Interestingly, I switched to using pipettes weeks ago and made a mistake of dosing 1.57 ml per day rather than .57 ml. I did this for about two weeks before I realized the error, no issues in the tank at all. I just stopped dosing zinc for a week and went back to the original dosage.
Interestingly, I switched to using pipettes weeks ago and made a mistake of dosing 1.57 ml per day rather than .57 ml. I did this for about two weeks before I realized the error, no issues in the tank at all. I just stopped dosing zinc for a week and went back to the original dosage.
That is one reason I prefer the dropwise dosing - less precision measuring to account for.
In my various searches about Zinc I found that the amount present in salt mixes is super variable. One mix(It might have been Reef crystals) had 200ug/L when analyzed with other salt mixes in a study. I'm looking for the exact study, but in the meantime this one has some of the same types of findings: http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2005/11/aafeature1. That variability may be why some people never saw burned tips, even with high Alk numbers - their periodic water changes kept the zinc level up enough. The take home message for me anyway is that a ug or two extra wouldn't hurt anything.
Manganese overdosing, on the other hand, doesn't seem to harm anything but it turned some corals from purple to brown. The purple is coming back, slowly, after dropping individual Manganese dosing and relying on the 1/2 dose MicroE I am using now.
Measuring is normally fine...when I do it right of course. Drops might be easier but mixing my own stuff I just always used ml to dose.
I think the thing with zinc is just as you wrote, it varies in salt mixes, gets used quickly in the tank, and people demands are different so it is tough to know if you need more zinc until you start seeing a problem.
Manganese I had also heard that too much can cause bleaching, but I have not seen any of that IME. I did not know about the browning out with too much Mn, that is good to know.
Measuring is normally fine...when I do it right of course. Drops might be easier but mixing my own stuff I just always used ml to dose.
I think the thing with zinc is just as you wrote, it varies in salt mixes, gets used quickly in the tank, and people demands are different so it is tough to know if you need more zinc until you start seeing a problem.
Manganese I had also heard that too much can cause bleaching, but I have not seen any of that IME. I did notw about the browning out with too much Mn, that is good to know.
Looking better and better, Joe!
I also love that blueberry fantasy..
It might be time for a fts.. Even though everything is small..
A reference shot, if you will..
Greg, you know there is! Well there are actually a lot of updates, so I'll give them in order of appearance.
First a FTS for Matt.
I know it looks like not much is going on since everything is still small frags, but a few have started to grow into small tennis ball sized colonies. Tank still looks empty but it is on the right path now.
Next up earlier this week I added some more fish to the tank from liveaquaria.
I added
(3) Female Blue Star Leopard Wrasse
(1) Potter's Angelfish
(2) Bicolor Blenny
(2) Wheeler's Shrimp Goby
The blenny's and goby's went into the tank and disappeared into the rock work and I have only had a few glimpses of them since. I have the Potters Angel in QT tank to get him eating before I put him in the main tank as I already have 5 dwarf angles and they tend to beat up newcomers. But the leopard wrasses were just fine.
I already had 3 Leopard wrasses but wanted to have a few more. Here is a pic of the leopards meeting the existing male.
A little video of them getting acclimated to the tank, at this point they are in the tank for about 5 minutes. I had the lights out when I added them to the tank, but is seems half the fish wanted to check out the new additions.
While I was getting the fish acclimated I was down in the sump room. I noticed water on the floor down near the sump, at first I though I knocked over something but on a closer look, the seal on my main pump was leaking.
The pump I have is a MDM Sequence 1000 series 6100seq23. It's a beast of a pump. I've had it almost 12 years and has been in continuous operation almost the entire time. The Sequence looks similar but it should not to be confused with the reeflo pumps. MDM are really well made pumps and it puts out 3000GPH at 20ft head pressure. I use it to power everything, main tank, skimmer, ARID, and the chiller. Earlier in the year I started to realize that the pump would need to be replaced soon, 12 years is a long time for a pump to last. So I had been looking at alternate pumps for the last few months.
Upon examining the leak, I go into a little of a panic mode as I determined there was a fair amount of water leaking. I originally put a sponge under it and in a couple of hours it was soaked, so I rigged up this hi tech means to funnel water away from the pump.
Using an old section of kids racetrack I was able to channel the water into a bucket. At least now water was not getting on the sump stand and was at least contained. OK now I need to get a new pump to the house ASAP, because if this pump fails or starts to leak even more I am screwed as this is the heart of the tank. Next up replace the pump.
I wrote earlier I had already been looking at replacement pumps. I really wanted to be able to run multiple pieces of equipment on the same pump. I also have the sump in the basement with the DT one floor above (about 16ft HP total) so I need to have a pump that can do some decent GPH at high head pressure. I am pretty sure what I am going to get, so the next day I spend the morning talking to a few reefers about what I am thinking and getting some second opinions. Everyone is in agreement so I make the call and get a pump over nighted to me. I have to thank Joe over at Unique Corals for being able to work with me quickly and get me the pump as quick as he did.
So the next morning FedEx drop off the box, but what's in it?
Abyzz A200 in the house!
Is this pump small or what?
Next to my exsiting pump it looks like a toy pump.
You know the people at Abyzz are serious when they include a quality control sheet that is hand written going over all the tests and recording the numbers of every test that was personally done on this individual pump. Here is another pic of the pump with the adapter ring and fittings all glued up.
Now to get the pump in place. I had to shut down the system, but even though I installed true unions on both side of the old pump, nothing lined up to the new pump. So I had to drain the sump.
Pulled out the old pump, true unions made this a snap. Next up was to fist plumb the Abyzz on the return line going back to the tank.
Once that was done, I needed to cut out a section of pipe from the intake at the sump and glue in a new sweep that would connect to the pump. Looking at the shot above you can see how off the pipe is from where it needs to be. So I cut out this part.
I was a little worried before I did the glue up, as I had to have made the cut just right and also I only had about 20 seconds to make sure everything was lined before the glue set. Luckily it all worked perfect and I got the pump all plumbed up.
So how is the pump? It's really a nice pump. It puts out very good flow at high head pressure, which is something I don't think any other DC pump can currently do. Right now I have it running almost everything I was running on the old pump, obviously this pump is not as strong as my Sequence pump so right now I have not enough flow going through the chiller. I have ball valves on everything and I'm going to play with the valves to direct the flow and see if I can work it out, I think I probably can.
Man is the Abyzz pump quiet. If you don't put you head right next to the pump you wouldn't even now it's on. The Sequence was loud, I could hear the pump the second I opened the door to the basement. Now I don't hear anything from the sump room until I actually go into the room and then it is just water flowing through the sump.
The pump is powerful. If I were not trying to run so many things off one pump this is more than powerful enough to get the job done. If I cut the flow to any one other piece of equipment I need to dial the pump back a bit as the flow to the main tank gets a little too much for my liking. I was cleaning the skimmer yesterday and I had to dial the pump down to 80%, and even then my wife came downstairs and asked what I was doing because the flow in the DT was going crazy.
The controller is nice. I don't know how often I would ever need to change the speed of the pump once I have been using it for a while, but I like the ability to run the pump at 0-100%. I also like that the pump has a delayed start, so when the power is turned on if the pump is already in ON position is takes about 10 seconds for the controller to cycle and do a self check then it turns on the pump. For me this is really nice because I have the main pump on a UPS power inverter with a deep cell battery. If I lose power at the house the pump will continue to run till the battery drains, then turn off. Soft start on the pump makes it easier to come back in a power failure.
Power savings. This is about 200 watts, the old pump was 360, that is almost a $40 savings a month here on Long Island where we practically have California electricity rates. Also, my run time on UPS goes from 1 hour 15 minutes to almost 2 and a half hours. That extra runtime on UPS is almost worth it on it's own.
Oh yeah, it also comes with a 10 year warranty!
Now that I have the Abyzz in the system I am thinking it might be time to replace the old Beckett skimmer. If I replaced the skimmer, I would be able run the Abyzz at a lower setting which drops the power consumption and gives me more runtime on UPS. The newer skimmers seems to use really low power pumps so overall electric consumption should stay about the same or maybe even decrease.
Nice upgrade! I too was using a pump that made me nervous, I had a Reeflo Snapper in my garage that ran my whole system similar to yours that was almost 8 years old. It had a small drip but since it was in my garage I wasn't worried about the drip, but a failed pump anytime I went out of town was always on my mind.
I ended up getting a super dart gold and replaced the seal on the snapper and moved it to water change pump. Been using it that way for a year and it's still running great. The snapper has the AO motor, I'm not sure how long these pumps typically last but maybe I should have just gone with a seal and let it go.
Nice upgrade! I too was using a pump that made me nervous, I had a Reeflo Snapper in my garage that ran my whole system similar to yours that was almost 8 years old. It had a small drip but since it was in my garage I wasn't worried about the drip, but a failed pump anytime I went out of town was always on my mind.
I ended up getting a super dart gold and replaced the seal on the snapper and moved it to water change pump. Been using it that way for a year and it's still running great. The snapper has the AO motor, I'm not sure how long these pumps typically last but maybe I should have just gone with a seal and let it go.
Thanks, I thought about just buying another sequence but they are not cheap and I really really wanted to get my electrical usage down for the pump and increase the time I could be on UPS. Last summer we had 4 power losses over the summer that went for about 2-3 hours each. Normally we rarely have an actual power outage. So the fact that I had a few and the UPS didn't power the pump the whole time was something I wanted to try and fix.
Thanks, I thought about just buying another sequence but they are not cheap and I really really wanted to get my electrical usage down for the pump and increase the time I could be on UPS. Last summer we had 4 power losses over the summer that went for about 2-3 hours each. Normally we rarely have an actual power outage. So the fact that I had a few and the UPS didn't power the pump the whole time was something I wanted to try and fix.
That makes sense. The price tag on your new pump though :eek1:
How have UPS's treated you? I've run them off and on over the years and I still use them today since Orlando get's such regular thunder storms. For me I just use it to buy me an hour or two incase I'm not home. I have a 5,500w generator that's wired into my main panel that will run the house minus the A/C so long term that's a fix if the power is out much longer than an hour. The problem I've found, even with oversized UPS is that the battery degradation over time. I started replacing batteries in them and that did the trick but eventually I just bought a generator. One plug, one switch and one (or three lol) pulls of a rip cord and my tank is back in business
That makes sense. The price tag on your new pump though :eek1:
How have UPS's treated you? I've run them off and on over the years and I still use them today since Orlando get's such regular thunder storms. For me I just use it to buy me an hour or two incase I'm not home. I have a 5,500w generator that's wired into my main panel that will run the house minus the A/C so long term that's a fix if the power is out much longer than an hour. The problem I've found, even with oversized UPS is that the battery degradation over time. I started replacing batteries in them and that did the trick but eventually I just bought a generator. One plug, one switch and one (or three lol) pulls of a rip cord and my tank is back in business
I don't use a traditional UPS like on my PC. I switched from a conventional UPS to a 12V inverter charge a long time ago. But I use it mostly as you described, just to have enough power till I can get home and fire up the generator.
I have an AIMS 1000w Pure Sine wave inverted/changer. The unit is really nice and I am very happy with it. Transfers the load back and forth with zero issues, and the pure sine wave it outputs means the pump will not even notice the power changeover. Here is a shot of it mounted on the wall.
I have it in the garage on the wall shared with the sump room. I found out years ago it is better not to leave a UPS in the sump room. I think even a little moisture does not work well with batteries and the unit would start to corrode prematurely. Anyway it is hooked into a 95Amp hour deep cell battery. Batteries are very easy to change, just a normal deep cell battery you can pick up at any boat supply store around here.
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