Lightsluvr's 340G Upgrade

[Lytehouse]

Nice to have a history of spare equipment.

Off the frag tank or off the wall in case you need to move the tank.

I'm in today as well, just because I can.

Headed off to work tomorrow to close out the month and year.

Seems like a great day for a water change.....

 

[Lightsluvr]

Tang Time

Tang Time

Video of the tangs feeding on nori held to the glass by SureGrip 100 magnets:



No suction-cup nori clips for these bad boys... :beer:

All of the videos look best on the full screen mode. (Click on the little box with the arrow in the lower right hand corner of the photobucket window.)

LL

 

[Lightsluvr]

Two skimmers are better than one! Why not run them both?

Here are my dynamic duo

Actually, I thought of a second reason not to use both skimmers - floor space.

My 10' x 14' man cave is down to just walking space between the water tanks, sump, skimmer, frag tank, etc. And of course there is the treadmill, cat litter box and small refrigerator. The first items are trade-offs with Ms. LL and the cats, while the fridge holds the frozen foods and adult beverages essential for tank maintenance! :bounce1:

We're snowbound in Oklahoma - but it's time for the weekly water change. I think I'm going to make the video this week.

LL

 

[John&Steph]

One of the most impressive set ups I have ever seen. Build thread was awesome too. Looks like you could charge admission to take a look at that thing.

 

[Lightsluvr]

One of the most impressive set ups I have ever seen. Build thread was awesome too. Looks like you could charge admission to take a look at that thing.

That's one of the nicest things anybody has ever said... Glad you stopped by and come back soon. I'm working on a video of my water change from this morning.

(Beats watching grass grow) :twitch:

Thanks, John and/or Steph.

LL

 

[Lightsluvr]

Dry Hands Water Change

Dry Hands Water Change

When we designed the new tank, I was determined there would be no more lugging 5 gallon "jugs" - so after copying the best of the best ideas we found on Reef Central...here are videos which show our dry-hands water change...

These are narrated rough-cut videos made with in-camera editing, so I apologize for the quality...or lack thereof. :fun2:

First, I close the overflow valve on the Rubbermaid sump, so it will fill near the top and send more tank water to the drain. It took a few tries to determine exactly how much water equalled the 65 gallons that is being replaced. Here is the first video:



After the Rubbermaid is drained down to a few inches above the DSB, new salt-water is immediately pumped from the mixing tank to the Rubbermaid sump, to mixed with water still flowing from the display tank.



Everything is gauged by the water level in the Acrylic sump. When that level returns to the point marked by the black horizontal tape, the system is back to the correct operating level. Final video:



Total elapsed time: 7 minutes.

Thanks for watching. Please leave a comment.

LL

 

[Lytehouse]

Like most things you do,

well thought out.

Can't believe it only takes 7 minutes

 

[MrineLfRlz]

very nicely done!
thanks for the videos:thumbsup:

 

[Lightsluvr]

Like most things you do,

well thought out.

Can't believe it only takes 7 minutes

It could have gone quicker, but I had a little ice block in the drain pipe (outside). Yes, salt water can freeze! :fish1:

LL

 

[Brother D]

I tried watching the videos but the sound either cuts out or is non existent.Wish I could see that in person someday but I'm nowhere near Oklahoma.

 

[theisdept]

Beautiful tank
Loved the thread, lots of good community support and input. Wish I had more aqurist in my neiborhood.

 

[Lightsluvr]

Beautiful tank
Loved the thread, lots of good community support and input. Wish I had more aqurist in my neiborhood.

Thanks for the note.

LL

 

[aquainas]

Just checking in to let you know there are three huge Vlamini Tangs like your boy Charlie at the exhibit inside of Ceaser's (Vegas), I will post pics if I can find them.

 

[Lightsluvr]

I'd love to see them...when Charlie grows up, he's promised to the Oklahoma State Aquarium...:spin1:

Congrats on the big event. Did you see any good shows in Vegas? Ms LL and I are going to see Donnie & Marie, Terry Fator and one of the Cirque shows in March.

LL

 

[Dtking]

how is the tank holding up in the weather your having? Man its cold! Is that fish room insulated well enough? I cant wait to get home and see it! Oh and congrats on the new presidency!

 

[Lightsluvr]

It's 17 degrees here this morning - so much for global warming - first we have an all-time record setting snow storm and a few weeks later, we're having record low temperatures...go figure.

Anyway, the fish room is well insulated, and to date I have not had to run the in-wall heater in the room. It seems that the 500+ gallons of water and the T5 lights do a good job maintaining the temps.

I run a pair of 300 watt heaters in the acrylic sump, and according to the power graph, they may come on for an hour each day, usually around 7:00 a.m. I just checked the Apex, and the tank temp is 77.4, and the heaters have not run at all this morning. I have then set to turn on at 76,5 and turn off at 77.5.

Be safe over there. Looking forward to sharing an adult beverage with you here when you get back.

LL

 

[CryptoFusion]

Hey, quick question for ya if you don't mind answering. I was wondering how your closed loop was plumbed - do you have your two CL drains T'd together and then plumbed straight into the inlet of your pump? Are the two drains used to reduce suction? Also - do you know where the drain baskets can be purchased online? I'm thinking of doing a similar (but smaller scale) setup on my 180. Thanks for your help!

 

[Lightsluvr]

CL question

CL question

Hey, quick question for ya if you don't mind answering. I was wondering how your closed loop was plumbed - do you have your two CL drains T'd together and then plumbed straight into the inlet of your pump? Are the two drains used to reduce suction? Also - do you know where the drain baskets can be purchased online? I'm thinking of doing a similar (but smaller scale) setup on my 180. Thanks for your help!

Thanks for the CL question. I "inherited" some of my CL plumbing ideas from the original owner of my AGE tank. He is a very experienced reefer who did a lot of studying before laying out his CL. He had planned the CL intakes using a 2" manifold which joined the two intakes into a single 1.5" feed for the Hammerhead Gold pump.

If you look at the far left hand side of the plumbing parts on the table, you will see the long "manifold" he made for the CL intake: It includes seperate valves for the intakes in case the manifold needs to be removed after the tank is filled.

Here is the return side of the closed loop... shows the flex PVC hose with connections for the five return ports. It truly is a "loop" in which the water flows from the pump in both directions. Again, there are double union valves which allow the plumbing to be removed if ever needed.

The 1.5" T-reducer which sends water in both directions via 1" flex PVC.:

A view of where the pump attachs to the closed loop manifold:

Here is the website for the plastic strainers:

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=23107&catid=721&clickid=searchresults

As you probably saw in a previous photo, I raised the strainers and the return ports 2-3" to clear the planned sandbed.

If I had to do it over, I would probably raise them even higher. My DWG has a habit of spitting sand into the feeds, which makes the tank look like a snow globe for a few minutes... :hmm5:

Let me know if you any additional questions.

Thanks for posting.

LL

 

[CryptoFusion]

Thanks for such a detailed response LL! The pictures reminded me of another question I had - I noticed in your first picture there is (I think anyway) a strainer for your pump but it looks like in your other pictures on this thread that you didn't end up using it. Is that the case? And if so why? To save space?

Also - I had originally planned my CL to be plumbed into the back wall of my tank but now I'm thinking about plumbing it into the bottom panel like you have. I realize you didn't have much of a choice in your situation but can you weigh in on back panel vs. bottom panel CL plumbing? Thanks again!

 

[Lightsluvr]

Thanks for such a detailed response LL! The pictures reminded me of another question I had - I noticed in your first picture there is (I think anyway) a strainer for your pump but it looks like in your other pictures on this thread that you didn't end up using it. Is that the case? And if so why? To save space?

Also - I had originally planned my CL to be plumbed into the back wall of my tank but now I'm thinking about plumbing it into the bottom panel like you have. I realize you didn't have much of a choice in your situation but can you weigh in on back panel vs. bottom panel CL plumbing? Thanks again!

I decided against use of the previous strainers (picked up at the local Lowes), because of advice I received from other reefers on RC. I wanted to get the strainers up off the sandbed, thus went with the US Plastics model.

If I had a chance to plan the tank, I would probably still put the holes in the tank bottom, even though it clearly is a form of "Russian Roulette"... if one of the PVC joints fails when no one is home, there will be 400+ gallons of satwater on the floor... the tank would be gone, along with all its occupants. With this knowledge, I was extremely diligent when plumbing the tank. So far, so good.

Here's a link to another method of installing a CL without all the holes. This is actually a dual loop that Paul runs in alternating cycles - it really keeps his 600G tank circulating... Start at post #134:

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1423726&page=6

LL