I ran the skimmer in a sink full of water and vinegar. I figured I would give it a good cleaning. Rinsed it really well and put it in the sump to fire up. So much more room in there now. It's sort of nice having that space and not reaching around the hose and too the back. As to be expected the skimmer is going nuts. It's set on wide open and it's producing lots of foam in the cup. Oh well, I guess I have this to look forward to for another couple of days and then start re-tuning it. Basically it has to be broke in again but I imagine I shouldn't need to run it wide open for 72 hrs this time. I don't know maybe I will. I was just going to see when it calms down and then maybe start tuning it then. Maybe I should let it run a day wide open after it calms down. Or just do the standard 3 days of wide open and do it right. Eh decisions not going to worry about it tonight anyways. It's done though. Maybe enough room for a Deltec in there ;-) haha. I'm hoping the good cleaning and all that will make a difference on the skimmer. We'll see. I can post pics of the new sump but unless somebody asks for them I don't know if I will. I imagine I'll be posting pics of the skimmer again sooner or later and you can see it then. It looks a lot like everyone else that took the divider out haha. If anybody is interested let me know I'll throw a picture in. Great hints on how to do it by the way. I did exactly like you said you did it and came out great. A couple of sharp points but nothing too big. Thanks for the hints.

 

[Gillundr]

Got up this morning and expected the skimmer cup to be full from last nights ordeal. It only ended up with about 1/8" of light liquid in the bottom of the cup and the skimmer is pretty much back to the way it was. I figured the cup would be full. Huh oh well. Going to run it open still though see how things look later.

 

[reeftivo]

Gillunder,

Once my skimmers have broken in, I don't clean my skimmers with anything except warm tap water and I never scrub them. The only area I clean with a brush is the neck and cup and occasionally the transition portion of the neck (tapered part) to remove the sludge. If you clean the slime coat off the body of the skimmer then you will set yourself back a bit with production until the slime coat re-developes. It will be quicker than the initial new break in though because the production oils etc. are gone. Next time you clean it, just put some warm water in it and shake it around to loosen junk, then pour it out then clean the neck and cup and your production won't suffer. The pump can be cleaned well along with running a brush through the exit pipes but the body of the skimmer should be just rinsed unless there is a ton of junk in there (shouldn't be though).

 

[Gillundr]

Alright I'll remember that. I had read on a web site (wetwebmedia.com) that occasionally you should give your skimmer a good cleaning with a bit of vinegar and warm water. I knew it set them back and they had to rebuild the slime coat and all that almost a break in period again. I just figured since it was out of there already I may as well do it lol. But what you said makes sense so I'll just do it like you said from now on. I still have it running pretty much wide open (somewhere between 5 and off). It hasn't filled the collection cup yet since I plugged it in after the cleaning however it's not the really dark goo ( I expected it to make LOTS of extra light colored skinmate and be emptying the cup lots today). I guess I'll wait until it settles back in hopefully soon and then go from there with it. I can really see what's happening inside the skimmer now that I've got it up front and the divider gone. Thanks for the tips.

 

[reeftivo]

Nice job!

Even green tea is good! It means you're still pulling out nutrients. I've set skimmers to produce really dry foam and it takes a while to get enough foam head built up for spill over. The skim is much more concentrated DOCs but removes them slower. The pros of dry skimming are concentrated DOCs and minimal trace element removal. The cons are that the skimmate is produced slower and with heavy feeding habits could lead to nutrient build up. The pros of wet skimming are faster removal of excess nutrients. The cons are that wet skim has less concentrated DOCs and pulls trace elements out of solution faster. Some like wet skimming and some like dry. I think dry skimming is great for reefs with almost no fish and wet is better for heavier fish loads-IMO.

 

[Johnny C]

I just ordered the BM skimmer, hoping it will work good!

How hard is it to remove the divider in chamber one?

 

[timdanger]

Nice job!

Even green tea is good! It means you're still pulling out nutrients. I've set skimmers to produce really dry foam and it takes a while to get enough foam head built up for spill over. The skim is much more concentrated DOCs but removes them slower. The pros of dry skimming are concentrated DOCs and minimal trace element removal. The cons are that the skimmate is produced slower and with heavy feeding habits could lead to nutrient build up. The pros of wet skimming are faster removal of excess nutrients. The cons are that wet skim has less concentrated DOCs and pulls trace elements out of solution faster. Some like wet skimming and some like dry. I think dry skimming is great for reefs with almost no fish and wet is better for heavier fish loads-IMO.

this is some smart stuff. i appreciate you taking the time to type all this out! makes up for a lot of my own personal inexperience!

here's my question about wet-skimming -- you say there's trace element removal. but, would the same be true if i'm topping off the amount of skimmate i drain out of the cup with new salt water (i.e. i take a cup of skimmate out, i put a cup of new salt water back in)? assuming i'm using a high-quality salt, wouldn't that replace the trace elements in correct ratio such that i shouldn't realize any major depletion of those trace elements?

 

[Gillundr]

Be careful with topping off with salt water. You will end up with a escalating salinity. If you do normal frequent small water changes you should be ok with the trace elements. Also there are many additives on the market that replace lots of these. For instance the 2 part I dose puts some back in also there are products like Fuel by Aquavitro (Seachem) that add trace elements back into the water.
I finally decided to start topping off with Lime water. I have been dosing 2 full cups of B-ionic part 1 and part 2 everyday and my calc is only 400 at best. All those SPS are sucking it up lol. So tomorrow I'll start topping off with some Lime water. I think if I use it about every other day I should be alright but I will watch it closely and see what it does. I was over at a fellow reefers house today and we talked about it a little bit he seemed to think it would do the trick. I got a couple of nice frags from him too so that's always cool.
It was easy to break that divider out. Just do like instructed by Reeftivo and you will be fine. I did mine at it came out pretty easy.

 

[Gillundr]

Where is everybody? Lol. Nothing going on?

 

[reeftivo]

Where is everybody? Lol. Nothing going on?

I've been battling a nasty eye infection which has closed one eye and nearly closed the other so no computer play lately. Gillundr, send me a PM on the deltec-it's ready.

I had a week long battle with red slime on the substrate and finally pinpointed it to my RO/DI unit which I thought wasn't due for change yet. Man those cartridges are expensive on line. Anyone know a cheap outlet for the DI cartridges? I've been ordering the set online and there has to be something cheaper out there. I spend $50 each time. I'd rather spend it on frags:dance: