Lightsluvr's 340G Upgrade

[CryptoFusion]

Thanks for that link! I am really liking that setup. I was thinking about plumbing through the bottom so that my tank would sit a little closer to the wall, but I think the safety of the method shown here is going to outweigh the convenience of getting the tank a few inches closer to the wall.

As far as the strainer goes I was actually talking about the piece of equipment on the upper right hand corner of the table in your picture with all the plumbing parts. I think it's either a strainer or maybe they call them priming pots? Did you end up using that? Thanks again!

 

[Lightsluvr]

I think it is called a strainer pot - I had them on swimming pool pumps some years back. It held a basket that caught leaves and crap from the pool surface skimmer.

I think that the person who designed my tank planned to use the "pot" on the closed loop to catch debris. (?) Maybe he intended to put some type of filter media in there. I couldn't locate him when I was building my tank, so never was able to ask him. I just decided not to use it.

LL

 

[CryptoFusion]

Ah I see, that makes sense. Thanks!

 

[Bax]

LL

Wow! I lost my subscript to this way back. Thaks for reconnecting me to it!

 

[Lightsluvr]

Thanks Bax - glad you stopped back by. Still looking forward to when you get your build started back up...

LL

 

[CryptoFusion]

Hey LL, I posted this on another forum and didn't get much of a response so I wanted to see what you think since you use flow accelerators.

I'm going to be running a closed loop with flow accelerator nozzles. In researching these it's been said that they operate more efficiently with pressure rated pumps. So would I be better off with something like a reeflo tarpon (pressure rated 1250gph) or a Dart (not pressure rated but 3600gph)? I realize I can get a pressure rated pump with more output but I'm trying to stay in the lower wattage pumps.

If I get 4x the flow with a pressure rated pump that would put me at around 5000gph. If I only get double the flow with a non pressure rated pump that would still put me around 7200gph, so it looks like the dart would be the better option right? Is there something I'm not thinking of? What would you recommend?

 

[Lightsluvr]

I know that pressure pumps are recommended for flow accelerators - but they seem to work okay with my non-pressure rated Hammerhead pump. I don't know what difference there would be with a smaller pressure pump-rated. As you can see in the closed loop photos, the Hammerhead pushes through a full circle of pipe/tubing in my system. Too much math for this old boy to figure out. :bigeyes:

LL

 

[Lightsluvr]

Bye Bye Reactor - Hello 3 part dosing

Bye Bye Reactor - Hello 3 part dosing

As some of you know, I was not happy with the CA Reactor because the alkilinity was consistently too high. I attribute the high ALK to Reef Crystals salt mix giving me a baseline of 11 dKH. In order to maintain CA above 400, the reactor was giving me 15 dKH. That made me nervous.

The excellent LifeReef reactor found a new home with local reefer skiformance, and I am sure will give Mike years of good service.

Since I was still having to suppement CA and MG anyway - just to keep the tank in sync, I figured what the heck, I may as well just go to "3-part" dosing. Now that I have a full-featured controller, dosing should almost be completely automated after proper doses are determined.

I acquired (3) Drew's Dosing pumps from Bulk Reef Suppy, which are rated at 1.6 ml per minute. I calibrated all three pumps and they are spot on the published rating.

After getting approval from JJ the Fish Cat for the change, here is the installation:

Those are 2.5 gallon containers, which fit nicely in the available space in the tank stand. The spigiots won't be used, and the pumps will be fed through a tube in the removable lid, as shown in the left container. I'll take a later photo, after all the tubing is installed and routed to the sump. I will cycle the pumps to dose MG first, then ALK and finally CA. I will establish the dosing baseline using Randy Holmes-Farley's formula and calculations.

The goal is 9-11 dKH, 420-450 CA and 1300-1400 MG.

I'll update as the dosing begins.

LL

 

[stealle]

My plans are to use the balling light method, which I think is basically the same thing you are now doing. Hope this works out better for you.

 

[Lightsluvr]

My plans are to use the balling light method, which I think is basically the same thing you are now doing. Hope this works out better for you.

Thanks, Stealle.

LL

 

[madkat]

Wow!!!!!

I just read 71 pages of pure genius (yes I read the full forty pages of the closed thread first). I am new here and I have only had SW for 2 years.

All I can say is WOW!

~Ken
Newb from Moore

 

[Lightsluvr]

All plumpbed and no place to go...

All plumpbed and no place to go...

I drilled the container lids, ran the tubing and now am testing the "plumbing" with RO/DI water... I'm labeling the containers, lids and cords (CA, ALK & MG) as I go.

Also testing the APEX controller for each pump.

LL

 

[Lightsluvr]

Wow!!!!!

I just read 71 pages of pure genius (yes I read the full forty pages of the closed thread first). I am new here and I have only had SW for 2 years.

All I can say is WOW!

~Ken
Newb from Moore

Hi Ken - is that Moore, OK? If so, please join us at a COMAS meeting soon. See www.mycomas.com. Next meeting is February 20.

I am not the genius, just a collector of good ideas I have learned from many local reefers as well as wonderful contributors on Reef Central.

This is without doubt the best forum for saltwater aquarists that I have found... hope you come back often and become a contributor...

LL

 

[Lightsluvr]

Completed 65G water change this morning - the CA reactor was taken off line 48 hours ago.

Measured parameters tonight:

ALK - 11.0 (Salifert, verified by API)
CA - 420 (Salifert, verfied by Elos)
MG - 1350 (Salifert, verified by Elos)

Tomorrow I will be manually removing Byropsis from the tank, scraping the back glass and siphoning algae from the walls and live rock. After the algae task, I will perform a second 65G water change. Then I will start to slowly dose, and increase as needed to maintain the above numbers...


LL

 

[Lytehouse]

Do not envy you the manual removal task. But I think it is a good thing to do.

Will you be siphoning into a filter soc in the sump to keep a continuous flow?

 

[Lightsluvr]

Do not envy you the manual removal task. But I think it is a good thing to do.

Will you be siphoning into a filter soc in the sump to keep a continuous flow?

I am going to try to siphon into a filter sock, but without someone to monitor the sock, I'm afraid the hose might pop out while I am concentrating on the tank, and make a total mess... I'm working on it... I may get my granddaughter to hold the end while I am doing the nasty part...

LL

 

[madkat]

Hi Ken - is that Moore, OK? If so, please join us at a COMAS meeting soon. See www.mycomas.com. Next meeting is February 20.

I am not the genius, just a collector of good ideas I have learned from many local reefers as well as wonderful contributors on Reef Central.

This is without doubt the best forum for saltwater aquarists that I have found... hope you come back often and become a contributor...

LL

Yes, I live in S.OKC/ Moore. I created an account on here awhile ago. Found out about COMAS from a guy at Petco/Norman who was picking up a Tang.

Tried to create an account on the COMAS forum and it keeps telling me the username doesn't meet the admin parameters.....

Glad I found you guys over here, welcome to my new addiction/waste of time!

 

[Lightsluvr]

Yes, I live in S.OKC/ Moore. I created an account on here awhile ago. Found out about COMAS from a guy at Petco/Norman who was picking up a Tang.

Tried to create an account on the COMAS forum and it keeps telling me the username doesn't meet the admin parameters.....

Glad I found you guys over here, welcome to my new addiction/waste of time!

Hi Ken - I know who you are now. I got your e-mail and passed it along to the COMAS Webmaster to see if we can determine if the issue is with www.mycomas.com or with an anomaly in your browser. We'll figure it out.

In the meantime, the COMAS forum on Reef Central is very active as well: http://reefcentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=109

LL

 

[Lightsluvr]

Chemistry

Chemistry

Since automated dosing is a new experience for me, I went to the RC Reef Chemistry forum for advice. Randy Holmes-Farley stopped by the thread and gave some advice. That was really helpful since I am using Randy's Recipe #2 for dosing.

http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?p=16406383&posted=1#post16406383

LL

 

[Goodwin9]

What are you using to control the dosing pumps?