Jimbo's 6gal Nano Diary
- Thread starter Jimbo327
- Start date
cherubfish pair
New member
Is there really a 'mechanical water changer'? Tell us more.
Yeah, I just finish installing my mechanical water changer today. It does about 1L per hr water change. I'm going to get a timer, and just automate it to come on for an hour per day.
It is just a basic 2 channel pump, one goes into the tank with fresh saltwater, and the other goes out with the tank saltwater. Since they are on the same rate, there is a net water drop. Only maintenance on it is to change out the tubing every couple months and replenish the fresh saltwater. I ran the tank saltwater directly to my toilet.
I'm going to run it for a month to see if it works consistently.
I may still do bulk water changes once in awhile to make sure the salinity is where I want it. But I expect my pump to be dead on since it is the same kind of pump I'm using at work. These are industrial pumps for lab work, so they are very accurate.
It is just a basic 2 channel pump, one goes into the tank with fresh saltwater, and the other goes out with the tank saltwater. Since they are on the same rate, there is a net water drop. Only maintenance on it is to change out the tubing every couple months and replenish the fresh saltwater. I ran the tank saltwater directly to my toilet.
I'm going to run it for a month to see if it works consistently.
I may still do bulk water changes once in awhile to make sure the salinity is where I want it. But I expect my pump to be dead on since it is the same kind of pump I'm using at work. These are industrial pumps for lab work, so they are very accurate.
I just tested the mechanical water changer, and it almost killed my tank. I wasn't paying attention, I just started it and went to grab some dinner. By the time I remember to check like an hour later, the salinity was at 1.019. :eek1:
I may need to do some refinement and bug check on this design. Not sure exactly what went wrong, I know it must have been the fresh saltwater not getting into the tank while the waste tankwater was being pumped out. Then my ATO kicked in to top it off, just doing its job.
So either the incoming and outgoing rates are different (which it shouldn't be, this is laboratory equipment). Or my hunch is that I must have pinched the incoming tube with my hood, or I need a check valve, or I need even smaller tubing.
I did a quick check with a graduated cylinder with both the outgoing and incoming tube in there. After 5 minutes, I didn't really see any significant drop or increase. So I think the pump is working as it should.
I currently don't have any problems with my tank, but I've lost some prized zoas in the past. So I'm going to jump on the VC bandwagon, and start dosing when I get it.
Also, because of my lighting, I think some of my zoas don't really shine like when I first got them. My pink elephant looking zoas were gorgeous pink rim, intense green when I first got them, now it looks just average with washed out color. It lost that glow, and I'll see if my dosing can try to get some color back.
Also, because of my lighting, I think some of my zoas don't really shine like when I first got them. My pink elephant looking zoas were gorgeous pink rim, intense green when I first got them, now it looks just average with washed out color. It lost that glow, and I'll see if my dosing can try to get some color back.
My tank is now running at 1.023 according to my swingarm hydrometer. I think this is very close to 1.026 in actual salinity if I had used a refractometer. I think a refractometer is on my list.
Anyways, this morning, I looked at the hood and the tank. I really don't like the position of the lights within the hood. Even though my rockwork is in the dead center of my tank (with at least an 1" gap all around the rockwork). The lights are actually aligned further back because the hood has to accomodate the front lip flap. So the middle light is actually lighting the back of my tank, and the front light is directed in the middle of my tank.
There isn't much I could do with that, so it looks like the front of my tank doesn't really get that much light. I think my plan is to get as much reflective tape into the hood to help spread the wasted light. And also to move my whole rockwork backwards, and leave like a couple centimeter of gap between the false wall and the rock. I don't really like to pile the rock onto the false wall because my whole circulation is based on a clockwise flow pattern around the center rock.
It's going to be a real PITA to move the whole rockwork back, since nothing is really stable in the first place, and I really like my rockscape right now. Oh well. Nothing chanced, nothing learned.
Anyways, this morning, I looked at the hood and the tank. I really don't like the position of the lights within the hood. Even though my rockwork is in the dead center of my tank (with at least an 1" gap all around the rockwork). The lights are actually aligned further back because the hood has to accomodate the front lip flap. So the middle light is actually lighting the back of my tank, and the front light is directed in the middle of my tank.
There isn't much I could do with that, so it looks like the front of my tank doesn't really get that much light. I think my plan is to get as much reflective tape into the hood to help spread the wasted light. And also to move my whole rockwork backwards, and leave like a couple centimeter of gap between the false wall and the rock. I don't really like to pile the rock onto the false wall because my whole circulation is based on a clockwise flow pattern around the center rock.
It's going to be a real PITA to move the whole rockwork back, since nothing is really stable in the first place, and I really like my rockscape right now. Oh well. Nothing chanced, nothing learned.
LOL. Trust me. That was my first thought.
The line to the toilet actually goes to the uptube in the toilet tank.
The funny thing is that without this little problem, I would have never checked my true salinity of my swing-arm hydrometer, and find out that I was way high in my salinity in the past. I took my swing-arm hydrometer to the LFS, and tested and compared values with their refractometer. What mine reads at 1.023, is actually 1.026. Ugh.
The line to the toilet actually goes to the uptube in the toilet tank.
The funny thing is that without this little problem, I would have never checked my true salinity of my swing-arm hydrometer, and find out that I was way high in my salinity in the past. I took my swing-arm hydrometer to the LFS, and tested and compared values with their refractometer. What mine reads at 1.023, is actually 1.026. Ugh.
chibopelu13
New member
looks good
I just bought a refractometer off of ebay for $20. Not bad.
I've had salinity problems recently (and it really took a beating to the zoos on the back wall). A lot of it had died, so that's not good news. The salinity problem came from the clogged return pump. The water level in the main display dropped lower while the back chambers level went up as the pump becomes more clogged, and this caused the salinity to go up because the ATO didn't need to fill the back chambers.
It's these problems on little tanks that really cause big headaches. I have to watch my return pump more carefully since I'm growing chaeto in the previous chamber to the return pump.
I even started a seperate thread to ask for suggestions to stop the clogs.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1409107
So 5 days ago, I took off the whole intake grate for the pump. It hasn't been clogged...yet. We'll see how long this can go. And last week, my house AC died, I'm glad I have the chiller hooked up because if it hadn't, my tank would have crashed in the summer heat.
I've had salinity problems recently (and it really took a beating to the zoos on the back wall). A lot of it had died, so that's not good news. The salinity problem came from the clogged return pump. The water level in the main display dropped lower while the back chambers level went up as the pump becomes more clogged, and this caused the salinity to go up because the ATO didn't need to fill the back chambers.
It's these problems on little tanks that really cause big headaches. I have to watch my return pump more carefully since I'm growing chaeto in the previous chamber to the return pump.
I even started a seperate thread to ask for suggestions to stop the clogs.
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1409107
So 5 days ago, I took off the whole intake grate for the pump. It hasn't been clogged...yet. We'll see how long this can go. And last week, my house AC died, I'm glad I have the chiller hooked up because if it hadn't, my tank would have crashed in the summer heat.
Carriegiesler
New member
Holy smokes
Holy smokes
I spent the last two hours reading all of the threads, wow I never thought I could learn so much is a two hour period. And now I know who to ask if I run in to any issues with my 9 gallon I am getting ready to setup hopefully I won't be sinking as much money into it......however I don't want to think about all the money I have sunk into my 30 gallon.
Love your tank it is a piece of heaven.
Holy smokes
I spent the last two hours reading all of the threads, wow I never thought I could learn so much is a two hour period. And now I know who to ask if I run in to any issues with my 9 gallon I am getting ready to setup hopefully I won't be sinking as much money into it......however I don't want to think about all the money I have sunk into my 30 gallon.
Love your tank it is a piece of heaven.
^ Haha, yeah, it's pretty sickening. The good news is that I have really stopped spending literally lately. I haven't bought a single living creature for at least 6 months. There is still the maintenance cost though like bulb replacements and salt/water.
Update on the return pump without the intake cover: STILL GOING STRONG. Yay!
The chiller has been working quite a bit lately, I don't think my tank would have survive the recent humid heatwave we had in Los Angeles. It was like 107 and muggy where I was living, and my home AC had died. My tank...rock solid at 80. It's a good thing I oversized my chiller, probably saved my tank from crashing last week.
Update on the return pump without the intake cover: STILL GOING STRONG. Yay!
The chiller has been working quite a bit lately, I don't think my tank would have survive the recent humid heatwave we had in Los Angeles. It was like 107 and muggy where I was living, and my home AC had died. My tank...rock solid at 80. It's a good thing I oversized my chiller, probably saved my tank from crashing last week.
OMGOSH! Add me to the list of sitting here for 2hrs reading till my eyes hurt....you've done such a great job documenting everything.
I am more of a hands off kind of reefer...i have a NC6...it's been up for about 3+ years....i've done no mods...very simple set up and it seems to run on its own these days. Thanks so much for starting this thread!
I am more of a hands off kind of reefer...i have a NC6...it's been up for about 3+ years....i've done no mods...very simple set up and it seems to run on its own these days. Thanks so much for starting this thread!
Wow, I should be impressed with you lisajulia. 3+ years on a NC6 is excellent. Mine is only 1.5 years so far. And my tank currently is hands off as well because all of the automation. I do a water change every once in awhile, and just feed the tank. My sexy shrimps have disappeared on me though, they may have come to the end of their lifetime. So I only see the goby and the pistol shrimp nowadays.
Oh..sorry to hear about the possible demise of the sexy shrimp =( I only have a false percula clown in there as far as fish and will probably get a shrimp at some point...i want to clarify by 'hands off' i mean i don't really stick my hands in there too much...other than feeding, water changes and adding the appropriate nutrients and testing parameters, i don't rearrange or do much fiddling lol!
I will try and post some pics but don't want to hijack your thread lol!
I will try and post some pics but don't want to hijack your thread lol!
I've pretty much neglected my tank. It looked really bad last week, so I finally changed out my PC bulbs with new ones, and did a water change. My Osmolator pump also died, I think because I installed a needle valve on the kalk dispenser. So that added pressure killed my pump, so I bought a replacement pump. That also messed up my salinity and I had some die off from that as well, my frogspawn totally melted and wreaked havoc on my tiny tank.
Lots of algae growth that I plucked off by hand.
That's pretty much it. A lot of my zoas had died off.
My goby and shrimp is still alive. And I think I saw my pom pom crab last month.
It's pretty crazy, this tank has been up for over 2 years, and I bought it used from someone who also had it for 1-2 years.
Lots of algae growth that I plucked off by hand.
That's pretty much it. A lot of my zoas had died off.
My goby and shrimp is still alive. And I think I saw my pom pom crab last month.
It's pretty crazy, this tank has been up for over 2 years, and I bought it used from someone who also had it for 1-2 years.
