drummereef's 180g in-wall build

[psteeleb]

Haha, I hang my probes the same way!

Ditto, I guess we are all saying this is standard operating procedure

 

[rus]

Thanks fo rthe info Brett , I was sure you were going to have some fancy and neat way of hanging them .... :fun4:

 

[drummereef]

UPDATE:


Thought I'd give you the first 2011 video update. Posting a new Sump Room Tour Video. Hope you like it.


*best viewed in 720p

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[aquaph8]

The video is asking for a friend request being accepted before the video will play. Any ideas why?

 

[drummereef]

Sorry!!! Had the video set to private. Should be working now.

 

[aquaph8]

Still looks amazing. Too clean though, I'll send my kids over to make a mess. What is the empty tank tword the end? QT?

 

[drummereef]

Still looks amazing. Too clean though, I'll send my kids over to make a mess. What is the empty tank tword the end? QT?

:lol: Yes, it's the QT.

 

[psteeleb]

Wow - that's what I call awesomeness
makes me want a new house so I can have such a nice fish room LoL

 

[Brando457]

What heaters are you using? & is there any negative effects from running the pellets w/ the phosban and carbon reactors? I was wondering if I was to run the pellets if I'd still run the other 2.

I love how organized everything is and well thought out.

 

[Brando457]

What heaters are you using? & is there any negative effects from running the pellets w/ the phosban and carbon reactors? I was wondering if I was to run the pellets if I'd still run the other 2.

I love how organized everything is and well thought out.

 

[drummereef]

Wow - that's what I call awesomeness
makes me want a new house so I can have such a nice fish room LoL

:lol: Thanks Pete. Meanwhile, the rest of my house needs work but the fish room is looking good. Haha.

What heaters are you using? & is there any negative effects from running the pellets w/ the phosban and carbon reactors? I was wondering if I was to run the pellets if I'd still run the other 2.

I love how organized everything is and well thought out.

They are 2x 200 watt Hydor Theo heaters. Jeremy from Premium Aquatics recommended them because of the heaters they sell, these are the least to come back defective compared to other brands. There is no known negative effects from running GFO or Carbon with bio pellets. It is highly recommended to run Carbon while running the pellets. The GFO will hopefully be eliminated as the tank matures. So the only negative right now is just $$$.

 

[afernandez]

whole set up looks super duper clean makes me miss my MH's

 

[henrystyle]

Yup, to clean in there...lol
Definitely need some kids to touch somethings and to make some mess in there....lmao

How much waste water does that ro/di unit let out? Mine lets out more than it does clean water. Thinking of upgrading to a more efficient model.

 

[110galreef]

Yup, to clean in there...lol
Definitely need some kids to touch somethings and to make some mess in there....lmao

How much waste water does that ro/di unit let out? Mine lets out more than it does clean water. Thinking of upgrading to a more efficient model.

2:1 to 3:1 seems to be the norm.....Waste: RO
If your line pressure is low, it will be worse. If line pressure is under 60's, a booster pump will really help out put as well as effeciency.

 

[110galreef]

Drumm......
How have your water params been looking? Curious as I have been running the Bio pellets on my setup and it is in about week 8 of cycle. Been running Biopellets since about the 3rd week. I am debating on wether I will need the biopellets long term. I also have GFO & MR1 reactor for it, just haven't thought I needed to run it yet.

My params have been about perfect:

Ammon, nitrate & nitrite: 0
phos was .02 last check with hanna.
Also notice i only need to clean acylic once a week, and at that is a very light film. I did have some moderate HA growth, up til about 2 weeks ago, but between an urchin & lawnmower blenny, it is gone. Took about 5-7 days for them to clean it up!

I am new to reactors and biopellets & even GFO. Never ran anything in past, but did have to clean acylic a bit nore often, but never had any algae!

 

[coffeenut]

I read a lot of your post.. VERY NICE..

just wondering .. do you only have 1 float in your RO brute container>

I use 2 floats and an NC solenoid...


one float for top and one for bottom.. so my RO unit does not cycle on and off, so often.. it will trigger at the lower part of my Brute, and fill till it hits the upper float..the floats are hooked up to my APEX breakout box.. and control a NC solenoid that feeds my brute container.

 

[drummereef]

whole set up looks super duper clean makes me miss my MH's

Thank you afernandez!

Yup, to clean in there...lol
Definitely need some kids to touch somethings and to make some mess in there....lmao

How much waste water does that ro/di unit let out? Mine lets out more than it does clean water. Thinking of upgrading to a more efficient model.

Haha, thanks henry. Like 110 said it's about 3:1 seeing that I have about 65 psi water pressure. The lower the pressure the less efficient the membrane from what I understand.

Drumm......
How have your water params been looking?

Params have been good 110g. NO3 and PO4 remain undetectable. Glad to hear you are algae free. My tank still has a tiny bit of that ugly brown stuff but it's fading nonetheless.

I read a lot of your post.. VERY NICE..

just wondering .. do you only have 1 float in your RO brute container>

I use 2 floats and an NC solenoid...


one float for top and one for bottom.. so my RO unit does not cycle on and off, so often.. it will trigger at the lower part of my Brute, and fill till it hits the upper float..the floats are hooked up to my APEX breakout box.. and control a NC solenoid that feeds my brute container.

Thanks for the kind words coffeenut. Yes, only one float in the makeup container. At this point I don't use the container for reserves, just for making up new saltwater for changes. It's in my plan to have 2x containers, one for fresh one for salt in the future but haven't moved forward with that project yet. At that point I might incorporate a more permanent top off solution with solenoids just to make sure there isn't a flood situation. I manually shut off the system after it's done filling right now so not much of a worry there for me at this point.

*edit... Although I was thinking about it, I SHOULD have a solenoid on my top off container (5g left of the sump). That way if I do leave the water RO/DI on it would give me a back up in case the float valve fails. More projects...

 

[110galreef]

How is your flow thru the carbon? What GPH approximate would you say? Hows the tumble?

I am using the MR1 reactor & ROX.8 like you. I am using about 2.5 cups in the reactor which maybe fills it 1/3 the way. The top sponge always ends up at the top of the reactor even when i try & put it on the top of the carbon near the bottom of th reactor. I am pretty sure you really don't want the carbon tumbling, maybe just a teeny bit on the top, as it will break up & release extra effluents out. So that said I can only flow at most ~ 100gph thru it else they start a slight tumble. at the 100gph, i may see a little tumble but just on the top of the carbon?

Thanks,

 

[canyousee]

If my memory is still working someone special had a one year old birthday a short while ago. I hope everyone got to eat cake with their hands. Time sure flies by, Happy late birthday wishes. Mike

 

[drummereef]

How is your flow thru the carbon? What GPH approximate would you say? Hows the tumble?

Interesting you bring this up 110g... I did some flow calculations on my reactors tonight as I was wondering the same thing, since you brought this to light.

I used a graduated container to catch the effluent of each reactor, in separate tests, within a minute of time. Then I used an online calculator to do the math. Here's my results...

ROX 0.8 Carbon:
56 oz per minute = 26.25 gallons per hour

BRS Pellet GFO:
116 oz per minute = 54.375 gallons per hour

Honestly I'm a little shocked at how low the flow rates are. Like you, I have approx 2-3 cups of ROX in my reactor. The Carbon is only ever slightly tumbling, just the extreme top layer if that. So almost no movement. The GFO however is tumbling moderately in the top 1" or so, obviously since the higher flow rates are noted. Currently I'm using about 2 cups of GFO in the reactor.

I'm assuming the low flow rates don't really matter all that much, and in most cases low flow rate through Carbon is actually better. But I was surprised it was THAT low. Let me know if you do a more "scientific" test and what the results are.

If my memory is still working someone special had a one year old birthday a short while ago. I hope everyone got to eat cake with their hands. Time sure flies by, Happy late birthday wishes. Mike

Thanks so much Mike. Our little guys is doing great and yes he had the cake everywhere that day.