Lightsluvr's 340G Upgrade

[MikeFisher1972]

LL T5 lights over the frag tank

LL T5 lights over the frag tank

i was looking at the light over the frag tank.
i was wondering if they are too high from the frag tank.
i was always told that you could put them right on top of the tank.
was wondering why you put them so high unless it is just for access to the tank?

 

[Lightsluvr]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15653969#post15653969 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
I'm glad Jeff talked you through the pump leak problem. Mine is due to be replaced soon as it is getting a strong accumulation of salt creep on it that I knock off every two weeks. This Mag pump is probably three years old, purchased from Jeff when he answered the phone for me one night.

If you've already got some ARM, soak it in RO/DI water for a few days, stirring it daily. Some have noted that ARM contains PO4, which you can test for if you wish.

Just fill up the reactor. Add water to the top, and seal the lid. It's ready to run.

The bubble counter on Jeff's reactor is a part I've never used. It's a little tough to fill up, and when I did do that, I put in RO/DI water. I prefer to use the bubble counter on my regulator, and that is the one I fill up with the Bubble Counter Fluid from Marine Depot.

Hi Marc! Welcome back to the thread...

I have a gallon container of coarse ARM and will soak it in RO/DI, as I have some extra time anyway - I am waiting until a second pH probe arrives from Neptune before firing up the reactor. I want to closely watch the pH of the effluent in order to better understand what's going on inside the reactor. I will test for PO4, just for my own curiosity...

Do you see any problem using the Bubble Counter fluid in Jeff's counter? I think I can just squirt it out of the bottle directly into the counter. Will there be enough in the bottle to fill Jeff's counter?

Thanks again for your website and your advice during this project...

LL

 

[Lightsluvr]

Re: LL T5 lights over the frag tank

Re: LL T5 lights over the frag tank

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15653994#post15653994 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by MikeFisher1972
i was looking at the light over the frag tank.
i was wondering if they are too high from the frag tank.
i was always told that you could put them right on top of the tank.
was wondering why you put them so high unless it is just for access to the tank?

I guess you can put lights right on top of a tank, but why would you want to? The closer to the water, the more you have to deal with heat, splash and "crash".

The photo is somewhat an optical illusion, because the water is normally within an inch of the top of the rimless tank. It was drained down quite a bit for a water change in that photo...

I put the lights higher for better access to the frags. Eventually I will be tinkering above that tank quite a bit. There is negligible loss of par through 8" of air, so it really doesn't impact the efficiency of the lights...

Even my display tank lights are 7-8" above the water... less splash and salt to clean off the polished reflectors that way... that's the theory anyway...

Thanks for stopping by the thread... come back often. Thanks for your service.

LL

P.S. - that picture on your web page captioned "Captain Mike" - is that Cabo? It looks very familiar...

 

[ds4x4]

Re: Don Corelone...

Re: Don Corelone...

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15622121#post15622121 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lightsluvr
The "Don" arrived!
[

At first he looked a little miffed, but asserted himself in the tank and explored his new digs...

Just how big is "the Don"? Here he is swimming in our 8 foot wide tank:

Yeah, he's pan-size!

He went through a sheet of Nori like it was a snack...(because it was).
We are looking forward to our fish friend. When he outgrows our tank, we will donate him to the Oklahoma Aquarium... http://www.okaquarium.org/

LL

Beautiful fish LL. I just bought the same fish close to his size for our 6 foot tank for an awesome price. His scared/ticked off colors are crazy funny haha!

 

[Lightsluvr]

Re: Re: Don Corelone...

Re: Re: Don Corelone...

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15654294#post15654294 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ds4x4
Beautiful fish LL. I just bought the same fish close to his size for our 6 foot tank for an awesome price. His scared/ticked off colors are crazy funny haha!

Thanks. He has evolved into our "Charley" - do much of a ***** cat to be a "Don"...

I just watched him inhale a half sheet of nori... three gulps... :eek2:

LL

 

[melev]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15654029#post15654029 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lightsluvr
Hi Marc! Welcome back to the thread...

I have a gallon container of coarse ARM and will soak it in RO/DI, as I have some extra time anyway - I am waiting until a second pH probe arrives from Neptune before firing up the reactor. I want to closely watch the pH of the effluent in order to better understand what's going on inside the reactor. I will test for PO4, just for my own curiosity...

Do you see any problem using the Bubble Counter fluid in Jeff's counter? I think I can just squirt it out of the bottle directly into the counter. Will there be enough in the bottle to fill Jeff's counter?

Thanks again for your website and your advice during this project...

LL

I don't see a problem with using that fluid in his bubble counter, ASSUMING that the tank water doesn't mix into the fluid as it back up the line. He had a check valve in the base of the bubble counter, but not one in the top.

You probably should call him up on that one. I've had water make its way back down the tubing towards the regulator, which is why I opted not to use it. It could be I had too much water pressuring going into the reactor (feed pump), so this method works best for me.

Some reactors auto-fill their bubble counter with tank water, so in those you could NOT use the bubble counter fluid sold by Marine Depot.

 

[Lightsluvr]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15654562#post15654562 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
I don't see a problem with using that fluid in his bubble counter, ASSUMING that the tank water doesn't mix into the fluid as it back up the line. He had a check valve in the base of the bubble counter, but not one in the top.

You probably should call him up on that one. I've had water make its way back down the tubing towards the regulator, which is why I opted not to use it. It could be I had too much water pressuring going into the reactor (feed pump), so this method works best for me.

Some reactors auto-fill their bubble counter with tank water, so in those you could NOT use the bubble counter fluid sold by Marine Depot.

I noticed when I was doing the RO/DI test on the reactor, water would only go about halfway up between the elbow and the bubble counter. I guess CO2 will make it down the tubing into the system whether there's water in the tubing or not?

LL

 

[melev]

Yes, it will force the water back into the reactor. However, when the CO2 is off (regulator controlled), water may begin to work its way back up the tubing.

 

[Lightsluvr]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15655102#post15655102 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by melev
Yes, it will force the water back into the reactor. However, when the CO2 is off (regulator controlled), water may begin to work its way back up the tubing.

OK, I'll watch that closely...it looked like it only went about halfway up the tube - we'll keep an eye on it. I'm thinking I'll just use RO/DI for the Life Reef bubble counter.

LL

 

[meredith1985]

Wow! this is one LOOONNNG thread! It took forever for me to get through it all.

With that said. Great job! When i buy a house i want to do this with it. I'm laying out plans and learning from the great builds on here like yours. Thanks for sharing your wonderful project!

 

[waynem]

It keeps looking better every time I check up on how your going.

 

[Lightsluvr]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15655835#post15655835 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by meredith1985
Wow! this is one LOOONNNG thread! It took forever for me to get through it all.

With that said. Great job! When i buy a house i want to do this with it. I'm laying out plans and learning from the great builds on here like yours. Thanks for sharing your wonderful project!

Thanks for stopping by and reading the saga... I also learned much from the great build threads on this forum...

Come back often; we'll always be up to something...

LL

 

[Lightsluvr]

Thanks!

Thanks!

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15656509#post15656509 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by waynem
It keeps looking better every time I check up on how your going.

I have really enjoyed following your thread as well... that LR bridge is a stunning piece of aquascaping.

Hope to see you again soon...

LL

 

[Lightsluvr]

Who ya gonna believe?

Who ya gonna believe?

I was reading some RC sponsor posts this morning and stumbled onto the ELOS thread. I use ELOS test kits, but have been bumfuzzled (a reefing term) by the results I got on their Alkalinity kit...

Well, DOH!! It turns out that the very kit I have been using for several months had the wrong instructions enclosed. One drop of the reagent should equal .5 dkh instead of the 1 dkh shown in the detailed instructions! No wonder my dkh readings were off the scale! :smokin:

That bit of information would have been nice to know before I lost half of the SPS in my tank trying to "jack" with the proper alkalinity... :mad2:

Burn me once, shame on you... Burn me twice? Ain't gonna happen.

As if that revelation wasn't annoying enough, here are the results of my latest water tests, taken with three competing test kits:

ALK: ELOS - 7.5 dkh; SALIFERT - 8.0 dkh; API - 9.0 dkh

CA: ELOS - 400; SALIFERT - 350; API - 400;

MG: ELOS - 1200; SALIFERT - 990; API - 1300;

Like the posts says, who ya gonna believe?

Maybe I should just choose the kit that gives me the most desireable results for a particular test, and stick with it... like shopping for doctors... :rolleye1:

Unfortunately with test kits, as in doctors, when you choose the wrong one, things die!

LL

 

[JeffT]

I don't often visit the bulletin boards but decided to do so after reading some comments emailed to my by a customer using the Lifereef Calcium Reactor.

I wanted to clarify some mis-understanding with regards to using a pH meter, a pH controller, with a Lifereef Calcium Reactor, or for tha matter any calcium reactor:
A pH controller is not required to operate any calcium reactor, a pH test kit or a pH meter is. You need to test the pH of the calcium reactor in order to see that it is within the pH range needed to dissolve the reactor media.
Now having a pH test kit means that you will have to break out the test kit, drip some reactor media into a small container, drop the pH probe into it, wait, read your pH value, make any adjustments to the CO2 or drip rate, and test again.
With a pH monitor, and probe, attached directly to the calcium reactor you will be able to see the pH value of the reactor all the time, make any changes, and see those changes within an hour.
Having a pH meter just makes it easier.

Oil vs water in the bubble counter:
Why use oil when water works just as well. The air bubbles flowing through a bubble counter are such that they can easily be counted without having to slow them down by using oil. We don't need exact bubble counts. Now perhaps those real tiny bubble counters as used on some other brands might need this oil but a large bubble counter (as on the Lifereef) are easily seen and counted. However, exact counting is not needed at all, just a close average because it can just be used as a visual gage to see that you have CO2 flowing. If you look at your pH and see that it is too high then just open the needle valve a bit more, you can visually see that more bubbles in the counter are present, then read the CO2 again in a few minutes. We do not need to count to the very last bubble and the bubble "counter" can be used as a visual CO2 flow meter. It is not such a precise count of bubbles from lets say 10 to 12 bubbles, is going to make that much of a change in pH. Use the counter for a visual, use your pH reading to increase or decrease your visual bubbles, but an exact count is not required.

 

[Lightsluvr]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15643382#post15643382 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by aquainas
The thing about not having a PH monitor is shocking on their part! How would you be able to set your bpm if you don't know where ph is at? If you go too low then your media will turn to mush and that would not be a good thing. You don't want to leave that up to chance, some will say start slow and ramp up the bubble count until you see dissolution, but how will you know for sure when you hit the target ph? You see my point?

See the prior post. JeffT is the owner of Life Reef Filter Systems. He commented on the need for a pH monitor, and added these explanations in an e-mail to me:

"A pH monitor is NOT needed because you can easily test the reactors effluent with a pH KIT. Once the reactors pH has been dialed in a monitor only allows ease of checking instead of having to pull out a pH test kit. The choice is a pH monitor or a pH test kit.
Jeff"

It was very nice of Jeff to take the time to respond. His long term success with the LRC reactors gives me confidence going forward. Thanks, Jeff!

In addition to stopping CO2 flow when power is lost, The CO2 solenoid depends on some type of pH reading to determine when to start and stop the flow of gas to the reactor. Many experienced reefers know their tanks' demands so well they can set it and forget it. I hope to get there one day...

Right now I am trying to get the desired balance of ALK, CA and MG. Once I have achieved that, I'll put the reactor online to hopefully maintain those levels...

As I always say, "that's the plan anyway..."

LL

 

[Lightsluvr]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15651164#post15651164 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by crvz
Good to hear you got everything worked out. What I've found (I've used mag pumps external myself) is that the plumbing fixtures can often be the reason the impeller housing doesnt seat well on the body of the pump. Looks like you've got a pH probe coming off yours, which should be fine now that you've got the problem solved, but if it returns make certain that there's no side-to-side loading on the plumbing coming up off the pump (make sense?).

Jeff had some observations on the plumbing of the LRC-2 in response to the above observation:

"Even though the pvc plumbing into the Mag7 is rigid, the pump
itself is free to align itself with this plumbing since it does have some
play when attached to the pump base. Plus, when I glue the pump base to the reactor platform the pvc plumbing is cinched up tight to the pump, the base is slid onto the pump as aligned with the plumbing, and then the base is glued down. There is not any "misalignment" of the plumbing with respect to the pump, thus no impeller housing seating problem."

And here is an important observation from Jeff about the way the pH probe is mounted on my LRC-2:

"Ok, you have your pH probe holder mounted incorrectly. It will work this way but puts the pH probe at a position that can easily get knocked. If you turn the clear "T" fitting 90 degrees, put the pH probe compression fitting on one of the other "T" ports you can mount the probe vertically. You will also need a right angled hosebarb to get the hose going upwards. Just thought you might consider this if the current probe position is not very safe."

Fortunately, my CA reactor is in a protected location under my stand, where it is unlikely anything will hit the pH probe in that location. However, I plan to look into Jeff's recommendation to see if there is a better way before final tests and operation.

Finally, Jeff discussed Melev's reactor and the way he has it set up:

"Ok, now a comment on Marks reactor, if he is still running it the same way. He has a pH controller on his reactor. The nice thing with a calcium reactor is that your aquarium pH will remain stable as will the calciums pH once you dial it in, so how would a pH controller do anything if these pH values don't shift? So I called Mark to ask him what he needs to use a pH
controller for. His answer was that he pumps the CO2 very aggressively into the reactor which will lower the pH down below his pH controller setting of lets say pH 5, the controller shuts off the CO2 flow, the reactor pH value slowly rises to lets say 7.2 pH, then the pH controller turns the CO2 flow back on.
This is the only way I see that a pH controller would be of any use, but you do use a lot of CO2.
Jeff"
(Life Reef Filter Systems)

Anybody want to buy a bottle of Bubble Counter fluid?? :lol:

LL

 

[crvz]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15659963#post15659963 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Lightsluvr
Jeff had some observations on the plumbing of the LRC-2 in response to the above observation:

"Even though the pvc plumbing into the Mag7 is rigid, the pump
itself is free to align itself with this plumbing since it does have some
play when attached to the pump base. Plus, when I glue the pump base to the reactor platform the pvc plumbing is cinched up tight to the pump, the base is slid onto the pump as aligned with the plumbing, and then the base is glued down. There is not any "misalignment" of the plumbing with respect to the pump, thus no impeller housing seating problem."

Sounds like he's got it figured out. What I've found is that the threads of the impeller housing can go down past the pump base (depending on how you have the impeller housing aligned). When this happens, you can screw plumbing down such that it presses on the pump base, thereby putting a load that can unseat the impeller housing. This was causing my pumps to leak, but I was doing all the plumbing myself. And rather ignorantly for a while.

 

[melev]

Jeff hopefully noticed that I have a picture of my calcium reactor set up with the pH probe holder in the correct orientation. After years of using an effluent cup to measure pH, I bought an upgrade kit from him to get the probe in the reactor where it is accurately measuring the pH at all times. If the effluent stops, a probe in a cup won't be of any value.

Because of a faulty solenoid on my regulator, I've had my reactor dialed in at 6.5 for the past four to six months. It's pretty solid there, and the alk in my tank measured 9 dKH today. Assuming my API kit is telling the truth.

 

[JeffT]

Mark,

Just wanted to comment on filling the Lifereef Bubble Counter, as it is not difficult at all:
1. Put the bottom end of the bubble counter (hosebarb/check valve assy) into a cup of water. The water does not have to be anything special like R/O water or even "bubble counter oil".
2. Suck on the hosebarb on top of the bubble counter thus pulling in water from the bottom.
3. Stop sucking when you have about 1" of air space in the top

Couldn't be any easier.

Comment (not to Mark) but saw this in a previous post about having a check valve on the top of the bubble counter:
I have a check valve on the bottom of the bubble counter and there is a second check valve in the regulator/solenoid assembly. These are enough to stop water from flowing backwards and a check valve on the top is not necessary. Regardless of where the check valve is located if the check valve fails you will have water backed up to the solenoid. Nice thing about the solenoids are that they are brass so the water is not going to cause any harm.