DSPS tank from Thailand (1000 gallon+)

Ching, have you settled on a topic to focus on yet for MACNA?

I am trying to convince my wife that we need to go. We will both be in school at that point but if we flew would only need to take a Thursday, Friday, and Monday to rest up

for me, it really is professional development plus a load of fun.

Be sure to sneak away at some point to get one of those famous Cuban sandwiches and super concentrated coffees

I am really not a night life guy so if I go it will be off to eateries not clubs LOL
 
I was so happy to see your name on the list of speakers for MACNA 2013. Now Peter has no more excuses for not going:) I'm looking forward to finally meeting you in person. Everyone talks about seeing your tank, but it's really about the people, not the places.
It will be a great chance for me to meet two famous reefers from Canada.:beer:
 
Ching, have you settled on a topic to focus on yet for MACNA?

I am trying to convince my wife that we need to go. We will both be in school at that point but if we flew would only need to take a Thursday, Friday, and Monday to rest up

for me, it really is professional development plus a load of fun.

Be sure to sneak away at some point to get one of those famous Cuban sandwiches and super concentrated coffees

I am really not a night life guy so if I go it will be off to eateries not clubs LOL

For the topic, Tony wants me to speak about details of building my tank.
Hope to see you there.
 
If I remember correctly you are injecting ozone: I believe that the ozone does at least as much toward water clarity and keeping pathogens at a low level as compared with UV light
 
Ching,

I remember seeing a DC pump that you are using but I can not remember the name of the pump. I know Peter is also using a DC pump but his run around $2000 each. What and where would I be able to find this pump?

Thanks
Joe
 
Chingchai had one of the early (ill-fated) Red Devil pumps. They were not non-corrosive and were recalled. The Blue Eco has replaced it. It's the same designer, but a new factory making it now. The Abyzz and Blue Eco are both high voltage DC (400v). I prefer the Waveline DC pumps as they are low voltage (24v).

The Aqua UV Viper series is best suited for a large tank (3600 gallons) http://www.aquauvstore.com/Viper-400-Watt-Plastic-Aqua-UV-Viper-Series-sc-156.html

Nineball is using an 80w unit by Aqua UV that is only rated for 600 gallons, nano tank :) http://www.aquauvstore.com/Classic-White-80-Watt-Unit-Classic-Aqua-UV-Series-White-sc-93.html

I'm surprised nobody has developed an LED UV sterilizer yet. The chips and components are all available. It would be compact, cool running and last 50,000 hrs instead of 9,000 hrs.
 
Chingchai had one of the early (ill-fated) Red Devil pumps. They were not non-corrosive and were recalled. The Blue Eco has replaced it. It's the same designer, but a new factory making it now. The Abyzz and Blue Eco are both high voltage DC (400v). I prefer the Waveline DC pumps as they are low voltage (24v).

The Aqua UV Viper series is best suited for a large tank (3600 gallons) http://www.aquauvstore.com/Viper-400-Watt-Plastic-Aqua-UV-Viper-Series-sc-156.html

Nineball is using an 80w unit by Aqua UV that is only rated for 600 gallons, nano tank :) http://www.aquauvstore.com/Classic-White-80-Watt-Unit-Classic-Aqua-UV-Series-White-sc-93.html

I'm surprised nobody has developed an LED UV sterilizer yet. The chips and components are all available. It would be compact, cool running and last 50,000 hrs instead of 9,000 hrs.

Mr. Wilson,

In Peter's tread you talked about the need for a good magnetically coupled pump on a closed loop. Would you recommend using one of these waveline pumps in a closed loop?

Ching, sorry for this detour but you might find it interesting. UVs can have a lot of water passing thru them to kill algae but you would want to slow it down for an ich breakout. So you could use one of these pumps at a normal speed and if something gets out of control in your tank slow it down to kill something like ich. (yes I do believe in an ounce of prevention but I have also seen some of the best laid plans fall apart).

Joe
 
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Mr. Wilson,

In Peter's tread you talked about the need for a good magnetically coupled pump on a closed loop. Would you recommend using one of these waveline pumps in a closed loop?

Ching, sorry for this detour but you might find it interesting. UVs can have a lot of water passing thru them to kill algae but you would want to slow it down for an ich breakout. So you could use one of these pumps at a normal speed and if something gets out of control in your tank slow it down to kill something like ich. (yes I do believe in an ounce of prevention but I have also seen some of the best laid plans fall apart).

Joe

The aquarium pump industry has been very slow to update technology. Little Giant and Iwaki pumps are pretty much the same as they were 25 years ago. Somewhere along the way, we took a step backwards and started using direct drive (shaft coupled) pumps. While some models use the finest silicon carbide bearings, they still only last three years. When they fail it could mean a noisy pump, diminished efficiency, or a flood :hmm1:

Modern DC pumps use six pole motors, which is a fancy way of saying there are more drive magnets. Many AC pumps use only two poles and can spin backwards and click on startup. Some powerheads need a poke with a screwdriver to start up.

Brushless DC pumps eliminate the wear parts you get with AC pumps that need to be changed about every ten years. AC pumps that are not submersible use noisy fans that wear, attract dust, and collect salt creep. If you spill saltwater on an internal DC pump, you don't have to worry about electrical shock, corrosion, or failure as you would with an external AC pump.

DC pumps feature a soft on/off, so bearings last longer and on/off sequences are quiet. This comes in handy with wave devices and speed control sequences. There is also no jolt to your GFCI when the pump(s) come on.

The operating temperature of DC pumps is also quieter and the pump runs a lot cooler. I tested the power factor of a DC pump vs. an Askoll of the same size and the DC was 0.6 and the Askoll was 1.2, so efficiency of DC is higher. Cool running pumps means that calcium will not fall out of solution and bond to metallic pump parts. Some DC pumps, like the Waveline use ceramic bearings and shafts.

One of the benefits of DC power is it is easy to control speed with a 0-10v controller. This gives you the wave sequences you see with DC Vortech & Tunze prop pumps. Battery backup is also easier to configure, and in the future solar and wind power can be incorporated easily.

There are some benefits to DC pumps regarding technical details, namely sign waves, that I myself don't fully understand, but it appears that DC power is more "stable" to over simplify the matter.

DC pumps are smaller as well. I have replaced some spa pumps that were easily 4 times bigger, 4 times heavier, and used 13 times more energy to get the job done (980w vs. 75w). I did a test with an AC pump to see if the power consumption would drop if I closed the valve part way. Pump manufacturers have always boasted that their pumps will draw less power when valved down. Well they turned out to be correct. The AC pump I tested used 980w fully open; when I shut the valve half way (45˚), the pump output was cut in half, but the power consumption only dropped to 930w :) A negligible savings.

There is an interesting power/flow curve with DC pumps. When the DC pump is powered down with 0-10v speed control, it uses only 1/3 of the full power while set at 50%. In other words, they tend to run more efficiently when run at lower RPMs. In practical terms, Nineball has 5 x 400w DC pumps for his closed loop and return pump. Each pump runs at 400w while at full power. We use a speed controller to govern each pump speed independently as it goes through wave sequences. The full max power consumption potential is 2000w, but we run at an average of 800w during the day and they all slow down at night. Each pump is set to run between 60-90% of the max power with 10-60 second variable intervals.

Running wave sequences and pulses with any pumps is a great way to save energy and get better flow results. Until the AC pump manufacturers catch up, DC pumps are the way to go.

Closed loop vs. internal prop pump is a whole other debate that I will keep out of Chingchai's thread :)
 
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