Mark's 180 Starfire upgrade

[slojmn]

Mark ...sorry to hear of your losses, that just plain breaks the heart to find fish dead like that. I know how we all feel about our fish, I get super connected...I have a few that have been with me for 7+ years, others 5 years and some just a year or two but no matter how long, they become part of the family. Keep your chin up and know that you planned well adn things happen just like you said, those darn unexpected things. The tank looks phenominal in the house. I am so looking forward to my visit next week .

 

[DiazE]

Can't wait to see some recent pics on this build! Awesome tank!

 

[Maximus]

Sorry to hear Mark. On a lighter note, I hear you picked up or will pick up a pair of some nice wrasses.

 

[mpoletti]

Here is a shot from yesterday. Round 1 of scaping. Sorry that I am not in the mood to take better pictures and process the shots.

I put 90% of my acros in last night along with my Chalices. I got over zealous and put the peppermint hog, mystery wrasse, the Achilles tang, and some chromis. I turned on my pump and there was a drip leak in the the threaded bushing, I thighten it a little more and

Needless to say my pump was off last night to wake up to find my hog floating and all my other fish breathing heavily thru their gills. :mad2: I had my vorthechs on and two nanos, but their was no surface break which equals low oxygen. I now have a carbon reactor on the tank that creating oxygen while filtering.

I don't think the LFS has a snapper in stock, so it looks like I need to by a new dart today. Not lile this isn't bad enough, I have a mated pair of rhomboids on order that should be here next week.

Please understand if I do not update my thread until there is something positive to post. :sad2:

 

[mpoletti]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12144185#post12144185 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Maximus
Sorry to hear Mark. On a lighter note, I hear you picked up or will pick up a pair of some nice wrasses.

Sang, did you get the "bay area pair". I figured it was either you or Charles.

 

[Maximus]

I was offered the pair but I had to pass. There is no way they would make it in my wide open tank. My last rhomboid pair jumped to their deaths.

 

[cbui2]

omg mark, again sorry to hear about the fishes and now the pump .

 

[paulthomas]

It sucks that the fish Gods won't cut you a break.

 

[jtarmitage]

Mark, when I was originally setting up my 250 with the snappers, I used the pink teflon tape, as it is thicker than the white, and is easier to get them to seal. Even with that, the Sequence pumps are tougher to seal with their deep grooves, and I would sugges the liquid teflon to get a good seal.

 

[cbui2]

it happens sometimes when you overtight the fittings all the way as shown on pics. i always prefer to use the pink teflon at lowes, this way you don't need to add that many wraps. i normally tighten the fittings about 3/4 way just to be safe. accidents and mistakes do happen to everyone's, i know tons of mistakes on my ends was made when livestocks and corals were introduced way to early.

 

[mpoletti]

Thanks guys for the threading knowledge. I just picked up another ball valve and a Dart. I already upgraded I don't have any pink teflon tape, so I will just get this plumbed in and we'll see what happens. If it leaks, oh frickin' well :mad2:

 

[tbone28]

mark, I don't use teflon tape. I use silicone around my threaded plumbing parts. Works great, no leaks, and it's not permanent if I want to replumb later

 

[jtarmitage]

Never thought of using silicone. It sounds like it would seal great, but the downside is that it seems like it would be a pain to clean off the old silicone if you did need to replumb.

 

[tbone28]

Good point about cleaning it off, but it's a leak proof idea, I think, and I think I would rather spend the time scraping off old silicone than spending the time fixing a leak Time will be spent, just depends on where you want to spend it

 

[paulthomas]

I would think that teflon tape would work best on threading. Wouldn't the seal with silicone eventually seperate from the plastic?

If you really want a water-tight bond, use this stuff :

3M 5200

Of course you won't ever get the pieces apart.

Paul

 

[jtarmitage]

Yeah, I had my 250g plumbed, put sand in, and filled with water before we decided to sell the house(still trying) and tore it back down. Dual CL and system return all run on 3 snappers. Even with the pink tape, they were not completely sealed, and I didn't want to do what Mark just did! Once it's sealed, the chances of needing to take it apart and then reseal it are pretty remote. I think I'll just go with silicone when I set everything back up and just be done with it. Thanks Tbone, as you likely saved me hours of frustration when that time does come.

 

[mpoletti]

Thanks.

What a sick disease reefkeeping is. I am at the point where I want to just say, "Screw it, everything is for sale", but my head then goes, "but your corals are not happy and you will not get what they are worth":blown:

And the topper, when I went to the ATM I left it there. It got sucked in and I won't get a new one for 3-5 days. That might not be that bad right now.

Ok committee. Siphon breaks; what should I do? Look back at the pictures. I am thinking of something closer to the overflow. Let me hear what you've got.

 

[aceheart1976]

sorry to hear about the losses. but hope everything else goes better for you. as im getting ready to start on my dads 125 gal display with 50 gal sump. hope things get better for you

 

[mpoletti]

The tank is running...

:dance:

But the dart is too much for the way I have it plumbed through the UV. I will worry about that later.

 

[GSMguy]

UVs only work well with low flow, are you running a dart thru a UV before it returns to the tank?

i would plumb the uv separately from the sump with a small feed-pump no???