JapanReef - 450 gallon In-Wall system

[jnarowe]

My PBT is a wimp!

Hey Dog, take a close look at your return feed. I have to keep an eye on the water levels in my sump because there is a fine line between too much and not enough. In the not enough scenarios, a whirlpool will form over the return intake. That is a noatble contributor to micro bubbles. If there is any swirling around it that may be your culprit, and that would be my first guess.

CLs really should only be able to pick up air when introduced by the return as well. How close are your CL intakes to the surface? Do you see any swirling there? How do you manage your top-off? Are you doing it by hand or do you use a float valve?

Do you see more in the morning or afternoon?

Sorry for all the questions! I can't find the page with the pics...

 

[jnarowe]

Oops...I did find them.

In this picture it shows the return arrow going across the top right to left. Your description does not explain how the return intake is attached. Is it above the fuge? Does it hang in the water or is it mounted to a BH?

It's hard to tell from this picture but the bubble trap looks unconventional. Wait, is it siting on its side??? YES! OK now I understand a little better.

You would think that with all that distance and bubble traps there would be no bubbles right? I have a theory! You may not have realized this when going over the design, but your fuge is generating micro bubbles 24/7. As the macro algae respirates, it gives off zillions of small air bubbles. The force of the water moving through the sump will keep a percentage of them in suspension long enough to get to your return intake, particularly if you are drawing off and returning through the prop section for your chiller. And once they are in the display, the closed loops will grab them too.

So that's my theory and I am sticking to it! :lol:

 

[NexDog]

You can't see in that pic but there is a bulkhead at the end of the rurn section and it's submerged a good 10" so no drawing in air at all. There are two bubble traps after the fuge and there's only 700gph going through there so plenty of time for microbubbles to dissapate.

In the tank the CL intake is 10" off the bootom so submerged 20". Auto topoff is done via a Tunze Osmolator.

I really did pour alot of glue over 2 suspect joints in the return plumbing so I'm going to see over the next few days if there is an improvement.

 

[jnarowe]

You are ignoring my coment about the fuge. :lol: Study that carefully. Much of the respiration from plants is so tiny that it is not very boyant. I see it all the time especially in my FW Planted tank. When my caulerpa in the display release air bubbles, they get caught in the flow of the return lines or in the Vortechs and get chopped and blown across the tank...

 

[jnarowe]

One test you might do is turn off the fuge lamps for a day or two and see what happens to the microbubbles.

 

[melev]

Are the returns made of locline? Are they 100% submerged? This applies to the closed loop as well as the return pump.

 

[jnarowe]

Good point Marc!

 

[NexDog]

I looked in the fuge and most of the Caulerpa is gone for some reason. But I will turn off the lights and see what happens.

The only loclines are on the PVC rock racks and they are completely submerged....

 

[NexDog]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7816742#post7816742 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Tremelle
Beautiful Blueline you got there. I see it is still in your Q tank. How aggressive is your Powder Blue Tang? Are you concerned about the introduction of the Blueline to the main tank with the Powder Blue?

Not worried at all as the BlueLine will be bigger than the PBT and the PBT isn't aggressive at all. I have a very peaceful tank although I just noticed the coral beauty has a chunk missing from its tailfin....

 

[jnarowe]

I hear CBs taste good...at least that's what my Maroon Clown has told me! :lol:

 

[NexDog]

It was my first fish and has been throigh alot. Remember he was the one that jumped out the bucket when I transferred teh fish from the old house to the new and was on the floor for maybe 5 minutes.

And a firefish took a chunk out of him a year ago.

 

[vest0830]

Laurence, Just curious if you have heard of this new shop down here http://www.aquaculture.co.jp/index.html

Its a shop out of Naha. Quite a set-up. There have been a few articles in the Marine Aquariest magazine.

Your tank is looking mighty fine!

 

[NexDog]

Always good to see another shop start up. Now if they just learn to build a decent site and online store.

 

[jnarowe]

Hey, what's up with japanreef.com?

 

[NexDog]

Heh, well there will be a site there (a) when I have time and (b) when I can take pics worthy of putting up on a website.

But right now I'm flat out. Working on a new site for hostnexus.com, working on rolling out new services, working on launching a separate brand while at the same time managing 20 remote technical staff and the day-to-day running of the business. I also have other non-hosting related projects in development like a forum based game which turns forums such as this into a virtual community where all members build a life - buy houses, get jobs, interact etc. It's incredibly demanding overall and finding time to feed the fish can be tough.

 

[NexDog]

Just been reading some threads about the tank crash suffered by March TOTM member, snipersps. I find it hard to comprehend how the leader of the industrialised world can have such an archaic power grid which is prone to fail at the appearance of the slightest extreme weather. From the rolling blackouts last year (or was it the year before), hurricane damage or high temperatures it seems the power grid will fail somewhere....

Here in Japan we get hit by hurricanes every year. Guaranteed to get many cat 3 storms, at least one cat 4 and the occasional cat 5. The longest outage I've ever experienced is about 30 minutes.....

In the US it gets hot every year so why are people suffering from outages due to heat?

Snipersps said he was using a generator but I think the damage was already done by then. In my case I think I'd break out the generator after an hour tops. Losing power during the night could be a worry so hopefully I can get those battery backup packs for the Vortechs asap.

 

[melev]

When I had a power outage a couple of months ago, after 2 hours, I turned on the generator (at 2am). It ran until 6am when the power finally came back on.

I still don't know why I was without power for nearly 6 hours that night, but at least my neighbors didn't get angry with the noise my generator caused that night.

 

[jnarowe]

But right now I'm flat out. Working on a new site for hostnexus.com, working on rolling out new services, working on launching a separate brand while at the same time managing 20 remote technical staff and the day-to-day running of the business. I also have other non-hosting related projects in development like a forum based game which turns forums such as this into a virtual community where all members build a life - buy houses, get jobs, interact etc. It's incredibly demanding overall and finding time to feed the fish can be tough.

Would you like some cheese with that whine? :lol: Just kidding...and I can't even get my laundry done.

I don't have a generator yet and we get small power outages regularly because of all the trees knocking down power lines. I am considering getting a whle house genset though, rather than a small one, but the investment is fairly high. Last year the local area had a 2 day power outage which wreaked havoc. That's when I lost a fish that had jumped out of a tank.

 

[NexDog]

Some random shots.....

I threw out that old sofa that was in my office. Actually I took it outside, smashed and ripped into pieces and burned it in a barrel. Very satisfying destructive deed.

My office feels a bit more spacious now.

 

[jeffbrig]

Wow, Laurence, that tank is really coming along. I need to go out and buy some more coral.

IMO, a generator is mandatory with a large tank, and one was part of my equipment list up front. I even hook my Tunze Streams to a UPS to provide water movement during short outages. I went 6 days without power after Hurricane Wilma last year with no losses.